There were a series/aide

There were a series/aide
Message de skyly posté le 29-12-2013 à 16:18:31 (S | E | F)
Bonjour.

Voici la question d'un QCM sur lequel je suis tombé :
There........ a series of scandals in Rome last year.
(A) was (B) were (C) has been (D) have been
Le corrigé indique que la bonne réponse est "were", ce que je ne comprends pas...
a series est forcément singulier, par la présence de l'article "a" ?
Merci de votre aide.
Bonne journée.

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Modifié par lucile83 le 29-12-2013 16:28

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Réponse: There were a series/aide de jonquille, postée le 29-12-2013 à 17:26:02 (S | E)
Bonjour !

La bonne réponse est vraiment (B). "Series" is a collective noun. Collective nouns may use a singular verb or a plural one, depending on the context.
Ex: There was a crime series on TV tonight, but I slept through it. VS There were a series of crimes on my street tonight, but I slept through them.
Vous voyez la différence?
Voici un autre lien: Lien internet

Good luck!

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Réponse: There were a series/aide de carr30, postée le 29-12-2013 à 20:51:02 (S | E)
Hello

This is a very interesting question because 'a series' does indicate a singular (there was only 1 series of crimes), so 'was a series' seems perfectly logical.
There is a lot of debate on this on wordreference Lien internet
and here Lien internet

From the freedictionary Lien internet

"Series is both a singular and a plural form. When it has the singular sense of "one set," it takes a singular verb, even when series is followed by of and a plural noun: A series of lectures is scheduled. When it has the plural sense of "two or more sets," it takes a plural verb: Two series of lectures are scheduled: one for experts and one for lay people."
My opinion after this is that your answer (A) is correct.
Thank you for raising this point. It gives us all something to think about.

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Réponse: There were a series/aide de lucile83, postée le 29-12-2013 à 21:33:32 (S | E)
Hello,

As jonquille, I think the correct answer is:
There were a series of scandals in Rome last year.
That is due to the use of there is/there are, followed by a singular or plural noun, or even an enumeration.
We say:
there is a shop over there
there are shops over there
there is a shop, a post-office and a pub over there
there are two shops and a pub over there
there is a lot of water here
there are a lot of books here
and so on...It depends on the context and what you are really talking about.

In the first message they were talking about scandals, not about a series.

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Réponse: There were a series/aide de carr30, postée le 30-12-2013 à 09:46:33 (S | E)
Hello

We would say that 'there was one series of scandals in Rome last year' , just as in 'there was one series of steps', 'there was one series of games', 'there was one series of House' etc
The original message is not specific. Does it mean there was one series of scandals or many series of scandals?
For example 'there was a (i.e. one) series of scandals..' or 'there were a series of scandals, one was in politics, one was in banking...etc
I think that either answer (A) or (B) may be correct depending on this context.
It is interesting how such a simple question can raise even more !

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Réponse: There were a series/aide de lucile83, postée le 30-12-2013 à 10:29:26 (S | E)
Hello carr30,

If I take into account what you wrote above
'there were a series of scandals, one was in politics, one was in banking...etc'
I'd use 'were' instead of 'was' because there were several scandals in several fields that I won't enumerate here as it is not the suitable place for that.
Anyway it was an interesting topic

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Réponse: There were a series/aide de skyly, postée le 01-01-2014 à 17:28:04 (S | E)
Si j'ai bien compris, on utilise "were" dans ce cas car il y a plusieurs crimes différents regroupés dans le mot "series", il n'y a pas unicité ?

Je vous remercie de vos réponses

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Réponse: There were a series/aide de lucile83, postée le 01-01-2014 à 21:49:32 (S | E)
Yes, that's right!

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