Language desk
< November 17	<< Oct \| November \| Dec >>	November 19 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Language Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

November 18[edit]

There is a variety of..., or there are?[edit]

I recently undid my own undo on an article as it's unclear if there's a definite prescription for the construction "there is/are a variety of something". Lexico (from Oxford Dictionaries, British English) states "1.1 a variety of': A number or range of things of the same general class that are distinct in character or quality.", and gives `Instead, there are a variety of different genes which appear to be linked to the disease. as an example. It appears, at first glance, that the construction "a variety of" is being treated the same way as "many", or a specific number such as "seven". Both Denisarona and I have discussed this and I have brought the issue here for some wider discussion or enlightenment. Bazza (talk) 11:52, 18 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

According to the Advanced Learners Dictionary published by Oxford University Press, the correct use is There is a variety of ***. The example given in the dictionary is: There is a wide variety of patterns to choose from. As a teacher of English, I have always used this style: There are varieties of *** OR There is a variety of ***. Regards Denisarona (talk) 12:13, 18 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

There are several phrases in English (most notoriously "a number of", as in "A number of people were dancing") where the plurality of the object of the preposition seems to influence the plurality of the whole phrase, as far as verb agreement etc. It's perhaps not strictly "logical", but that's the way English is... AnonMoos (talk) 12:18, 18 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Once a phrase like "a XXX of" is perceived as a modifier, it is not "a XXX" that triggers subject agreement, but the following noun. That's the case for "a lot of" and "a number of" which essentially mean "many" and "numerous". If "a variety of" is used to mean "various", plural subject agreement trigger is natural, but not necessarily preferred. –Austronesier (talk) 12:26, 18 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Variety has two different meanings though. It can mean "a specific exemplar" or "a group of exemplars", and depending on the sense meant can affect which conjugation is appropriate. "There is a variety of potatoes in the garden" means "there is one specific exemplar of potatoes in the garden". "There are a variety of potatoes in the garden" means "there are many different exemplars of potatoes in the garden". They are both perfectly grammatical, they just mean different things. It depends on what the speaker is trying to say as to which they should use.--Jayron 32 13:52, 18 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I found the Google Ngrams comparison informative and a little surprising: [1] --Amble (talk) 15:51, 18 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

A relevant WP article is Synesis. If "There are a variety of theories ..." (which seems to me preferable) really bothers you, why not just change it to "There are various theories .." and walk away unvexed? Deor (talk) 17:11, 18 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Deor: Thanks. That may well end up as the solution in this case. Interested, challenged, but never vexed! Bazza (talk) 17:50, 18 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Don't know about Bazza, but that construction makes me think about doing a variety of rather violent things to anyone who writes it. --Khajidha (talk) 19:01, 18 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Khajidha: What's wrong with "There are various theories..."? Seems ok to me and avoids the is/are conundrum. Bazza (talk) 19:08, 18 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Not that construction. The other one. "There are a variety of theories..."--Khajidha (talk) 19:23, 18 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

These type/sort/kind [sic] of things really annoy me. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 19:48, 18 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The spice of life. Doug butler (talk) 20:49, 18 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Language is (in general) not logical, and in the end usage determines what is "correct", not grammarians. Otherwise, we should mark a sentence such as "The lady does protest too much, I think" as severely flawed, a corrected version being "The lady doth protest too much, methinks." Or no, wait, that is also wrong, it should be "The Lady protests to much me thinkes."^[2] (And so on; obviously "the Lady" is a strangely misspelled form of "seo Hlæfdige".) What is asserted to exist in "there is/are a wide variety of patterns to choose from" are the patterns available for choice rather than the variety. The sentence is like a portmanteau: it packs the message "there are many patterns to choose from" with "and their variety is wide" (they are not all tartan). The plural verb form in "there are a wide variety", bypassing the formal subject-verb agreement, is an instance of notional agreement seen more commonly in British English than in American English. --Lambiam 13:11, 19 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Language certainly isn't logical, but it's handy when it is, and when one has a choice, such as with the OP's question here, it's always good to lean in the logical direction. HiLo48 (talk) 23:52, 19 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

One has a choice forsooth, between formal (syntactic) and notional (semantic), but pray, reveal by what logic one type of agreement is to be preferred over the other. --Lambiam 10:24, 20 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

It should also be noted that grammarians (in the sense of linguistic academicians) follow usage as well; the misconception that English language rules are inviolate and there has been, is, and always will be only exactly one correct way to do English and the rules are never to be broken under penalty of death is mostly the fault of school teachers, and in particular a rather outdated and thankfully dying style of pedagogy, rather than people who study language. --Jayron 32 13:52, 19 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I wrote the statement that usage determines what is "correct" because the first reply given above alleges that the Advanced Learners Dictionary states that "the correct use" is There is a variety of ***. In the current online version of the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary I read something else, though: "You can use a singular or a plural verb before it: There is/are a wide variety of patterns to choose from."^[3] --Lambiam 10:40, 20 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]