Usage of 'is' and 'are' [duplicate]

Question

I've just finished watching an episode of an american tv series. At the end of the episode, the narrator said, 'there is only two episodes left'. My question is: because two episodes is plural and countable, oughtn't it be 'there are only two episodes left'? I find this a bit of confusing, maybe because english isn't my first language, but until now, I thought that the language rules regarding this case aren't that complicated... Thanks!

Answer 1

Did they say "there is" or "there's"?

The correct language would be "there are only two...". However, when this is said with a contraction, many speakers feel that "there're" (for "there are") sounds awkward, and instead say "there's" which is improper but sounds right.

You can almost think of "there's" being a contraction for "there are".

Answer 2

Here is what The Cambridge Grammar of English (p242) has to say on this issue:

When the copula is cliticised to the subject in informal style, many speakers use the third-person singular form irrespective of the number of the post-verbal NP. There's only two problems remaining. This pattern suggests the verb agreement is simply with there, treated as a 3rd person singular pronoun like it.

When the copula is pronounced as a full independent word, the person-number properties of the verb match those of the post-verbal NP ... .

So it appears that following the cliticised is in there's with a plural noun is not uncommon in informal language. It suggests that the TV presenter said: There's only two episodes left, not There is only two episodes left.

Answer 3

redlinels.com/2012/07/13/theres-with-plural-nouns

I add this as an answer because it answered my question. After reading the thread I was pointed to, I didn't find it that enlightening. Then, after googling for some time, I found this link to be very clear. I hope this helps someone else, too!