N2 · Written Japanese
The である style
the written plain style
The voice of essays, reports and newspapers: plain verbs, and である where speech has だ or です.
Japanese written for a general reader — essays, reports, theses, editorials, encyclopaedia entries — is in the である style. Verbs and i-adjectives stay in the plain form, exactly as in casual speech: 増えている, 難しい. The difference lies in nouns and na-adjectives: where speech has だ or です, writing has である: 問題である, 重要である.
である conjugates like a verb: であった for the past, ではない and ではなかった for the negative, であれば for "if it is", and であり、 to link two statements. The conjecture であろう, the written だろう, is the one form that may also follow a verb or an i-adjective directly: 増えるであろう. The style is impersonal — no ね, no よ, and the writer rarely says 私.
The rule to keep is consistency. A text is either in です and ます or in the plain style, and a sudden です in the middle of a である essay, or the other way round, reads as a mistake. Plain だ can appear in a である text, especially in livelier writing, but formal reports keep to である.
English speakers sometimes treat である as a formal "is" that can go after anything. It goes after nouns and na-adjectives. 難しいである is wrong, because the i-adjective already finishes the sentence; the written version of 難しいです is simply 難しい.
The form
| spoken, plain: is a student | 学生だ |
| written | 学生である |
| written, past | 学生であった |
| written, negative | 学生ではない |
| written, conjecture | 学生であろう |
| written, linking | 学生であり、… |
| na-adjective | 重要である |
| i-adjective: unchanged | 難しい |
The rules one by one
Nouns and na-adjectives end in である where speech has だ or です.
水は生命に欠かせない資源である。Water is a resource that life cannot do without.
Verbs and i-adjectives stay in the plain form; である does not follow them directly.
この問題を解決するのは難しい。This problem is hard to solve.
である conjugates: であった, ではない, であれば, であり, であろう.
当時、この辺りは一面の畑であった。At that time this whole area was fields.
Keep one style throughout a text; do not mix である with です and ます.
日本は島国である。国土の多くは山地である。Japan is an island nation. Much of its land is mountainous.
A closer look
Which texts use which style
The choice of style follows the relationship with the reader. A letter, an e-mail, a notice addressed to customers or a speech is written in です and ます, because somebody is being addressed. An essay, a report, a thesis, a textbook or an editorial addresses nobody in particular, and uses the plain style with である.
News reports are plain style too, but they mostly end on verbs, so である appears less often than in an essay. Fiction moves between styles as the narration and the dialogue require. A learner who writes an essay in です and ます is not wrong, but the text will read like a letter to the teacher rather than an essay.
Exceptions and special cases (1)
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the sentence explains or draws a conclusion
a verb or an i-adjective can be followed by のである: 高いのである, 生きられないのである.
人は一人では生きられないのである。People simply cannot live alone.
の turns the clause into a noun, and a noun can take である. This is the written form of のだ and んです, and it gives the sentence the weight of an explanation.
How to spot it
- である
- であった
- ではない
- であろう
- であり、
- のである
Example sentences
言語は文化を映す鏡である。Language is a mirror of culture.
少子化は日本にとって深刻な問題である。The falling birth rate is a serious problem for Japan.
この方法が最も効果的であろう。This method is probably the most effective.
彼は優れた科学者であり、同時に詩人でもあった。He was an outstanding scientist and, at the same time, a poet.
結果は必ずしも明確ではない。The results are not necessarily clear.
問題は費用ではなく、時間なのである。The problem is not the cost but the time.
7 more example sentences
教育は国の将来を左右する重要な問題である。Education is an important question that will shape the country's future.
都市の人口は年々増加している。The urban population is growing year by year.
この説が正しいかどうかは明らかではない。It is not clear whether this theory is correct.
江戸は当時、世界でも有数の大都市であった。Edo was at that time one of the great cities of the world.
必要であれば、専門家に相談するべきである。If necessary, one should consult an expert.
原因はおそらく人為的なものであろう。The cause is probably man-made.
環境を守ることは全員の責任である。Protecting the environment is everyone's responsibility.
Worth knowing (1)
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べきである, the essayist's ought
べきだ, "ought to", becomes べきである in writing, and it is the standard way for an essay or an editorial to say what should be done. With する it is usually すべきである.
政府はこの問題に早急に対応すべきである。The government ought to deal with this problem without delay.
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
In polite speech です follows an i-adjective, so it is tempting to put である in the same place. But the です after an i-adjective is only there for politeness, and the written style has no politeness to add: the i-adjective ends the sentence on its own. である belongs after nouns and na-adjectives.
である replaces だ and です after nouns and na-adjectives — verbs and i-adjectives need nothing.
Your turn
9 exercises on this topic. Your answers are checked in the browser; none of them leaves your device.