いる: Existence of Living Things | Japanese Grammar

いる is the existence verb for animate subjects — people and animals, and anything that moves under its own volition. It answers is there someone? (存在) and do you have? when what you "have" is a living being (兄弟がいる, "I have siblings"). It is the animate twin of ある; for the underlying split, start with the ある・いる overview.

The core pattern

Like ある, いる uses the skeleton place に + thing が + いる — the location takes に, the being that exists takes が.

教室に学生がいる。

kyōshitsu ni gakusei ga iru

There are students in the classroom.

うちに猫がいる。

uchi ni neko ga iru

We have a cat at home.

庭に鳥がいる。

niwa ni tori ga iru

There's a bird in the garden.

いる conjugates cleanly — it's ichidan

Here's a mercy: unlike godan ある (with its irregular negative ない), いる is a perfectly regular ichidan (る-)verb. Drop る, add the ending — no sound-changes, no surprises anywhere.

Form	いる
Dictionary (plain non-past)	いる
Polite non-past	います
Plain past	いた
Polite past	いました
Plain negative	いない
Polite negative	いません
Plain past-negative	いなかった
Polite past-negative	いませんでした
te-form	いて

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.

さっきまでそこに犬がいた。

sakki made soko ni inu ga ita

There was a dog there until just now.

今日は先生がいない。

kyō wa sensei ga inai

The teacher isn't in today.

The homophone trap: いる (exist) vs 要る (need)

This is the one thing that genuinely catches learners, so meet it head-on. There are two verbs pronounced iru, and they conjugate differently:

	いる — to exist (animate)	要る — to need
Class	ichidan (る-verb)	godan (う-verb!)
Negative	いない	いらない
Past	いた	いった

So the negative of existence いる is いない, never ×いらない — that いらない belongs to 要る ("don't need it"). Mixing them up produces sentences that sound bizarre to natives.

💡

Existence いる is ichidan, so its negative is いない. If you find yourself writing ×いらない for "there isn't anyone," you've accidentally conjugated 要る (to need). Lock in いる → いない now; the full negative paradigm is on existence negatives.

教室には誰もいなかった。

kyōshitsu ni wa dare mo inakatta

There was no one in the classroom.

いる also means "to have" — when the thing is animate

Just as ある doubles as "have" for objects, いる doubles as "have" for living beings: family members, friends, partners, children, pets. This is where the animacy split does something English simply can't: it forces you to sort what you have by whether it's alive.

Have (animate) → いる	Have (inanimate) → ある
子供がいる — have children	車がある — have a car
兄弟がいる — have siblings	お金がある — have money
犬がいる — have a dog	家がある — have a house
恋人がいる — have a partner	時間がある — have time

English's single "have" erases this distinction entirely — "I have a dog" and "I have a car" use the identical verb. Japanese makes you decide: is the possessed thing a self-moving being (いる) or an inert object (ある)? Children are animate, so 子供がいる; a car is not, so 車がある.

姉が二人いる。

ane ga futari iru

I have two older sisters.

兄弟はいますか。

kyōdai wa imasu ka

Do you have any siblings?

日本に友達がたくさんいる。

nihon ni tomodachi ga takusan iru

I have lots of friends in Japan.

When a living thing becomes a "thing"

The animacy of an entity can shift, and the verb shifts with it. A living fish in a tank is 魚がいる; the same fish as food on a plate is 魚がある. Once a creature is no longer a self-moving being — a corpse, a dead insect treated as an object — it can take ある: 死体がある ("there's a body"). The deciding factor is always whether the speaker construes it as a moving agent or an inert object.

One caution to avoid a classic mix-up: 死んでいる ("is dead") uses いる, but that いる is the auxiliary of the 〜ている form, not the existence verb — the 〜ている auxiliary is always いる regardless of the subject's animacy (ドアが開いている, "the door is open"). Don't confuse the grammaticalized helper with the existence verb you're learning here.

水槽にきれいな魚がいる。

suisō ni kirei na sakana ga iru

There are beautiful fish in the tank.

Register

いる / いた are casual register; います / いました are polite. In very formal or humble contexts, いる is replaced by おる (受付に係の者がおります, "a staff member is at the desk" (formal / humble)) — recognize it in announcements and business speech, but います is your everyday polite form.

Common mistakes

❌ 教室に先生がある。

kyōshitsu ni sensei ga aru

Incorrect — a teacher is animate, so use いる, not ある.

✅ 教室に先生がいる。

kyōshitsu ni sensei ga iru

The teacher is in the classroom.

❌ 部屋に猫がいるです。

heya ni neko ga iru desu

Incorrect — don't paste です onto いる; the polite form is います.

✅ 部屋に猫がいます。

heya ni neko ga imasu

There's a cat in the room.

❌ 私には子供がある。

watashi ni wa kodomo ga aru

Incorrect — children are animate, so 'have children' uses いる.

✅ 私には子供がいる。

watashi ni wa kodomo ga iru

I have children.

❌ 教室に学生がいらない。

kyōshitsu ni gakusei ga iranai

Incorrect — いらない is the negative of 要る (to need); existence いる → いない.

✅ 教室に学生がいない。

kyōshitsu ni gakusei ga inai

There are no students in the classroom.

Key takeaways

いる = "there is / to have" for animate beings — people, animals, self-moving things.
Clean ichidan verb: います, いない, いた, いなかった — no irregularities (unlike ある).
"Have" splits by animacy: 子供がいる vs 車がある — a distinction English's single "have" doesn't make.
Watch the homophone: existence いる → いない, but 要る (need) → いらない.

Now practice Japanese

Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.

Start learning Japanese→