There Is / There Are in English: Uses, Rules and Exercises

Learn when to use there is and there are in English, the negative and question forms, common mistakes and exercises.

If you’ve ever frozen mid-sentence wondering whether it’s «is» or «are» after there, don’t worry: it’s one of the very first grammar puzzles every English learner runs into, and also one of the easiest to fix for good. In this post I’ll show you when to use there is and when to use there are, how to build the negative and interrogative forms, the mistakes I see most often in class, and a set of exercises to help the rule stick. Let’s get started!

What do there is and there are mean?

There is and there are are used to say that something exists or is located somewhere. As we saw in the post on the verb TO BE, is and are are forms of that very same verb, so the agreement rule is exactly the same one you already know from TO BE: it all depends on what comes right after.

When to use there is

We use there is when what follows is a singular noun or an uncountable noun:

• There is a park near my house.
• There is some milk in the fridge.
• There is a lot of traffic today.

In speech and informal writing, it’s almost always contracted to there’s: there’s a park, there’s some milk.

When to use there are

We use there are when what follows is a plural noun:

• There are three chairs in the kitchen.
• There are a lot of tourists in summer.
• There aren’t any eggs left.

There are doesn’t really have a contracted form in everyday use (there’re exists but is rarely written), so don’t bother trying to squeeze it into one.

A trick to remember the difference

If you need a split-second rule, keep this one: is goes with «one», are goes with «more than one». Before you speak, spot the noun right after there and ask yourself: is it one thing (or something uncountable, like water or information), or is it several? One → is. Several → are. Don’t look at the verb: look at the noun, because that’s the real subject of the sentence, even though there comes first.

How to use there is / there are: negative and interrogative

Negative form

Add not after is/are, almost always contracted:

• There isn’t a lift in this building.
• There aren’t any shops open on Sundays.

Notice that in the negative we normally use any rather than some before the plural noun (there aren’t any shops, not there aren’t some shops). More on that below.

Interrogative form and short answers

To ask a question, we invert the order: Is there…? / Are there…?

• Is there a bank near here? Yes, there is. / No, there isn’t.
• Are there any seats left? Yes, there are. / No, there aren’t.

Short answers are almost compulsory in natural English: answering with a bare «yes» or «no» sounds abrupt, so get into the habit of always completing it with there is/there are (or their negatives).

Common mistakes to avoid

• Confusing there is/are with it is. We use there is/are to introduce something for the first time («there’s a cat in the garden»), and it is to refer back to something already mentioned («it’s black»). A common slip is saying it is a cat in the garden, which doesn’t sound natural in English.
• Not making the verb agree with the number. «There are two options», not there is two options. Before you speak, count mentally: one, or more than one.
• Using have/has instead of there is/are. To describe what exists in a place, we don’t naturally say this city has many parks when giving a general description: the natural structure is there are many parks in this city.
• Forgetting the verb with uncountable nouns. Words like information, furniture, advice or news are grammatically singular in English even though they might feel plural in your own language, so it’s there is a lot of information, never there are a lot of informations.

There is / there are with some, any and other quantifiers

As we saw in the post on the difference between some and any, these two words come up constantly alongside there is/are, and the rule is exactly the one you already know: some in affirmative sentences, any in negatives and questions.

• There are some biscuits in the tin. (affirmative)
• There aren’t any biscuits left. (negative)
• Are there any biscuits? (interrogative)

It’s also very common with a lot of (works with both singular and plural), no (there’s no milk, an alternative to there isn’t any milk) and with numbers (there are five rooms).

The past: there was and there were

The rule is exactly the same and only the verb changes: where the present uses is, the past uses was; where it uses are, the past uses were. Singular or uncountable noun, was. Plural noun, were.

• There was a bakery on this corner ten years ago.
• There were two cinemas in my town when I was a child.
• There was a lot of noise in the street last night. (Uncountable, so was.)

Negative and interrogative in the past

• There wasn’t a lift in the old building.
• There weren’t any shops open.
• Was there a bank near the hotel? Yes, there was. / No, there wasn’t.
• Were there many people at the concert? Yes, there were. / No, there weren’t.

The typical past mistake is the same one as in the present: saying «there was many people» instead of there were many people. If the noun after it is plural, you need were, however the sentence starts.

What about the future?

Here you get a free pass: the future has only one form, there will be, and it does not care about singular or plural. There will be a meeting tomorrow and There will be two meetings tomorrow are both correct. The same goes for there is going to be, which never changes either.

There is / there are in the Cambridge exams

Even though it’s an A1-A2 level structure, there is/are shows up constantly in the Cambridge exams, and mastering it early saves you from losing silly points at higher levels too:

• In A2 Key (KET) and B1 Preliminary (PET) it comes up often in Reading texts and in the gap-fill tasks of that same paper. Note that at those levels there is no separate Use of English paper: that starts at B2 First.
• In the Speaking test at almost every level, when you’re asked to describe a photo (as we saw in the post on how to describe a photo in English), there is/are is your starting structure: «There are three people in the photo«, «there’s a table in the middle«… If it’s automatic for you, you’ll have more headspace for what actually scores marks: vocabulary and comparisons.
• It also turns up constantly in Writing whenever you describe a place (a room, a town, a house) in an email or a story.

Conclusion: summary table

There is / there are exercises

Forty sentences to check that the rule has stuck. Below you will find four interactive exercises that mark themselves, so you will know straight away how you did.

And if you prefer a version in text that you can copy and paste, you have it down here 👇

Exercise 1: there is or there are?

Complete each sentence with there is, there are, there isn’t, there aren’t, is there or are there.

Exercise 2: there was or there were?

Complete each sentence with there was, there were, there wasn’t, there weren’t, was there or were there.

Exercise 3: present or past?

Choose the correct option in each sentence.

Exercise 4: right or wrong?

Decide whether each sentence is correct or incorrect, and rewrite the incorrect ones.

Is the difference between there is and there are clear now? It’s one of those structures that, once automatic, never gives you trouble again. If you found this post useful, share it with other English students and teachers, and don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and YouTube for more content like this.

See you in the next post. Until then, don’t forget to keep smiling! 🙂