THERE IS & THERE ARE

 

We use there is or there are to refer to the existence of a person, object, place, etc. We use there is for singular, and there are for singulars. See the example:

There is a car

There are three cars.

THERE IS – AFFIRMATIVE

We use “there is” when we refer to the existence of singular objects, places, people., etc. See the example:

There is a supermarket.

With “there is”, we also use “a/an” because we’re talking about a single thing and the object has to be also singular.

There	is	a/an	😊
There	is	a	boy
There	is	a	pharmacy
There	is	an	atm

 

Remember you can also use the contraction:

There is  there’s

THERE IS – NEGATIVE

When we want to say that something doesn’t exist in a place or near that place, we use isn’t, the negative form of the verb “is”.

There isn’t a boy

There isn’t an ATM.

THERE IS – INTERROGATIVE

To ask about the existence of something or someone, we invert the order of the affirmative sentences. See the example:

There is a gas station. – Is there a gas station.

Now “is” goes before “there”, and you can answer with “Yes, there is” or “No, there isn’t”.

Is	there	a/an	😊
Is	there	a	museum?
Is	there	an	internet café?

 

THERE ARE – AFFIRMATIVE

We use “there are” to talk about the existence of many things (plurals). When we use the plurals, we never we use a/an, we can use other phrases or words; for example:

• ·         A lot of
• ·         Many
• ·         Numbers (from 2)
• ·         Some

After these phrases or words, the words have to be in plural. See the examples:

There	Are	Quantifiers	😊
There	are	some	boys
There	are	a lot of	atm’s
There	are	three	pharmacies

 

THERE ARE – NEGATIVE

With the negatives, we also “aren’t” before the quantifiers, but in plural negatives we use “any”. See the example:

 

There aren’t any ATM’s.

Any is a word that emphasizes the lack of existence, so we’re saying “There are 0 ATM’s”, but we only use it with aren’t. So, for a sentence, we have:

There	Aren’t	Any	😊
There	Aren’t	Any	Supermarkets
There	Aren’t	Any	ATM’s

 

THERE ARE – INTERROGATIVE

To ask about the existence of plural objects, we use the question form of the verb to be; so, we only invert the order: from “there are” to “are there…?” and we add “any”. For example:

Are there any ATM’s?

Are there any cars?

Are there any boys?

To answer these questions, we can say “Yes, there are” or “No, there aren’t”.

Click here to practice there is/there are.