Thread: here is ten dollars & here are two beers. почему??

Theres a difference between English/Australian English and American English, as when Americans say that someone is in the hospital, Brits and Aussies just says someone is in hospital.

Originally Posted by Pon4ik

у Пимслера нашел:
here is ten dollars
но в то же время:
here are two beers

почему не here are ten dollars?

"Here are ten dollars" is perfectly good English, and in fact your standard English teacher would probably consider it the only right way to say it.

"Here is ten dollars" is colloquial English. Most any native speaker would say it in the US when he is not thinking to much about making a good impression.

"Here are two beers" is proper English.

"Here's two beers" is colliquial English. People say it all the time.

On those occasions when the subject comes after the verb, native speakers often use a singular verb even if the subject has to do with more than one person.

"Who was at the funeral?"
"There was mom, uncle Billy, Aunt Jane, and all their kids."

(But "there were" is perfectly suitable in that context and would be considered better style.)

It's similar in Russian:

В квартире №3 живёт Анна Николаевна, Борис Петрович, и двое детей.
В квартире №3 живут Анна Николаевна, Борис Петрович, и двое детей.

Первый вариант звучит нормально, не правда ли, хотя подлежащее множественного числа.

Originally Posted by doninphxaz

"Here are ten dollars" is perfectly good English, and in fact your standard English teacher would probably consider it the only right way to say it.

Maybe my memory is bad, but I don't remember EVER hearing someone say, "here are ten dollars", unless they were holding ten one dollar bills. I'm quite sure I've never heard the equivalent, "here are thirty five cents."

Perhaps they talk funny over in Tempe?

As someone said earlier, amounts of money are, for no good reason, non-count nouns. If you have different piles of money, you can use a plural, but if it all goes together it is singular.

Originally Posted by scotcher

Here is three dollars - "three dollars" is a mass/ uncountable noun phrase. You are talking about an amount of money.

Here are three dollar bills - "dollar bills" is a countable noun phrase. You are talking about a quantity of bills.

Agree

Originally Posted by scotcher

Originally Posted by Ramil

By the way I want to ask a related question:

Which is correct:

1) Two thousand dollar
2) Two thousands dollar
3) Two thousand dollars
4) Two thousands dollars

The same with million(s) ?

I often use 1) sometimes use 3) but never knew it for sure

3) is the only correct one, and yes, same goes for millions.

That's assuming that the noun takes a regular plural, as is the case with dollar. If it has an irregular plural, then all bets are off.

Correct.

Originally Posted by Ramil

By the way I want to ask a related question:

Which is correct:

1) Two thousand dollar
2) Two thousands dollar
3) Two thousand dollars
4) Two thousands dollars

The same with million(s) ?

I often use 1) sometimes use 3) but never knew it for sure

1 can be correct IF and ONLY IF you are using the whole phrase as an adjective: This is a two thousand dollar watch.

Otherwise 3 as was said.

Originally Posted by doninphxaz

Originally Posted by Pon4ik

у Пимслера нашел:
here is ten dollars
но в то же время:
here are two beers

почему не here are ten dollars?

"Here are ten dollars" is perfectly good English, and in fact your standard English teacher would probably consider it the only right way to say it.

"Here is ten dollars" is colloquial English. Most any native speaker would say it in the US when he is not thinking to much about making a good impression.

I totally disagree, I think this is hypercorrection. If your English teacher tells you this is the case, find a new school.

Originally Posted by scotcher

I think this is hypercorrection. If your English teacher tells you this is the case, find a new school.

I agree that "here's ten dollars" is the most common way to say it, at least among most Americans I know.

But if someone said,

"Hey, Scotcher, here are ten bucks. Go buy us a case of the cheapest beer you can find."

the "are" не режет ухо. You'd blip over the "are" without noticing it. That's a sign that the plural version is still part of the living language, not just an artifact of antiquated standards.

Another little quirk is that sometimes things sound perfectly normal with contracted "is/are" (i.e. 's and 're ), but they sound oddish with full forms of the verbs. Can't think of any examples right off the top of my head, but I've noticed them in the past.

I agree that "here's ten dollars" is the most common way to say it, at least among most Americans I know.

But if someone said,

"Hey, Scotcher, here are ten bucks. Go buy us a case of the cheapest beer you can find."

the "are" не режет ухо. You'd blip over the "are" without noticing it.

Totally disagree again. If someone said "hey Scotcher, here are ten bucks... " I would hear it as clearly as if they got the words in the wrong order. I wouldn't care, but I most certainly would hear it.

Unless they were presenting me with male deer or rabbits, which are countable nouns, in which case "here are ten bucks" would be grammatically correct.

That's a sign that the plural version is still part of the living language, not just an artifact of antiquated standards.

No-one said anything about the plural being antiquated. What we said was that dollars/ bucks in that context is a non-countable noun, therefore it doesn't take the plural at all. You are talking about an amount of something, not a number of things.

а что еще множественное, кроме баксов, употребляется с here is?

Originally Posted by Pon4ik

а что еще множественное, кроме баксов, употребляется с here is?

Иногда так же употребляются названия мер объёма/веса и т.д.

Например, такой диалог:
- Could you lend me some gas?
- Sure (протягивая канистру), here is 3 gallons.

С другой стороны, во фразах типа there is/there are 5 gallons of water in this barrel мне приходилось встречать оба варианта... И какой из них правильнее, я не знаю. Я бы сам написал there are, но не поручусь, что так будет правильнее.

This sounds normal:

"Gas costs four bucks a gallon here."
"Four bucks is too much. Let's go somewhere else."

"The board is thirty-six inches long."
"Thirty-six inches is too short. We need a longer one."

"I bought two gallons of milk to make ice cream."
"Two gallons is not enough. We need at least four."

"Are" would sound odd in these sentences.

But once I put the word "people" in, the "are" sounds okay:

"Three people came to help us."
"Three people aren't enough to get the job done."

but

"Three people isn't enough to get the job done" is probably more common.

And once we get away from the number being the main focus, "are" becomes the only good version:

"Has everyone arrived for the meeting?"
"Three people aren't here yet because they are tied up in traffic."

while

"Three people isn't here yet" sounds horrible.

So, it has to do with whether the subject is considered a group or not.

еще такая ботва вот:

here is sixty-one dollars

а по-русски мы говорим:
вот шестьдесят один доллар_

Originally Posted by doninphxaz

This sounds normal:

"Has everyone arrived for the meeting?"
"Three people aren't here yet because they are tied up in traffic."

while

"Three people isn't here yet" sounds horrible.

Not if you speak Ebonics