One phrase for there is and there are
English has two forms: there is a park, there are parks. German has one: es gibt. It never changes for plural. Literally it means it gives, so what exists is the object of geben, and the object goes into the Akkusativ.
Singular and plural, same verb
Es gibt einen Park.
There is a park.
Es gibt viele Restaurants.
There are lots of restaurants.
plural, and the verb has not moved
Heute gibt es Suppe.
Today there's soup.
Morgen gibt es Regen.
There'll be rain tomorrow.
What follows is an object
There is a man feels as if the man were the subject. In German he is the object, so only the masculine changes: es gibt einen Mann, keinen Mann. Feminine, neuter and plural stay as they are.
Feel the -en
In meinem Dorf gibt es einen Supermarkt.
In my village there's a supermarket.
masculine: der Supermarkt
Am Sonntag gibt es keinen Bus.
On Sunday there's no bus.
masculine: der Bus
Es gibt eine Apotheke in der Nähe.
There's a chemist's nearby.
feminine: no change
Es gibt noch zwei freie Plätze.
There are still two free seats.
plural: no change
Word order
es gibt is a normal verb with a normal subject. If something else opens the sentence, gibt stays second and es follows it. In a question, gibt comes first or right after the question word, and es is still there.
Es gibt hier ein gutes Restaurant.
There's a good restaurant here.
Hier gibt es ein gutes Restaurant.
There's a good restaurant here.
hier opens the sentence, so es follows the verb
Gibt es hier WLAN?
Is there wifi here?
Was gibt es zum Abendessen?
What's for dinner?
es gibt or ist / sind?
es gibt — something exists
You introduce something new or say what a place has. The thing is not known to the listener yet.
In der Stadt gibt es drei Museen.
There are three museums in town.
ist / sind — a known thing is somewhere
With der / die / das or a name, the thing is already known and you say where it is. Here the noun is the subject, so the verb agrees with it again.
Das Museum ist hinter dem Bahnhof.
The museum is behind the station.
