Lesson 4: The First Date

Existence and location.

Two verbs for 'exist':

• あります for non-living things (books, buildings, events)
• います for living things (people, animals — and by convention, anything that moves on its own like a moving car)

General form: [Place] に [Thing] が あります/います. The particle に here marks the location where something exists — different from the に in lesson 3 that marked destination.

Direction words (うえ, した, まえ, うしろ, みぎ, ひだり, となり, ちかく) plug into 'X の Y に' — 'テーブルの うえに ある' = 'on top of the table'.

Like/dislike with が:

• 〜が すきです = like ~
• 〜が きらいです = dislike ~
• だいすき (love a lot), だいきらい (hate a lot) intensify them
• CRITICAL: use が, NOT を
• The も-form extends too: パンも すき ('I like bread too')

Duration: Duration expressions come with COUNTERS (いちじかん = 1 hour, にじかん = 2 hours), and like relative time words they take NO particle.

The と particle has two meanings: links nouns ('and') AND means 'with' for companionship (ともだちと いきました = 'went with a friend').