There is / there are

We use there is / there are in the following way:

There is	There are
We use “there is” for one item (singular nouns)	We use “there are” for a number of items (plural nouns)
We use “there is” for non-count items (non-count nouns)

There is a bird in the tree. – a bird – singular noun
There is some water in the jug. – water – non-count noun
There are some birds in the tree. – birds – plural noun

	singular	plural
affirmative	There is…       (there’s)	There are…
negative	Is there…?	Are there…?
question	There is not… (there isn’t)	There are not… (there aren’t)

There’s an outdoor swimming pool in front of the house.
There isn’t any money in the purse.
Excuse me, is there a bank near here?
There are some good films on at the cinema this week.
This restaurant isn’t very popular. There aren’t many people there.
How many days are there in a week?

Remember that we use «There…» when we mention something for the first time and say that it exists. However, when we continue talking about the same thing, giving details about this item, we use «It…».

There is		It is
There’s a book on the table.		I like this book. It’s interesting.
(it’s the first time we mention this item)		(it = this book)

There’s a train at 3 p.m. It’s a fast train. – (it = the 3 p.m. train)
There’s too much salt in this soup. It’s too salty. – (it = this soup)

We use it for time / day / distance / weather:

What time is it?
It’s past midnight.
It’s late.
It’s time to go to bed.

What day is it?
It’s Friday.
It’s 30 July.
It’s my birthday today.

How far is it from London to Bristol?
It’s only a mile from our house to the city centre.
It’s a long way from here to the airport.
We can walk to the hotel. It isn’t far.

It’s frosty.
It didn’t snow yesterday.
Does it snow very often?
It’s a nice day today.

Упражнения

Beginner

Упражнения на перевод предложений с there is и there are
Упражнения на перевод предложений с there is и there are

Упражнения на There is и There are

Elementary 

Упражнения на конструкцию There VS

 

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