Is the phrase "a lot" an exception to English language rules or is it just commonly misused?

Question

Here's what I was pondering the other day. Let's say you have this sentence:

"A lot of people are coming to my party."

Is this grammatically correct? The subject is "lot" or is it? If it is, then it's singular. So "are" techninally should be "is." But...

"A lot of people is coming to my party."

It just sounds wrong. But is that technically the correct way to say it? Or is "a lot" an exception to the rules of the English language. Thanks for any insight.

Look at the sentence structure.

Many people...

"People" is clearly the subject and is plural.

A lot of people...

Notice the word "of" makes lot the subject.

For example.

A stack of magazines is on the floor.

Can anyone find a source that proves one way or the other on my question?

Ponyboy understands the flaw I'm seeing. Look passed the way you've always used the phrase, and you may see it as well.

past* lol........

Awesome beach dude, that's exactly the type of article I was looking for. So it's an exception to the rules. Thanks for the help.

Answer 1

The verb needs to agree with people, which is plural. "Are" is correct.

According to "The American Heritage Book of English Usage" (1996), the common expression "a lot of" is a whole lot more complicated than you might think. It belongs to a class of words that include deal (in a great deal of), plenty, and load. In phrases such as a lot of strawberries, the word lot is not really a head noun analogous to the word bowl in a bowl of strawberries. Rather, expressions like a lot of, a whole lot of, and a great deal of are best thought of as complex modifiers analogous to words like many, much, or several. Lot and plenty can occur with noncount nouns like furniture and with plural count nouns like chairs. The verb agrees in number with the noun in the of phrase. Thus, when followed by a singular noun, a lot of takes a singular verb: A lot of pizza was left on the table. But when followed by a plural noun, it takes a plural verb: A lot of the strawberries were ripe.

Answer 2

A lot is synonymous with many. Would you say, "Many people is coming to the party?" No, you would use "are". Same with "a lot" Both "many" and "a lot" would be plural in this sense that the object of the preposition "of" is "people" which is plural.

Added: Like I said, it depends on the object of the prepostion "of". Pizza, singular, verb, was. Strawberries, plural, verb, were. I like to keep explanations simple, not write a whole book about it.

Also, as to ponyboy, people don't come in "lots" like shirts do.

Answer 3

Actually, lot can be used as a singular noun--think of the shipments that come to a store. One lot may be mismarked in size while all the other lots are marked correctly. When one says 'a lot of people', they are commonly referring to a large number of people, which is a plural usage. In reality, we Americans butcher the English language with reckless abandon.

Answer 4

Exceptions to the rule in English grammar are/is fun.

This is a collective noun that takes the plural, where the idiocy of idiom in an idiomatic expression is idiotic and a double negative is not plural.

Answer 5

I had an English teacher in high school (quite a few years ago), and this happened to be her biggest pet peeve. People using a lot, and putting it together as "alot"- She had a huge banner across the classroom that said, "There is no such word as alot"

I think it is commonly misused today.

So, coming from and English teacher, the proper way to use the word, is to seperate the words. Hope this helps.

Answer 6

No, the subject is people, so it's plural, so 'are' is correct. 'Lot' always goes with a plural. If it's a singular, the correct word is 'much' as in 'much of the village (one village, so singular) is coming to my party.

Answer 7

i think of the be conscious 'like' is misused greater desirable than the different, somewhat while human beings use it to signify 'which includes', while it skill 'resembling'. i'm getting extremely annoyed as quickly as I hear human beings say issues 'like'...'Stephen Spielberg, who directed videos like ET and Jurassic Park...', erm - no he did no longer direct videos resembling ET, he DID direct ET.