Here's one for you grammarians

[desperance]

In the phrase "all manner of", is the word 'manner' singular as it appears, or is it some kind of hidden plural? Does one say "There was all manner of ways", or "There were all manner of ways"?

Comments

[martyn44.livejournal.com]

I'd say it is plural, but it can be singular - context dependent - and to me they both look wrong, inexplicably.

'Different than', carry on fighting the good fight. They can write/speak American if they wish but I shall struggle with the English language until all I can think is 'gaa gaa', which will not be long now, in all liklihood.