Messages

1

Essays by Joe Carillo / Re: Puzzlers in subject-verb agreement, subjunctive usage, pronoun usage

« on: February 10, 2012, 10:19:10 PM »

thanks for sharing precious information.... i think there are lot of things which have discussed in the post are common issues.. and people should beware of them to present good English.

2

You Asked Me This Question / Re: Is or Are?

« on: February 10, 2012, 03:49:32 PM »

Dear Sir,

Greetings!

May I please be enlightened as to which verb is the correct one to use here:

                      There (is, are) cake and some balloons in the house.

We have a compound subject here and my first impulse is to use "are." However, I am confused: I do not know if I should add "a" before "cake" (There is a cake and some balloons in the house) or use "are" (There are cake and some balloons in the house). In the first place, should "cake" be treated as a non-count noun here?

Thank you very much.

English editor

correct use is "There is cake and some balloons in the house."

Are is applicable if the sentence is "There are cake and balloons in the house."

The use of word "some" is making restriction that you cannot use a plural with these words as verb.