Arimasu and Imasu (あります – います)

Today we are going to learn a little about two verbs in the Japanese language, the Arimasu and Imasu.

I also leave the video below with the explanation plus all the content of the transcript in a way that you can read and understand.

The video was made by Sarah from the faleemjap0nes channel that shows how simple it is to learn when to use these verbs.

I will also take the opportunity to increase with more indications and relevant content.

So let's go to the video:

Verbs Arimasu and Imasu – あります – います

So Arimasu and Imasu if you don't know this you can't speak practically any basic Japanese phrase

Arimasu and Imasu mean to exist and to have, these verbs would be the there is and there are in English.

There is an animal there or there is an animal there and things like that.

But we won't have a difference as in English for singular and plural. The only difference is that we will have is that:

Arimasu is for non-living/non-living beings

And Imasu is for living beings, with the exception of HANA (はな) from Flower, tree and these things are not living beings in this case, so we won't say HANAGAIMASU but HANAGAARIMASU.

Let's give some examples to assemble the sentences, we will obviously need the particles, if you don't know about particles watch the video below explaining all but NO (の).

More articles on particles:

Basic Particles – Part 1 (は and が)

Basic Particles – Part 2 (の and と)

The particle NO (の) is used when you want to leave a possession, so for example:

My name

WA TA SHI NO NA MA E

 わたしのなまえ

So comes at the beginning the person or thing to which it belongs, then the NO and then the MONO (もの) the thing

so in case

WATASHI = person

NO NAMAE = namae so thing, so it would be my name.

And so on, for example:

A NA TA NO KO N PYU U TA A

あなたのコンピューター

your computer

ANATA = you

With NO = your

KONPYUTAA = computer

You have to remember that:

ARIMASU is for non-living beings and also flower, tree and stuff

And IMASU for living beings, for example:

HI TO GA I MASU

ひとがいます

HITO = person

Ga = private

IMASU = exists/has

So HITOGAIMASU has a person/there is a person.

As a person is a living being and we will not use ARIMASU but IMASU, another example is:

TSUKU AND GA A RIMASU

つくえがあります

TSUKU E table/things being non-living

GA = particle

ARIMASU have/exist

So since TSUKU E is a non-living thing, we will use ARIMASU and not IMASU

TSUKUEGAARIMASU = there is a table/There is a table

One more example of each, so let's make it a little longer now since we know more particles.

IE NI WA HO N GA A RIMASU

いえにわほんがあります

IE = house

NIWA = na

HON = book

GA = particle

ARIMASU = have/exist

IENIWAHONGAARIMASU

there is a book in the house

Now if you want to leave it, I have a book at my house;

WA TASHINO IE NI WAHO N GA A RIMASU

わたしのいえにはほんがあります

And now if I want to change the HON (ほん) of the dog book we will have to change the verb too, it will no longer be ARIMASU because it will be a living being now, it will be IMASU, so:

WA TASHI NO IE NI WA I NUGA IMASU

わたしのいえにはいぬがいます

WATASHINO = my

IE = house

NIWA = na

INU = dog

GA = particle

IMASU = exists/has

That is, there is a dog in my house

I hope you have understood the difference between ARIMASU and IMASU, once again; living being IMASU taking flower, tree and stuff, non living being ARIMASU, OK?

To make it clearer, the NHK course has an explanation of this difference and exception of the flower, tree, etc:

When talking about inanimate things, ARIMASU is used. Something is defined as either animate or inanimate depending not only on whether it has life, but also on being able to move around on its own.

Plants, for example, have life but cannot move. Therefore, ARIMASU is used for them. Fish sold in a market cannot move. Therefore, ARIMASU is used when referring to them. However, if it is a fish swimming in an aquarium, it should say IMASU.

Buses and cars don't move by themselves. However, if they are being driven by drivers, IMASU is used.

Source: NHK course

Negative form

When you want to say that such a thing or being is not there, you change MASU to MASEN, looking like this:

An example sentence found in Lesson 10 of the NHK course:

ANNA-SAN GA IMASEN.

アンナさんがいません。

Anna is not.

In order not to lose focus, we will leave the Informal form in the present and past, past negative, past present of these verbs for another article.

Hope you like it and don't forget to leave a comment!

Ganbatte!