Lesson 16: More on the verb Arimasu

The Form, Part B

Sentences can become pretty complicated at this stage. The nice thing about Japanese, though, is that you can often omit a lot of words that you would need to have in English. Whereas English cannot function without a subject (be it a noun or pronoun), the subject in Japanese can be omitted altogether if it is already known. Watch:

1a. Watashi (ni) wa neko ga yon-hiki imasu. (I have four cats - hiki is the counter for small animals)
1b. Ippai imasu, ne. (You certainly do have a lot!) - note, the "you" (anata) is missing in the Japanese.

2a. Imasu. ((I) have (some).)
2b. Takusan imasu. ((I) have a lot.
2c. Kyodai ga takusan imasu. (There are many brothers & sisters/(I) have a lot of brothers & sisters.)
2d. Watashi (ni) wa kyodai ga takusan imasu. ((I) have many brothers & sisters.)

In number (2) if all of the subjects are known, you can simply say, Imasu (2a) to say the same thing as you would say in (2d) and therefore save yourself a lot of time and breath (especially if you are in a really smoky place and the cigarette smoke is killing you). It makes the language really handy, don't you think?

There is one other pattern that you should be aware of and that is ni wa will sometimes be used in place of wa. See the examples below:

1. Otooto ni wa tomodachi ga ippai imasu. (My brother has many friends.)
2. Kono heya ni wa shii-dii pureyaa ga arimasu ka? (Does this room have a CD player?)

One Final Note (+/-):When you change from positive tense to negative tense, you usually switch the ga to wa.

1. Otooto ni wa tomodachi wa amari imasen. (My brother doesn't have many friends.)
2. Kono heya ni wa shii-dii pureyaa wa arimasen ka? (Doesn't this room have a CD player?)

In the next two lessons on this topic we will talk about plurals, and then give you some practice sentences. Then we'll take a "culture pocket break".

- Sensei

Next Lesson 17: More of a good thing - Plurals