CULTURE WATCH : When the Wrong Way Sounds Right

There are simply too many people using there’s or here’s instead of there are and here are before plural nouns. Misuse ranges from everyday conversation (“There’s no words to describe it”) to Shakespeare (“There is three” from “Love’s Labour’s Lost”).

But there are understandable reasons for such mistakes. For openers, when we begin a sentence with there or here, we often don’t know what or who is coming next.

And, even when we’ve planned our sentence well, it may sound awkward to use there are or here are before a compound subject beginning with a singular noun. For instance, which sentence sounds more natural? “There is a right way and a wrong way to do things” or “There are a right way and a wrong way to do things”?

Technically, the second sentence is correct, but “there are a right way”? No way. In grammar, there is a right way and a wrong way to do things. But when using compound subjects with there or here, rigid rules may be neither here nor there. In such cases, trust your ear.