Learn the Japanese verb that means "to be" or "to exist" when referring to a person or other animate object
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Naomi: こんにちは！なおみです！(Kon’nichiwa! Naomi desu!) |
| Kat: Hi everyone, Kat here! You’re never there when I call you in Japan. Thank you very much for joining us. |
| Naomi: じゃあ (jā) Kat-san, please tell us what we're going to learn in this lesson. |
| Kat: In this lesson we're going to learn how to use the verb いる (iru) and it's polite form, います (imasu). |
| Naomi: Where does this conversation take place and who is it between? |
| Kat: This conversation takes place on the phone, and it's between Madoka and Kent's father. |
| Naomi: What level of Japanese are they speaking? |
| Kat: Madoka speaks formal Japanese, and Kent's father speaks informal Japanese. |
| OK, so now let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| （電話) (denwa) |
| 赤木まどか (Akagi Madoka):はい、赤木です。(Hai, Akagi desu.) |
| ケントのお父さん (Kento no o-tō-san):あ、まどかちゃん？ケントの父です。(A, Madoka-chan? Kento no chichi desu.) |
| ケントのお父さん (Kento no o-tō-san):ケントいる？(Kento iru?) |
| 赤木まどか (Akagi Madoka):今、ちょっと・・・いません。(Ima, chotto... imasen.) |
| ケントのお父さん (Kento no o-tō-san):いないの？どこにいるの？(Inai no? Doko ni iru no?) |
| 赤木まどか (Akagi Madoka):学校にいます。(Gakkō ni imasu.) |
| 赤木まどか (Akagi Madoka):サッカーの練習中です。(Sakkā no renshūchū desu.) |
| ケントのお父さん (Kento no o-tō-san):あ、なるほど。(A, naruhodo.) |
| ケントのお父さん (Kento no o-tō-san):じゃ、ケントの携帯に電話するね。(Ja, Kento no keitai ni denwa suru ne.) |
| 赤木まどか (Akagi Madoka):はい。お願いします。(Hai. Onegai shimasu.) |
| もう一度、お願いします。今度はゆっくりお願いします。(Mō ichi-do, onegai shimasu. Kondo wa yukkuri onegai shimasu.) |
| 赤木まどか (Akagi Madoka):はい、赤木です。(Hai, Akagi desu.) |
| ケントのお父さん (Kento no o-tō-san):あ、まどかちゃん？ケントの父です。(A, Madoka-chan? Kento no chichi desu.) |
| ケントのお父さん (Kento no o-tō-san):ケントいる？(Kento iru?) |
| 赤木まどか (Akagi Madoka):今、ちょっと・・・いません。(Ima, chotto... imasen.) |
| ケントのお父さん (Kento no o-tō-san):いないの？どこにいるの？(Inai no? Doko ni iru no?) |
| 赤木まどか (Akagi Madoka):学校にいます。(Gakkō ni imasu.) |
| 赤木まどか (Akagi Madoka):サッカーの練習中です。(Sakkā no renshūchū desu.) |
| ケントのお父さん (Kento no o-tō-san):あ、なるほど。(A, naruhodo.) |
| ケントのお父さん (Kento no o-tō-san):じゃ、ケントの携帯に電話するね。(Ja, Kento no keitai ni denwa suru ne.) |
| 赤木まどか (Akagi Madoka):はい。お願いします。(Hai. Onegai shimasu.) |
| 英語が入ります。(Eigo ga hairimasu.) |
| 赤木まどか (Akagi Madoka):はい、赤木です。(Hai, Akagi desu.) |
| Kat: Yes, this is the Akagi residence. |
| ケントのお父さん (Kento no o-tō-san):あ、まどかちゃん？ケントの父です。(A, Madoka-chan? Kento no chichi desu.) |
| Kat: Ah, Madoka? It's Kent's dad. |
| ケントのお父さん (Kento no o-tō-san):ケントいる？(Kento iru?) |
| Kat: Is Kent there? |
| 赤木まどか (Akagi Madoka):今、ちょっと・・・いません。(Ima, chotto... imasen.) |
| Kat: Um, right now he's actually… not here. |
| ケントのお父さん (Kento no o-tō-san):いないの？どこにいるの？(Inai no? Doko ni iru no?) |
| Kat: He's not there? Where is he? |
| 赤木まどか (Akagi Madoka):学校にいます。(Gakkō ni imasu.) |
| Kat: He's at school. |
| 赤木まどか (Akagi Madoka):サッカーの練習中です。(Sakkā no renshūchū desu.) |
| Kat: He's in the middle of soccer practice. |
| ケントのお父さん (Kento no o-tō-san):あ、なるほど。(A, naruhodo.) |
| Kat: Ah, I see. |
| ケントのお父さん (Kento no o-tō-san):じゃ、ケントの携帯に電話するね。(Ja, Kento no keitai ni denwa suru ne.) |
| Kat: All right, I'll call his cell phone, then. |
| 赤木まどか (Akagi Madoka):はい。お願いします。(Hai. Onegai shimasu.) |
| Kat: Yes, please do. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Naomi: Remember? ケント君のお父さんは日本人。お母さんはイギリス人ですよね。(Kento-kun no o-tō-san wa Nihon-jin. O-kā-san wa Igirisu-jin desu yo ne.) |
| Kat: So, remember that Kent’s father is Japanese, while his mother is English. |
| Naomi: うんうんうん。(Un un un.) |
| Kat: So I wonder what language they speak at home then? |
| Naomi: うーん、どうだろう。(Ūn, dō darō.) I think Kent speaks to his father in Japanese. で、お母さんに英語。(De, o-kā-san ni Eigo.) |
| Kat: So he speaks to his mother in English, I wonder if his mother can speak Japanese, because if she can, then, you know, she joins the group of British female’s who can speak Japanese, and there’s not many of us, I could tell you. So it’s interesting, you know, half Japanese people, I wonder what language they speak at home. |
| Naomi: そうね。(Sō ne.) I have a half Japanese friend, his parents both speak Japanese, so he speaks Japanese in the house. But, he said he can’t use 敬語 (keigo) at all. |
| Kat: Ah, he was never taught how to use polite language then. Oh, that’s interesting. OK, so now let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| Kat: The first word we are going to see is |
| Naomi: いる (iru) [natural native speed] |
| Kat: to be (animate), to exist |
| Naomi: いる (iru) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Naomi: いる (iru) [natural native speed] |
| Kat: And next. |
| Naomi: 練習中 (renshūchū) [natural native speed] |
| Kat: during practice, in the middle of practice |
| Naomi: 練習中 (renshūchū) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Naomi: 練習中 (renshūchū) [natural native speed] |
| Kat: Next. |
| Naomi: なるほど (naruhodo) [natural native speed] |
| Kat: I see |
| Naomi: なるほど (naruhodo) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Naomi: なるほど (naruhodo) [natural native speed] |
| Kat: And finally. |
| Naomi: 携帯 (keitai) [natural native speed] |
| Kat: cell phone |
| Naomi: 携帯 (keitai) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Naomi: 携帯 (keitai) [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Kat: OK, so now let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Naomi: The first word we look at is 携帯 (keitai). |
| Kat: “Cell phone" or “mobile phone.” |
| Naomi: 携帯 (keitai) is short for 携帯電話 (keitai denwa) which means "cell phone." |
| Kat: Right. 携帯 (keitai) by itself originally means "portable" as in something you can hold in your hand, but many people use it to mean cell phone or mobile phone in the same way we might say "cell" or “mobile” in English. |
| Naomi: Oh, so for example, you can say, "I'll call you on the cell" like that? |
| Kat: Yeah, in America you would say that, in the UK you would say “I’ll call on your mobile.” |
| Naomi: It's the same in Japanese, 携帯に電話する (keitai ni denwa suru). "I'll call your cell." |
| Kat: Oh, and that's our next phrase, actually! |
| Naomi: 電話する (denwa suru) |
| Kat: “To make a phone call.” |
| Naomi: We learned 電話 (denwa). |
| Kat: “Phone” or “phone call.” |
| Naomi: In an earlier lesson. Here, we're just adding する (suru) to make it into a verb, 電話する (denwa suru) |
| Kat: "To make a phone call." |
| Naomi: When you want to mention who you are calling, you use the particle に (ni). For example, キャットに電話する (Kyatto ni denwa suru). |
| Kat: "To call Kat." And the next word is? |
| Naomi: なるほど (naruhodo) |
| Kat: "I see", "I get it." If someone explains something to you or makes something clear this so that you finally understand, you can reply with なるほど (naruhodo). |
| Naomi: This is a really useful phrase, I think! |
| Kat: It really is! I use it all the time. When someone explains something to you, I use |
| always なるほど～、なるほど～ (naruhodō, naruhodō). Like, It's a reply during conversation to show you are listening! |
| Naomi: That's right! |
| Kat: And the last word is...? |
| Naomi: 中 (chū) |
| Kat: "In the middle of" or "during." |
| Naomi: This is used as a suffix. |
| Kat: Yes, when 〜中 (-chū) is attached to a noun that indicates action, it means "in the middle of something", "in a certain state", "during", or "while". Can we hear some examples? |
| Naomi: Sure. 勉強 (benkyō) means "study", which is also an action. So, 勉強中 (benkyōchū) is |
| Kat: In the middle of studying. |
| Naomi: 仕事 (shigoto) means work. So, 仕事中 (shigotochū) is |
| Kat: In the middle of working. |
| Naomi: So for example, Kat, you and I are...? |
| Kat: 仕事中です。(Shigotochū desu.) |
| Naomi: That's right, in the middle of work! |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Kat: In this lesson, we'll look at the usage of the verb いる (iru), which is います (imasu) in the polite form. いる (iru) is a verb that means "to be" or "to exist". It's very similar to the verb ある (aru) that we studied in the last lesson, but note that いる (iru) only applies to animate objects, such as people and animals. The formation is also the same as ある (aru). |
| Naomi: Right. [Animate object] plus がいる (ga iru). |
| Kat: When translated into English, it becomes "there is" or often in the case of people, "so-and-so is here", or when talking about family members, "I have." That's quite a lot of meanings! So let's do some examples. |
| Naomi: ケントがいる。(Kento ga iru.) |
| Kat: Kent is here. It sounds like perhaps he is in the same room with you. |
| Naomi: 先生がいる。(Sensei ga iru.) |
| Kat: The teacher is here. This also sounds like the teacher is with you. |
| Naomi: Right. |
| Kat: How was いる (iru) used in this way in the dialogue? |
| Naomi: Kent's father asked Madoka… ケントいる？(Kento iru?) |
| Kat: "Is Kent there?" When she said Kent wasn't there, his father then asked... |
| Naomi: どこにいるの？(Doko ni iru no?) |
| Kat: "Where is he?" This is a useful phrase to know, I think! If you are talking on the phone with a friend and trying to meet up with them, you can use this to find out exactly where they are. |
| Naomi: Right! どこにいるの？(Doko ni iru no?) Like, where are you right now? |
| Kat: Okay, so that's how we can use いる (iru) to talk about a person being somewhere. The other meaning is "have" when talking about family members or a significant other. For example? |
| Naomi: 弟がいる。(Otōto ga iru.) |
| Kat: 弟 (otōto) means little brother, so this sentence means "I have a little brother." |
| Naomi: 彼氏がいる。(Kareshi ga iru.) |
| Kat: Remember that 彼氏 (kareshi) means boyfriend, so this means "I have a boyfriend." |
| Naomi: じゃあ (jā), how about you, Kat? 兄弟いる？(Kyōdai iru?) |
| Kat: Oh, speaking of いる (iru), this is a good question to know that Naomi-sensei just asked! You will probably get asked this a lot in Japan. |
| Naomi: Yes! 兄弟 (kyōdai) means siblings, so 兄弟いる？(kyōdai iru?) is a casual way to ask if someone has any siblings. |
| Kat: 弟が二人いる。(Otōto ga futari iru.) |
| Naomi: 弟が二人...。(Otōto ga futari…) So, you have two younger brothers? |
| Kat: That's right! Unfortunately. I’m kidding, I’m kidding. So…なおみ先生は兄弟がいますか。(Naomi-sensei wa kyōdai ga imasu ka.) |
| Naomi: はい、います。弟がいます。(Hai, imasu. Otōto ga imasu.) |
| Kat: So, you also have a younger brother. |
| Naomi: はい、そうです。(Hai, sō desu.) |
| Kat: So you know how I feel. |
| Naomi: You may remember this from past series, but いる (iru) in polite Japanese is います (imasu). |
| Kat: So we have いる (iru) and います (imasu) which mean to exist or to have when talking about animate objects or people. Now let's look at how to make those negative. |
| Naomi: For います (imasu), it's easy. You just change ます (masu) to ません (masen). |
| Kat: Right, it's the same rule for all ます (masu) verbs. |
| Naomi: いる (iru) is technically a Class 2 verb, but the negative is irregular. The negative form of いる (iru) is simply いない (inai). |
| Kat: With the negative form, you can just use the same structure we just learned. |
| Naomi: Here is the sentence structure, person plus がいない (ga inai). |
| Kat: Right. Can we hear some sample sentences? |
| Naomi: Sure. In the dialogue, Madoka said… 今、ちょっと・・・いません。(Ima, chotto… imasen.) |
| Kat: "Right now he's actually... not here." |
| Naomi: In response, Kent's father said… いないの？(Inai no?) |
| Kat: "He's not there?" We're switching back and forth between informal and formal forms here, so let's review all the forms together really quickly. Informal Japanese followed by formal Japanese. |
| Naomi: いる (iru) and います (imasu) |
| Kat: There is or I have. |
| Naomi: いない (inai) and いません (imasen) |
| Kat: There isn't or I don't have. |
| Naomi: Okay, now it's time for you to practice! |
| Kat: You're talking about members of your family. You want to say "I have a cousin." |
| How would you say it? |
| [short pause] |
| Kat: Here's a hint, the word for cousin is いとこ (itoko). |
| [pause] |
| Kat: And the answer is? |
| Naomi: いとこがいる。(Itoko ga iru.) |
| Kat: "I have a cousin" or "I have cousins." |
| Naomi: いとこ (itoko) can refer to one cousin or many cousins. |
| Kat: Right. As Japanese has no plural, as I’m sure you are aware. Okay, on to the next question. How would you say "I have a pet?" |
| [short pause] |
| Kat: Here's a hint, the word for pet which is really easy is ペット (petto). |
| [pause] |
| Kat: And the answer is? |
| Naomi: ペットがいる。(Petto ga iru.) |
| Kat: "I have a pet" or "I have pets." Now, how about if you don't have a pet? How would you say that? |
| [pause] |
| Kat: And the answer is? |
| Naomi: ペットがいない。(Petto ga inai.) |
Outro |
| Kat: Listeners, please practice いる (iru) and いない (inai) by telling us about your family in the comments! |
| Naomi: Yes, that's a great way to practice. |
| Kat: We'll be waiting and correct every comment that we receive and reply. |
| Naomi: Thanks for listening everyone. |
| Kat: Until next time. |
| Naomi: じゃまた。(Ja mata.) |
| （電話) (denwa) |
| 赤木まどか (Akagi Madoka):はい、赤木です。(Hai, Akagi desu.) |
| ケントのお父さん (Kento no o-tō-san):あ、まどかちゃん？ケントの父です。(A, Madoka-chan? Kento no chichi desu.) |
| ケントのお父さん (Kento no o-tō-san):ケントいる？(Kento iru?) |
| 赤木まどか (Akagi Madoka):今、ちょっと・・・いません。(Ima, chotto... imasen.) |
| ケントのお父さん (Kento no o-tō-san):いないの？どこにいるの？(Inai no? Doko ni iru no?) |
| 赤木まどか (Akagi Madoka):学校にいます。(Gakkō ni imasu.) |
| 赤木まどか (Akagi Madoka):サッカーの練習中です。(Sakkā no renshūchū desu.) |
| ケントのお父さん (Kento no o-tō-san):あ、なるほど。(A, naruhodo.) |
| ケントのお父さん (Kento no o-tō-san):じゃ、ケントの携帯に電話するね。(Ja, Kento no keitai ni denwa suru ne.) |
| 赤木まどか (Akagi Madoka):はい。お願いします。(Hai. Onegai shimasu.) |
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