How to Describe Your Room in Japanese: Layout, Furniture and There Is

To describe your room in Japanese, you need one pattern, place ni thing ga arimasu, there is a thing in a place, and a handful of position words: heya ni tsukue ga arimasu, there is a desk in my room. After this post you will be able to walk someone through your room in six or seven sentences, say how big it is and which way it faces, and explain what you like about it and what you would change.

By Trinh Ngoc Dieu · Founder of Unihongo 13 min readPublished October 28, 2026

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部屋に机があります。There's a desk in my room.

What you need to know

Your room comes up in more conversations than you would guess: when a friend video-calls and asks to see where you live, when a coworker asks whether you found a flat, when a host family shows you to a spare room and asks about yours at home. It is also the topic that teaches the most basic Japanese sentence of all, X ga arimasu, so well that you never forget it. Learners stumble on three points: the particle after the place, which is ni and not wa; the choice between arimasu for things and imasu for living creatures; and the size words, because Japanese measures a room in tatami mats and calls it hiroi or semai rather than big or small. This guide gives you the question in polite and casual forms, three answers at rising levels, a table of the position words, the words you will hear about layout and light, how to say what you like and what you would change, the reactions a room description gets, and the mistakes that give a beginner away.

Place ni thing ga arimasu: the particle after the place is ni, never wa

Arimasu for furniture and plants; imasu for your cat, your roommate, yourself

Rooms are hiroi or semai, spacious or cramped, more often than ōkii or chiisai

Ki ni itte imasu, I'm fond of it, is the natural verb for liking your own room

Your room in four lines

These four sentences are the skeleton of any room description: a thing that exists, a thing with a position, a living creature, and a quality of the room itself. Heya ni tsukue ga arimasu uses the pattern you will repeat for everything you own. Mado no chikaku ni, near the window, shows how a position word slots in before ni. The cat takes imasu because it is alive. Hiatari, literally sun-hitting, is the everyday word for how much light a room gets, and hiatari ga ii is the first thing Japanese speakers praise about a room.

Four picture cards: there's a desk in my room, the bed is near the window, my cat is by the window, and it gets good light. — A desk, a bed, a cat and the light: four cards that describe a room with arimasu and imasu.

Japanese	Romaji	Meaning
部屋に机があります。	Heya ni tsukue ga arimasu.	There's a desk in my room.
窓の近くにベッドがあります。	Mado no chikaku ni beddo ga arimasu.	The bed is near the window.
猫が窓のそばにいます。	Neko ga mado no soba ni imasu.	My cat is by the window.
日当たりがいいです。	Hiatari ga ii desu.	It gets good light.

The question you'll hear

Donna heya, what kind of room, is the open question, and it is usually followed by hitorigurashi desu ka, do you live alone, because the answer changes what the room is. Friends skip the grammar entirely: heya, hiroi?, with a rising tone. On a video call the request is heya, misete, show me your room, and refusing it with chirakatte iru kara, because it's a mess, is itself a normal answer.

Japanese	Romaji	Meaning
どんな部屋に住んでいますか。	Donna heya ni sunde imasu ka.	What kind of room do you live in?
部屋、広い？	Heya, hiroi?	Friend: Is your room big? (casual)
一人暮らしですか。	Hitorigurashi desu ka.	Do you live alone?
何階ですか。	Nangai desu ka.	What floor is it on?
部屋、見せて！	Heya, misete!	Friend: Show me your room! (casual)

Three model answers

The beginner answer uses two adjectives and one list with to. The intermediate answer gives the size in mats, links two sentences with the te-form atte, and uses oite arimasu, has been placed, for an object someone put somewhere. The upper answer explains with node, uses tabi ni, every time, and ends with kedo ne, which turns a complaint into a shrug.

Japanese	Romaji	Meaning
部屋は小さいです。でも、明るいです。	Heya wa chiisai desu. Demo, akarui desu.	Beginner: My room is small. But it's bright.
机とベッドと本棚があります。	Tsukue to beddo to hondana ga arimasu.	Beginner: There's a desk, a bed and a bookshelf.
六畳のワンルームに一人で住んでいます。	Rokujō no wanrūmu ni hitori de sunde imasu.	Intermediate: I live alone in a six-mat studio.
窓の横に机があって、その上にパソコンが置いてあります。	Mado no yoko ni tsukue ga atte, sono ue ni pasokon ga oite arimasu.	Intermediate: There's a desk beside the window, with my computer on it.
狭いですが、駅から近いので気に入っています。	Semai desu ga, eki kara chikai node ki ni itte imasu.	Intermediate: It's cramped, but I like it because it's near the station.
南向きで日当たりがいいので、朝は自然に目が覚めます。	Minamimuki de hiatari ga ii node, asa wa shizen ni me ga samemasu.	Upper: It faces south and gets good light, so I wake up naturally in the morning.
壁には旅行の写真を貼っていて、見るたびに元気が出ます。	Kabe ni wa ryokō no shashin o hatte ite, miru tabi ni genki ga demasu.	Upper: I've put travel photos on the wall, and they cheer me up every time I look.
本当はもう少し収納が欲しいんですけどね。	Hontō wa mō sukoshi shūnō ga hoshii n desu kedo ne.	Upper: Honestly I'd like a bit more storage, though.

Oite arimasu, from oku, to put, plus te arimasu, describes a thing that is where it is because someone placed it there. Pasokon ga arimasu is also correct; oite arimasu adds the sense of a room you arranged yourself.

Arimasu, imasu and the position words

The whole description runs on one frame: A no position ni B ga arimasu, B is at the position of A. The position words are nouns, so they attach with no and take ni afterwards. Learn them in pairs.

Japanese	Romaji	Meaning
ベッドの下に箱があります。	Beddo no shita ni hako ga arimasu.	There are boxes under the bed.
本棚の隣に観葉植物があります。	Hondana no tonari ni kan'yō shokubutsu ga arimasu.	There's a houseplant next to the bookshelf.
部屋の奥に窓があります。	Heya no oku ni mado ga arimasu.	There's a window at the far end of the room.
ルームメイトが隣の部屋にいます。	Rūmumēto ga tonari no heya ni imasu.	My roommate is in the next room.
床には何も置いていません。	Yuka ni wa nani mo oite imasen.	I keep nothing on the floor.

Japanese	Romaji	Meaning
上 / 下	ue / shita	on top of / under
横 / 隣	yoko / tonari	beside / next to
前 / 後ろ	mae / ushiro	in front of / behind
奥 / 手前	oku / temae	at the far end / on the near side
近く / そば	chikaku / soba	near / right by
真ん中 / 角	mannaka / kado	in the middle / in the corner

Arimasu is for things, including plants, and imasu for people and animals. The rule holds even when the thing feels alive: a plant takes arimasu, a goldfish takes imasu.

Size, layout and the words you'll hear about a room

Japanese rooms are sized in tatami mats, jō, even when the floor is wood, and the layout is named with the letters you see on rental listings. You do not need the full estate-agent vocabulary, but the words in this table come up in every conversation about where someone lives, and hiatari and minamimuki are what people ask about first. The scene below is the room from the cards, labelled the way you would describe it.

A small bright room drawn with flat shapes: a desk by the window, a bed, a bookshelf and a cat on the sill, each labelled in Japanese. — Tsukue, beddo, hondana, mado: the room from the cards, labelled the way you would describe it.

Japanese	Romaji	Meaning
八畳ぐらいです。	Hachijō gurai desu.	It's about eight mats.
ロフト付きです。	Rofuto tsuki desu.	It has a loft.
二階建ての二階に住んでいます。	Nikaidate no nikai ni sunde imasu.	I'm on the second floor of a two-storey building.
キッチンは別です。	Kitchin wa betsu desu.	The kitchen is separate.
押し入れがあるので、布団をしまえます。	Oshiire ga aru node, futon o shimaemasu.	There's a built-in closet, so I can put the futon away.

Term	Romaji	What it means in a description
ワンルーム	wanrūmu	one room with the kitchen inside it: a studio
1K / 1LDK	wan kē / wan eru dī kē	one room plus a kitchen / plus a living-dining-kitchen
六畳	rokujō	six mats, roughly ten square metres; mat sizes vary by region
南向き	minamimuki	facing south, the sunny side people hope for
日当たり	hiatari	how much sun the room gets
収納	shūnō	storage: closets, cupboards, the space under the bed

Tsuki, attached, after a noun means the room comes with that thing: rofuto tsuki, with a loft; basu toire tsuki, with bath and toilet. It is the suffix you will hear most in any talk about rooms.

What you like about it, and what you'd change

A description becomes a conversation when you add an opinion. Ichiban ii tokoro wa, the best thing about it is, followed by a koto desu clause, is the frame. Ki ni itte imasu, I'm fond of it, is the verb of liking a place you chose. For the downside, nanten, drawback, and the wish form hirokereba ii noni, if only it were bigger, say it without complaining. Chirakatte imasu, it's messy, is the honest state of most rooms and is said with a laugh.

Japanese	Romaji	Meaning
この部屋の一番いいところは、静かなことです。	Kono heya no ichiban ii tokoro wa, shizuka na koto desu.	The best thing about this room is that it's quiet.
窓からの景色が気に入っています。	Mado kara no keshiki ga ki ni itte imasu.	I love the view from the window.
狭いけど、居心地がいいです。	Semai kedo, igokochi ga ii desu.	It's small, but cosy.
もう少し広ければいいのにと思います。	Mō sukoshi hirokereba ii noni to omoimasu.	I wish it were a bit bigger.
今はちょっと散らかっています。	Ima wa chotto chirakatte imasu.	It's a bit messy right now.
壁が薄いのが難点です。	Kabe ga usui no ga nanten desu.	The thin walls are the drawback.

Reactions, follow-ups and the video-call tour

When someone shows you their room, react to the light, the tidiness or one object, then ask one practical question. Eki kara chikai desu ka, is it near the station, is the question Japanese speakers ask most, because the station decides everything about a Japanese flat. Among friends, asking the rent is common in Japan; with people you know less well, stick to the station and the floor. The rows below run as a short video-call exchange.

Japanese	Romaji	Meaning
ほら、これが私の部屋。	Hora, kore ga watashi no heya.	You: Look, this is my room.
明るいね。きれいにしてるね。	Akarui ne. Kirei ni shiteru ne.	Friend: It's bright. You keep it tidy.
今日だけだよ。普段は散らかってる。	Kyō dake da yo. Fudan wa chirakatteru.	You: Only today. Normally it's a mess.
その棚、どこで買ったの？	Sono tana, doko de katta no?	Friend: Where did you get that shelf?
駅から近いですか。	Eki kara chikai desu ka.	Is it near the station? (polite)
歩いて五分です。	Aruite gofun desu.	Five minutes on foot.
今度遊びに来てください。	Kondo asobi ni kite kudasai.	Come over sometime.

Asobi ni kuru, to come to hang out, is the verb for visiting a friend's home. Asobi ni kite kudasai is the polite invitation; asobi ni kite is the casual one, and both are said far more often than they are literally meant, so wait for a date before packing a gift.

Mistakes and register notes

Heya wa tsukue ga arimasu. The place takes ni: heya ni tsukue ga arimasu. Wa after heya only works when the room is the topic and what follows describes it: heya wa hiroi desu.
Shokubutsu ga imasu. Plants are not alive in grammar; shokubutsu ga arimasu.
Ōkii heya for a spacious room. Not wrong, but hiroi and semai are the words people use for rooms and flats.
Watashi no heya in every sentence. Say it once, then drop it; or use uchi, my place, for the whole flat.
Sunde imasu for a flat and imasu for a room are both fine, but sumimasu is a future plan, not where you live now.
Register: arimasu and imasu with people you have just met; aru and iru with friends, where hiroi? and misete carry the whole conversation.

Describe the room you are sitting in

The room around you is the one set of true sentences you can practise without inventing anything. Type your clockwise description to Mocchi and ask it with /correct to check every particle, then ask for a /quiz on ue, shita and tonari using your own furniture; because Mocchi keeps track of the wa-for-ni slip, that quiz comes back to it until it stops happening. When the sentences are right, open AI Sensei, choose Hana-sensei, and ask Hana-sensei to play a friend on a video call who wants a tour of the room and keeps asking where things are and why you put them there.

Signing in at unihongo.com/login with a free account is the whole set-up.

Key points

A practical way to improve

Sit in your room and say what you see, clockwise from the door, one arimasu or imasu sentence per object, with a position word in each: mado no yoko ni, beddo no shita ni. Aim for eight sentences without stopping. Then add the size, the floor and one thing you like, and record the whole description as if showing a friend around on a video call. Send the text to Mocchi, Unihongo's study assistant, with /correct and ask it to mark every place where you used wa instead of ni; it keeps track of that slip, so a later /quiz on position words starts from your own furniture.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

How do you say there is a desk in my room in Japanese?

Heya ni tsukue ga arimasu (部屋に机があります). The place takes ni, the thing takes ga, and arimasu is the verb for things. If the desk is the topic you are already talking about, the order flips: tsukue wa mado no yoko ni arimasu, the desk is by the window.

When do you use imasu instead of arimasu?

Imasu is for people and animals: neko ga imasu, there is a cat; rūmumēto ga imasu, I have a roommate. Everything else, including plants, takes arimasu. A robot vacuum takes arimasu too, however much you talk to it.

What does rokujō mean?

Six tatami mats, 六畳, a common size for a single bedroom in Japan, roughly ten square metres, though the mat used for measuring varies by region. People give room sizes in jō even when there is no tatami on the floor: hachijō, eight mats; jūjō, ten mats.

How do you say I like my room in Japanese?

Kono heya ga ki ni itte imasu, I'm fond of this room, is the most natural. Suki desu works but sounds a little strong for a room; ki ni itte imasu is what people say about a flat, a café or a jacket they chose and are pleased with.