"Excuse me, is there a taxi stand here?"

Translation: 请问，这里有出租车站吗？

[Eresniale]

Is there any way to know when to use 在 and when not to? Duo says 请問，在这儿有出租車站嗎 is wrong here and suggest a version with 这里 without 在 preceding it.

[Dr_Jerry]

Great question, and I've been trying to think of a clean explanation and I'm coming up blank. For every example of NOT needing 在 I can think of counter-examples where you MUST use it under similar conditions. Best I can come up with is that sentence beginning with 这里 or 那里 typically don't need 在. Here's what I mean: 那里的天气很好 vs 天气在那里很好.

I'm not a native, but I lived in China for more than a decade and am a fairly fluent speaker. I'd be open to correction on this from a native speaker.

[dadaleeda]

Speculating here, but to me it makes sense this way:

出租车站在这里 implies a specific taxi stand. "Is the taxi stand here"
这里有出租车站 the object is 'here' as in "does here have a taxi stand" or "Is there a taxi stand here"

The practical difference comes out to be an infinitive vs definitive taxi stand in a language that otherwise lacks a distinction between infinitive and definitive ( THE taxi stand vs A taxi stand).

I'm not native, so don't take me too seriously.

[Ep35882]

在 + Location can be used to create a prepositional phrase that indicates the location where a verb takes place. Subject + prepositional phrase + verb + object.

The verb 有 is used to indicate possession (person有object) or existence (location有object). In this sentence, 这里 is the subject of the verb, so using 在 to turn it into a prepositional phrase is unnecessary.

[maartendoc]

出 (chū) = to go out/to come out/to occur
租 (zū) = to hire/to rent
车 (chē) = car/vehicle
出租车 (chūzūchē) = a come out hire vehicle = taxi

[Dr_Jerry]

这里有没有出租车站 should be accepted.

[scatophage]

No need for a messure word here?

[RobertMood3]

I'm wondering if it is incorrect to say “请问，出租车站在这儿吗？”

[Rumactree]

That would be: “Excuse me, is the taxi stand here?”

[7pancakes]

thanks! word order is still confusing for me

[andrewsaue6]

I wrote: 请问，这里有出租车站吗？
This seems to be the answer, but it marked me wrong, What gives?

(the text was copy-pasted from my answer)

[andrewsaue6]

Yeah, I copy pasted the translation given here into the answer box and it marked me wrong

[Sossidge.Mahoney]

Is there anything wrong with 请问，出租车站在这儿吗？Does it have to be 这里?

[Sossidge.Mahoney]

When I type in "请问， 这里有出租车站吗？" It is marked incorrect, and also offered as the correct solution. What gives?

[Sossidge.Mahoney]

And now, when I type "请问，这里有出租车站吗" It is marked as correct... must've been a glitch