There <is><are> two meters
- Thread starter vladv
- Start date
If by "two meters" you mean a measurement of space then "there is two meters" would be usual in American English.
Really? ☹️
Surely it's more correct to say "There are two metres between you and me"?
Or, "There is a distance of two metres between you and me".
(Vladv...please ignore the spelling of meters/metres...it's an American English/British English difference. I'm illustrating the use of "is/are).
In BE "there's two metres" would be usual in speech, and in writing "there are two metres" is much more common than "there is two metres".
It depends on how you look at it. If there were two dollar bills on a table I might say "There are two dollars / pounds on the table," but if it were a five-dollar bill I'd probably say "There's five dollars on the table." The question is whether you're referring to objects, which can be plural, or to their values. "Two metres" sounds like a value.
I am entirely happy that you should disagree with me, but would you really say that ? Wouldn't you say "There's"?
Apologies: I should have said that I would say "There's", but it would represent "There is"
'There's' is complicated by the fact that in speech it could be used when there are real plurals:
There's two things I need to mention.
There's five of us here.
There's two things I need to mention.
There's five of us here.
Or really, 'there is six feet' in AmE!
Which one of the following is correct?
20 kilometres is too long a distance for me to jog.
20 kilometres are too long a distance for me to jog.
The first one is correct, so I guess "There are two metres between you and me." is not correct.
20 kilometres is too long a distance for me to jog.
20 kilometres are too long a distance for me to jog.
The first one is correct, so I guess "There are two metres between you and me." is not correct.
Last edited:
Of course it's correct. It may not be idiomatic for some people.
You are wrong to come to this conclusion based on your other example.
As several native English speakers have said, both "is" and "are" are correct in the original sentence.
Thank you for letting me know.
It's not at all unlikely in the US; we spoke of there being six feet between us quite often in 2020-2022!
Yes, of course. I started writing 'six feet' in #9 but reverted to 'two meters' so as to avoid getting into the meters/yards and feet issue.Or really, 'there is six feet' in AmE!
In reality, for me it's a single distance made of six foot-long (or two yard-long) units of measurement. Since it's one distance and since short distances in the US are spoken of in feet rather than yards, I'd say 'There's six feet between us."
But so would I.
There's is commonly the contraction for both there is and there are. (Post 10)I had a think about this. I suggest that people (including me) are inconsistent. That seems a perfectly reasonable sentence, and I'm not sure if I would say was or were. But I'm out for a long walk and my friends and I have just reached the crest of a ridge: "I'm a bit whacked and there are still ten miles to go." I really would not say "there is" in that situation and probably not "there's". It would be "there're".
#17 was directed at natkretep who pointed out that two meters is six feet in American, so I answered that indeed in the US I would say there's six feet between us, instead of 'there's two meters between us,' which I had said in #9.But so would I.
I would spend an hour or two sitting quietly on the crest of the ridge looking at the view and thinking about whether to say 'there are/there're ten miles' or 'there is/there's ten miles.' Eventually I would say 'there are/there're ten miles,' because I am thinking of them as one $#&$ mile after another rather than a single distance made of ten units.
There're two sandwiches left in my rucksack - would you like one while we're sitting here?
Gee, thanks! I hope neither is liverwurst. Want some water?