What Is an Existential Sentence in English Grammar? - ThoughtCo
The verb most often used in existential sentences is a form of be, though other verbs (e.g., exist, occur) may follow the existential there.
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# What Is an Existential Sentence in English Grammar?

Glossary of Grammatical and Rhetorical Terms

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- [English Grammar](https://www.thoughtco.com/english-grammar-4133049)  - [An Introduction to Punctuation](https://www.thoughtco.com/punctuation-definition-1691702)
- [Writing](https://www.thoughtco.com/writing-4133048)

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[Richard Nordquist](https://www.thoughtco.com/richard-nordquist-1688331)

[Richard Nordquist](https://www.thoughtco.com/richard-nordquist-1688331)

English and Rhetoric Professor

- Ph.D., Rhetoric and English, University of Georgia
- M.A., Modern English and American Literature, University of Leicester
- B.A., English, State University of New York

Dr. Richard Nordquist is professor emeritus of rhetoric and English at Georgia Southern University and the author of several university-level grammar and composition textbooks.

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Updated on February 12, 2020

In [English grammar](https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-english-grammar-1690579), an _existential sentence_ is a [sentence](https://www.thoughtco.com/sentence-grammar-1692087) that asserts the existence or nonexistence of something. For this purpose, English relies on constructions introduced by _There_ (known as the " **[existential _there_](https://www.thoughtco.com/existential-there-term-1690690)**").

The verb most often used in existential sentences is a form of _be_, though other verbs (e.g., _exist, occur_) may follow the existential _there_.

## Examples and Observations

- " _There is_ always some madness in love. But _there is_ also always some reason in madness."

(Friedrich Nietzsche, "On Reading and Writing," _Thus Spoke Zarathustra_)
- "In the great green room,

_There was_ a telephone

And a red balloon

And a picture of--

The cow jumping over the moon."

(Margaret Wise Brown, _Goodnight, Moon_, 1947)
- "By using _there_ as a dummy [subject](https://www.thoughtco.com/subject-grammar-1692150), the writer or speaker can delay introducing the real subject of the sentence. _There_ is called a **dummy subject, dumS**, because it has no meaning in itself--its function is to put the real subject in a more prominent position."

(Sara Thorne, _Mastering Advanced English Language_. Palgrave Macmillan, 2008)
- "Rick, _there are_ many exit visas sold in this café."

(Captain Renault, _Casablanca_)
- The term **existential sentence** is an attempt to capture the meaning conveyed by the following type of construction:

There's a strange cat in the garden

There were lots of people in town.

There weren't any apples on the tree.

There appeared a bright star in the sky. The word _there_ comes first . . .. It is then followed by the [simple present](https://www.thoughtco.com/present-tense-grammar-1691674) or [past tense](https://www.thoughtco.com/past-tense-simple-past-1691596) of _be_, or a small range of 'presentational' verbs, such as: _appear, arise, ascend, come, emerge, erupt, exist, float, occur, spring up, stand_. The [noun phrase](https://www.thoughtco.com/noun-phrase-or-np-1691441) following the [verb](https://www.thoughtco.com/verb-definition-1692592) is usually indefinite, as shown by such words as _a_ and _any_...

"What the _there_ construction does is highlight a [clause](https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-clause-grammar-1689850) as a whole, presenting it to the listener or reader as if _everything_ in it is a new piece of information. It gives the entire clause a fresh status. In this respect, existential sentences are very different from the other ways of varying information structure, which focus on individual elements inside a clause."

(David Crystal, _Making Sense of Grammar_. Pearson Longman, 2004)

## Subject-Verb Agreement With Existential ​ _There_

"\[T\]he normal rules of [subject-verb agreement](https://www.thoughtco.com/subject-verb-agreement-1692002) do not apply to _there_ constructions since a singular verb form is frequently used even when the term following _be_ is plural:

(7) There's some people that I'd like you to meet.

(8) There is some things I can't resist

(9) There happens to be only two apples left

(10) A: Who is there who could help her?

B: Well there's always you

B': \*Well there are always you

The examples above show that agreement in English existentials is rather erratic and consistent with any of the following three analyses: (i) agreement is determined by the term following _be_; (ii) agreement is determined by _there_; (iii) there may be no controller of agreement at all . . .. In any case, agreement cannot be taken as the decisive criterion in determining which of the two candidates has [Subject](https://www.thoughtco.com/subject-grammar-1692150) function." (Dubravko Kučanda, "On the Subject of Existential _There_." _Working with Functional Grammar: Descriptive and Computational Applications_, ed. by Michael Hannay and Elseline Vester. Foris, 1990)

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Nordquist, Richard. "What Is an Existential Sentence in English Grammar?" ThoughtCo, Jun. 25, 2024, thoughtco.com/existential-sentence-grammar-1690689.Nordquist, Richard. (2024, June 25). What Is an Existential Sentence in English Grammar? Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/existential-sentence-grammar-1690689Nordquist, Richard. "What Is an Existential Sentence in English Grammar?" ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/existential-sentence-grammar-1690689 (accessed September 11, 2024).

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