there is / there are: The First Step to Saying "There is/are..." in English
When you want to tell a foreign friend "There is a cup of coffee on the table," the first word that pops into your mind might be have. Many people would say The table has a cup of coffee. ✗, which sounds a bit strange. When native English speakers express that "something exists in a certain place," the most natural sentence pattern to use is there is / there are. By mastering it, you can describe the world around you: what is in a room, what is on a menu, and what is in your bag. This article will guide you through understanding it step by step.
What is there is / there are
In Chinese, the word "有" is very versatile and can be used for everything. English, however, splits the concept of "having" into two different meanings:
- Use have for "I possess something": I have a dog. (I have a dog.)
- Use there is / there are for "something exists in a certain place": There is a dog in the garden. (There is a dog in the garden.)
The there here does not mean "over there." It is just a dummy pronoun at the beginning of the sentence to support the structure. The real focus is on the noun that follows.
- There is a problem. (There is a problem.)
- There are many people here. (There are many people here.)
Use there is for Singular, there are for Plural
This is the most core rule of this sentence pattern. The verb must agree with the noun that follows:
- If followed by one thing (singular) → use there is
- If followed by multiple things (plural) → use there are
Let's look at some examples:
- There is a cat on the sofa. (There is a cat on the sofa.)
- There are three cats on the sofa. (There are three cats on the sofa.)
- There is an apple in the bag. (There is an apple in the bag.)
- There are some apples in the bag. (There are some apples in the bag.)
In spoken English, there is is often contracted to there's:
- There's a café near my house. (There's a café near my house.)
there are does not have a commonly used contraction, so you should say it in full when speaking.
A Key Takeaway: Look at the Singular/Plural Noun First
You don't need to memorize a bunch of grammar terminology; you just need to form one habit—"look at the noun first, then decide on is or are."
Think of the sentence building process like this:
- What thing do I want to say "there is" or "there are" of?
- Is that thing "one" or "many"?
- One → there is; many → there are.
For example, if you want to say "There are two books on the table": first identify that "books" is two books (plural), so use there are → There are two books on the table. (There are two books on the table.) ✓
There is one situation to look out for: when you are listing several things at once, English speaker usage typically looks at the very first noun that immediately follows to make the decision:
- There is a pen and two notebooks on the desk. (There is a pen and two notebooks on the desk.) ✓
Since the word immediately following is a pen (singular), there is is used. This is a natural spoken English habit—just keep it in mind for now.
What About Uncountable Nouns?
For uncountable nouns like water, money, time, and milk, there is no concept of "one" or "two," and they cannot take an "s." They are always treated as singular and used with there is:
- There is some water in the bottle. (There is some water in the bottle.) ✓
- There is no time. (There is no time.) ✓
There are some waters.✗ (water is uncountable; it cannot take an "s" and cannot be paired with "are")
The rule of thumb is very simple: Can you count them as one, two, three? If you can count them (books, people, cats), pair them with "are"; if you can't count them (water, money, air), pair them with "is".
Negative Sentences: Saying "There Is No..."
To say that "something does not exist," there are two common ways.
Method 1: Use isn't / aren't + any
- There isn't any milk in the fridge. (There isn't any milk in the fridge.)
- There aren't any chairs in the room. (There aren't any chairs in the room.)
Note: In negative sentences and questions, any is usually used instead of some. This is a standard English pattern—just remember the collocation "use some for affirmatives, use any for negatives and questions."
Method 2: Use is no / are no (more direct tone)
- There is no milk in the fridge. (There is no milk in the fridge.)
- There are no chairs in the room. (There are no chairs in the room.)
Both are correct, so choose whichever feels more natural to you. Watch out for one common mistake: do not add "any" after "no" —— There is no any milk. ✗
Questions: Asking "Is/Are There?"
Move is / are in front of there to make it a question:
- Is there a bathroom here? (Is there a bathroom here?)
- Are there any tickets left? (Are there any tickets left?)
When answering, say:
- Yes, there is. / No, there isn't. (Yes, there is. / No, there isn't.)
- Yes, there are. / No, there aren't. (Yes, there are. / No, there aren't.)
When asking "how many/how much," pair them with How many (countable) or How much (uncountable):
- How many people are there in your class? (How many people are there in your class?)
- How much milk is there? (How much milk is there?)
Three Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Using "have" to express "existence":
My city has a big park.✗ → There is a big park in my city. (There is a big park in my city.) ✓ - Singular/plural mismatch:
There is two dogs.✗ → There are two dogs. (There are two dogs.) ✓ - Pairing uncountable nouns with a plural verb:
There are a lot of traffic.✗ → There is a lot of traffic. (There is a lot of traffic.) ✓
Making these mistakes is completely normal—every English learner goes through this. The important thing is that you now know how to check yourself: after you finish a sentence, look back at the noun to make sure is / are is correct.
How to Practice in Loopy
Understanding the rules is just the beginning; true mastery comes from encountering them in real sentences time and time again. Loopy's graded courses start from A1, offering a variety of real-life situational dialogues containing "there is / there are"—ordering food, asking for directions, describing a room—allowing you to naturally absorb this sentence pattern at a level you can understand.
In shadowing and listening-speaking modes, you will speak out loud sentences like There's a café near my house., and the system will help you check if you used singular or plural correctly. When you encounter a word you are unsure of, you can simply open the dictionary to see if it is countable or uncountable, instantly knowing whether to pair it with "is" or "are". The sentence patterns you learn will enter your forgetting curve review, reappearing right when you are about to forget them, helping you turn "there is / there are" into an effortless reflex, sentence by sentence.