I was doing some Japanese reading practice and noticed a couple sentences that began with ある.
あるところに男がいました。
ある夜、男の家におじいさんが来ました。
What does the ある mean in this case? I haven’t learned this. Also, can someone point me to the chapter in Tae Kim that talks about this, assuming there is one?
Yes, this is effectively a separate, though etymologically related, word.
Other than ある being kind of a separate word by now, you can modify nouns by placing verbs in front of it, like
食べたケーキ the cake I ate
眼鏡をかけている女の人 the woman who is wearing glasses
Am I missing something? (Also, hello Saida.)
Hola Kazzeon! Maybe just that ある meaning ‘a certain’ is derived from the verb ある?
I mean about the “modify nouns by placing verbs in front of it” part.
Edit: Oh, I think I get what you mean.
Like how adjectives modify nouns?
冷たい川 the cold river
流れる川 the streaming river
I couldn’t think of the phrase ‘relative clause’ I guess.
No, I know. Haha.
But I was unsure about how it was related.
You meant that ある was modifying ところ, right?
Yes, and 夜 in the second example.
Are they the same grammatically, though?
Well, as @Leebo said they’re etymologically related, yes. But I mostly mentioned it because the OP seemed most surprised by seeing a verb at the start of a sentence, figured that by extension they were surprised to see it in front of nouns as well.
That’s fair.
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