区分就是根椐紧跟其后的名词单复数形式决定，中文意思是某地有某物或某人，具体的不同如下

there was的例句

there were的例句

Before jQuery 1.3, there were three ways to get around this problem, none of them elegant (for those of you who continue to use jQuery 1.2.x, these are still valid).

there waswas是is的过去形式，多用于单数形式。

there were were是are的过去式，多用于复数形式。

根据后面的名词来决定，名词是复数就用therewas，是单数就用therewere，而且都是过去时。