Coba bandingkan kedua kalimat berikut:

1. “A fly is in my soup.”
2. “There is a fly in my soup!”

Kalimat pertama adalah kalimat faktual dan impersonal. The fly (lalat) adalah subjek, dan soup (sop) adalah objek. Dalam kalimat ke-dua objek adalah “a fly in my soup”, sehingga subjek adalah “There”. “There” berfungsi sebagai sebuah jenis subjek sulih (dummy) yang mewakili perspektif yang lebih personal ketimbang pernyataan faktual.

Terkhusus dalam bahasa Inggris lisan kita biasanya menggunakan singkatan.

Berikut bentuk-bentuk “there” dalam kalimat Simple Present.

There is digunakan bersama kata benda tunggal. Contoh:

• There is a book on the table

There are digunakan bersama kata benda jamak. Contoh:

• There are two magazines on the desk.

Akan tetapi, terkadang kita dapat menggunakan “There is” bersama dengan subjek ganda, misalnya:

• There’s a bank and apost office near my house.

Contoh penggunaan dalam percakapan

1) Tyler, do you like London?
Sure, there are lots of restaurants and shops, and there’s a lot of beautiful parks and museums as well.
I really want to live there.
Me too!

2) Hey, this is a great apartment.
Thanks. There’s a lot of space, and there are some really nice neighbors as well.
Are there any stores near here?
Sure, there is a supermarket near here.
You have a great view!
Right. There’s only one problem.
What’s that?
It’s really expensive!

3) Is there any pizza?
No we don’t have any, sorry.
Well, are there any apples?
Er, yes, there’s some in the kitchen. Help yourself.

Kosa kata baru:

(Tautan-tautan berikut akan membuka jendela baru dan mengarah ke website lain)

Latihan 1 – There is / there are ->>
Latihan 2 – There is / there are ->>
Latihan 3 – There is / there are ->>

Rujukan:

• http://www.1-language.com/englishcourse/unit17_index.htm
• http://www.tcet.com/EAOnline/FlashedESL/fe-thereisare.html