Lan Barnes wrote:
Another ugly trend is the loss of the plural forms of to be. I can't tell
you how many times I hear supposedly edicated people say:
There's three reasons we shouldn't do that.
Of course, this should be:
There are three reasons ...
I find myself oscillating between these two in actual usage. I know
that it is due in part to hearing it so much.
But there is also the mental objection to the tongue gymnastics involved
in forming the sounds "thairar" (there are) especially when the lazy
tongue tends to turn "thairar" into "thairr", or even worse, "thair".
And I think "thairz" sounds better than what amounts to it sounding like
my tongue is getting stuck on the "R" sound.
There's at least *one* reason for saying "there's three reasons...". It
may not be a *good* reason, but hey, whada ya want?! :)
--
Ralph
--------------------
If we didn't have ambiguity in the language we would not have good
crossword puzzles.
--carl lowenstein
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