Friday, August 5, 2016

There is - There are



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.

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.

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?