文法Grammar Point
〜がいます there is (animate): Meaning & Examples
ga imasu · JLPT N5
〜がいます means “there is (animate)”. It is a JLPT N5 pattern, shown below in the sentences where real Japanese writers use it, with furigana on every word.
〜がいます (there is (animate)) in real sentences
Each one is quoted from a published Japanese text in this library and links to the story it came from. Some use older spellings, or break off where the sentence carried on. They are transcribed exactly as their authors wrote them.
います is the partner of あります and is used for people and animals. Compare かいだんがありました with 小さい人がいました, and note which things in this story get which verb.
まいあさ、駅のいすにすわっている人がいます。
— from Three Envelopes (N5)
かさの下に、小さいねこがいます。
— from One Umbrella, Please (N5)
まどのガラスの中に、白い、小さい人がいました。
— from Wait Here (N5)
ミズノナカニハイツピキノサカナガシヅンデヲリマシタ。
— from The Kanzashi (N3)
Appears in 5 of 379 texts in our library.
蔵書The texts
5 texts in the library use 〜がいます
Free to read in full. Furigana over every kanji, a dictionary on any word you tap, and an English breakdown of each sentence.
解説Background
Where this 〜がいます explanation comes from
〜がいます sits at JLPT N5 in the 302-point taxonomy every text in this library is tagged against. Each text is read for the patterns it contains, which is what lets this page list every text that uses 〜がいます and pull its example sentences out of them.
The example sentences were not written to demonstrate the rule. They are quoted from published Japanese texts in this library (Three Envelopes and One Umbrella, Please among them), and each one links back to the story it came from, so you can read the sentence where it actually happened.
質問Questions
〜がいます: questions & answers
What does 〜がいます mean?
〜がいます means “there is (animate)”. It is a JLPT N5 pattern, and the example sentences on this page show it doing that job in published Japanese rather than in a constructed example.
What JLPT level is 〜がいます?
〜がいます is normally introduced around JLPT N5. The texts listed on this page span several levels, because a pattern taught at N5 keeps turning up in writing well above and below it.
How do I get 〜がいます to stick?
Read it rather than review it. Meeting 〜がいます in 5 different stories attaches it to 5 contexts you remember, where reviewing the rule 5 times attaches it to nothing. Every text listed here is free to read in full.
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