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Anonymous Posted 16 years ago
Grammar

There is vs. there are

There is some sugar and cans of milk on the table. (using 'are' here doesn't sound right)

There are cans of milk and some sugar on the table. (using 'is' here doesn't sound right as well)

1. Do you think the linking verbs as to how they are used above is correct?
2. I understand they have the same subjects "sugar" and "cans of milk", however changing their order in the sentence, also changes the correct linking verb. Would you agree?

Please advise. Thank you.
  

Top answer

There is no absolute answer to this, as some speakers are considering the whole list of items as they speak (hence 'are') while others are considering only the next item to be mentioned (hence 'is' is the next item is singular or uncountable). It is this latter phenomenon, the phenomenon of proximal concord (the 'nearness effect') that makes is and are 'right' respectively in your sentences.

— Mister Micawber

  • There is no absolute answer to this, as some speakers are considering the whole list of items as they speak (hence 'are') while others are considering only the next item to be mentioned (hence 'is' is the next item is singular or uncountable).
  • It is this latter phenomenon, the phenomenon of proximal concord (the 'nearness effect') that makes is and are 'right' respectively in your sentences.
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4 Answers
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There is no absolute answer to this, as some speakers are considering the whole list of items as they speak (hence 'are') while others are considering only the next item to be mentioned (hence 'is' is the next item is singular or uncountable). It is this latter phenomenon, the phenomenon of proximal concord (the 'nearness effect') that makes is and are 'right' respectively in your
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Thank you, Mister Micawber. That makes sense to me now.

Just for clarification, suppose I change 'cans of milk' to singular 'can of milk' and suppose the speaker is considering the whole list of items as he speaks, do you think the following are still correct?

There are some sugar and a can of milk on the table.
There are a can of milk and some sugar
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I think that many native speakers use the more easily pronounced form there's over the more tongue-twisting there're. Other than that, I really have no druthers.
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I would go for "there's" if I were to write such sentences as many native speakers would do, as you mentioned.

Thanks so much for that clarification. Great help.
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