English has one verb, to be, doing a huge amount of work: "I am a teacher," "the cat is in the room," "there is a problem." Japanese splits that work up, and the split that trips up every beginner is existence. To say something exists or is located somewhere — "there is," "there are," "have got" — Japanese uses one of two dedicated verbs: いる (for living beings) and ある (for everything else). Which one you pick depends on what kind of thing you are talking about.
The single biggest trap: existence is not です
Write this on your hand: "there is / to be located" is never です. This is the mistake English speakers make more than any other, because in English the same little word "is" covers both identity and existence.
| English "is" | What it means | Japanese verb |
|---|---|---|
| This is a cat. | identity — X = Y | これは猫です。 |
| There is a cat. | existence — X exists | 猫がいる。 |
| There is a book. | existence — X exists | 本がある。 |
です answers what is this? (identity). ある and いる answer is there any? / where is it? (existence and location). Reach for です to exist, and you get the ungrammatical ×本がです — a sentence no native speaker would ever produce.
机の上に本がある。
tsukue no ue ni hon ga aru
There's a book on the desk.
部屋に猫がいる。
heya ni neko ga iru
There's a cat in the room.
公園に子供がいる。
kōen ni kodomo ga iru
There are children in the park.
The particle pattern: に marks the place, が marks the thing
Existence sentences almost always follow one skeleton:
［場所］に ［もの・ひと］が ある／いる [place] に [thing/person] が [exists]
- に marks the location of existence — where something is. (See に for the location of existence.)
- が marks the thing that exists — the grammatical subject.
So 机の上に本がある breaks down as "on-the-desk / a-book / exists." Keep the roles straight: the place gets に, the existing thing gets が. Reverse them and the sentence falls apart.
冷蔵庫にビールがある。
reizōko ni bīru ga aru
There's beer in the fridge.
木の下に犬がいる。
ki no shita ni inu ga iru
There's a dog under the tree.
Which verb? The animacy split
Now the core choice. いる is for animate beings; ある is for inanimate things.
| Use いる for… | Use ある for… |
|---|---|
| people — 人, 子供, 先生, 友達 | objects — 本, 机, 車, 鍵 |
| animals — 犬, 猫, 鳥, 魚 | plants — 木, 花, 草 |
| insects — 虫, 蚊 | places & buildings — 店, 駅, お寺 |
| abstractions — 時間, お金, 問題, 質問 |
教室に先生がいる。
kyōshitsu ni sensei ga iru
The teacher is in the classroom.
あそこに古いお寺がある。
asoko ni furui o-tera ga aru
There's an old temple over there.
ちょっと質問があるんですけど。
chotto shitsumon ga aru n desu kedo
Um, I have a quick question…
Notice the last one: a question is an abstraction, so it takes ある — Japanese uses these same two verbs for "having" as well as "there is." Full treatment on the ある and いる pages.
The deeper rule isn't "alive" — it's "moves on its own"
Here is the insight that turns a memorized list into a reliable instinct. The split is often taught as "living vs non-living," but that description leaks. Plants are alive, yet they take ある (木がある, 花がある), because a tree does not move under its own power — to a speaker it is as inert as a rock. The real question your brain is asking is:
Does this thing move under its own volition?
That test predicts the verb better than "is it alive?" It explains why 木 (a tree) is ある despite being alive, and it explains the famous gray zone: vehicles.
駅前にタクシーがいる。
ekimae ni takushī ga iru
There's a taxi (waiting) in front of the station.
この辺にコンビニがありますか。
kono hen ni konbini ga arimasu ka
Is there a convenience store around here?
A taxi is an object, so ある is always safe (タクシーがある = "there is a taxi / a taxi is available"). But because a taxi moves — and, seen with its driver, behaves like an agent heading somewhere — speakers often construe it as animate and say タクシーがいる, especially when they've just spotted one in motion or idling with a driver. This is a genuine, honest gray area: both are heard, and the choice tracks whether the speaker is treating the vehicle as an inert object (ある) or a moving agent (いる). Buses, boats, and robots pattern the same way. For a fixed shop like a コンビニ, only ある works — a building goes nowhere.
Polite and negative at a glance
Both verbs conjugate through the tenses you already know. Note one wrinkle: ある's plain negative is the suppletive ない, not ×あらない — covered in full on ある's irregular negative.
| ある (things) | いる (beings) | |
|---|---|---|
| plain | ある | いる |
| polite | あります | います |
| plain negative | ない (irregular) | いない |
| plain past | あった | いた |
トイレはあちらにあります。
toire wa achira ni arimasu
The restroom is over there.
受付に女の人がいます。
uketsuke ni onna no hito ga imasu
There's a woman at the reception desk.
Common mistakes
❌ 部屋に猫がです。
heya ni neko ga desu
Incorrect — existence and location use いる/ある, never です.
✅ 部屋に猫がいる。
heya ni neko ga iru
There's a cat in the room.
❌ 机の上に本がいる。
tsukue no ue ni hon ga iru
Incorrect — a book is inanimate, so it takes ある, not いる.
✅ 机の上に本がある。
tsukue no ue ni hon ga aru
There's a book on the desk.
❌ 公園に子供がある。
kōen ni kodomo ga aru
Incorrect — children are animate, so they take いる, not ある.
✅ 公園に子供がいる。
kōen ni kodomo ga iru
There are children in the park.
❌ 部屋で猫がいる。
heya de neko ga iru
Incorrect — the location of pure existence takes に, not で.
✅ 部屋に猫がいる。
heya ni neko ga iru
There's a cat in the room.
Key takeaways
- Existence ≠ です. "There is / is located" uses ある or いる; です is only for identity (X is Y).
- いる = animate (people, animals); ある = inanimate (objects, plants, places, abstractions).
- The pattern: ［place］に ［thing］が ある／いる — に for the place, が for the thing.
- The real test is volitional movement, which is why plants take ある and why vehicles are a genuine gray area.
Now practice Japanese
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Start learning Japanese→Related Topics
- ある: Existence of ThingsN5 — How to use ある, the existence verb for inanimate subjects — objects, plants, places and abstractions — for both 'there is' and 'to have', with its one famous irregular form.
- いる: Existence of Living ThingsN5 — How to use いる, the existence verb for animate subjects — people and animals — for both 'there is (someone)' and 'to have (people/pets)', with its clean ichidan conjugation.
- Existence Syntax: 〜に〜がある/いるN5 — The fixed existence frame — PLACE に THING が ある/いる — with に marking where something is and が marking what exists there.
- に: Location of Existence (ある・いる)N5 — に marks the point where something exists or is statically located, and pairs inseparably with ある/いる — the cleanest way to lock in the に-for-existence versus で-for-action split.
- が: The Subject MarkerN5 — How が marks the grammatical subject — presenting new information, answering 'who/what?', and marking the が-object of stative predicates like 好き, 分かる, and できる.