How to Say ‘There was / there were (polite past)’ in Japanese
ありました
ari mashi ta
💬 Usage Tip: [ありました] is past polite of [ある] (for things/events). For people/animals use [いました].
🇯🇵 In Japan: Using [ありました] makes it sound like “an occurrence happened,” which feels less blaming.
Phrase Breakdown
あり
ari
まし
mashi
た
ta
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