Current Events > Grammar question: There is a ton of people vs. There are a ton of people

(+) Yeah! (+)

Which one is correct:

There is a ton of people here.

There are a ton of people here.

The second one feels more natural to me when spoken aloud, but I see how the first one could make sense too because "a ton" = one ton = singular. But maybe it doesn't matter since people = plural. Idk.
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I think "is" is technically right since ton is singular. "Of people" is just a prepositional phrase so it shouldn't have any bearing on the rest of the sentence.
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"is"

Not that it matters unless you're writing a formal essay. It's like how the word "data" is technically a plural noun.
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Depends. I see ton as a colloquial for a high number so it'd be are, but you could also imagine it by weight in which it'd be singular so is works.
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There is a ton of people here

or

There are tons of people here
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Depends on where you are.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_noun
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There is a group of people. There is a ton of people. There are lots of people.
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You use is with collective nouns even though they represent a plurality of something.

You can always go with There are tons of people here if you want to both sound natural and be grammatically correct.
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Thanks, this has been helpful
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