thre is/ there are?

[optimistic pessimist]

Dear all,

1. There are no traffic lights on the road.
2. There is no traffic lights on the road.

I think #1 is grammatically correct because the subject(traffic lights) is plural.

However, I sometimes see counter-examples such as "there is a lot of..." , "Imagine there's no countries (by John Lennon)", etc.

Does that mean it doesn't matter whether you use are or is in reality?

Thank you!

OP

 

[SoothingDave]

In common, everyday use people will make errors.

That's true in many facets of the language.

 

[Barb_D]

You will see a lot of "There's" as a contraction with a plural noun following. You won't hear native speakers using "There is" with a plural noun following very often.

However "a lot of" would take "There is" anyway.

 

[5jj]

However "a lot of" would take "There is" anyway.

There are a lot of us who would disagree with that statement.

There is a lot of disagreement about that.

There are a number of us ...

There are a few of us who ...

There are many of us who ...

 

[Barb_D]

You're right. I don't know why I wrote that.

I must have been thinking of things like ""There is a lot of work to do" or "You have a lot of luggage!" where what there was a lot of was an uncountable/mass noun.

Let me retract and rephrase: "A lot of" takes the singular when what follows would take the singular, and takes the plural when followed by a plural countable noun.