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Is there a rule regarding the use of there is vs there are at the start of a list containing both singular and plural nouns? For example;

There is an apple, an orange, a carrot and some bananas in the bag.

Sounds incorrect to me even though the 1st noun is singular, however there are does not sound much better...

There are an apple, an orange, a carrot and some bananas in the bag.

There are some bananas, an apple, an orange and a carrot in the bag, sounds OK as the 1st noun is plural.

Is there a better way of writing this? The text is being automatically generated by a computer programme.

johnd
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  • Would you use 'There is' even for 'There V an apple and an orange in the bag'? – Edwin Ashworth Jul 13 '20 at 11:19
  • Not sure, as the Grammarly blog mentions, 'There are a kitchen, a living room, and a bedroom in my apartment' sounds awkward, so by the same token does; There are an apple and an orange... There are ‘some’ apples... sounds OK. The answer you linked to suggests to me that English is in flux on this and that maybe the informal 'there's' will win out as a solution in the future, but right now it looks like there is quite a bit of disagreement. As mentioned a machine is producing this. We are just trying to get it to do it ‘correctly’, for a defined level of ‘correctly’ at least. – johnd Jul 13 '20 at 12:28
  • 'There are' + plural-form complement is 'safer' in terms of traditional grammar, but as Barrie says in the answer at the other question, 'There is an apple and several bananas in the bag', with the tug of proximity agreement, is widely used in informal registers. I'd use 'are' and not worry if other people were using 'is' here. – Edwin Ashworth Jul 13 '20 at 14:30
  • Existentials with there is or there are in print are virtually always contracted to there's in normal English speech. Saying the full words and adding number inflections draws attention to the grammar instead of the meaning. So basically you can write them any way you want, but don't say them in conversation; and when you're reading aloud, be careful not to say them carefully. – John Lawler Jul 13 '20 at 16:17

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