there is / there are
英语 A1 知识点 5 4:40 英语旁白 · 英中内嵌字幕
章节
文本转录
How do you say that something exists? Chinese uses you: zhuo shang you yi ben shu. English does not let the table have the book. Instead it sends a little word called there to the front of the sentence: there is a book on the table. Thing first, place last, the exact opposite of Chinese order. And note: this there is not the place word there. It is a grammar worker with no meaning of its own. Same face, different job.
The verb matches the thing that follows it. One thing: there is a cat on the roof. Many things: there are two cats on the roof. Uncountable stuff, like water, behaves as one: there is some water in the bottle. Speaking uses the short form there's constantly: there's a problem. But writing has no short form there-re, so write there are in full. And with a list, the first item wears the uniform for the whole list: there is a pen, two books and an eraser in my bag.
Pause and choose. There is some water in the bottle. Water is uncountable, and uncountable stuff behaves as one, so is. It is would describe the water, not announce its existence, and the plural forms are waiting for a countable crowd that never arrives.
The negative has two costumes. The everyday default is not any: there isn't any milk, there aren't any students here. The short and strong version is no: there is no milk, there are no students here. Same job, different flavour. Pick one per sentence; there isn't no milk is a double negative, and two walls make a door nobody wanted.
Good news: the flip from topic one is back, unchanged. There is a bank near here becomes is there a bank near here. The short answer keeps there: yes, there is; no, there isn't. Never just yes, there; the worker does not work alone. And questions usually prefer any over some: is there any milk? One flip, learned once, used forever.
Pause and choose. Are there eggs in the fridge? Plural eggs, so are flips forward. Option two is the question-mark-only approach, spoken surprise rather than a question. Option three invited do, who is not needed when be is already present. Option four kept the singular is in front of a plural crowd.
The deepest trap is word order. Chinese says zhuo shang you yi ben shu: place first, then the thing. English flips it: there is a book on the table; the thing first, the place last. Translate directly and the sentence lands backwards every time. And a cousin of the same trap: the table has a book, modelled on zhuozi you yi ben shu. In English the table owns nothing. The book simply exists, and the table is just where it happens.
Pause and choose. There is a party tonight. Existence takes there is. It is describes the party once it exists. The night has a party gives the night property rights it never asked for. And have a party tonight is an invitation, not an announcement; you may attend either way.
Describe your world aloud. There are thirty students in my class, and one very tired teacher. There is a good noodle shop near my home; there aren't any bad ones, and if that is not true, lie confidently, because truth is optional and grammar is not. Then ask and answer: is there a gym near here? No, there isn't. The noodles won. Thing first, place last, every single time.
Pause for four checks. One thing takes there is, many things take there are, and water counts as one. The negative is there isn't any milk, or short and strong, there is no milk. The question flips: is there a bank near here, answered yes, there is, keeping there. And zhuo shang you yi ben shu becomes there is a book on the table, because the order flips. Next topic: have got, the other way to own things.