grammaticality - A number of questions "has been" or "have been" asked?


Formally, is it correct to write:



A number of questions has been asked here.



or:



A number of questions have been asked here.



As a non-native speaker of English, I would prefer the former: the subject seems to be "number", therefore the verb ought to be singular, I'd say. However, the latter seems more common, and therefore I believe that my gut feeling is just plain wrong — but I would really like to have a definite answer.


Moreover, is it the same for "a myriad of", "a plethora of", and so on?



Answer



"The number" is singular. "A number", however, is plural, and takes a plural verb. Thus, for both informal and formal usage, the following is correct:



A number of questions have been asked here.



See the usage note not quite halfway down the page at Dictionary.com, or this daily writing tip.


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