TOEIC Link Part 5 — Subject-Verb Agreement in There-Is and Inverted Constructions

There ____ several outstanding invoices that require approval before Friday. The blank wants are, but the item is engineered so your eye reaches the verb before it reaches the subject. In a normal sentence the subject comes first and agreement is easy; in a there-construction or a place-fronted inversion, the subject sits after the verb, and Part 5 plants a singular-looking noun nearby to pull you toward the wrong form. The fix is mechanical: in these frames the verb never agrees with there or the fronted phrase — it agrees with the noun that comes later.

There is not the subject

In There is / There are, the word there is a dummy placeholder, not the subject. The real subject follows the verb, and the verb agrees with it:

• There **is** a *problem* with the shipment. → singular subject problem → is.
• There **are** three *problems* with the shipment. → plural subject problems → are.

Rule: In there-constructions, look to the RIGHT of the verb for the subject.

TOEIC's favorite version of this item stacks a plural subject behind a long modifier so the nearest noun to the blank is singular:

• There ____ a number of *discrepancies* in the report. The subject is discrepancies (plural) — a number of is a plural quantifier — so the answer is are, even though a number reads as singular. Contrast the number of discrepancies **is** high, where the number itself is the subject. This is the same a-number-of versus the-number-of split that governs intervening-phrase items.

Place-fronted inversion: the subject still follows

When a sentence fronts a prepositional phrase of place, English inverts subject and verb, so the subject again lands after the verb:

• On the second floor ____ the conference rooms. → subject conference rooms (plural) → are.
• Attached to this email ____ the revised figures. → subject figures (plural) → are.

The trap is that the fronted phrase often ends in a singular noun (floor, email) sitting right before the blank. That noun is inside a prepositional phrase and can never be the subject. Ignore it and read past the verb to find the true subject.

Here comes / Here is behaves the same way

Here triggers the same inversion as fronted place phrases:

• Here **is** the *document* you requested. (singular subject).
• Here **are** the *documents* you requested. (plural subject).

So a blank in Here ____ the updated guidelines for the audit wants are, because guidelines is plural — the presence of Here at the front does not make the verb singular.

The proximity trap, made explicit

The reason these items are hard is that they weaponize proximity: the noun physically closest to the blank is chosen to be the wrong number. Your reflex must override proximity with structure.

• There ____ a manager and two assistants on duty tonight. Compound subject joined by and → plural → are. (The nearest noun after the verb, a manager, is singular — the distractor bait.) Note that in this "there + compound" pattern many style guides also accept is agreeing with the first item, but TOEIC keys the plural when the full subject is clearly compound, so scan the whole subject before deciding.
• In the warehouse ____ dozens of unopened cartons. Fronted place phrase, subject cartons (plural) → are. The nearest noun, warehouse, is singular bait inside the fronted phrase.

Working an item end to end

On the agenda for tomorrow's meeting ____ the budget review, the vendor contract, and two personnel decisions. (A) is (B) are (C) was being (D) has been

• Structure check: the sentence opens with the fronted place/topic phrase On the agenda..., so this is an inversion — the subject follows the verb.
• Find the subject: the budget review, the vendor contract, and two personnel decisions — a compound subject joined by and → plural.
• Agreement: plural subject → are. Kill the singular is (A), was being (C), and has been (D).
• Answer: (B) are. The singular noun meeting sitting right before the blank is inside the fronted phrase and is pure bait.

The 10-second procedure

1. Sentence opens with There, Here, or a fronted place/topic phrase? The subject is after the verb — do not agree with the opener.
2. Find the real subject to the right of the verb; ignore any noun trapped inside a prepositional phrase.
3. Watch the quantifier: a number of → plural, the number of → singular; and → compound plural.
4. Match the verb to that subject, not to the nearest noun.

This is the inversion-side companion to the standard subject-verb agreement with intervening phrases items, and it pairs closely with the either-or / neither-nor proximity rule for compound subjects. For how these structural reflexes fit into a timed reading plan, see our reading strategies by question type guide.