To me, both “there is a lot of apples” and “there are a lot of apples” both sound fine
There was a lot of rain last week
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(colloquial) Janet has changed a lot since she started working
Iv got a lot of pens
Estas palabras en ocasiones confunden a las personas que están aprendiendo inglés
Hemos perdido un montón de hombres en el último combate
A lot of definition is - a large number or amount of (things, people, etc
) ‘A lot’, strictly speaking, refers to a noun that requires a singular verb
What does a lot of expression mean? Definitions by the largest Idiom Dictionary
A lot of, much and many are used to talk about quantities, amounts and degree
I like basketball a lot