The Lemon Fool

Please can someone advise on grammar for me? Should I say “there is a handful of companies” or “there are handful of companies”.

Thanks

Arizona11 wrote:...Should I say “there is a handful of companies” or “there are handful of companies”.

'there are' sounds right to me, but then what do i know?

This would seem to apply....

Phrases like a number of… usually take a plural verb.

https://www.grammarly.com/blog/is-vs-are/

Arizona11 wrote:Please can someone advise on grammar for me? Should I say “there is a handful of companies” or “there are handful of companies”.

Thanks

You should say "There is a handful of companies", because you are referring to one handful. The clue is in the "a" handful. There is only one handful.

Arizona11 wrote:Please can someone advise on grammar for me? Should I say “there is a handful of companies” or “there are handful of companies”.

Thanks

It will depend on the rest of the sentence.

There is a handful of companies that perform better than other handfuls of companies, monopolies for instance.

There are a handful of companies that have survived from the 18th century and remain in private hands, company X, company Y and company Z, for instance.

Handful, in itself, isn't a "useful" description for companies, which confuses this. Replacing with "a small group" for instance makes the first sentence more palatable. There is a small group of companies that perform better... with the emphasis on the group, not the individual companies.

So in your usage is the emphasis on the "handful" or the "companies"? One is singular, one is plural. I suspect in most cases it will be the latter, and even common usage of the former would probably allow for "are".

This should really be in Pedants' Place

But in my opinion "A handful" is singular therefore is should be used

A handful of sand is heavier than a handful of feathers.

Rob

dealtn wrote:So in your usage is the emphasis on the "handful" or the "companies"? One is singular, one is plural. I suspect in most cases it will be the latter, and even common usage of the former would probably allow for "are".

You might say. "There are Companies who have increased their dividends in 2020." If this was to be qualified, it could be "There are a handful of Companies who ..." Although "There is a handful of Companies who .." doesn't sound incorrect.

richfool wrote:

Arizona11 wrote:Please can someone advise on grammar for me? Should I say “there is a handful of companies” or “there are handful of companies”.

Thanks

You should say "There is a handful of companies", because you are referring to one handful. The clue is in the "a" handful. There is only one handful.

I disagree. There are MILLIONS of companies!

I think 'there are a handful of companies' is surely correct. We are not here referring to the handful but to the number of companies, just as in 'there are four companies' 'there are a few companies' so ' there are a handful of companies'. Handful is like an adjective in this context not a noun.

I do not have any grammatical explanation for this I am sorry to say but I think that makes sense.

Dod

Dod101 wrote:I think 'there are a handful of companies' is surely correct. We are not here referring to the handful but to the number of companies, just as in 'there are four companies' 'there are a few companies' so ' there are a handful of companies'. Handful is like an adjective in this context not a noun.

I do not have any grammatical explanation for this I am sorry to say but I think that makes sense.

Dod

I was about to post that.

Along with a suggestion to adopt a familiar archaism that works best with the right accent. There be a number of companies ...

Mike4 wrote:

richfool wrote:

Arizona11 wrote:Please can someone advise on grammar for me? Should I say “there is a handful of companies” or “there are handful of companies”.

Thanks

You should say "There is a handful of companies", because you are referring to one handful. The clue is in the "a" handful. There is only one handful.

I disagree. There are MILLIONS of companies!

It is the hand(ful) that is the determining factor, not the contents of the hand(ful). There is one handful, not two or more.

In the same way that you would say there is a roomful of people. Or there was a roomful of people. Or the room was full of people. There is only one room.

richfool wrote:

Mike4 wrote:

richfool wrote:You should say "There is a handful of companies", because you are referring to one handful. The clue is in the "a" handful. There is only one handful.

I disagree. There are MILLIONS of companies!

It is the hand(ful) that is the determining factor, not the contents of the hand(ful). There is one handful, not two or more.

In the same way that you would say there is a roomful of people. Or there was a roomful of people. Or the room was full of people. There is only one room.

I understand the principle thank you, it was a JOKE.... did you miss the smiley??!

richfool wrote:It is the hand(ful) that is the determining factor, not the contents of the hand(ful). There is one handful, not two or more.

In the same way that you would say there is a roomful of people. Or there was a roomful of people. Or the room was full of people. There is only one room.

Not quite the same.

The room matters: it's putting the people in a context. The handful, by contrast, is mere padding: There are [...] companies.

There am a lot of nuances to our language. If it had been a literal handful then it would indeed be singular.

richfool wrote:

Mike4 wrote:

richfool wrote:You should say "There is a handful of companies", because you are referring to one handful. The clue is in the "a" handful. There is only one handful.

I disagree. There are MILLIONS of companies!

It is the hand(ful) that is the determining factor, not the contents of the hand(ful). There is one handful, not two or more.

In the same way that you would say there is a roomful of people. Or there was a roomful of people. Or the room was full of people. There is only one room.

There is always a problem when a technically correct answer like "there is . . " just doesn't sound right.

In this context "there are . . " sounds right. People read through the singular term and look to the underlying plurality of what is being discussed which, ultimately, is not a room/handful but rather a number of companies or people.

Of course "there is" might sound right to you. But I would conjecture that most people would say that "there are" sounds right.

I find it amusing that no one has yet commented on my Grammarly link in the first reply that seems to say use the plural

Breelander wrote:I find it amusing that no one has yet commented on my Grammarly link in the first reply that seems to say use the plural

But that section notes specifically "You may occasionally run into a pedant who disagrees"...

Scott.

Dod101 wrote:I think 'there are a handful of companies' is surely correct. We are not here referring to the handful but to the number of companies, just as in 'there are four companies' 'there are a few companies' so ' there are a handful of companies'. Handful is like an adjective in this context not a noun.

Well I am not sure who the "we" you are referring to comprises. But we don't as yet know what the OP is referring to, as he hasn't provided the rest of the sentence.

It could be "the handful" or it could be "the companies". To use your description "handful" could easily be the "noun". You might know what your "context" is, but as yet we don't know the "context" of the OP.

But what about contractions?

"There is a handful of companies" contracts nicely to "There's a handful of companies"
For those who prefer "There are a handful of companies", would they contract to "There're a handful of companies" (ugly!) or use "There's a handful of companies"

--kiloran

If the subject is singular "is" is used. If plural use "are". In this case the subject appears to be "companies" and not "handfull" so the word "are" is the correct usage.

Breelander wrote:I find it amusing that no one has yet commented on my Grammarly link in the first reply that seems to say use the plural

Amused... imagining that most readers are rolling their eyes as soon as they see Grammarly?

The article had its problems but the section on "Is vs. Are with a Number of / a Pair of / a Group of" was actually reasonably sound.



The OP's choice falls somewhere between the idiomatic "a lot of people" which practically demands "there are" and the opposite extreme of "a plate of biscuits" or "a room full of"/"a roomful of people" which both demand "there is". In between these extremes the choice is down to the style of the writer, the nuance she wishes to express or a "feeling" as to which sounds better. The feeling can be tested by substituting other similar words into the phrase.

In the OP's case, since he is talking about companies, it is clearly not a literal hand involved in the "handful"! The phrase "a handful of" is instead idiomatic, meaning "a few", i.e. it is merely indicating the scale of the plural noun. So, "There are a handful of companies" is the better choice.

OTOH, if you say "Here is a handful of marbles for your son", the idea of a literal hand is being conveyed, so the singular is more appropriate.


GS
[EDIT: Oops, echoing UncleE a bit there...]

For me, "There is" or "There are" are superfluous phtases. The sentence reads much better without it.

"A handful of companies have...." not "A handful of companies has..." makes more sense.

TJH