There is / There are

We use there is and there are to say a noun exists in a place. We usually use prepositions.

For singular nouns we use there is and for plural nouns we use there are.

There	BE	Noun	Preposition	Place
There	is	a book	on	the table.
There	is	a bottle	in	the fridge.
There	is	a shoe shop	at	the mall.
There	is	a bank	near	the station.
There	are	parks	in	London.
There	are	shoes	under	the stairs.
There	are	flowers	by	the pond.
There	are	books	on	the shelf.

Questions

Be comes before the there for questions.

For closed questions (yes and no answers):

BE	there			Yes/No	there	BE
Is	there	a bank near here?	⇒	Yes,	there	is.
Is	there	a fridge in the kitchen?	⇒	No,	there	isn't.
Are	there	plates on the table?	⇒	Yes,	there	are.
Are	there	cows in the field?	⇒	No,	there	aren't.

For open questions (many possible answers) we use a question word:

Question	BE	there			There	BE	Answer
What	is	there	in the fridge?	⇒	There	is	a chicken.
What	is	there	on the table?	⇒	There	is	a cake.
How many lions	are	there	at the zoo?	⇒	There	are	4 lions.
How many plates	are	there	on the table?	⇒	There	are	8 plates.

Tip!
* We do not use have to say something exists:
Has a tree in the garden. ✘
There is a tree in the garden. ✔
Have eggs in the fridge. ✘
There are eggs in the fridge. ✔

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