Quote:
Originally Posted by masaegu
Those are correct ONLY IF you know what each means. These are NOT as easy as they look. You probably do not know what half of these sentences mean. I know the previous sentence shocked you but that is how I feel after reading everything you said including the next question about BF.
If you are willing to tell what you think each sentence (of either set of four) means, I will be happy to discuss this. By that, do not just give your translations. Tell me the details.
Examples:
Any dog or a particular dog?
Who knows about the dog already? The speaker? The addressee? Both?
A huge difference exists between the two; in fact, there is even no similarity.
カレシがいない。 "My BF is missing!" You have a BF.
カレシはいない。 "I have no BF."
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When my Japanese friend hear me say カレシがいない he said it sounds like "my boyfriend has dissapeared". I got very confused about this whole thing because none of my books and learning tools for japanese go deep into the situation, so its VERY hard to get a grasp on what to use in these situations.
As for what I think the translations are, this is what I was taught.
I was taught that ある and いる 's translation depends on the situation. I was taught they mean "existance" and wether something is here being situated in an area, or someone "has" something, to possess something.
But what I've always been taught, is not matter what, you always use が regardless on what you what to empasize.
My books and information sourses never took into concideration wether you are talking about "a thing" or "the thing". Or something you already know about, or something you are just asking if someone has. It always implied that it doesn't matter in Japanese, that you just state the object and that there is no "the, a", specifying more information about a object.
What i've been taught that these translations all mean,
かぎがある。 (I) have key
かぎがある？Do (you) have key?
(regardless if your talking about a specific key, or a key in general).
かぎがありますか (same thing but polite)
かぎがない。 (I) don't have key.
犬がいる。 (I) have dog.
犬がいる？ Do (you) have dog.
犬がいますか Same but polite
犬がいない。 (I) Don't have dog
I though that these sentences could be used in all different situations, from wether your asking someone if they have these things in general, or if your asking if they had these things with them, something they already knew existed.