There Is / There Are Intermediate Exercises

At intermediate beginner level, there is and there are appear with quantity expressions such as some, many, a lot of, plenty of, and no. The rule still depends on the noun that follows: "There is a lot of traffic" because traffic is uncountable, but "There are a lot of students" because students is plural. The extra words can make the sentence look harder, but the core grammar rule does not change. This level is important because learners start seeing longer noun groups, not only very short examples like "a book" or "two chairs".

This level also trains learners not to guess from one word alone. For example, both "There is some homework" and "There are some cookies" begin with some, but one is singular and the other is plural. The same happens with no, a lot of, and plenty of. The best strategy is to find the head noun quickly and decide whether it is singular, plural, or uncountable. Once you do that, the correct form becomes much clearer, even in longer everyday descriptions about food, school, work, places, and travel.