There Is / There Are — Talking About Things That Exist

1 Section 1. What Does 'There Is' Actually Mean?

Look at this sentence: There is a café near here. What does it tell you? It tells you the café exists. It is in this place. We use there is and there are to say that something exists.

In Italian, you say C’è un bar qui vicino or Ci sono due bar qui vicino. The structure is very similar! There is = c’è. There are = ci sono. So this is good news — you already know this idea.

Now, ‘there’ is an interesting word. It has more than one job. Look at these three uses:

1. There as a location word — it means ‘in that place’: Put the bag there. / She lives there.
2. There is / There are for existence — it says something exists: There is a park near my house. / There are two chairs in the room.
3. They’re — this is short for ‘they are’: They’re happy. This is a completely different word. Do not mix them up.

On this page, we focus on use number 2: there is and there are for existence. This is very useful. You can describe a room, a city, a street — anything.

2 Section 2. Grammar Guide: There Is / There Are

Use there is with one thing. Use there are with two or more things. This is the key rule. Get this right and you can describe almost any place in English.

3 Section 3. A Look Ahead: There Was / There Were

You now know there is and there are. These talk about now — the present.

But what about the past? In English, we also have there was and there were. The idea is the same — something existed. But it existed in the past, not now.

Look at this:

There is a café on this street. → It exists now.
There was a café on this street. → It existed before. It is not here now.

Use there was with one thing. Use there were with two or more things. The rule is the same as there is / there are.

There was a big market here. (one market, in the past)
There were many shops on this road. (many shops, in the past)

You will study there was and there were in more detail in a future lesson. For now, just notice the pattern. It works the same way.

4 Section 4. Recap: What You Know Now

Good work. Here is what you know now.

Use there is to say one thing exists. Use there are to say two or more things exist. Always use ‘a’ or ‘an’ after there is. Use ‘some’ or ‘any’ with there are.

For questions, move ‘is’ or ‘are’ to the front: Is there a bank near here? Are there any seats?

For negatives, use isn’t or aren’t any: There isn’t a café here. There aren’t any chairs.

Remember: ‘there’ has different jobs. There is/are talks about existence. There alone talks about a place. They’re means ‘they are’. These are three different things.

And you had a first look at there was and there were for the past. You will practise these more in the next lesson.