There + be
| Positive | Question | Negative |
| There is / there s There are | Is there . . . ? Ate there … ? | There is not / isn’t Theie are not / aren’t |
— Are there many things in that room? — No, there aren’t.
— Which room’s that? — It’s the bedroom.
— Is me sister’s flat comfortable?
— How many rooms are there in her flat?
Use: You use there as the impersonal subject to show that
1. something or somebody is / are, was / were or will be in a place.
There is a paper on the desk.
2. something or somebody exists in a general sense.
There will be a students’ party tomorrow. In Russian the sentences like this normally start with an adverbial modifier of place or time.
NOTE: a) There is / are, etc. stands before the subject, which usually contains a determiner, like a /an, some /any, much / many, a lot of / lots of etc. or no +one, body, thing, where.
There will be nowhere for us to go.
b) When the noun group after the verb is plural, you use a plural verb. When the noun group is singular or uncountable, you use a singular verb.
There were two people in the room. There is a cushion on the sofa.
c) In sentences with the introductory there the predicate is usually the verb to be, occasionally some other verbs are found, such as modal verbs, to seem, to appear, followed by be or have been and also to live, to come, to occur etc.
There could be a problem.
There seems to be a lot of people on campus.
Once upon a time, in a small country town there lived a
little man.
d) We use there in tag — questions.
There is some milk in the carton, isn’t there?
Practice
1. Rephrase the sentences using there:
a) Model: A good clothes shop is not far from here. — There is a good clothes shop not far from here.
1. Two men are at the door. 2. A photograph of that girl was in last week’s magazine. 3. A new security system will be in operation from next week. 4. A lot of supporters will be at the match. 5. A public holiday is on July 4th. 6. A meeting between the two world leaders will be in Helsinki.
b) Model: I can see a man at the corner.
There is a man at the corner.
1.1 can’t see anybody here. 2.1 found only two mistakes in his dictation. 3. He noticed two more cars behind the house. 4. He doesn’t have any pictures on the walls in his room. 5. I can see a cat lying on the floor. 6. I haven’t got any money in my purse.
2. Use it is or there is / are in the following sentences.
1. … very wet today, … impossible to go out. 2. … a thick fog last week. … usually a lot of accidents in such bad weather. 3. … foolish to drive fast when … foggy or rainy. 4. … interesting to go sightseeing in any unknown city. 5. … a lot of places of interest in ancient towns of this country. 6. … time to go home, … a lot of work to do there. 7. … all sorts of stories about Robin Hood. 8. … a pity you can’t go with us. 9. … only one cigarette in the box. 10. … important to know the details.
3. You are on a business trip in England. Find out about a partner’s place of work.
Ask questions about the building . Use the words below and begin:
Is the building …? Is there a(n) …? Are there any …?
1. modern 6. large car park
2. restaurant 7. bus stop nearby
4. air conditioning system 9. coffee machine
5. separate rooms for smokers
EX. Make questions :
- There’s a blackboard in our class-room. 2. There are some English books on the table. 3. There were very many mistakes in your dictation. 4. There’s a new grammar rule in Lesson Four. 5. There was a telegram on the table. 6. There was too little ink in my pen to write to letters.
Describe the Picture:
turkeyua 