To not have: 持っていません or ありません？

Question

Whenever I go to the Life supermarket near my house, they ask me at the check out:

ライフカードを持っていますか？　(Do you have a Life [members] card?)

I always respond with something like:

いいえ、持っていません。

持っていません　(motteimasenn) means I don't have it, but I think more precisely it means I am not carrying it on me. As in, I have a member's card, but not with me right now.

It seems like the right way to answer, with the negative form of the verb they used in the question. And the person at the check out always seems to understand what I mean.

However, I'm thinking it would be more accurate to answer:

いいえ、ありません。

Which means "no, [I] don't have [a members card]." I think saying ありません means that it's not just that I don't have one with me, I don't have one at all - which is the case.

So, which is the more accurate way to respond? 持っていません or ありません?

Answer 1

Short answer: 持っていません is the more appropriate. Because under this context, it says what needs to be said in the least surprising way.

To my understanding, the cashier only wants to know if you have the card right now and here:

ライフカードを持っていますか？　Do you have a Life [members] card with you? (So you can earn points now?)

In this case, just saying 持っていません or ありません automatically becomes a shorthand for "No, I don't have it with me":

いいえ、[今は]持っていません。 No, I don't have it right now.

いいえ、[今はここには]ありません。 No, it's not here right now.

Since the cashier used the verb 持つ in her question, returning the same verb is the most natural answer here.

If you want to emphasize that you don't even possess a Life card, you need a special marker to widen the context from "here and now." Even then, it would sound awkward or angry to bring it up since it wasn't asked for.

もともと持っていません[し、毎回聞かれてうんざりです]¹。 I don't have it in the first place[, so don't bug me about that every time].

[1] It's not logically implied, but some may interpret it this way.

As for ありません, I can't think of a natural way to express "No, I don't possess a members card" with it.

ある/ありません needs to be used in conjunction with certain categories of things and/or within certain contexts to mean possession. To list a few correct examples,

私には夢がある。 I have a dream. (From the famous speech by Martin Luther King, Jr.)

もしも私にハンマーがあれば、 If I had a hammer, ("If I had a hammer" by Peter, Paul and Mary)

私には夫はありません。 I have no husband. (John 4:17)

私にはカードはありませんが、埋め込みチップならあります。 I don't have a card, but I do have an embedded microchip. (made-up example)

I won't go into details here partly because it'll be out of scope for this question and partly because I don't have a clear answer. If it interests you, here's a lengthy study by someone about the usage of ある.

Answer 2

ありません is informal, but we use it often. 持っていません means "you don't HAVE (= carry ) it"

ありません actually means it doesn't exist, but no one actually cares :p

And additional comments: if you are saying ありません then you don't have to say　いいえ. Same thing with the opposite, if you say いいえ then you don't to say ありません.

In japanese, the answer doesn't have to be accurate, I don't even pronounce a word to answer and people can understand.

Answer 3

In the exact case you said (i.e. a checkout line), I think "持っていません" is better. If you say ありません, the clerk will usually say お作りしても宜しいでしょうか, further delaying your checkout process :).

Answer 4

I think the more grammatically correct answer between 持っていません and ありません is 持っていません.

The reason is because the question is "ライフカードを持っていますか？". Answering with 持っていません implies "【ライフカードを】持っていません", but with ありません it becomes "【ライフカードを】ありません" in which case the を particle seems out of place. To not say the 持って verb explicitly, you can say いません, which would imply "【ライフカードを持って】いません" although IMO it sounds a bit curt. Answering with ない or ないです, however, should still be grammatically correct since it implies "【ライフカードを持って】ないです".