There is / There are

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If we want to say that something exists or doesn't exist somewhere or at some time, we often use 'there + be'. It's often used to talk about something for the first time in a conversation.

There's a cup on the table.
There's a restaurant next to the station.
There isn't any money in the house.
There aren't any banks in this street.
Is there a supermarket near here?
Are there any potatoes in the cupboard?

In theory, we use 'there is + singular' and 'there are + plural'.

There is a cafe in my village.
There are two cafes in my village.

But we very, very often use there's + plural and singular when we're speaking. This is so common that it's not a mistake. We must use the short form here.

There's a cafe in my village.
There's two cafes in my village.

We can use 'there' with all tenses of be.

There were many poor people in the 16th century.
There won't be cake at the party.
There have been a lot of accidents today.
Will there be a train at 6pm?
There hasn't been much rain recently.

We usually use 'there + be' with a / an / some / any / no / much / many / a lot of and other indefinite words. We don't usually use it with 'the' or proper names.

There's a cat in the garden.
~~There's the cat in the garden.~~
There's a boy on the train.
~~There's John on the train.~~

Try an exercise on this topic here.
There's a more advanced explanation about 'it' and 'there' here.
Click here for our complete programme to perfect your English grammar.

THERE IS / THERE ARE

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