Word Order
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One small structure for clearly describing rooms, things, and available places.
There is and there are introduce something that exists or is present. There is comes before a singular or uncountable noun; there are comes before a plural noun.
Updated: July 2026
A1 · Word Order · 9 min
A structured ten-slide lesson for A1 learners. Hear the structure in an office setting, distinguish singular from plural, and practise statements, questions, and negatives. Then describe a room yourself and check your understanding in a five-question quiz — no signup required.
There is and there are say that a person or thing exists, is available, or is present in a stated place. The structure introduces that person or thing as new information. When you say *“There’s a free desk,”* your listener learns about the free place for the first time. There does not mean *“in that place”* in this pattern. It opens the sentence so that the genuinely new noun can arrive later. The focus of the message is therefore *a free desk*, not a location called there. A place phrase often follows the noun: *“There’s a meeting room on the first floor.”* That final phrase tells us where the room is, while the opening structure first establishes that the room exists. This makes the pattern useful for describing an office, a hotel room, a street, or the area where you live. Think of the sentence as a short presentation: there opens the frame, a form of be signals whether one or more things follow, and the noun delivers the new information.
The verb agrees with the noun that follows it. Before one singular countable noun, use there is: *“There is a desk.”* The same form comes before an uncountable noun: *“There is some milk.”* A plural noun needs there are: *“There are two desks.”* The words a and one often signal a singular, while numbers from two upward and plural endings such as the one in desks signal a plural. In speech, there is very often contracts to there’s. *“There is a problem”* therefore becomes *“There’s a problem.”* You do not need to analyse the entire sentence to choose safely. Look at the start of the noun phrase after the verb and ask one short question: is one unit coming, an uncountable substance, or more than one unit? That check handles the core patterns. If an adjective appears before the noun, the noun still controls agreement. In *“There are two free desks,”* free describes the desks, but desks remains plural and therefore requires are.
To make a question, reverse there and the verb. *“There is a meeting room”* becomes *“Is there a meeting room?”* and *“There are free desks”* becomes *“Are there any free desks?”* Questions about an unspecified amount commonly use any: *“Is there any coffee left?”* A positive short answer repeats the structure with the matching verb: *“Yes, there is”* or *“Yes, there are.”* A negative answer adds not: *“No, there isn’t”* or *“No, there aren’t.”* Full negative statements also commonly combine not with any: *“There aren’t any clean cups”* and *“There isn’t any coffee.”* The uncontracted forms there is not and there are not are grammatical too, but the contractions are more natural in everyday exchanges. Keep the same subject in the short answer. A question beginning *“Is there…?”* takes *“Yes, there is,”* not an answer built with it. Repeating there makes the question and its answer a clear grammatical pair.
When describing a room, you can use the structure as an orderly inventory. Begin with something your listener does not know yet: *“There’s a meeting room on the first floor.”* Then add more items, adjusting the form each time: *“There are two free desks near the window.”* For supplies or materials, an uncountable noun fits naturally: *“There is some coffee in the kitchen.”* If something is missing, use a negative: *“There aren’t any clean cups.”* Together, these sentences create a short, connected overview of the workplace. Place phrases do not change the choice between is and are. In *“There is a printer next to the door,”* the singular noun printer controls the verb, not the longer location phrase. In *“There are two chairs in the meeting room,”* the plural noun chairs controls it. This sequence also works well in writing: introduce one noticeable item, add several objects, and then ask a question about anything that remains unclear. You practise meaning and form together instead of memorising isolated verb choices.
German-speaking learners often transfer the fixed expression es gibt directly into English. Because gibt stays singular in German, the learner form *“There is two people”* feels tempting. Standard English, however, makes the verb agree with the following plural noun: *“There are two people.”* After every opening with there, check whether a singular, an uncountable item, or a plural comes next. The second trap concerns the translation of German es. English uses there in some situations and it in others. To introduce something new, say *“There is a problem.”* The sentence tells us that a problem exists. Once the problem is known and you want to describe it, it can take over: *“It is serious.”* In *“It is a problem,”* you identify or describe a previously understood it as a problem; you do not simply announce the existence of a new problem. A useful decision is therefore: existence or a new item leads to there; a known thing plus a description leads to an ordinary pronoun such as it. This difference prevents a word-for-word transfer from German.
In relaxed conversation, both American and British speakers sometimes say *“There’s two people.”* The contracted singular form then appears before a plural even though the full standard pattern calls for *“There are two people.”* This occurs in spontaneous speech, but it remains informal. For careful writing and assessment tasks, full agreement is the safe choice: there is before singular and uncountable nouns, and there are before plural nouns. You need to understand the relaxed form when you hear it, but you do not need to produce it as your core pattern. Another useful point concerns the function of there. It does not point to a place here; it is a dummy subject that opens the sentence. In a similar way, *“It rains”* begins with it even though it does not name a concrete object. For your learning path, first make the forms of be secure. *be-present* (A1) reinforces is and are, *singular-plural-nouns* (A1) practises noun number, and *prepositions-place* (A1) then expands the location phrases that often complete these sentences.
There is introduces something that exists or is present: "There is a problem." It is usually describes or identifies something already known: "It is serious." Decide whether you are announcing existence or talking about a known thing.
The following noun "two people" is plural, so it requires are. The neutral standard sentence is "There are two people." German es gibt does not change with the following noun, which makes this transfer error tempting.
Milk is uncountable in this sentence and takes singular agreement, so the form is there is. If you count separate containers, a plural becomes possible: "There are two bottles of milk."
Yes. Relaxed speech in both varieties includes forms such as "There’s two people." It is common but informal; in careful writing and assessment tasks, use full agreement: "There are two people."
*be-present* (A1) and *singular-plural-nouns* (A1) help you recognise is, are, and noun number confidently. This lesson combines those skills in statements, questions, and negatives. *prepositions-place* (A1) then adds useful location phrases to your descriptions.
No. In "There is a problem," there is a dummy subject and does not mean "in that place." It opens the sentence, much as it in "It rains" does not identify a concrete object.
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