More On Existence Verbs

My first lesson with ある and いる wasn't 100% thorough, so I'm going to be a bit more explicit in what they're used for this time.

Both are used as "existence" verbs, sort of like "is" in English to describe the state of a noun. (That's one of their many uses, anyway.) ある is for inanimate objects and いる is for living creatures. I'm going to go through a few examples of their usages.

Existence:
あそこに本屋がある。 (or あります)
There's a bookstore over there.

Important things to note: あそこに, which is a vague description of the location, is at the beginning of the sentence. This is often the case when using ある or いる. A good literal translation of it is "At over there, a bookstore exists." In this case, に is used instead of で.

いる can be used just as ある in describing existence, only it's used with living things.

そこに犬がいる。
There's a dog there.

台所にたくさん人々がいる。
There's a lot of people in the kitchen.

Again, in this case it helps to think of the sentence as "At the kitchen, a lot of people exist" for a more literal interpretation.

Possession:
With possession, が is used as if to say "X is the thing that I have."

宿題がある。
I have homework.

野菜がない。
I don't have vegetables.

いる can be used for possession as well, though not in the sense that you own a person.

フランス人の友達がいる。
I have a French friend.

お姉さんがいる。
I have an older sister.

Events:
ある can be used for events, to say something like "There is X occurring."

水曜日に競走がある。
On Wednesday there's a race.

七月に英語のクラスがない。
In July there is no English class.