5
I came across a sentence which reads:
We spent a lovely three weeks in Canada.
Also sentences which read:
- A staggering 100 students attended the fee class.
- We have reached an amazing 1000 members this month.
My question is why to use 'a/an' where there are plural numbers like 'three weeks', '100 students', '1000 members'.
Abu Naim Muhammed Kalil
Posted 2017-03-13T18:05:21.210
Reputation: 733
4
When you use a before a number like this, you are effectively referring to however many they are as a group of some sort, rather than the individual members of the group. Because there is only one group, it's singular so you use a.
a lovely [period of] three weeks.
a staggering [group of] 100 students.
an amazing [group of] 1000 members.
It is necessary to do this when you want to apply an adjective to the group, rather than to individual members of the group:
an amazing 1000 members. -adjective applies to group
1000 amazing members - adjective applies to members.
JavaLatte
Posted 2017-03-13T18:05:21.210
Reputation: 43 538
You could also say, "We spent three lovely weeks in Canada." However you can't say, "We spend lovely three weeks in Canada." @JavaLatte explained it. – WRX – 2017-03-13T18:34:21.247