We often hit on doing stuff or requesting stuff be done, but sometimes there are just things you don’t want people to do. Like don’t eat the car. Not taking pictures in a museum.

To start be sure that you have reviewed short forms present tense. Because what you are going to do is add ～でください to it. Something like:

negative short form + でください / Please don’t…

Here are some example sentences.

ここでしゃしんをとらないでください
Please don’t take pictures here.

あしたはたべないでください。
Don’t eat tomorrow

きょうはしなないでください。あしたはOKです。
Please don’t die today. Tomorrow is ok though.

きょうかしょうはよまないでください。
Please don’t read your textbook.

やまだせんせいははなさないでください。
Please don’t speak professor Yamada.

That isn’t too painful and now you can request people to not do things.

Things exist in this world and we need to know how to tell others that. You might say “there is a TV in the living room”, “There is a McDonalds down the street”, “Over there is a TV”, “Tomorrow is a Test”. These are examples of phrases we use that show existence.

The root verb we start from is ある and we do verb conjugation from there to get our different meanings. This is a fairly often used verb in the Japanese language in many many forms so it is important to take some time and make sure you understand it. For that reason I am going to go ahead and write down several example sentences and their translations.

• あそこにマクドナルドがあります – There is a Mcdonalds over there. Notice the が instead of は? we use が instead of は in this case since it is presenting something. Normally if we were just talking about McDonald’s we would use は since it is the topic marker
• テレビがありません – (I don’t have a TV) here we are doing the negative present tense conjugation
• じかんがありますか – (Do you have the time?) time exists and it can be given or presented so we are asking for it
• かようびにテストがあります – (There will be a test on Tuesday) we can also use あります to specify an event is going to take place
• あしたはにほんごのクラスがありません – (There will be no Japanese class tomorrow) and as above we can also say there isn’t going to be an event

If you notice all the objects that have existed above are not alive. For that we use a different form います. Here are a couple of examples

• あそこにりゅうがくせいがいます – (There’s an international student over there)
• せんせいはどこにいあますか – (Where is the teacher?)

Hopefully this will be enough to get you started down the road of understanding how to refer to something or someone existing. I will hit on more in a later post as I shuffle more through particle usage.

If you have anything to offer to help others to understand this any better please leave a comment.

Today we are going to go over te-form’s. This is VERY important to the Japanese language because it leads to so very much. If there is one type of verb conjugation to learn and learn extremely well it would be this. For that reason this might be a bit long for some, but I just want to be sure that people can really get hold of te-form conjugation for verbs.

First though I want to let you know if you don’t know how to tell the difference between u-verbs and ru-verbs by now you can fake te-forms, but you really really need to understand the differences to get things right. Te-forms are the base of a pyramid, and if you falter later the whole thing will fall down. Now that I am done going on and on about their importance, and the fact I really really want to be sure you are good at understanding u-verbs and ru-verbs; lets move on to te-forms.

Since they are easy this time lets start with irregular verbs.

irregular verbs

Without fail if the last to characters of a verb are する or くる it is an irregular verb. If it is する change the すto し and add て to get して. Likewise if the last 2 characters are くる change the く to き and add て to get きて. Irregular verbs like normal are easy.

する -> して
くる -> きて
つれてくる -> つれてきて
もってくる ->　もってきて

All we did was change the す to し and add て. For く all we did was change it to き and add て.

ru-verbs

Now time for ru-verbs. These are also easy as long as you know they are ru-verbs and not u-verbs. For ru-verbs all you do is drop the る and add て. How about we look at some examples.

あける -> あけて
おしえる -> おしえて
しめる -> しめて
つける -> つけて
わすれる -> わすれて

See fairly easy for the ru-verbs not to much there just replacing a character. Just remember not all verbs ending in ru are ru-verbs.

u-verbs

Time for the hardest of them all, they biggest pain in the rear end, but as with everything easy once you understand, u-verbs. These are best if you just see quite a few examples and read what is going on so for each i’ll add several examples. Be sure to read the description at the top and look at the examples. It really is easy once you understand. Also one thing I found that helped me is to say the word outloud as it will help you to “hear” it. If you have hear enough Japanese things will sound right and wrong.

u-verbs with final う, つ, and る(remember some u-verbs end in る) Drop the last character and add って
あう -> あって
つかう -> つかって
てつだう -> てつだって
たつ -> たって
まつ -> まって
もつ -> もって
とる -> とって
すわる -> すわって
はいる -> はいって

u-verbs with final む, ぶ, and ぬdrop the last character and add んで.

あそぶ -> あそんで
やすむ ->やすんで
すむ -> すんで
しぬ -> しんで

u-verbs ending with く should drop く and add いて. With only one exception いく it is always いって.

きく -> きいて
かく -> かいて
はく -> はいて

u-verbs ending with ぐ drop the ぐ and add いで.

いそぐ -> いそいで

u-verbs ending in す drop the す and add して.

かえす -> かえして
けす -> けして

Please take notice of how much is involved in u-verbs and don’t be scared. When I first saw them I was like “WTF???” though after writing them down quite a bit and going through other verbs to figure them out I really understand them a lot better. My suggestion is practice them quite a bit until you won’t forget. It looks daunting, but after you get started you really start to see hmmm this doesn’t look so bad at all.

I hope this helps if I can help explain anything any better please let me know.

Hopefully you have been following along for the last couple of days with “Understanding u-verbs and ru-verbs” and “Japanese Verb Conjugation Present and Future Tense“. If you haven’t please read both of them as they will help this one make a bit more sense. With that being said lets just jump right it and get our feet wet.

ru-verbs

We are going to start with ru-verbs first. Doing this conjugation is just like with present and future tenses, but instead of using ます for affirmative and ません for negative you use ました for affirmative past tense and ませんでした for past tense negative.

いる

• いました
• いませんでした

でかける

• でかけました
• でかけませんでした

みる

• みました
• みませんでした

u-verbs

For u-verbs we have the same thing as prent and future tesnse. Change the last sound to i and add ました or ませんでした. So for som more examples.
あう

• あいました
• あいませんでした

とる

• とりました
• とりませんでした

まつ

• まちました
• まちませんでした

irregular verbs

And finally we have our irregular verbs which are basically the same as the u-verbs. Except you move one character in and drop the る. See.
つれてくる

• つれてきました
• つれてきませんでした

する

• しました
• しませんでした

See very similar to Present and Future tense as long as you know whether it is an u-verb, ru-verb or a irregular verb.

Yesterday we talked about understanding u-verbs and ru-verbs, and knowing which was which and how to tell them apart. Knowing yesterdays information is very important for doing verb conjugation which is a pretty big part of any language. If you haven’t had a chance to read understanding u-verbs and ru-verbs do that right now before continuing.

Now lets get started; first we will do Present and Future. Like English Present and Future tense words are said the same, but depending on the rest of the sentence it will determine the tense. We are only going to discuss how to put it in the tense not the context.

ru-verbs

If the Verb is a ru-verb then we simply drop the る at the end and add ます(masu) for affirmative or ません(masen) for negative. Here are some examples:

たべる

• たべます
• たべません

ねる

• ねます
• ねません

おきる

• おきます
• おきません

Notice in each one we just substituted for る(ru) ます or ません.

u-verbs

Those are some pretty easy things to follow when it comes to ru-verbs. Fortunately u-verbs are about as easy just a differen step. For u-verbs instead of dropping the last character you change it to the i vowel/sound and ad ます and ません. And here are some examples

のむ

• のみます
• のみません

よむ

• よみます
• よみません

はなす

• はなします
• はなしません

きく

• ききます
• ききません

いく

• いきます
• いきません

In the above example we took the last character change it to the i sound of the character set and added masu and masen. For a romaji version here is what we did:

nomu -> nomi
yomu -> yomi
hanasu -> hanashi
kiku -> kiki
iku -> iki

I think it is pretty simple once you practice a bit. I recommend getting some verbs and practicing. But before that lets move on the the final set of verbs. Irregular verbs.

irregular verbs

In this case irregular verbs are just like u-verbs change the last character to the i sound and ます and ません. And some examples.

べんきょうする

• べんきょうします
• べんきょうしません

くる

• きます
• きません

する

• します
• しません

See nothing too painful. Read over it a few times do some practicing and I think you should be good at understanding the basics of verb conjigation.

When it comes to ru-vebs there are a lot of weird things going on, but lets first look at irregular verbs since they are an easy exception.   The irregular verb will have a る at the end of the word, but to determine if it is an irregular verb or not we need to look at the character before it. In the irregular verbs case you will either see a す or a く, so する or くる. Just remember the する or くる are irregular verbs.

Now that we have the main exception out of the way lets dig further into u-verbs or ru-verbs on verbs ending with る(ru). Unfortunately someone decided it was a good idea to confuse us all and make life a tad bit more difficult by making some ru-verbs u-verbs, but they did help us out a bit, only a bit. There is a way to determine if a verb ending in る is an u-verb or a ru-verb.  Basically, it is decided by the sound before る.

If the sound before る is a, u, or o it is always an u-verb. So if you have a verb that the end sounds like aru, uru(minus exception above), or oru it is an u-verb. Lets take a look at a couple of examples.

のる
やる
かぶる

lets break these down to get the “sounds” to do this the easeist thing to do is just convert to romaji.

noru
yaru
kaburu

Now we have the romaji take a look before the ru. In red is the sound so. They are o, a, and u therefore they are u-verbs.

Next is verbs that are ru-verbs. To determine if they are actually ru-verbs we need to take a look again at the sound just before the る. In this case are are at iru and eru. If the sound is i or e most of the time it will be a ru-verb, we will talk about the exception after we look at some examples.

たべる
おりる

Now to break it down to romaji.

taberu
oriru

Again in red is the sound before ru. We have the sounds i and u so they are real ru-verbs.

So time for the exception to this rule, basically most of the time they are ru-verbs, but sometimes they are u-verbs. That is it, that is the explanation of the exception. I have talked to several people and the best explanation is “statistically speaking there are more ru verbs than uverbs”. And another person, my sensei, said “best way to know whether it is u or ru is to just memorize the exceptions because there isn’t a good way to tell.” Please if you know another way and are reading this let me know.

Hopefully, this is understandable for you I’ll leave you with some more examples for you to take a look at.

u-verbs
あそぶ (asobu)
いそぐ (isogu)
かえす (kaesu)
けす (kesu)
たつ (tatsu)

ru-verbs
あける (akeru)
おりる (oriru)
つける (tsukeru)
わすれる (wasureru)
しめる (shimeru)

irregular verbs
つれてくる (tsuretekuru)
もってくる (mottekuru)
けっこんする (kekkonsuru)
せんたくする (sentakusuru)
うんてんする (untensuru)

To start it is ok if you don’t know the words I have the translations of the sentences.  I recommend you try to learn the words as we go and look them up.  The important thing we are after for now is grammar so we know what to do with the words once we start learning them.

Structure: ~です (desu)
Meaning: it is…

Example 1
Hirigana: にほんごです
Kanji: 日本語です 
Romaji: Nihongo Desu
Translation: Japanese Language Major

Example 2
Hirigana:  がくせいです  
Kanji: 学生です
Romaji: Gakusee Desu
Translation: am a student

Example 3
Hirigana: アメリカじんです 
Kanji: アメリカ人です
Romaji: Americajin Desu
Translation: an American

I first bring up です (desu) because it is a polite copula, honestly don’t know what that means, so basically it is a formal way of talking about something or someone.  Take note that it is at the end of the sentence.  That is where it usually is so when you hear or see です (desu) something was specifically talked about.  This is fairly easy to understand, but please be sure you understand it.  Maybe make up a few sentences.  A good dictionary(じしょ, jisho) online is jisho.org, but be careful can bite you in the butt if you aren’t paying attention.

There isn’t any subjects in the above because in this case it is implied it is about us.  One thing I have learned is “Context is King” when it comes to the Japanese Language.  A half sentence can carry a lot of weight and mean a lot depending on the context of the conversation.  The key is to find the context clues in the conversation or the text around it.

Structure: ~は~です (~wa~desu)
Meaning: ~is~ (Subject is Something)

Example 1
Hirigana: わたしはアメリカじんです   
Kanji: 私はアメリカ人です
Romaji: watashi wa amerikajin desu
Translation: I am American

Example 2
Hirigana: ヤましたさんはせんせえです
Kanji: ヤましたさんは先生です
Romaji: Yamashita-san wa sensee desu
Translation: Mr. Yamashita is a teacher

Example 3
Hirigana: メアリさんはアメリカじんです
Kanji: メアリさんはアメリカ人です
Romaji: Mearisan wa americajin desu
Translation: Mary is an American

This is pretty formulaic  X wa Y desu.   X is the person or thing you are talking about basically your subject, you, your teacher, or a friend.  Y is something about them; they are a teacher, American, french, weird, fun, etc…  The は(wa) is a particle that is formal linking the subject and the something about them together and the desu says you are talking about a subject.   To note there is nothing in English that can go with particles so it is one of those things that you just have to learn.  It is easier than you might think; after a couple more Grammar posts I am going to explain how I remember particles it is pretty easy, but you have to use several to “get it”.  Until then just bare with me and remember wa.

Also note that wa in this case is using は instead of わ remember when writing and using the wa particle use は instead of わ not sure why this is. Just do it.

Structure: ~の~ (~no~)
Meaning: Connecting two nouns (connecting to descriptive words together)

Example 1
Hirigana: だいがくのせんせい 
Kanji: 大学の先生 
Romaji: daigaku no sensee
Translation: a college professor

Example 2
Hirigana: にほんごのがくせい 
Kanji: 日本語の学生
Romaji: nihongo no gakusee
Translation: a student of Japanese language

Example 3
Hirigana: にほんのがくせい  
Kanji: 日本の学生  
Romaji: nihon no gakusee
Translation: a student in Japan

Above in the meaning I kind of nailed the short answer to what this partical does.  Basically we are linking descriptive words together.  They may not form a sentence, but they do pertain to each other.  Daigaku is college and sensei is a professor combine them with the particle no and you now have a college professor.  You can also link together descriptors to form full sentences based on what we learned earlier.

たけしさんのおかあさんはこおこおのせんせえです
Takeshi-san no okaasan wa kookoo no sensee desu
Takeshi’s mother is a high school teacher

Take note we are using two different descriptive linkers on 4 different descriptors to make them more than what they are. (eh?)  Basically we pointed out that takeshi’s mom (Takeshi-san no okaasan) was a high school teacher (kookoo no sensee).  And lets go one step further since takeshi is the subject she is in front.  The about her is after the wa and we have a desu at the end to say hey we talked about something.  Make sure to note the first description we make sure we were talking about Takeshi’s mom by linking Takeshi and mom with the no particle.

With this information you can start forming basic sentences and getting hold of maybe one or two things in anime if you have a bit of a vocabulary.  I know I picked up desu and more and more after learning about this.

I hope this helps at least a bit.

またね