RaymondRussell is correct that the verb should be the singular "is" in the following sentence construction:
“There (
is, are) cake and some balloons in the house.”
However, his explanation for the use of the singular form of the verb in that sentence—that it's because "cake" is a singular word and that the verb is in the present continuous tense—misses out on the real reason from a grammatical standpoint.
Let me explain this seemingly counterintuitive usage in some detail.
We are all familiar with the basic subject-verb agreement rule that when the subject consists of two singular nouns or pronouns connected by “and,” the verb should take the plural form to agree with the compound subject, as in this sentence: “
The husband and his wife are on vacation.” But what happens when “there” introduces a compound subject consisting of a singular noun and a plural noun? Shouldn’t the verb consistently take the plural form considering that it has a compound—hence obviously plural—subject?
The construction presented by English Editor uses the so-called “anticipatory ‘there’ clause,” with the pronoun “there” functioning as the anticipatory subject. In such constructions, “there” carries little or no independent meaning but simply points forward to the notional subject that’s placed later in the sentence for reasons of end weight or emphasis. In this case, there are actually two subjects—the singular “cake” and the plural “balloons”—forming a compound subject.
Some grammarians maintain that in anticipatory “there” constructions, the verb should take the singular form when the first noun of its compound subject is singular, as in this sentence: “
There is shame and dishonor in being found unfit for public office.” Indeed, that sentence would be syntactically defective and would read badly if the plural “are” is used: “
There are shame and dishonor in being found to be unfit for public office.” When the first noun of the compound subject is plural, however, the verb obviously should take the plural form: “
There are contrary views and an affirmative view.”
For this reason, I find the following proximity rule for such sentences clearer and more practical: In “there is”/ “there are” sentences, the verb should agree with the number of the noun or pronoun that immediately follows the verb. So, in the sentence in question, since the singular “cake” immediately follows the verb, that sentence should be constructed as follows:
“
There is cake and some balloons in the house.”
In the construction above, it’s assumed that several cakes are referred to collectively, so “cake” is treated as a noncount, notionally singular noun. But if the speaker specifically has in mind only one cake—say one big birthday cake—then that sentence could very well use “cake” as a countable noun preceded by the article “a,” as follows:
“
There is a cake and some balloons in the house.”
Following the proximity rule, of course, the verb will take the plural form if the plural “balloons” is what immediately follows the verb:
“
There are some balloons and a cake in the house.”
RELATED POSTING:The wisdom of routinely avoiding anticipatory “there is/are” clauses
Poll