there are a wealth of materials...
j
hand there's the singular "a wealth", on the other is the plural
"materials". How can I unravel which one to refer to? My instinct is
that it is singular.
"There is also a wealth of materials on websites..."""
or
"There are also a wealth of materials on websites..."""
Also, is "also" in the right place, or should it go at the beginning of
the sentence?
Don Phillipson
news:1jcs6sw.1bhain453b8jkN%nospa...@invalid.invalid...
1. "There is a wealth . . . " is preferred, invoking the rule that
subject and verb should agree in number. But this is an
"existential statement," for which English has no common
form (neither singular nor plural) like some other languages.
Existential statements can usually be rephrased, sometimes
more briefly as in:
"A wealth of materials can be found on web sites . . . "
2. "Also" is used as the first word of a spoken sentence, for
rhetorical emphasis, but writing prefers different methods.
I.e. Also is seldom preferred as the first word in a written
sentence. But this is a matter of preference (not right or wrong.)
--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)
Lars Enderin
> "j" <nospa...@invalid.invalid> wrote in message
> news:1jcs6sw.1bhain453b8jkN%nospa...@invalid.invalid...
>
>> I'm not sure whether the following should read "is" or "are". On one
>> hand there's the singular "a wealth", on the other is the plural
>> "materials". How can I unravel which one to refer to? My instinct is
>> that it is singular.
>>
>> "There is also a wealth of materials on websites..."""
>> or
>> "There are also a wealth of materials on websites..."""
>>
>> Also, is "also" in the right place, or should it go at the beginning of
>> the sentence?
>
> 1. "There is a wealth . . . " is preferred, invoking the rule that
> subject and verb should agree in number. But this is an
> "existential statement," for which English has no common
> form (neither singular nor plural) like some other languages.
> Existential statements can usually be rephrased, sometimes
> more briefly as in:
> "A wealth of materials can be found on web sites . . . "
Why not "material"?
Mark Brader
>>> I'm not sure whether the following should read "is" or "are". On one
>>> hand there's the singular "a wealth", on the other is the plural
>>> "materials". How can I unravel which one to refer to?
>>> "There is also a wealth of materials on websites..."""
>>> "There are also a wealth of materials on websites..."""
I'd say correct either way. You can view the sentence as being
about the materials or the wealth.
>>> Also, is "also" in the right place, or should it go at the beginning of
>>> the sentence?
Definitely correct either way.
Don Phillipson writes:
>> "There is a wealth . . . " is preferred, invoking the rule that
>> subject and verb should agree in number.
But constructions like "a <noun> of <plural noun>" may be construed as
singular or plural, depending on what the expression is about.
Lars Enderin writes:
> Why not "material"?
Again, I'd say correct either way.
--
Mark Brader, Toronto, m...@vex.net
"The recent explosion of tourism has ruined the
planet Arrakis for me forever." -- Spider Robinson
My text in this article is in the public domain.
Jerry Friedman
> I'm not sure whether the following should read "is" or "are". On one
> hand there's the singular "a wealth", on the other is the plural
> "materials". How can I unravel which one to refer to? My instinct is
> that it is singular.
>
> "There is also a wealth of materials on websites..."""
>
> or
>
> "There are also a wealth of materials on websites..."""
"Is", for me.
I would decide questions like this by my impression of usage. Thus I
hear "a wealth of" as singular but "a number of" as plural. If I have
a rule, it's that the ones that refer to number and nothing else are
plural.
a lot of
a great many of
a few of
a number of
a thousand of
the majority of
"A wealth of", though, indicates the quality as well as the quantity.
> Also, is "also" in the right place, or should it go at the beginning of
> the sentence?
Either, as people have said.
--
Jerry Friedman
Stan Brown
>
> I'm not sure whether the following should read "is" or "are". On one
> hand there's the singular "a wealth", on the other is the plural
> "materials". How can I unravel which one to refer to? My instinct is
> that it is singular.
>
>
> "There is also a wealth of materials on websites..."""
That's how I would say and write it. To me, "a wealth" irresistibly
suggests a mass quantity rather than a countable one.
If you said "a lot of materials" or "a number of materials", I would
use "are". (See the companion thread on "a number of".
--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com
Shikata ga nai...