# EN: there is / there are + plural, list of singular items, etc. - verb agreement



## elgossobosso

Hello,

un petit doute :

There are four reports for this part.
 ou
There is four reports for this part.

Grammaticalement je serais tenté d'utiliser la première forme, mais à l'oreille la deuxième me semble mieux...

Merci

*Moderator note:* Multiple threads have been merged to create this one.


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## Agnès E.

Si le sujet est singulier, il faut employer _is_ : There is a dog upthere.
Si le sujet est pluriel, il faut employer _are_ : There are four dogs upthere.

Tout simplement !


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## ascoltate

are you talking about speaking or writing?

In writing, you must say "There _are_ four reports."

In speaking, we often abbreviate "There are" to "There's" (even though, _there's_ is supposed to be an abbreviation for the singular). This is technically considered a mistake, but even the most educated people do it, so that may be where you have heard it.
Still, we do not write this form down in formal contexts...


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## radagasty

ascoltate said:


> This is technically considered a mistake, but even the most educated people do it


 
Are you sure? _There's + plural noun phrase_ sounds uneducated to me. I would rather say the abbreviation was something like _there're _in the plural.


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## ascoltate

Well, I never thought I did it either, but the next class after I had just taught an ESL lesson on the difference between "There is" and "There are", I walked into the classroom and, as a student pointed out, said "There's two books on the floor-- do they belong to anyone?"

In any case, here's a (rather lengthy) discussion on the matter, if you're interested, with lots of quotes from famous businesspeople, politicians, etc.:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002447.html


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## geostan

You may be right, but I consider myself educated, and I would never say _There's_ followed by a plural.

Cheers!


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## ascoltate

I'm almost 100% sure you would, you just don't realize it. Try walking around with a tape recorder for a day--you'd be surprised what you hear yourself saying...


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## geostan

Anything is possible, but as I say a variety of sentences to myself , I find myself wincing at the incorrect examples. The only possibility I can think of is one in which the plural subject is separated by two or more words which might trigger the incorrect response. I'm thinking specifically of inverted questions with compound subjects.

I could imagine myself saying:

Is John and Michael coming to the party? I know full well that Are John and Michael coming... is the correct form, but the proximity of the singular noun to the verb catches me. I doubt that this happens in  the case you describe.

Cheers!


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## Bléros

I don't think it sounds uneducated. Even Shakespeare says 'there's' before a plural noun.

"There's daggers in men's smiles..." -DONALBAIN


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## radagasty

Indeed, but we no longer speak Elizabethan English.


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## HistofEng

ascoltate said:


> I'm almost 100% sure you would, you just don't realize it. Try walking around with a tape recorder for a day--you'd be surprised what you hear yourself saying...


 
I agree with this. I never thought I would say "There's" followed by a plural noun, and when you're more consciously thinking about it, it indeed sounds wrong.

But then I caught myself several times saying "there's" and I would immediately stop myself and start over saying "there are" lamenting the fact that I could commit such an obvious error. But, I must say, in conversation it really does not grate on the ear much, most probably because its usage is rampant from the Ivy League (where I've spent the past four years) to the casual, colloquial conversations you find in sitcoms, for example.


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## Francesk

Hi everyone,

I have a doubt : we are supposed to use "there is" when the following noun is uncountable or singular, and "there are" before a plural. But when there is a list of things, it is still "there is", isn't it?

For example : there is butter and bottles of milk in the fridge.

Thanks for your help!


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## Oluc (Yvon)

You can go around that problem by simply saying "There's butter and milk in the fridge".  Otherwise, follow the rule you enunciated yourself because you will end up speaking like George Bush and say childish things like "Is our children learning today?" LOL!


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## Francesk

Which is the correct one:
there is butter and bottles of milk in the fridge.
there are butter and bottles... ( looks and sounds strange...)


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## Oluc (Yvon)

I gave you a way to avoid both examples you keep quoting which are both wrong.  If you want the plural, say "There are cubes/pieces/slabs of butter and bottles of milk ...


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## Francesk

Ok, it's all singular or all plural then.
Thank you very much for your help


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## itka

... and what would you say if there.... butter and eggs in the fridge ?

(I don't try to avoid the question : I wish to know how to express such sentences)


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## ascoltate

it should be "There are butter and eggs in the fridge." in all cases, "there" is NOT the subject of the sentence-- the subject is "butter and eggs" and that is what the verb agrees with.
In normal speech, however (not writing), "There's butter and eggs in the fridge" sounds much more normal. We often use "There's" (but not "There is") as an informal abbreviate for _both_ "there is" and "there are"...


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## djpedro

Hello

Voila je me demande si cet emploi est correct:
*There are a lot of lions* in this circus.

Il me semblait que avant *l'article singulier a* , on était obligé d'utiliser *there is*.
Alors que bien sur on dirait: *There are lots* of lions (pas de probleme d'article ici)

Merci d'avance.


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## jann

Il y a beaucoup de lions.
_There are lots of lions =  There are a lot of lions 
There is lots of lions, There is a lot of lions 

_Il y a beaucoup de neige.
_There are lots of snow, There are a lot of snow 
There is lots of snow =  There is a lot of snow _

Si le substantif est dénombrable, _there is/there _doit impérativement s'accorder en nombre avec la chose qu'on indique.  _A lot of_ et _lots of_ indiquant un très grand nombre, on aura donc le substantif et le verbe au pluriel.

En revanche, si le substantif est indénombrable (et donc au singulier), il faut employer _there is_... et la chose étant indénombrable, on ne peut pas en avoir un très grand nombre.  _Lots of _et _a lot of_ indiquent donc une très grande quantité.

Alors finalement, dans les deux cas, vous pouvez employer _a lot of_ ou _lots of_ indifféremment : les deux veulent dire "beaucoup de" et ont exactement la même fonction grammaticale.  Dans _a lot of, _l'article indéfini singulier _a_ s'accorde avec le substantif _lot_, alors que le verbe _is/are_ s'accorde avec la chose dont on a beaucoup.


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## djpedro

merci

je pensais que l'article *a* appelait forcément un singulier quant au verbe.

*there is a lot of lions* est selon vous incorrect.


Quant est il de : *there is* a car, a truck and a bike. ?
 ou de   *there is* a car ,trucks and bikes.
ou encore de *there is* a car and a truck.

merci


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## hpesoj

Le *"a"* correspond au nom *"lot"* (qui est singulier), pas au nom suivant.  Ce n'est pas *"there is a lot of lions"* parce que *"lions"* est dénombrable.  On peut dire *"there are many lions"*, *"there are a lot of lions"* ou *"there are lots of lions"*.

*"there is a car, a truck and a bike" *est correct, même *"there is a car and a truck"*.

On pourrais dire *"there is a car, some trucks and some bikes"* ou *"there is a car and some trucks and bikes"*.  Je crois que le verbe suive le nom directement suivant, par exemple *"there are some trucks and a bike"*.


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## jann

> je pensais que l'article *a* appelait forcément un singulier quant au verbe.


Non, comme j'ai dit, et comme Hpesoj a précisé, dans _a lot of, _l'article indéfini singulier _"a"_ correspond avec le substantif singulier _"lot"... _mais c'est la chose dont vous avez beaucoup qui détermine l'accord du verbe. 

1. _A car, a truck, and a bike *are* all means of transportation._
mais
2. _There *is* a car, a truck and a bike.
_
Dans la 1re phrase, "_a car, a truck, and a bike_" fait manifestement un sujet composé : le verbe est donc au pluriel, comme en français.  "Une voiture, un camion et un vélo sont tous des moyens de transport".

Dans la 2e phrase, le verbe s'accorde au singulier parce qu'on comprend par ellipse : _There *is* a car, (there *is*) a truck and (there *is*) a bike.

_Pour les phrases "mixtes" de Hpesoj, je préfère répéter le verbe.  On ne devrait peut-être pas dépendre de l'ellipse lorsqu'on change du singulier au pluriel :_ There *is* a car*,* and there *are*some trucks and bikes._


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## Mag1977

Hello!

I know the basic rule with there is / are, but I have some doubts with the sentence below:

In my room, there *is (or are ?*) a bed, a desk and a chair.

Thank you!


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## Wopsy

There *is* .....

(But there *are* three chairs, etc)


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## catheng

there is a bed, a desk.... C'est le premier nom qui suit qui détermine le singulier ou le pluriel de be


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## emd366

Maybe it is more common in the United States to say "there's" before a plural noun.  Even though I know that it is incorrect, I say it myself and it is very common to hear.


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## johanna13

should I say "there is a boy and a girl" or "there are a boy and a girl"
[…]

thanks for your help


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## franc 91

Usually it should be there are a boy and a girl, but sometimes people will say there is (which isn't really correct) […].


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## mtmjr

I would say that the vast majority of US English speakers would say:

A: Who's in the room?
B: There's a boy and a girl.

(C'est similar j'imagine au choix entre "c'est" et "ce sont")

[…]


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## franc 91

Well if you gave the number of people or objects you are talking about, then you would definitely have to use the plural form - there are two mugs on the table, three girls in the bar and so on. It's probably because you start with a singular (a boy) and then add another person, by which time it's too late to use the verb in its plural form.
usage, usage!


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## mtmjr

I agree...to a certain extent.  While it is more likely that you'd hear the plural form of the verbs expressed in the examples given by franc 91, it is just as natural sounding to me to say (and I'm sure I've heard it commonly said):

_There's two mugs on the table._
_There's three girls in the bar._

I would say though that in the above cases, it is also natural to hear/say "There're..."  

My personal thought is that when the expression "There is/are" is used in the positive sense, most US English speakers would contract it.  It is thus easier to say "There's" than "There're" due to the latter requiring [r] to be articulated twice with no vowel to separate it.  Again, just my own thoughts on the matter.


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## tinkaline13

Hello!
Would you say "this contract is not valid if there IS more than one dominant firm"or "this contract is not valid if there ARE more than one dominant firm". I think the first one is the right one but I'm not sure at all...

Thanks!


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## broglet

t'as raison tink, c'est ton premier essai qui est correct (... there is more than one ...)


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## ljosalfar

Yes, "there are" would always precede a plural, for instance "if there are more than five dominant firms".


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## Giordano Bruno

Note that before 'none' there is a choice between 'there are none', by analogy with 'some' and 'there is none' based on the derivation from 'not one'.


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## ljosalfar

Yes, it gets complicated with 'none' - though the implication is generally "there are none (of them)" vs. "there is none (of it)". None can also mean no-one (person rather than thing), as in the slightly old-fashioned phrase "there is none that can help you".


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## mp74

Hi everybody!

There's a controversy on the following grammatical point: Would you say i.e:

there is a boy and two girls in front of my house (!) or

there are a boy and two girls in front of my house.

Actually, I use the first one as I make the verb agree with the FIRST word, even if there is a long list of nouns, but one of my inspectors claimed it wasn't right and  that one should take the whole lot into account. So, what do you think ?


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## Glasguensis

Many English speakers would probably do the same thing as you, but the second version is the correct one. A good tip - whenever you have a situation like this, try reversing the sentence. Hopefully you will agree that "A boy and two girls *IS* in front of my house" doesn't sound right at all.


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## anarvoshir

hey,

I have a question that I have been wondering for a while, should I say :

There *is *a lot of people outside or 
There _*are*_ a lot of people outside.

Or to be more grammatical is 'a lot' or 'people' the subject of this sentence?

Thanks for the answer
Cheers


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## jann

Welcome, Anarvoshir! 

There *are *a lot of people outside.

Unlike invariable French _il y a_, the English "there is/are" must change in number to reflect the countable thing you are speaking about. Regardless, the subject is the pronoun "there."

P.S. I've merged your question back into an earlier discussion on the same topic.


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## huxlou

Bonjour

J'ai un gros doute quant à la règle de grammaire à appliquer ici...

Si l'on veut dire "il y a du pain et du beurre", faut-il considérer cela comme un pluriel (car on parle de deux choses) et dire "there are"

OU maintenir le singulier et dire "there is some bread and some butter" ?

Merci pour votre aide !


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## geostan

Perso, je dis _*There is*_.


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## moustic

Quand on veut parler de plusieurs choses, en général on accorde le verbe avec le premier de la liste (même s'il y a un pluriel par la suite) :
- there's a book, two pencils and a ruler on the table.
- there are six apples, a melon and two oranges in the bowl.

Donc -> there's some bread and some butter ...


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## Mahite

Hello everyone,

I am confused even after reading the above examples and try to make sence out of all of it.

Why is there:" in my room, there is a desk, a bed and a chair". Then choosing "there is" because of the first singular noun

but "there are butter and bottles of milk in the fridge"

I know this question was asked before, but i really do not get the logic and I would be grateful if native speakers (or other) could help on this.

Thanks in advance.

M.


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## Brijou

Hello

In an exercise taken from a reliable English site, I saw this phrase which seems strange to me, so I need your light to tell me if it is correct:
"My hometown is great - There’s so many things I can do over here..." I, personally would have said, " there are so many things..." so I was wondering if it was a mistake or maybe something we would say informally.
Thanks in advance for your help


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## Moon_Moon_Moon_Blue_Moon

It's incorrect but you'll hear people say it. Contracting 'there are' to 'there're' a good option for balancing between correctness and informality.


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## Locape

Mahite said:


> Why is there:" in my room, there is a desk, a bed and a chair". Then choosing "there is" because of the first singular noun
> but "there are butter and bottles of milk in the fridge"


And natives said that 'there's butter and bottles of milk' is commonly used, "there's" for both 'there is' and 'there are'.


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## Brijou

Moon_Moon_Moon_Blue_Moon said:


> It's incorrect but you'll hear people say it. Contracting 'there are' to 'there're' a good option for balancing between correctness and informality.


Thank you very much for your answer.


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