There Is / There Are & Delayed Subjects

When a sentence begins with there is or there are, it's surprisingly easy to grab the wrong one — even for people who never normally muddle their verbs. The reason is sneaky. In a normal sentence the subject comes first, so your ear matches the verb to it without thinking: the dog is barking. But sentences that start with there put the little word there in the subject's usual spot, and your brain latches onto it. The catch is that there is a stand-in, not the real subject — so it can't decide anything. The verb has to reach past there and match whatever comes after it. Get into that habit and this whole family of sentences becomes easy.

The rule: "there" isn't the real subject

There simply opens the door and lets the sentence in; the real subject follows the verb, and the verb agrees with that:

There is a spider. (one spider → is) There are three spiders. (spiders → are)

Grammar people call this an "existential there", because the sentence is announcing that something exists. You don't need the fancy name — you just need to remember that there is a placeholder. The word that truly runs the sentence is sitting a little further along, and that's the word your verb must obey. A quick way to check: turn the sentence round. There are three spiders becomes Three spiders are (there) — now the plural subject is obvious.

Match what follows

Here the rule is on show again and again — always look to the noun straight after the verb:

There is a book on the table. (a book → singular) There are lots of options. (options → plural) There was a queue outside. → There were two queues outside. There is one biscuit left. → There are several biscuits left.

Notice how the verb quietly changes — is/are, was/were — to follow the noun each time, while there just sits there unchanged. If you can find that following noun and decide whether it's one thing or many, you've already chosen the verb.

The tricky list

What happens when a list of things comes after there? Strictly, a list of items is plural, but in everyday writing we very often match the verb to the first item, because that's the word the verb bumps into first:

There is a pen, a ruler and some paper in the tin. (first item = "a pen" → is)

This one has a bit of give in it. There are a pen, a ruler and some paper isn't wrong, but it can sound stiff, which is why matching the first item is so common and reads more naturally. If the very first thing in the list is plural, use a plural verb: There are three pens and a ruler in the tin.

Watch out — don't say "there's" for plurals in careful writing

In speech, almost everybody says "there's lots of people" or "there's loads of reasons", and nobody blinks. The problem is that there's is short for there is, so with a plural noun it's really saying there is lots of people — which doesn't match. In relaxed talking that's fine and nobody's marking it; on the page, though, a reader has time to notice, and a marker is actively looking:

✗ There's too many cars here. → ✓ There are too many cars here. ✓ There are lots of people. (people → plural)

So the rule of thumb is simple: enjoy your casual there's when you're chatting, but switch it off the moment you pick up a pen for anything that gets read carefully.

An edge case: the delayed plural

Sometimes a sentence opens with a singular-sounding word but a plural is waiting further down, and you have to hold your nerve: There remain a few problems to solve. The verb still matches the real subject (problems), even though it arrives late. And beware being pulled the other way by a plural sitting inside an of phrase: There is a box of matches on the shelf — the subject is a box (singular), not matches.

A second angle: read the sentence backwards

If you're ever stuck, flip the sentence so the real subject comes first, the way it would in a plain statement. There ___ three dogs in the yard becomes Three dogs ___ in the yard. Now the placeholder there is out of the way and your ear can hear that three dogs are is obviously right. Do the same with a singular: There ___ a dog in the yard becomes A dog ___ in the yard — clearly is. This backwards trick works because it puts the subject back where English usually keeps it, in front of the verb, where your instinct has had years of practice. Once you've done it a few times on paper, you'll start doing it automatically in your head, and the there is / there are choice will stop needing any thought at all.

Why it matters

"There is/are" sentences are everywhere — you use them to introduce new information, to describe a scene in a story, to set out findings in a report. Because they're so common, a wrong one gets a lot of exposure, and the there's-for-everything habit is one of the most frequent slips a marker sees. Fixing it is a quick, visible win: it shows you can find the true subject of a sentence even when English has hidden it behind a placeholder. That skill — looking past the obvious first word to the word that really matters — is exactly the same muscle you use for attraction errors and other agreement traps, so it pays off far beyond this one construction.

Quick check

is or are?

1. There ___ a mistake on this page.

2. There ___ too many cars here.

3. There ___ a coat and two bags in the hall.

4. There ___ several reasons for this.

5. There ___ a bowl of cherries on the side.

6. There ___ some sandwiches left over.

Where next

• Subject–Verb Agreement — the core rule.
• Existential "There" — how "there" introduces things.
• Attraction Errors — being tricked by the wrong noun.