yǒu

Expressing existence with "you"

Put a place in front of 有 and it means "there is" rather than "has".

Place + 有 + Obj.

How it works

我们学校有很多学生 — at our school there are many students. The place comes first, then 有, then the thing that exists.

This is how Chinese does "there is/are". The order is the reverse of English, which starts with the dummy "there" and puts the location last.

Compare with 在: 有 introduces something new at a known place, while 在 says where a known thing is.

Examples

  • wǒ men xué xiào yǒu hěn duō xué shēng

    我们学校有很多学生。

    There are a lot of students at our school.

  • zhuō zi shàng yǒu yì běn shū

    桌子上有一本书。

    There's a book on the table.

  • zhè lǐ méi yǒu rén

    这里没有人。

    There's nobody here.