State-of-Being Practice Exercises

← Previous (Basic Grammar) \|	Table of Contents	\| Next (Particles) →
	Go Back to Lesson

Outline

Vocabulary used in this section
Conjugation Exercise 1
Conjugation Exercise 2
Question Answer Exercise

Vocabulary used in this section

In the following exercises, we will practice the state-of-being conjugations we just covered. But first, you might want to learn or review the following useful nouns that will be used in the exercises.

Kanji
To start with, I have listed the kanji you will need for the vocabulary for your convenience. The link will take you to a diagram of the stroke order. However, it doesn't clearly show the direction (though you can kind of tell by the animation) so you should check with a kanji dictionary if you're not sure. I recommend practicing the kanji in the context of real words (such as the ones below).

人 - person
子 - child
小 - small
中 - middle
大 - big
友 - friend
生 - life
先 - ahead
学 - study
校 - school
高 - high
車 - car
供 - accompanying
達 - reach

Vocabulary
Here is the list of some simple nouns that might be used in the exercises.

うん - casual word for "yes" (yeah, uh-huh)
ううん - casual word for "no" (nah, uh-uh)
これ - this
それ - that
あれ - that over there
こう - (things are) this way
そう - (things are) that way
人【ひと】 - person
大人【おとな】 - adult
子供【こども】 - child
友達【ともだち】 - friend
車【くるま】 - car
学生【がくせい】 - student
先生【せんせい】 - teacher
学校【がっこう】 - school
小学校【しょうがっこう】 - elementary school
中学校【ちゅうがっこう】 - middle school
高校【こうこう】 - high school
大学【だいがく】 - college

Conjugation Exercise 1

We are now going to practice the state-of-being conjugations in order. Take each noun and conjugate it to the following forms: the declarative, negative state-of-being, past state-of-being, and negative past state-of-being.

Sample: 人＝人だ、人じゃない、人だった、人じゃなかった

1. これ
declarative	=	これだ
negative	=	これじゃない
past	=	これだった
negative-past	=	これじゃなかった

2. 大人
declarative	=	大人だ
negative	=	大人じゃない
past	=	大人だった
negative-past	=	大人じゃなかった

3. 学校
declarative	=	学校だ
negative	=	学校じゃない
past	=	学校だった
negative-past	=	学校じゃなかった

4. 友達
declarative	=	友達だ
negative	=	友達じゃない
past	=	友達だった
negative-past	=	友達じゃなかった

5. 学生
declarative	=	学生だ
negative	=	学生じゃない
past	=	学生だった
negative-past	=	学生じゃなかった

Show all answers | Hide all answers

Conjugation Exercise 2

In this second exercise, we are really going to test your conjugation knowledge as well as the vocabulary by translating some simple English sentences. Please note that while the positive, non-past state-of-being can be implied, for the purpose of this exercise, we will assume it's always declaratory. Don't forget that this creates a very firm and declaratory tone.

Sample: Is student. ＝学生だ。

1. Is college.	＝	大学だ。
2. Is not high school.	＝	高校じゃない。
3. Was teacher.	＝	先生だった。
4. Is adult.	＝	大人だ。
5. Was not child.	＝	子供じゃなかった。
6. This was the way it was.	＝	こうだった。
7. Wasn't that over there.	＝	あれじゃなかった。
8. Is not middle school.	＝	中学校じゃない。
9. Is friend.	＝	友達だ。
10. Was not car.	＝	車じゃなかった。
11. Was this.	＝	これだった。
12. That's not the way it is.	＝	そうじゃない。

Show all answers | Hide all answers

Question Answer Exercise

In this last exercise, we'll practice answering very simple questions using the state-of-being. The yes or no answer （うん or ううん） will be given and it is your job to complete the sentence. In deciding whether to use the declaratory 「だ」, I've decided to be sexist here and assume all males use the declaratory 「だ」 and all females use the implicit state-of-being (not the case in the real world).

Sample:
Ｑ）　学生？
Ａ）　ううん、学生じゃない。

Ｑ１）　友達？

Ａ１）　うん、。 (female)

Ｑ２）　学校？

Ａ２）　ううん、。

Ｑ３）　それだった？

Ａ３）　ううん、。

Ｑ４）　そう？ (Is that so?)

Ａ４）　うん、。 (male)

Ｑ５）　これ？

Ａ５）　ううん、。(object is away from the speaker)

Ｑ６）　先生だった？

Ａ６）　うん、。

Ｑ７）　小学校だった？

Ａ７）　ううん、。

Ｑ８）　子供？

Ａ８）　うん、。 (female)

Show all answers | Hide all answers

← Previous (Basic Grammar)	Table of Contents	Next (Particles) →
Go Back to Lesson

This page has last been revised on 2005/8/2
Added tenses for the conjugation exercise (2005/8/2)