Sentences using There is and There are

We use there is and there are when we first refer to the existence or presence of someone or something.

For example:

There are 3 people waiting in the living room
There is a beautiful dog in the yard
There are three cats on the roof
There is a police officer outside the house

Now, let’s check when to use one or the other in sentences.

Table of Contents

When to use There is and There are
Video: There is and There are
There is and There are: Affirmative Sentences
There is and There are: Negative Sentences
Questions using There is and There are
How Many + Are there?
There aren’t + Any
There Is vs. There Are With a Series of Items
Exceptions in Informal Writing or Speaking
Discussion Questions with There is and There are
Describing your Neighborhood using There is and There are
Other Tenses and Ways to use There
There was and There Were
There will be
There seems
There Must
There have been
There is and There are Worksheets

When to use There is and There are

The choice between the phrases there is and there are at the beginning of a sentence is determined by the noun that follows it.

‘There is’ is used when noun is singular and ‘There are’ is used when the nouns is in plural.

Singular	There is	There is a stranger outside the house
Plural	There are	There are three strangers outside the house

When we use countable nouns, we use “a” or “an” before. “There is an stranger”

Video: There is and There are

This is a video that summarizes the information that you just read and some of the information that you are about to read.

Something that was presented in the video that you should pay attention to are negative sentences

There are no students here
There is no security here

Make sure to rewatch it if you didn’t understand something

There is and There are: Affirmative Sentences

This is the form to make affirmative statements with there is and there are

There	is	a	hospital	in	Nicoya
There	are	three	universities	in	Liberia

These are some example of positive sentences using there is and there are:

There’s a letter on your desk. Julia brought it from the mail room.
There is one table in the classroom
There are three Japanese students in my class.
There is a new cafe in the centre of town which sells Indonesian food
There are two new buildings next to the school. They are both science buildings.
There is a map on the coffee table, please bring it to me.
There are two cars on the roof, scare them away.
There are many people at the bus stop
There are four people outside the office waiting for you
There are many podcast I want to listen to
There are many books that I would like to read

There is and There are: Negative Sentences

This is the form to make negative statement using there is and there are

There	isn’t	a	hospital	in	Nicoya
There	aren’t	three	universities	in	Liberia

These are some example of negative sentences using there is and there are:

There isn’t a ghost in the house
There isn’t anybody here
There aren’t many doctors around here
There isn’t a new teacher in the university
There aren’t students in this classroom
There aren’t two new employees in our company
There aren’t buildings next to the school.
There aren’t major issues in the system
There isn’t a spider under the bed
There isn’t milk in the fridge
There isn’t anything wrong with the park

Questions using There is and There are

This is the way to make questions using there is and there are

Is	there	a	hospital	in	Nicoya?
Are	there	three	universities	in	Liberia?

These are some example of questions using there is and there are:

Is there a ghost in the house?
Is there a TV in the living room?
Is there a new car in the garage?
Is there a cat inside the box?
Are there museums in this town?
Are there people in the stage?
Are there two stranger outside the house?
Are there any good beaches around here?
Isn’t there a major risk?
Aren’t there any restaurants around here?

How Many + Are there?

These are questions that you can with how many to know more about the quantity of a particular thing.

How many	hospitals	are	there	in	Nicoya?
How many	universities	are	there	in	Liberia?

These are some examples of sentences using there are and how many

How many people are there in this town?
How many cats are there in the house?
How many dogs are there in the park?
How many countries are there in Europe?
How many tables are there in this restaurant?
How many people are there in this room?
How many supermarkets are there around here?
How many students are there in your class?
How many soccer players are there in the field?
How many countries are there in South America?
How many provinces are there in Costa Rica?

There aren’t + Any

We use there any to make negative statements using there isn’t and there aren’t

There aren’t any hospitals in this town.
There isn’t any bank here.
There isn’t a cat in the house
There aren’t any banks in this street
There isn’t any money in this house
There aren’t any banks in the next town

There Is vs. There Are With a Series of Items

There is a kitchen, a living room, and a bedroom in my apartment.

There is a cat, a hamster and a dog in the house

Exceptions in Informal Writing or Speaking

In speaking and in some informal writing, we use there’s even when it refers to more than one. This use could be considered incorrect in formal writing or in an examination:

There’s three other people who are still to come.
There’s lots of cars in the car park.

Discussion Questions with There is and There are

These are some discussion questions using there is and there are.

How many people are there in your family?

How many pets are there in your house?

Are there any good restaurants in your town?

Are there any good movies playing at movie theaters now?

Are there many students in your school / Highschool / University?

Describing your Neighborhood using There is and There are

I live in a small town in Honduras, in my community, you can find all kind of places, for example, you can go to the swimming pool which is located near the park.

There are three supermarkets and there is a bus station next to the bank. There are no airports or train stations in my town.

There is a hospital near the park and you can find two or three drugstores

Other Tenses and Ways to use There

Take these into account

There is and there are used to talk about the present.
We use there was and there were to talk about the past
We use there will be to talk about the future
We uses there seems when we notice something but we’re not completely sure that we have identified it correctly

There was and There Were

There were and there was are used to talk about the past:

There was a business conference at our hotel last night.
There was a bike in the garage, now it isn’t there.
There were two people sitting on that bench.
There were many people interested in the job

There will be

There will be is used to talk about the present.

There will be a ceremony in this park next Friday.
I think there’ll be loads of people at the festival.
There will be many volunteers in this park tomorrow
There will be a major even in this house.
There will be a winner
There won’t be a cake at the party.
There will be a major announcement this Tuesday

There seems

These are some examples of sentences using there seems

There seems to be a problem
There seems to be no reason for hesitation
There seems to be a consensus in the region among economists
There seems to be little doubt

There Must

These are some examples of sentences with There Must

There must be a mistake
There must be reasons that explain this behaviour
There must be education for peace
There must be something wrong with this machine

There have been

These are some examples of sentences using there have been and there has been

There have been a lot of accidents today
There hasn’t been much rain lately.
There have been restrictions before
There have been no cases of smallpox
There have been no significant changes

There is and There are Worksheets

These are there is there are worksheets for kindergarten in PDF format: