Sunday, January 26, 2020

word usage - "exist" vs. "there are"


Which of the following sentences is more natural or normal, is there any difference?




  • Currently, there are powerful query languages for XML.

  • Currently, powerful query languages exist for XML.



What are the other alternatives?



Answer




Both seem natural to me. I'd use both without hesitating.



What are the other alternatives?



I actually can't think of any without making the sentence clumsy


It's possible to say:



Currently, there exist some powerful query languages for XML



but this sounds mathematical, sounding similar to "For every x, there exists a y such that..." so I wouldn't use it.



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