I know that it might sound extremely stupid but even after 1 year of Japanese learning I still don’t understand when to use だ over ある/いる and vice versa.
For the example I’ve been working on the Japanese from zero book 2 and there’s an exercice where I have to translate something in Japanese, as it being :
A : Where are your keys?
B : They are in my car.
A : Where is your car?
B : It’s behind the house.
I answered it using only です at the end, but when I looked at the correction, Both です AND ある were used. ある for the first two sentences and です for the last two.
I just don’t understand if I’m wrong or if the two could have been used for the same thing? If yes then can I do that for all sentences or is there still exceptions?
3 comments
ある/いる express existence. There is car, there are keys, there is a person. だ express a state of determination. That is a car, those are keys, that is a person. They cannot be used interchangeably, but there are situations where a sentence can be made with either and mean basically the same thing.
美味しいレストランはどこですか。
Where is the delicious restaurant?
本はどこにありますか。
Where is the book?
Where are my keys?
鍵はどこだ？
ーーーーーー
The car.
車だ
Vs
They are in the car. / In the car.
車にある
ーーーーーー
The copula is merely making a statement that something exists, is relevant, or is connected to some other contextual thing. In many cases it’s not even necessary. Most sentences ending in a copula don’t even need it at all except for demarcating politeness level (車 alone is sufficient to convey “the car”, the だ conveys no meaning other than politeness level and turning the noun or noun phrase into a statement)
ある is a verb meaning to happen or to be present, often in a particular location
They are often interchangeable in general meaning
I don’t think it’s helpful for educational material to push the non-grammatical difference in translating these two. Both answers above are valid translations to both sentences
The difference is so minor, like “where are my keys” vs “where are my keys at”. No one thinks that deeply about which they say, there’s no significant difference. Just be able to say both and be able to understand both
Short answer: どこですか is less formal; どこにありますか is more formal.
It may be helpful to think of どこ as “what place” and “where”
Using this translation, we can begin to see the differences emerge.
鍵はどこにありますか。In what place does the key exist?
鍵はどこですか。The key = where?
ある and いる are used for existence; だ and です are used for equation.