a wealth of thing - is or are?

[Shenfeng]

Hey,

I just came across the following sentence and I'm not sure whether or not it is correct, but it was written by an American however (of course this doesn't have to mean anything )

It goes like this:

"There are a wealth of things you can do before..."

My feeling is that it should be "There is a wealth of things...", so I tried and googled it and found that both variants produced quite a number of hits which leads me to the conclusion that both may be correct, at least in an informal context.

What do you say? - Which one is correct?

Thank you.

 

[sarat_106]

Hey,

I just came across the following sentence and I'm not sure whether or not it is correct, but it was written by an American however (of course this doesn't have to mean anything )

It goes like this:

"There are a wealth of things you can do before..."

My feeling is that it should be "There is a wealth of things...", so I tried and googled it and found that both variants produced quite a number of hits which leads me to the conclusion that both may be correct, at least in an informal context.

What do you say? - Which one is correct?

Thank you.

I think, ‘wealth’ here means a large amount of something good and is always uded as a Singular noun. So the phrase ‘wealth of something(s)’ should take a singular verb; as:
Jim has a wealth of teaching experience.
India has a vast wealth of minerals.

 

[corum]

[a wealth of] things are
[a lot of] things are