Plural problem

Are is correct. An orange, an apple and a pear constitute a plural subject. [An orange, an apple, and a pear are on the plate.]

There are/is and it is are called dummy subjects or expletives that fill in for the subject before the verb.

-There are many people here. [Many people are here.]
-There is only one person here. [Only one person is

'There is an orange, an apple and (a) pear' on the plate' to 'There are an orange, (an) apple and (a) pear on the plate.'

A.

i) There is an orange on the plate.

ii)There is an an apple on the plate.

iii) There is a pear on the plate.

If you combine above three sentences into one compound

To rvw,

How about the following sentence,

"There is a man and a woman in the room."?

Is it correct or not??

I would say "There are a man and a woman in the room." just as I would say "There are three children, a man, and a woman in the room."

Oh? I think it's not that easy. What about:

There is Good and Bad. There is day and night. There is hope and recovery. There is sadness and grief... There is anger and rage... There is poverty and hunger and war in the world.

I thought it was about the abstract character of the first element, but it seems that it's not the only factor.

I googled for: "there is *

Please visit and .

I'd choose

There is an orange, an apple and a pear' on the plate

In the structure "there be", "be" should be consistent with the first subject coming after it.

an orange is a single noun, so here "be" should be "is" not "are"

About there is, there are Webster's Dictionary of English Usage says:

Jesperson notes that the invariable singular occurs mostly in the colloquial style -- speech and speechlike prose -- and is generally avoided in the literary style. That observation accords with our evidence. In the more complex constructions, you are best guided by your own sense of wha