Is there .... Is anybody there?

Question

Guys, Please I have one english grammar doubt....

Why we say " Is anybody there?" ( preposicion after the subject)

and

Are there any flowers in the vase? ( preposicion after the verb)

What's the grammar explanation for that?

Thanks
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CalifJim · Accepted Answer

AnonymousWhy do we say " Is anybody there?" ( preposition after the subject) and Are there any flowers in the vase? ( preposition after the verb)

Before we get into the answer, note the following:

1. preposition / preposicion / -ition English / -ición español

2. In the question "Is anybody there?" there is no preposition.
So your question is not about prepositions. It's about something else.
I'm going to assume it's about the word "there", which is not a preposition.
____________________________________________________

There are two kinds of "there". Existential there and locative there.

Existential there indicates the existence of an entity, usually at a given place.

There are some flowers in the vase.
There is a pen on the table.
There were several people in the kitchen.

For the purposes of subject-verb inversion for forming questions, existential there is treated as a subject.

Are there any flowers in the vase?
Is there a pen on the table?
Were there several people in the kitchen?
________

Locative there means 'in that place', where the place has already been previously mentioned.

Jack is in the garage. Peter is there, too. (there means 'at that place', i.e., 'in the garage')
Somebody is there. (Somebody is in that place.)

Locative there is never a subject, so it never participates in subject-verb inversion. The subject is always a different word, not there.

Is Jack in the garage? Is Peter there too?
Is somebody there?

CJ

Enoon · Answer

You can even say, "Is there anybody there?"

Is there .... Is anybody there?

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