there is/are ...

Hello!
I need your help. I'm not sure if "There is a bed and a desk in my room" or "There are a bed and a desk in my room" is correct. Both sentences sound not really correct to me. Do I have to use a singular or a plural verb in such cases??
Thanks!

"There is a bed and a desk in my room"


"There are a bed and a desk in my room"


I would prefer the first sentence.

There is a bed. Singular.

There is a desk. Singular

There is a bed and a desk. Both are singular

There are two beds. Plural

There are beds and a desk in the room. Plural

There is a bed and some desks. Where the desks are plural

Grammatically, it has to be "there are", because the subject is plural.

For example, "The bed and desk are in my room." not "The bed and desk is in my room."

However, "There is a bed and a desk in my room." is what sounds more correct to me. "There are a bed and a desk in my room." sounds unnatural, even if it is technically correct...

The traditional rules of grammar would say that you have to use the plural form, "There are...", because you have more than one subject. However, in modern vernacular speech it's much more common to use "There is..." regardless of the number of the subject.

So in formal or academic writing, you should say, "There are a bed and a desk in my room," but in everyday speech, it would sound more natural to say, "There's a bed and a desk in my room."

It depends what the speaker has in mind when he thinks of "a bed and a desk"; plural, to consider the two objects separately, otherwise singular, to treat them as a single entity.

I was just about to ask another question about "there". Which one would be correct:

- please take note that there is only one daily flight from our city to Malibu
or
- please take note that there there is only one daily flight from our city to Malibu?

Your help will be highly appreciated.

The first one.

My room contains a bed and desk.

To Nobody:

Definitely the first one.

well, ask yourself this: is it:
A bed and a desk is in my room.
-OR-
A bed and a desk are in my room.

>> - please take note that THERE THERE is only one daily flight from our city to Malibu? <<

There never appears doubled in a sentence. You were probably thinking of "that":

Please take note THAT THAT is the only daily flight from our city to Malibu.