Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[calcaneous]

I'm just wondering if the following sentence is correct: there's strong winds.

I think "are" is supposed to be placed instead of "is".

But then again, some expressions in English ignore grammatical correctness. (i.e. I feel "badly" about this.)

Would anyone be kind enough to answer my question?

[2006]

[Lorikeet]

There is a rather interesting phenomenon happening in American English, in which the contraction "there's" seems to be taking over for both "there is" and "there are." It is not correct, but I have been paying attention to this trend for the last thirty years. I even saw it that way in the newspaper! Worst of all, I actually heard myself use it too (horrors!). I certainly would not recommend using it that way at all, but don't be surprised to see or hear it said by native speakers. Languages change over time.

[CP]

In conversation, it's easy to use "there is" or "there's" instead of being careful about whether it is singular or plural. We should try to use "there are" when it is plural.

In French, il y a means both "there is" and "there are," and in German, es gibt means both "there is" and "there are," too. Both expressions are actually in the singular.
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