「に」(2) Show the location of existence
「に」(2) Show the location of existence
In, at, on
に has the ability to specify the location where something exists. As you might expect, due to this に is often paired with verbs of existence, like ある to exist, いる to exist and 住む to live.
に is attached to the noun that expresses the location.
図書館に
At/in the library
あそこの家にかわいい猫ちゃんがいる。
There’s a cute kitty at that house over there.
駐車場に高い車が何台もある。
There are several expensive cars in the parking lot.
Reading those examples, you will also notice another aspect of this type of sentence. When expressing existence, the animate thing or inanimate object is marked with が. A frequent structure you will encounter here is the following:
ThingがLocationにある・いる
This is another point where English and Japanese grammar differ. In English, the thing that exists is treated as the object of the sentence. Conversely, Japanese existential sentences assign the existing entity as the subject.
Special Note
The difference between ある and いる is that ある is only used for inanimate things (car, book, house, etc.), while いる is reserved for animate things (animals, people).
A small fun fact.
魚 fish can be used with both ある and いる, but depending on which one you choose, the meaning changes. When using いる the fish is still alive and well, while ある would treat it as a food item and, therefore, as no longer alive.
This usage of に is only used to point to where something exists, not where an event takes place. Therefore, the following sentence is wrong, as it should use で.
図書館に勉強する。
I study/will study in the library.
図書館で勉強する。
I study/will study in the library.
Combining に with は to mark the topic
In Japanese, each element of a sentence can represent a case, which tells us the function an element has in the sentence. As we learned in this lesson, the ～に case can tell us the location where something exists.
家に面白い本がある。
At (my) house, there is an interesting book (are interesting books).
In this sentence our case 家に, tells us where interesting book(s) are/exist. Each case like this in a Japanese sentence can be turned into the topic of the sentence using は. Depending on the particle the element uses, the change to は looks a bit different.
Below you can see an overview of the changes that happen when turning a case into our topic.
が | を | に | で | へ | と | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Case | が | を | に | で | へ | と |
Topic | は | は | には | では | へは | とは |
Notice that when に is converted into our topic using は, they combine to form には. Let's now take our example from above and turn our ～に case into the topic.
家には、面白い本がある。
At (my) house (as opposed to other places), there is an interesting book (are interesting books).
So, what is different from the first version of this sentence? The most likely interpretation is that は is simply used to add a sense of contrast, indicating that interesting books exist in the speaker's house as opposed to other places. This could be, for example, in a situation where the conversation is about interesting books. The speaker expresses that they don't have them right now (or that they're in their car, or somewhere else), but that they do have them at home.
Without the は, the sentence simply expresses that there are interesting books in the speaker's house, without the nuance of excluding other places.
Formation
クラスに
General Structure
図書館に本がある。