Subject-Verb Agreement: Using There+Be

Subject-Verb Agreement: Using There+Be

a.       There are twenty students in my class. b.      There’s a fly in the room	In the structure there+be, there is called an “expletive”. It has no meaning as a vocabulary word. It introduces the idea that something exists in a particular place. Pattern: there+be+subject+expression of place
c.       There are seven continents.	Sometimes the expression of place is omitted when the meaning is clear. In ( c ): the implied expression of place is clearly in the world.

SINGULAR VERB	PLURAL VERB
d.      There is book on the shelf.	e.      There are some books on the shelf.	The subject follows be when there is used. In ( d ): The subject is book. In ( e ): The subject is books.
f.        Informal: There’s some books on the shelf		In very informal spoken English, some native speakers use a singular verb even when the subject is plural, as in ( f ). The use of this form is fairly frequent but is not generally considered to be grammatically correct.

Exercise: Using THERE and BE

11. There (isn’t,aren’t) any letters in the mail for you today

22. There (isn’t,aren’t) any mail for you today.

33. There (isn’t,aren’t) a lot of problems in the world.

44. There (is,are) a hole in his sock.

55. There (is,are) over 600,000 kinds of insects in the world.

66.  How many kinds of birds (is,are) there in the world?

77.  Why (isn’t,aren’t) there a hospital close to those villages?