There is A B. / AがBにあります。

14/10/2021

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How to say “There is A B.”

AがBにあります。

When pointing a living thing, います is used instead of あります。
When you want to say only the existence of A, you can omit B.
The postpositional particles “が” and “に” are important. They can be swapped like “BにAがあります。”. It has the same meaning as before swapped.

“が” is a subject marker, the word before “が” is the subject of the sentence.
However, you can’t forget that subjects are often omitted in Japanese sentences. If the B is obvious in the context, it is most omitted.

You can use “は” instead of “が”, in this case, the A is not a subject but a topic, because “は” is a topic marker.
For example, “AはBにあります。” is a nuance like “Regarding A, it is at B.”, but many Japanese people don’t understand this difference.

Locations and directions words

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Japanese	Hiragana	Relationship with B	Locations (EN)	Directions (EN)
上	うえ	Bの上	above B, on B	up
下	した	Bの下	under B	down
右	みぎ	Bの右	to the right of B	right
左	ひだり	Bの左	to the left of B	left
前	まえ	Bの前	in front of B	front
後ろ	うしろ	Bの後ろ	behind B	back / rear
中	なか	Bの中	in B, inside B	in
近く, そば	ちかく, そば	Bの近く, Bのそば	near B	–
隣	となり	Bの隣	next to B	–
横	よこ	Bの横	to the side of B	–
間	あいだ	BとCの間	between B and C	–
ここ	こっち(directions)	ここ	here	–
そこ	そっち(directions)	そこ	there (your place)	–
あそこ	あっち(directions)	あそこ	over there	–

Words about directions and locations

The directions that do not interfere with each other can be said in combination.
For example, 右上みぎうえ means upper right, 左後ひだりうしろ means left-back, etc.
右 or 左 are first, 上, 下, 前, 後ろ, 隣 and 横 follow them.

Examples

あそこにコンビニがあります。

There is a convenience store over there.

コンビニ [noun] convenience store

猫ねこがかばんの中なかにいます。

There is a cat in the bag.

猫ねこ [noun] cat
かばん [noun] bag

さとしはピカチュウの右後みぎうしろにいます。

There is Satoshi on the right back of Pikachu.

Practice

Translate the following sentences into Japanese using the words about directions and locations.

There is a banana on the desk.

バナナ [noun] banana

There is an escape button on the upper left of the self-destruct button.

脱出だっしゅつ [noun] escape
ボタン [noun] button
自爆じばく [noun] self-destruct

There is a Mario in the pipe under the Piranha Plant.

土管どかん [noun] Earthen pipe
パックンフラワー [noun] Piranha Plant

Supplement

あります is also used for the existence of time or event.
Whan, you say that you have time, “に” disappears or is changed to “は”. (BはAがあります。*) *word order is fixed
When saying the existence of an event, “に” is changed to “で”. (AがBであります。)

The negative expression of “あります” is “ありません”, “います” is “いません”.