[Grammar] There seems or seem

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DANAU

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Apr 19, 2020
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Student or Learner
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Chinese
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Singapore
Current Location
Singapore
I read from a website that whether to put an “s” after the word “seem”
is determined by the subject in the sentence - whether the subject is singular or plural.

Examples:

“There seems to be no information on this.”
No information seems to be available…
(information is singular)

“There seem to be many people complaining about this issue.”
Many people seem to be complaining…
(people is plural)


Can please let me know if this understanding is correct.
 
That is generally the way to decide singular and plural.
 
That is generally the way to decide singular and plural.

I wrote the sentence below. Does the same rule apply for ( to? ) "tend to be"?

Examples:

plural - "There tend to be fewer people who will attend the class on weekdays."
singular - "There tends to be concern if things are being done this way."
 
Native speakers make a lot of subject-verb agreement errors, but not (I think) in the construction you're asking about. We apparently have the number of the thing that there is going to refer to well in mind before we start the sentence.
 
It is true and that is why as EFL I find it challenging to grasp some of the concepts because they are just not natural to me.
But I am thankful for the help I have been receiving from all of you.
All your input is truly valuable because some of the explanations I could not even find in textbooks or websites.
 
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