Recently, a native English speaker (I'm not) suggested I'd improve a sentence of mine by removing a superfluous there:
Against the wall there was a yellow bicycle.
This made me think: is there any case where a sentence structured like <where> there was <something>
requires the there to be... there? Or can it be safely omitted in any of these sentences?
Some examples:
- On his face there was a silly smile.
- On the floor there were two tiny earrings.
- On his back there was a disgusting mole.