"です" vs. "います"

[Katjov]

Hi there
Could someone please explain to me when you're supposed to use "です" and when you're supposed to use "います"

 

[Mike Cash]

What materials are you using to learn Japanese?

 

[Toritoribe]

The former is a copula, and the latter expresses the existence of animate things.
Copula (linguistics) - Wikipedia

 

[Katjov]

What materials are you using to learn Japanese?

I mainly use the grammar guide from "Tae Kim's Guide to Learning Japanese"
Japanese Grammar Guide | Learn Japanese

 

[Mike Cash]

I mainly use the grammar guide from "Tae Kim's Guide to Learning Japanese"
Japanese Grammar Guide | Learn Japanese

If you can find the funds, get yourself a proper textbook and the associated workbooks and/or audio-visual materials that may be available for it.

You get what you pay for and TK is worth every penny he charges for it.

 

[Katjov]

If you can find the funds, get yourself a proper textbook and the associated workbooks and/or audio-visual materials that may be available for it.

You get what you pay for and TK is worth every penny he charges for it.

In that case, could you please recommend me a good grammar book. There'd a lot of different ones, so I simply can't decide which one to buy

 

[Mike Cash]

In that case, could you please recommend me a good grammar book. There'd a lot of different ones, so I simply can't decide which one to buy

The Genki series is widely used and frequently recommended.

 

[Toritoribe]

You can check the text and audio samples in their site.

Genki – Page and Audio Samples

 

[Mike Cash]

And you can check a partial list of colleges and universities that use it: Genki – Universities/Colleges using GENKI

I doubt a similar list exists for TK....

 

[Armando]

If you don't want to expend the money though, check the japanese from zero video series in YouTube, that's a progressive way to learn Japanese topic by topic. You will end purchasing books but for the moment you may start there.