Vague questions

[lonelytraveler8]

Hello,

I'm presented with some questions in my textbook that seem rather vague to me, assuming I've interpreted their meaning correctly:

あなたの学校に何がありますか。

The only way I can seem to interpret this is as "What is there at your school?" or maybe "What do you have at your school?"

Similarly:

デパートに何がありますか。 -> "What is there/what do you have at your department store?"
動物園に何がいますか。 -> "What is there/what do you have at your zoo?"
この教室にだれがいますか。 -> "Who is in this classroom?"

I'm pretty sure I have that last one correct, but it still seems like a pretty broad question to answer, especially if the reader (me) does not have a classroom to go to. I suppose I could make up names.

Thanks in advance for help.

[ニッキー]

viewtopic.php?f=11&p=136646 has exactly the same question as your first one.

[lonelytraveler8]

Thanks for the link. I would have searched for it myself had I known exactly what to search for.

Anyway, that pretty much answered everything I had to ask. It confirmed that I correctly interpreted the meaning of the questions and that I also was justly confused in how to respond. Even so, the knowledge will help a lot going forward.

[ニッキー]

Well I remembered reading the original thread so I knew what I was looking for. Your post sounded so similar that I had to check I wasn't having a seriously bad case of déjà vu.