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"There is/are a book and a cup on the table."

Grammar rules dictate that such sentences require a plural verb, but a lot of native speakers use singular verbs.

I made these sentence recently: "In the south of the science park were an IT centre building, woodlands, cyber security, and grassland." "There were a office with a reception area east of the woodland and a business units south of the grassland."

It seems that a native speaker would use 'was' if they wrote those sentences, and I have no idea why. Is there any English grammar rule which supports using singular verbs in such sentences.

onose shaibu
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  • I don't agree with your suggestion that a native speaker would use *was* rather than *were* in your "south of the science park" example. Conversely, I think that your "east of the woodland" example is a misuse of "There were", but for semantic reasons rather than grammatical ones. – ruakh Oct 03 '22 at 20:16
  • @ruakh I am confused about why it's acceptable to use 'was' when there are two singular nouns. Two singular nouns are treated as plural objects or subjects; people say "a cup and a book are...", not "a cup and book is..", so I find it extremely confusing that 'there was' can be used before two singular nouns. – onose shaibu Oct 03 '22 at 20:26
  • @onoseshaibu: I don't understand why you start your last comment with `@ruakh`, when it doesn't seem to be a response to my comment? – ruakh Oct 03 '22 at 20:27
  • @ruakh "I think that your "east of the woodland" example is a misuse of "There were", but for semantic reasons rather than grammatical ones." Your statement suggests that you think it is okay to say "there WAS an office with a reception area east of the woodland and a business units south of the grassland." If that's the case, I want to know why it is acceptable to use 'was' when two singular nouns are the objects of the sentence. – onose shaibu Oct 03 '22 at 20:32
  • @onoseshaibu: It feels a bit like you're making things up and then asking why you've made those things up. I think it would make more sense to do one of the following: (1) find a real sentence that isn't how you'd expect, and ask why it's that way; or (2) write a sentence that you're not sure how it should be, and ask how it should be and why. – ruakh Oct 03 '22 at 21:30

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You are enumerating a list of items. Where the items require pluralization, it is included in the list

In the south of the science park was an IT centre building, a woodland, a cyber security building, and grasslands. There was an office with a reception area east of the woodland and a business unit south of the grassland.

If you grouped the items prior to enumerating them, you would need to pluralize, but then again the itemization would be singular.

In the south of the science park were two buildings, an IT centre and a cyber security building.

Blind Spots
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