There is… and “there are…” are used to tell what exists in a place or time.
- There is a bird on the car. (place)
- There is a movie at 9 pm. (time)
We use “there is…” with singular nouns and non-count nouns. We use “there are…” when the noun is plural (more than one).
- There is a pen on the desk.
- There is some water on the table.
- There are 5 books in the bag.
We often use these patterns with numbers.
- There are 5 people in my family.
- There are 200 employees at my company.
There is/are + noun…
- There is a dog.
- There is one man.
- There are 4 children.
- There are 10 onions.
After the noun, there will usually be more information telling the location, time, etc.
- There is a dog on the bed.
- There is a red car in the parking lot.
- There are 5 eggs in the refrigerator.
- There are 3 movies playing at 8 o’clock.
- There are 5 big parks in this city.
We do not have to use numbers. We can use many different words with this pattern.
- There is a reason that I like her.
- There are many reasons that I don’t like my job.
- There is a problem with my car.
- There are multiple problems with this computer.
- There are a few cookies left.
- There are many kinds of food at this restaurant.
Bonus Tips and Points
1. We can change “there is” to the contraction “there’s”. This common when speaking.
- There’s a bird in the garden.
- There’s a big bug in our house.
- There’s no reason to hate her.
However, we cannot make a contraction with “there are”.
- There are 10 birds in the tree.
There’re 10 birds in the tree.
2. Remember that we do not use articles (a, an, the) before non-count nouns.
- There is time.
- There is no money in the bag.
- There is no air in space.
- There is happiness everywhere.
- There is hope.
Real-World English Conversations
A) What do you want to eat?
B) I don’t know. I think there are some eggs in the fridge. Do you want me to cook us some eggs?
A) There is only one cookie left. Do you want it?
B) No. That’s okay. You can have it.
A) Thanks. But how about we split it?
A) There were not many people at the store.
B) That’s strange. It’s usually busy on Saturday.
A) Can we get a flight to New York on Friday?
B) There is a flight in the afternoon, but there are no flights in the morning.
A) There is a problem with my computer.
B) Call the IT department. They will fix it for you.
A) Is the park usually busy on Saturday?
B) Yes. There are usually many people exercising, relaxing, or playing games.
Use these free English lessons to learn the most common sentence patterns in the English language. If you learn these sentences and questions, it will help you speak English well. Study the lessons thoroughly, practice making your own sentences, and come back to review often. If you do these three steps, your English speaking will improve quickly and you will be able to have natural English conversations.
English Sentence Patterns for Speaking Index
