Japanese Verb Conjugation: いる (iru)

So you're learning Japanese, and you're ready to tackle one of the most essential verbs in the language: いる (iru)! It is used to talk about the presence or existence of animate things—living things, or things like gods that are thought to be alive.

Depending on the situation, you might see いる translated as:

Now, let’s break down the conjugations and uses of this lovely little verb so you can start throwing it around like a pro! We'll get into:

Cheatsheet: いる's conjugations

On the off-chance that you already know how いる works and just want to check on a conjugation, here's all of the conjugations of いる in one clean table:

Basic Conjugations of いる

いる is an ichidan verb (), known more colloquially as a "ru" verb. These verbs are convenient to work with because every ichidan verb follows the same conjugation pattern: you simply remove -る from the end of the verb and replace it with something else.

Below, we offer two sets of conjugations for each tense: plain and polite. Plain verbs are used when speaking casually, in some grammatical constructions, and are what you'll see in the dictionary. Polite verbs are used when talking with strangers or in situations where it isn't appropriate to speak casually.

Present Tense

Negative Present

Past Tense

Negative Past

て-Form & Progressive Actions

The て-form is a special Japanese verb form used to show sequences of actions, to link events or states, and a few other things.

The most basic usage of the て-form is to express ongoing actions, states, or habits, similar to how we use "-ing" in English. To do this, conjugate a verb into the て-form and then tack いる onto it.

Another common usage of the て-form is to ask for permission to do something. To create this form, simply add tack もいい onto the end of a verb in the て-form.

Volitional Form (Let's stay!)

The volitional form is used to make suggestions or express your desire/intention to do something. It's often translated to "let's" or "shall" in English.

To put いる into the volitional form, you'll change it as follows:

The volitional form is a common verb form, but given the nature of, well, existing, you likely won't use it often with いる.

Here's one relatively natural example for you:

Conditional Forms (If (something) exists...)

The conditional form is used when you want to say "if" or raise a certain condition. There are actually a few different ways to make conditional statements in Japanese: the ~ば and ~たら form of verbs. They're very similar in meaning, but have a slight difference in nuance.

Putting a verb into the ~ば form places emphasis on the condition:

Conversely, the ~たら form puts more emphasis on the result or consequence—what should or will or is desired to happen if the condition is true:

Potential Form (Can Exist)

Want to say whether someone can exist somewhere or not? That’s where the potential form comes in:

You'll most commonly see this as the negative potential form in the grammar structure ~ずにはいられない, which means "can't help".

Imperative Form (Commanding Existence)

If you ever need to command someone to "stay" or "be here" (which is pretty rare, but possible):

As with the volitional form, there aren't a ton of situations in which you would command someone to be somewhere, so you might not get a lot of use out of this form. Here's one example for you:

Causative Form (Making/Letting Someone Stay/Exist)

If you need to say that you made someone stay somewhere or let them stay, you’ll use the causative form. While "make" and "let" may seem very different to you, when you think about it, if you make or let someone do something, you are the reason they did it. To determine whether someone was happy to do something (you let them do it) or unhappy (you made them do it), you need to refer to context.

Here is the causative form of いる:

And here's an example of it being used:

You might understand this to be letting someone stay at home if they're a recent graduate that needs a bit more time to get their feed under them, or making them stay at home if they're unwell and wish to leave but you are insisting on them staying.

Causative-Passive Form (Being Made to Stay)

The causative-passive form communicates that someone was made to do something against their will, like the causative form, but carries a stronger nuance of being harmed/disadvantaged because you were made to do something.

The causative-passive form of いる is as follows:

And if our person from the above causative example sentence was made to stay home against their will, they might comment on the situation:

Special Usage Notes

Now that we've seen several examples of いる being used, let's point out a few additional important details:

1. Living Things Only!

In linguistics, there is a concept called grammatical animacy: some languages categorize words according to whether the thing referred to is seen as being alive or sentient. Japanese is one such language.

Use いる when referring to living things, like people or animals: etc.

Use ある (aru) when referring to inanimate objects, like tables or cups of milk tea.

2. Honorific & Humble Forms

Japanese makes heavy use of honorific language (called , keigo). How keigo works is beyond the scope of this blog post, but know that it involves using special forms of verbs. Some verbs even have special honorific/humble counterparts.

3. No Simple Translation

Oftentimes, there isn't a perfect 1:1 translation of a sentence (or even a word!) from one language to another. Quickly looking at our above sample sentences, いる has been translated as "be here" "is" "exists" "stay" and "remain".

The important thing is to understand that the underlying idea translates—something is somewhere—but the particular words to express that idea may change, depending on the situation.

Common Patterns with いる

We've covered many verb forms, but there are two particular ways you'll see いる used in everyday Japanese:

Location Expressions

You can use いる to talk about where someone (or some animate thing) is. This structure follows a simple pattern:

(person/animate thing)は+(place)に+いる

Existence Statements

You also use いる when you would say "there is" or "there are" in English. Again, this structure follows a relatively fixed pattern:

(person/animate thing)は+(place)にいる

Notice that the structure is flexible. You don't need to list a specific place (as in the first example), and you can also add question words (as in the second example).

Wrapping It All Up

いる is truly one of the most versatile verbs you’ll encounter as you study Japanese. From talking about where people are to describing ongoing actions, it’s a verb that’s central to so many everyday conversations. Once you get the hang of its different forms and how it's used in different contexts, you'll have gotten a foundational part of Japanese under your belt.

If you’re looking for ways to make all these conjugations stick, we actually recommend not trying to memorize the verb endings. Japanese is a very regular language, so as you consume more Japanese content and see いる used in more situations, you'll gradually remember the structures it's used in and how it's conjugated—no memorization required.

Happy studying!