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There’s a dog!
In English, we’d say There is a table or There are tables. In Japanese, you can use the verb あります (arimasu)! Keep in mind, nouns in Japanese have the same form, whether you’re talking about one thing or many things. In a conversation, you can tell based on context, or it’s just not important.
窓があります。
Mado ga arimasu.
There is (a) window.
Mado ga arimasu.
There is (a) window.
トイレはありません！
Toire wa arimasen!
There is no bathroom!
Toire wa arimasen!
There is no bathroom!
But, if you want to say something like There is a cat, you actually need to use います (imasu) instead of あります (arimasu)! あります (arimasu) is for inanimate things, while います (imasu) is for people and animals!
猫がいます。
Neko ga imasu.
There is (a) cat.
Neko ga imasu.
There is (a) cat.
Do you have pets?
In addition to sentences like There is…, the word います can also be used to ask someone Do you have…?
ペットはいますか？
Petto wa imasu ka?
Do (you) have pets?
Literal: Are there pets?
犬がいます。
Inu ga imasu.
(I) have (a) dog.
Literal: There is (a) dog.
Petto wa imasu ka?
Do (you) have pets?
Literal: Are there pets?
犬がいます。
Inu ga imasu.
(I) have (a) dog.
Literal: There is (a) dog.
は vs が?
We’ve seen a handful of hiragana characters like へ (e) and に (ni) (examples), which you place after a word to show what role it has in the sentence. Let’s look at two that are quite similar:
In short, は (wa) goes with a topic that’s been already mentioned or is implied, and が (ga) is used to give more attention to the subject in question.
田中さんは学生ですか？
Tanaka‑san wa gakusei desu ka?
Is Tanaka a student?
Tanaka‑san wa gakusei desu ka?
Is Tanaka a student?
田中さんは学生です。
Tanaka‑san wa gakusei desu.
Tanaka is a student.
Tanaka‑san wa gakusei desu.
Tanaka is a student.
In the above conversation, everyone knows who Tanaka is. The important information is that he’s a student!
田中さんが学生です。
Tanaka‑san ga gakusei desu.
Tanaka is a student.
Tanaka‑san ga gakusei desu.
Tanaka is a student.
This sentence could be the answer to Who is a student? Here, Tanaka is the new and important information.
In the same line of thought, many questions and negative sentences often use は (wa). This is used when the thing you’re talking about is background information, and other parts of the sentence are more important.
水はのみますか？
Mizu wa nomimasu ka?
Do (you) drink water?
Mizu wa nomimasu ka?
Do (you) drink water?
水はのみません。
Mizu wa nomimasen.
(I) do not drink water.
Mizu wa nomimasen.
(I) do not drink water.
It’s not incorrect to use は (wa) instead of が (ga) (or vice versa!), it just changes the focus of the sentence a bit.
These are some basic pointers, but don’t stress about it! There are many other rules and situations that can’t always be translated easily. Just focus on learning the sentence patterns as a whole. As you learn more, you can continue getting a feel for the more subtle nuances of Japanese.