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In the sentence:

> 今日は宿題があります。

would I use

在る or 有る?

(I know that today it's almost always written in Kana) Thanks in advance :)!
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2019-09-25T16:14:17.860
72093
2019-09-25T22:58:47.167
2019-09-25T16:15:08.837
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question
kanji kanji-choice old-japanese jōyō-kanji
aru Kanji confusion
有る is for possession; 在る is for existence. Though there can be some overlap.
And 或る (even though you didn't ask) is actually an adjective for "a
particular/certain", like in `ある日に...`.

So in this case, I'm mostly certain it would be 有る since you "have" homework.

Here are some words that might help remember the difference:

## 有

  * 所有 → one's possessions; ownership
  * 有罪 → guilty; "having" guilt
  * 共有 → sharing; joint ownership
  * 有料 → something that costs money (as opposed to free 無料); "having" a cost
  * 有力 → strong; influential; "having" power

## 在

  * 所在 → whereabouts
  * 存在 → existence
  * 在日 → living/staying in Japan (particularly used for foreigners)
  * 現在 → the present (time)
  * 在庫 → inventory (merchandise)
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2019-09-25T16:28:16.713
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2019-09-25T22:58:47.167
2019-09-25T22:58:47.167
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Just a little bit of background on this:

As you mentioned, it is generally written as `ある` these days. In the past,
there was a clearer differentiation based on grammatical properties, i.e. that
`有る` was used in a transitive sense like `Xを所有する` ('to possess X'), whereas
`在る` was used in an intransitive sense like `Xが存在する` ('X exists'). However,
that distinction seems to have become blurred somewhat since the Hiragana `ある`
became dominant.

Nonetheless, you can make an argument that if you were to use kanji to
represent `ある`, you could base your choice on those older usages mentioned
above. In the case of your specific example, there is an implied subject to
the sentence (私は is omitted but clearly understood) and an object to the
sentence (宿題). This would mean that the transitive sense of 所有する would be a
more appropriate choice.

**Therefore the correct choice would be`有る`** - assuming that you are
communicating the meaning 'I' the subject of the sentence, have homework
today.
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2019-09-25T16:41:15.353
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2019-09-25T16:41:15.353
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