English · Chapter 2 · Lesson 7 · Grammar primer

There is and there are

How English says something exists: there is one man, there are two people. Plus there isn't, and Is there...?

The short version

Say there is, not it has, for what exists

Many languages use a word like have to say that something exists in a place. English uses there is and there are. Keep have for owning things.

There is a bank near here.

Not It has a bank near here.

There is first, then it is

There is brings in something new. It is tells you more about that thing. A good pair of sentences often uses both, in that order.

There's a café near here. It's very good.

The first sentence says the café exists; the second describes it.

That's the gist. The full article goes deeper - more examples, the edge cases, the why - and the practice below scores like a vocabulary session and earns the same XP.

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