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Japan flagNaomi
"A million dreams" why put a? I watched Greatest showman yesterday and "A million of dreams" is one of the songs from it. Why does it put "a" instead of Million dreams are plural? Thanks

Corrections · 5

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"Dreams" is a plural noun, yes -- but the number "one million" is singular.


For numbers in English, we say "one million" and "one hundred" and "one thousand", but...

We can also say "a million" and "a hundred" and "a thousand". It means the same thing.


Let's count some dreams together.


How many dreams do you have?


One dream, two dreams, three dreams, four dreams, five dreams....

One thousand dreams / a thousand dreams, two thousand dreams, three thousand dreams, four thousand dreams, five thousand dreams...

One million dreams / a million dreams, two million dreams, three million dreams, four million dreams, five million dreams...


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I think that song is actually titles A Million Dreams not A Million of Dreams, which doesn’t make sense. And Thomas gave a good explanation a million dreams in the same as one million dream... which beasically mean lots and lots and LOTS of dreams! :D
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Thomas, that is very clear! Thanks!!
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"A million dreams" why put an "a"?

I watched The Greatest Showman yesterday and "A million of dreams" is one of the songs from it. Why does it put is there an "a" instead of seeing as Million dreams are plural?

Thanks




Very good question! See my comment for my attempt to explain it! 

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Hi Naomi, This is a really good question! I think the answer is that "a" actually means "one." A bike = one bike. The mathematical term in English for 1,000,000 is one million. But you could equally say "a million" and it means the same thing. Without the "one" or "a," million turns into something abstract and not quantified. Also, "a million" is not plural, it represents a group with that many individual components. Like a group of 10 girls is one singular group of 10. A hundred = one hundred = 1_00 A thousand = one thousand = 1_000 A million = one million = 1_000000 Hope that helps!

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