Omitting "there is/are"

Question

I've been thinking about using "there are." Is it necessary here?

There are flowers on the bed. - this is okay.

Flowers are on the bed. - what about this? Can I use it instead of "there are..."?

There is nobody home.

Nobody is home.

Answer 1

These are questions about context rather than grammar. All four are grammatically correct. The issue is under what circumstances someone might use them.

If you were to arrive home with a friend and to find that in your absence someone had placed flowers on the bed, you would be very likely to say:

There are flowers on the bed.

You would be less likely to say:

Flowers are on the bed.

If someone was looking for the flowers that you had put down, you might say:

The flowers are on the bed

including the definite article.

So while it's correct to say:

Flowers are on the bed

it's not the natural way to tell someone that there are flowers on the bed.

Regarding the second example, if a housemaid were to open to the front door to the police, who said they wanted to talk to the residents, the maid could reply either:

There is nobody home

or

Nobody is home

Both are idiomatic.