Hi all! I've noticed that there are two ways to say have, 持つ and ～がいる・～がある (depending on context) and I was jsut wondeirng what the difference was? Or am I just remembering things wrong?
Thanks in advance!
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持つ vs. ～がいる・～がある
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2 Answers
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+1000
持つ is for when you are carrying something or taking something along with you. がいる/があるis when you wanna say something exists in a certain place (although sometimes the place isn't mentioned if it's obvious)
But sometimes 持つ and がある can be interchangeable. Here's an example: 私はさいふを持っています/私はさいふがあります. First one would mean "I am carrying a wallet" and the second one means "I have a wallet on me". It most likely won't matter which one you choose in this situation since both things have the same meaning, just different wording.
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+250
What Tariq said, however don't forget there are some idiomatic phrases involving 持つ, such as 興味持つ (kyoumi motsu, to be interested in something). I forget which particle this takes (probably ga) as in Kansai-ben we tend to drop particles as much as possible when speaking/writing and I've not written in 'proper' Japanese for a while now.
Anyways it's worth remembering as well 持つ is very rarely used on its own, it's more often seen as 持って行く or 持って来る (take/bring, although in American and Irish English they tend to use 'bring' for both). Technically 運ぶ is to carry in the sense of holding something in your arms and then there's compounds like 持ち込む which means to take something in to some place.
I'd like to add more expressions: _____に興味を持つ (=to get interested in ______) _＿＿に興味がある (= to be interested in _____). Can you see the difference? Please make sure about the particles. Also, if you use the progressive form... _____に興味を持っている (= to be interested in _____)
