There is a sofa, a table and a television

Question

I am not sure if I should say this:

there is a sofa, a table and a television.

Or I should say this:

there are a sofa, a table and a television

Thanks.

Answer 1

Well, what about this?

There is a sofa, two tables and two televisions.

There are a sofa, two tables and two televisions.

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Nila - A very good question.

I would say this is "most" correct.

There is a sofa, two tables and two televisions.

Why? - because one can simply NEVER say "there are a sofa" so that leaves just the other sentence.

I would think that "sofa, two tables and two televisions" can be thought of as a "noun phrase" that is singular.

If you don't do that you have to say

"There is a sofa and (there are) two tables and two televisions.

or

"There is a sofa and two tables and two televisions.

Answer 2

Hi Nila,

It is definitely the first version.

There "is"....

I know you are naming several items in this list, but each item in the list is singular. If they were plural, you would say:

There are sofas, tables and televisions in the room.

I will have to look up the grammatical rule. I just know that this is the only way it "sounds" correct.

You mean, "there is". This is the first version. - nila45, Dec 7, 2011

Yes, sorry. I meant the first version was correct. I'll fix my answer so no one is confused. :) - Nicole-B, Dec 7, 2011

Answer 3

There is "a" and "a" and "a" ALL are singular so ("a" means one )

There is a sofa, a table and a television is correct.

Answer 4

Hummm, it is too easy, isn't it? .

Well, what about this?

There is a sofa, two tables and two televisions.

There are a sofa, two tables and two televisions.

you can't immediately follow 'is' by anything plural, either a number which is more than one or a plural noun even if there happen to be pluralities of things later in the list and vice versa you can't follow 'are' with anything single :) - Kiwi-Girl, Dec 8, 2011

Answer 5

Great question. It made me think twice because English is so natural to me that when I speak I go with what 'sounds right' without thinking twice about any grammar rules.

The verb goes with the noun right after it. Subsequent nouns do not require a verb if it is connected to the first verb by some sort of connector in the same sentence.

There is a table and some chairs. There are some chairs and a table.

There is a table but no chairs. There are tables but no chairs.

There is a chair beside those tables. There are boxes underneath that table.

Answer 6

Hi Nila,

I think that both answers are okay but to me 'There is a sofa,2 tables and 2 chairs' sounds better because 'There is' matches the first item.

If you said 2 tables,2 chairs then sofa, I'd say There are tables, chairs and a sofa.

I'm a native speaker but I could also be wrong. Just telling you what sounds right.

Thank you. - nila45, Dec 8, 2011

It's my pleasure! - Ada-S, Dec 8, 2011

Answer 7

Here's a link to help you practise is or are

Thanks. - nila45, Dec 8, 2011

Answer 8

This is an excellent question. I believe the general rule of handling listed items in English is "the verb agrees in number with the first noun that follows it".

I'm not sure how spoken English varies from region to region, but there are exceptions to that rule in this area.

I have the same problem when constructing sentences in Spanish.

Answer 9

certainly it would be the first choice as defined correctly before