"There are a big gate and a small gate at this school."

Translation: このがっこうは大きなもんと小さなもんがあります。

[Gallahaut]

*There is a big gate and a small gate at this school

[DavidKitso]

Yes

[princeorion]

would このがっこうでは大きなもんと小さなもんがあります be an acceptable translation too? I thought で meant "at"

[lerosbif]

You use に with あります.

[DanM37528]

Except に wasnt available either. Answer uses neitherに nor で

[mattcfz]

Yeah, but not everybody uses mobile version. I try to type it on a computer and really want to know why cannot it be 「学校では」

It seems very logical to me, to translate the sentence the way princeorion did.

Reason "There is no で in the selection" does not teach me anything, I learn nothing from that explanation.

[lerosbif]

Again, this is because, for location, you use に with あります rather than で.

Let's take a look at using different particles with あります and how it affects the meaning of the sentence:

Duolingo's sentence looks something like this:

school は　gate が　あります　ーー　As for the school (emphasis), it has a gate.

If we introduce に, the sentence changes meaning slightly:

school には　gate が　あります　ーー　In/at the school (emphasis), there is a gate.

school に　gate が　あります　ーー　There is a gate in/at the school.

Perhaps the use of に or には may imply that the gate is physically part of or inside of the school, while the use of only は is more flexible, and only implies that there is a gate belonging to the school.

[Abdelkader13052]

このがっこうは小さなもんと大きなもんがあります。wasn't accepted

[TanjaR8]

It's because you wrote small and big in a different order than the original sentence. A language check cannot accept such liberties in translation, even if the semantics are correct, because it might mean that the user has memorized the words incorrectly.

[Maeldryn]

Thats because you have the size of gate in the wrong order.