Learn about describing the existence of things using "iru" and "aru"
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Sakura: さくらです。(Sakura desu.) |
| Peter: Peter here. Sakura-san, |
| Sakura: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: Great to have you back for this newbie lesson. |
| Sakura: はい、ありがうございます。(Hai, arigatō gozaimasu.) |
| Peter: こちらこそ、ありがとうございます。(Kochirakoso, arigatō gozaimsu.) |
| Sakura: ありがうございます。(Arigatō gozaimasu.) |
| Peter: Okay, let’s start by setting the stage. Today’s conversation is between who. |
| Sakura: A teacher and a student. |
| Peter: Which means the politeness level will be. |
| Sakura: Polite. |
| Peter: So です/ます (desu/masu). |
| Sakura: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: Today we will continue on with ある (aru) and いる (iru). |
| Sakura: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: Two verbs that explain existence. Now as we state over and over again, ある (aru) deals with inanimate objects and いる (iru) tends to deal with animate objects. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: Slight variations but again we’ve been over them and we will go over them further. So with that said, shall we get into today’s lesson? |
| Sakura: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: お願いします。(Onegai shimasu.) |
| DIALOGUE |
| 先生 (sensei) : 小林さんの部屋には何がありますか。(Kobayashi-san no heya ni wa nani ga arimasu ka.) |
| 小林 (Kobayashi) : えーっと、机と、椅子と、ベッドと、パソコンと・・・それにテレビもあります。(Ētto, tsukue to, isu to, beddo to, pasokon to... soreni terebi mo arimasu.) |
| 先生 (sensei) : それだけですか。じゃあ、小林さんの部屋には何がいますか。(Sore dake desu ka. Jā, Kobayashi-san no heya ni wa nani ga imasu ka.) |
| 小林 (Kobayashi) : えーっと、何もいません。あっ、そうそう、時々ゴキブリがいます。(Ētto, nani mo imasen. A, sō sō, tokidoki gokiburi ga imasu.) |
| もう一度お願いします。ゆっくりお願いします。(Mō ichi-do onegai shimasu. Yukkuri onegai shimasu.) |
| 先生 (sensei) : 小林さんの部屋には何がありますか。(Kobayashi-san no heya ni wa nani ga arimasu ka.) |
| 小林 (Kobayashi) : えーっと、机と、椅子と、ベッドと、パソコンと・・・それにテレビもあります。(Ētto, tsukue to, isu to, beddo to, pasokon to... soreni terebi mo arimasu.) |
| 先生 (sensei) : それだけですか。じゃあ、小林さんの部屋には何がいますか。(Sore dake desu ka. Jā, Kobayashi-san no heya ni wa nani ga imasu ka.) |
| 小林 (Kobayashi) : えーっと、何もいません。あっ、そうそう、時々ゴキブリがいます。(Ētto, nani mo imasen. A, sō sō, tokidoki gokiburi ga imasu.) |
| 今度は英語が入ります。(Kondo wa Eigo ga hairimasu.) |
| 先生 (sensei) : 小林さんの部屋には何がありますか。(Kobayashi-san no heya ni wa nani ga arimasu ka.) |
| TEACHER: Ms. Kobayashi, what do you have in your room? |
| 小林 (Kobayashi) : えーっと、机と、椅子と、ベッドと、パソコンと・・・それにテレ |
| ビもあります。(Ētto, tsukue to, isu to, beddo to, pasokon to... soreni terebi mo arimasu.) |
| KOBAYASHI: Well, I have a desk, a chair, a bed and a personal computer, and also a television. |
| 先生 (sensei) : それだけですか。じゃあ、小林さんの部屋には何がいますか。(Sore dake desu ka. Jā, Kobayashi-san no heya ni wa nani ga imasu ka.) |
| TEACHER: That's all? Then, what stays in your room? |
| 小林 (Kobayashi) : えーっと、何もいません。あっ、そうそう、時々ゴキブリがいます。(Ētto, nani mo imasen. A, sō sō, tokidoki gokiburi ga imasu.) |
| KOBAYASHI: Um, nothing. Oh yeah, sometimes there are cockroaches. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Peter: So Sakura-san, what did you think? |
| Sakura: わあ。(Wā.) |
| Peter: That says it all わあ (wā). |
| Sakura: ねー。(Nē.) |
| Peter: All right. So before we really break down the conversation and really get into the details, let’s go over some vocab. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Peter: What do we have first, Sakura-san? |
| Sakura: 部屋 (heya) |
| Peter: Room. |
| Sakura: (slow) へや (heya) (natural speed) 部屋 (heya) |
| Peter: Followed by |
| Sakura: 机 (tsukue) |
| Peter: Desk. |
| Sakura: (slow) つくえ (tsukue) (natural speed) 机 (tsukue) |
| Peter: And of course with the desk we have |
| Sakura: 椅子 (isu) |
| Peter: Chair. |
| Sakura: (slow) いす (isu) (natural speed) 椅子 (isu) |
| Peter: Then we have |
| Sakura: パソコン (pasokon) |
| Peter: Personal computer. |
| Sakura: (slow) パソコン (pasokon) (natural speed) パソコン (pasokon) |
| Peter: Now in Japanese, so many words are abbreviated. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: And this is another one of them. So can you give us that word, one more time? |
| Sakura: パソコン (pasokon) |
| Peter: And nice and slow. |
| Sakura: パソコン (pasokon) |
| Peter: パソコン (Pasokon). And this is again shortened for personal パソ (paso), and computer コン (kon). |
| Sakura: パーソナルコンピューター (pāsonaru konpyūtā), shortened. |
| Peter: You sounded like a computer right there. Can I have that one more time? |
| Sakura: パーソナルコンピューター (pāsonaru konpyūtā) |
| Peter: And like it’s chopped down into |
| Sakura: パソコン (pasokon) |
| Peter: Now the more you get into this amazing credible language, you will see that there are just so many of these abbreviations. Everything gets cut down. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: And it really saves a lot – it saves time and it’s very convenient but at first, you might find it a bit daunting like what happens to all these words but in the end, it just really works out better. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: So stick with it. Then we have |
| Sakura: ゴキブリ (gokiburi) |
| Peter: Cockroach. |
| Sakura: (slow) ごきぶり (gokiburi) (natural speed) ゴキブリ (gokiburi) |
| Peter: And we are getting into a cockroach season. So we figured that it is appropriate to bring this up. Okay now how do we get ゴキブリ (gokiburi) from cockroach? |
| Sakura: How do we get it? |
| Peter: Yeah, where does this word come from? |
| Sakura: I don’t know. |
| Peter: Me neither. |
| Sakura: Is it an abbreviation? |
| Peter: I don’t know. |
| Sakura: No, I don’t think so. |
| Peter: But is there a kanji for this because this word appears always in katakana? |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: But I am wondering if maybe there was originally kanji for this. |
| Sakura: Good question! I have never seen a kanji. |
| Peter: Sakura-san, that’s where you really come into play here. |
| Sakura: ゴキブリ (gokiburi). That is a really good question. I never thought about it. |
| Peter: Yeah. |
| Sakura: Umm… |
| Peter: So we are going to take a look into this because yeah this is quite interesting. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: And if you stop by japanesepod101.com, we will probably have some more information probably, でしょ (desho)? Probably have some more information for you. And because of this word, it seems like the word for cockroach would be around in some form for a very long time. So, and I haven’t seen this word appear in kanji. So always in katakana, ゴキブリ (gokiburi), ゴキブリ (gokiburi). So little studying for us to do. Then we have |
| Sakura: 時々 (tokidoki) |
| Peter: Sometimes. |
| Sakura: (slow) ときどき (tokidoki) (natural speed) 時々 (tokidoki) |
| Peter: A nice adverb of frequency and this is actually very easy to remember. 時 (toki) is time. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: And then we have time, two times in a row. ときとき (tokitoki) but as it’s twice in a row, the と (to) becomes ど (do). |
| Sakura: Yeah. |
| Peter: ときどき (tokidoki), time time, sometimes. Now the kanji isn’t time time, but check out the kanji close up. We will have that in there or the lesson notes. You will be able to see the kanji there. Okay, Sakura-san, are you ready? Let’s get into today’s conversation. We will start off with the professor, the teacher. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Sakura: 小林さんの部屋には何がありますか。(Kobayashi-san no heya ni wa nani ga arimasu ka.) |
| Peter: Ms. Kobayashi, what do you have in your room or what is there in your room? Now let’s take a look at the sentence. Break it down, first we have |
| Sakura: 小林さん (Kobayashi-san) |
| Peter: Now this teacher is of higher social status but she is addressing her student with the polite suffix さん (san). Sakura-san, help us out here. |
| Sakura: Hhmm… |
| Peter: Why? |
| Sakura: えーと...。(Ēto…) It’s a usual custom for teachers to call their students by their surname plus さん (san). |
| Peter: Very polite. So Ms. Kobayashi, followed by |
| Sakura: の (no) |
| Peter: Which is the possessive. Ms. Kobayashi’s |
| Sakura: 部屋 (heya) |
| Peter: Room. Ms. Kobayashi’s room. |
| Sakura: には (ni wa) |
| Peter: So first we have the particle に (ni) and this refers to a position and especially when this is followed by ある (aru) or いる (iru), it’s referring to the position of something and then the topic marking particle は (wa). So in Ms. Kobayashi’s room. Literally it's “Kobayashi’s room in” but when we translate to English, in Ms. Kobayashi’s room. Then we have |
| Sakura: 何 (nani) |
| Peter: What. |
| Sakura: が (ga) |
| Peter: Subject marker. |
| Sakura: あります (arimasu) |
| Peter: There is |
| Sakura: か (ka) |
| Peter: Question marking particle. So literally we have Ms. Kobayashi’s room in what there is. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: But again we have to translate and when we translate, this is Ms. Kobayashi, what is in your room? What is there in your room, Ms. Kobayashi? This is followed by Ms. Kobayashi. |
| Sakura: えーっと、机と、椅子と、ベッドと、パソコンです。(Ētto, tsukue to, isu to, beddo to, pasokon desu.) |
| Peter: Well I have a desk, a chair, a bed and a personal computer. Now let’s start off with that sentence, one more time. |
| Sakura: えーっと (ētto) |
| Peter: This is a filler. When you need some time to think, when you are thinking in your head and you want to buy some time, this is the filler you will hear time and time again in Japanese. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: えーっと、えーっと…。(Ētto, ētto…) So thinking, thinking, thinking and then here come the answers. We have |
| Sakura: 机 (tsukue) |
| Peter: Desk. |
| Sakura: と (to) |
| Peter: And the particle と (to) which means and. It can also mean with. In this sentence, it means and. |
| Sakura: 椅子 (isu) |
| Peter: Chair. |
| Sakura: と (to) |
| Peter: And |
| Sakura: ベッド (beddo) |
| Peter: Bed. One more time, let’s see the pronunciation. There is a short pause in there. |
| Sakura: ベッド (beddo) |
| Peter: Followed by |
| Sakura: と (to) |
| Peter: Again the particle と (to) |
| Sakura: パソコン (pasokon) |
| Peter: Personal computer. |
| Sakura: です (desu) |
| Peter: And finally です (desu) it is, the polite form of the copula. So literally the sentence is well, desk and chair and bed and personal computer is. Now notice how in between every noun, we needed to put と (to). |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: To combine them and now when we translate this in English, we use the comma and we only put the and after the final two nouns but in Japanese, you need that と (to) in between everything. と (to) but in this sentence, the と (to) comes in between everything. |
| Sakura: Well it’s common in ordinary conversation to have and in between everything. |
| Peter: Yeah. |
| Sakura: Yes, but it may not be the case when it’s written. |
| Peter: Also this is a little bit beyond this lesson but there is something else that comes up a lot in conversations, とか (toka). It means and so on and things like that. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: So most likely if it was an informal conversation and I was talking to Sakura-san, I’d probably say 机とか椅子とか (tsukue toka isu toka). So it means like a bed and things like that, chair and things like that, the usual things. |
| Sakura: Yes, yes. |
| Peter: And that’s what this とか (toka) means but for now, this is a very kind of polite situation so the Japanese is conforming to standards. Then we have |
| Sakura: それにテレビもあります。(Soreni terebi mo arimasu.) |
| Peter: Great. Great sentence here. This little sentence should help you go such a long way and there is also a television. |
| Sakura: Yeah. |
| Peter: And there is also a TV. Let’s start with this first part. |
| Sakura: それに (soreni) |
| Peter: And. So after you finish a sentence, instead of just giving another simple sentence, you can add です (desu) and your flow will sound much better, it will sound much more natural. それに (soreni) and something, something. |
| Sakura: In addition, って感じね (tte kanji ne). |
| Peter: Ah Sakura-san, what would we do without you? And in this case, we had. |
| Sakura: テレビ (terebi) |
| Peter: TV, followed by |
| Sakura: も (mo) |
| Peter: Particle, meaning also. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: So this will substitute for (は) and が (ga), followed by |
| Sakura: あります (arimasu) |
| Peter: Polite form of ある (aru), meaning there is. So literally in addition, TV also there is. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: Translate in addition, there is also a TV, followed by, next we have. |
| Sakura: それだけですか。(Sore dake desu ka.) |
| Peter: That’s it. |
| Sakura: それ (sore) |
| Peter: That |
| Sakura: だけ (dake) |
| Peter: Only. |
| Sakura: です (desu) |
| Peter: Is. |
| Sakura: か (ka) |
| Peter: Question. That only is? That’s it? |
| Sakura: じゃあ、けいこさんの部屋には何がいますか。(Jā, Keiko-san no heya ni wa nani ga imasu ka.) |
| Peter: Okay, then what stays in your room or what is there in your room, but this time as we are using いる (iru), we are referring to animate objects and in most cases, living things. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: So the ある (aru) is asking, what is there in your room that isn’t living. Again this is general rules. Of course, there are exceptions. You have to check the PDF for that because plans actually take ある (aru). So it gets a little complicated but it’s a pretty good rule of thumb. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: So what is there in your room with the ある (aru) is referring to inanimate things like beds things, where いる (iru) or the polite form which we just covered います (imasu) is referring to living things. Fish, pets, things like that or little brothers or sisters, something along those lines. You get the point. Okay, let’s just go through it literally. |
| Sakura: じゃあ (jā) |
| Peter: Well. |
| Sakura: 小林さんの部屋には何がいますか (Kobayashi-san no heya ni wa nani ga imasu ka) |
| Peter: And Kobayashi’s room in, what is there? Same as above except just the final verb is different. Okay, we are running short on time. Next we have |
| Sakura: えーと、何もいません。(Ēto, nani mo imasen.) |
| Peter: Hmm there is nothing. Again we have the filler, えーと (ēto). The person who is speaking is thinking before they are answering and they need a little time. They are biting their time with this filler. Followed by |
| Sakura: 何も (nani mo) |
| Peter: Here, here this is nothing because it’s followed by. |
| Sakura: いません (imasen) |
| Peter: The negative form of the verb. So 何も (nani mo) any interrogative followed by the particle も (mo) in a negative sentence will be taken as nothing or nobody and here as the sentence is negative, it becomes nothing and again, rule of thumb, no living things, no fish, no dogs, no nothing. Then… |
| Sakura: あっ、そうそう、時々ゴキブリがいます。(A, sō sō, tokidoki gokiburi ga imasu.) |
| Peter: Then ah yeah, sometimes there are cockroaches. Okay, let’s just get this sentence in quickly. We have again. |
| Sakura: あっ、そうそう (a, sō sō) |
| Peter: So the speaker realizes that she left something out. あっ、そうそう (a, sō sō), yeah, yeah. |
| Sakura: 時々 (tokidoki) |
| Peter: Sometimes. |
| Sakura: ゴキブリ (gokiburi) |
| Peter: Cockroaches. |
| Sakura: が (ga) |
| Peter: Marked by a subject marking particle が (ga). |
| Sakura: います (imasu) |
| Peter: There are and notice how the final verb can be either singular or plural. In Japanese, there is no way to tell but context. |
| Sakura: Right. |
| Peter: So I naturally made that switch. There are cockroaches but if it was just one, you know, they do have ways to mark this but it’s by counting the things. There is no change in the verb. |
| Sakura: Right. |
| Peter: The verb is not conjugated. So literally ah yeah, yeah. Sometimes roaches there are. We interpret it, yeah sometimes there are cockroaches. 懐かしいです (natsukashii desu), very nostalgic for my first few places in Japan. So far so good in the new place. |
| Sakura: Oh good. Me too. |
Outro |
|---|
| Peter: All right. Great lesson. Thank you so much, Sakura-san. That’s going to do it for today. |
| Sakura: またね。(Mata ne.) |
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