Can any native English speakers help me with subject-verb agreement?

I know that it is considered improper to use expletive construction (i.e. there is or there are) in formal writing; however, I’m doing some work that is written in my speaking voice (I’m embarrassingly discovering all of the ways in which I speak improperly).

I tend to use expletive construction frequently when speaking. Many times I use it improperly (e.g. There’s 4 things wrong with that – obviously incorrect).

But, there are occasions when what I say is technically incorrect, yet these instances don’t appear as improper to me. I believe that there are implied words omitted from the sentence.

e.g.
There’s a cat and a dog in my backyard.
I know it should be, “There are a cat and a dog in my back yard.” – but that sounds awful to me.
I believe the sentence is a shortened form of this:
There is a cat and there is a dog in my backyard.

It’s OK if what i’m writing is slightly improper as it is informal speech, but I need to have the basics correct. The lack of subject-verb agreement sounds far more uneducated than I want this to appear.

What does everyone think in the case of the cat and dog example?

I can’t force myself to except the verb “are” preceded by an indefinite article (a). To me, that suggests a singular verb.

I am not looking for tips on how to avoid expletive construction; I already know how to do that with formal writing. This is informal American speech (other English speakers are welcome to chime in – but the speaker in this case would be American).

Again, I only need opinions on one aspect of this question.

i.e., I want to know whether people agree that, “There’s a cat and a dog in my backyard,” is actually a shortened form of, “There is a cat and there is a dog in my backyard,” or should it be “There are a cat and a dog in my backyard”? And does the indefinite article “a” when immediately followed by a verb (in this construction only) signal a singular subject, even if it is a compound subject? (e.g. There is A [blank ] and A [blank] …)

Thanks in advance for your input.

✅ Answers

? Best Answer

My instinct is to say: “There is a cat and a dog in my backyard” OR “There’s a …..and a…” You may well be right about ‘There is a cat and there is a dog in….’ but that idea had not occured to me in 60 years of using English as a reasonably well-educated native in Britain. I suppose I am, like many British people, simply not given to the degree of self-analysis which seems common in many Americans.

That is the first time I have seen the expression “expletive construction” – is it a newish naming idea in formal grammar? The only use for ‘expletive’ that I knew previously was, for example, as ‘expletive deleted’ in those Nixon tapes! I must ask my daughter about ‘expletive construction’ – she is a teacher of English at secondary level.

“Accept” an idea, not “except” an idea. You must be American, writing ‘dialogue’ as’dialog’.

This is one of those many places where speaking and writing are different. Formally it should be “there are”. Therefore in writing that is what you should say.

But we are not so formal when we speak. It would sound very strange to use “are” in this sentence if spoken. I’m very careful about language when writing, but I would say “there is a cat and a dog” when speaking. I would neither write nor speak “there is a cat and there is a dog”. It just sounds clumsy.

Coming from “hay” = there is/are, your confusion is understandable.

Do you want to sound educated? Educated people know the difference between ‘one’ and ‘plural’, and say, “There are a cat and a dog in my backyard.” If that bothers you, say: A cat and a dog are in my backyard.