N5 · UNIT 4

Existence & Counting

Where things are and how many there are. Say what exists, あります for things, います for people and animals, then pin down positions and count with your first two counters.

About this unit

The existence verbs あります and います let you say what is where, and once things exist, Japanese insists on counting them properly. Learn the position words and your first two counters, and you can describe any room you stand in.

語彙 · Vocabulary 43 words · 10 kanji

1

Read the words

Read straight down the list once, out loud if you can. Don't grind them here, the Anki deck at the bottom does the memorizing. Right now you only want the shapes and sounds to feel familiar.

WordReadingMeaning
to exist; there is (non-living things)
to exist; there is (people and animals)
subject marker (spotlights what exists)
room
house; home
apartment
kitchen
bath; bathtub
entryway (where shoes come off)
window
door
electricity; (electric) light
bed
table
refrigerator
garden; yard
front; in front of
back; behind
next to; next door
near; nearby
beside; the side
outside
cat
dog
bird
fish
mountain
river
tree; wood
earth; soil
the moon
big; large (set phrase for now)
small (set phrase for now)
one (thing)
two (things)
three (things)
four (things)
five (things)
how many (things)
one person; alone
two people
counter for people (from three up)
how many people
2

Learn the kanji

The 10 kanji for this unit. Tap any card to flip between its meaning and its readings, and say the reading aloud as it flips.

big
small
mountain
river
water
tree; wood
earth; soil
gold; metal; money
rice field
moon; month
3

Read it in context

Everything above, working together. Read the conversation top to bottom, out loud. Every line is built only from words and kanji you have already met, so resist the English, tap a word only if you are truly stuck.

Show English

Mr. Tanaka visits Maria's new apartment, and she shows him around.

マリア
Mr. Tanaka, this is my apartment. Come in.
たなか
Pardon the intrusion. Nice room! There's a desk near the window.
マリア
Yes. On the desk there are my Japanese books and a dictionary.
たなか
What's that? Under the bed.
マリア
A cat. Her name is Momo. Momo is under the bed every day.
たなか
I see. Are there Japanese people in this building?
マリア
Yes. There are two Japanese students in the room next door.
たなか
Where's the kitchen?
マリア
Here. There's water and tea in the refrigerator. Will you have some tea?
たなか
Yes, thank you.
Notice: things take あります, living creatures take います, the desk あります, Momo います. And the place where something exists takes に, not で. で is for doing; に is for being.
Stop, learn the vocabulary before the grammar

These units are short on purpose. The grammar only clicks when the words are already automatic, so front-load the deck here, and let spaced repetition do the memorizing while the lesson does the teaching.

  1. Import this unit's deck. Generate it with npm run content:deck, then import n5-unit4-deck.apkg into Anki or Migaku. (SRS connection status lives on your dashboard.)
  2. Learn all 43 words as new cards. Get through the whole deck in a sitting or two, you're aiming for recognition, not mastery yet.
  3. Review daily until every card reaches a 3–5 day interval. When the whole deck has settled at that spacing, the words are holding on their own and won't fight you during the grammar.
  4. Then come back. You'll read the patterns instead of decoding the words, and that's when a "small" unit actually soaks in.
Anki open with AnkiConnect? I can confirm the deck for you.

Tick the box above once the deck is soaking in, then the grammar unlocks.

文法 · Grammar 4 patterns

Take one pattern at a time. Read the rule, then read each example out loud until the shape feels obvious. The words should already be automatic from your deck, so all you are learning here is how they lock together.

Quick suggestion: write these patterns down by hand as you read them. It is the one habit that textbook learners and self-taught immersion learners both swear by, and a notebook is the cheapest memory upgrade there is. Not required, just recommended.
Existence, “there is / there are.” あります for non-living things; います for people and animals. が marks what exists.
There is a TV.
There is a cat.
Note: The test is “can it move by itself?” A parked taxi あります, but the driver inside います. Mix them up and things get spooky, つくえがいます means the desk is alive.
に marks WHERE something exists.
There is a bed in the room.
Maria is in the kitchen.
Note: Don't confuse this with Unit 3's で. で is where an action HAPPENS; に is where something simply IS. としょかんで本を読みます, action. としょかんに本があります, existence.
Position words are ordinary nouns, chain them with の to say on, under, in, in front of, behind, next to, or near something.
There is a book on the desk.
There is a supermarket near the station.
Note: The pattern runs backwards from English: “on the desk” = つくえの上, literally “the desk's top.” 上・下・中 from Unit 2 finally earn their keep.
Counting: ～つ for things (up to ten), ～人 for people. Ask with いくつ (how many things) and 何人 (how many people). The counter sits after Nが: まどが二つあります。
There are two windows in the room.
There are two Japanese students.
Note: Memorize the native ten as a chant: ひとつ・ふたつ・みっつ・よっつ・いつつ・むっつ・ななつ・やっつ・ここのつ・とお. People are regular from 三人（さんにん）up, but 一人（ひとり）and 二人（ふたり）are irregular and everywhere.

文化 · Culture note

A short read on the world these words live in. Nothing to drill here, just the context that makes the grammar feel like something people actually say.

Genkan & the 1LDK, Inside a Japanese Home

Every Japanese home, from a one-room apartment to a countryside farmhouse, begins with the げんかん, a sunken entryway where shoes come off. The step up into the house is a real border: street dirt stays down below, the clean floor lives above. Visitors say おじゃまします (“excuse me for intruding”) as they step up, and house slippers are usually waiting. Walking past the genkan in shoes isn't just rude, it genuinely shocks people.

Apartment listings read like code: 1K, 1DK, 1LDK. The number counts bedrooms; K, D, and L stand for kitchen, dining, and living. A 1K, one room plus a small kitchen, is a completely normal first apartment in Tokyo, often around 20 square meters. Room size itself is measured in tatami mats (じょう): a six-mat room is the classic size, whether or not the floor is still tatami.

Japanese homes feel different from American ones because rooms multitask. A futon folds away every morning, so a bedroom becomes a living room by day. The toilet and the bath are usually separate rooms, the おふろ is for a long soak AFTER you've washed and rinsed outside the tub. With space this tight, this unit's position words aren't textbook filler: everything in the house has exactly one place to be.

Try it: At the genkan, step out of your shoes directly up onto the floor, then turn around and point your shoes toward the door. That little pivot marks you as someone who knows the ropes.

練習 · Worksheet 8 exercises

Type each missing word in hiragana, then check your answers.

Check your answers to continue, it doesn't matter how many you miss.

Unit Quiz JLPT FORMAT

Pass mark 80% · instant explanations · passing unlocks the next unit