Confusing English Grammar: “THERE IS” or “THERE ARE”?

In this video, I'll show you how to use the

expressions "there is" and "there are" correctly

in English. Now, it might seem that these are

very easy, but we're going to talk about them

at a basic level, at an intermediate level, and at

an advanced level, so this lesson is for everyone,

okay? Now, first of all, what does it mean when

we say "there is" or "there are"? It means that

something exists, something is somewhere,

okay? For example, I could say, "There is a man

waiting to see you in your office." Okay? There

is a man. Or I could say, "There are some people

waiting for you in your office." Right? There is a man, there are some people.

So, how do you know when to say "is" and

when to say "are"? Sometimes it's very easy,

and sometimes it's not easy, and that's where

lots of mistakes occur. Now, this is important

for you whether you're speaking, whether you're

writing, whether you're writing business email,

whether you're writing an essay for the IELTS or

the TOEFL, this is a basic mistake and you don't

want to make these mistakes, okay? So, let's

understand what they are by starting off by

looking at some basic examples. So, first, this

is where we have a situation with countable

nouns. So, if after "there is", we have a noun.

A noun is what? A person, place, thing, idea,

quality, okay? So, if we have a noun which we can

count, okay, then what happens? You could have

a singular noun which means one noun, one person,

place, or thing, or you could have a plural noun

which means more than one. So, let's see what

happens when we have one. When we have one,

we say "there is". There is a teacher in the

classroom. Now, the other thing to remember

is that when you have one noun, when we're talking

about one noun in English, we need to use this

article "a" or "a", okay? Because in lots of

languages, that article doesn't exist, so don't

forget that. It's not only "there is", but if it's

singular and it's countable, then you have to say

"there is a teacher in the classroom", "there is a school on the corner",

"there is a book on the table". Now, "there is a"

is the full form. Usually, when we're speaking,

we contract it, we shorten it, and we just say

"there's a book on the table", okay? Got that?

Say it after me. "There's a book on the table."

Alright, fine. Now, what happens when we have

many, when we have plural, more than one thing,

more than one noun? Then we say "there are",

you might say another word like "there are some

teachers in the classroom", "there are some

schools in this neighborhood", or "there are many schools in this neighborhood",

or "there are some books on the tables", okay?

So, here, what happens? These countable nouns

are very straightforward. Usually, we just make them plural by adding an "s", okay?

So, that's one basic situation. Let's look at

another, slightly more difficult, but still

basic situation. This is when, after "there

is" or "there are", we use a collective noun.

A collective noun is a noun that refers to a

group that is made up of individuals, okay?

For example, "There is a family at the park."

A family is made up of individual members,

but the word describes the entire group, so that's called a collective noun. So,

with collective nouns also, we have a singular form and we have a plural form.

There's a family at the park. There is a

flock of birds, a group of birds in the sky.

There is a pile of papers on my desk. A pile

means, like, a stack, everything is piled up,

okay? Or we can make it plural. There are some

families at the park. There are some flocks of

birds in the sky, and there are many piles of

papers on my desk, okay? So, these are the basic

versions of "there is" and "there are". Now, let's

look at some intermediate examples. It starts to

get a little more challenging. Let's see if you

can get them right. So, now let's look at some

other kinds of sentences with other kinds of

nouns. So far, we looked at what? We looked at

countable nouns, and we looked at collective

nouns. So, now we're going to look at uncountable

nouns. So, what we are seeing here is that we

decide whether something is singular or plural,

whether to use the singular or plural verb based

on what kind of noun follows "there is" or "there

are", okay? So, let's look at this one. So, what

are uncountable nouns? Uncountable nouns are words

which we are... Sorry. Which we cannot use in

the plural form, but which we always use in the

singular form. Always. Even though it might seem like it refers to lots of items,

but it's always singular. Let's look at some

examples. We say, "There is some equipment."

Okay? Now, if it was countable, we would say,

"There are some computers." Because computers,

we can count. But in English, "equipment" is a

word which is considered an uncountable noun,

so it's always singular. Okay? There is some equipment. There is some information.

There is some research. There is some advice that you should take.

There is some homework you need to finish. Okay?

Now, even though I have given the example here

of "there is" and "there are", even if you turn

these sentences around, they would still be

singular, right? For example, "Some equipment is

in the factory.", "Some information is available.",

"Some research has been done." Okay? But right

now, we're trying to see how to use these with

that common expression "there is" or "there are".

Now, let's go to another kind of noun and see what

happens. It's getting a little bit more complex,

but you want to be able to understand how to use

these simple phrases with the more complex

constructions. So now, let's look at what are

called irregular nouns. What are those? Well,

sometimes they're singular, sometimes they're

plural, and sometimes they could be singular or

plural. For example, we have this word "news",

this one is always singular even though it ends

with an "s". So it can be a little bit tricky

because you see the "s" and you think, okay,

in English, "s" usually means that something is

plural. But in this case, that's not true. So this is an example of an irregular noun

because even though it ends with an "s", it's

not plural, it's singular. So therefore, we say

there is some news, there's some good news,

there's some bad news, okay? Next, sometimes we

have words which are plural with no "s", okay? For

example, "children" or "men", "women", okay? No "s"

on those words, but we're talking about more than

one man, more than one woman, more than one child,

right? So again, here we would say there are some children in that room, okay?

And then we have some really weird words in English, like "fish" or "sheep" or "deer",

where you have the same word and it can refer to one or it can refer to a million,

and it's the same word. So, there is a fish,

okay? Of course, if you're talking about one,

we're going to know that because you have that

article "a" or "a", okay? There is a fish in the...

In the aquarium. Or there are some fish in the

aquarium. So the singular form of "fish" is "fish",

and the plural form of "fish" is also "fish".

Okay? So, now that's what you do with the

uncountable and irregular nouns. That was the

intermediate level. Are you still with me?

Okay. So, let's go forward now and see what

happens at an advanced level. Okay? Keep watching.

Okay, so now let's look at a noun phrase. A

noun phrase is a group of words that behaves

like a noun, basically. And they can be singular

or plural. Okay? So, let's look at some examples.

We would say, "There is a team of experts." Now,

this could be confusing to some people because

you have here the word "team", but you also

have the word "experts". And "team" is singular,

but "experts" sounds like it's plural. But what

we need to do in this case is to ignore everything

after the preposition. So, the real noun that

we're talking about here that decides on the verb

that we use is this one. "There is a team", okay?

"Of experts" doesn't matter. Forget about what's

in the prepositional phrase, okay? So, "There is

a team", that's singular, or "There is a group

of doctors". Same situation, right? "There is a

group". It doesn't matter that we say after that

"of doctors" and that the word "doctors" is plural because that doesn't matter. Okay?

Next, "There are major challenges in the world."

Okay? So, here, how do we decide that it was "are"?

Is it because of "challenges" or because of the

word "world"? It's because of the word "challenges",

because as I said, "in the world" doesn't matter, right? That's part of a phrase,

prepositional phrase within that that just explains a little bit about challenges,

but that doesn't matter in terms of deciding

the verb that we use. So, we say "There are

major challenges" or "There are employees around

the globe." Okay? Again, "globe" doesn't matter,

"around the globe" doesn't matter. What matters?

The word "employees", and in this case, that's

plural. Okay? So, this is at a slightly more

advanced level, but it's really important,

and if you are doing an exam like the IELTS or

the TOEFL, or even if you're just writing business

letters and you want to be able to write correctly

and fluently, then these rules are really

important. Let's do a really tiny quiz today

of a little bit of what we've learned from that

basic and intermediate and advanced use of "there is" and "there are". Let's try this,

okay? And then you can do some more on our website. So, what should we say here?

"There blank snacks available." Snacks are

a little something that you eat while you're

watching TV. Okay? All right. "There are",

good, because that's... There's an "s" there,

and it's actually just a regular, countable noun. "There blank a lot of furniture."

So, what's that one? There... Yeah, I heard you. "There is a lot of furniture." Okay?

"Furniture" is one of those uncountable nouns. "There blank a pack of markers."

What should it be? Good, good, good. I hear you.

Somebody's not sure. Wait a minute. Okay, yeah,

you got it. Okay. "There is a pack of markers."

And the last one, "There blank several errors

in this report." What would that be? There? Yep, you got it.

"There are several errors in this report." Okay? Now, these were just a few examples,

just to get you to a little bit practice what

we've learned. But really, to get this completely

right, to know it inside out, go to our website

at www.engvid.com. There, you can do a full quiz

on this. Okay? And really master it once and for

all. Okay? And next, don't forget to subscribe

to my YouTube channel. All right? Which you can

do, and you can also ring the bell so you'll know

every time I have a new lesson, and I hope that

I can help to shorten your journey in really

mastering the English language. Okay? Have a good time. Take care. Bye for now.