Why いいます versus います?


In Japanese 101 our textbook there is no explanation of why in some Japanese
sentences there is “います” While in others there is: “いいます.” Why is this or have
I simply messed up and don’t understand? It doesn’t make sense to me with my
limited understanding of this beautiful language.




Your first example,

> Xはにほんごでなにといいますか,

is a well formed sentence written in hiragana. いいます means "to say", "to call"
etc. The sentence means "What do you call X in Japanese".

Your second example,

> Xは日本語にほんごで何なにと言いいます,

is a confused mess. My guess is that you cut and pasted something with
furigana, and the sentence was actually supposed to be

> Xは日本語{にほんご}で何{なに}と言{い}います。

Based on this assumption I think you are asking about the います in 言います. But います
is not a separate word here. The full word is 言います and it is just the masu-
form of 言う. To make the masu-form you replace the う with an い.

To labour the point, 言います and いいます are the same word. Just as the dictionary
forms 言う and いう are the same. It's just that the first one is written with
kanji in each case.

Finally います on its own is the masu-form of いる meaning "to be", "to exist" etc.
That's why people are saying these are very different words.

