THERE + is | are | was | were – English Grammar Profiler

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Although ‘There is’ and ‘There are’ is an A1 elementary piece of grammar, the noun phrases as complements are quite difficult for English learners.

The following sentences are corrected sentences from Thai students:

See uncorrected versions here.

Here are two A1 points in the English Grammar Profile: point 1 in the category of  VERBS:

there is/are + singular noun phrase as complement.

Point 8:

‘there are’ + plural noun phrase as complement.

In the Pearson’s Toolkit at A1:

‘there’ + ‘be’ to express presence/absence.

Note that there is no entry in either resource for the use of the past forms of BE = was/were.  So we believe it should probably be considered as A2.  For example:

There was a time when I was everything to you.

Try our ‘there is’ and ‘there are’ grammar exercise:

An iWeb search for:

there_EX * * * *

1 THERE ARE A LOT OF 145169 2 THERE ARE A NUMBER OF 126916 3 THERE IS A LOT OF 69717 4 THERE’S A LOT OF 63412 5 THERE IS NO NEED TO 50898 6 THERE ARE A COUPLE OF 34803

7 THERE IS NO WAY TO 34134

There is no way to tell his story

 without telling my own.

listen

8 THERE WAS A LOT OF 29099

So I went into your office

 to get your jacket to take to the cleaners 

and there was a lot of money in that pocket.

listen

9 THERE IS NO DOUBT THAT 25712
10 THERE’S NO NEED TO 25443 (note that “is” can be contracted)

There’s no need to be afraid.

listen

11 THERE ARE A VARIETY OF 25146 12 THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF 24731 13 THERE IS NO SUCH THING 24183 14 THERE ARE MANY WAYS TO 22941 15 THERE ARE A FEW THINGS 21625 16 THERE WERE A LOT OF 21185 17 THERE IS NO REASON TO 19308

18 THERE SEEMS TO BE A 19185 (other verbs are possible in this structure)

There seems to be a problem with my system.

listen

19 THERE ARE QUITE A FEW 18178 20 THERE IS NO NEED FOR 18038 21 THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH 16683 22 THERE IS A WAY TO 15540 23 THERE ARE TWO WAYS TO 15189 24 THERE’S A GOOD CHANCE 13421 25 THERE WAS A TIME WHEN 13295 26 THERE’S NO WAY TO 13229 27 THERE’S GOING TO BE 12926 28 THERE’S NOTHING WRONG WITH 12555 29 THERE IS A GOOD CHANCE 11988 30 THERE ARE SEVERAL WAYS TO 11617 31 THERE WILL ALSO BE A 11564 32 THERE ARE SO MANY DIFFERENT 11125 33 THERE IS MORE THAN ONE 11047 34 THERE ARE A TON OF 11001

35 THERE HAS TO BE A 10820

There has to be a way to fix this.

listen

36 THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN 10744 37 THERE ARE PLENTY OF OTHER 10616 38 THERE IS NO EVIDENCE THAT 10499 39 THERE ARE GOING TO BE 10395 40 THERE IS A NEED FOR 10372 41 THERE ARE ONLY A FEW 10062 42 THERE’S NO REASON TO 10050 43 THERE IS A LOT TO 9794 44 THERE NEEDS TO BE A 9778 45 THERE IS SO MUCH TO 9722

46 THERE WERE A NUMBER OF 9587

There were a number of people

 who wanted to talk to you.

listen

47 THERE HAS BEEN A LOT 9384 48 THERE’S A LOT TO 9383 49 THERE IS NO SHORTAGE OF 9367 50 THERE IS A NEED TO 9315 51 THERE ARE , HOWEVER , 9282 52 THERE ARE SO MANY THINGS 9162 53 THERE IS A PROBLEM WITH 8989 54 THERE IS GOING TO BE 8914 55 THERE IS NO GUARANTEE THAT 8773 56 THERE’S NO DOUBT THAT 8700 57 THERE HAS NEVER BEEN A 8483 58 THERE WILL BE PLENTY OF 8470 59 THERE’S A LOT MORE 8463 60 THERE IS A LACK OF 8303 61 THERE IS NO REASON WHY 8285 62 THERE IS , HOWEVER , 8247 63 THERE ARE MANY TYPES OF 8032 64 THERE ARE MANY DIFFERENT TYPES 7932 65 THERE ARE DIFFERENT TYPES OF 7855 66 THERE IS NO LIMIT TO 7807 67 THERE IS NO QUESTION THAT 7764 68 THERE’S NO SUCH THING 7585 69 THERE ARE THREE TYPES OF 7475 70 THERE ARE MANY REASONS WHY 7451 71 THERE IS A LOT MORE 7416 72 THERE WILL BE A LOT 7261 73 THERE IS A GREAT DEAL 7177 74 THERE WERE A COUPLE OF 7160 75 THERE IS SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE 6912 76 THERE SEEMS TO BE NO 6909 77 THERE WILL ALWAYS BE A 6896 78 THERE ARE ALSO A NUMBER 6852 79 THERE IS A BIT OF 6826 80 THERE ARE A BUNCH OF 6770 81 THERE ARE SO MANY WAYS 6731

82 THERE DOESN’T SEEM TO 6684

There doesn’t seem to be anything more to say.

listen

83 THERE ARE A FEW DIFFERENT 6673 84 THERE ARE A FEW WAYS 6628 85 THERE IS A CHANCE THAT 6625 86 THERE HAVE BEEN A FEW 6622 87 THERE IS NO POINT IN 6617 88 THERE IS SUCH A THING 6568 89 THERE’S NOT A LOT 6543 90 THERE ARE A FEW OTHER 6484 91 THERE ARE TWO KINDS OF 6439 92 THERE ARE A TOTAL OF 6428 93 THERE IS SO MUCH MORE 6426 94 THERE ARE SEVERAL TYPES OF 6329 95 THERE ARE OTHER WAYS TO 6216 96 THERE IS NO BETTER WAY 6214 97 THERE ARE MANY , MANY 6195 98 THERE’S NO NEED FOR 6194 99 THERE WAS A WAY TO 6129

100 THERE ARE ALL KINDS OF 6122