いる is the verb used to say that people or animals exist. It is used for animate things. The polite form is います, which you will hear most often. Key points: • Use いる/います for people and animals • The pattern is Location に Person/Animal が います • が marks the subject (the thing that exists) • に marks the location For example, “部屋に猫がいます” means “There is a cat in the room.” The cat is the thing that exists (marked by が), and the room is the location (marked by に). If you are saying someone is at a place, you can also use the same pattern: “田中さんは学校にいます.” This means “Tanaka-san is at school.” Here は marks the topic, but the verb is still います. Remember: いる is for living things. For objects or places, use ある instead. This is one of the first big choices you make with existence verbs, so practice saying “cat is here” with いる and “book is here” with ある.