ございます

ございます is a more formal あります: something is there, or someone has it. You hear it from shop staff, hotel desks, announcements and business calls, said about the speaker's side – the shop's stock, the building, the company.

The negative is ございません, in place of ありません.

でございます for です

After a noun, でございます replaces です at the same level of formality.

Not for the listener's own things

でございます is polite by being modest about your own side, so it cannot describe the listener. Asking a customer who they are takes the honorific でいらっしゃいます.

• × 田中様でございますか → 田中様でいらっしゃいますか

Set phrases

An い-adjective before ございます changes its ending, and three everyday greetings are fossils of that: ありがとうございます from ありがたい, おはようございます from はやい早い, おめでとうございます from めでたい. Outside these phrases the adjective form (おいしゅうございます) sounds old-fashioned.

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Outside the greetings, ございます does not belong in conversation with friends or family; there it sounds stiff or sarcastic. Plain ある and だ or polite あります and です are the everyday forms.