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"A number of" vs. "many"

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Amgad Zeitoun

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Dec 10, 2001, 4:08:49 PM12/10/01
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Hi,

I have a question about the "a number of" usage. Do we follow it by a
singular verb or a plural verb?

For example:
"A number of studies has shown that...."

I believe that "a number of" means "many," so we should use the plural
verb after it.

"A number of studies have shown that..."

Can anybody confirm which one is used in American English?

Thanks,
Amgad

Skitt

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Dec 10, 2001, 4:25:46 PM12/10/01
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"Amgad Zeitoun" <azei...@eecs.umich.edu> wrote in message
news:3C152461...@eecs.umich.edu...

It's the "A number of studies have shown that..." that is correct.
--
Skitt (in SF Bay Area) http://www.geocities.com/opus731/
I speak English well -- I learn it from a book!
-- Manuel of "Fawlty Towers" (he's from Barcelona).

Richard Fontana

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Dec 10, 2001, 4:32:36 PM12/10/01
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On Mon, 10 Dec 2001, Amgad Zeitoun wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I have a question about the "a number of" usage. Do we follow it by a
> singular verb or a plural verb?

Plural, for the usage you have in mind.


> For example:
> "A number of studies has shown that...."
>
> I believe that "a number of" means "many," so we should use the plural
> verb after it.
>
> "A number of studies have shown that..."
>
> Can anybody confirm which one is used in American English?

I can confirm that "have" is used in AmE and "has" isn't.

perchprism

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Dec 10, 2001, 5:07:15 PM12/10/01
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"Amgad Zeitoun" <azei...@eecs.umich.edu> wrote in message
news:3C152461...@eecs.umich.edu...


From the aue FAQ:

*******
"A number of ..." usually requires a plural verb. In "A number
of employees were present", it's the employees who were present, not
the number. "A number of" is just a fuzzy quantifier. ("A number
of..." may need a singular in the much rarer contexts where it does
not function as a quantifier: "A number of this magnitude requires
5 bytes to store.")

On the other hand, "the number of..." always takes the singular:
"The number of employees who were present was small." Here, it's
the number that was small, not the employees.
********

This goes for Britain, too.

--
Perchprism
(southern New Jersey, near Philadelphia)

N.Mitchum

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Dec 10, 2001, 6:11:20 PM12/10/01
to aj...@lafn.org
Amgad Zeitoun wrote:
----
> "A number of studies have shown that..."
>....

Correct, and not only in American English.


----NM


Joe Fineman

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Dec 10, 2001, 6:58:58 PM12/10/01
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Amgad Zeitoun <azei...@eecs.umich.edu> writes:

The plural verb is right in the example you give.

However, I do not think of "a number of" as synonymous with many. To
me it is somewhat more vague, more like "several or many".

A singular verb is right when "number" is the logical as well as the
formal subject:

The number of studies was large.

Cf.:

A number of samples were chosen in advance. (We chose some samples;
I'm not telling you how many.)

A number of samples was chosen in advance. (We picked a number, and
that was how many we collected.)
--
--- Joe Fineman j...@TheWorld.com

||: The dirt in the cracks is where life goes on. :||

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