Difference between There can't be and There isn't ?

Hello.

What are the difference between those sentence?


1. There can't be many people who haven't had difficulty putting up a tent at some time


2. There isn't many people who haven't had difficulty putting up a tent at some time

drownedbd said:

Hello.

What are the difference between those sentence?


1. There can't be many people who haven't had difficulty putting up a tent at some time


2. There isn't many people who haven't had difficulty putting up a tent at some time

Click to expand...

#2 is incorrect with "isn't".

drownedbd said:

Hello.

What are the differences between these sentences?


1. There can't be many people who haven't had difficulty putting up a tent at some time.


2. There isn't many people who haven't had difficulty putting up a tent at some time.

Click to expand...

Two things:

First, #1 is grammatical. #2 is not. Isn't is singular. People is plural (for person). The verb and noun should always both be singular or both be plural.

Second, they have different meanings.

- There can't be means it's impossible. There can't be oak trees growing on the moon.

- There isn't and there aren't simply mean it's not true. It might be impossible (There aren't oak trees on the moon) or possible (There isn't a TV in my apartment).

Though it is an assumption about the impossibility here- the person doesn't know it for a fact.