I often hear sentences (mis)constructed in this way.
Problem:
There is a singular/plural mismatch.
Explanation:
The phrase “a lot of cats” is singular, even though “cats” is plural, because “a lot” is singular.
The “are” form of the verb “be” is plural.
So there is a mismatch in number between “are” (plural) and “a lot of cats” (singular).
Solutions:
“There is a lot of cats here.”
or
“There are lots of cats here.”
I saw this at Amazon.com
Problem:
“Pair” is a singular noun being used incorrectly as a plural noun, and two commas are missing.
Explanation:
As I wrote last November, two of anything together is a single pair. Multiples of this means multiple pairs.
I continue to believe that use of “pair” instead of “pairs” helps to prove my “Devolution toward Simpler” linguistic hypothesis. It is simpler to say “pair” than to say “pairs”.
Beyond the “pair” problem, the product heading is missing a couple of commas.
“Gold” and “Angled” and “Spade” modify the noun “Connectors”; when one has multiple modifiers of a noun, commas should appear between the modifiers (in this case to get “Gold, Angled, Spade Connectors”).
I believe that omission of commas in a multiple-modifiers situation also is consistent with my “Devolution toward Simpler” hypothesis. It’s simpler to omit the commas than to include them, and advertising copywriters lean toward simpler text, even if it is grammatically incorrect and is more difficult to read.
Solution:
“Monster … Gold, Angled, Spade Connectors (2 Pairs)”
I heard this during a conference call.
Problem:
The number of the verb does not match the number of “a number of updates”.
Explanation:
The phrase “a number of updates” is singular (because “a number” is singular).
In contrast, the “were” form of the verb “be” is third-person plural.
The solution is to use the third-person singular form of the verb “be”.
I believe that the problematic sentence is an example of speakers and writers being distracted by the noun “updates”, which is plural and ends the sentence (and therefore tends to get more attention than does “a number”).
Solution:
“There was a number of updates.”