Grammar ~20 min of the core left

Describe your home

After this lesson you can

I can say what there is in my flat and where things are.

Start the lesson Core 18–20 min · steps: 6 · optional: +2

Declared core time. Two of the core blocks carry no figure at all, so the real lesson is longer than this sum.

Grammar

4 min

There is and there are say that something exists in a place. Many languages say this with no verb at all, or with the verb "have"; English needs this construction.

There is a table in my room.	one thing (singular)
There are two windows in my room.	more than one thing (plural)
Is there a lift in your building?	a question
There isn't a lift. / There aren't two rooms.	a negative
Yes, there is. / No, there isn't.	a short answer

The choice between is and are depends on what comes AFTER, not before: There is a table, There are two tables.

Prepositions of place:

preposition
in	inside
on	on top of, touching
under	below
next to	at the side of, very near
between	in the middle of two things
in front of	at the front of
behind	at the back of

Common learner errors

written for your language

A sentence without a verb

✗ In my room a table

✓ There is a table in my room

In Arabic and some other languages "in my room — a table" is a full sentence with no verb. In English a sentence always needs a verb, so you must remember there is.

has instead of there is

✗ In my room has a table

✓ There is a table in my room

Chinese (yǒu), Vietnamese (có), Thai (mii), Indonesian and Malay (ada) and Brazilian Portuguese (tem) use the same word for "have" and "there is". In English has only means that someone owns something.

There is or It is

There is a table — we say that a table exists. It is a table — we say WHAT this thing is. ✗ It is a table in my room — this is wrong. Learners of many first languages make this mistake.

The number of the whole list, not of the first thing

✗ There are a table and two chairs — English looks at the FIRST thing in the list: There is a table and two chairs. Spanish (hay), French (il y a), Portuguese (há) and Chinese (yǒu) have one form for one thing and for many, so learners also say ✗ There is two windows → ✓ There are two windows.

Pronunciation

3 min

there starts with the voiced /ð/ — the same sound as in this and mother from lesson 4: /ðeə/. Not "zair" and not "dair".

In connected speech the construction gets shorter: there is → there's /ðeəz/. There are has no full short form, but are sounds weak — /ə/.

Text

3 min

This is my flat. There is one big room and a small kitchen. There are two windows in my room. There is a table next to my bed. My books are on my table. There isn't a lift in my building. There are five flats on my floor.

Reading aloud

Exercises

8–10 min

1. Gap fill.

a big table in my room
two chairs next to my table
a lift in my building?
five flats on my floor

Show the answers

There is, There are, Is there, There are.

2. Gap fill.

My books are my table
My bed is the window and my table
There is a cat my chair

Show the answers

on, between, under.

3. Error correction.

In my room a big table.
There are a table in my room.
It is a lamp on my table.

Show the answers

There is a big table in my room / In my room there is a big table; There is a table in my room; There is a lamp on my table.

4. Matching.

Preposition → meaning. under, next to, behind, in front of → at the side, below, at the front, at the back

Show the answers

under — below, next to — at the side, behind — at the back, in front of — at the front.

Summary

Covered

there is / there are in all forms
seven prepositions of place

Next — lesson 14: the article the and demonstratives (words that point at things).

End of the core

The lesson counts as done once the exercises are done. Everything after this is optional.

Lesson 14

optional

Vocabulary for your deck

14 words

flat /flæt/ a home on one floor of a building
room /ruːm/ a part of a home with walls and a door
kitchen /ˈkɪtʃɪn/ the room where you cook
bathroom /ˈbɑːθruːm/ the room with a bath or a shower
window /ˈwɪndəʊ/ glass in a wall that lets in light
door /dɔː/ you open it to go into a room
table /ˈteɪbl/ furniture with a flat top and legs
chair /tʃeə/ a seat for one person
bed /bed/ you sleep in it
lamp /læmp/ a thing that gives light
wall /wɔːl/ a side of a room or a building
floor /flɔː/ the part of a room you walk on; a level of a building
lift /lɪft/ it takes you up and down in a building
next to /ˈnekst tuː/ at the side of, very near

Writing

Five sentences about your room: what there is in it and where things are.

Example

This is my room. There is a big table next to the window. There are two chairs. My books are on my table. There isn't a television.

Checklist

is there a verb in every sentence?
is is or are chosen by what comes after it?

The draft is saved on this device

Practise this lesson in the other sections

Dictationbased on this lesson Write down what you hear. The check shows every word that differs, and how. Write the dictation Reading aloudbased on this lesson Read the lesson text aloud — speech recognition highlights the words it did not catch. Read the text aloud Reading and listeningA1–C1 Texts at every level with comprehension questions; the transcript opens after you answer. Try it

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