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There is vs have
Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2007 12:44 am
by aly1010
My Chinese students often use 'have' instead of 'there is' in making description.
Eg. Instead of 'There is a toilet in the house.',
they write 'The house has a toilet.'
This is a direct translation from the Chinese language. Is this grammatically correct in English?
Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2007 6:08 am
by JuanTwoThree
It's perfectly correct and in some cases sounds better (to me):
The house has a garden.
The house has a swimming pool.
Start these with "There is......" and it doesn't work so well.
Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2007 8:01 am
by metal56
JuanTwoThree wrote:It's perfectly correct and in some cases sounds better (to me):
The house has a garden.
The house has a swimming pool.
Start these with "There is......" and it doesn't work so well.
Sounds like the register of estate agents.
Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2007 8:52 am
by JuanTwoThree
Estate agents might even say "enjoys"!
Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2007 3:25 pm
by Lorikeet
My Chinese students don't do that.
Instead of either, "There is a toilet in the house," or "The house has a toilet." they would tend to make the error, "There have a toilet in the house." I am surprised yours are doing it the right way.
Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2007 12:33 am
by aly1010
Thanks everyone.
yes, I do have students using "there have ... " too, mainly Chinese students.