obi wan is a belt and a soup bowl

Is vs. Are with a Number of / a Pair of / a Group of

Collecting phrases like a number of or a pair of can make it hard to choose between isand are. Which verb do you use when you’re talking about a number of people? On one hand, number is singular, which calls for is. But people is plural, which calls for are. Typically, it’s best to use are with a number of. You may occasionally run into a pedant who disagrees, but actual usage is on your side.

A number of people are concerned about the lack of progress.

A number of people is concerned about the lack of progress.

Other collecting phrases like group of can take is when you’re emphasizing the group:

That group of protesters is sure to be distracting.

This series of books is phenomenal.

But they can also take are, when you’re emphasizing the individuals.

A bunch of my friends are going to different schools next fall.

A handful of new books are published each week.

When you’re talking about pairs, you’re usually treating two items as a unit, so it’s common to use is.

A good pair of shoes is a luxury in some parts of the world.

A good pair of shoes are a luxury in some parts of the world.

One language, two systems, three scripts
If you are a complete beginner, Japanese writing may appear just like Chinese.
But if you look at it more carefully you'll notice that it doesn’t just contain complex Chinese characters… there are lots of simpler ones too.

Take a look.

それでも、日本人の食生活も急速に変化してきています。ハンバーグやカレーライスは子供に人気がありますし、都会では、イタリア料理、東南アジア料理、多国籍料理などを出すエスニック料理店がどんどん増えています。

Nevertheless, the eating habits of Japanese people are also rapidly changing. Hamburgers and curry rice are popular with children. In cities, ethnic restaurants serving Italian cuisine, Southeast Asiancuisine and multi-national cuisine keep increasing more and more.
(Source: “Japan: Then and Now”, 2001, p. 62-63)

As you can see from this sample, within one Japanese text there are actually three different scriptsintertwined. We’ve colour coded them to help you tell them apart.
(What’s really interesting is the different types of words – parts of speech – represented by each colour – it tells you a lot about what you use each of the three scripts for.)

Can you see the contrast between complex characters (orange) and simpler ones (blue and green)?

The complex characters are called kanji (漢字 lit. Chinese characters) and were borrowed from Chinese. They are what’s called a ‘logographic system' in which each symbol corresponds to a block of meaning (食 ‘to eat', 南 ‘south', 国 ‘country').

Each kanji also has its own pronunciation, which has to be learnt – you can’t “read” an unknown kanjilike you could an unknown word in English.

Luckily, the other two sets of characters are simpler!

Those in blue above are called hiragana and those in green are called katakana. They’re both examples of ‘syllabic systems', and unlike the kanji, each sound corresponds to single sound. For example, そ= so, れ= re; イ= i, タ = ta.

Hiragana and katakana are a godsend for Japanese learners because the pronunciation isn’t a problem. If you see it, you can say it!

So, at this point, you’re probably wondering:
“What’s the point of using three different types of script? How could that have come about?”

In fact, all these scripts have a very specific role to play in a piece of Japanese writing, and you’ll find that they all work together in harmony in representing the Japanese language in a written form.