There's so many people

[Glizdka]

Hello. There are a few things I've heard from native speakers. I'm wondering if you, as teachers, would penalize for using these:

(1) "There's" with plural nouns: "There's so many people."
(2) "...is a lot of" with countable nouns: "There is a lot of people."
(3) "Less" with countable nouns: "It's less people than I thought."

"There's less people than last time. Last time there was a lot of them."

 

[probus]

Re: A couple of things I've heard from native speakers.

(1) There's seems to be pushing out there are. I try to remind myself to use there are with plural nouns, but constantly forget.

(2) In my 72 years it has never once occurred to me that there might be a problem with using a lot to mean many. It's just standard to me.

(3) in contrast to (1), I have no trouble remembering to distinguish less from fewer, and it bothers me when people get it wrong. This reminds me of a good joke from the last American election campaign.

Trump: The less immigrants the better.

Advisor: Fewer.

Trump.: Sshhh. You're not supposed to call me that yet.

I know I've crossed the no-politics line, colleagues. Censor me if you must.

 

[Glizdka]

Re: A couple of things I've heard from native speakers.

(1) There's seems to be pushing out there are. I try to remind myself to use there are with plural nouns, but constantly forget.

Seems logical. "There's" is a lot easier to pronounce than "there're".

(2) In my 72 years it has never once occurred to me that there might be a problem with using a lot to mean many. It's just standard to me.

I was taught to use "...is/was a lot of..." for uncountable nouns (e.g. "there is a lot of milk"), and "...are/were a lot of..." for countable nouns (e.g. "there are a lot of people"). However, I hear "...is/was a lot of..." used with countable nouns quite a lot.

(3) in contrast to (1), I have no trouble remembering to distinguish less from fewer, and it bothers me when people get it wrong. This reminds me of a good joke from the last American election campaign.

Trump: The less immigrants the better.

Advisor: Fewer.

Trump.: Sshhh. You're not supposed to call me that yet.

I know I've crossed the no-politics line, colleagues. Censor me if you must.

My guess is that the comparative and superlative of countable "many", and uncountable "much" is the same word, i.e. "more"/"most", so "less" is used as an antonym of the word "more" regardless of whether it's used with countable or uncountable nouns.

Your joke made me crack up badly. :-D

 

[Yankee]

Re: A couple of things I've heard from native speakers.

(1) There's seems to be pushing out there are. I try to remind myself to use there are with plural nouns, but constantly forget.

(2) In my 72 years it has never once occurred to me that there might be a problem with using a lot to mean many. It's just standard to me.

(3) in contrast to (1), I have no trouble remembering to distinguish less from fewer, and it bothers me when people get it wrong. This reminds me of a good joke from the last American election campaign.

Trump: The less immigrants the better.

Advisor: Fewer.

Trump.: Sshhh. You're not supposed to call me that yet.

I know I've crossed the no-politics line, colleagues. Censor me if you must.

Re. "less"/"fewer". To my surprise a few years ago when a new supermarket moved in to the area, one of the checkout lanes was posted as "20 Items or Fewer" whereas all other markets in the area posted "20 Items or Less".

 

[probus]

Re: A couple of things I've heard from native speakers.

Well there's a one point sample of the degree of dominance of less over fewer. Aporoximately how many chains in your area use "less" Yankee?

 

[SoothingDave]

Re: A couple of things I've heard from native speakers.

1. "There's" will be heard frequently in common speech. It really is easier than trying to say "there are" or "there're." I wouldn't write it that way in formal contexts.

2 This is the same thing - "there is" or "there's a lot of people."


3. A lot of native speakers aren't careful about less v fewer. I imagine the distinction will decrease over time.

 

[Glizdka]

Re: A couple of things I've heard from native speakers.

Thank you all for your comments. I found a nice video on YouTube about "fewer"/"less" by LindyBeige (I really like that chap). It strikes me as odd that native speakers have no problem with distinguishing "much" from "many", but misuse "fewer" and "less". I'll add two more questions:

(4) I've heard many YouTubers (native speakers) saying "do an episode" and "do a video". I always found it strange they didn't use "make" instead of "do". Is that proper English?
(5) I've heard "I was wanting" and "I've been wanting", even though I remember "want" is generally advised not to be used in continuous tenses. Is that proper English?

 

[emsr2d2]

Glizdka, I have changed your thread title. Titles should include some or all of the words, phrases or sentences you are asking us about.

 

[Yankee]

Re: A couple of things I've heard from native speakers.

Well there's a one point sample of the degree of dominance of less over fewer. Aporoximately how many chains in your area use "less" Yankee?

All that I have frequently visited except the one I mentioned.

 

[Yankee]

Re: A couple of things I've heard from native speakers.

Thank you all for your comments. I found a nice video on YouTube about "fewer"/"less" by LindyBeige (I really like that chap). It strikes me as odd that native speakers have no problem with distinguishing "much" from "many", but misuse "fewer" and "less". I'll add two more questions:

(4) I've heard many YouTubers (native speakers) saying "do an episode" and "do a video". I always found it strange they didn't use "make" instead of "do". Is that proper English?
(5) I've heard "I was wanting" and "I've been wanting", even though I remember "want" is generally advised not to be used in continuous tenses. Is that proper English?

AmE
(4) I would use "make".
(5) I would use "I've been wanting".

 

[GoesStation]

Re: A couple of things I've heard from native speakers.

It strikes me as odd that native speakers have no problem with distinguishing "much" from "many", but misuse "fewer" and "less".

I've been struck by that, too, but it doesn't seem "odd" to me. That's just how language works. The difference between "much" and "many" is an intrinsic feature of English which few native speakers would violate. The difference between "fewer" and "less" is an analytical one which is not intrinsic. In fact, according to this site, "Since the reign of Alfred the Great, a time when Old English was spoken, less has been used in the same way that fewer is currently used." So for the last 1150 years or so, less people have distinguished those two words than "much" and "many".

 

[Glizdka]

Re: A couple of things I've heard from native speakers.

I've been corrected several times when I used "amount" with countable nouns. I am confused now.

 

[GoesStation]

Re: A couple of things I've heard from native speakers.

If we think of numbers of things as amounts, we treat them as non-count:

A Big Mac in Ukraine will set you back less than $2.
The average walk to school is three miles or less.
... children weighing less than 10 kg ...

It seems to me that supermarket lanes for people whose shopping amounts to 10 items or less is correct and natural.

Your thinking looked interesting to me. Then I realized that although two dollars is indisputedly a small amount of money, we'd call ten things a small number of items.