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There Is / There Are

1 min
A1
CEFR A1·other

Formula

There is
(There is a cat.)
There are
(There are two cats.)
There isn't / There aren't
Is there…? / Are there…?

Examples

Positive
There is a problem.
Negative
There isn't any milk. There aren't any chairs.
Question
Is there a bank near here? Are there any questions?

Usage

  • •Say that something exists or is present
  • •Describe what is in a place
  • •Talk about quantity (there are five…)

More Examples

  • There is a beautiful park in my city.

    Something is in a place

  • There are 24 hours in a day.

    Fact about quantity

  • Is there time for a coffee?

    Asking about availability

  • There aren't enough chairs for everyone.

    Negative quantity

  • There's someone at the door.

    Contraction "there's" common in speech

Common Mistakes

  • ✗Using "it is" instead of "there is": "It is a cat in the garden" should be "There is a cat in the garden".
  • ✗Wrong agreement: "There is many people" should be "There are many people".

Tips

  • ✓Agreement with NEXT noun: "There is a book and pens" (singular first) vs "There are pens and a book" (plural first).
  • ✓Common contractions: there's (= there is), there're (= there are, less common).

Advanced Notes

"There is/are" is an existential construction — it introduces something new into the conversation without implying the speaker owns or is near it. The common learner error of using "It is" (Italian "è", Spanish "hay" confusion) stems from transferring L1 patterns. In informal speech "there's" is used with plurals too ("There's loads of people here"), which is nonstandard but extremely common. The construction also appears in past ("there was/were") and future ("there will be") forms.

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Compare With

Verb "To Be"(A1)