She’s very determined and there’s no chance she will change her mind.
I try to understand what is "there's no chance" in the sentence. e.g. is that subject? etc.
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Sign up to join this communityShe’s very determined and there’s no chance she will change her mind.
I try to understand what is "there's no chance" in the sentence. e.g. is that subject? etc.
There’s no chance she will change her mind.
There is no chance that she will change her mind. --->
There exists no chance that she will change her mind. --->
No chance exists that she will change her mind.
First, define the word chance in proper context. Chance is often associated with luck or fortune, but in this case it refers to a single probability or possibility.
Next, expand the abbreviated sentence more fully. "There's no chance" expands to "There is not a chance"
Finally, connect the proper contextual definition with the expanded sentence. "There is not a single possibility that she will change her mind."
- There’s no chance she will change her mind
Chance
The word chance can take to-infinitives, of-phrases, or finite clauses:
a chance to escape (to-infinitive)
Here was our chance to escape.
a chance of rain - (of-phrase)
There is a chance of rain.
a chance that it will rain (finite clause)
There is a chance that it will rain.
When chance takes a finite clause we can leave out the word that:
The 'numeral' no
The word no is a determiner. It means zero. It works in a similar way to numbers. In English we don't usually use the word zero like a numeral. We use the word no instead:
There is no chance it will rain means the same as There is zero chance it will rain. Using the word no makes the sentence negative.
Notice that if there is zero chance it will rain, this is the same as saying that There isn't a chance it will rain.
The Original Poster's example
The Original Poster's example (1) means:
Now in terms of the Subject, we need to know a bit about the verb BE. The verb BE has two slots which must both be used in a normal, canonical, sentence. It has one slot for a Subject. It has (at least) one more slot for a Complement. Sometimes there are more slots, but these two slots must be filled. If one slot is empty in a normal sentence, then the sentence is ungrammatical.
To find out what the Subject is, we can do a simple test. We can turn the clause into a question. The phrase that changes place with the verb BE is the Subject. Let's try this with (1):
We can see that in example (2) the word there changed place with the word is. This means that the word there is the Subject. We can also show this using other tests. For example, when we put a question-tag on the end of the sentence it should have the verb BE and also a pronoun similar to the Subject. Let's try this with (1). We can have some other sentences to compare with:
The data above all shows that the word there is the Subject of the clause.
Grammar note:
This type of clause is a kind of existential construction. It usually tells us that something exists.
The word there can be thought of as a pronoun. We call it a dummy pronoun because it has no meaning at all. We have to use it in some sentences because we cannot have an empty Subject slot when we use the verb BE. This sentence is ungrammatical:
We cannot put a chance it will rain in the Subject slot instead, because both slots must be full. This sentence is not grammatical either:
If you are interested in this type of existential sentence, you might enjoy this question here
"There's no chance" is the second independent clause. "Chance" is the subject and "is," the verb. The subordinate clause "[that] she will change her mind" is the complement of the verb in the main clause. In other words
No chance = that she will change her mind