は or が with ある/いる

[KyleGoetz]

Originally Posted by OHayou

and here is where I step in! Possibly the worst Japanese student on this website and also one of the slowest learners in the world. However, how to differentiate wa and ga is slowly starting to be understood by even the likes of me by this book:

--> Making Sense of Japanese (What the Textbooks Don't Tell you) by Jay Rubin (Shout out to KyleGoetz for suggesting this in one of his threads) which I received 2 days ago. <--

Jay Rubin is a professor of Japanese Literature at Harvard University and has been teaching for over 30 years.

The book is only 130 pages or so and he devotes 18 pages to the study of Wa and Ga.

Not Convinced? Some excerpts:

"After having differentiated the named topic from implied other potential topics, wa dumps its emphatic load on what comes after it. This makes it very different from ga, which emphasizes what comes before it.

Have you ever stopped to think about why you were taught never to use wa after interrogative words such as dare, nani, and dore? Because ga puts the emphasis on what immediately precedes it,"

"All wa ever does is tell you, "I know not about others of this category we've been talking about, but as for this one..." Wa tells you nothing about how its topic is going to relate to the upcoming information: it only tells you that some information is coming up that will be related somehow to the topic. In fact, the only way that you can tell whether wa marks an apparent subject or object (or anything else) in a sentence is in retrospect."

"Ga marks the grammatical subject of an upcoming verb or adjective, but wa marks the topic--not the topic of a verb, but the topic of an upcoming discussion."

Go buy the book and get it over with!

Haha, what a coincidence. I was literally about to suggest to OP to buy this exact book.

And let's not forget that Jay Rubin is also a professional translator, famous (about as famous as translators can be) for translating the works of Haruki Murakami.

[Maxful]

Originally Posted by masaegu

Anyone willing to tell me which one is a construction worker? The other guy is probably a baseball player.
Guy A: "I broke the window." said with 「ボクが」
Guy B: "I broke the window," said with 「ボクは」

「ボクは」 = Construction worker

「ボクが」 = Baseball player

Am I right?

[masaegu]

Originally Posted by Maxful

「ボクは」 = Construction worker

「ボクが」 = Baseball player

Am I right?

Right you are.

[Maxful]

Originally Posted by masaegu

かぎがある？Do (you) have key? Sounds strange. Use 「は」 though it still wil sound strange. I do not know what 「かぎがある？」 even means.
(regardless if your talking about a specific key, or a key in general).

How about "かぎはあるの？"?

[Maxful]

And also, are "犬はいるの？", "犬はいますか。" and "犬を持っていますか。" correct when asking someone "Do you have dog?"？



Could you please please check if the following Question and Answer are correct too?

太郎： (At the door) 中村さんはいますか。

奥さん：　いいえ、中村は(今家に)いません。

[Maxful]

Originally Posted by masaegu

"I wanna ask this guy if he has a gf".　”彼女はいますか Correct.

"I wanna ask this guy if his girlfriend is here "彼女がいますか" Incorrect.

"彼女はいますか" sounds to me like can mean both "Do you have a girlfriend" and "Is your girlfriend in".

Please correct me if I am wrong.

[masaegu]

Originally Posted by Maxful

How about "かぎはあるの？"?

Wish you had stated what you thought it might mean if it was correct.

As I stated above, it is correct as far as grammar if you use 「は」 but its usage would be extremely limited and the chances you will ever say it are close to zero.

Your house has been broken into and some things are missing. You and your wife talk about what is missing and what is not. To say "Are the keys here or are they missing?", you might say 「かぎはあるの？」.

Originally Posted by Maxful

And also, are "犬はいるの？", "犬はいますか。" and "犬を持っていますか。" correct when asking someone "Do you have dog?"？

Only the first two are correct. We never, ever say the third. That is something only Japanese learners would say. You cannot 「持つ」 a dog in Japanese.

Learn the verb 「飼（か）う」. We say 「犬を飼っていますか。」

Could you please please check if the following Question and Answer are correct too?

太郎： (At the door) 中村さんはいますか。

奥さん：　いいえ、中村は(今家に)いません。

Both correct. More wives would opt to use 「主人」 rather than 「中村」, though.

Originally Posted by Maxful

"彼女はいますか" sounds to me like can mean both "Do you have a girlfriend" and "Is your girlfriend in".

Please correct me if I am wrong.

You are not wrong.

[Maxful]

Thanks for the help, masaegu.

Anyway, regarding ""かぎはあるの？", what I meant was, for example, Ralph is going to his grandmother's house with his brother Roy, but grandmother isn't going to be at home, so Roy asks if Ralph has the key to the house with him. So what should Roy say in this situation?

As for "持っています(か)", what is it use for? I assume it is only for things? Like for example:

自転車を持っています。

チョコレートのパンを持っているのです。

But I can't say

妹をもっています。

Correct?

[masaegu]

Originally Posted by Maxful

Anyway, regarding ""かぎはあるの？", what I meant was, for example, Ralph is going to his grandmother's house with his brother Roy, but grandmother isn't going to be at home, so Roy asks if Ralph has the key to the house with him. So what should Roy say in this situation?

In that case, 「かぎはあるの？」 would be very natural.

As for "持っています(か)", what is it use for? I assume it is only for things?

Do you own ~~?
Do you have ~~ on you?

Right, you use it for inanimate objects.

自転車を持っています。Correct.

チョコレートのパンを持っているのです。In this case, it means that the speaker is holding the bread. Drop the first 「の」 and change the verb form to 「持っています」.

妹をもっています。　Incorrect.

[Maxful]

Originally Posted by masaegu

チョコレートのパンを持っているのです。In this case, it means that the speaker is holding the bread. Drop the first 「の」 and change the verb form to 「持っています」.

Am I right that I cannot say "チョコレートパンを持っています。" if the chocolate bread is not on my hand (or in my bag) but at my house?

If the bread is at my house, I say "(私は家で)チョコレートパンがあります。". Is that correct?