Find the Error 51
(Extract adapted from a local newspaper's 'What's On?' guide)
What kind of mistake do you see? (Choose one:)
- apostrophes
- articles
- doesn't make sense
- punctuation
- singular / plural
- spelling
Answer: singular / plural
The problem here is the phrase: 'there are a staggering amount of things to
see …' Although the author is talking about many things, the noun phrase
('staggering amount of things') starts with a singular article – 'a'. This is
because the word 'amount', which is the main noun here, is in singular form.
It is 'amount' rather than the plural 'amounts'. As a consequence, 'there are
…', which uses a plural verb ('are' – from verb 'to be') must be changed to
'there is …', using the singular verb 'is'. The phrase should read: 'there is a
staggering amount of things to see …'
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