Category: Grammar Guide

Let’s try some stuff

In English, we use the word, “try” to mean both “to try something out” and “to make an effort to do something”. In Japanese, these are separate grammatical expressions. For instance, “I tried the cherry flavor” and “I tried to do homework” mean quite different things and though English does not make a distinction, Japanese does.

To try something out

Vocabulary

1. 見る 【み・る】 – to see; to watch
2. 切る 【き・る】 (u-verb) – to cut
3. お好み焼き 【お・この・み・や・き】 – okonomiyaki (Japanese-style pancake)
4. 初めて 【はじ・めて】 – for the first time
5. 食べる 【た・べる】 (ru-verb) – to eat
6. とても – very
7. おいしい (i-adj) – tasty
8. お酒 【お・さけ】 – alcohol
9. 飲む 【の・む】 (u-verb) – to drink
10. すごい (i-adj) – to a great extent
11. 眠い 【ねむ・い】(i-adj) – sleepy
12. なる (u-verb) – to become
13. 新しい 【あたら・しい】(i-adj) – new
14. デパート – department store
15. 行く 【い・く】 (u-verb) – to go
16. 広島 【ひろ・しま】 – Hiroshima

To try something out, you simply need to change the verb to the te-form and add 「みる」. If it helps you to remember, you can think of it as a sequence of an action and then seeing the result. In fact 「みる」 conjugates just like 「見る」. However, just like the 「～てほしい」 grammar we learned, this is a set phrase and 「みる」 is usually written in hiragana.

Examples

1. お好み焼きを初めて食べてみたけど、とてもおいしかった！
   I tried eating okonomiyaki for the first time and it was very tasty!
2. お酒を飲んでみましたが、すごく眠くなりました。
   I tried drinking alcohol and I became extremely sleepy.
3. 新しいデパートに行ってみる。
   I’m going to check out the new department store.
4. 広島のお好み焼きを食べてみたい！
   I want to try eating Hiroshima okonomiyaki!

To attempt to do something

Vocabulary

1. する (exception) – to do
2. 言う 【い・う】 (u-verb) – to say
3. 思う 【おも・う】 (u-verb) – to think
4. 考える 【かんが・える】 (ru-verb) – to think
5. 見る 【み・る】 (ru-verb) – to see
6. 行く 【い・く】 (u-verb) – to go
7. 毎日 【まい・にち】 – everyday
8. 勉強 【べん・きょう】 – study
9. 避ける 【さ・ける】 (ru-verb) – to avoid
10. 無理矢理 【む・り・や・り】 – forcibly
11. 部屋 【へ・や】 – room
12. 入る 【はい・る】 (u-verb) – to enter
13. 早い 【はや・い】 (i-adj) – fast; early
14. 寝る 【ね・る】 (ru-verb) – to sleep
15. 結局 【けっ・きょく】 – eventually
16. 徹夜 【てつ・や】 – staying up all night
17. お酒 【お・さけ】 – alcohol
18. 飲む 【の・む】 (u-verb) – to drink
19. 奥さん【おく・さん】 – wife (polite)
20. 止める 【と・める】 (ru-verb) – to stop
21. なるべく – as much as possible
22. ジム – gym
23. 決める 【き・める】 (ru-verb) – to decide

We already learned that the volitional form was used to indicate a will to set out to do something. If you guessed that this next grammar for attempting to do something would involve the volitional form, you were right. To say that you tried (as in attempted) to do something, you need to conjugate the verb into the volitional, enclose it in a quotation (so that we can perform an action on the clause) and finally add the verb 「する」. Or put more simply, you just add 「とする」 to the volitional form of the verb. This is simply an extension of the quoted relative clause from the last section. Instead of saying the quote （言う） or treating it as a thought （思う、考える）, we are simply doing it with 「する」.

Examples

1. 毎日、勉強を避けようとする。
   Everyday, she attempts to avoid study.
2. 無理矢理に部屋に入ろうとしている。
   He is attempting to force his way into the room.
3. 早く寝ようとしたけど、結局は徹夜した。
   I attempted to sleep early but ended up staying up all night.
4. お酒を飲もうとしたが、奥さんが止めた。
   He tried to drink alcohol but his wife stopped him.

Though we use the verb 「する」 to say, “to do attempt”, we can use different verbs to do other things with the attempt. For instance, we can use the verb 「決める」 to say, “decide to attempt to do [X]”. Here are some examples of other actions carried out on the attempt.

1. 勉強をなるべく避けようと思った。
   I thought I would attempt to avoid studying as much as possible.
2. 毎日ジムに行こうと決めた。
   Decided to attempt to go to gym everyday.

The various uses of 「いう」

In the previous lesson, we learned how to quote a relative clause by encasing it with 「と」. This allowed us to talk about things that people have said, heard, thought, and more. We also took a look at some examples sentences that used 「と」 and 「言う」 to describe how to say something in Japanese and even what to call oneself. In this section, we will learn that with 「と」, we can use 「いう」 in a similar fashion to define, describe, and generally just talk about the thing itself. We’ll also see how to do the same thing with the casual 「って」 version we first learned about in the last lesson.

Using 「いう」 to define

Vocabulary

1. 言う 【い・う】 (u-verb) – to say
2. これ – this
3. 何 【なに／なん】 – what
4. 魚 【さかな】 – fish
5. この – this （abbr. of これの）
6. 鯛 【たい】 – tai (type of fish)
7. デパート – department store
8. どこ – where
9. ある (u-verb) – to exist (inanimate)
10. 知る 【し・る】 (u-verb) – to know
11. 友達 【とも・だち】 – friend
12. 英語 【えい・ご】 – English (language)
13. 意味 【い・み】 – meaning

In the last lesson, we briefly looked at how to introduce ourselves by using 「と」 and 「いう」. For instance, we had the following example, which Alice used to introduce herself.

• 私はアリスといいます。
  I am called Alice. (lit: As for me, you say Alice.)

This sentence pattern is probably one of the first things beginner Japanese students learn in the classroom. In this case, the verb 「いう」 doesn’t mean that somebody actually said something. Rather, Alice is saying that people in general say “Alice” when referring to her. While using kanji for 「いう」 is perfectly acceptable, in this case, since nothing is actually being said, using hiragana is also common.

This idea of describing what a person is known or referred to as can also be extended to objects and places. We can essentially define and identify anything we want by using 「という」 in this manner. As you can imagine, this is particularly useful for us because it allows us to ask what things are called in Japanese and for the definition of words we don’t know yet.

Examples

1. これは、なんという魚ですか。
   What is this fish referred to as?
2. この魚は、鯛といいます。
   This fish is known as “Tai“.
3. ルミネというデパートはどこにあるか、知っていますか？
   Do you know where the department store called “Lumine” is?
4. 「友達」は、英語で「friend」という意味です。
   The meaning of “tomodachi” in English is “friend”.

Using 「いう」 to describe anything

Vocabulary

1. 主人公 【しゅ・じん・こう】 – main character
2. 犯人 【はん・にん】 – criminal
3. 一番 【いち・ばん】 – best; first
4. 面白い 【おも・しろ・い】(i-adj) – interesting
5. 日本人 【に・ほん・じん】 – Japanese person
6. お酒 【お・さけ】 – alcohol
7. 弱い 【よわ・い】(i-adj) – weak
8. 言う 【い・う】 (u-verb) – to say
9. 本当 【ほん・とう】 – real
10. 独身 【どく・しん】 – single; unmarried
11. 嘘 【うそ】 – lie
12. リブート – reboot
13. パソコン – computer, PC
14. こう – (things are) this way
15. そう – (things are) that way
16. ああ – (things are) that way
17. どう – how
18. 再起動 【さい・き・どう】 – reboot
19. あんた – you (slang)
20. いつも – always
21. 時 【とき】 – time
22. 来る 【く・る】 (exception) – to come
23. 困る 【こま・る】 (u-verb) – to be bothered, troubled
24. 人 【ひと】 – person
25. 結婚 【けっ・こん】 – marriage
26. 出来る 【で・き・る】 (ru-verb) – to be able to do
27. 幸せ 【しあわ・せ】 – happiness
28. なる (u-verb) – to become
29. 思う 【おも・う】 (u-verb) – to think
30. 大学 【だい・がく】 – college
31. 行く 【い・く】 (u-verb) – to go
32. 意味　【い・み】 – meaning

We learned how to use 「という」 to describe what something is known or referred to as. However, we can take this idea even further by attaching two relative clauses. At this point, 「いう」 is so abstract that it doesn’t even really have a meaning. When a relative clause is encapsulated with 「と」, you must have a verb to go along with it and 「いう」 is simply being used as a generic verb to enable us to talk about any relative clause. This allows us to describe and explain just about anything ranging from a single word to complete sentences. As you can imagine, this construction is quite useful and employed quite often in Japanese.

Examples

1. 主人公が犯人だったというのが一番面白かった。
   The most interesting thing was that the main character was the criminal.
2. 日本人はお酒に弱いというのは本当？
   Is it true that Japanese people are weak to alcohol?
3. 独身だというのは、嘘だったの？
   It was a lie that you were single?
4. リブートというのは、パソコンを再起動するということです。
   Reboot means to restart your computer.

We can abstract it even further by replacing the relative clause with a generic way of doing something. In this case, we use 「こう」、「そう」、「ああ」、and 「どう」, which when combined with 「いう」 means “this way, “that way”, “that way (far away in an abstract sense)” and “what way” respectively.

Examples

1. あんたは、いつもこういう時に来るんだから、困るんだよ。
   It’s because you always come at times like these that I’m troubled.
2. そういう人と一緒に仕事をするのは、嫌だよね。
   (Anybody would) dislike doing work together with that type of person, huh?
3. ああいう人と結婚できたら、幸せになれると思います。
   I think you can become happy if you could marry that type of person.
4. 大学に行かないって、どういう意味なの？
   What do you mean, “You’re not going to go to college?”

Rephrasing and making conclusions with 「という」

Vocabulary

1. あんた – you (slang)
2. 彼女 【かの・じょ】 – she; girlfriend
3. 友達 【とも・だち】 – friend
4. 言う 【い・う】 (u-verb) – to say
5. 何 【なに／なん】 – what
6. お酒 【お・さけ】 – alcohol
7. 好き 【す・き】 (na-adj) – likable
8. ある (u-verb) – to exist (inanimate)
9. 生きる 【い・きる】 (ru-verb) – to live
10. 多分 【た・ぶん】 – maybe
11. 行く 【い・く】 (u-verb) – to go
12. 思う 【おも・う】 (u-verb) – to think
13. お金 【お・かね】 – money
14. もう – already
15. 帰る 【かえ・る】 (u-verb) – to go home
16. 駄目 【だめ】 – no good
17. 洋介 【よう・すけ】 – Yousuke (first name)
18. 別れる 【わか・れる】 (ru-verb) – to separate; to break up
19. こと – event, matter
20. 今 【いま】 – now
21. 彼氏【かれ・し】 – boyfriend
22. いる (ru-verb) – to exist (animate)
23. そう – (things are) that way

We can attach the question marker 「か」 to 「という」 in order to add a questioning element. This construction is used when you want to rephrase or redefine something such as the following dialogue.

Example Dialogue

Ａ：みきちゃんは、あんたの彼女でしょう？
A: Miki-chan is your girlfriend, right?

Ｂ：う～ん、彼女というか、友達というか、なんというか・・・
B:Um, you might say girlfriend, or friend, or something…

This construction is used all the time, particularly in casual conversations. It can be used to correct something, come to a different conclusion, or even as an interjection.

Examples

1. お酒は好きというか、ないと生きていけない。
   I like alcohol or rather, can’t live on without it.
2. 多分行かないと思う。というか、お金がないから、行けない。
   Don’t think I’ll go. Or rather, can’t because there’s no money.
3. というか、もう帰らないとだめですけど。
   Rather than that, I have to go home already.

Rather than using 「か」 to rephrase a conclusion, we can also simply use 「こと」 to sum up something without rephrasing anything.

Example Dialogue

Ａ：みきちゃんが洋介と別れたんだって。
A: I heard that Miki-chan broke up with Yousuke.

Ｂ：ということは、みきちゃんは、今彼氏がいないということ？
B: Does that mean Miki-chan doesn’t have a boyfriend now?

Ａ：そう。そういうこと。
A: That’s right. That’s what it means.

Using 「って」 or 「て」 for 「という」

Vocabulary

1. 来年 【らい・ねん】 – next year
2. 留学 【りゅう・がく】 – study abroad
3. する (exception) – to do
4. 言う 【い・う】 (u-verb) – to say
5. 智子 【とも・こ】 – Tomoko (first name)
6. こと – event, matter
7. 駄目 【だめ】 – no good
8. 時間 【じ・かん】 – time
9. ある (u-verb) – to exist (inanimate)
10. 出来る 【で・き・る】 (ru-verb) – to be able to do
11. 行く 【い・く】 (u-verb) – to go
12. いい (i-adj) – good
13. 皆 【みんな】 – everybody
14. 私 【わたし】 – me; myself; I
15. 今 【いま】 – now
16. 彼氏【かれ・し】 – boyfriend
17. いる (ru-verb) – to exist (animate)
18. もう – already
19. 帰る 【かえ・る】 (u-verb) – to go home

As mentioned in the previous lesson, 「って」 is very often used in causal slang in place of 「と」, because it allows us to leave out the rest of the sentence and assume context (or just plain assumption) will take care of the rest. We already saw that we can use 「って」 to replace 「という」 as well. However, since we just learned how to use 「という」 to do much more than just simply say something, there is a limit to just how much you can leave out. In any case, 「って」 will allow us to leave out not only 「いう」 but also any accompanying particles as you can see in the following example.

Examples

1. 来年留学するというのは、智子のこと？
   The studying abroad next year thing, is that Tomoko?
2. 来年留学するって智子のこと？
   The studying abroad next year thing, is that Tomoko?

「だって」 is also another phrase that leaves out just about everything. By convention, it is used to express disagreement or dissatisfaction usually to whine, complain, or to make an excuse but you can’t tell what it means just from looking at it. It is an abbreviation of something along the lines of 「とはいっても」 meaning, “even if that was the case”.

Example 1

Ａ：しないとだめだよ。
A: Have to do it, you know.

Ｂ：だって、時間がないからできないよ。
B: But (even so), can’t do it because there is no time.

Example 2

Ａ：行かなくてもいいよ。
A: Don’t have to go, you know.

Ｂ：だって、みんな行くって。私も行かないと。
B: But (even so), everybody said they’re going. I have to go too.

In some cases, the small 「つ」 is left out and just 「て」 is used instead of 「って」. This is done (as is usually the case for slang) in order to make things easier to say. In general, this is when there is nothing before the 「て」 or when the sound that comes before it doesn’t require the explicit separation the 「っ」 gives us in order to be understood.

Examples

1. てことは、みきちゃんは、今彼氏がいないてこと？
   Does that mean Miki-chan doesn’t have a boyfriend now?
2. ていうか、もう帰らないとだめですけど。
   Rather than that, I have to go home already.

Since slang tends to be used in whichever way the person feels like, there are no definite rules defining whether you should use 「って」 or 「て」. However, 「て」 is generally not used to express what people have actually said or heard, which is why it wasn’t covered in the last lesson.

• みきちゃんが、明日こないて。
  (Can’t use 「て」 for something actually said)

• みきちゃんが、明日こないって。
  Miki-chan says she isn’t coming tomorrow.

Saying 「ゆう」 instead of 「いう」

Vocabulary

1. もう – already
2. 帰る 【かえ・る】 (u-verb) – to go home
3. そう – (things are) that way
4. こと – event, matter

Because the 「という」construction is used so often, there are a lot of different variations and slang based on it. While I do not plan on covering all of them here, you can check out casual patterns and slang in the miscellaneous section for yet even more slang derived from 「という」.

The last thing I’m am going to briefly mention here is the use of 「ゆう」 instead of 「いう」. In conversations, it is quite normal to say 「ゆう」 instead of 「いう」. 「ゆう」 is easier to say because it is simply one letter with a long vowel sound instead of the two different vowel sounds of 「いう」.

Examples

1. てゆうか、もう帰らないとだめですけど。
   Rather than that, I have to go home already.
2. そうゆうことじゃないって！
   I said it’s not like that (lit: it’s not that type of thing)!

In the section about modifying relative clauses, we learned how to treat a relative clause like an adjective to directly modify a noun. We will extend the functionality of relative clauses by learning how to perform an action on a relative clause. Obviously, we cannot simply attach the 「を」 particle to a relative clause because the 「を」 particle only applies to noun phrases. We need something to encapsulate the relative clause into a unit that we can perform actions on. This is done by making a quoted phrase.

While in English, you can just add quotes and a comma to make a quotation, Japanese requires attaching 「と」 at the end of the quote. This is completely different from the 「と」 particle and the 「と」 conditional. Unlike quotes in English, we can perform many different types of actions on the quote besides the standard “he said”, “she said”, etc. For example, we can perform the action, “to think” or “to hear” to produce phrases such as, “I think [clause]” or “I heard [clause]” This is very important in Japanese because Japanese people seldom affirm definite statements. This is also why we will have to eventually cover many other types of grammar to express uncertainty or probability.

The direct quote

Vocabulary

1. 言う 【い・う】 (u-verb) – to say
2. 聞く 【き・く】 (u-verb) – to ask; to listen
3. 叫ぶ 【さけ・ぶ】 (u-verb) – to scream
4. 呼ぶ 【よ・ぶ】 (u-verb) – to call
5. 呟く 【つぶや・く】 (u-verb) – to mutter
6. 寒い 【さむ・い】 (i-adj) – cold
7. 今日 【きょう】 – today
8. 授業 【じゅ・ぎょう】 – class
9. 先生 【せん・せい】 – teacher
10. 田中 【た・なか】 – Tanaka (last name)

We’ll learn the simplest type of quoted phrase, which is the direct quote. Basically, you are directly quoting something that was said. This is done by simply enclosing the statement in quotes, adding 「と」 and then inserting the appropriate verb. The most common verbs associated with a direct quote would be 「言う」 and 「聞く」 but you may use any verbs related to direct quotation such as: 「叫ぶ」, 「呼ぶ」, 「呟く」, etc. This type of quotation is often used for dialogue in novels and other narrative works.

Examples

1. アリスが、「寒い」と言った。
   Alice said, “Cold”.
2. 「今日は授業がない」と先生から聞いたんだけど。
   It is that I heard from the teacher, “There is no class today.”

The verb does not need to be directly connected to the relative clause. As long as the verb that applies to the relative clause comes before any other verb, you can have any number of adjectives, adverbs or nouns in between.

• 「寒い」とアリスが田中に言った。
  “Cold,” Alice said to Tanaka.

The interpreted quote

Vocabulary

1. 先生 【せん・せい】 – teacher
2. 今日 【きょう】 – today
3. 授業 【じゅ・ぎょう】 – class
4. 聞く 【き・く】 (u-verb) – to ask; to listen
5. これ – this
6. 日本語 【に・ほん・ご】 – Japanese (language)
7. 何 【なに／なん】 – what
8. 言う 【い・う】 (u-verb) – to say
9. 私 【わたし】 – me; myself; I
10. カレー – curry
11. 食べる 【た・べる】 (ru-verb) – to eat
12. 思う 【おも・う】 (u-verb) – to think
13. 時間 【じ・かん】 – time
14. 今 【いま】 – now
15. どこ – where
16. 行く 【い・く】 (u-verb) – to go
17. 考える 【かんが・える】 (ru-verb) – to think
18. 彼 【かれ】 – he; boyfriend
19. 高校生 【こう・こう・せい】 – high school student
20. 信じる 【しん・じる】 (ru-verb) – to believe

The second type of quote is the quote along the lines of what someone actually said. It’s not a word-for-word quote. Since this is not a direct quote, no quotations are needed. You can also express thoughts as an interpreted quote as well. By using this and the verb 「思う」 you can say you think that something is so-and-so. You will hear Japanese people use this all the time. You can also use the verb 「考える」 when you are considering something.

Examples

1. 先生から今日は授業がないと聞いたんだけど。
   I heard from the teacher that there is no class today.
2. これは、日本語で何と言いますか。
   What do you call this in Japanese? (lit: About this, what do you say in Japanese?)
3. 私は、アリスと言います。
   I am called Alice. (lit: As for me, you say Alice.)

In an interpreted quote, the meaning of 「言う」 may change as you see in examples 2 and 3. Actually, as you can see from the literal translation, the meaning remains the same in Japanese but changes only when translated to normal English. (We’ll learn more about various ways to use 「いう」 in the next lesson.)

Here are some examples of thoughts being used as quoted relative clauses. In example 2 below, the question marker is used with the volitional to insert an embedded question.

1. カレーを食べようと思ったけど、食べる時間がなかった。
   I thought about setting out to eat curry but I didn’t have time to eat.
2. 今、どこに行こうかと考えている。
   Now, I’m considering where to set out to go.

Unlike the direct quotation, which you can just copy as is, if the quoted relative clause is a state-of-being for a noun or na-adjective, you have to explicitly include the declarative 「だ」 to show this.

1. 彼は、これは何だと言いましたか。
   What did he say this is?
2. 彼は高校生だと聞いたけど、信じられない。
   I heard that he is a high school student but I can’t believe it.

Notice how 「だ」 was added to explicitly declare the state-of-being that is highlighted in the English translation. You can really see how important the 「だ」 is here by comparing the following two sentences.

• これは何だと言いましたか。
  What did (he) say this is?

• 何と言いましたか。
  What did (he) say?

Using 「って」 as a casual version of 「と」

Vocabulary

1. 智子 【とも・こ】 – Tomoko (first name)
2. 来年 【らい・ねん】 – next year
3. 海外 【かい・がい】 – overseas
4. もう – already
5. お金 【お・かね】 – money
6. ある (u-verb) – to exist (inanimate)
7. 本当 【ほん・とう】 – real
8. 明日 【あした】 – tomorrow
9. 雨 【あめ】 – rain
10. 降る 【ふ・る】(u-verb) – to precipitate
11. すごい (i-adj) – to a great extent
12. いい (i-adj) – good
13. 人 【ひと】 – person

You may be surprised to hear that there is a shorter and casual version of the quoted relative clause since it’s already only one hiragana character, 「と」. However, the important point here is that by using this casual shortcut, you can drop the rest of the sentence and hope your audience can understand everything from context.

Examples

1. 智子は来年、海外に行くんだって。
   Tomoko said that she’s going overseas next year.
2. もうお金がないって。
   I already told you I have no money.
3. え？何だって？
   Huh? What did you say?
4. 今、時間がないって聞いたんだけど、本当？
   I heard you don’t have time now, is that true?
5. 今、時間がないって、本当？
   You don’t have time now (I heard), is that true?

「って」 can also be used to talk about practically anything, not just to quote something that was said. You can hear 「って」 being used just about everywhere in casual speech. Most of the time it is used in place of the 「は」 particle to simply bring up a topic.

1. 明日って、雨が降るんだって。
   About tomorrow, I hear that it’s going to rain.
2. アリスって、すごくいい人でしょ？
   About Alice, she’s a very good person, right?

How to get your way in Japan

We will now learn how to say what you want either by just coming out and saying it or by making discreet suggestions. The major topics we will cover will be the 「たい」 conjugation and the volitional form. We will also learn specialized uses of the 「たら」 and 「ば」 conditionals to offer advice.

Verbs you want to do with 「たい」

Vocabulary

1. 行く 【い・く】 (u-verb) – to go
2. 何 【なに】 – what
3. する (exception) – to do
4. 温泉 【おん・せん】 – hotspring
5. ケーキ – cake
6. 食べる 【た・べる】 (ru-verb) – to eat
7. ずっと – long; far
8. 一緒 【いっ・しょ】 – together
9. いる (ru-verb) – to exist (animate)
10. 犬 【いぬ】 – dog
11. 遊ぶ 【あそ・ぶ】 (u-verb) – to play

You can express verbs that you want to perform with the 「たい」 form. All you need to do is add 「たい」 to the stem of the verb. However, unlike most conjugations we learned where the verb turns into a ru-verb, this form actually transforms the verb into an i-adjective (notice how 「たい」 conveniently ends in 「い」). This makes sense because the conjugated form is a description of something that you want to do. Once you have the 「たい」 form, you can then conjugate it the same as you would any other i-adjective. However, the 「たい」 form is different from regular i-adjectives because it is derived from a verb. Particles we normally associate with verbs such as 「を」、「に」、「へ」、or 「で」 can all be used with the 「たい」 form in addition to the particles commonly used with regular adjectives such as 「は」 and 「が」.

「たい」 conjugations

	Positive	Negative
Non-Past	行きたい	行きたくない
Past	行きたかった	行きたくなかった

Examples

1. 何をしたいですか。
   What do you want to do?
2. 温泉に行きたい。
   I want to go to hot spring.
3. ケーキ、食べたくないの？
   You don’t want to eat cake?
4. 食べたくなかったけど食べたくなった。
   I didn’t want to eat it but I became wanting to eat.

Example 4 was very awkward to translate but is quite simple in Japanese if you refer to the section about using 「なる」 with i-adjectives”. The past tense of the verb 「なる」 was used to create “became want to eat”. Here’s a tongue twister using the negative 「～たくない」 and past-tense of 「なる」： 「食べたくなくなった」 meaning “became not wanting to eat”.

This may seem obvious but 「ある」 cannot have a 「たい」 form because inanimate objects cannot want anything. However, 「いる」 can be used with the 「たい」 form in examples like the one below.

• ずっと一緒にいたい。
  I want to be together forever. (lit: Want to exist together for long time.)

Also, you can only use the 「たい」 form for the first-person because you cannot read other people’s mind to see what they want to do. For referring to anyone beside yourself, it is normal to use expressions such as, “I think he wants to…” or “She said that she wants to…” We will learn how to say such expressions in a later lesson. Of course, if you’re asking a question, you can just use the 「たい」 form because you’re not presuming to know anything.

• 犬と遊びたいですか。
  Do you want to play with dog?

Indicating things you want or want done using 「欲しい」

Vocabulary

1. 欲しい 【ほ・しい】 (i-adj) – wanted; desirable
2. 好き 【す・き】 (na-adj) – likable; desirable
3. 大きい 【おお・きい】(i-adj) – big
4. 縫いぐるみ 【ぬ・いぐるみ】 – stuffed doll
5. 全部 【ぜん・ぶ】 – everything
6. 食べる 【た・べる】 (ru-verb) – to eat
7. 部屋 【へ・や】 – room
8. きれい (na-adj) – pretty; clean

In English, we employ a verb to say that we want something. In Japanese, “to want” is actually an i-adjective and not a verb. We saw something similar with 「好き」 which is an adjective while “to like” in English is a verb. While I didn’t get too much into the workings of 「好き」, I have dedicated a whole section to 「欲しい」 because it means, “to want something done” when combined with the te-form of a verb. We will learn a more polite and appropriate way to make requests in the “Making Requests” lesson instead of saying, “I want this done.”

Though not a set rule, whenever words come attached to the te-form of a verb to serve a special grammatical function, it is customary to write it in hiragana. This is because kanji is already used for the verb and the attached word becomes part of that verb.

Examples

1. 大きい縫いぐるみが欲しい！
   I want a big stuffed doll!
2. 全部食べてほしいんだけど・・・。
   I want it all eaten but…
3. 部屋をきれいにしてほしいのよ。
   It is that I want the room cleaned up, you know.

Like I mentioned, there are more appropriate ways to ask for things which we won’t go into until later. This grammar is not used too often but is included for completeness.

Making a motion to do something using the volitional form (casual)

Vocabulary

1. 食べる 【た・べる】 (ru-verb) – to eat
2. 入る 【はい・る】 (u-verb) – to enter
3. 着る 【き・る】 (ru-verb) – to wear
4. 信じる 【しん・じる】 (ru-verb) – to believe
5. 寝る 【ね・る】 (ru-verb) – to sleep
6. 起きる 【お・きる】 (ru-verb) – to wake; to occur
7. 出る 【で・る】 (ru-verb) – to come out
8. 掛ける 【か・ける】 (ru-verb) – to hang
9. 捨てる 【す・てる】 (ru-verb) – to throw away
10. 調べる 【しら・べる】 (ru-verb) – to investigate
11. 話す 【はな・す】 (u-verb) – to speak
12. 書く 【か・く】 (u-verb) – to write
13. 待つ 【ま・つ】 (u-verb) – to wait
14. 飲む 【の・む】 (u-verb) – to drink
15. 取る 【と・る】 (u-verb) – to take
16. 聞く 【き・く】 (u-verb) – to ask; to listen
17. 泳ぐ 【およ・ぐ】 (u-verb) – to swim
18. 遊ぶ 【あそ・ぶ】 (u-verb) – to play
19. 直る 【なお・る】 (u-verb) – to be fixed
20. 死ぬ 【し・ぬ】 (u-verb) – to die
21. 買う 【か・う】 (u-verb) – to buy
22. する (exception) – to do
23. 来る 【く・る】 (exception) – to come
24. 今日 【きょう】 – today
25. 何 【なに】 – what
26. テーマパーク – theme park
27. 行く 【い・く】 (u-verb) – to go
28. 明日 【あした】 – tomorrow
29. カレー – curry

The term volitional here means a will to do something. In other words, the volitional form indicates that someone is setting out to do something. In the most common example, this simply translates into the English “let’s” or “shall we?” but we’ll also see how this form can be used to express an effort to do something in a lesson further along.

To conjugate verbs into the volitional form for casual speech, there are two different rules for ru-verbs and u-verbs. For ru-verbs, you simply remove the 「る」 and add 「よう」. For u-verbs, you replace the / u / vowel sound with the / o / vowel sound and add 「う」.

Here is a list of verbs you should be used to seeing by now.

Sample ru-verbs Plain Volitional 食べる 食べよう 着る 着よう 信じる 信じよう 寝る 寝よう 起きる 起きよう 出る 出よう 掛ける 掛けよう 捨てる 捨てよう 調べる 調べよう

Sample u-verbs Plain Volitional 話す 話そう 聞く 聞こう 泳ぐ 泳ごう 遊ぶ 遊ぼう 待つ 待とう 飲む 飲もう 直る 直ろう 死ぬ 死のう 買う 買おう

Exception Verbs Plain Volitional する しよう くる こよう

Examples

I doubt you will ever use 「死のう」 (let’s die) but I left it in for completeness. Here are some more realistic examples.

1. 今日は何をしようか？
   What shall (we) do today?
2. テーマパークに行こう！
   Let’s go to theme park!
3. 明日は何を食べようか？
   What shall (we) eat tomorrow?
4. カレーを食べよう！
   Let’s eat curry!

Remember, since you’re setting out to do something, it doesn’t make sense to have this verb in the past tense. Therefore, there is only one tense and if you were to replace 「明日」 in the third example with, let’s say, 「昨日」 then the sentence would make no sense.

Making a motion to do something using the volitional form (polite)

Vocabulary

1. 食べる 【た・べる】 (ru-verb) – to eat
2. 入る 【はい・る】 (u-verb) – to enter
3. する (exception) – to do
4. 来る 【く・る】 (exception) – to come
5. 寝る 【ね・る】 (ru-verb) – to sleep
6. 行く 【い・く】 (u-verb) – to go
7. 遊ぶ 【あそ・ぶ】 (u-verb) – to play
8. 今日 【きょう】 – today
9. 何 【なに】 – what
10. テーマパーク – theme park
11. 明日 【あした】 – tomorrow
12. カレー – curry

The conjugation for the polite form is even simpler. All you have to do is add 「～ましょう」 to the stem of the verb. Similar to the masu-form, verbs in this form must always come at the end of the sentence. In fact, all polite endings must always come at the end and nowhere else as we’ve already seen.

Sample verbs

Plain	Volitional
する	しましょう
くる	きましょう
寝る	寝ましょう
行く	行きましょう
遊ぶ	遊びましょう

Examples

Again, there’s nothing new here, just the polite version of the volitional form.

1. 今日は何をしましょうか？
   What shall (we) do today?
2. テーマパークに行きましょう！
   Let’s go to theme park!
3. 明日は何を食べましょうか？
   What shall (we) eat tomorrow?
4. カレーを食べましょう！
   Let’s eat curry!

Making Suggestions using the 「ば」 or 「たら」 conditional

Vocabulary

1. 銀行 【ぎん・こう】 – bank
2. 行く 【い・く】 (u-verb) – to go
3. たまに – once in a while
4. 両親【りょう・しん】 – parents
5. 話す 【はな・す】 (u-verb) – to speak

You can make suggestions by using the 「ば」 or 「たら」 conditional and adding 「どう」. This literally means, “If you do [X], how is it?” In English, this would become, “How about doing [X]?” Grammatically, there’s nothing new here but it is a commonly used set phrase.

Examples

1. 銀行に行ったらどうですか。
   How about going to bank?
2. たまにご両親と話せばどう？
   How about talking with your parents once in a while?

When there’s something that must or must not be done

In life, there are things that we must or must not do whether it’s taking out the trash or doing our homework. We will cover how to say this in Japanese because it is a useful expression and it also ties in well with the previous section. We will also learn how to the say the expression, “You don’t have to…” to finish off this section.

Using 「だめ」, 「いけない」, and 「ならない」 for things that must not be done

Vocabulary

1. 駄目 【だめ】 – no good
2. ここ – here
3. 入る 【はい・る】 (u-verb) – to enter
4. それ – that
5. 食べる 【たべ・る】 (ru-verb) – to eat
6. 夜 【よる】 – evening
7. 遅い 【おそ・い】 (i-adj) – late
8. ～まで (particle) – until ～
9. 電話 【でん・わ】 – phone
10. する (exception) – to do
11. 早い 【はや・い】 (i-adj) – fast; early
12. 寝る 【ね・る】 (ru-verb) – to sleep

If you’re not familiar with the word 「だめ」（駄目）, though it can be used in many different ways it essentially means “no good”. The other two key words in this section are 「いけない」 and 「ならない」 and they have essentially the same basic meaning as 「だめ」. However, while 「いけない」 can be used by itself, 「ならない」 must only be used in the grammar presented here. In addition, while 「いけない」 and 「ならない」 conjugate like i-adjectives they are not actual adjectives. Let’s learn how to use these words to express things that must not be done.

1. ここに入ってはいけません。
   You must not enter here.
2. それを食べてはだめ！
   You can’t (must not) eat that!
3. 夜、遅くまで電話してはならない。
   You must not use the phone until late at night.
4. 早く寝てはなりませんでした。
   Wasn’t allowed to sleep early.

The difference between 「だめ」、「いけない」、and 「ならない」 is that, first of all, 「だめ」 is casual. While 「いけない」 and 「ならない」 are basically identical, 「ならない」 is generally more for things that apply to more than one person like rules and policies.

Expressing things that must be done

Vocabulary

1. 毎日 【まい・にち】 – everyday
2. 学校 【がっ・こう】 – school
3. 行く 【い・く】 (u-verb) – to go
4. 宿題 【しゅく・だい】 – homework
5. する (exception) – to do

You may have predicted that the opposite of “You must not do” would use 「いける」 or 「なる」 because they look like the positive version of 「いけない」 and 「ならない」. However, 「いけない」 and 「ならない」 must always be negative, so this is not correct. In actuality, we still use the same 「だめ／いけない／ならない」 and use the opposite of the verb that goes in front of it instead. This double negative can be kind of confusing at first but you will get used to it with practice. There are three ways to conjugate the verb before adding 「だめ／いけない／ならない」 and two of them involve conditionals so aren’t you glad that you just learned conditionals in the previous section?

The first method is the same as the “must not do” grammar form except that we simply negated the verb.

1. 毎日学校に行かなくてはなりません。
   Must go to school everyday.
2. 宿題をしなくてはいけなかった
   Had to do homework.

The second method uses the natural conditional that we learned in the last lesson. Literally, it means if you don’t do something, then it automatically leads to the fact that it is no good. (In other words, you must do it.) However, people tend to use it for situations beyond the natural consequence characterization that we learned from the last section because it’s shorter and easier to use than the other two types of grammar.

1. 毎日学校に行かないとだめです。
   Must go to school everyday.
2. 宿題をしないといけない
   Have to do homework.

The third method is similar to the second except that it uses a different type of conditional as explained in the last lesson. With the 「ば」 conditional, it can be used for a wider range of situations. Note that since the verb is always negative, for the 「ば」 conditional, we will always be removing the last 「い」 and adding 「ければ」.

1. 毎日学校に行かなければいけません。
   Must go to school everyday.
2. 宿題をしなければだめだった。
   Had to do homework.

It may seem like I just breezed through a whole lot of material because there are three grammar forms and 「だめ／いけない／ならない」 adding up to nine possible combinations (3×3). However, some combinations are more common than others but I did not explicitly point out which were more common because any combination is technically correct and going over style would merely confuse at this point. Also, keep in mind that there is nothing essentially new in terms of conjugation rules. We already covered conditionals in the last lesson and adding the wa particle to the te-form in the beginning of this section.

※ Reality Check

Although we spent the last section explaining 「～なければ」 and 「～なくては」, the reality is that because they are so long, they are practically never used in real conversations. While they are often used in a written context, in actual speech, people usually use the 「と」 conditional or the various shortcuts described below. In casual speech, the 「と」 conditional is the most prevalent type of conditional. Though I explained in depth the meaning associated with the 「と」 conditional, you have to take it with a grain of salt here because people are inherently lazy.

Various short-cuts for the lazy

Vocabulary

1. 勉強 【べん・きょう】 – study
2. する (exception) – to do
3. ご飯 【ご・はん】 – rice; meal
4. 食べる 【た・べる】 (ru-verb) – to eat
5. 学校 【がっ・こう】 – school
6. 行く 【い・く】 (u-verb) – to go
7. ここ – here
8. 入る 【はい・る】 (u-verb) – to enter
9. 駄目 【だめ】 – no good
10. 死ぬ 【し・ぬ】 (u-verb) – to die

You may have been grumbling and complaining about how long most of the expressions are just to say you must do something. You can end up with up to eight additional syllables just to say “I have to…”!

Well, others have thought the same before and people usually use short abbreviated versions of 「なくては」 and 「なければ」 in casual speech. Teachers are often reluctant to teach these overly familiar expressions because they are so much easier to use which is bad for times when they might not be appropriate. But, on the other hand, if you don’t learn casual expressions, it makes it difficult to understand your friends (or would-be friends if you only knew how to speak less stiffly!). So here they are but take care to properly practice the longer forms so that you will be able to use them for the appropriate occasions.

Right now, you may be saying, “What the?” because the “abbreviations” are about the same length as what we’ve already covered. The secret here is that, unlike the expressions we learned so far, you can just leave the 「だめ／いけない／ならない」 part out altogether!

1. 勉強しなくちゃ。
   Gotta study.
2. ご飯を食べなきゃ。
   Gotta eat.

The 「と」 conditional is also used by itself to imply 「だめ／いけない／ならない」.

• 学校に行かないと。
  Gotta go to school.

There is another 「ちゃ」 abbreviation for things that you must not do. However, in this case, you cannot leave out 「だめ／いけない／ならない」. Since this is a casual abbreviation, 「だめ」 is used in most cases.

One very important difference for this casual form is that verbs that end in 「む」、「ぶ」、「ぬ」 use 「じゃ」 instead of 「ちゃ」. Essentially, all the verbs that end in 「んだ」 for past tense fall in this category.

1. ここに入っちゃだめだよ。
   You can’t enter here.
2. 死んじゃだめだよ！ – You can’t die!

On a final note, in general, 「ちゃ」 sounds a bit cutesy or girly. You’ve already seen an example of this with the 「ちゃん」 suffix. Similarly, 「なくちゃ」 also sounds a bit cutesy or childish.

Saying something is ok to do or not do

Vocabulary

1. 全部 【ぜん・ぶ】 – everything
2. 食べる 【た・べる】 (ru-verb) – to eat
3. いい (i-adj) – good
4. 飲む 【の・む】 (u-verb) – to drink
5. 大丈夫 【だい・じょう・ぶ】 (na-adj) – ok
6. 構う 【かま・う】 (u-verb) – to mind; to be concerned about
7. もう – already
8. 帰る 【かえ・る】 (u-verb) – to go home
9. これ – this
10. ちょっと – just a little
11. 見る 【み・る】 (ru-verb) – to see

Now let’s learn how to say either that it’s ok to do or not do something. I decided to shove this section in here because in Japanese, this is essential how to say that you don’t have to something (by saying it’s ok to not do it). The grammar itself is also relatively easy to pick up and makes for a short section.

By simply using the te-form and the 「も」 particle, you are essentially saying, “even if you do X…” Common words that come after this include 「いい」, 「大丈夫」, or 「構わない」. Some examples will come in handy.

1. 全部食べてもいいよ。
   You can go ahead and eat it all. (lit: Even if you eat it all, it’s good, you know.)
2. 全部食べなくてもいいよ。
   You don’t have to eat it all. (lit: Even if you don’t eat it all, it’s good, you know.)
3. 全部飲んでも大丈夫だよ。
   It’s ok if you drink it all. (lit: Even if you drink it all, it’s OK, you know.)
4. 全部飲んでも構わないよ。
   I don’t mind if you drink it all. (lit: Even if you drink it all, I don’t mind, you know.)

In casual speech, 「～てもいい」 sometimes get shortened to just 「～ていい」 （or 「～でいい」 instead of 「～でもいい」 ）.

1. もう帰っていい？
   Can I go home already?
2. これ、ちょっと見ていい？
   Can I take a quick look at this?

How to say “if” in Japanese

This whole section is dedicated to learning how to say “if” in Japanese. Oh, if only it was as simple as English. In Japanese, there’s four (count them, four) ways to say “if”! Thankfully, the conjugations are sparse and easy especially since you don’t have to deal with tenses.

Expressing natural consequence using 「と」

Vocabulary

1. ボール – ball
2. 落とす 【お・とす】 (u-verb) – to drop
3. 落ちる 【お・ちる】 (ru-verb) – to fall
4. 電気 【でん・き】 – electricity; (electric) light
5. 消す 【け・す】 (u-verb) – to erase
6. 暗い 【くら・い】 (i-adj) – dark
7. 学校 【がっ・こう】 – school
8. 行く 【い・く】 (u-verb) – to go
9. 友達 【とも・だち】 – friend
10. 会う 【あ・う】 (u-verb) – to meet
11. たくさん – a lot (amount)
12. 太る 【ふと・る】 (u-verb) – to become fatter
13. 先生 【せん・せい】 – teacher
14. きっと – for sure
15. 年上 【とし・うえ】 – older

We’ll first cover the simplest type of “if” which is the natural consequence conditional. This means that if [X] happens, [Y] will happen as a natural consequence. No question about it. If I drop a ball, it will fall to the ground. If I turn off the lights at night, it will get dark. We can express this type of condition in the following format.

Examples

1. ボールを落すと落ちる。
   If you drop the ball, it will fall.
2. 電気を消すと暗くなる。
   If you turn off the lights, it will get dark.

These examples are designed to show how 「と」 is used to express natural consequence. However, even if the statement isn’t a natural consequence in itself, the 「と」 will tell the audience that it is nevertheless expected to be a natural consequence.

1. 学校に行かないと友達と会えないよ。
   If you don’t go to school, you can’t meet your friends.
2. たくさん食べると太るよ。
   If you eat a lot, you will get fat, for sure.
3. 先生だと、きっと年上なんじゃないですか？
   If he’s a teacher, he must be older for sure, right?

The “for sure” part is the implied meaning supplied by the 「と」. The speaker is saying that the following condition will occur in that situation, no matter what. As you can see from the last example, if the condition is a state-of-being, it must be expressed so explicitly using 「だ」. This applies to all non-conjugated nouns and na-adjectives as I’m sure you’re used to by now. This will also help prevent confusion with other types of 「と」.

Contextual conditionals using 「なら（ば）」

Vocabulary

1. 皆 【みんな】 – everybody
2. 行く 【い・く】 (u-verb) – to go
3. 私 【わたし】 – me, myself, I
4. 言う 【い・う】 (u-verb) – to say
5. 問題 【もん・だい】 – problem
6. ある (u-verb) – to exist (inanimate)
7. 図書館 【と・しょ・かん】 – library
8. あそこ – over there

Another relatively easy to understand type of “if” is the contextual conditional. You can use this particle to express what will happen given a certain context. For example, if you wanted to say, “Well, if everybody’s going, I’m going too” you would use the 「なら」 conditional because you are saying that you will go in the context of everybody else going. The contextual conditional always requires a context in which the conditional occurs. For instance, you would use it for saying things like, “If that’s what you are talking about…” or “If that’s the case, then…”

In a sense, you are explaining what would occur if you assume a certain condition is satisfied. In other words, you are saying “if given a certain context, here is what will happen.” You will see this reflected in the English translations as the phrase “if given” in the examples.

The 「なら」 is attached to the context in which the conditional occurs. The format is the same as the 「と」 conditional, however, you must not attach the declarative 「だ」.

Examples

1. みんなが行くなら私も行く。
   If given that everybody is going, then I’ll go too.
2. アリスさんが言うなら問題ないよ。
   If given that Alice-san says so, there’s no problem.

Example Dialogue

アリス：図書館はどこですか。
Alice: Where is the library?

ボブ：図書館なら、あそこです。
Bob: If given that you’re talking about the library, then it’s over there.

The following is incorrect.

• 図書館だならあそこです。

You can also decide to use 「ならば」 instead of just 「なら」. This means exactly the same thing except that it has a more formal nuance.

General conditionals using 「ば」

Vocabulary

1. 食べる 【た・べる】 (ru-verb) – to eat
2. 待つ 【ま・つ】 (u-verb) – to wait
3. おかしい (i-adj) – funny
4. ある (u-verb) – to exist (inanimate)
5. 学生 【がく・せい】 – student
6. 暇 【ひま】 – free　(as in not busy)
7. 友達 【とも・だち】 – friend
8. 会う 【あ・う】 (u-verb) – to meet
9. 買い物 【か・い・もの】 – shopping
10. 行く 【い・く】 (u-verb) – to go
11. お金 【お・かね】 – money
12. いい (i-adj) – good
13. 楽しい 【たの・しい】 (i-adj) – fun
14. 私 【わたし】 – me; myself; I
15. 病気 【びょう・き】 – disease; sickness
16. なる (u-verb) – to become

The next type of conditional just expresses a regular “if” condition without any assumptions or embedded meanings. The conjugation rules for the 「ば」 conditional is below. Note, the conjugation rule for nouns and na-adjectives is actually using the verb 「ある」 in 「である」, a formal expression we’ll learn much later.

Examples

1. 友達に会えれば、買い物に行きます。
   If I can meet with my friend, we will go shopping.
2. お金があればいいね。
   If I had money, it would be good, huh?
3. 楽しければ、私も行く。
   If it’s fun, I’ll go too.
4. 楽しくなければ、私も行かない。
   If it’s not fun, I’ll also not go.
5. 食べなければ病気になるよ。
   If you don’t eat, you will become sick.

Past conditional using 「たら（ば）」

Vocabulary

1. 自動 【じ・どう】 – automatic
2. 待つ 【ま・つ】 (u-verb) – to wait
3. 読む 【よ・む】 (u-verb) – to read
4. 忙しい 【いそが・しい】 (i-adj) – busy
5. 暇 【ひま】 – free　(as in not busy)
6. 遊ぶ 【あそ・ぶ】 (u-verb) – to play
7. 行く 【い・く】 (u-verb) – to go
8. 学生 【がく・せい】 – student
9. 割引 【わり・びき】 – discount
10. 買う 【か・う】 (u-verb) – to buy
11. 友達 【とも・だち】 – friend
12. 会う 【あ・う】 (u-verb) – to meet
13. 買い物 【か・い・もの】 – shopping
14. お金 【お・かね】 – money
15. ある (u-verb) – to exist (inanimate)
16. いい (i-adj) – good
17. 家 【1) うち; 2) いえ】 – 1) one’s own home; 2) house
18. 帰る 【かえ・る】 (u-verb) – to go home
19. 誰 【だれ】 – who
20. いる (ru-verb) – to exist (animate)
21. アメリカ – America
22. たくさん – a lot (amount)
23. 太る 【ふと・る】 (u-verb) – to become fatter

I call this next conditional the past conditional because it is produced by taking the past tense and just adding 「ら」. It is commonly called the 「たら」 conditional because all past-tense ends with 「た／だ」 and so it always becomes 「たら／だら」. Like the 「ば」 conditional, it is also a general conditional.

Examples

1. 暇だったら、遊びに行くよ。
   If I am free, I will go play.
2. 学生だったら、学生割引で買えます。
   If you’re a student, you can buy with a student discount.

For i-adjectives and verbs, it is very difficult to differentiate between the two types of conditionals, and you can make life easier for yourself by considering them to be the same. However there is a small difference in that the 「たら」 conditional focuses on what happens after the condition. This is another reason why I call this the past conditional because the condition is “in the past” (not literally) and we’re interested in the result not the condition. The 「ば」 conditional, on the other hand, focuses on the conditional part.

Let’s compare the difference in nuance.

Example 1

Ａ：友達に会えれば、買い物に行きます。
A: We will go shopping, if I can meet with my friend.

Ｂ：友達に会えたら、買い物に行きます。
B: If I can meet with my friend, we will go shopping.

Example 2

Ａ：お金があればいいね。
A: It would be good, if I had money, huh?

Ｂ：お金があったらいいね。
B: If I had money, it would be good, huh?

Going by the context, the 「～たら」 form sounds more natural for both examples because it doesn’t seem like we’re really focusing on the condition itself. We’re probably more interested in what’s going to happen once we meet the friend or how nice it would be if we had money.

The past conditional is the only type of conditional where the result can be in the past. It may seem strange to have an “if” when the result has already taken place. Indeed, in this usage, there really is no “if”, it’s just a way of expressing surprise at the result of the condition. This has little to do with conditionals but it is explained here because the grammatical structure is the same.

1. 家に帰ったら、誰もいなかった。
   When I went home, there was no one there. (unexpected result)
2. アメリカに行ったら、たくさん太りました。
   As a result of going to America, I got really fat. (unexpected result)

You can also use 「たらば」 instead of 「たら」. Similar to 「ならば」, this means exactly the same thing except that it has a more formal nuance.

How does 「もし」 fit into all of this?

Vocabulary

1. もし – if by any chance
2. いい (i-adj) – good
3. 映画 【えい・が】 – movie
4. 観る 【み・る】 (ru-verb) – to watch
5. 行く 【い・く】 (u-verb) – to go
6. 時間 【じ・かん】 – time
7. ある (u-verb) – to exist (inanimate)
8. 明日 【あした】 – tomorrow

Some of you may be aware of the word 「もし」 which means “if” and may be wondering how it fits into all of this. Well, if you want to say a conditional, you need to use one of the conditionals discussed above. 「もし」 is really a supplement to add a sense of uncertainty on whether the condition is true. For instance, you might use it when you want to make an invitation and you don’t want to presume like the following example.

1. もしよかったら、映画を観に行きますか？
   If by any chance it’s ok with you, go to watch movie?
2. もし時間がないなら、明日でもいいよ。
   If given that there’s no time, tomorrow is fine as well. (Not certain whether there is no time)

We can use the verbs 「する」 and 「なる」 in conjunction with the 「に」 particle to make various useful expressions. We are used to using the object particle with 「する」 because something is usually done to something else. We will see how the meaning changes when we change the particle to 「に」. As for 「なる」, it is always used with the 「に」 particle because “becoming” is not an action done to something else but rather a target of change. The only grammatical point of interest here is using 「なる」 with i-adjectives and verbs.

Using 「なる」 and 「する」 for nouns and na-adjectives

Vocabulary

1. 彼 【かれ】 – he; boyfriend
2. 日本語 【に・ほん・ご】 – Japanese (language)
3. 上手 【じょう・ず】 (na-adj) – skillful
4. なる (u-verb) – to become
5. 私 【わたし】 – me, myself, I
6. 医者 【い・しゃ】 – doctor
7. 有名 【ゆう・めい】 (na-adj) – famous
8. 人 【ひと】 – person
9. ハンバーガー – hamburger
10. サラダ – salad
11. する (exception) – to do
12. 他 【ほか】 – other
13. いい (i-adj) – good
14. 物 【もの】 – object
15. たくさん – a lot (amount)
16. ある (u-verb) – to exist (inanimate)
17. やはり／やっぱり – as I thought
18. これ – this

As already explained, using 「なる」 with nouns and na-adjectives presents nothing new and acts pretty much the way you’d expect.

1. 彼の日本語が上手になった。
   His Japanese has become skillful.
2. 私は医者になった。
   I became a doctor.
3. 私は有名な人になる。
   I will become a famous person.

For adjectives, using the verb 「する」 with the 「に」 particle is just a review back to the lesson on adverbs. However, for nouns, when you use the verb 「する」 with the 「に」 particle, it means that you are going to do things toward something. This changes the meaning of 「する」 to mean, “to decide on [X]”. This is a common expression to use, for instance, when you are ordering items on a menu.

1. 私は、ハンバーガーとサラダにします。
   I’ll have the hamburger and salad. (lit: I’ll do toward hamburger and salad.)
2. 他にいいものがたくさんあるけど、やっぱりこれにする。
   There are a lot of other good things, but as I thought, I’ll go with this one.

If you think this expression is strange, think about the English expression, “I’ll go with the hamburger.” Exactly where are you going with the hamburger?

Using 「なる」 with i-adjectives

Vocabulary

1. 去年 【きょ・ねん】 – last year
2. ～から (particle) – from ～
3. 背 【せ】 – height
4. 高い 【たか・い】 (i-adj) – high; tall; expensive
5. なる (u-verb) – to become
6. 運動 【うん・どう】 – exercise
7. する (exception) – to do
8. ～から (particle) – ～ so
9. 強い 【つよ・い】 (i-adj) – strong
10. 勉強 【べん・きょう】 – study
11. たくさん – a lot (amount)
12. 頭 【あたま】 – head
13. いい (i-adj) – good

Because the 「に」 particle is a target particle that is used for nouns and by extension na-adjectives, we need to use something else to show that something is becoming an i-adjective. Since “becoming” expresses a change in state, it makes sense to describe this process using an adverb. In fact, you’ll notice that we were already using adverbs (of a sort) in the previous section by using 「に」 with na-adjectives.

1. 去年から背が高くなったね。
   Your height has gotten taller from last year, huh?
2. 運動しているから、強くなる。
   I will become stronger because I am exercising.
3. 勉強をたくさんしたから、頭がよくなった。
   Since I studied a lot, I became smarter. (lit: head became better)

Using 「なる」 and 「する」 with verbs

Vocabulary

1. 海外 【かい・がい】 – overseas
2. 行く 【い・く】 (u-verb) – to go
3. こと – event, matter
4. なる (u-verb) – to become
5. 毎日 【まい・にち】 – everyday
6. 肉 【にく】 – meat
7. 食べる 【た・べる】 (ru-verb) – to eat
8. する (exception) – to do
9. 日本 【に・ほん】 – Japan
10. 来る 【く・る】 (exception) – to come
11. 寿司 【すし】 – sushi
12. 一年間 【いち・ねん・かん】 – span of 1 year
13. 練習 【れん・しゅう】 – practice
14. ピアノ – piano
15. 弾く 【ひ・く】 (u-verb) – to play (piano, guitar)
16. 地下 【ち・か】 – underground
17. 入る 【はい・る】 (u-verb) – to enter
18. 富士山 【ふ・じ・さん】 – Mt. Fuji
19. 見える 【み・える】 (ru-verb) – to be visible

You may be wondering how to use 「なる」 and 「する」 with verbs since there’s no way to directly modify a verb with another verb. The simple solution is to add a generic noun such as a generic event: こと （事） or an appearance/manner: よう （様）. These nouns don’t refer to anything specific and are used to describe something else. In this case, they allow us to describe verbs in the same manner as nouns. Here are some examples of how to use these generic nouns with 「する」 and 「なる」.

1. 海外に行くことになった。
   It’s been decided that I will go abroad. (lit: It became the event of going abroad.)
2. 毎日、肉を食べるようになった。
   It became so that I eat meat everyday. (lit: It became the appearance of eating meat everyday.)
3. 海外に行くことにした。
   I decided I will go abroad. (lit: I did toward the event of going abroad.)
4. 毎日、肉を食べるようにする。
   I will try to eat meat everyday. (lit: I will do toward the manner of eating meat everyday.)

You can modify a verb with 「なる」 or 「する」 by first making it into a noun clause and then treating it just like a regular noun. Pretty clever, huh? I hope the literal translations give you a sense of why the example sentences mean what they do. For instance, in the fourth example, 「～ようにする」 translates into “to make an effort toward…” but in Japanese, it’s really only a target towards acting in a certain manner.

Since potential verbs describe a state of feasibility rather than an action (remember, that’s why the 「を」 particle couldn’t be used), it is often used in conjunction with 「～ようになる」 to describe a change in manner to a state of feasibility. Let’s take this opportunity to get some potential conjugation practice in.

1. 日本に来て、寿司が食べられるようになった。
   After coming to Japan, I became able to eat sushi.
2. 一年間練習したから、ピアノが弾けるようになった。
   Because I practiced for one year, I became able to play the piano.
3. 地下に入って、富士山が見えなくなった。
   After going underground, Fuji-san became not visible.

Expressing the ability to do something

In Japanese, the ability to do a certain action is expressed by conjugating the verb rather than adding a word such as the words “can” or “able to” in the case of English. All verbs conjugated into the potential form become a ru-verb.

The Potential Form

Vocabulary

1. 見る 【み・る】 (ru-verb) – to see
2. 遊ぶ 【あそ・ぶ】 (u-verb) – to play
3. する (exception) – to do
4. 来る 【く・る】 (exception) – to come
5. 出来る 【で・き・る】 (ru-verb) – to be able to do
6. 食べる 【た・べる】 (ru-verb) – to eat
7. 着る 【き・る】 (ru-verb) – to wear
8. 信じる 【しん・じる】 (ru-verb) – to believe
9. 寝る 【ね・る】 (ru-verb) – to sleep
10. 起きる 【お・きる】 (ru-verb) – to wake; to occur
11. 出る 【で・る】 (ru-verb) – to come out
12. 掛ける 【か・ける】 (ru-verb) – to hang
13. 調べる 【しら・べる】 (ru-verb) – to investigate
14. 話す 【はな・す】 (u-verb) – to speak
15. 書く 【か・く】 (u-verb) – to write
16. 待つ 【ま・つ】 (u-verb) – to wait
17. 飲む 【の・む】 (u-verb) – to drink
18. 取る 【と・る】 (u-verb) – to take
19. 死ぬ 【し・ぬ】 (u-verb) – to die
20. 買う 【か・う】 (u-verb) – to buy
21. 漢字 【かん・じ】 – Kanji
22. 残念 【ざん・ねん】 (na-adj) – unfortunate
23. 今週末 【こん・しゅう・まつ】 – this weekend
24. 行く 【い・く】 (u-verb) – to go
25. もう – already

Once again, the conjugation rules can be split into three major groups: ru-verbs, u-verbs, and exception verbs. However, the potential form of the verb 「する」 (meaning “to do”) is a special exception because it becomes a completely different verb: 「できる」 （出来る）

Sample ru-verbs Plain Potential 食べる 食べられる 着る 着られる 信じる 信じられる 寝る 寝られる 起きる 起きられる 出る 出られる 掛ける 掛けられる 調べる 調べられる

Sample u-verbs Plain Potential 話す 話せる 書く 書ける 遊ぶ 遊べる 待つ 待てる 飲む 飲める 取る 取れる 死ぬ 死ねる 買う 買える

Exception Verbs Plain Potential する できる くる こられる

It is also possible to just add 「れる」 instead of the full 「られる」 for ru-verbs. For example, 「食べる」 becomes 「食べれる」 instead of 「食べられる」. I suggest learning the official 「られる」 conjugation first because laziness can be a hard habit to break and the shorter version, though common, is considered to be slang.

Examples

1. 漢字は書けますか？
   Can you write kanji?
2. 残念だが、今週末は行けない。
   It’s unfortunate, but can’t go this weekend.
3. もう信じられない。
   I can’t believe it already.

Potential forms do not have direct objects

Vocabulary

1. 富士山 【ふ・じ・さん】 – Mt. Fuji
2. 登る 【のぼ・る】 (u-verb) – to climb
3. 重い 【おも・い】 (i-adj) – heavy
4. 荷物 【に・もつ】 – baggage
5. 持つ 【も・つ】 (u-verb) – to hold

The potential form indicates that something is possible but no actual action is actually taken. While the potential form is still a verb, because it is describing the state of feasibility, in general, you don’t want to use the direct object 「を」 as you would with the non-potential form of the verb. For example the following sentences sound unnatural.

1. 富士山を登れた。
2. 重い荷物を持てます。

Here are the versions using either 「が」 or 「は」 instead:

1. 富士山が登れた。
   Was able to climb Fuji-san.
2. 重い荷物は持てます。
   Am able to hold heavy baggage.

Are 「見える」 and 「聞こえる」 exceptions?

Vocabulary

1. 見える 【み・える】 (ru-verb) – to be visible
2. 聞こえる 【き・こえる】 (ru-verb) – to be audible
3. 今日 【きょう】 – today
4. 晴れる 【は・れる】 (ru-verb) – to be sunny
5. 富士山 【ふ・じ・さん】 – Mt. Fuji
6. 友達 【とも・だち】 – friend
7. おかげ – thanks to
8. 映画 【えい・が】 – movie
9. ただ – free of charge; only
10. 見る 【み・る】 (ru-verb) – to see
11. こと – event, matter
12. 出来る 【で・き・る】 (ru-verb) – to be able to do
13. 久しぶり 【ひさ・しぶり】 – after a long time
14. 彼 【かれ】 – he; boyfriend
15. 声 【こえ】 – voice
16. 聞く 【き・く】 (u-verb) – to ask; to listen
17. 周り 【まわ・り】 – surroundings
18. うるさい (i-adj) – noisy
19. 言う 【い・う】 (u-verb) – to say
20. あまり／あんまり – not very (when used with negative)

There are two verbs 「見える」 and 「聞こえる」 that mean that something is visible and audible, respectively. When you want to say that you can see or hear something, you’ll want to use these verbs. If however, you wanted to say that you were given the opportunity to see or hear something, you would use the regular potential form. However, in this case, it is more common to use the type of expression as seen in example 3.

Examples

1. 今日は晴れて、富士山が見える。
   (It) cleared up today and Fuji-san is visible.
2. 友達のおかげで、映画はただで見られた。
   Thanks to (my) friend, (I) was able to watch the movie for free.
3. 友達のおかげで、映画をただで見ることができた。
   Thanks to (my) friend, (I) was able to watch the movie for free.

You can see that example 3 uses the generic noun for an event to say literally, “The event of seeing movie was able to be done.” which essentially means the same thing as 「見られる」. You can also just use generic noun substitution to substitute for 「こと」.

1. 友達のおかげで、映画をただで見るのができた。

Here’s some more examples using 「聞く」, can you tell the difference? Notice that 「聞こえる」 always means “audible” and never “able to ask”.

1. 久しぶりに彼の声が聞けた。
   I was able to hear his voice for the first time in a long time.
2. 周りがうるさくて、彼が言っていることがあんまり聞こえなかった。
   The surroundings were noisy and I couldn’t hear what he was saying very well.

「ある」, yet another exception

Vocabulary

1. そんな – that sort of
2. こと – event, matter
3. 有り得る 【あ・り・え・る／あ・り・う・る】 (ru-verb) – to possibly exist
4. 彼 【かれ】 – he; boyfriend
5. 寝坊【ね・ぼう】 – oversleep
6. する (exception) – to do
7. それ – that
8. 話 【はなし】 – story

You can say that something has a possibility of existing by combining 「ある」 and the verb 「得る」 to produce 「あり得る」. This essentially means 「あることができる」 except that nobody actually says that, they just use 「あり得る」. This verb is very curious in that it can be read as either 「ありうる」 or 「ありえる」, however; all the other conjugations such as 「ありえない」、「ありえた」、and 「ありえなかった」 only have one possible reading using 「え」.

Examples

1. そんなことはありうる。
   That kind of situation/event is possible (lit: can exist).
2. そんなことはありえる。
   That kind of situation/event is possible (lit: can exist).
3. そんなことはありえない。
   That kind of situation/event is not possible (lit: cannot exist).
4. 彼が寝坊したこともありうるね。
   It’s also possible that he overslept. (lit: The event that he overslept also possibly exists.)
5. それは、ありえない話だよ。
   That’s an impossible story/scenario. (lit: That story/scenario cannot exist.)

The te-form is incredibly useful as it is used widely in many different types of grammatical expressions. We will learn about enduring states with the 「～ている」 and 「～てある」 form. Even though we have learned various conjugations for verbs, they have all been one-time actions. We will now go over how one would say, for example, “I am running.” We will also learn how to perform an action for the future using the 「～ておく」 expression and to express directions of actions using 「～ていく」 and 「～てくる」.

Using 「～ている」 for enduring states

Vocabulary

1. 食べる 【た・べる】 (ru-verb) – to eat
2. 読む 【よ・む】 (u-verb) – to read
3. 友達 【とも・だち】 – friend
4. 何【なに】 – what
5. する (exception) – to do
6. 昼ご飯 【ひる・ご・はん】 – lunch
7. 教科書 【きょう・か・しょ】 – textbook
8. 話 【はなし】 – story
9. 聞く 【き・く】 (u-verb) – to ask; to listen
10. ううん – casual word for “no” (nah, uh-uh)

We already know how to express a state-of-being using 「です」, 「だ」, etc. However, it only indicates a one-time thing; you are something or not. This grammar, however, describes a continuing state of an action verb. This usually translates to the progressive form in English except for a few exceptions, which we will examine later. We can make good use of the te-form we learned in the last section because the only thing left to do is add 「いる」! You can then treat the result as a regular ru-verb.

This 「いる」 is the same ru-verb describing existence, first described in the negative verb section. However, in this case, you don’t have to worry about whether the subject is animate or inanimate.

Example 1

Ａ：友達は何をしているの？
A: What is friend doing?

Ｂ：昼ご飯を食べている。
B: (Friend) is eating lunch.

Note that once you’ve changed it into a regular ru-verb, you can do all the normal conjugations. The examples below show the masu-form and plain negative conjugations.

Example 2

Ａ：何を読んでいる？
A: What are you reading?

Ｂ： 教科書を読んでいます。
B: I am reading textbook.

Example 3

Ａ： 話を聞いていますか。
A: Are you listening to me? (lit: Are you listening to story?)

Ｂ： ううん、聞いていない。
B: No, I’m not listening.

Since people are usually too lazy to roll their tongues to properly pronounce the 「い」, it is often omitted in conversational Japanese. If you are writing an essay or paper, you should always include the 「い」. Here are the abbreviated versions of the previous examples.

Example 4

Ａ：友達は何をしてるの？
A: What is friend doing?

Ｂ：昼ご飯を食べてる。
B: (Friend) is eating lunch.

Example 5

Ａ：何を読んでる？
A: What are you reading?

Ｂ：教科書を読んでいます。
B: I am reading textbook.

Example 6

Ａ：話を聞いていますか。
A: Are you listening to me? (lit: Are you listening to story?)

Ｂ：ううん、聞いてない。
B: No, I’m not listening.

Notice how I left the 「い」 alone for the polite forms. Though people certainly omit the 「い」 even in polite form, you might want to get used to the proper way of saying things first before getting carried away with casual abbreviations. You will be amazed at the extensive types of abbreviations that exist in casual speech. (You may also be amazed at how long everything gets in super polite speech.) Basically, you will get the abbreviations if you just act lazy and slur everything together. Particles also get punted off left and right.

For example:

1. 何をしているの？(Those particles are such a pain to say all the time…)
2. 何しているの？ (Ugh, I hate having to spell out all the vowels.)
3. 何してんの？ (Ah, perfect.)

Enduring state-of-being vs enduring state of action

Vocabulary

1. 知る 【し・る】 (u-verb) – to know
2. 分かる 【わ・かる】 (u-verb) – to understand
3. 今日 【きょう】 – today
4. この – this （abbr. of これの）
5. 歌 【うた】 – song
6. 道 【みち】 – road
7. はい – yes (polite)

There are certain cases where an enduring state doesn’t translate into the progressive form. In fact, there is an ambiguity in whether one is in a state of doing an action versus being in a state that resulted from some action. This is usually decided by context and common practices. For example, although 「結婚している」 can technically mean someone is in a chapel currently getting married, it is usually used to refer to someone who is already married and is currently in that married state. We’ll now discuss some common verbs that often cause this type of confusion for learners of Japanese.

「知る」

「知る」 means “to know”. English is weird in that “know” is supposed to be a verb but is actually describing a state of having knowledge. Japanese is more consistent and 「知る」 is just a regular action verb. In other words, I “knowed” (action) something and so now I know it (state). That’s why the English word “to know” is really a continuing state in Japanese, namely: 「知っている」.

「知る」 vs 「分かる」

「分かる」 meaning “to understand” may seem similar to 「知る」 in some cases. However, there is a difference between “knowing” and “understanding”. Try not to confuse 「知っている」 with 「分かっている」. 「分かっている」 means that you are already in a state of understanding, in other words, you already get it. If you misuse this, you may sound pompous. (“Yeah, yeah, I got it already.”) On the other hand, 「知っている」 simply means you know something.

Examples

1. 今日、知りました。
   I found out about it today. (I did the action of knowing today.)
2. この歌を知っていますか？
   Do (you) know this song?
3. 道は分かりますか。
   Do you know the way? (lit: Do (you) understand the road?)
4. はい、はい、分かった、分かった。
   Yes, yes, I got it, I got it.

Motion Verbs (行く、来る、etc.)

Vocabulary

1. 鈴木 【すず・き】 – Suzuki (last name)
2. どこ – where
3. もう – already
4. 家 【1) うち; 2) いえ】 – 1) one’s own home; 2) house
5. 帰る 【かえ・る】 (u-verb) – to go home
6. 先 【さき】 – before
7. 行く 【い・く】 (u-verb) – to go
8. 美恵 【み・え】 – Mie (first name)
9. 来る 【く・る】 (exception) – to come

It is reasonable to assume the actions 「行っている」 and 「来ている」 would mean, “going” and “coming” respectively. But unfortunately, this is not the case. The 「～ている」 form of motion verbs is more like a sequence of actions we saw in the last section. You completed the motion, and now you exist in that state. (Remember, 「いる」 is the verb of existence of animate objects.) It might help to think of it as two separate and successive actions: 「行って」、and then 「いる」.

Examples

1. 鈴木さんはどこですか。
   Where is Suzuki-san?
2. もう、家に帰っている。
   He is already at home (went home and is there now).
3. 先に行っているよ。
   I’ll go on ahead. (I’ll go and be there before you.)
4. 美恵ちゃんは、もう来ているよ。
   Mie-chan is already here, you know. (She came and is here.)

Using 「～てある」 for resultant states

Vocabulary

1. 準備 【じゅん・び】 – preparations
2. どう – how
3. もう – already
4. する (exception) – to do
5. ある (u-verb) – to exist (inanimate)
6. 旅行 【りょ・こう】 – travel
7. 計画 【けい・かく】 – plans
8. 終わる 【お・わる】 (u-verb) – to end
9. うん – casual word for “yes” (yeah, uh-huh)
10. 切符 【きっ・ぷ】 – ticket
11. 買う 【か・う】 (u-verb) – to buy
12. ホテル – hotel
13. 予約 【よ・やく】 – reservation

Appropriately enough, just like there is an 「ある」 to go with 「いる」, there is a 「～てある」 form that also has a special meaning. By replacing 「いる」 with 「ある」, instead of a continuing action, it becomes a resultant state after the action has already taken place. Usually, this expression is used to explain that something is in a state of completion. The completed action also carries a nuance of being completed in preparation for something else.

Since this grammar describes the state of a completed action, it is common to see the 「は」 and 「も」 particles instead of the 「を」 particle.

Example 1

Ａ：準備はどうですか。
A: How are the preparations?

Ｂ：準備は、もうしてあるよ。
B: The preparations are already done.

Example 2

Ａ：旅行の計画は終わった？
A: Are the plans for the trip complete?

Ｂ：うん、切符を買ったし、ホテルの予約もしてある。
B: Uh huh, not only did I buy the ticket, I also took care of the hotel reservations.

Using the 「～ておく」 form as preparation for the future

Vocabulary

1. 晩ご飯 【ばん・ご・はん】 – dinner
2. 作る 【つく・る】 (u-verb) – to make
3. 電池 【でん・ち】 – battery
4. 買う 【か・う】 (u-verb) – to buy

While 「～てある」 carries a nuance of a completed action in preparation for something else, 「～ておく」 explicitly states that the action is done (or will be done) with the future in mind. Imagine this: you have made a delicious pie and you’re going to place it on the window sill for it to cool so that you can eat it later. This image might help explain why the verb 「おく」 （置く）, meaning “to place”, can be used to describe a preparation for the future. (It’s just too bad that pies on window sills always seem to go through some kind of mishap especially in cartoons.) While 「置く」 by itself is written in kanji, it is customary to use hiragana when it comes attached to a conjugated verb (such as the te-form).

Examples

1. 晩ご飯を作っておく。
   Make dinner (in advance for the future).
2. 電池を買っておきます。
   I’ll buy batteries (in advance for the future).

「ておく」 is also sometimes abbreviated to 「～とく」 for convenience.

1. 晩ご飯を作っとく。
   Make dinner (in advance for the future).
2. 電池を買っときます。
   I’ll buy batteries (in advance for the future).

Using motion verbs （行く、来る） with the te-form

Vocabulary

1. えんぴつ – pencil
2. 持つ 【も・つ】 (u-verb) – to hold
3. いる (ru-verb) – to exist (animate)
4. 学校 【がっ・こう】 – school
5. 行く 【い・く】 (u-verb) – to go
6. 家 【1) うち; 2) いえ】 – 1) one’s own home; 2) house
7. 来る 【く・る】 (exception) – to come
8. お父さん【お・とう・さん】 – father (polite)
9. 早い 【はや・い】 (i-adj) – fast; early
10. 帰る 【かえ・る】 (u-verb) – to go home
11. 駅 【えき】 – station
12. 方 【ほう】 – direction, way
13. 走る 【はし・る】 (u-verb) – to run
14. 冬 【ふゆ】 – winter
15. 入る 【はい・る】 (u-verb) – to enter
16. コート – coat
17. 着る 【き・る】 (ru-verb) – to wear
18. 増える 【ふ・える】 (ru-verb) – to increase
19. 一生懸命 【いっ・しょう・けん・めい】 – with all one’s might
20. 頑張る 【がん・ば・る】 (u-verb) – to try one’s best
21. 色々 【いろ・いろ】 (na-adj) – various
22. 人 【ひと】 – person
23. 付き合う 【つ・き・あ・う】 (u-verb) – to go out with; to keep in company with
24. いい (i-adj) – good
25. まだ – yet
26. 見つかる 【み・つかる】 (u-verb) – to be found
27. 日本語 【に・ほん・ご】 – Japanese (language)
28. ずっと – long; far
29. 前 【まえ】 – front; before
30. 勉強 【べん・きょう】 – study
31. する (exception) – to do
32. 結局 【けっ・きょく】 – eventually
33. やめる (ru-verb) – to stop; to quit

You can also use the motion verbs “to go” （行く）and “to come” （来る） with the te-form, to show that an action is oriented toward or from someplace. The most common and useful example of this is the verb 「持つ」 (to hold). While 「持っている」 means you are in a state of holding something (in possession of), when the 「いる」 is replaced with 「いく」 or 「くる」, it means you are taking or bringing something. Of course, the conjugation is the same as the regular 「行く」 and 「来る」.

Examples

1. えんぴつを持っている？
   Do (you) have a pencil?
2. 鉛筆を学校へ持っていく？
   Are (you) taking pencil to school?
3. 鉛筆を家に持ってくる？
   Are (you) bringing pencil to home?

For these examples, it may make more sense to think of them as a sequence of actions: hold and go, or hold and come. Here are a couple more examples.

1. お父さんは、早く帰ってきました。
   Father came back home early.
2. 駅の方へ走っていった。
   Went running toward the direction of station.

The motion verbs can also be used in time expressions to move forward or come up to the present.

1. 一生懸命、頑張っていく！
   Will try my hardest (toward the future) with all my might!
2. 色々な人と付き合ってきたけど、いい人はまだ見つからない。
   Went out (up to the present) with various types of people but a good person hasn’t been found yet.
3. 日本語をずっと前から勉強してきて、結局はやめた。
   Studied Japanese from way back before and eventually quit.

In this section, we will learn various ways to combine multiple simple sentences into one complex sentence. For example, we will learn how to chain separate sentences together to express multiple actions or states. In other words, if we have two simple sentences with the same subject, “I ran” and “I ate”, we will learn how to group them together to mean, “I ran and ate.” We will also learn how to do this with adjectives and nouns. (Ex: He is rich, handsome, and charming.)

Expressing a sequence of states

Vocabulary

1. 一般的 【いっ・ぱん・てき】 – in general
2. 静か 【しず・か】 (na-adj) – quiet
3. 狭い 【せま・い】 (i-adj) – narrow
4. 彼女 【かの・じょ】 – she; girlfriend
5. いい (i-adj) – good
6. 私 【わたし】 – me; myself; I
7. 部屋 【へ・や】 – room
8. きれい (na-adj) – pretty; clean
9. とても – very
10. 好き 【す・き】 (na-adj) – likable; desirable
11. 学生 【がく・せい】 – student
12. 先生 【せん・せい】 – teacher
13. 田中 【た・なか】 – Tanaka (last name)
14. お金持ち 【お・かね・も・ち】 – rich
15. かっこいい (i-adj) – cool; handsome
16. 魅力的 【み・りょく・てき】 – charming

It is very easy to combine a chain of nouns and adjectives to describe a person or object. For example, in English if we wanted to say, “He is X. He is Y. He is Z.” since all three sentences have the same noun, we would usually say, “He is X, Y, and Z.” In Japanese, we can do the same thing by conjugating the noun or adjective. The last noun or adjective remains the same as before.

Examples

1. 私の部屋は、きれいで、静かで、とても好き。 My room is clean, quiet, and I like it a lot.
2. 彼女は、学生じゃなくて、先生だ。 She is not a student, she is a teacher.
3. 田中さんは、お金持ちで、かっこよくて、魅力的ですね。 Tanaka-san is rich, handsome, and charming, isn’t he?

As you can see, the 「で」 attached to 「お金持ち」 obviously cannot be the context particle 「で」 here because there is no verb. It might be helpful to think of 「で」 as merely a substitution for 「だ」 that can be chained together.

Expressing a sequence of verbs with the te-form

Vocabulary

1. 学生 【がく・せい】 – student
2. 買う 【か・う】 (u-verb) – to buy
3. 食べる 【た・べる】 (ru-verb) – to eat
4. 行く 【い・く】 (u-verb) – to go
5. する (exception) – to do
6. 遊ぶ 【あそ・ぶ】 (u-verb) – to play
7. 飲む 【の・む】 (u-verb) – to drink
8. 食堂 【しょく・どう】 – cafeteria
9. 昼ご飯 【ひる・ご・はん】 – lunch
10. 昼寝 【ひる・ね】 – afternoon nap
11. 時間 【じ・かん】 – time
12. ある (u-verb) – to exist (inanimate)
13. 映画 【えい・が】 – movie
14. 見る 【み・る】 (ru-verb) – to see

In a similar fashion, you can express multiple actions. It is usually interpreted as a sequence of event. (I did [X], then I did [Y], then I finally did [Z].) There are two forms: positive and negative. The tense of all the actions is determined by the tense of the last verb.

Sample conjugations

Past Tense Te-form 食べた 食べて 行った 行って した して 遊んだ 遊んで 飲んだ 飲んで

Negative Te-form 食べない 食べなくて 行かない 行かなくて しない しなくて 遊ばない 遊ばなくて 飲まない 飲まなくて

Examples

1. 食堂に行って、昼ご飯を食べて、昼寝をする。 I will go to cafeteria, eat lunch, and take a nap.
2. 食堂に行って、昼ご飯を食べて、昼寝をした。 I went to cafeteria, ate lunch, and took a nap.
3. 時間がありまして、映画を見ました。 There was time and I watched a movie.

Expressing reason or causation using 「から」 and 「ので」

Vocabulary

1. 時間 【じ・かん】 – time
2. ある (u-verb) – to exist (inanimate)
3. パーティー – party
4. 行く 【い・く】 (u-verb) – to go
5. 友達 【とも・だち】 – friend
6. プレゼント – present
7. 来る 【く・る】 (exception) – to come
8. 田中 【た・なか】 – Tanaka (last name)
9. どうして – why
10. 山田 【や・まだ】 – Yamada (last name)
11. 一郎 【いち・ろう】 – Ichirou (first name)
12. 直子 【なお・こ】 – Naoko (first name)
13. ちょっと – a little
14. 忙しい 【いそが・しい】 (i-adj) – busy
15. そろそろ – gradually; soon
16. 失礼 【しつ・れい】 – discourtesy
17. する (exception) – to do
18. 学生 【がく・せい】 – student
19. お金 【お・かね】 – money
20. ここ – here
21. 静か 【しず・か】 (na-adj) – quiet
22. とても – very
23. 穏やか 【おだ・やか】 (na-adj) – calm, peaceful
24. 会う 【あ・う】 (u-verb) – to meet

You can connect two complete sentences using 「から」 to indicate a reason for something. The two sentences are always ordered [reason] から [result]. When the reason is a non-conjugated noun or na-adjective, you must add 「だ」 to explicitly declare the reason in the form of 「(noun/na-adjective)だから」. If you forget to add the declarative 「だ」 to 「から」, it will end up sounding like the 「から」 meaning “from” which was first introduced in the section on particles, earlier.

Examples

1. 時間がなかったからパーティーに行きませんでした。 There was no time so didn’t go to party.
2. 友達からプレゼントが来た。 Present came from friend.
3. 友達だからプレゼントが来た。 Present came because (the person is) friend. (This sentence sounds a bit odd.)

Either the reason or the result can be omitted if it is clear from the context. In the case of polite speech, you would treat 「から」 just like a regular noun and add 「です」.

Example 1

田中さん：どうしてパーティーに行きませんでしたか。 Tanaka-san: Why didn’t you go to the party? 山田さん：時間がなかったからです。 Yamada-san: It’s because I didn’t have time.

Example 2

一郎：パーティーに行かなかったの？ Ichiro: You didn’t go to the party? 直子：うん、時間がなかったから。 Naoko: Yeah, because I didn’t have time.

Example 3

When you omit the reason, you must include the declarative 「だ」 or 「です」. 直子：時間がなかった。 Naoko: I didn’t have time. 一郎：だからパーティーに行かなかったの？ Ichiro: Is that why you didn’t go to the party? Notice that we could have also used the explanatory 「の」 to express the same thing. In other words, 山田さん could have also said, 「時間がなかったのです」 or 「時間がなかったんです」 while 直子 could have said 「時間がなかったの」 (we’ll assume she wants to use the more feminine form). In fact, this is where 「ので」 possibly came from. Let’s say you want to combine two sentences: 「時間がなかったのだ」 and 「パーティーに行かなかった」. Remember we can treat the 「の」 just like a noun so we can use what we just learned in the first section of this lesson. 時間がなかったのだ＋パーティーに行かなかった becomes: 時間がなかったのでパーティーに行かなかった。 In fact, 「ので」 is almost interchangeable with 「から」 with a few subtle differences. 「から」 explicitly states that the sentence preceding is the reason for something while 「ので」 is merely putting two sentences together, the first with an explanatory tone. This is something I call causation where [X] happened, therefore [Y] happened. This is slightly different from 「から」 where [Y] happened explicitly because [X] happened. This difference tends to make 「ので」 sound softer and slightly more polite and it is favored over 「から」 when explaining a reason for doing something that is considered discourteous.

• ちょっと忙しいので、そろそろ失礼します。 Because I’m a little busy, I’ll be making my leave soon.

（「失礼します」, which literally means “I’m doing a discourtesy”, is commonly used as a polite way to make your leave or disturb someone’s time.） Reminder: Don’t forget that the explanatory 「の」 requires a 「な」 for both non-conjugated nouns and na-adjectives. Review Particles 3 to see why.

1. 私は学生なので、お金がないんです。 Because I’m a student, I have no money (lit: there is no money).
2. ここは静かなので、とても穏やかです。 It is very calm here because it is quiet.
3. なので、友達に会う時間がない。 That’s why there’s no time to meet friend.

Just like how the explanatory 「の」 can be shortened to 「ん」, in speech, the 「ので」 can be changed to 「んで」 simply because it’s easier to slur the sounds together rather than pronouncing the / o / syllable.

1. 時間がなかったんでパーティーに行かなかった。 Didn’t go to the party because there was no time.
2. ここは静かなんで、とても穏やかです。 It is very calm here because it is quiet.
3. なんで、友達に会う時間がない。 That’s why there’s no time to meet friend.

Using 「のに」 to mean “despite”

Vocabulary

1. 毎日 【まい・にち】 – everyday
2. 運動 【うん・どう】 – exercise
3. する (exception) – to do
4. 全然 【ぜん・ぜん】 – not at all (when used with negative)
5. 痩せる 【や・せる】 (ru-verb) – to become thin
6. 学生 【がく・せい】 – student
7. 彼女 【かの・じょ】 – she; girlfriend
8. 勉強 【べん・きょう】 – study

Grammatically, 「のに」 is used exactly the same way as 「ので」. When used to combine two simple sentences together, it means “[Sentence 1] despite the fact that [Sentence 2].” However the order is reversed: [Sentence 2]のに[Sentence 1].

Examples

1. 毎日運動したのに、全然痩せなかった。 Despite exercising every day, I didn’t get thinner.
2. 学生なのに、彼女は勉強しない。 Despite being a student, she does not study.

Expressing contradiction using 「が」 and 「けど」

Vocabulary

1. デパート – department store
2. 行く 【い・く】 (u-verb) – to go
3. 何 【なに／なん】 – what
4. 全然 【ぜん・ぜん】 – not at all (when used with negative)
5. 欲しい 【ほ・しい】 (i-adj) – desirable
6. 友達 【とも・だち】 – friend
7. 聞く 【き・く】 (u-verb) – to ask; to listen
8. 知る 【し・る】 (u-verb) – to know
9. 今日 【きょう】 – today
10. 暇 【ひま】 – free　(as in not busy)
11. 明日 【あした】 – tomorrow
12. 忙しい 【いそが・しい】 (i-adj) – busy
13. 彼 【かれ】 – he; boyfriend
14. まだ – yet
15. 好き 【す・き】 (na-adj) – likable; desirable
16. いい (i-adj) – good
17. 物 【もの】 – object
18. たくさん – a lot (amount)
19. ある (u-verb) – to exist (inanimate)
20. 見る 【み・る】 (ru-verb) – to see
21. 面白い 【おも・しろ・い】(i-adj) – interesting

Used in the same manner as 「から」 and 「ので」, 「が」 and 「けど」 also connect two sentences together but this time to express a contradiction. Just like 「から」 the declarative 「だ」 is required for nouns and na-adjectives. And just like 「から」 and 「ので」, either part of the contradiction can be left out.

Examples

1. デパートに行きましたが、何も欲しくなかったです。 I went to department store but there was nothing I wanted.
2. 友達に聞いたけど、知らなかった。 I asked (or heard from) a friend but he (or I) didn’t know.
3. 今日は暇だけど、明日は忙しい。 I’m free today but I will be busy tomorrow.
4. だけど、彼がまだ好きなの。 That may be so, but it is that I still like him. [explanation, feminine tone]

It may seem odd but 「聞く」 can either mean “to listen” or “to ask”. You may think this may become confusing but the meaning is usually clear within context. In the second example, we’re assuming that the friend didn’t know, so the speaker was probably asking the friend. Yet again we see the importance of context in Japanese because this sentence can also mean, “I heard from a friend but I didn’t know” since there is neither subject nor topic. Similar to the difference between 「ので」 and 「から」, 「が」 has a softer tone and is slightly more polite than 「けど」. Though this isn’t a rule as such, it is generally common to see 「が」 attached to a 「～ます」 or 「～です」 ending and 「けど」 attached to a regular, plain ending. A more formal version of 「けど」 is 「けれど」 and even more formal is 「けれども」, which we may see later when we cover formal expressions. Unlike the English word for contradiction such as “but” or “however”, 「けど」 and 「が」 do not always express a direct contradiction. Often times, especially when introducing a new topic, it is used as a general connector of two separate sentences. For example, in the following sentences, there is no actual contradiction but 「が」 and 「けど」 are used simply to connect the sentences. Sometimes, the English “and” becomes a closer translation than “but”.

1. デパートに行きましたが、いい物がたくさんありました。 I went to the department store and there was a lot of good stuff.
2. マトリックスを見たけど、面白かった。 I watched the “Matrix” and it was interesting.

Expressing multiple reasons using 「し」

Vocabulary

1. どうして – why
2. 友達 【とも・だち】 – friend
3. 先生 【せん・せい】 – teacher
4. 年上 【とし・うえ】 – older
5. 彼 【かれ】 – he; boyfriend
6. 好き 【す・き】 (na-adj) – likable
7. 優しい 【やさ・しい】 (i-adj) – gentle; kind
8. かっこいい (i-adj) – cool; handsome
9. 面白い 【おも・し・ろい】 (i-adj) – interesting

When you want to list reasons for multiple states or actions you can do so by adding 「し」 to the end of each relative clause. It is very similar to the 「や」 particle except that it lists reasons for verbs and state-of-being. Again, for states of being, 「だ」 must be used to explicitly declare the state-of-being for any non-conjugated noun or na-adjective. Let’s look at some examples.

Example 1

Ａ：どうして友達じゃないんですか？ A: Why isn’t (he/she) friend [seeking explanation]? Ｂ：先生だし、年上だし・・・。 B: Well, he’s/she’s the teacher, and older…

Example 2

Ａ：どうして彼が好きなの？ A: Why (do you) like him? Ｂ：優しいし、かっこいいし、面白いから。 B: Because he’s kind, attractive, and interesting (among other things). Notice that 「優しくて、かっこよくて、面白いから。」 could also have worked but much like the difference between the 「と」 and 「や」 particle, 「し」 implies that there may be other reasons.

Expressing multiple actions or states using 「～たりする」

Vocabulary

1. する (exception) – to do
2. 食べる 【た・べる】 (ru-verb) – to eat
3. 飲む 【の・む】 (u-verb) – to drink
4. 簡単 【かん・たん】 (na-adj) – simple
5. 難しい 【むずか・しい】 (i-adj) – difficult
6. 映画 【えい・が】 – movie
7. 見る 【み・る】 (ru-verb) – to see
8. 本 【ほん】 – book
9. 読む 【よ・む】 (u-verb) – to read
10. 昼寝 【ひる・ね】 – afternoon nap
11. この – this （abbr. of これの）
12. 大学 【だい・がく】 – college
13. 授業 【じゅ・ぎょう】 – class

This is the verb version of the 「や」 particle. You can make an example list of verbs among a possible larger list by conjugating each verb into the past tense and adding 「り」. At the end, you need to attach the verb 「する」. Just like the 「や」 particle, the tense is determined by the last verb, which in this case will always be 「する」 (since you have to attach it at the end). You can also use this with the state-of-being to say that you are a number of things at various random times among a larger list. Similar to regular verbs, you just take the noun or adjective for each state-of-being and conjugate it to the past state-of-being and then attach 「り」. Then finally, attach 「する」 at the end.

1. 映画を見たり、本を読んだり、昼寝したりする。 I do things like (among other things) watch movies, read books, and take naps.
2. この大学の授業は簡単だったり、難しかったりする。 Class of this college is sometimes easy, sometimes difficult (and other times something else maybe).

As you can see, the tense and negative/positive state is controlled by the last 「する」.

1. 映画を見たり、本を読んだりした。 I did things like (among other things) watch movies, and read books.
2. 映画を見たり、本を読んだりしない。 I don’t do things like (among other things) watch movies, and read books.
3. 映画を見たり、本を読んだりしなかった。 I didn’t do things like (among other things) watch movies, and read books.