Looking At ある
“Very few people are capable of sustained effort, and that’s the reason why we have comparatively few outstanding successes.” – Roger McDonald
We’re going to take a slightly closer look at this verb, now. Let’s look at some very simple sentences first and then examine them a little bit.
a ボールペン が ある。
(I) have a pen.
a のみもの が ある。
(I) have a beverage.
a ビール は ある。
As for beer, I have it/one.
Notice that all three of the “things” in these sentences are non-living intimate objects. None of them are people, animals, or anything like that. They’re unmoving and they’re things. The pattern is just like it is above:
thing が ある
(I) have a thing
What other things do you have? Look around you. What is there? (Don’t be afraid to look up a few things). Pick up what’s around you and make some sentences with these things.
＿＿＿＿ が ある。
＿＿＿＿ が ある。
＿＿＿＿ が あります。(if you want to be polite about it)
Do this with at least five things around you and say it out loud. Take note on their non-livingness and non-movingness.
Are you done?
ある can also show a location of something. Really, ある indicates existence of non-living intimate things (though when something is in your possession we translate it to “to have” in English). Still, it’s kind of the same meaning if you have an open mind. When you are using ある to indicate where something exists, though, you use the に particle (remember how に shows where something is at or moving to?).
a わたし の アパート には さいふ が ある。
I have a wallet at my apartment. / My apartment has my wallet.
a マクドナルド に ある。
It exists at McDonalds.
What exists in your home (いえ)? Try the following two patterns out to describe the things in your home, talking about where they’re at.
いえ には ＿＿＿＿ が ある。
＿＿＿＿ は いえ に ある。
When you’ve finished this, it’s time to move on to いる. I don’t want to do too much here, because I want you to learn both of them before really practicing, but do make sure you understand how everything works on this page before continuing!