Guild Wars: EPoS Forums -> Japanese Lesson 7

Japanese Lesson 7 - Conjugating Verbs

Posted by isaacsol , 29 April 2009 - 10:19 PM

Today's lesson will be on how to conjugate verbs. I thank David McGimpsey for his explanation which I think is good, and which I will be referring to in this lesson.

Forms:

Now, there are a few different forms that you can use, and they are:

Dictionary Form: The form a verb appears within a dictionary. It is not conjugated and is normally used between friends.
-masu Form: Polite form, generally used when talking to a superior or a boss or someone you have just met.
-te Form: This is the request form. It is used when you are requesting something from someone or when you are requesting someone to do something.

Tenses:

In English, there are 3 different tenses; Past, Present and Future. For example:

English Conjugation

Infinitive	Past	Present	Future
To Run	Ran	Run	Will Run
To Sit	Sat	Sit	Will Sit
To Speak	Spoke	Speak	Will Speak
To Write	Wrote	Write	Will Write

You must be confident with tenses in English before you can learn them in another language.

Japanese is similar to English except for the fact it has no difference between Future and Present tense. in a way this is slightly easier, as it means you have less to learn.

Here are the basic rules for present tense in Japanese (Polite).

If a verb end in 'u' then you replace it with 'imasu'.
If a verb end in 'ru' then you replace it with 'masu'.
If a verb end in 'su' then you replace it with 'shimasu'.

Any others will be added at a later point.

Past Tense Rules

Rule 1: If the verb ends with 'iru' or 'eru' the remove the 'ru' and add 'ta'. For example, 「見(み)える」 (to be able to see), becomes 「見(み)えた」 (was able to be seen). Called GROUP 2 Verbs.

Rule 2: If the verb ends with 'gu' remove 'gu' and add 'ida'. For example, oyogu 「泳(およ)ぐ」 (to swim), becomes oyoida　「泳(およ)いだ」 (swam). Called GROUP 1 Verbs.

Rule 3: If the verb ends with 'u, ru' or 'tsu' remove 'u, ru' or 'tsu' and add 'tta'. For example, 「買(か)う」　(to buy), becomes　「買(か)った」 (bought). Called GROUP 1 Verbs.

Rule 4: If the verb ends with 'ku' remove 'ku' and replace it with 'ita'. For example 「書(か)く」 (to write), becomes　「書(か)いた」 (wrote). Called GROUP 1 Verbs.

Rule 5: If the verb ends with 'su' remove 'su' and replace it with 'shita'.

For example,　「返(かえ)す」 (to return something) becomes 「返(かえ)した」　(something was returned). Called GROUP 1 Verbs.

Rule 6: If the verbs ends with 'nu, bu' or 'mu' remove 'nu, bu' or 'mu' and add 'nda'. For example, 「飲(の)む」 (to drink), becomes　「飲(の)んだ」 (drank). Called GROUP 1 Verbs.

Now we need to know how to conjugate the past form verbs above into the request form. Here is quite a good explanation by David McGimpsey:

David McGimpsey said:

For example, let’s say we have a verb like Yomu (to read).

If we want to ask someone to read something, we first convert the verb to past tense.

Yomu ends with mu so we remove it and add nda (see rule 6).

So now we have the past tense of read which is Yonda.

Now simply by conjugating this Japanese verb by dropping the “a” at the end and adding “e” we get the request form, i.e. Yonde.

So if we want someone to read something, we can say "Yonde kudasai."

There are also two mainly used verbs which are irregular and do not follow the normal conjugation rules:

David McGimpsey said:

Finally, I have two major exceptions for you (major because they’re used a lot, not because they’re difficult).

These Japanese verb exceptions have no rules and just need to be memorized. Called GROUP 3 Verbs.

Kuru (to come) past tense: kita, request: kite, polite: kimasu
Suru (to do) past tense: shita, request: shite, polite: shimasu

That is pretty much it for now. The next post will be a test to make sure that you are doing well, and to let me know what areas people are weak at so I can build newer lessons, and to improve the existing ones. People who pass the next test will be given special privileges to see the Japanese Slang section. Until next time,

Sayōnara.

Filed in Japanese Lessons