ある is the verb of existence for inanimate things — "there is / to have" — and it conjugates as a completely ordinary 五段 -る verb in almost every cell: あります, あった, あって, あれば all behave like 取る. But it has one famous gap. Its plain negative is not the ×あらない that the paradigm predicts — it is the suppletive adjective ない. "There isn't" is ない, and this single idiosyncrasy is the seed from which the entire ない-negation system of Japanese grew.
The regular paradigm — everything but the plain negative
Set the exception aside and ある is unremarkable. The r stays put and the vowel walks the ら-row, exactly as 取る does.
| Form | ある | Reading |
|---|---|---|
| Dictionary | ある | aru |
| Polite 〜ます | あります | arimasu |
| Past | あった | atta |
| Te-form | あって | atte |
| Conditional 〜ば | あれば | areba |
| Conditional 〜たら | あったら | attara |
| Polite negative | ありません | arimasen |
Notice that the polite negative is regular — ありません is just the ます-stem あり + ません. The idiosyncrasy lives only in the plain negative.
明日、大事な会議があります。
ashita, daiji na kaigi ga arimasu
I have an important meeting tomorrow.
昔ここに古い神社があった。
mukashi koko ni furui jinja ga atta
There used to be an old shrine here.
時間があれば、また寄ります。
jikan ga areba, mata yorimasu
If I have time, I'll drop by again.
Two cells are worth a register label. The volitional あろう is (literary) — you meet it in set phrases like あろうことか ("of all things") — and the imperative あれ is (archaic / literary), surviving only in wishes like 幸あれ ("may there be happiness"). Neither is used in everyday speech.
The gap: plain negative = ない, not ×あらない
A regular 五段 -る verb builds its plain negative on the あ-row: 取る → 取らない. Apply that to ある and you would expect ×あらない — and every learner reaches for it. It does not exist. ある has no plain negative of its own; it borrows the independent i-adjective ない ("nonexistent, not present"). This is suppletion — filling a gap in one word's paradigm with a form from a different word, the way English fills go's past with went.
| Cell | Expected (wrong) | Actual (suppletive) |
|---|---|---|
| Plain negative | ×あらない | ない (nai) |
| Plain past negative | ×あらなかった | なかった (nakatta) |
| Negative te-form | ×あらなくて | なくて (nakute) |
| Negative conditional | ×あらなければ | なければ (nakereba) |
ごめん、今日はお金がない。
gomen, kyō wa o-kane ga nai
Sorry, I don't have any money today.
冷蔵庫に何もなかったから、外で食べた。
reizōko ni nani mo nakatta kara, soto de tabeta
There was nothing in the fridge, so we ate out.
時間がなくて、朝ごはんを食べられなかった。
jikan ga nakute, asagohan o taberarenakatta
I didn't have time, so I couldn't eat breakfast.
ない inflects like an i-adjective, because it is one
Because the borrowed form is a genuine i-adjective, the negative of ある inherits adjective inflection — not verb inflection. That is why "there isn't" behaves grammatically like 高い or 赤い: past なかった, adverbial なく, te-form なくて, conditional なければ. If you already know how i-adjectives conjugate, you already know how ある's whole negative branch conjugates.
そんな話、聞いたことがない。
sonna hanashi, kiita koto ga nai
I've never heard such a thing. (ことがない)
お金がなければ、諦めるしかない。
o-kane ga nakereba, akirameru shika nai
If there's no money, we have no choice but to give up.
Two polite negatives: ありません vs ないです
Japanese gives you two ways to say "there isn't" politely, and they are stylistically different, not interchangeable in tone:
- ありません — the ます-stem negative. Cleaner, slightly more formal, the default in careful speech and writing.
- ないです — the plain adjective ない plus です. Common in casual-polite conversation, a touch softer and more colloquial.
心配しないで、問題は何もありません。
shinpai shinaide, mondai wa nani mo arimasen
Don't worry, there's no problem at all. (formal-leaning)
えっと、今ちょっと時間がないです。
etto, ima chotto jikan ga nai desu
Um, I don't really have time right now. (casual-polite)
Above both sits the 丁寧語 existence verb ございます, whose negative ございません is the most deferential "there isn't" — the register of shop staff and formal announcements. It is covered on the でございます page.
何かご質問はございませんか。
nanika go-shitsumon wa gozaimasen ka
Do you have any questions? (formal, e.g. after a presentation)
Why this one gap matters so much
This is not a trivia footnote — it is the keystone of Japanese negation. The ない that negates every verb in the language (行かない, 食べない, しない) is historically the same word as the ない that fills ある's gap: the adjective of non-existence, reanalyzed as a negating suffix. So when you say 行かない, you are, at the deepest level, saying "the going is non-existent." Understanding that ある → ない is suppletion explains, in one stroke, why Japanese negatives everywhere inflect like adjectives (行かなかった, 食べなくて) rather than like verbs. The whole negative-ない formation table hangs off this one irregular pair.
Historically ある did have a regular negative — the classical あらず (arazu, "is not") — which survives today only in frozen literary phrases like 心ここにあらず ("one's mind is elsewhere"). Modern spoken Japanese abandoned that あら-based form entirely and replaced it with the adjective ない, which is exactly why the regular ×あらない sounds so tempting yet lands so wrong: you are reaching for a form the language quietly retired. Label あらず in your mind as (archaic / literary) and let ない own the modern slot.
返事を待っていたが、彼は心ここにあらずといった様子だった。
henji o matte ita ga, kare wa kokoro koko ni arazu to itta yōsu datta
I waited for an answer, but he looked completely elsewhere in his mind. (frozen classical あらず)
How this differs from English
English negates "there is" with a tiny, regular move — add not: "there is" → "there isn't." Japanese instead swaps in an entirely different word from a different word class: the verb ある yields to the adjective ない. An English speaker's instinct is to keep the verb and modify it (hence the reflex ×あらない); the Japanese reality is a clean lexical substitution. And the contrast with the animate verb いる sharpens it: いる is regular (一段), so its negative really is the predictable いない. Only ある borrows. Keeping ない (things) and いない (people/animals) straight is the everyday payoff — see ある vs いる.
Common mistakes
❌ 今日はお金があらない。
Incorrect — ある's plain negative is the suppletive ない; ×あらない does not exist.
✅ 今日はお金がない。
kyō wa o-kane ga nai
I don't have money today.
❌ 冷蔵庫に何もあらなかった。
Incorrect — the plain past negative is なかった, not ×あらなかった.
✅ 冷蔵庫に何もなかった。
reizōko ni nani mo nakatta
There was nothing in the fridge.
❌ 教室に学生がない。
Incorrect — students are animate, so 'there aren't' is いない, not ない.
✅ 教室に学生がいない。
kyōshitsu ni gakusei ga inai
There are no students in the classroom.
❌ お金があらないです。
Doubly wrong — there is no ×あらない to build on; the polite negative is ないです or ありません.
✅ お金がないです。
o-kane ga nai desu
I don't have money. (casual-polite; formal = ありません)
Key takeaways
- ある is a regular 五段 -る verb in every cell — あります, あった, あって, あれば — except the plain negative.
- Its plain negative is the suppletive adjective ない (past なかった), never ×あらない; the polite negative ありません is regular.
- ない is an i-adjective, so ある's negative branch inflects like one: なく, なくて, なかった, なければ.
- This same ない is the root of all verb negation (行かない = "the going is non-existent") — the reason Japanese negatives conjugate like adjectives.
- Don't confuse it with the animate negative: things take ない, living beings take いない.
Now practice Japanese
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Start learning Japanese→Related Topics
- ある vs いる: The Existence PairN4 — Japanese splits 'there is / to exist' into two verbs by animacy — ある（五段, for things）and いる（一段, for living beings） — so you choose by what the subject *is*, not by the English 'there is'.
- Negative ない: Formation TableN4 — How to build the plain negative 〜ない across every class — the 五段 あ-row stem (with the わ trap), 一段 drop-る, the irregulars, and the suppletive ある → ない.
- 取る: Full 五段 -る ParadigmN5 — The complete conjugation of 取る, the model 五段 verb ending in -る (not to be confused with a 一段 る-verb), whose te-form and past take the small-っ 促音便 (取って・取った).