Chinese-all-day-breakfast/MD/All-Day-Breakfast/docs/g1-15.md

The verb 有 expressing possession and existence

The verb 有 in Chinese can mean both possession and existence, like the English "to have" and "there is" or "there are":

她有漢語詞典。
    She has a Chinese dictionary.
我們學院有多外國學生。
    There are a lot of foreign students in our college.

N.B.:

1. To negate 有, one uses 沒 instead of 不:

   我有哥哥﹐我沒有姐姐。
       I have an elder brother, but no elder sister.
   

2. Informally in a negative sentence, 有 can sometimes be omitted:

   我朋友沒(有)書﹐也沒(有)筆。
       My friend does not have books, nor pens.
   現在我們的宿舍沒(有)人。
       There is no one in our dorm now.
   

3. The affirmative-negative question form is "... 有沒有 ... ?"

   她有沒有妹妹﹖
   呢﹐你們的宿舍有沒有人﹖
   

   Sometimes, if the object of 有 is not long, one can use the form "... 有 + object + 沒有 ?" as well, although this form is not as common as the previous one.

   她有妹妹沒有﹖
   這宿舍有人沒有﹖