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there is / There are

Posted by michèle 2 · October 31, 2006 · 2 replies

Hi everyone!

I've a question for "there is and there are "
I know that you use " there is" to enumerate singular items
For example : there is a mask, a pair of glasses, a wig and a hat in the box.
But when there are singular and plural articles: do you have to add "there are" in the middle of the sentence to introduce the plural items ?for example:
there is a hat, a wig , and a pair of glasses and there are masks, gloves, costumes and shoes in the box.

Can you say : There is a hat, a wig, a pair of glasses, gloves, costumes and shoes in the box? ( even if the sentence begins with there's )

thanks for the explanation

Michèle

2 Replies

susan53

Hi Michèle,
This is a variation on the question Aldalu asked a while back- see the post on Subject-Verb Agreement and the answers there. But basically the answer is no : you could add in there are if you wanted to, but it's not obligatory - the verb takes its cue from the first noun in the list So : There's a hat, a wig, some gloves, some costumes and some shoes but There are some gloves, some costumes, some shoes, a hat and a wig
Notice incidentally that I've added some before the plurals. The normal use of there is/are is to quantify, and thus there's usually a quantifying expression (a/an, six, a lot of, a few etc) used with it. If the quantity is indefinite but plural, some is generally used.

michèle 2 OP

thanks a lot , Susan.