Arimasu and imasu: saying what's there in Japanese

Level A1

Arimasu and imasu: saying what's there in Japanese

Look around: a book here, a chair over there, a cat next to someone. In this lesson you say in Japanese what's in a place. The core idea fits in one sentence: first the place with に (ni), then what's there with が (ga), and at the end あります (arimasu) for things or います (imasu) for people and animals. Every sentence here is polite, with です (desu) or ます (masu).

Recap: here, there, over there

Three words point at places: ここ (koko) is here, near the speaker; そこ (soko) is there, near the listener; あそこ (asoko) is over there, away from both. With です they answer a question like 本はどこですか (hon wa doko desu ka), "Where's the book?" Listen to the three answers below. Today the same words open the sentence.

Today's words

猫 (neko) is a cat and 人 (hito) is a person. 本 (hon), 机 (tsukue) and 椅子 (isu) are a book, a desk and a chair; 椅子 is also often written in kana, いす. Japanese has no articles and no required plural: 本 can be "a book", "the book" or "books", depending on the situation. The two verb cards show ある (aru) and いる (iru), the dictionary forms; for now, your sentences use あります (arimasu) and います (imasu).

Model: two colleagues look around a room

Two colleagues are looking around a room from opposite sides. Listen once without reading. The first line, そこに何がありますか (soko ni nani ga arimasu ka, "What's there?"), is only for recognizing: 何 (nani) means "what". あ (a) is the "oh" of someone who has just noticed something. At the end, そこです (soko desu) tells the person who asked that the cat is right next to them.

Things: the sentence with あります

Build the sentence in three parts: the place with に (ni), what's there with が (ga), and あります at the end. に comes after the place and が after the thing. "There's a book here" has nothing like them: word order and "there's" do that job. In this lesson, when a sentence names a place, the place comes first. Swap the place or the thing and the rest stays the same. The sentence doesn't say how many, either: 本があります can be one book or several.

ここに本があります。

People and animals: the sentence with います

With people and animals the sentence has the same shape, and only the verb changes: います instead of あります. ここに猫がいます (koko ni neko ga imasu) is "There's a cat here." If everyone knows which place you mean, or the place doesn't matter, you can leave it out: 猫がいます, "There's a cat." The が stays in the sentence, because it marks what's there.

ここに猫がいます。

Which verb to choose

"There is" works for everything in English; Japanese looks first at what's there. Things take あります: a book, a desk, a chair. People and animals take います. Plants stay with あります even though they're alive, so think "people and animals", not "living things". Now compare what you've already seen: 本はここです (hon wa koko desu) uses は for a book already being talked about, and ここに本があります uses が to bring in something new, roughly like "The book is here" and "There's a book here". That difference is enough for this lesson; the rest about は and が comes later.

Your turn: describe a room

Picture a room: a chair next to you, a book next to your listener and a person away from you both. Say three sentences, choosing the place and the verb for each one. Then check them with the audio below. Do the same with a room in the World section, using things you can already name.

In short: place, what's there, verb

In this sentence, に marks the place where something is, が marks what's there, and the verb depends on what's there: あります for things, います for people and animals. If the place is already clear, you can leave it out: 猫がいます.

Place + にWhat's there + がVerb
ここに本(ほん)があります
そこに机(つくえ)があります
あそこに猫(ねこ)がいます
そこに人(ひと)がいます
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