ESEN
Which one to use?Beginnerstructurestructure
There isvsThere are
"There is" is used with singular and uncountable nouns; "there are" is used with plural countable nouns.
Side-by-side comparison
There is
structure"There is" is used with singular or uncountable nouns: "There is a book", "There is water". The verb agrees with the noun that follows it.
There is a new coffee shop on the corner. I heard they make excellent espresso.
There is not enough information available yet to make an informed decision.
Is there a pharmacy nearby? I need to pick up some medication.
There are
structure"There are" is used with plural nouns: "There are two books". A common mistake is using "there's" for everything, even in plural. In informal speech it is forgiven; in writing, it is not.
There are five candidates for the position, the interviews will take place over two days.
There are several ways to approach this problem, let me walk you through each one.
Are there any questions before we move on to the next section of the presentation?
Common mistake
- •Most common error: "There is many people" or "There is five meetings" = incorrect.
- •With PLURAL nouns = THERE ARE: "There ARE many people." With SINGULAR or UNCOUNTABLE noun = THERE IS: "There IS a problem." In fast colloquial speech "there's meetings" is common, but in formal written English always use the correct agreement.
Trick to remember it
Look at the word IMMEDIATELY after "there is/are": singular or uncountable = IS; plural = ARE. "There ___ a book" = singular = IS. "There ___ books" = plural = ARE. "There ___ information" = uncountable = IS. Number trick: can you put "two" in front? "Two books" = yes, plural = THERE ARE. "Two information" = does not exist = THERE IS.
Quick rule
There is + singular or uncountable noun. There are + plural noun. The verb agrees with the noun that follows, not with "there."
Did you know?
Grammatically, "there" in "there is/are" is not a place adverb, it is what linguists call an "expletive" or "anticipatory subject": an element that occupies the grammatical subject position but has no referential meaning of its own. The real subject of "there is a book on the table" is "a book," not "there." This existential structure exists in other languages with different mechanisms: French "il y a," German "es gibt." In Old English, the equivalent construction was "her is" (here is), which over time evolved into "there is."
Practise what you learned
Exercise 1 · Pick the right one
_____ a great coffee shop near the station. You should try it.
Exercise 2 · Pick the right one
_____ several good reasons to start learning a language now.
Exercise 3 · Form the word
Related word pairs
AvsAn
'A' is used before consonant sounds; 'an' is used before vowel sounds.
MuchvsMany
"Much" is used with uncountable nouns (things that cannot be counted individually); "many" is used with countable nouns in the plural.
SomevsAny
"Some" is used in affirmatives and questions where "yes" is expected; "any" is used in negatives and neutral questions.
A lot ofvsMany
'A lot of' works for countable and uncountable; 'many' only for countable; 'much' only for uncountable.
Bryan López
Founder of SpeakUP Academy