Es könnte Leben auf anderen Welten geben.

[Peter1949]

English Translation

There could be life on other worlds.

In common parlance wouldn’t a person say “Es könnte Leben auf anderen Welten sein”, rather than using the poetically sounding “geben”?

[pitti42]

“Es gibt” is not poetical at all. It is used all the time on all formality levels.

There was a lengthy discussion about this in another thread:

Es ist nichts in diesem Zimmer.

English Translation

There’s nothing in this room.

Hello German speakers! Is there a difference between “Es ist nichts in diesem Zimmer.” and "“Es gibt nichts in diesem Zimmer.” ? (I thought only the latter was correct in this context.)

Your proposed sentence doesn’t sound right to me. Maybe it’s the Konjunktiv or the word order, I don’t know. Somehow it sounds just as wrong as “It could be life on other worlds”.

You could say “Da könnte Leben auf anderen Welten sein”, making it closer to the english “there is” (but also more colloquial and anglicismic).