Because May is the first month of our calendar year without the letter “R,” I decided to vent about my disappointment with writers and speakers no longer using the word “are.” What happened? I have a theory, which I will mention at the end, but first, here are some examples that I have heard or read, and then I’ll mention a couple of guides to help us (me, included).

• “There’s been eight months since . . .”
• “There is always going to be growing pains …”
• “There’s situations that come up…”
• “There’s always been flashes…”
• “There’s problems with . . .”
• “There’s a lot of people . . .”

Here is (are? 🤔) what I discovered.

The issue is the noun that follows “there’s” – is it a noun that is a “collective” noun? A single word that refers to more than one thing? Like class and group? Did you know that those nouns use singular verbs? I figured that these collective nouns were one of the problems, so I looked more at the examples I collected. But, first, here is a definition of a “collective” noun.

A noun that is singular in form but refers to a group of people or things.

Here are some other examples: audience, bunch, crowd, flock, gang, staff – you get the idea.

Even though it seems as if I should use a plural verb like “are” for nouns that refer to multiple people or things, apparently, I should just go with the fact that collective nouns need a singular verb like “is.”

HINT!!! A lot of confusion comes from the fact that the collective nouns are followed by a prepositional phrase beginning with of!!!

So . . . in my examples above – “There is a lot of people” qualifies. “Is” IS correct? Yes. Even though the word people describes more than one person, the word lot is a collective noun, so it needs a singular verb. Therefore, “is” IS good in this example.

Note to self: I need to ignore the noun in the prepositional phrase and focus on the noun after the verb. And then I need to understand that, even though that noun might indicate more than one person or thing, if it’s a “collective” noun, I need use a singular verb.

EXTRA HINT!!!!! Look for “a” or “an”!! A or an are used as articles indicating a . . . wait for it . . . a singular noun!!! Whoo hoo!

“There is a lot of people” gives me both examples – the word “a” and the word “lot” (ignoring the noun “people” in the “of” prepositional phrase). YAY! I think I’ve got it!

My other examples, like “There’s situations”???😞👎!

• Now, here’s my sociological theory why we don’t say “there are” anymore? Saying “there’s” is a LOT easier (physically) than saying “there’re.”

There’re is REALLY difficult to say and has fallen out of use. Saying both words – “there are” – would fix the problem, but that means we would have to say 2 syllables instead of 1.

Waah… 😭 It’s much easier to say 1 syllable. We have become lazy speakers in many ways, and this is just one example.

Happy May (without an “R” 😉).

Read More about What Happened to “ARE”?