The word for “play” in Japanese does not necessarily have the same context in Japanese as it does in English.

In English when we think play we think, in general, we think games or sports. From tennis and golf to video games or mind games.

The word 遊ぶ (あそぶ) can mean up to three main things.

• to play
• to spend time pleasantly
• to pay a social visit

To Play generally refers to the concept of playing not “actual” playing.

• こどものとき、よくともだちとあそびました
• When i was a hild, I often played with friends

To Spend Time Pleasantly refers to having a good time like going to a club or hanging out with friends.

• せんしゅうのしゅうまつはとうきょうにあそびにいきました
• I went to Tokyo to have fun last weekend

To Pay a Social Visit refers to when you visit someone as more a social obligation to be nice. Like if you had in-laws you hate and they invite you it is a social call to go visit them usually “playing” isn’t involved.

• わたしのうちにあそびにきてください
• Please come and see us again

The last one is the one that bugs me the most as it is so often mis-translated or purposely not changed in translation. I have seen a few j-drama where someone is invited to a house, party, or in one case a boat ride. Each of these they left play as the translated word and it is confusing if you don’t know the context from the Japanese langauge point of view.

If you want to say you are going to play a sport or video game you would use the verb する.

• テニスをする
• テレビゲームをする

There are other nuances to “playing” stuff, but this is the gist of it. I’ll come back down the road and expand more.

Update: Just Another Day in Japan posted a good compliment to this. Give it a read.Let’s enjoy Japanese: Playing around

Everyone constantly wants something. Whether they want a hamburger or a new car, maybe even a pencil. In English we have the word want. We want things from objects or dreams to come true, and you probably want to know how to say in Japanese. Well fortunately this is super easy. Just add たい to the stem of a verb. So たべる becomes たべたい. Lets look at some example sentences so it can make more sense.

えいががみたいです。
I want to see a film.

いつか日本にいきたいです。
I want to go to Japan someday.

ほんをよみたいです。
I want to read a book.

In order to do this successfully there is something to realize about ru-verbs and u-verbs. For ru-verbs just drop the る and add たい. For u-verbs change the last sound to い and add たい. As for irregular verbs する and くる you do both you drop the ru and change the last sound to い. So する transforms to し and くる transforms to き. Here is a chart for example.

So now you can dream away in Japanese.

Note: There is more to this, but for now i will leave it here as I want to post on something else before covering another aspect of this subject. I will link to it once the second part of tai verb conjugations is up. This is the brunt of it though.

Past tense short forms are a bit more tricky than present tense short forms, but not by much. First though be sure that you understand te-forms, and by extension u and ru-verbs.

Past Affirmative

Just like present affirmative was easy since it was just dictionary form. Past tense is easy too. Since you should arleady know te-forms then you know past tense affirmative short form since all you do is change the て/で of te-form to た/だ. Here are some examples.

Past Negative

I am going to be honest, this one is a bit more complicated, only because it requires a bit more thought. Since negative requires a bit more of a process here it is broken into steps.

General Steps

1. Get the dictionary form of the word
2. Short form present tense negative conjugate it
3. Drop the い
4. Add the かった

Steps in Use

1. よむ
2. よまない
3. よまな
4. よまなかった

It is still simple, but just have to think it through a bit more. With some practice you can easily get it down.

Note: I keep mentioning knowing the u and ru-verbs and how to distinguish them. I keep bringing this up because it is very important and makes life easier if you understand.

Short forms seem kind of complicated when I first saw them and messed with them, but they aren’t, at all. If you just know the principles of it short forms are super simple. For present tense you don’t need to really review anything other than u-verb and ru-verb conjugation. The only thing to really know though for these is the exceptions as to which verbs ending in ru are actually u-verbs. So lets get started.

Present Tense Affirmative Short Form

This one is easy. Basically you just use the dictionary form. Long form, or masu form, you would have ねます. If it was short form you would have ねる. Here is a table of a few more as an example.

Present Tense Negative Short Form

Negative is a bit more complicated, but not a lot. It is actually easy too. First remember that we have 3 types of verbs. ru-verbs, u-verbs and irregular verbs.

る-verbs
ru-verbs are easiest of these. Literally replace the final る with ない. That is it. Another way to describe it is remove the る so with たべる you remove る and have たべ left, then you just append ない to get たべない. Here are some examples.

う-verbs
This one kind of is confusing in some of the stuff I read. I have read where you should drop the final u and add anai. While that is true it is a bit confusing because that deals with sounds. Most of the time, at least for me, when I think of words I think of it as it is spelled. So how I like to think of doing short form instead of changing the u to a. Is to change the last character like く to か or む to ま. Here is a chart of dictionary form and short form. Remember change the u to a.

Remember the groups of characters か, き, く, け, こ and さ, し, す, せ, そ and た, ち, つ, て, と. When you come up on a character with u at the end remember that group and change it to the one that ends in a then add nai to it. く to かない, す to さない, つ to たない.

irregular verbs
Just like ru and u-verbs are easy so are irregular verbs. Change する to しない and くる to こない.

exception
Just like there is an exception for every rule, except the rule there is an exception for every rule. There is one for this, but it is easy.

Basically, the verb ある that is used for existence of things and people just goes to ない instead of あない. Not really sure why, but I kind of think because the あ in あない is kind of pointless since it will sound almost the same anyway.

We already discussed te-form verb conjugation so lets go to the next step and talk about combining activities, because lets face it we rarely just talk about one thing at a time. To do this we combine verbs to do anything from combining two actions, or two things we are doing, to describing why or how we are doing something. Lets look at a couple of examples.

ノートをかりて、コピーします
(I will borrow her notebook and xerox it.)

きょうは、ろくじにおきて、べんきょうしました
(Today I got up at six and studied.)

しょくどうにいって、ひるごはんをたべましょう
(Let’s go to the cafeteria and have lunch.)

Here is an example of how the first verb describes how the second one takes place

バスにのって、かいしゃにいきます
(I go to work by bus.)

This example describes the situation for which the apology is made

きょうかしょをわすれて、すみません
(I am sorry for not bringing in the textbook.)

Hopefully this will get you started on writing more than 4 word sentences. Well at least I am now writing 5 word sentences.

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)