# watashi wa koko ni iru



## Death4ngel

Hi. I'm learning Japanese on my own. 

I came across this sentence
"watashi wa koko ni iru"

'watashi' is I
'wa' is the topic marker
'koko' is here
'ni' is used for a location. like "in XXX"
But what does the 'iru' here means?
I searched around the net for the translations for "koko ni iru" and it gave me "I am here". But that doesn't give me the rough meaning of 'iru'
The internet also gave me verbs with iru form. which i think doesn't concerns me here?
And also, when to use 'wa' or 'ga'?

. What's the meaning of 'iru'
. when to use 'wa' or 'ga'
. Any good site to recommend to improve my Japanese?

Thank you in advance for any help.


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## Captain Haddock

The simplest explanation is that iru means "exists", for anything animated (people, animals, giant robots, etc.). Often it translates as "be", because existence is one of the meanings of the English verb "to be".

The site http://www.guidetojapanese.org/ has a nice overview of grammar, including particles like wa and ga.

The site www.alljapaneseallthetime.com describes a novel approach to learning Japanese on one's own.


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## Death4ngel

So what "watashi wa koko ni iru" really means is " I exist here"?
But is simplified to "I am here" as "exist" can be ommited?


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## Captain Haddock

It means "[As for me,] I am here".

The English "be" ("am") already means "exists" in this case.

Edit: it occurs to me that "I _will_ be here" is a better translation.


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## Death4ngel

Captain Haddock said:


> It means "[As for me,] I am here".
> 
> The English "be" ("am") already means "exists" in this case.
> 
> Edit: it occurs to me that "I _will_ be here" is a better translation.


 
Hmm... What makes you think that "I _will _be here" is better?

Because the -ru forms means _to something_?
So iru will be to exist (to be). "I to be here" becomes "I will be here"?

And one more thing. I heard soba ni iru from a song and it roughly translates to "to be by my side" right? and soba ni ite from the song HEAVEN by Ayumi. so ite is the -te form of iru? So it's more of a command form of "to stay by my side"?

If ite is the -te form of iru. No wonder I can't find the word ite in dictionary.


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## Flaminius

Captain Haddock said:


> Edit: it occurs to me that "I _will_ be here" is a better translation.


The future interpretation is possible but not necessarily a better one.  What I have argued _ad nauseam_ in the long thread about Tenses and Aspects in Verbs             (1 2) does not seem to apply to _iru_.  Usually, the _ru_-form of a verb is a reference to a future action or a present habit but the simple present is the most general interpretation for _iru_ and other verbs that express a state (yes, existing somewhere can be understood as a state).  Again, the future interpretation is possible.  Only context can determine which is better.

To *Death4ngel*;
Yes, _ite_ is the _te_-form of _iru_.  In your example (soba-ni ite), it is best understood as a casual imperative meaning, "stay beside me!"


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## Beejay

Flaminius said:


> The future interpretation is possible but not necessarily a better one.  What I have argued _ad nauseam_ in the long thread about Tenses and Aspects in Verbs             (1 2) does not seem to apply to _iru_.  Usually, the _ru_-form of a verb is a reference to a future action or a present habit but the simple present is the most general interpretation for _iru_ and other verbs that express a state (yes, existing somewhere can be understood as a state).  Again, the future interpretation is possible.  Only context can determine which is better.
> 
> To *Death4ngel*;
> Yes, _ite_ is the _te_-form of _iru_.  In your example (soba-ni ite), it is best understood as a casual imperative meaning, "stay beside me!"


While on the topic, I have two questions:

How would one explicitly say that they _will_ be here? Would you have to say 私は後でいる?
What does いている imply? Perfect aspect? (Something happened, so I'm here now)


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## Death4ngel

Beejay said:


> While on the topic, I have two questions:
> 
> How would one explicitly say that they _will_ be here? Would you have to say 私は後でいる?
> What does いている imply? Perfect aspect? (Something happened, so I'm here now)


 
"they will be here" would be "anatatachi wa koko ni iru". It should be this. Someone better confirm.


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## Captain Haddock

There's no explicit future tense in Japanese. いる means "I am here" or "I will be here". Context or the use of time words (明日、etc.) can clarify the timeframe involved.

When I suggested "I will be here" was a better translation, it was because I couldn't think of many situations where saying "I am here" made sense. I mean, where else would you be?


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## Beejay

Captain Haddock said:


> There's no explicit future tense in Japanese. いる means "I am here" or "I will be here". Context or the use of time words (明日、etc.) can clarify the timeframe involved.
> 
> When I suggested "I will be here" was a better translation, it was because I couldn't think of many situations where saying "I am here" made sense. I mean, where else would you be?


I thought this might be the case.

Regarding the ambiguity of ここにいる, in English, "I am here" is often announced when someone arrives to meet with people who are expecting him; especially if that person's attendance is important. Do Japanese people never use the expression in such a way?

That said though, even if they do, the context would negate the ambiguity. Nobody will ever say "I will be here!" in the context I described unless they have a few screws loose.


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## xiaolijie

Captain Haddock said:
			
		

> I couldn't think of many situations where saying "I am here" made sense. I mean, where else would you be?


Imagine you and other people are in a very dark place, some may ask: "John, where are you?" In that case "I am here!" would make perfect sense.


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## Flaminius

Beejay said:


> How would one explicitly say that they _will_ be here? Would you have to say 私は後でいる?
> What does いている imply? Perfect aspect? (Something happened, so I'm here now)


いている is non-existent.  A few verbs including いる and ある cannot receive _-teiru_.


Death4ngel said:


> "they will be here" would be "anatatachi wa koko ni iru". It should be this. Someone better confirm.


Besides what our good captain has said, "they" can be expressed by _karera_ but it is not the only word for it.  "Personal pronouns" in Japanese have been discussed several times in the forum.  Feel free to search for appropriate threads and add comments (but not here, please  ).


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## Beejay

Flaminius said:


> いている is non-existent.  A few verbs including いる and ある cannot receive _-teiru_.


Good to know, Thanks.


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## Death4ngel

In this case, I think the translation would be "I will be here". I took this from an anime "Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu"
Since this is from a picture of an advertisement of season 2 which is yet to be out. Then the future form would be better.

So the -ru form can be present or future? (it's roughly said in the thread, but just to make sure)


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## Captain Haddock

Beejay said:


> Regarding the ambiguity of ここにいる, in English, "I am here" is often announced when someone arrives to meet with people who are expecting him; especially if that person's attendance is important. Do Japanese people never use the expression in such a way?



A Japanese person will say something like 着いたよ, literally "I have arrived".

By the way, I looked up ここにいる in the ALC dictionary/language corpus. For every instance in which this was used as a sentence (6 or 7), it was indeed in the future tense.



> So the -ru form can be present or future? (it's roughly said in the thread, but just to make sure)



Yes. (short answer)


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## KiPo

If you want to emphasize that "I will be here (always)" you will have to use some word that expresses a future meaning, since the Japanese language doesn't have a grammatical "future tense" as Indo-European languages do have. 
So you could say:

私はずっとここにいる。
watashi wa zutto koko ni iru (I will be here all the time/a long time) This is ambiguous because zutto can mean forever but also just "a long time", or "all the time".

私はいつもここにいる
watashi wa itsumo koko ni iru (I'm always here/I'll be here always) However this could also just simply imply that you "usually are here all day long".

これからも私はここにいる
Korekaramo watashi wa koko ni iru.
This implies that the speaker has been always here and will be always here. If you take away the "mo" and just say "korekara...." it implies that he probably wasn't here until now, but will be from now on.


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