Chicken Sandwich
Senior Member
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- Jun 20, 2010
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- Interested in Language
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- Russian
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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.
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?
Anyone care to comment?
Thank you in advance.
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.
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?
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
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.