A colleague has just asked me if it is correct to contract “there are” in the phrase “if there are any questions”.

His phonetic instinct was to use “there’s” but he correctly deduced that this was a contraction of “there is” and wouldn’t match the plural object.

The contraction “there’re” does not officially exist but is sometimes used informally. I guess the reason it isn’t used more is it’s a tricky word to say in certain accents, including my own. In my northern-English brogue it’s harder to form the re’re sound than it is to say “there are”. Not much use as a contraction then is it?

Try it out loud; if you can say it, I think it’s OK for you to write it in an informal setting.