"there exists" or "there exist"

To exist = to be: therefore, there are/exist two mechanisms....

Thanks... Appraciate it.

The subject of the sentence is not "there". "there" is only a placeholder, and represents the real subject, be it singular or plural. The real subject follows the verb. In this sentence it is "two mechanisms."

There doesn't stand for the subject! It's both a location complement and a sign of the impersonal. The subject here is just two mechanisms. Since Two mechanisms exist would be considered clumsy phrasing we usually use the impersonal indicatied by the there and the verb-subject order inversion.

I agree with Philip, but I've heard "There IS a lot of..." in both British and American films I don't know how many times, and it's confusing. I've spent 25 years teaching students "There ARE a lot of + plural countable noun"... Have I been teaching them incorrectly? Mind you, I'm not a native speaker, just a country schoolmaster.

The rules are:

There IS a lot of [singular] ...

There ARE a lot of [plural] ...

In ordinary conversation, the following pattern is often used. Note the contracted form.

THERE'S a lot of [singular OR plural] ...

Much more rarely:

THERE IS a lot of [singular OR plural] ...

CJ

there exists

There exists two mechanisms

Both are wrong. "exist" is used on its own or "there is" or "there are" can be used. "there + exist" does not exist as a phrase.

The verb "exists" corresponds to third person singular: I exist, You exist, He exists. This added "s" at the end of the verb does not indicate plural.

Adding a final "s" to the verb "exist" ("There exists two mechanisms") seems to me a mistranslation of the Spanish "Existen dos mecanismos", which is plural.

So, "two mechanisms exist", or "one mechanism exists".

The be