We
use there is and there are to say that
something exists.
Positive Sentences
We
use there is for singular and there are for plural.
- There
is one
table in the classroom.
- There
are three
chairs in the classroom.
- There
is a
spider in the bath.
- There
are many
people at the bus stop.
We also
use There is with uncountable nouns:
- There
is milk in
the fridge.
- There
is some sugar on
the table.
- There
is ice
cream on your shirt.
Contractions
The
contraction of there is is there's.
- There's a good song on the
radio.
- There's only one chocolate
left in the box.
You cannot contract there
are.
- There
are nine
cats on the roof.
- There
are only
five weeks until my birthday.
Negative Form
The
negative is formed by putting not after is or are:
- There
is not a horse in the field.
- There
are not eight children in the school.
- There
is not a tree in the garden.
- There
are not two elephants in the zoo.
We almost
always use contractions when speaking.
The
Negative contractions are:
- There's
not = There isn't
- There
are not = There aren't
There aren't with ANY
When we
want to indicate that a zero quantity of something exists we use there
aren't any.
- There
aren't any people at the party.
- There
aren't any trees in my street.
We also
use this structure with uncountable nouns:
- There
isn't any water in the swimming pool.
- There
isn't any sugar in my coffee.
Questions
To form a
question we place is / are in front of there.
Again we
use any with plural questions or those which use uncountable
nouns.
We also
use there is / are in short answers.
- Is
there a
dog in the supermarket? - No, there isn't.
- Are
there any
dogs in the park? - Yes, there are.
- Is
there a
security guard in the shop? - Yes, there is.
- Are
there any
polar bears in Antarctica? - No, there aren't.
- Is
there any
ice-cream in the freezer? - Yes, there is.
How Many with Are There
If we
want to find out the number of objects that exist we use How many in
the following form:
How many + plural noun + are
there (+ complement).
- How
many dogs are
there in the park?
- How
many students are
there in your class?
- How
many countries are
there in South America?
- How
many Star
Wars films are there?
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