There is and there are in Russian
In this lesson we will learn how to talk about presence or absence of something or someone somewhere.
There is / there are
When you want to say that there is something/somebody somewhere (express the idea of presence), use the following formula:
есть + subject in the Nominative
Where есть is the Present tense of быть.
To say the opposite (to express the idea of absence) use this formula:
нет + subject in the Genitive
In both cases, the subject can be plural or singular.
Have a look at these examples:
Здесь есть стол.
There is a table here.
Здесь нет стола́.
There is no table here.
Там есть дере́вья.
There are trees there.
Там нет дере́вьев.
There are no trees there.
In many cases, you can omit the verb есть:
В го́роде два аэропо́рта.
There are two airports in the city.
В кварти́ре три спа́льни.
There are three bedrooms in the apartment.
There was / there were
To express the idea of presence or absence in the past, replace есть with the Past tense of быть:
был – for masculine subjects
была́ – for feminine subjects
бы́ло – for neuter subjects
бы́ли – for plural subjects
Examples:
Вчера́ был дождь.
It was raining yesterday.
Ра́ньше здесь была́ шко́ла.
Before, there was a school here.
Ра́ньше здесь бы́ли запра́вка и магази́н.
Before, there were a gas station and a shop here.
In the negative sentences, you only need to use бы́ло and put the subject in the Genitive case:
Вчера́ не́ было дождя́.
There was no rain yesterday.
Здесь никогда́ не́ было шко́лы.
There was never a school here.
Здесь никогда́ не́ было магази́нов.
There was never any shops here.
Pay attention to the accent that in the negative sentences falls on the particle не and completely escapes the verb было.
There will be
To express the idea of presence or absence in the future, replace есть with the Future tense of быть:
бу́дет – for singular subjects
бу́дут – for plural subjects
Examples:
Ско́ро здесь бу́дет но́вая шко́ла.
Soon there will be new school here.
За́втра бу́дет дождь.
Tomorrow it will rain.
Здесь бу́дут запра́вка и магази́н.
There will be a gas station and a shop here.
In the negative sentences, you only need to use бу́дет and put the subject in the Genitive case:
Здесь не бу́дет магази́нов.
There will be no shops here.
В но́вом до́ме не бу́дет парко́вки.
There will be no parking in the new building.
За́втра меня́ не бу́дет в о́фисе.
Tomorrow I will not be in the office.
Practice the examples of this lesson with the audio track.
The offline version of this lesson is available here