There is a table and a chair in the living room.
As nobody has replied to my question, I thought that perhaps it's best to start my own thread. Admittedly, I did hijack the other thread for my own purposes.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
nelson13 
I have that book by Martin Hewings, but I can honestly tell you that Mr Hewings will even say THERE IS A TABLE AND A CHAIR is standard English.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
5jj I haven't a copy of Advanced Grammar in Use to hand, but I would be surprised if Hewings said that that was standard English.
I do not understand why nelson13, 5jj and bhaisahab (who liked 5jj's post) object to this construction. I'm missing something, but I don't know what.
What is wrong with 'There is a table and a chair in the living room'? The verb agrees with its nearest complement, so why is this sentence problematic?
Quote:
And why then do we say: There is a chair and a table in this room NOT There are a chair and a table in this room?
[...]
there is / there are In your example of there is, Tanya, it is as if the items are being counted separately: There’s a chair and there’s a table in the room SO there’s a chair and table in the room. But note: There are three chairs and a table in the room. There’s a table and three chairs in the room. Learning English | BBC World Service
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Rover_KE Normally, the verb agrees with its nearest complement.
'There is an apple and three pears in the fruit bowl.'
Anyone care to comment?
Thank you in advance.
Re: There is a table and a chair in the living room.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Chicken Sandwich I do not understand why nelson13, 5jj and bhaisahab (who liked 5jj's post) object to this construction.
I don't object to the construction. I merely said that I would be surprised if this sentence, as it stands were considered standard English. Quote:
What is wrong with 'There is a table and a chair in the living room'? The verb agrees with its nearest complement, so why is this sentence problematic?
That is not the sentence I was talking about.
Re: There is a table and a chair in the living room.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
5jj That is not the sentence I was talking about.
I see. OK, you were talking about 'There is a table and a chair.' As nelson13 chose to capitalise all the letters, I thought that he objected to the fragment with regard to the verb form (the subject matter of the thread).
I've taken a quick look at the relevant pages in Advanced Grammar in Use (second edition) and this sentence is nowhere to be found.
