Lesson 4: Have, There Is & Where

___ wa arimasu ka. — “Is there ___? / Do you have ___?”

arimasu — exists / there is / (a place) has — for things. This one frame is both “is there a toilet?” and “do you have bags?”; Japanese doesn’t split existence and possession the way English does, which is one less thing to learn.

And here’s the verb system: -masu is the polite yes-shape, -masen is its no-shape. Arimasu / arimasen. Imasu / imasen. Even Lesson 3’s haraimasu has its twin, haraimasen. Two endings, every verb, no exceptions — past tense joins in Lesson 6, and that’s the entire paradigm.

Toire wa arimasu ka.

toire — toilet. Asked in any shop or station, completely normal (see “How to behave”).

Fukuro wa arimasu ka.

Lesson 3’s fukuro in the new frame — same word, new power.

Hai, arimasu.

The answer echoes the verb. Catchable by design.

Arimasen.

arimasen — the no-shape in the wild. When you hear it, the thing doesn’t exist here; move on gracefully.

Koko ni arimasu.

ni pins existence to a place: PLACE ni arimasu — “it’s at/in PLACE.” (And there’s koko — “here” — the first of the place series koko / soko / asoko / doko.)

Soko ni arimasu.

soko — there, by you — the middle distance of the place family.

Ue ni arimasu.

ue — up / above (a Lesson 0 rhythm word, now earning a living).

Shita ni arimasu.

shita — down / below. ue/shita is a pair — shop shelves and station lockers speak it fluently.

Kagi, onegaishimasu.

kagi — key — dropped straight back into Lesson 1’s request pattern. (Hotel front desks run on this sentence.)

___ wa imasu ka. — “Is ___ there / in / around?” (people & animals)

Japanese uses a different existence verb for living, moving things: imasu. Things arimasu; people and animals imasu. That’s the entire rule.

Tanaka-san wa imasu ka.

Asking for a person at a desk, an office, a guesthouse.

Hai, imasu.

Just like arimasu ka → hai, arimasu, the question shapes its own answer.

Iie, imasen.

imasen — and the -masu/-masen system holds: every verb has a yes-shape and a no-shape.

___ wa doko desu ka. — “Where is ___?”

doko — where. And look at it: ko-so-a-do again. Lesson 2 gave you the thing column (kore, sore, are, dore); here’s the place column — koko (here), soko (there by you), asoko (over there), doko (where?). One grid, whole language.

Hoteru wa doko desu ka.

hoteru — hotel.

Ginkou wa doko desu ka.

ginkou — bank (another Lesson 0 sound, now a word you own). ATMs live in konbini too — often the faster answer. (And “ATM” said as English letters is a Japanese word — Ee-tii-emu wa doko desu ka works everywhere.)

Iriguchi wa doko desu ka.

iriguchi — entrance.

Deguchi wa doko desu ka.

deguchi — exit. Its pair with iriguchi matters in stations, where picking the wrong one costs you a city block.

Koko desu.

The answers you’ll give: koko / soko / asoko + desu. (You’ve been saying the “for here” chunk koko de onegaishimasu since Lesson 3 — now you can see the koko inside it.)

Asoko desu.

asoko — with a point, this answers most doko questions you’ll ever be asked.

Keitai o sagashimasu.

sagashimasu — look for — this lesson’s third verb, and keitai — mobile phone. X o sagashimasu is doko’s partner: it explains your search to anyone helping you. (keitai is also half of Lesson 1’s phone-bailout chunk — Wakarimasen. Keitai o misemasu. — whose verb arrives in Lesson 7.)

Pasupooto o sagashimasu.

pasupooto — passport. May you never need this sentence with this noun.

Deguchi wa asoko desu.

And the recycle: new words settling back into Lesson 2’s ___ wa ___ desu. — you can answer location questions, not just ask them.

The hard truth: every question you ask invites an answer at native speed. “Where is X?” invites directions — clauses, landmarks, hand-waving. The MiniCore move: before you speak, pick the question form whose answer you can catch. The safest questions are yes/no — their answers are hai, iie, arimasen, daijoubu desu, all parseable. You usually know what you want; ask about that, not about the world.

Resutoran wa arimasu ka.

Not “where can I eat?” — that’s unparseable homework. Arimasu ka gets you a hai and a pointed finger.

Konbini wa asoko desu ka.

The expert version: turn even a where question into a yes/no by guessing and pointing. Wrong guess? They’ll point at the right place — which was the answer you wanted anyway.

atarashii — new. Lesson 2’s kono + Lesson 3’s adjective pattern.

Ano hoteru wa furui desu.

furui — old. Atarashii (new) and furui (old) side by side make Lesson 3’s comparison-by-enumeration move, choosing your lodging.

Hito, ooi desu.

ooi — many/lots. The universal Kyoto-in-cherry-season observation.

Hito, sukunai desu.

sukunai — few. The antonym pair ooi/sukunai — negation by antonym still applies: “not crowded” = sukunai desu.

Resutoran wa asoko desu.

resutoran — restaurant — Lesson 0 rhythm practice, now vocabulary.

Pasupooto, douzo.

Hotel check-in wants your passport (it’s the law for foreign guests) — hand it over the Lesson 1 way.

Kaban wa ikura desu ka.

kaban — bag (the carrying kind, vs. Lesson 3’s fukuro, the plastic kind) — shopping with Lesson 3’s frame.

Deploy anywhere, guilt-free — asking is completely normal in Japan (nobody expects you to buy anything). One heads-up: the answer often comes back wearing a politer word for the same room — otearai — a word to catch by ear.

Wai-fai wa arimasu ka.

wai-fai — Wi-Fi. Hotels, cafes, stations. The answer usually comes with a password card — douzo.

Kore, eigo wa arimasu ka.

The finisher for Lesson 2’s “When you can’t read it” moves — sayable now that you own arimasu ka. Point at the unreadable thing (a menu, a pamphlet, a machine’s screen); you don’t need its name, and an English version exists more often than you’d guess. When you do know the name, Lesson 2’s no sharpens the question — eigo no menyuu wa arimasu ka, an English menu — drilled in Lesson 5.

Kaban no naka ni arimasu.

naka — inside. Look at the machinery: Lesson 2’s no + naka + this lesson’s ni arimasu — three small pieces, one very reusable sentence. (X no naka = “inside X” works for any X.)

Koko wa doko desu ka.

The sentence for the moment the map app dies or the alley stops matching the screen: show your map — paper or pin — ask, and let the pointing finger do the rest. Nobody in Japan will leave you standing there; expect to be walked (the rule from this lesson’s behavior notes applies double when you’re lost).