There are/Are there

[Matthew Wai]

The listener might be oblivious to your intonation.

 

[GoesStation]

I agree with Matthew. Native speakers often ask questions with a rising Intonation instead of subject-verb inversion, but learners are likely to be misunderstood if they try this.

 

[teechar]

It is more natural for me to ask a question with a question intonation.

I advise you to learn both- the appropriate intonation as well as the correct grammar.

 

[irinaofr]

I agree with Matthew. Native speakers often ask questions with a rising Intonation instead of subject-verb inversion, but learners are likely to be misunderstood if they try this.

I ask a question with a rising intonation at the end. So when I say

" There are not many childrent here today? " I mean- I see that not many of them here, in the garden, but I am not sure if others might come later or that is all you have today. Can I say it this way?

And it seems to me that when it is said with a proper question word order, it doesn't mean the same what I was trying to say above:

Are there not many children here today?

Or does it mean the same?


Thanks.

 

[teechar]

I see that not many of them here, in the garden, but I am not sure if others might come later or that is all you have today.

Are you talking about a kindergarten?
Can you provide more of the context please?

 

[GoesStation]

I ask a question with a rising intonation at the end. So when I say

" There are not many childrent here today? " I mean- I see that not many of them here, in the garden, but I am not sure if others might come later or that is all you have today. Can I say it this way?

And it seems to me that when it is said with a proper question word order, it doesn't mean the same what I was trying to say above:

Are there not many children here today?

Or does it mean the same?

You're right, it would not be natural to ask the question the way you wrote it. These cases call for a question tag, where you make the statement you want to convert to a question and add a tag: There aren't many children here today, are there?

 

[Matthew Wai]

There aren't many children here today, right?

I hope the lazy way is acceptable in this context.

 

[jutfrank]

There aren't many children here today, right?

I hope the lazy way is acceptable in this context.

It doesn't work well in this context, no.

Using right? is generally a good way of checking information whereas are there? works, at least in this case, to elicit an explanation.

 

[Matthew Wai]

How about 'Is it true that there aren't many children here today?'?

 

[jutfrank]

How about 'Is it true that there aren't many children here today?'?

No, that's different. You're asking about the truth value of the statement, as if you have no evidence of your own.

 

[irinaofr]

Are you talking about a kindergarten?
Can you provide more of the context please?

We have kindergarten using our communal garden 30 min daily. On Friday I only saw 2 kids, was surprised and asked a teacher:
"There are not many children here today?"

She replied that others were preparing for egg hunting/ Easter parade and were coming.

Shall I add as I was offered a tag "are there"?

Seemed too formal to me. Want to hear from you.

Many thanks.

 

[teechar]

Are you another teacher at that kindergarten?

 

[jutfrank]

It seems that the teacher understood what you were asking, even though you did not ask it directly. The teacher had to interpret the meaning from your intonation and from other non-linguistic clues. Although this kind of indirect communication is normal and natural, it can often result in misunderstanding, especially when the intonation is not what would normally be expected.

Using the question tag would not have seemed too formal.

 

[irinaofr]

Are you another teacher at that kindergarten?

No, I am a resident of one of the houses with access to the communal garden. It is Central London.

 

[irinaofr]

The teacher understood me without doubt. I was just questioning my way of saying it as wanted to get it right.

Thanks.

 

[jutfrank]

The teacher understood me without doubt. I was just questioning my way of saying it as wanted to get it right.

Your way of saying it was probably not the best way. You could simply have said

Why are there so few children today?

or

Where are the other children today?

 

[teechar]

Or:
Are they all the children you have today?