This particular word confusion is one of mine, and since I don’t want to suffer alone, I figure there might be a few writers out there with the same problem.
My go-to is there’s whether it’s singular or plural, and I’m always having to replace mentally that apostrophe with the missing letters to be sure I have the right verb tense.
‘Cause it’s all about verb agreement.
Consider the following: | |
---|---|
Singular Verb | Plural Verb |
There’s more than one way to skin a cat.
Yep, there is more than one way to skin a cat. |
There’re more ways to skin a cat than you can shake a stick at.
I suppose there are several ways to skin a cat. |
There’s the boat.
There is the boat. It’s just one boat. |
There’re the boats.
There are the boats. Because there is more than one boat, one uses are as the plural verb form. |
Exploring Later . . .
You may want to explore “Their vs There vs They’re“, “There’s versus There’re“, and/or “There In versus Therein“.
Word Confusions . . .
. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.
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There’s there is / there has / there was |
There’re there are / there were |
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Part of Grammar: | |
Both phrases combine a pronoun with verb | |
Contraction of:
is is a simple present verb form of be has is a present perfect verb form of have are is a simple plural present verb form of be |
Contraction of:
was is a simple past verb form of be were is a simple plural past verb form of be |
there
Used as a grammatical subject, especially with to be, to introduce the actual subject That place |
Examples: | |
Look, John, there’s been a change in the scheduling.
So there’s this naked lady at Walmart . . . There’s sure to be a chill in the air. I gotta tell ya, there’s no there there. Why don’t you make us a cuppa tea, there’s a good girl. |
Look, John, there’re lots of changes in the scheduling.
So there’re these naked ladies at Walmart . . . There’re lots of blankets in the hall closet. There’re sure to be lots of people there. |
History of the Word: | |
There is Old English thǣr, thēr is of Germanic origin and related to the Dutch daar and German da, also to that and the. | |
Its first known use was in 1580. |
C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!
Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions on its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.
Resources for There’s versus There’re
Apple Dictionary.com
Dictionary.com: there’s
Pinterest Photo Credits:
Man Standing Above City by Aurimas Gudas is under the FreeImages.com Content License, via Free Images.com.
Revised as of 21 Apr 2024
By: Kathy Davie