THERE IS / THERE ARE

Seonaid holding a book
Download this explanation in PDF here.
Try an exercise on this topic here.
There's a more advanced explanation about 'it' and 'there' here.

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.


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