"There are" and "There is"?

"There is a banana and an apple on the floor."

"There are a banana and an apple on the floor."

"There are bananas and an apple on the floor."

"There is a banana and apples on the floor."

I'm confused with the rules of using "is" and "are." Please tell me which one is correct and which is not.

And based on what the verb has to be conjugated? Is it the total amount of the subject mentioned or is it just the first subject?

ygnim

Posted 2015-01-23T15:04:46.720

Reputation: 153

possible duplicate of There's vs There are. Even without the contraction, I think few if any native speakers would use *are* in *"There is only bread and cheese for supper"*.

– FumbleFingers Reinstate Monica – 2015-01-23T16:12:52.430

Here's another answer post "There is"/"There are" that might have info that might interest you. :)

– F.E. – 2015-01-23T23:44:50.273

Answers

It has to be "are" as verbs are conjugated in coherence with the complete subject. Omit the "there" to make it easier;

"A banana and an apple is on the floor"
or
"A banana and an apple are on the floor"

The first one is incorrect.
In the same way you would say:

My friend and I are going places.

AverageGatsby

Posted 2015-01-23T15:04:46.720

Reputation: 156

1Er, no. You can't omit the word "There". That word "There" is the subject of the OP's sentence. Subject-verb agreement involves the subject. – F.E. – 2015-01-23T20:35:11.937

Since you don't see "There" to be the subject, then what is the subject of the sentence? – F.E. – 2015-01-23T20:49:49.677

"a banana and an apple" – AverageGatsby – 2015-01-23T20:50:34.320

Can you show us any grammatical proof that "a banana and an apple" is the subject? (If you can, perhaps you could add it into your post.) – F.E. – 2015-01-23T20:52:24.983

2Here is one test that shows evidence that "There" is probably the subject of the sentence: subject-auxiliary verb inversion. In the OP's 1st example: "Is there* a banana and an apple on the floor?"* – F.E. – 2015-01-23T20:55:07.893

@F.E. Okay you got me. But it is worth to mention/consider that "there" never is a subject in other languages which are used to invert more consistently such as German or Danish (those i can affirm with certainty). In any case, doesn't this mean we are dealing with some form of constructio ad sensum? – AverageGatsby – 2015-01-23T21:56:41.107

Today's standard English has the existential construction, and some info on that is discussed in the links given in the comments under the OP's post. I'm kinda partial to this one: "There is"/"There are".

– F.E. – 2015-01-23T23:52:54.763

While a native speaker would probably not blink at speech that said, "There's a banana and an apple on the floor," it's not actually correct. "There is" is used primarily for singular nouns: "There is fruit on the floor." "There is cat fur on my coat." "There is someone at the door."

Meanwhile, "There are" is for plurals. "There are cats on my coat. There are oranges on the floor. There are people at the door."

While "fruit" counts as a singular, once you separate it out into "fruit 1 and fruit 2," it becomes plural, and therefore, uses "There are." AverageGatsby's answer basically gives a good rule of thumb on whether you can use "is" or "are."

A.Beth

Posted 2015-01-23T15:04:46.720

Reputation: 2 052

There is a banana & an apple on the floor.

Here, the "is" signifies that there's a single item of both.

There are bananas & apples on the floor.

Here, "are" signifies a multitude of said fruits, and hence the plural form.

Stark07

Posted 2015-01-23T15:04:46.720

Reputation: 658

"a banana and an apple is on the floor" is just incorrect. – AverageGatsby – 2015-01-23T15:56:29.963

@AverageGatsby - I have not mentioned that in my answer.. – Stark07 – 2015-01-24T05:58:57.873