Is or are?
Which is correct?
a) There are a caterpillar and two butterflies in the picture.
b) There is a caterpillar and two butterflies in the picture.
The second sentence is correct, i.e.
“There is a caterpillar and two butterflies in the picture.”
It says that you use “a singular form of ‘be’ (which is “is”) when you are giving a list of items and the first noun in the list is singular or uncountable.”
However, “There are two butterflies and a caterpillar in the picture.”, using the general rule “that the verb form matches the item(s) that it is adjacent to …” (Roger Woodham, BBC World Service – Learning English)
bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/learnit/learnitv128.shtml
However, never use “is” before a plural noun or noun phrase, e.g.
“There’s mangoes on the tree.”
or
“There’s five apples on the table.”
“Are” should always be used in these kinds of sentences.
Happy Surfing
Learning English by Uncle Teng 
Leave a comment