there is / there are
Which one to use when it is followed by a quantifier like this:

There is a plenty of chairs.
There are a plenty of chairs.

I'm confused because of the article (a) .

Are there any others quantifiers in which I can use the wrong one of the sentence above.

Thanks in advance.

Question

there is / there are
Which one to use when it is followed by a quantifier like this:

There is a plenty of chairs.
There are a plenty of chairs.

I'm confused because of the article (a) .

Are there any others quantifiers in which I can use the wrong one of the sentence above.

Thanks in advance.

Answer

"There are plenty of chairs" is correct

Article 'a' is not used because

1) there is more than 1 chair
2) 'plenty' is not a collective noun (a pack of cards, a pride of lions etc)

Answer

There are plenty of chairs.

There are enough chairs for everyone to have a seat.
There is a sufficient number of chairs for the meeting.

Answer

Hi Shehri, we do not say "There is/are *a* plenty of chairs."

We either say, informally, "there's plenty of chairs," or more correctly, "there are plenty of chairs."

If you want to use "a", you can say "There is a lot of chairs" (informally in daily speech) or "there are a lot of chairs" (preferred, because even though "a lot" is singular, "a lot of chairs" actually designates more than one chair).

You can also say "there are chairs aplenty" but this sounds a little old-fashioned.

:)

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