Grammar: A2 - ✨ Grammar Essentials: 🏗️ Sentence Structure - Expanding - Lesson 3: "There is / There are" (Describing existence/location)

✨ Lesson 3: "There is / There are" (Describing Existence & Location)

Today, we will learn a very common and useful sentence structure in English: There is and There are.

We use this structure to say that something exists¹ or is in a certain place. It's the perfect way to start a description² of a room, a city, or a situation.

The Rules: Singular, Plural, and Uncountable

The rule is simple and connects to our lessons on nouns.

Use 'There is' for ONE thing (singular) or for uncountable nouns.
The contraction is There's.

• There is a big temple called Angkor Wat. (Singular)
• There's an airport in Siem Reap. (Singular)
• There is a lot of traffic in the morning. (Uncountable)
• Is there any water? Yes, there is some in the bottle. (Uncountable)

Use 'There are' for TWO OR MORE things (plural).

• There are many beautiful temples to visit.
• There are a lot of tourists on Pub Street.
• There are three people waiting for a tuk-tuk.

Questions and Negatives

To make questions, we invert the verb, just like with 'be'. To make negatives, we add 'not'.

Type	Example
Question	Is there a swimming pool at your hotel? Are there any good restaurants nearby?
Negative	There isn't much time. There aren't any tickets left.
Strong Negative	There is no reason to be angry. There are no empty seats.

🧠 Practice Quiz: Choose 'is' or 'are'

Complete the sentences with is or are.

1. There _____ many people on the street.
   → are
2. There _____ a famous market called the Old Market.
   → is
3. Is there any coffee? Yes, there _____ some in the kitchen.
   → is (coffee is uncountable)
4. There _____ several beautiful parks in the city.
   → are
5. Excuse me, _____ there a post office near here?
   → is

📝 Homework: Describe Your Room

Look around your room or house. Write three sentences to describe what you see. Use 'There is' and 'There are'.

Example: There is a big bed in my room. There are two windows. There is a lot of light.

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1: ___________________________________

2: ___________________________________

3: ___________________________________

Vocabulary Glossary

1. Exist: (Verb) - មាន (mean) - To be real; to be present in a place. ↩
2. Description: (Noun) - ការពិពណ៌នា (kaa pĭpôrnĕə'nā) - A spoken or written account of what someone or something is like. ↩