Can we use There is + proper noun?
We know that we can say:
There is a play at the theater tonight.
But can we say:
There is Hamlet at the theater tonight.
The last sentence sounds a bit odd, but it's not clear why. Is this grammatical. If not, why? Is it because Hamlet is a proper noun?
proper-nouns there-is
edited Oct 19 '17 at 13:01
Araucaria
35.3k970147
asked Oct 18 '17 at 19:56
Jonas ToneJonas Tone
61
add a comment |
We know that we can say:
There is a play at the theater tonight.
But can we say:
There is Hamlet at the theater tonight.
The last sentence sounds a bit odd, but it's not clear why. Is this grammatical. If not, why? Is it because Hamlet is a proper noun?
proper-nouns there-is
edited Oct 19 '17 at 13:01
Araucaria
35.3k970147
asked Oct 18 '17 at 19:56
Jonas ToneJonas Tone
61
Yes, but perhaps better to say "Hamlet is playing at the theatre tonight", or "Hamlet is on at the theatre tonight".
– Weather Vane
Oct 18 '17 at 20:00
Your first example, 'There is a play on at the theater tonight', is fine as a standalone sentence (as well as in the following context). 'There is Hamlet on at the theater tonight' would only normally be used in context, after say 'Is there anything worth seeing in town at the moment?' As a standalone, 'Hamlet is on at the theater tonight' is far more idiomatic.
– Edwin Ashworth
Oct 18 '17 at 21:32
add a comment |
We know that we can say:
There is a play at the theater tonight.
But can we say:
There is Hamlet at the theater tonight.
The last sentence sounds a bit odd, but it's not clear why. Is this grammatical. If not, why? Is it because Hamlet is a proper noun?
proper-nouns there-is
edited Oct 19 '17 at 13:01
Araucaria
35.3k970147
asked Oct 18 '17 at 19:56
Jonas ToneJonas Tone
61
We know that we can say:
There is a play at the theater tonight.
But can we say:
There is Hamlet at the theater tonight.
The last sentence sounds a bit odd, but it's not clear why. Is this grammatical. If not, why? Is it because Hamlet is a proper noun?
proper-nouns there-is
proper-nouns there-is
edited Oct 19 '17 at 13:01
Araucaria
35.3k970147
asked Oct 18 '17 at 19:56
Jonas ToneJonas Tone
61
edited Oct 19 '17 at 13:01
Araucaria
35.3k970147
asked Oct 18 '17 at 19:56
Jonas ToneJonas Tone
61
edited Oct 19 '17 at 13:01
Araucaria
35.3k970147
edited Oct 19 '17 at 13:01
Araucaria
35.3k970147
edited Oct 19 '17 at 13:01
Araucaria
35.3k970147
35.3k970147
asked Oct 18 '17 at 19:56
Jonas ToneJonas Tone
61
asked Oct 18 '17 at 19:56
Jonas ToneJonas Tone
61
asked Oct 18 '17 at 19:56
Jonas ToneJonas Tone
61
61
Yes, but perhaps better to say "Hamlet is playing at the theatre tonight", or "Hamlet is on at the theatre tonight".
– Weather Vane
Oct 18 '17 at 20:00
Your first example, 'There is a play on at the theater tonight', is fine as a standalone sentence (as well as in the following context). 'There is Hamlet on at the theater tonight' would only normally be used in context, after say 'Is there anything worth seeing in town at the moment?' As a standalone, 'Hamlet is on at the theater tonight' is far more idiomatic.
– Edwin Ashworth
Oct 18 '17 at 21:32
add a comment |
Yes, but perhaps better to say "Hamlet is playing at the theatre tonight", or "Hamlet is on at the theatre tonight".
– Weather Vane
Oct 18 '17 at 20:00
Your first example, 'There is a play on at the theater tonight', is fine as a standalone sentence (as well as in the following context). 'There is Hamlet on at the theater tonight' would only normally be used in context, after say 'Is there anything worth seeing in town at the moment?' As a standalone, 'Hamlet is on at the theater tonight' is far more idiomatic.
– Edwin Ashworth
Oct 18 '17 at 21:32
Yes, but perhaps better to say "Hamlet is playing at the theatre tonight", or "Hamlet is on at the theatre tonight".
– Weather Vane
Oct 18 '17 at 20:00
Yes, but perhaps better to say "Hamlet is playing at the theatre tonight", or "Hamlet is on at the theatre tonight".
– Weather Vane
Oct 18 '17 at 20:00
Your first example, 'There is a play on at the theater tonight', is fine as a standalone sentence (as well as in the following context). 'There is Hamlet on at the theater tonight' would only normally be used in context, after say 'Is there anything worth seeing in town at the moment?' As a standalone, 'Hamlet is on at the theater tonight' is far more idiomatic.
– Edwin Ashworth
Oct 18 '17 at 21:32
Your first example, 'There is a play on at the theater tonight', is fine as a standalone sentence (as well as in the following context). 'There is Hamlet on at the theater tonight' would only normally be used in context, after say 'Is there anything worth seeing in town at the moment?' As a standalone, 'Hamlet is on at the theater tonight' is far more idiomatic.
– Edwin Ashworth
Oct 18 '17 at 21:32
add a comment |
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
"There is" is an expression that signifies that something exists. Expressions of existence are usually used to introduce new topics to the conversation.
What this means is that you will only say "there is" when there is reasonable doubt that the listener knows what you are talking about. If you are using the name of something (a proper noun) to refer to it, the implication is that the listener is at least vaguely familiar with it.
When you say "Hamlet is on tonight at the theatre", you are implying that you expect that the listener is aware that there is a play called Hamlet which exists in the world.
If there was a completely new play that very few people had heard of called, for example, "Stacey", consider how the sentence sounds.
"Stacey is on tonight at the theatre"
It sounds okay (better than "There is Stacey on tonight at the theatre" because the context alone is enough to suggest the information that Stacey is the name of a play.) but you can still reasonably expect the question "Who is Stacey?"
You could reply to this with "Oh, there's a play called Stacey. That's what I'm talking about", which would properly introduce the concept to the listener so it could be talked about as a normal 'known' proper noun.
That is why "there is Hamlet on at the theatre" sounds so weird (despite being grammatically ok). The structure is being used to do a job it's not designed for. IE introducing a concept that is already well known.
answered 4 mins ago
Andrew BartonAndrew Barton
1
New contributor
Andrew Barton is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
add a comment |
Your Answer
StackExchange.ready(function() {
var channelOptions = {
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "97"
};
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);
StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
createEditor();
});
}
else {
createEditor();
}
});
function createEditor() {
StackExchange.prepareEditor({
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: false,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: null,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader: {
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
},
noCode: true, onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
});
}
});
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
var $window = $(window),
onScroll = function(e) {
var $elem = $('.new-login-left'),
docViewTop = $window.scrollTop(),
docViewBottom = docViewTop + $window.height(),
elemTop = $elem.offset().top,
elemBottom = elemTop + $elem.height();
if ((docViewTop elemBottom)) {
StackExchange.using('gps', function() { StackExchange.gps.track('embedded_signup_form.view', { location: 'question_page' }); });
$window.unbind('scroll', onScroll);
}
};
$window.on('scroll', onScroll);
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fenglish.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f414825%2fcan-we-use-there-is-proper-noun%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
"There is" is an expression that signifies that something exists. Expressions of existence are usually used to introduce new topics to the conversation.
What this means is that you will only say "there is" when there is reasonable doubt that the listener knows what you are talking about. If you are using the name of something (a proper noun) to refer to it, the implication is that the listener is at least vaguely familiar with it.
When you say "Hamlet is on tonight at the theatre", you are implying that you expect that the listener is aware that there is a play called Hamlet which exists in the world.
If there was a completely new play that very few people had heard of called, for example, "Stacey", consider how the sentence sounds.
"Stacey is on tonight at the theatre"
It sounds okay (better than "There is Stacey on tonight at the theatre" because the context alone is enough to suggest the information that Stacey is the name of a play.) but you can still reasonably expect the question "Who is Stacey?"
You could reply to this with "Oh, there's a play called Stacey. That's what I'm talking about", which would properly introduce the concept to the listener so it could be talked about as a normal 'known' proper noun.
That is why "there is Hamlet on at the theatre" sounds so weird (despite being grammatically ok). The structure is being used to do a job it's not designed for. IE introducing a concept that is already well known.
answered 4 mins ago
Andrew BartonAndrew Barton
1
New contributor
Andrew Barton is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
add a comment |
"There is" is an expression that signifies that something exists. Expressions of existence are usually used to introduce new topics to the conversation.
What this means is that you will only say "there is" when there is reasonable doubt that the listener knows what you are talking about. If you are using the name of something (a proper noun) to refer to it, the implication is that the listener is at least vaguely familiar with it.
When you say "Hamlet is on tonight at the theatre", you are implying that you expect that the listener is aware that there is a play called Hamlet which exists in the world.
If there was a completely new play that very few people had heard of called, for example, "Stacey", consider how the sentence sounds.
"Stacey is on tonight at the theatre"
It sounds okay (better than "There is Stacey on tonight at the theatre" because the context alone is enough to suggest the information that Stacey is the name of a play.) but you can still reasonably expect the question "Who is Stacey?"
You could reply to this with "Oh, there's a play called Stacey. That's what I'm talking about", which would properly introduce the concept to the listener so it could be talked about as a normal 'known' proper noun.
That is why "there is Hamlet on at the theatre" sounds so weird (despite being grammatically ok). The structure is being used to do a job it's not designed for. IE introducing a concept that is already well known.
answered 4 mins ago
Andrew BartonAndrew Barton
1
New contributor
Andrew Barton is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
add a comment |
"There is" is an expression that signifies that something exists. Expressions of existence are usually used to introduce new topics to the conversation.
What this means is that you will only say "there is" when there is reasonable doubt that the listener knows what you are talking about. If you are using the name of something (a proper noun) to refer to it, the implication is that the listener is at least vaguely familiar with it.
When you say "Hamlet is on tonight at the theatre", you are implying that you expect that the listener is aware that there is a play called Hamlet which exists in the world.
If there was a completely new play that very few people had heard of called, for example, "Stacey", consider how the sentence sounds.
"Stacey is on tonight at the theatre"
It sounds okay (better than "There is Stacey on tonight at the theatre" because the context alone is enough to suggest the information that Stacey is the name of a play.) but you can still reasonably expect the question "Who is Stacey?"
You could reply to this with "Oh, there's a play called Stacey. That's what I'm talking about", which would properly introduce the concept to the listener so it could be talked about as a normal 'known' proper noun.
That is why "there is Hamlet on at the theatre" sounds so weird (despite being grammatically ok). The structure is being used to do a job it's not designed for. IE introducing a concept that is already well known.
answered 4 mins ago
Andrew BartonAndrew Barton
1
New contributor
Andrew Barton is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
"There is" is an expression that signifies that something exists. Expressions of existence are usually used to introduce new topics to the conversation.
What this means is that you will only say "there is" when there is reasonable doubt that the listener knows what you are talking about. If you are using the name of something (a proper noun) to refer to it, the implication is that the listener is at least vaguely familiar with it.
When you say "Hamlet is on tonight at the theatre", you are implying that you expect that the listener is aware that there is a play called Hamlet which exists in the world.
If there was a completely new play that very few people had heard of called, for example, "Stacey", consider how the sentence sounds.
"Stacey is on tonight at the theatre"
It sounds okay (better than "There is Stacey on tonight at the theatre" because the context alone is enough to suggest the information that Stacey is the name of a play.) but you can still reasonably expect the question "Who is Stacey?"
You could reply to this with "Oh, there's a play called Stacey. That's what I'm talking about", which would properly introduce the concept to the listener so it could be talked about as a normal 'known' proper noun.
That is why "there is Hamlet on at the theatre" sounds so weird (despite being grammatically ok). The structure is being used to do a job it's not designed for. IE introducing a concept that is already well known.
answered 4 mins ago
Andrew BartonAndrew Barton
1
New contributor
Andrew Barton is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
answered 4 mins ago
Andrew BartonAndrew Barton
1
New contributor
Andrew Barton is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
answered 4 mins ago
Andrew BartonAndrew Barton
1
answered 4 mins ago
Andrew BartonAndrew Barton
1
1
New contributor
Andrew Barton is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
New contributor
Andrew Barton is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
Andrew Barton is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
add a comment |
add a comment |
Thanks for contributing an answer to English Language & Usage Stack Exchange!
- Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!
But avoid …
- Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.
- Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.
To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
var $window = $(window),
onScroll = function(e) {
var $elem = $('.new-login-left'),
docViewTop = $window.scrollTop(),
docViewBottom = docViewTop + $window.height(),
elemTop = $elem.offset().top,
elemBottom = elemTop + $elem.height();
if ((docViewTop elemBottom)) {
StackExchange.using('gps', function() { StackExchange.gps.track('embedded_signup_form.view', { location: 'question_page' }); });
$window.unbind('scroll', onScroll);
}
};
$window.on('scroll', onScroll);
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fenglish.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f414825%2fcan-we-use-there-is-proper-noun%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
var $window = $(window),
onScroll = function(e) {
var $elem = $('.new-login-left'),
docViewTop = $window.scrollTop(),
docViewBottom = docViewTop + $window.height(),
elemTop = $elem.offset().top,
elemBottom = elemTop + $elem.height();
if ((docViewTop elemBottom)) {
StackExchange.using('gps', function() { StackExchange.gps.track('embedded_signup_form.view', { location: 'question_page' }); });
$window.unbind('scroll', onScroll);
}
};
$window.on('scroll', onScroll);
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
var $window = $(window),
onScroll = function(e) {
var $elem = $('.new-login-left'),
docViewTop = $window.scrollTop(),
docViewBottom = docViewTop + $window.height(),
elemTop = $elem.offset().top,
elemBottom = elemTop + $elem.height();
if ((docViewTop elemBottom)) {
StackExchange.using('gps', function() { StackExchange.gps.track('embedded_signup_form.view', { location: 'question_page' }); });
$window.unbind('scroll', onScroll);
}
};
$window.on('scroll', onScroll);
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
var $window = $(window),
onScroll = function(e) {
var $elem = $('.new-login-left'),
docViewTop = $window.scrollTop(),
docViewBottom = docViewTop + $window.height(),
elemTop = $elem.offset().top,
elemBottom = elemTop + $elem.height();
if ((docViewTop elemBottom)) {
StackExchange.using('gps', function() { StackExchange.gps.track('embedded_signup_form.view', { location: 'question_page' }); });
$window.unbind('scroll', onScroll);
}
};
$window.on('scroll', onScroll);
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Yes, but perhaps better to say "Hamlet is playing at the theatre tonight", or "Hamlet is on at the theatre tonight".
– Weather Vane
Oct 18 '17 at 20:00
Your first example, 'There is a play on at the theater tonight', is fine as a standalone sentence (as well as in the following context). 'There is Hamlet on at the theater tonight' would only normally be used in context, after say 'Is there anything worth seeing in town at the moment?' As a standalone, 'Hamlet is on at the theater tonight' is far more idiomatic.
– Edwin Ashworth
Oct 18 '17 at 21:32