2. ‘There’ as Impersonal Subject
‘There’ is often an adverb of place.
Are you comfortable there?
The book is there on the table.
3. ‘There’ as Impersonal Subject
You can also use ‘there’ as the impersonal
subject of a sentence when it does not refer to
a place. In this case you use ‘there’ to
introduce new information and to focus upon
it. After ‘there’ you use a form of ‘be’ and a
noun group.
4. ‘There’ as Impersonal Subject
There is work to be done.
There will be a party tonight.
There was no damage.
There have been two telephone calls.
Note: The impersonal subject ‘there’ is often
pronounced without stress, whereas the
adverb is almost always stressed.
5. ‘There’ as Impersonal Subject
You use ‘there’ as the impersonal subject to
talk about:
• the existence or presence of someone or
something.
There are two people who might know what
happened.
There is plenty of bread.
6. ‘There’ as Impersonal Subject
• something that happens
There was a general election that year.
There’s a meeting every week.
There was a fierce battle.
7. ‘There’ as Impersonal Subject
• a number or amount
There are forty of us, I think.
There is a great deal of anger about his
decision.
There were a lot of people camped there.
8. ‘There’ as Impersonal Subject
When the noun group after the verb is plural,
you use a plural verb.
There are many reasons for this.
There were two men in the room.
9. ‘There’ as Impersonal Subject
You also use a plural verb before phrases such
as ‘a number (of)’, ‘a lot (of)’, and ‘a few (of)’.
There were a lot of people camped there.
There are only a few left.
10. ‘There’ as Impersonal Subject
When the noun group after the verb is
singular or uncountable, you use a singular
verb.
There is one point we must add here.
There isn’t enough room in here.
11. ‘There’ as Impersonal Subject
You also use a singular verb when you are
mentioning more than one person or thing
and the first noun after the verb is singular or
uncountable.
There was a man and a woman.
There was a sofa and two chairs.
12. ‘There’ as Impersonal Subject
You can also use ‘there’ with a modal,
followed by ‘be’ or ‘have been’.
There could be a problem.
There should be a change in government.
There can’t have been anybody outside.
There must have been some mistake.
13. ‘There’ as Impersonal Subject
In spoken and informal written English, short
forms of ‘be’ or a modal are normally used
after ‘there’.
There’s no danger.
There’ll always be a future for music.
I knew there’d be trouble.
I didn’t know there’d been a murder.
14. ‘There’ as Impersonal Subject
You can also use ‘there’ with ‘appear’ or
‘seem’, followed by ‘to be’ or ‘to have been’.
There appears to be a vast amount of
confusion on this point.
There don’t seem to be many people on
campus.
