Agreement

The dummy subject agrees in number with the logical subject:

• It takes a plural verb if the complement (the logical subject) is plural.

• It takes a singular verb if the complement (the logical subject) is singular.

In colloquial English, however, the contracted form there's is used for singular and plural complements.

• There's two of them

• There's one of them.

Questions with there

When making questions, the dummy subject is inverted:

• There is a nice restaurant.

• Is there a nice restaurant?

Deictic or pronoun?

The word there can be a deictic adverb, referring to a place. For this reason, some uses of there can be ambiguous.

Examples:

• There is a restaurant.

This sentence may have two meanings:

1. There is a restaurant. A restaurant exists. (There is used here as pronoun)

2. There is a restaurant. A restaurant is in that place. (There is deictic referring to a place - it is adverbial)

In speech, the deictic there is given stress. However, when there is used as a pronoun, it is not stressed.

You may also be interested in: Negation in English Negative forms

Negation is the process that turns an affirmative statement into its opposite denial.

Example:

She is a nice girl - She is not a nice girl

Verbs in English are negated by placing the word not after an auxiliary or modal.

Examples:

• I am not from Germany

• I do not like playing tennis.

• She does not listen to classical music.

• I have not read this book yet.

• I did not go to Moscow.

• I had not had dinner when they came in.

• You should not sleep late.

• I cannot help you.

• I will not participate in that competition.

Contracted forms

Negative forms can be contracted.

Long negative forms	Short negative forms
do not	don't
does not	doesn't
am	'm not (*not amn’t)
are not	aren't
is not	isn't
did not	didn't
have not	haven't
had not	hadn't
should not	shouldn't
would not	wouldn't
will not	won't

Questions with like

Uses of like in questions

The word like is used in different ways to ask questions. Such questions with like may have different meanings.

Like may be used to ask questions about:

• Personality or the characteristics of something.

• Preferences.

• Physical appearance.

• Hobbies.

The word like in these question is used either as a verb or as a preposition.

Talking about personality or the characteristics of something

Like can be uses to ask about personality or the characteristics of something:

Example:

• What's your friend like? → He's nice.

• What's the house like? → It's huge.

• What was the weather like? → It was sunny.

Like in the above examples is used as a preposition.

Talking about about preferences

Like can be used to talk about preferences.

Examples:

• What would you like to eat? → Fish, please.

• What would you like to do next weekend? → Go sightseeing.

Like is used in these questions as a verb.

Talking about physical appearance or resemblance

Like may be used in questions to ask about physical appearance.

Examples:

• What does he look like? → He is tall and has got black long hair.

• What does she look like? → She is beautiful. She has brown eyes and short black hair.

• Who do you look like? → I look just like my father.

• Who does she look like? → She looks like her grandmother.

Like in the above questions is used as a preposition.