{"id":23236,"date":"2023-12-05T09:36:34","date_gmt":"2023-12-05T14:36:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/?p=23236"},"modified":"2024-07-16T14:19:42","modified_gmt":"2024-07-16T19:19:42","slug":"there-is-or-there-are","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/there-is-or-there-are\/","title":{"rendered":"There is or There are?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/vUIbfgvBaoU?si=7JBl-6TOyzWeipx0?rel=0\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/center><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/espressoenglish.lpages.co\/free-pdf-ask-the-teacher\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"elementor-button large blue rounded\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Download 30 Ask the Teacher lessons<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/courses.espressoenglish.net\/1-english-grammar-e-books\/\n\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"elementor-button large green rounded\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>$1 grammar e-books<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Should we say <strong>there is<\/strong> or <strong>there are<\/strong> an apple and two bananas on the table?<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s multiple things, so we use \u201cthere are,\u201d right? Wrong!<\/p>\n<p>After \u201cthere,\u201d is\/are needs to <strong>match the item immediately after it. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>An apple is singular, so we say &#8220;<strong>There is<\/strong> an apple and two bananas on the table.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>If we mention the bananas first, those are plural, so we\u2019d say &#8220;<strong>There are<\/strong> two bananas and an apple on the table.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>What if we have multiple single items, like a bed, a lamp, and a desk?<\/p>\n<p>The verb still matches the first thing: &#8220;<strong>There is<\/strong> a bed, a lamp, and a desk in the room.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_23237\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-23237\" style=\"width: 453px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-23237 \" src=\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/salad-2068220_640.jpg\" alt=\"There IS a plate and two spoons on the table. There ARE two spoons and a plate on the table.\" width=\"453\" height=\"302\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/salad-2068220_640.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/salad-2068220_640-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 453px) 100vw, 453px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-23237\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">There IS a plate and two spoons on the table. There ARE two spoons and a plate on the table.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h4>More examples of &#8220;There is&#8221;:<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>There is<\/strong> a big project and several smaller ones on my to-do list.<\/li>\n<li><strong>There is\u00a0<\/strong>a notebook and a lunchbox in her backpack.<\/li>\n<li><strong>There is\u00a0<\/strong>an excellent restaurant and a few shops in this neighborhood.<\/li>\n<li><strong>There is\u00a0<\/strong>some old furniture and books in the basement.<\/li>\n<li><strong>There is\u00a0<\/strong>a bottle of soda and a few bags of chips on the table.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>More examples of &#8220;There are&#8221;:<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>There are<\/strong> nine girls and one boy in the dance class.<\/li>\n<li><strong>There are\u00a0<\/strong>lots of snacks and drinks available at the caf\u00e9.<\/li>\n<li><strong>There are\u00a0<\/strong>some earrings and a pair of glasses on the bathroom counter.<\/li>\n<li><strong>There are\u00a0<\/strong>five people on the team and one manager.<\/li>\n<li><strong>There are\u00a0<\/strong>many flowers and one tree in the field.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>Short forms of &#8220;there is&#8221; and &#8220;there are&#8221;<\/h4>\n<p>When\u00a0<strong>writing,\u00a0<\/strong>we can shorten &#8220;there is&#8221; to &#8220;there&#8217;s.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>However, we cannot shorten &#8220;there are&#8221; to &#8220;there&#8217;re&#8221; &#8211; it&#8217;s not correct.<\/p>\n<p>When\u00a0<strong>speaking,\u00a0<\/strong>we typically say &#8220;there&#8217;s&#8221; and &#8220;there are&#8221; can often sound like &#8220;there&#8217;re&#8221; when speaking fast.<\/p>\n<p>Now you know when to use &#8220;there is&#8221; or &#8220;there are&#8221; correctly in English!<\/p>\n<p>By the way, <strong>there are<\/strong> a lot of great answers to student questions available for you to <a href=\"https:\/\/espressoenglish.lpages.co\/free-pdf-ask-the-teacher\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>download &#8211; click here!<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"alert\">\n<h4 style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/courses.espressoenglish.net\/1-english-grammar-e-books\/\">Learn essential English grammar FAST!<\/a><\/h4>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/courses.espressoenglish.net\/1-english-grammar-e-books\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-20584 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/grammar-ebooks-small.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"530\" height=\"414\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/grammar-ebooks-small.png 530w, https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/grammar-ebooks-small-300x234.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Download 30 Ask the Teacher lessons $1 grammar e-books Should we say there is or there are an apple and two bananas on the table? That\u2019s multiple things, so we use \u201cthere are,\u201d right? Wrong! After \u201cthere,\u201d is\/are needs to match the item immediately after it. An apple is singular, so we say &#8220;There is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23238,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grammar"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.1 (Yoast SEO v27.1.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>There is or There are? - Espresso English<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Should we say there is or there are an apple and two bananas on the table? 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