Is There a Kitchen?
Ten houses shaped like a shoe, a dog, a toilet and a bubble — and one structure that does all the work of describing them: there is, there are, and the two little words that follow.
Warm-up
Short answers. Tap a card when you have answered it.
You cannot describe a room in English without this structure. Portuguese uses one word — tem. English makes you choose between there is and there are before you even name the thing.
Useful language
Parts of the house
Click a word, then click its meaning. Correct pairs turn green. The audio button says the word.
Things in the house
Click a word in the bank, then click a gap. Click a filled gap to clear it.
One false friend here. A closet is not a bathroom, and a cabinet is not a piece of government. Both are places to put things away.
Three people can sit on the
_____ in the living room.
My father always sits alone in the same
_____, with arms on both sides.
All my clothes are in the
_____ in my bedroom.
The
_____ on the wall hold all my books, from the floor to the ceiling.
I cook the rice on the
_____ in the kitchen.
I look at my face in the
_____ in the bathroom.
It's dark, so turn on the
_____ next to the bed.
Put your cup on the
_____, in front of the sofa.
Ten of the strangest houses
Watch the video, then read. The comprehension questions have the minute written on them.
Most people want the same house: bedrooms, a big porch at the front, a yard with a fence around it. This video is about ten people who wanted something else.
Number ten is the Spaceship House, in Tennessee. It stands on six cement pillars, and people park their cars underneath, a little like a garage.
There are plenty of windows in it. There are three bedrooms and two bathrooms, and from them you can see the Tennessee River.
Number nine is the Shoe House. Mahlon Haines built it in 1948 and invited older people to stay, so that they could live like kings and queens.
It has five floors. There are three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room and a kitchen inside a shoe. Today the house is a museum.
The other houses on the list look like a dog, a toilet, a car and a mushroom. One is built over a waterfall, and one looks like a pile of bubbles.
To describe any of them you need three things: there is for one, there are for more than one, and any when you ask a question or say no.
Multiple choice
Click an answer and you get the result right away, with the reason. The blue number is where to look in the video.
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0:26The Spaceship House is in:
And the bedrooms look out over the Tennessee River.
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0:35How many pillars is it standing on?
And the cars go underneath, between them.
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0:44How many bedrooms and bathrooms does it have?
Three bedrooms, two bathrooms. Read the numbers in that order.
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0:57When was the Shoe House built?
The other two years belong to other houses on the list.
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1:11What is the Shoe House today?
Nobody lives in it now — you visit it.
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1:15The Nautilus House is in:
Designed for a family who were tired of a normal house.
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1:35What does the Nautilus House have at the front?
Colored glass, like a church window.
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1:44How long did the Mushroom House take?
A professor and his students, and fourteen years of work.
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1:51What is it made of?
Which is why the shapes are all irregular.
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2:12The Dog Bark Inn is different from the others because:
The others are somebody's home or a museum.
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3:12Who designed Fallingwater, in 1935?
The most famous name on the whole list, and the house is over a waterfall.
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4:11How many rooms does the Palace of Bubbles have?
The architect hated straight lines, so there are none in it.
There is and there are
Portuguese says tem for everything. English makes you look at the thing first and count it. One table: there is. Two tables: there are. Get that reflex and the rest is easy.
- One thing: There's a table in the kitchen. · There isn't an armchair in the bedroom. · Is there a car in the garage?
- More than one: There are two sofas in the living room. · There aren't any books on the shelves. · Are there any plants in the living room?
- Short answers: Yes, there is. / No, there isn't. · Yes, there are. / No, there aren't.
- The word after decides everything. Look at the noun, then choose.
- Never say have: In my house have three bedrooms is the most common mistake in this class.
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______ a table in the kitchen.
One table.
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______ two sofas in the living room.
Two, so plural.
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Which sentence is WRONG?
The third one is fine — but only because my house is the subject of has.
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"Is there a car in the garage?" Choose the answer.
Short answers never end in a contraction.
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______ any plants in the living room?
Plants is plural, and a question puts are first.
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______ an armchair in the bedroom.
An means one, so the verb is singular.
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______ any windows in the kitchen.
Windows is plural, and any only ever sits next to a plural here.
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"Are there any bathrooms in the Shoe House?"
Three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room and a kitchen — inside a shoe.
A, an, some, any
- some — when you don't say the number, in a positive sentence: There are some plants in the hall.
- any — in negatives and questions: There aren't any books. · Are there any chairs?
- a before a consonant sound, an before a vowel sound: a table, an armchair.
- Portuguese has no word for these. Tem plantas is There are some plants — the some has to appear.
- Quick test: is the sentence positive? some. Negative or question? any.
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There aren't ______ books on the shelves.
A negative sentence, so any.
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There are ______ glasses in the cabinet.
Positive, plural, and you are not counting them.
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There's ______ armchair in the living room.
Armchair starts with a vowel sound.
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Are there ______ chairs in the garden?
A question, so any.
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Is there ______ TV in your bedroom?
One TV, and we say a TV because the letter T is said /tiː/.
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Which word can go with a singular noun?
Some and any live with plurals in this lesson.
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Complete: "I want ______ water, please."
You cannot count water, so a is impossible — but some still works.
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How do you say Tem plantas na sala in English?
Three things Portuguese leaves out and English needs: there, some and the.
Complete with a, an, some or any
Write one word. Look at two things before you decide: is the noun singular or plural, and is the sentence positive, negative or a question?
Do it in that order every time. Singular or plural first — that removes two of the four words. Then positive or not — that removes one more.
aThere aren't ______ books on the shelves.
bThere are ______ glasses in the cabinet.
cThere's ______ armchair in the living room.
dAre there ______ chairs in the garden?
eIs there ______ TV in your bedroom?
fThere aren't ______ windows in the kitchen.
gThere are ______ plants in the hall.
hThere are ______ chairs in the dining room.
Write the whole sentence
The sign tells you the form: + yes, - no, ? question. Use short forms where you can. Example: (+) a table / in the kitchen → There's a table in the kitchen.
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+three bedrooms / in the Spaceship House
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?a garage / in the Spaceship House
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+a kitchen / in the Shoe House
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-any books / on the shelves
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?any plants / in the living room
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+a table / in the kitchen
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-an armchair / in the bedroom
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+some plants / in the hall
Talking point
Full sentences with there is and there are. I ask, you answer, then you ask me.
Useful language
My strange house
60–100 words. Invent a house in the shape of anything you like, and describe it room by room. Use there is and there are three times each, plus one sentence with any.
My results
Check your score, then copy it and send it to your teacher on WhatsApp.
Homework with no paper. Walk through your own home and say one sentence out loud in each room: what is there, and what isn't. Six rooms, six sentences, two minutes.