"There are two books on the table."

Translation: 桌子上有两本书。

[RuhRoh1]

Why wouldn't "有两本书在桌子上" work?

[Lomochibi]

Try to think of it as 'the top of the table has the books'.

[deactivated user]

It should work, but without 有. With 有, it just doesn't work in this particular case.

[ShannAwesome]

No, 有 is more directly translated as "have" so that sentence would be "have two books on the table" which is an incomplete sentence

[LeiFeiRalf]

Location goes before the verb, unless it's a result of the verb.

[Marcus534860]

I was marked wrong for 两本书在桌子上 (after we earlier learnt 猫在椅子上) . I guess that is like saying, "The two books are on the table", in which the thing being communicated to the listener is the location of the two books, not what is on top of the table.