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Sesquipedalian101 Posted 20 years ago
Grammar

There is/are

While my friend strongly feels that it should be "is" in the following sentence, I feel, grammar demands that it ought to be "are"

1. There is/are a cooler and a cooker in the room.

2. There is/are a letter for Jane and a message for Christy.

In the first sentence, there are two things --- a cooler and a cooker. My argument, therefore, is the verb should be "are"? If "is" is correct, then, what about in the following sentences?

3. There ____ a ruler, a pencil, an eraser, a sharpener and a nail clipper on the table.

4.Sgt John: "Cpl Mary, have we found anything that would be of interest to us?"

Cpl Mary: "Well, there ___ a letter to James, a message on the fridge for his son, Vincent, a pen knife on the floor and some marbles in the chair".

Please help clear my doubts.
  

Top answer

Selvakumar While my friend strongly feels that it should be "is" in the following sentence, I feel, grammar demands that it ought to be "are" 1. There is / are a cooler and a cooker in the room. 2.

— Philip

  • Selvakumar While my friend strongly feels that it should be "is" in the following sentence, I feel, grammar demands that it ought to be "are" 1.
  • There is / are a cooler and a cooker in the room.
  • 2.
  • There is / are a letter for Jane and a message for Christy.
  • In the first sentence, there are two things --- a cooler and a cooker.
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41 Answers
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SelvakumarWhile my friend strongly feels that it should be "is" in the following sentence, I feel, grammar demands that it ought to be "are"

1. There is/are a cooler and a cooker in the room.

2. There is/are
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I don't know what verb native speakers would use but I would say ARE.
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'is', every time. 'are' sounds odd, if not ungrammatical, to me. i would also write 'is'.

SelvakumarWhile my friend strongly feels that it should be "is" in the following sentence, I feel, grammar demands that it ought to be "are"

depends what you mean by 'grammar' - a term with various meanings.

any comprehensive grammar (a book
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Selvakumar, sorry, I was wrong!

I have just read in an English Grammar text-book that it is correct to use IS there. Absolutely!!!

And you should use IS in the examples #3 and #4, too.

:-)
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YOU win.

When you have there plus verb plus subject, the verb agrees with the subject as you suspected..

If the subject is plural, use are. If the subject is singular, use is.

There ARE a cooker and a cooler in the room. (a cooker and a cooler-subject; are-verb.

Ikia
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I think I'd say "there is":

1. There is a cooler and (there is) a cooker in the room.

MrP
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MrPedanticI think I'd say "there is":

1. There is a cooler and (there is) a cooker in the room.

MrP

I don't know if your "understood repetition" of the intro is correct or not, but it's going to be the reason I offer in the future. Thanks much, MrP!
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Selvakumar
While my friend strongly feels that it should be "is" in the following sentence, I feel, grammar demands that it ought to be "are"
1. There is/are a cooler and a cooker in the room.
In the first sentence, there are two things --- a cooler and a cooker.
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I've always been taught that, if the first noun of the list is singular, then it is "there is"

P.S.: It was a great party, wasn't it?
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-What's there in that house?

- There is/are three ghosts and a mouse.
- There is/are many spiders in that house.
- There is/are an old witch and a young girl.
- There is/are Gertrud and Katharina.

When do we use 'is', and when do we use 'are' in these answers?

This is also confusing me a lot.
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