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I read a very detailed and useful answer explaining the difference between "に"
and "には" but am still confused about a sentence I recently encountered.

私たちには息子が二人います。

I do not understand the function of には in this sentence. I get the general
meaning -- that the speaker and their partner have two sons, but beyond that
my brain is sort of melting. Please help. :c
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2013-06-16T02:03:36.613
12151
2013-06-24T00:56:25.397
3609
question
grammar usage particles
Very confused about "には" in indicating relationships
The easiest way to think about this is to first take the sentence without the
は

私たちに息子が二人います。

No problems here--it just means "we have two sons". But somehow this sounds
dry and out of context, as if someone were answering a question that had not
been asked, proffering information that seems too direct and unmodulated.

We can use は in a way very similar to how it's used as the so-called "subject"
particle, but since we are applying it to the 私たち in this sentence the
grammatical role of which here is indicated by a に, it becomes には. Like its
use elsewhere, the は softens and contextualizes around the 私たち. To exaggerate
a bit, the nuance becomes "Oh, you want to know who many kids WE have, well,
in our case, it's two boys."

Once you get this down, you should be able to figure out similar patterns such
as へは or とは, and even the somewhat archaic をば which derives from をは.
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2013-06-22T17:37:44.023
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2013-06-22T17:37:44.023
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answer
This is a topicalization of the に-marked (a.k.a., dative) subject 私たち. 息子 is a
が-marked (a.k.a, nominative) object.

Basically, what you are missing (judging by your comment on @torazaburo's
answer) is that に can be used as a subject marker given certain predicates. I
talk about this in detail in this answer: [What is the difference between "に"
and "には"?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/1096/what-is-the-
difference-between-%E3%81%AB-and-%E3%81%AB%E3%81%AF/11021#11021)
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2013-06-24T00:56:25.397
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2013-06-24T00:56:25.397
2017-04-13T12:43:44.863
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answer