What it is meant by "there has/have/had been"?

[hongcc]

I had hard time to understand 'there is/are/was/were" since it is far different way of saying this in my mother tongue. For my knowledge, it means "somewhere is existing something"

eg "Once upon a time, there were two naughty boys called John and Max"
I found that "there" doesn't refer any particular place, though in above example, it might really have a place where boys lived, stayed, etc.

Look following sentence:
"There are two ways to solve this question..."
"There? Where are they?
"Is right there."
"Where? I can't see it. Where they go?
"Errr...."
So, we can't locate the "ways" exactly, this what i meant.

But right now, I can't really understand "there has been", is it a perfect tense of saying "there is"? Here are the examples:

"There have been bake sales and there have been lemonade stands; and there are empty piggy banks and there have been all kinds of drives to raise money for the Afghan children," said President George W. Bush at the Church of the Brethren Warehouse New Windsor, Maryland Dec. 8.

Rush Limbaugh was recently asking on his radio program, why there haven't been federal charges brought against Hillary Clinton's fundraiser.

If so, why "have been" is used?

[Alex]

what is your mother language?

Basically, 'there is' is the basic form to denote existence, with 'there' being just an auxiliary. It is like 'hay' in Spanish, 'il-y-a' in French, 'es gibt' in German or 'you/yao' in Chinese/Cantonese...

The 'there' doesn't relate to a place. The first dialogue you quoted is more a joke based on this.

'There is only one solution for this puzzle' means that only one solution exists. We cannot assign a place of existence to it.

The other forms are just adjustments for number and tense: 'there are' refers to the existence of more than one object: "There are several people in this party that I don't know."

There was: singular past tense, "There was an accident!"

There were: plural past tense, "There were many attempts to change this law, but none succeeded".

There has been: singular present perfect tense: "There has been no change yet"

There have been: plural present perfect tense, "There have been no great movies this year so far."

There will be: singular or plural future tense, "There will be consequences."

There had been: pluperfect/past perfect. "There had not been any storms like that for decades, so that people were not prepared as the storm front reached the coast."

Etc...

[hongcc]

what is your mother language?

Basically, 'there is' is the basic form to denote existence, with 'there' being just an auxiliary. It is like 'hay' in Spanish, 'il-y-a' in French, 'es gibt' in German or 'you/yao' in Chinese/Cantonese...



Thanks a lot.
My mother language is Chinese.
Beside confusing the word "there", I think the word "is/been" etc might had confused me. It is because I might translate 'there are two boys" as "somewhere is (called) two boys" and so on.
If I want to express "there are...", I might express as "we have a place has two boys" etc, since Have means "You" in chinese. This was what I used to do long time ago.
But soon I notice translating is always not a smart way to learn English, or even any language. Every language has unique way for saying the same idea: different from sentence structure, eligible word to use, tone, atmosphere, and so on. Word-by-word translating sure would make sentence stiff, unclear and unemotional. This is what I am trying to learn right now.

And, thanks again!;)

[QuillingQuillQuiller]

But Chinese word has a proper identification of gender, even if it's for a globally usage. The left-attached word of "nu" (her) and "nan" (him) words diversify clearly of "ta" (They). We may know whom they're referring to, by identifying the left-attached of the word itself.

[Alex]

Eh... 'Ta' can mean he or she, and is pronounced the same but written slightly differently. The plural form is 'Tamen'. In spoken Chinese you can know if is she or he only from context. 'Nu' and 'Nan' are added to other words, or at parts of other words that denote a gender difference. It has nothing to do with the 'there is' construction.

Basically, 'there is' and all the other forms simply translate to 'you', while 'there isn't' translates to 'mei you'. You are right, that literal translations from one language to another do not work. Often no even in close 'relatives' like Spanish-French, and even less for Chinese-English.

[DanielScocco]

It looks like you are trying to take the same meaning for "there" in all the sentences.

Consider there are not as "there" plus "rather," but rather as a complete expression, "there are."

[Maeve]

Good point, Daniel.
The problem seems to lie in trying to make "there" have a precise meaning.

When an English sentence begins with "There is" or "There are," the words are serving as the grammatical subject, a sentence opener. The true subject is delayed.

There was an accident!
There have been no great movies this year so far.

Such constructions are very common in speech. In careful writing, such sentences are generally revised so as to begin with a true subject.

An accident occurred outside the police station today at noon!
No great movies have hit the screen so far this year.

[NaashG]

But right now, I can't really understand "there has been", is it a perfect tense of saying "there is"? Here are the examples:

[NaashG]

Basically, 'there is' and all the other forms simply translate to 'you'

[NaashG]

There was an accident

[NaashG]

Basically, 'there is' and all the other forms simply translate to 'you', while 'there isn't' translates to 'mei you'

[NaashG]

here were many attempts to change this law, but none succeeded

[NaashG]

I notice translating is always not a smart way to learn English, or even any language. Every language has unique way for saying the same idea

[NaashG]

Every language has unique way for saying the same idea: different from sentence structure, eligible word to use, tone, atmosphere, and so on.