Existential There Constructions in Technical Writing
5 exercises — using there is/are correctly with agreement and relative clauses, and knowing when a direct subject-verb structure is more concise.
Key patterns:
verb agrees with the notional subject that follows "there": there are three issues
avoid the contraction "there's" before plural subjects, even informally
existential "there" is useful for genuinely introducing new information
prefer a direct subject-verb structure when it improves concision: many factors influence... over there are many factors that influence...
0 / 17 completed
1 / 17
Which sentence correctly uses an existential "there is/are" construction with correct subject-verb agreement to introduce a known issue in a bug report?
In existential "there" constructions, the verb agrees with the notional subject that follows — here, the plural "three known issues" requires "are". Option A incorrectly uses singular "is". Option C's contraction "there's" is a common informal error since it hides the singular verb before a plural noun and should be avoided in formal technical writing regardless. Option D uses "has", which is not a form of "be" and doesn't belong in this construction at all.
2 / 17
Which sentence demonstrates the better stylistic choice for a technical spec: existential "there is" versus a more direct, information-dense alternative?
While all four are grammatical, option B is the stylistically preferred choice in technical writing: it avoids the existential "there is" construction, which buries the real subject and verb ("API", "must validate") behind a vague placeholder, and instead states the requirement directly and concisely. Options A, C, and D all use existential or nominalized structures that add words without adding meaning — a common source of unnecessary wordiness in specs that reviewers often flag.
3 / 17
Which sentence correctly uses existential "there" with a relative clause to introduce a specific scenario in a postmortem, where the direct alternative would be awkward?
Option A is correctly formed: there was a brief window during which... uses existential "there" appropriately here because the sentence is genuinely introducing a new, previously unmentioned circumstance, and the relative clause "during which" is correctly attached and non-redundant. Option B incorrectly duplicates the preposition information both in "which" and "during it". Option C and D scramble the required word order of the existential construction ("there + be + subject").
4 / 17
A code review comment reads: "There _____ several edge cases that this test suite doesn't cover, such as empty payloads and expired tokens." Which verb form is correct?
"Are" is correct because the notional subject "several edge cases" is plural, and the present tense matches the ongoing, current state of the test suite (not a past event). Option A's "is" fails plural agreement. Option C's "was" incorrectly shifts to past tense for a state that is still true. Option D's "has been" mismatches both tense expectations and doesn't fit standard existential "there" verb selection for a present state description.
5 / 17
Which revision correctly eliminates unnecessary existential "there is/are" wordiness while preserving meaning, following the technical-writing best practice of leading with the real subject?
Option A demonstrates the standard revision technique: move the notional subject ("many factors") into the true grammatical subject position and use it directly with an active verb ("influence"), removing the existential filler entirely. This is more concise and direct — the recommended approach in technical style guides. Options B, C, and D all retain or add awkward existential/fronting structures that make the sentence harder to parse without improving on the original.
6 / 17
Alex from DevOps is reporting a recurring issue with the database connection pool. Which of the following sentences best reflects this report using an existential 'there' construction?
'There is a problem with the connection pool, and it's causing intermittent timeouts.'
The existential 'there is/are' introduces an *existing* situation – the problem itself. Option 2 correctly uses 'are' to agree with the plural subject 'problems'. Options A and B incorrectly place the focus on the pool, while option D lacks the necessary introductory construction.
7 / 17
David submits a pull request with the following description: 'There _____ a potential race condition in the user profile update logic.' Which verb form is most appropriate to complete this sentence?
'Is'
When using the existential 'there is/are', you need to use 'is' for singular subjects and 'are' for plural subjects. The subject here is a race condition (singular), therefore 'is' is correct. Options A, C, and D all repeat unnecessary phrasing.
8 / 17
Alex from DevOps is reporting a recurring issue with the database connection pool. Which of the following sentences best reflects this report using an existential 'there' construction?
'There is a problem with the connection pool, and it's causing intermittent timeouts.'
The existential 'there is/are' introduces an *existing* situation – the problem itself. Option 2 correctly uses 'are' to agree with the plural subject 'problems'. Options A and B incorrectly place the focus on the pool, while option D lacks the necessary introductory construction.
9 / 17
David submits a pull request with the following description: 'There _____ a potential race condition in the user profile update logic.' Which verb form is most appropriate to complete this sentence?
'Is'
When using the existential 'there is/are', you need to use 'is' for singular subjects and 'are' for plural subjects. The subject here is a race condition (singular), therefore 'is' is correct. Options A, C, and D all repeat unnecessary phrasing.
10 / 17
Alex from DevOps is reporting a recurring issue with the database connection pool. Which of the following sentences best reflects this report using an existential 'there' construction?
'There is a problem with the connection pool, and it's causing intermittent timeouts.'
The existential 'there is/are' introduces an *existing* situation – the problem itself. Option 2 correctly uses 'are' to agree with the plural subject 'problems'. Options A and B incorrectly place the focus on the pool, while option D lacks the necessary introductory construction.
11 / 17
David submits a pull request with the following description: 'There _____ a potential race condition in the user profile update logic.' Which verb form is most appropriate to complete this sentence?
'Is'
When using the existential 'there is/are', you need to use 'is' for singular subjects and 'are' for plural subjects. The subject here is a race condition (singular), therefore 'is' is correct. Options A, C, and D all repeat unnecessary phrasing.
12 / 17
Sarah from QA is investigating a high error rate reported by the API gateway. She writes this Slack message: 'There are several requests failing with 502 errors.' Which sentence best reflects Sarah's observation and demonstrates correct use of the existential 'there' construction in this context?
The existential 'there' construction here focuses on *what* is observed – the high error rate. Using 'are' correctly agrees with 'requests,' which are plural. Options A and B misplace the emphasis, while option C shifts focus to a cause rather than the direct observation.
13 / 17
During a standup meeting, Ben (Development) reports: 'There is an issue with the deployment pipeline; it's consistently failing to trigger.' Which sentence best summarizes this report using the correct existential 'there' construction for technical documentation?
The existential 'there' construction clearly introduces the subject of the sentence – the deployment pipeline. It's a concise and accurate way to state that a problem exists related to this specific system component. Options A and B are too direct; C is unnecessarily verbose, and D adds unnecessary conversational phrasing.
14 / 17
Maria from SRE writes this PR description: 'There is a potential bottleneck in the message queue processing. Increasing the queue size hasn't resolved the issue.' Which option best completes the sentence while maintaining the correct use of the existential 'there' construction?
Using 'is' correctly connects the existence of the bottleneck to the specific system component – the message queue. This phrasing accurately conveys that a problem has been identified within that area. Options A and B are too simplistic; C misrepresents the situation, and D suggests a solution instead of reporting an observation.
15 / 17
You're drafting a postmortem for a service outage. The incident stemmed from a configuration error. Which sentence best describes the situation using the existential 'there' construction?
The existential 'there' construction introduces the central element of the postmortem – the error. It's a clear and concise way to state that an error *existed* as a result of the misconfiguration. Options B and C are unnecessarily wordy, while option D is overly verbose and less direct.
16 / 17
John from the Security team reports a vulnerability: 'There is a critical flaw in the authentication module. Exploiting this could lead to unauthorized access.' Which sentence best reflects this report using an existential 'there' construction and demonstrates correct subject-verb agreement?
The key here is that 'flaw' is singular. Using 'there is' with a singular subject correctly introduces the problem. Options A and B incorrectly use plural verbs. Option C uses the past tense, which isn't appropriate for a current vulnerability report, and option D has grammatical errors.
17 / 17
During a code review, Liam (Backend) comments on a new feature: 'The system should handle large datasets efficiently. There is no explicit limit to the number of records.' Which option best reflects Liam's statement using an existential 'there' construction and demonstrates appropriate technical writing?
This question tests understanding of Liam's intent. The correct answer accurately reflects his statement using 'there is,' indicating the *existence* of a lack of restriction. Options A and B misinterpret the meaning; options C and D suggest actions instead of simply stating what currently exists.
What will I practise in "Existential There Constructions in Technical Writing — IT English Grammar Exercise"?
Practice existential there is/are constructions — subject-verb agreement, relative clauses, and when to avoid them for conciseness — in specs and postmortems.
How many exercises are in this module?
This module has 17 multiple-choice exercises, each with instant feedback and a full explanation of the correct answer.
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Every exercise is written by the CoderSlingo team, drawing on real workplace English used in IT roles, then reviewed for accuracy and clarity.