は or が with ある/いる

[masaegu]

Originally Posted by Maxful

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?

We use 「ある」 for that.

「家にチョコレートパンがあります。」　

It is 「に」, not 「で」. Also, we would rarely (like almost never) use 「私は」 in this sentence.

[Maxful]

Thanks for the rectification, masaegu.

[Maxful]

Hi, I would like to know which of these sentences is correct?

1. どうしてあのパン屋がよく売れついるんですか？

2. どうしてあのパン屋はよく売れついるんですか？

Personally, I would opt for the latter.

[masaegu]

Originally Posted by Maxful

Hi, I would like to know which of these sentences is correct?

1. どうしてあのパン屋がよく売れついるんですか？

2. どうしてあのパン屋はよく売れついるんですか？

Personally, I would opt for the latter.

Both are incorrect. How do you get that 「つ」?

Other than that, both are correct for different nuances.
1. Sounds like that bakery is the ONLY successful bakery in town.
2. That bakery is one of the more successful bakeries around.

[Maxful]

Originally Posted by masaegu

Both are incorrect. How do you get that 「つ」?

My mistake, typing error. It should be

1. どうしてあのパン屋がよく売れているんですか？

2. どうしてあのパン屋はよく売れているんですか？

[Maxful]

Originally Posted by masaegu

Other than that, both are correct for different nuances.
1. Sounds like that bakery is the ONLY successful bakery in town.
2. That bakery is one of the more successful bakeries around.

Thanks for the explanation, masaegu.

[masaegu]

Originally Posted by Maxful

My mistake, typing error. It should be

1. どうしてあのパン屋がよく売れているんですか？

2. どうしてあのパン屋はよく売れているんですか？

Great. You selected the most natural-sounding tense for the verb. I'm used to seeing Japanese-learners use the "dictionary present tense" in this type of sentence, which native speakers would never use.

[Jenthepen]

Wait wait wait.

I am completely shocked and blown away.

I have Japanese living language books. In the book it teaches the SOMETHINGがあります。

and SOMETHINGがありますか sentence pattern. It states that it is standard patern when asking if you have something, or stateing that you have something.

I have never took into account that there could possibly be a は instead of が


Why does the book tell me this? As a matter of fact, I've searched many websites, it is all the same thing. They always show the GA in this situation.


Now I though I understood wa and ga. I understood that Ga emphasizes what comes before it. Like saying 彼がアレクスです。 (It is HE who is the one that is alex 'not someone else') But Asside from those uses I always seen in books that GA is always used in the SOMETHING ga arimasu/imasu sentence patterns.

Now you are talking about specific items and non specific items, it is really confusing me even after reading all the replys.

I really wanna get this down, because it seems like there is a huge difference, but I need more explanations, because I am still in the dark about this.

One thing I wanna know is why does my books show in the "asking do you have" section, these examples

水がありますか
マッチがありますか
たばこがあります
本があります

And nowhere in the book does it explain why you use ga, and nowhere have I ever seen anyone use は.

[Lonthego]

は and が is truly the bane of Japanese language learners, even those who have been studying for years..the problem is that if a Japanese textbook were to introduce all their nuances and uses, it would turn beginning students off and they might be discouraged and confused.

In terms of what you have learned so far, there COULD be は instead of が when using あります and います, especially if we are talking in terms of contrast.
You wrote 水がありますか
If you asked that, I could reply 水はありますけど。。
I have water, but..(I don't have a glass)
It's showing contrast, you do have X, but not Y..it's hard to convey in writing because in English we express this by intonation and stress, not actual words or particles.

Or you could say タバコはありますが、火はありません (or ライターはありません） I have a cigarette, BUT I don't have a light
火 = a light in this context, like we say it in English

Or you are at a party, you ask a friend if Mizuki and Ken are here, that friend might say
みずきはいるけど、けんはまだ来てないよ Mizuki is here, but Ken hasn't come yet

を can be replaced by は as well to show contrast. Showing contrast is just another huge part of the whole は が fiasco that has to dealt with..but there's no need to learn it all at once, you can pick it up as you progress. To avoid confusion most textbooks I think do not introduce both Xがありますか as in asking if you have something and also using は to show contrast at the same time, so maybe it's in another chapter or something.

[Jenthepen]

Originally Posted by Lonthego

は and が is truly the bane of Japanese language learners, even those who have been studying for years..the problem is that if a Japanese textbook were to introduce all their nuances and uses, it would turn beginning students off and they might be discouraged and confused.

In terms of what you have learned so far, there COULD be は instead of が when using あります and います, especially if we are talking in terms of contrast.
You wrote 水がありますか
If you asked that, I could reply 水はありますけど。。
I have water, but..(I don't have a glass)
It's showing contrast, you do have X, but not Y..it's hard to convey in writing because in English we express this by intonation and stress, not actual words or particles.

Or you could say タバコはありますが、火はありません (or ライターはありません） I have a cigarette, BUT I don't have a light
火 = a light in this context, like we say it in English

Or you are at a party, you ask a friend if Mizuki and Ken are here, that friend might say
みずきはいるけど、けんはまだ来てないよ Mizuki is here, but Ken hasn't come yet

を can be replaced by は as well to show contrast. Showing contrast is just another huge part of the whole は が fiasco that has to dealt with..but there's no need to learn it all at once, you can pick it up as you progress. To avoid confusion most textbooks I think do not introduce both Xがありますか as in asking if you have something and also using は to show contrast at the same time, so maybe it's in another chapter or something.

I understand they are trying not to confuse people, but it is very upseting and lazy on their half. If they are going to bother making a book to teach a language, why make mistakes?

If GA in these sentences, talks about a specific item, why wouldn't they introduce the sentence pattern with WA instead, if it is the usual thing you say.

It is like a English book saying, well to avoid confusion, we will just let you put the word 'a' infront of another word with a vowel. Or not even try to talk about the difference between A and the and let you just look stupid while talking your whole life.

But i think its worse than that, because I am very confused. I don't think it would be that hard to give a little bit of an attempt to give the difference between the two sentences Something Ga iru/aru and something WA iru/aru.

What I wanna know is, if your generally talking to someone. Maybe at their house. "hey, do you have a book?"

or. At a restraunt, just asking "do you have beer?"

What do I do?

I mean, its hard to learn a language, if nowhere explains this difference between these sentence paterns. I have all 3 of the living language books, but none of them ever gives any sentence SOMETHING WA aru/iru. Ever. So I am completely shocked when I hear that useing Ga is actually talking about specific things, yet even hearing that I am still confused.