Is it "is" or "are" in "There is/are two of us here"?

Question

I have a question, which one of these sentences would be grammatically correct, or can they both be?

There is two of us here.

Or,

There are two of us here.

An answer at that target question suggests replacing with pronouns: "There we is"; "there we are". It's not exactly the same question (duplicates never are; questions which are exactly the same are merged), but it's analogous enough to provide the answer. There may be other similar questions, as this has come up many times before. — Andrew Leach, Mar 03 '15 at 07:02
@AndrewLeach "There we is"; "there we are". <== Those "there" words in your examples seem to perhaps be preposed locative complements, not the existential "there" as in the OP's examples. Also, the linked to "duplicate thread" doesn't seem to have info on the existential construction, which is what the OP's question involves. — F.E., Mar 03 '15 at 08:36
I'm voting to re-open this thread, so that if it gets closed again, it might get linked to a thread that has a decent answer to the OP's question. — F.E., Mar 03 '15 at 08:41
@F I'm positive it's a duplicate. Maybe there are better examples than the one I found: “There Is”/“There are” depends on plurality of the first list element or not? perhaps. — Andrew Leach, Mar 03 '15 at 09:16
@AndrewLeach This has been linked to an unrelated question. This is not helpful for anybody on the site. — Araucaria - Him, Mar 03 '15 at 09:57
Ack! Every time there is one or more questions (or "are?) on there is vs. there are we get this debate. May I suggest that araucaria links this question to the post where he supplied three answers on the same question. — Mari-Lou A, Mar 03 '15 at 11:35
@Mari-LouA Yes, but that's because these questions keep getting linked to unrelated Qs:-) The linked-to question isn't about existential there constructions, it's about co-ordinated subjects. Entirely different. I't like linking a question about penguins to a question on knitting! :) I'm not sure I have the required amount of welly to do the link :( — Araucaria - Him, Mar 03 '15 at 11:39
Related: “There’s” or “There are”? And there are several related links on that page about verb agreement. — Mari-Lou A, Mar 03 '15 at 11:40
tchrist answer in the link above contains this perfect example:[Next, there are legitimate situations where there is introduces a plural* and nobody thinks a thing about it:
"Oh look, there’s your mom and dad!"*](http://english.stackexchange.com/a/77093/44619) This is the DUPLICATE. — Mari-Lou A, Mar 03 '15 at 11:43
Kosmonaut's answer: The use of "there's" without regard to number agreement is increasingly common in casual US English. It is as if "there's" is becoming a separate lexical item of its own and Barrie England's answer There is is coming to be used as an invariable term to introduce items whether they are singular or plural. The same may also be happening with here is,... In short No1 is increasingly used in casual speech. No.2 will help pass your English exam. — Mari-Lou A, Mar 03 '15 at 11:54

Is it "is" or "are" in "There is/are two of us here"?

0 Answers0