The Number vs. A Number
The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation
The Number vs. A Number
The expression the number is followed by a singular verb while the expression a number is followed by a plural verb.
Examples:
The number of people we need to hire is thirteen.
A number of people have written in about this subject.
Pop Quiz
Choose the correct word in each sentence.
1. The number of people lined up for tickets was/were four hundred.
2. A number of suggestions was/were made.
3. There is/are a number of important announcements in the bulletin.
4. Here is/are the number of milk shakes you requested.
Pop Quiz Answers
1. The number of people lined up for tickets was four hundred.
2. A number of suggestions were made.
3. There are a number of important announcements in the bulletin.
4. Here is the number of milk shakes you requested.
If the article or the existing discussions do not address a thought or question you have on the subject, please use the "Comment" box at the bottom of this page.
Please give an example without an article, such as, “Number of people … .”
The only thing we can think of is when statistics are listed. For example:
Here’s what we learned about Smallville from the last census:
Number of people living within the city limits: 12,679
Number of males: 6,668
Number of females: 6,011
etc.
Great articles, thank you soooo much.
We are glad you like our website.
I have a question about the difference between “the number of” and “the numbers of”.Could you provide some examples?
Thanks a lot
In most general cases, the singular word number is used with the word of. Examples:
The number of people who attended the conference was surprising.
The number of hot dogs he ate in five minutes was astounding!
The number of students who applied for the scholarship was three.
When specific numbers are being compared or listed, the word numbers is rarely used.
I was wondering if there were any exceptions to this “a” vs. “the” rule? And, does it only apply to “number”? Thanks!!!
There may be rare exceptions, but we are not aware of any. This particular rule applies only to the expressions the number and a number.
Please let me know if the following sentence is correct :
The average number of books owned by the students was 0.66 in 2010, and this figure increased to 0.87 in the following year.
Your sentence is correct.
Which is correct for a survey title;
Number of Countries Third Graders Have Visited
OR
Number of Countries Third Graders Has Visited
Thanks
With the plural phrase “third-graders,” use the plural auxiliary have.
‘That’ and ‘which’ confuse me a lot:
The number of world cups that India has/have won, which include/includes the ones played outside India, is 2.
Also,
A number of world cups that India has/have won were played in India itself.
The verb has agrees with the singular subject India. The expression the number is followed by the singular verb includes.
The number of world cups that India has won, which includes the ones played outside India, is two.
A number of world cups that India has won were played in India itself.
Regarding that vs. which, you have made the correct choice of that in each of your sentences. See Who, That, Which on our GrammarBook.com website to help clear up your confusion.
I understand the grammar rule explained in your blog and I agree with it. However, I have to admit that I find the following sentences tricky:
Almost the same number of events was detected in 2009 and 2008.
The predominant number of events was located over the ocean.
The prevailing number of vortices was located over the ocean.
In every case, “were” sounds better to me than “was.”
Grammar rules are not based on how sentences sound. In all of your examples, the subject of the sentence is the singular noun phrase the number. This is one of countless situations where it’s better to rewrite your sentences than be stuck with a technically correct mess.
Why is it that “the number” is different to “a number”?
Isn’t it the same with quantifiers like one of, some of, most and a lot in which when we use them, the verb depends if the noun is uncountable or countable e.i. A lot of noise was heard from there. / A lot of cars were towed away this morning.
What is the difference then of using an indefinite and definite articles in the verb that we have to use?
The term “the number of” is used with a singular verb, and “a number of” is used with a plural verb. Quantifiers depend on the object of the preposition.
A number of suggestions were made.
Numbers of suggestions were made.
Is “Numbers of + plural N + plural V” correct gramma?
If it correct,could you please tell me how difference between “a number of” and “numbers of”?
Thank you in advance.
The usual expression is a number of. You will rarely see numbers of used in sentences like yours—it is not idiomatic English.
Understood ‘a numbers’ vs ‘the number’ but what about when there is a list? Is ‘number’ still the subject or is it s modifier? Example: “The number of businesses, applications and silos have/has increased over the years.”
Yes, the number is still the subject, followed by the singular verb has.
What about these sentence:
Do we say:
There was an endless number of books.
Or
There were an endless number of books.
There were an endless number of books.
There has/ have been a gradual decline in the number of people who writes / write manually using a pen or pencil..
Please correct it..
There has been a gradual decline in the number of people who write manually using a pen or pencil. The subject of “write” is “people.”
When the printing press was invented in the fifteenth century, many early printers of English texts spoke other first languages. They made little effort to respect English spelling. Although one of the short-term effects of printing was to produce [a number] of variant spellings, in the long term it created fixed spellings.
What’s the reason we cannot say “the number” here?
Thank you.
The number is used to indicate a definite number. Example: The number of students in her class is twenty.
A number is used in your sentence to indicate an indefinite number.
Further clarification on the use of ‘A number of’ v ‘The number of’ terms is provided in the Concise Oxford Dictionary. The answers provided by GrammarBook.com are consistent with the clarification provided by the Dictionary. Accordingly ‘THE NUMBER of accidents HAS decreased’ whereas ‘A NUMBER of problems REMAIN’ are correct expressions.
why is the number of singular and why is a number of plural?
The term “the number” refers to a single number no matter how big. The number of people at the demonstration was too large to be determined. (We don’t know the exact number, but it was a single number.)
The term “a number” refers to more than one number. A number of things were wrong with that car.
I have always treated ‘number’ as a singular.
Same as:
A plate of cakes is on the table.
The plate of cakes is on the table.
The subject of each of your sentences is “plate,” a singular noun (see Rule 1 of Subject-Verb Agreement). The point of this article is that sentences containing “the number” and “a number” follow different guidelines akin to portion words (Rule 8) and collective nouns (Rule 9). “A number of cakes is on the table” sounds awkward to us.
Which one is correct from the following phrases:
(1) Number of convolutional layer
(2) Number of convolutional layers
(3) Number of convoluting layer
(4) Number of convoluting layers
(5) Number of layers
(6) Number of layer
(7) The number of convolutional layer
(8) The number of convolutional layers
(9) The number of convoluting layer
(10) The number of convoluting layers
(11) The number of layers
(12) The number of layer
(13) A number of convolutional layer
(14) A number of convolutional layers
(15) A number of convoluting layer
(16) A number of convoluting layers
(17) A number of layers
(18) A number of layer
In this “number of…” context, I need a better expression to explain a specific case for counting the convolution layer. Somebody wanna change my selected phrase “the number of convolutional layers” to “number of layers”. I think it can’t look differences for counting between “convolutional layer” with “layer”. Somebody want to avoid a wrong phrase if I write “the number of convolutional layers”. So he wants to write “number of layers”
Thank you.
A plural noun must come after the phrase “number of.” Therefore, the only phrases that can be grammatically correct from your list are the ones using the plural noun layers. We’re sorry, but we’re unable to help you regarding “convolutional layers” vs. “layers.”
“There are a finite number of ways this can end.”
Is this correct, or should we say “There is a finite..”?
“There are a finite number of ways this can end.” Addition of the adjective finite does not change that this is an example of “a number” taking a plural verb.
Please advise the correct usage –
We discovered that the largest number of our men IS gathered on the beach.
We discovered that the largest number of our men ARE gathered on the beach.
As the post states, “The expression the number is followed by a singular verb.” The adjective largest does not affect the rule.
We discovered that the largest number of our men is gathered on the beach.
Can you please answer directly the different meaning between a number and the number? It will help a lot on my English assignment. Thank you.
Briefly, the words a, an, and the are called “articles.” A and an are called indefinite articles, while the is known as a definite article. That is because a and an refer to nonspecific things, while the refers to specific things. We have more guidance on how to use a and an on the website under Confusing Words and Homonyms. Another good reference is the Purdue Online Writing Lab, “Using Articles.”
Which is correct:
“The event is completed after a certain number of goblins has been defeated.”
or
“The event is completed after a certain number of goblins have been defeated.”
The expression a number is followed by a plural verb. The word certain does not change the rule. Therefore, use the plural verb have.
What about “The number of objects in group B is one more than that in group A”?
The sentence is grammatically correct. (For brevity, you could write Group B has one more object than group A.)
I enjoyed listening to the number of programs on the radio. OR a number of programs?
If you are referring to a specific number of programs, use the number. If you are making a general reference to an unspecified group of programs, use a number.
Is the following sentence wrong then?
So there’s a number of studies and research that’s gone into this.
Since we do not know the context that is prompting the word so in the sentence, we recommend the following in formal writing:
“There are a number of studies and research that have gone into this.”
What if I use “the number” as my object? For example: The graph shows the number of people who were viewing four different television channels on June 30, 2011, at 8:00 in the evening. Is it possible to make it plural?
If you are referring to several different numbers in the graph, you could use the plural noun numbers.
Thank you very much for this article. It really helped me a lot.
I’m still perplexed about the following sentence:
“The number of people who commit/commits these mistakes is/are huge.”
Could you please help me?
Thanks!
The subject of “commit” is the plural noun “people.” The expression “the number” agrees with the singular verb “is.”
“The number of people who commit these mistakes is huge.”
Please let me know whether “was” is correct in the following sentence:
The number of active third-party merchants as of the fourth quarter for the years ending December 31, 2017, 2018, and 2019, was 25,500, 31,500, and 40,500, respectively.
Thank you!
The sentence subject is “number,” so “was” is grammatically correct.
GrammarBook.com says:
October 8, 2018, at 10:08 pm
As the post states, “The expression the number is followed by a singular verb.” The adjective largest does not affect the rule.
We discovered that the largest number of our men is gathered on the beach.
I am afraid you are wrong here. The correct verb form in this sentence is “are.”
In a context to say that an accountant has passion beyond the number-crunching aspect–that is to say, he is passionate about different interests in life–will the phrase “passion beyond numbers” be spelled correctly to reflect this? Or should I write “passion beyond number”? Thank you.
“Passion beyond numbers” is fine.
Which is correct?
The number of applicants is/are 100 as at today.
Thank you!
As the post states, the expression the number is followed by a singular verb. In addition, the proper term is “as of today.” Therefore, the following is correct:
The number of applicants is 100 as of today.