Japanese 2 Lesson 5 Grammar Notes

1. 文法 LESSON 5 GRAMMAR NOTES
G1. THE COUNTER FOR “FLOORS”: 階 〜かい
In lesson 3, you learned that 回 (かい) was used to indicate the number of “times”
something happens.
Though the pronunciation as well as spelling in hiragana is the same, note that
the kanji used to write these counters are different.
The counter 階 (かい) indicates the number of a floor in a building (1st
floor, 2nd
floor, 3rd
floor, etc.). Please also note that the 3rd
floor is pronounced さんがい.
ひらがな 漢字 (kanji)
1st
floor いっかい 一階
2nd
floor にかい 二階
3rd
floor さんがい 三階
4th
floor よんかい 四階
5th
floor ごかい 五階
6th
floor ろっかい 六階
7th
floor ななかい 七階
8th
floor はっかい 八階
9th
floor きゅうかい 九階

2. 10th
floor じゅっかい 十階
11th
floor じゅういっかい 十一階
23rd
floor にじゅうさんがい 二十三階
How many floors なんかい 何階
G2. TO EXIST – ARIMASU / IMASU あります / います
The verbs あります and います describe the existence of objects.
• あります is used for inanimate objects (non living things).
• います is used for animate (living) objects, like people or pets.
Example 1: location of an inanimate object - あります
わたしたち
の
きょうしつ
は
3かい
に
あります。
Our classroom is on the 3rd
floor.
いま
に
テーブル
が
あります。
There is a table in the living room.

3. Example 2: location of an animate object - います
せんせいたち
は
いつも
しょくいんしつ
に
います。
The teachers are always in the teacher’s room (office).
うち
に
いぬ
が
います。
The dog is in the house.
The general sentence structures:
(Place) に (thing/animal/person) が (arimasu / imasu)
OR
(thing/animal/person) は (Place) に (arimasu / imasu)
*be careful with your particles & these sentence structures!*
( ﾟ⽫皿ﾟ)ｷｰｯ!!