Lesson 16: Existence with いる and ある, finding である and っす
The verbs いる and ある express existence. The difference between the two isn't politeness, it's "animatedness". An animal or person takes いる, but a table or sandwich takes ある. Something like a patrol car, which exists to move but isn't alive, can use one or the other depending on context.
家には猫がいる In the house there lives a cat.
店がある There are stores.
The above is only a general guideline. Certain uses are interchangeable, but using the wrong existence verb in the wrong phrase will sound unnatural. Picking the unnatural one usually indicates a nuance.
なぜこんなに店がいる Why are there shops like this?
The above is a real phrase that someone wrote, and the choice of いる instead of ある changes the flavor of their frustration. ある would be normal here.
Sometimes, when people want to explain that they have something, they use ある or いる. ある and いる don't mean "have", it's just a wording difference.
デスクがある There's a desk / I have a desk
私の家には猫がいる I have a cat.
いる conjugates as a one-form verb.
ある conjugates as a five-form verb, but its negative conjugation is irregular.
ある ない あった あります ありません
店がない There is no store.
Now that we know ある, we can bring up the etymology of だ, which is である. である is a very formal "to be" word derived from にてあり. Unlike だ and です, である can be used with relative clauses attached to nouns.
You might remember that we used ではない to derive the negative of だ, じゃない. ではない is basically である's negative.
である であった ではない
Usually, the topic particle は is inserted between で and ない here. However, you do sometimes run into でない, especially in entertainment media.
Finally, we come to っす, a slurred version of です used in casual speech. It's less formal than です, but serves the same grammatical roles. There's a stereotype of it being used by girls and young women.
いいです -> いいっす
犬ですか -> 犬っすか
っす is also sometimes used to contract ございます, a keigo version of ある. Again, removing the formality from it, but keeping the politeness.
おはようございます -> おはようっす -> おっす (yes, really)