There Appears to Be or There Appear to Be?

There appears to be several reasons to read this article. Or, should we say, there appear to be several reasons? Perhaps it’s “there appears to be at least one reason…”

There appear to be multiple options.

What, exactly, is the difference? Well, read on to find out!

There Appears to Be or There Appear to Be?

“There appears to be” and “there appear to be” are both correct. Their respective use depends on whether the subject of the sentence is pluralized. For example, “There appear to be several cows in the field,” and “There appears to be a cow in the field” are both correct.

Deciding whether to pluralize the word “appear” is something that native English speakers tend to take for granted. As a verb, it is defined by the Cambridge Dictionary as meaning “to seem”.

In other words, “there appears to be” can be replaced with “there seems to be”, and “there appear to be” can be replaced with “there seem to be”.

The basic rule for either word is to take note of the subject of your sentence. If the subject is pluralized, there’s no need to pluralize your verb and vice versa:

• There appear to be no systems in place to remedy the inequitable position of the minority population.
• There appears to be no system in place to remedy the inequitable position of the minority population.

To help you remember, you can simply rearrange your sentence and place the subject at the start:

• No systems to remedy the inequitable position of the minority population appear to be in place.
• No system to remedy the inequitable position of the minority population appears to be in place.

There Appears to Be

As we said above, “there appears to be” essentially means the same thing as “there seems to be”.

This version of the phrase, wherein “appears” is pluralized, can be used in sentences where the subject is in the singular form. Let’s look at a few example sentences to see this in action:

• There appears to be no room for an additional tenant in this house.
• We’ve checked the entire ship, Captain, but there appears to be nothing worth looting.
• I thought I understood everything about botany, but there appears to be a hole in my knowledge.
• There appears to be no way out of the oubliette.

There Appear to Be

“There appear to be” can just as easily be replaced with the phrase “there seem to be”. This version of the phrase, where “appear” is in the singular form, can be used when the subject of the sentence is pluralized.

Here are a few example sentences to help you wrap your head around this topic:

• There appear to be many similarities between the two of you, despite how much you hate each other.
• If we consider the literature itself, there appear to be multiple suggestions that Sandor is her romantic lead.
• Based on your qualifications, there appear to be several positions you could look into.

Conclusion

Both “appear to be” and “appears to be” are grammatically correct, depending on the context of the surrounding sentence.

In a sentence where the subject is pluralized, you should leave the verb “appear” in singular form, i.e., “There appear to be multiple entrances”.

If the subject in a sentence is in singular form, you should pluralize the verb: “There appears to be only one entrance”. Deciding which version of this phrase to use requires you to consider the subject in the sentence.