Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with grammer

"There is" or "There are"

syzygy — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 02:53:41 -0800

English Grammar: "There is" vs. "There are". There is a banana. There are two oranges. There (is / are) a banana and an orange? How about:
There (is / are) a banana and two oranges?
There (is / are) two oranges and a banana?

I've searched on google for a definitive answer to this question. Most of the ESL lessons I've come across avoid this kind of construction, altogether. I've also stumbled on some discussions of the topic which seem pretty contradictory.

For the example sentences I provided, I think the following answers are correct: "is", "is" and "are".

I understand that the subjects of all of the sentences are plural, but I think that an ellipsis allows for the "is", as in: There is a banana and (there is) an orange.

Can someone point me to a definitive answer?

Proper noun problem:

serazin — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 21:45:06 -0800

You capitalize "The Civil War", right? And you capitalize "The Civil Rights Movement", right? Do you capitalize "The Women's Movement"? Do you capitalize "The Anti-Globalization Movement"? What about the "Spay and Neuter 'Movement'"? Is every specific movement or event in history considered a proper noun – and if not, why not? Do I get to just arbitrarily decide what to capitalize in these sorts of examples, or is there some 'rule' that only applies to historic events that hold a certain level of significance – and who decides what is significant enough? This isn't just idle curiosity – I'm transcribing an interview where the subject talks about a number of movements - American Civil Rights Movement, Gay Rights Movement, etc, and I don't know what to capitalize!

What do you call a group of ninjas?

qbxk — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 14:43:14 -0800

What do you call a group of ninjas? You know, like gaggle of geese, murder of crows, school of fish, all that. Does a group of ninjas have some sort of descriptor? We're talking many people in halloween costumes, how to address them together. The { blank }

HELF with Grammer

ewkpates — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 08:07:39 -0800

Grammer emergency. "I am unavailable to answer your call." Stop the madness. The phrase "unavailable to" must be grammatically incorrect... but is it really?

Why don't we "play bowling"?

keep it tight — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 19:46:19 -0800

Why is it that we say that we "play football", "play baseball", "play hockey", etc... But we "go bowling", or "go biking"?

"Inconceivable!"

Invoke — Sun, 11 Sep 2005 23:58:35 -0800

What words do people use that consistently make you cringe and wonder if they understand what they are saying? The spelling peeve question a couple days ago was very interesting and got me thinking about advanced word usage. I'm particularly interested in words which may enjoy some common usage, but which people just don't seem to understand. Perhaps they are just wrongly used in general, or are foolishly chosen by people trying to look intelligent.

Question number 13138

bakerwc1369 — Sat, 18 Dec 2004 11:31:55 -0800

FortuneCookieFilter - I recently ate at a Chinese buffet and my fortune cookie following the meal was slightly confusing grammatically. "If winter comes, can spring be far behind?" I know what they are trying to say, but is this technically the correct way to say it?