Main points
+You use ‘there’ followed by a form of ‘be’ and a noun group to introduce new information.
+You use ‘there’ with a singular or plural verb, depending on whether the following noun is singular or plural.
+You can also use ‘there’ with modals.
a) ‘There’ is often an adverb of place.
- Are you comfortable there?
- The book is there on the table.
You can also use ‘there’ as the impersonal subject of a sentence when it does not refer to a place. In this case you use ‘there’ to introduce new information and to focus upon. After ‘there’ you use a form of ‘be’ and a noun group.
- There is work to be done.
- There will be a party tonight.
- There was no damage.
- There have been two telephone calls.
Note that the impersonal subject ‘there’ is often pronounced without stress, whereas the adverb is almost always stressed.
b) You use ‘there’ as the impersonal subject to talk about:
*the existence or presence of someone or something.
- There are two people who might know what happened.
- There are many possibilities.
- There is plenty of bread.
*something that happens.
- There was a general election that year.
- There’s a meeting every week.
- There was a fierce battle.
*a number or amount.
- There are forty of us, I think.
- There is a great deal of anger about his decision.
- There were a lot of people camped there.
c) When the noun group after the verb is plural, you use a plural verb
- There are many reasons for this.
- There were two men in the room.
You also use a plural verb before such as ‘a number (of)’, ‘a lot (of)’, and ‘a few (of)’.
- There were a lot of people camped there.
- There are only a few left.
d) When the noun group after the verb is singular or uncountable, you use a singular verb.
- There is one point we must add here.
- There isn’t enough room in here.
You also use a singular verb when you are mentioning more than one person or thing and the first noun after the verb is singular or uncountable.
- There was a man and a woman.
- There was a sofa and two chairs.
e) You can also use ‘there’ with a modal, followed by ‘be’ or ‘have been’.
- There could be a problem.
- There should be a change in government.
- There can’t have been anybody outside.
- There must have been some mistake.
f) In spoken and informal written English, shorts forms of ‘be’ or a modal are normally used after ‘there’.
- There’s no danger.
- There’ll always be a future for music.
- I knew there’d be trouble.
- There’s been quite a lot of research into it.
- I didn’t ever know there’d been a murder.
g) You can also use ‘there’ with ‘appear’ or ‘seem’, followed by ‘to be’ or ‘to have been’.
- There appears to be a cast amount of confusion on this point.
- There don’t seem to be many people on campus.
- There seems to have been some carelessness.
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Top Tips Abz Ingles: Part A - Part B
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See also:
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