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I see "gibt es" / "es gibt" being used in so many phrases. But I am not able to understand under what circumstances this is used? What I understand is that it cannot be directly related to English language sentence formation (i.e it gives).
For example:

Es gibt einen Stau und er ist zu spät.

(It gives traffic and he is late, which is actually: "There is a traffic and hence he is late.")

When speaking, what makes you to use "es gibt" and if anyone can give co-relation to English, it will be helpful.

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"Is there / there is" should work the same way in English.

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  • Most times, but you still need to consider that in English the subject is always preceding the verb except for questions. In German the word order may change more often.
    – Em1
    May 28, 2014 at 7:03
  • I was only talking about the phrase "there is" = "es gibt". Obviously the rest of the sentence needs to be grammatical as well. As to "the subject always preceding the verb, except for questions": There are no rules without exceptions (including this one).
    – Ingmar
    May 28, 2014 at 7:08

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