Japanese/Lessons/Existence

When you want to say that something exists, there two verbs you have to choose from depending on whether the subject is an animate- or inanimate object. The difference is not quite living/non-living, as plants would be considered inanimate (as they don't move ... well, most only really slowly). A fish swimming in its fish-bowl would be an animate object, but a dead fish (whether at the fish-mongers or — let's hope not — in its bowl) would be in-animate.

• For animate objects (humans and animals), use "いる" (polite present positive: "います").
• For inanimate objects, use "ある" (polite present positive: "あります").

Note that these can denote both presence or possession.

In the dialogues below, you may replace "います" with "あります".

Dialogue

The presence of no particular object

Japanese		English
{{{ja}}}:	何かいますか。	{{{en}}}:	Is something (animate) there?
{{{ja}}}:	<animate object> がいます。	{{{en}}}:	There's a <animate object>.
{{{ja}}}:	何もいません。 (なにも　いません)	{{{en}}}:	There's nothing.

To ask about the presence of a particular animate object

Japanese		English
{{{ja}}}:	<object> がいますか。	{{{en}}}:	Is there a <animate object>?
{{{ja}}}:	はい、います。	{{{en}}}:	Yes, it's there.
{{{ja}}}:	いいえ、いません。	{{{en}}}:	No, it's not there.

If the animate object in question is not present but something else is, you can suggest this by saying:

Japanese		English
{{{ja}}}:	いいえ、<animate object> はいません。	{{{en}}}:	No, <animate object> is not there.

Notice that this reply uses "は" instead of "が". The "は" particle can be translated as "as for such and such", while "が" directly marks the subject.

Vocabulary

何(なに)か: "anything/something". 何(なに)も: "everything/nothing" (positive/negative depends on the verb)