The inflections of verbs. How the endings of verbs change to reflect grammatical factors such as tense and aspect.
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195 views
Does the 助動詞「ます」 still have a 連体形 in modern Japanese?
Does the 助動詞「ます」 have a 連体形? According to 大辞林, it's ます, and I see the old forms ます／まする on 学研全訳古語辞典. However, in the comments on this question, Darius Jahandarie wrote the following:
@snailplane ...
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1answer
307 views
How many forms can a Japanese verb take?
Japanese verbs are quite complex compared to English verbs (Most English verbs have five or six forms and to be has eight not including archaic forms). Their agglutinative nature means they have ...
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1answer
208 views
Is ない an “auxiliary verb”?
My dictionary says 助動詞{じょどうし} means "auxiliary verb". This sounds intuitively correct; 動詞 means verb, so 助動詞 sounds like a type of verb.
But the 助動詞「ない」 looks like an auxiliary adjective, not an ...
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2answers
411 views
How is なっている different from なっていた?
I apologize if I am beating a dead horse with this question but is this correct?
なっている: have (already) become
as opposed to
なっていた: had become
so often the meaning of なっている can be thought ...
4
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2answers
228 views
Help with the difference between causative and the causative-passive for the verb 笑う
I've always had a hard time immediately understanding the differences between passive, causative, and causative-passive. If I really sit down and try to work out the meaning I can generally get it, ...
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2answers
249 views
Can there be such a thing as のんでましょう？
I know のみましょう but I was wondering if the above was legal japanese as well.
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1answer
105 views
What does the ぬ in 詰まぬ mean?
I encountered a Shogi saying:
三桂あって詰まぬこと無し
And I'm pretty confused about the ぬ there. If it was る I'd expect the meaning to be something like:
"If you have 3 knights, you can't be mated"
But ...
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1answer
173 views
Is 来おった the 連用形{れんようけい} of くる plus おる → おった?
I came across the following dialogue, which occurs right as the hero arrives:
「やっと来おったか。」
I'm not sure how to parse 来おった. Is it 来{き} + 居{お}る? If so, what exactly does this form mean? Do other ...
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3answers
239 views
what does it mean when a causative verb is conjugated in the causative form?
If ”かぶせる” is a "causative verb," what does it mean when a causative verb is conjugated in the causative form?
プランターに生えているカタバミの葉を用意し、アルミホイルをかぶせさせる。
...
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1answer
232 views
から and ので formation/conjugation differences
Consider the case when から and ので follows a noun, な-adjective, or noun-equivalent:
から：静かだから... "Because it is quiet..." (Subjective causality)
ので：静かなので... "Because it is quiet..." (Objective ...
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2answers
190 views
〜(ら)れる - Ambiguity between passive and Keigo
In my Japanese Bible, it often uses the 〜(ら)れる Keigo form when talking about God's actions. However, there are certain cases when talking about both people and God in the same sentence where the use ...
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2answers
134 views
What does みても mean here? Problem from workbook
From "Japanese for Busy People Level II" p 46, there is the following question:
Fill in the blank with the appropriate particle:
この くつを （ ）みても いいですか。（はきます）
In other words, modify はきます so that the ...
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1answer
172 views
Is けど a conjunction (接続詞) or particle (助詞)?
I have a book that claims けど is a conjunction (接続詞), yet another book that I have claims that it is a particle (助詞).
Seems it doesn't seem to make sense if けど is both a conjunction and a particle, I ...
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1answer
226 views
Examples of when passive form in English takes active/non passive form in Japanese
Can anyone give a few more common examples (or even more insight) of when we should be "switching" from English passive into Japanese active/non-passive?
(A joint effort might help a lot of us to ...
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1answer
281 views
What would be the literal meaning of the causative form here? 暴風警報発令中のため本日の営業はお休みとさせていただきます。
暴風警報発令中のため本日
bōfū keihō hatsurei chū notame honjitsu
の営業はお休みとさせて
no eigyō wa oyasumi to sasete
いただきます。
itadakimasu.
暴風 bōfū = storm winds
警報 keihō = warning
発令 hatsurei = official ...
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1answer
164 views
足って used in Ponyo Song [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
What are these forms: かけちゃお, つないじゃお?
Is this って equivalent to 「と」？
From the Ponyo theme song:
ペータペタ ピョーンピョン
足っていいな かけちゃお!
Why is 足 given the て conjugation, as if ...
3
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1answer
124 views
“don't say it, if you don't want to” in japanese
Don't say it, if you dont want to.
You don't have to say it, if you don't want to.
How do i convey these in japanese correctly?
My idea is 言えないこと言ってないもいいです。
But I am really confused by verb ...
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1answer
149 views
What forms of verbs (potential or passive) are more frequent in Japanese?
A simple question to those speaking and the native ones. What of the two forms (potential verbs or passive voice verbs) in Japanese verbs is more frequent?
This question may seem strange, but I need ...
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1answer
228 views
What are the “slots” in the Japanese agglutinative verb system?
In another question we established that Japanese is an agglutinating language (more here), if only in its verb system.
Since it is not traditional in Japanese grammar or teaching to go into this ...
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1answer
196 views
抱った vs 抱いた and 書った vs 書いた
I have always known that for a verb that ends with a く, the past/perfective form ends with いた and the conjugative form ends with いて.
But today I found in Wiktionary that there are alternative ...
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0answers
155 views
Are many する verbs becoming 五段 verbs?
I noticed recently that 愛する has a negative form 愛さない. This surprised me because, as far as I'm aware, さない is not a negative form of する. In fact, it looks like 五段活用 to me, so I decided to look up 愛す ...
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2answers
187 views
I am confused about the meaning of the conjugations of [買]{か}う
I am on Livemocha and it says that 買います。 means "I am going to buy it." But I figure that should be 買いに行きます。 . Also I know that ぎゅうにゅうを買っています。 is "I am buying milk." But for some reason, I thought that ...
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2answers
250 views
How to Convert Na-adjectives and Nouns to the ば-form?
I am practicing the ば-conditional and my main reference right now is the oxford grammar book.
It only mentions how to convert keiyoushi or i-adjectives and not keiyoudoushi or na-adjectives.
Can ...
2
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2answers
145 views
What is って doing in this sentence?
From Noir, Episode 2 (anime).
I don't get what the って is doing in this sentence. For context, the father came home early from work. He quickly answers his wife in the first sentence then in the ...
2
votes
1answer
402 views
How do you conjugate i- and na- adjectives (into the presumptive, imperative, conditional, provisional, and progressive forms)?
I feel like mastering conjugations is a major contributor to self expression in Japanese. I realized that some of the grammar points I have been working on have taught me new conjugations.
Usually ...
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1answer
112 views
Can the ったら form of a verb be used to mean “after?”
Take this example:
AったらB
Could this mean, "After doing A, B happened?"
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1answer
120 views
What is the underlying grammar in the difference between `足らない` and `足りない`?
Based on the comments from Tsuoyshi Ito's answer to Translation of 竜すらも恐るるに足らない,
恐るるに足らない/恐るるに足りない is a set phrase meaning "not worth fearing".
Based on my understanding of 一段 verbs like 足りる, ...
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1answer
311 views
The differences and similarities between ーたら and ーば [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Differences among -たら、なら、-んだったら、-えば, etc.
There are different ways to say "if" in Japanese. I want to concentrate on these two verb endings which mean "if": たら and ば. ...
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votes
3answers
214 views
い-Adjective declension apparent inconsistency when turning into a noun
Consider these adjectives:
赤い
近い
The い-declension works for sentence ending as well as directly modifying a noun:
Now if I want to express the adjective as a noun, for example I'm talking about ...
2
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1answer
236 views
Understanding ありやな
貯金も確かにありやな！！
お金があったら何でも出来るし.
I'm definitely into saving money too! If you have money you can do anything.
My young friend wrote this to me. Would someone be kind enough to explain the やな for ...
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1answer
105 views
How is 信じる being conjugated here?
信じようと信じまいと Believe it or not
How is 信じる being conjugated here? I am unfamilar with the stem + まい pattern, if anyone could explain the ins and outs of that, or provide a more literal translation ...
2
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1answer
190 views
Plain verbs vs [conjunctive form 連用形]+をする (e.g. 間違える vs 間違えをする)
(Question 1)
Are there any differences in nuance and usage of conjunctive form of verb (連用形) + をする compared to the plain form of those verbs whose conjunctive forms can be used as nouns?
For ...
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1answer
281 views
What does しちゃい mean?
I know it is some form of する。The context is this tweet:
いいえ！無視は しちゃい けませんな(^-^)/気持ちは受け取って♪(´ε｀ )RT @PuyoPuyoStar: @shinji_sid すみません。先程ツイート送ったんですが、「無理してはいけません」と書きたかったところ、「無視してはいけません」と書いてしまいました。本当すみませ
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2answers
78 views
Translation for 食べ物を腐らせずに保存する
Saw this in my textbook. The translation is "to preserve food from decay". I get it, but I am not clear about the ず after 腐らせる. Where is it coming from?
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1answer
149 views
What is the etymology of 〜ません（でした）?
I have always been interested in the negative polite (〜ません) and negative past-polite (〜ませんでした) inflections of verbs.
My understanding is that ます is an inflectable function word (助動詞), so I'm ...
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vote
1answer
132 views
What is ~なかって and how is it formed?
Taken from alc.co.jp:
家{いえ}の鍵{かぎ}が見{み}つからなくて、玄関{げんかん}のベルを鳴{な}らしたけど、君{きみ}、家{いえ}に居{い}なかってし、ここでずっと待{ま}ってたんだよ。
(I rang the doorbell because I couldn't find the house key, but you weren't home, so ...
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1answer
97 views
言わない VS 言わなくない A negative verb conjugated as an adjective?
While reading a text in Japanese, I came up with the phrase "何も言わなくなったから"
I don't understand what the ~くない stands for. As far as know is used as the negative for of an adjective... but 言う is a verb! ...
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1answer
228 views
[plain form]-んじゃない
When I was first learning Japanese, I learned that the explanatory form, -んです is always constructed by conjugating the verb in short form and adding -んです, and that the です part is never conjugated. But ...
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1answer
143 views
What is the らせ form of a verb?
I'm trying to understand this:
賞品？おそらく！リナちゃん.....私の後ろの笑い声輝くんがたくさんで黙らせ
The last word, 黙らせ, is confusing. Is this a combination of different forms?
