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Question to Teacher: What is the difference between DESU and ARIMASU?
Course 1 Lesson 11: Counting Things (Question and Answer)

Jack

Post Date: 2002-05-10 20:39:38

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2002 Mar 20

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I notice that in the sentence, "there are four bananas" you say "banana wa yon hon DESU" instead of "banana wa yon hon ARIMASU." Is the difference simply that desu is less formal? This caught my eye because I'm used to thinking that arimasu is used to mean "exist", as in sentences that say "there is/are." Thanks.

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JFZ_George

Post Date: 2002-05-13 17:45:33

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You have to remember what DESU does. DESU has a wide range of meanings including, is, am, are etc. You are right that ARIMASU can also be used. There are many cases where DESU and ARIMASU have the same function in the sentence:

It is over there.

Asoko desu. OR Asoko ni arimasu.

How many pencils are there?

Enpitsu wa nanbon desu ka. OR Enpitsu wa nanbon arimasu ka.

Where is the car?

Kuruma wa doko desu ka. OR Kuruma wa doko ni arimasu ka.

There are times when ONLY ARIMASU can be used:

Do you have a pen?

Pen ga arimasu ka?

There is a mirror on top of the TV.

Terebi no ue ni kagami ga arimasu.

If you feel more comfortable saying ARIMASU then you should use it. After Lesson 1 in Course 2 the lessons will use ARIMASU quite often. But in Course 1 since we haven't taught ARIMASU yet we are limited to using DESU.

I hope this helps.

Tenchi

Post Date: 2002-06-13 15:17:38

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2001 May 29

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So whenever arimasu or imasu is used in a question the meaning changes from "there is/there are" to "you/he/she/it has"??

Rolling Elbow

Post Date: 2003-09-10 10:10:38

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2003 Aug 28

Questions: 5
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a trick..
Tenchi here is my trick for the "arimas"

I would say that instead of thinking of it like that, think of it as "desu" ="is", so "terebi no ue ni kagami ga arimas" (as shown in example above) means "THERE IS a mirror on the t.v" NOT " IT IS A MIRROR on top of the t.v" Arimas to me is easier to remember as a "Do you have" or "is there..there is/there are"

.. seems to work most of the time.

Jamie3315

Post Date: 2005-07-25 18:44:38

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2005 Jun 03

Questions: 1
Comments: 4

umm
If I switched the particles が　and に　around in the sentence:

テレビの上に鏡があります

Which is:
There is a mirror on top of the TV

So it is:
テレビの上が鏡にあります

Will it now read:

On top of the TV, there is a mirror

Thanks :)

z_ahangya

Post Date: 2010-09-16 15:49:46

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2010 Aug 28

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what??
テレビの上が鏡にあります
i'm not sure, but for me this means:
the top of the tv is in the mirror or something