"There is a dog."
Translation:犬がいます。
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You use います because a dog is animate. あります is used to say that there is an inanimate object. So for example:
人がいます: There is a person
猫がいます: There is a cat
木があります: There is a tree
コンビニがあります: There is a convenience store
I see. So basically, います is used for things that move and あります is used for things that don't move. Is that correct?
Well, to each their own. I personally think there are people who learn better with hands-on natural interactions.
Which means they may forego the tips at some point... And reach straight for the comments
が is used when information about a subject is important or situationally new to the listener. は is used once the same subject has been mentioned for the sentences following it. I believe は is also used when the subject word is before the question word, and が is used when the question word is before the subject.
I think が would still translate to "There are dogs" since singular or plural is not distinguished here. But I agree that using は would change the meaning of the sentence to emphasize more on the existence part. I kind of read it like, "The existence of dogs is true." Of course this is not what it translates to but it helped me break down that は tends to focus on what comes after it and が tends to focus on what comes before it. Im still learning and using all the info I can aqcuire on how these particles are used.
How come on the cat version of this question it recommends adding the counter to specify a cat means "one cat", but for this question it just accepts "犬がいます" and that's it? Duo, you're being inconsistent in your grammar structures, and that's not helpful.
It's been a while since I've done whichever lesson these questions are in so I don't know what the cat sentence said, but for this question, it's just stating the existence of a dog or multiple dogs. "There is a dog", "A dog exists", "There are dogs" should all be accurate translations of this question. There's no counter here to tell you exactly how many dogs there are, so in a conversation you'd just have to determine the meaning via context, since「犬がいます」states an indefinite number of dogs.
"There is a cat" and "There is one cat" are basically identical sentences in English. If the Japanese sentence had a counter for a single cat, both should be correct, but "There are cats" wouldn't be a correct translation since it's stating a definite amount.
792
It doesn't mean that there is a dog in a location (e.g. over there), it means that there is a dog that exists.
There is a dog = 犬がいます
There is a dog there = そこに犬がいます
Not really; your sentence is more "dogs exist", referring to dogs in general, not any specific dog.
I think your sentence is more along the lines of "There's a dog there", specifically near the listener, but I'm pretty sure this question (er, statement?) is just trying to convey that a dog exists, not where it exists.
English is weird though… "There is a dog" CAN also mean "There is a dog there" if you were to emphasize the the first word. For example maybe someone was looking for any dog, and they finally found one, they might say "There's a dog!" and point at the dog, which would imply "There is a dog (over there)!" or perhaps "(Over) There is a dog!". But plainly saying "There is a dog" without any context/emphasis at all means you're saying a dog exists in general.
So to answer your question, I think your Japanese sentence is proper, but contains too much extra context that's not a part of the expected answer.
います - exists (animate)
犬がいます "There is a dog/a dog exists" - Subject 'dog' exists
これは - "This (topic/subject)"
これは犬です "This is a dog" - Subject 'this' = dog
