10.1 There is/are

There is/are corresponen a 'hi ha' en català; no són paraules accentuades i típicament es pronuncien amb vocal neutra. En principi is va amb els substantius singulars i are amb els substantius plurals, p. ex.:

There is a carpet on the floor.
(Hi ha una catifa al terra.)

There are two windows in the room.
(Hi ha dues finestres a l'habitació.)

Exemples de les preguntes són:

Is there a carpet on the floor?
(Hi ha una catifa al terra?)

What is there on the floor?
(Què hi ha al terra?)

Are there two windows in the room?
(Hi ha dues finestres a l'habitació?)

How many windows are there?
(Quantes finestres hi ha?)

Hi ha formes corresponents per als diferents temps:

English	Catalan	Examples
There is/are	Hi ha	Is there a cinema near here? There are two cinemas near here.
There was/were	Hi havia	There was a big fire in 1999. Two years later there were floods.
There will be	Hi haurà	There will be a festival in the summer.
There would be	Hi hauria	If people were vegetarian, there would be more food for everybody.
There have/has been	Hi ha hagut	There has been one strike this year. There haven't been any problems.
There could/might be	Pot haver-hi	There might be sharks in the water.
There must be	Deu haver-hi	There must be a better way to do this.

Compareu there is + substantiu amb it is + adjectiu:

There is		It is
There is a lot of rain.		It is very rainy.
Were there many clouds?		Was it very cloudy?
There's a lot of dirt here.		It's very dirty here.
There's been quite a lot of fog recently.		It's been quite foggy recently.