There Is / There Are
Level A1 · Sentence Basics
there is/there are announce that something exists, usually introducing it for the first time — the real subject comes after the verb, and there itself has no meaning of its own (it isn't a place here, just a grammatical placeholder). Compare: A cat is on the sofa (normal word order, cat is already known/definite) with There is a cat on the sofa (announcing the cat's existence for the first time).
The verb agrees with the noun that follows it, not with there itself:
- there is/there's + singular or uncountable noun: There is a book on the table; There's some milk in the fridge.
- there are + plural noun: There are three books on the table; There are many people here.
- Other tenses follow the same pattern: there was/were (past), there will be (future), there has/have been (present perfect) — always agreeing with the noun that follows: There were two dogs in the park; There has been an accident.
- Questions and negatives invert or add not in the normal way: Is there a problem? There isn't any coffee left; Are there enough chairs?
The most common mistake is confusing existential there (announcing something exists) with the pronoun it. It has a book on the table is wrong; it needs a specific thing it already refers to, while there simply introduces something new: There is a book on the table. A second frequent error: using is with a plural noun because there feels singular — there is three books is wrong; the verb must agree with books (plural), not with there: there are three books.
Look for there + be introducing a noun for the first time, with the verb (is/are, was/were, has/have been) agreeing with that noun rather than with there itself. A strong sign is that the sentence is announcing or listing something's existence, not describing something already known.