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Lesson Plan March 7, 2025

Topic: It is vs There is

Learners of English are often confused about when to say ‘It …’ and ‘There …’.

Section A: There …

We use ‘There …’ in the following situations:

• Saying that something exists

  • There is an important meeting tomorrow.

• Saying where something is

  • There aren’t any shops in this area.

• Expressing a quantity of something

  • There were a lot of people at the club.

  • There’s nothing to do in this town.

• When we use it, we refer to a particular thing, situations, place etc

  • There is an old car in the picture. It’s my grandfather’s car. (‘it’ = the old car)

  • There’s nothing to do in this town. It’s very boring. (‘it’ = this town)

Section B: It …

we use ‘It …’ in the following situations:

• Talking about times and dates

  • It’s ten o’clock.

  • It’s the end of the week.

  • It’s my birthday tomorrow.

• Talking about the weather

  • It’s freezing today.

  • It was hot and sunny on the weekend.

  • Is it going to rain this weekend?

• Giving an opinion about something

  • It’s very comfortable here.

  • It’s been a lot of fun.

  • It was nice to meet you.

• Referring to people

  • Hello James. It’s Steve. How are you? (On the telephone)

  • It was Maggie who told me about your shop.

  • Somebody is at the door. Who is it? (When you cannot see the person)

Section C: Short Exercise

We will do this exercise at the end of the lesson.

Describe a room in your house. Use ‘There is …’ or ‘There are …’ to talk about the objects in the room, and ‘It is …’ to describing the room itself.

Example: ‘In my living room, there is a large sofa, and there is a tall cat tower, but there are no chairs. It’s a cosy room.’

Lesson Notes

Words & Phrases

• I think I twisted my ankle badly. (NOT “strong”)

• The doctor said it would take 2 or 3 weeks to heal.”. (NOT “cure”)

Grammar

• Mail is usually uncountable, meaning you don’t say “a mail” or “three mails.” Instead, you say “some mail,” “a piece of mail,” or “several pieces of mail.”

• E-mail can be countable or uncountable. When referring to the general concept, it’s uncountable (“I get a lot of email”), but when referring to individual messages, it’s countable (“I sent three emails today”).

Appropriate Language

• “Strong” is not used to describe how something happens. “Badly” is the correct adverb to show the severity of the twist.

• “Cure” is usually used for diseases, while “heal” is better for injuries.

“It is …” & “There is …”

Compare

• They live on a busy road. There must be a lot of noise from the traffic.

• They live on a busy road. It must be very noisy.

• There used to be a cinema here, but it closed a few years ago.

• That building is now a supermarket. It used to be a cinema.