10.50 verb agreement

Usually a plural form of 'be' is used if the noun group after it is plural.

• There were two men in the room.

You use a singular form of 'be' when you are giving a list of items and the first noun in the list is singular or uncountable.

• There was a sofa and two chairs.
• There is grief in his face and reproach at the injustice of it all.

Note that you use a plural form of 'be' in front of plural quantifiers beginning with 'a', such as 'a number of', 'a lot of', and 'a few of'.

• There were a lot of people camped there.

You also use a plural form of 'be' in front of numbers beginning with 'a', such as 'a hundred', 'a thousand', and 'a dozen'.

• There were a dozen reasons why a man might hurry from a bar.