Iris
Does it sound right? There is already a wide variety of holidays and every day people invent even more occasions to celebrate.
Nov 24, 2015 7:52 PM
Answers · 16
I'm firmly in the "is" camp here. It seems to me that the core sentence is "there is a variety".
November 24, 2015
This is a tricky one in English, on the same model as "a group of items" or "a number of people", where either singular or plural may be used, depending on whether the emphasis is on the set as a whole or its elements. In this case, it is the variety that is wide rather than the holidays, and so the singular seems more appropriate to me.
November 24, 2015
Yep, put me down for 'singular', too. I think it should agree with 'variety'.
November 24, 2015
Thank you for your comment.
November 24, 2015
The singular sounds more natural here, when used to refer to different types of the same thing. The focus here is on "variety" not on holidays", so "There is ..." is absolutely fine. This can, of course, be used in plural form: different varieties of dishes. More explanations here: http://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/variety_1 Hope that helps.
November 24, 2015
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