There ARE a lot of people in the street. You use ARE when you are talking about something PLURAL. Eg. There are a lot of cars on the road. There are a lot of people in China. There are a lot of computers at Google's headquarters. ---- There IS a group of people in the street. Use IS when you are talking about something SINGULAR. Group is singular. There is a camel in the street. There is a group of camels in the street. ---- However, you can have plural GROUPS. Eg. There ARE GROUPS of people in the street. [plural groups of people] There ARE GROUPS of terrorists based in that country. [plural groups of terrorists] I hope this helps you and good luck!

There are a lot of people = PLURAL There is a group = SINGULAR It is that simple.

Even though in a group you have more than one, the group itself is singular. Thus you will use the singular form of the verb. There is a group of people in the street. When you are talking about many people but not referring to the group of them, then you are speaking about them in the plural sense. This requires the verb to be plural. There are a lot of people in the street. You can also have multiple groups which would then make the verb plural. There are many groups of people in the street. This is usually used when each group is distinct. I hope this helps you. Mat