Questions tagged [auxiliaries]
助動詞. Inflecting function words or endings such as 〜ます and 〜ない. Many inflect like verbs (such as 〜(ら)れる), but many others do not (such as 〜たい), so here we will call these simply "auxiliaries" and not "auxiliary verbs". These should be distinguished from 補助動詞（ほじょどうし）, which are tagged "subsidiary verbs" on this site to avoid confusion.
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Pitch accent of ～ちまう and ～ちゃう
The pitch accent of ～てしまう is fairly obvious. The pitch accent of the て-form is well-documented and しまう is just a 平板 verb.
As for the contracted forms ～ちまう and ～ちゃう, I have come across conflicting ...
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Why is the れる conjugation sometimes combined with て?
Whenever I'm looking at Japanese there are times where I notice the れる conjugation is cut off. As an example, instead of する turning into される, it changes to されて. From what I know, れる is a past tense so ...
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~すまいて after a verb
I've come across this sentence with ~すまいて after a verb. I've never seen it like that before, but I'm assuming it is a form of ~済まい:
「いくらも進んでおりませぬよ。儂の命のあるうちに終わりますまいて」
I can't make any progress. It ...
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Why can't 連体形 verbs be in the past tense?
While reading IMABI's entry on まで, I saw the following table:
Here the 連体形, or the attributive form of a Japanese verb, is characterized as being "non-past". This resource states:
In ...
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Why is 売っています correct, as opposed to 売ってあります?
As I understand, inanimate objects are referred to using あります. Why, then, is it
コンビニでお握りを売っています
Both subject and object are inanimate. Are we still assuming a salesperson? What if it's a self-...
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べきはず combined, what does it mean?
I was reading 吾輩は猫である and this sentence came to me:
第一毛をもって装飾されべきはずの顔がつるつるしてまるで薬缶【やかん】だ
Can someone explain it to me please?
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Can よ from volitional form be dropped? Heres some context
Recently, I saw this in a Hinative answer.
使うとするなら
I know that とする means to "try to" and なら means if so I'm guessing it means if try to use, but why not use 使おうとするなら? This brings up the ...
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Negation in 未然形 + む(ん)
This question has been inspired by this Q&A, from which I learned about 未然形 + む(ん)'s various functions. I noticed two lines on the reference page @naruto points to under 推量, both seemingly sharing ...
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How does 形容詞+かる work in Classical Japanese?
I remember reading previously that かる could not be used attributively(1), but that does raise the question: For what else could a 連体形 have been used in the first place?
Was it simply an alternate form ...
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Meaning of いく in 言っていきたい
自分の経験を話して気持ちが軽くなりました。また同じことが起きないように国に言っていきたいです。(source)
By talking about our own experiences the mood lightens. We want to keep on talking to the nation so the same thing doesn't happen again.
いく ...
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Difference using そう with various verb forms?
I'm doing some reviews on Bunpro and I got this sentence:
今晩雨が＿＿＿。
And I knew it wanted the verb 降る, and that it wanted me to use そう.
So I put in ふりそう, and was surprised to see that it actually ...
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じ/ず conversion in 人は動かじ
There is this famous quote reputedly from 山本五十六:
やってみせて、言って聞かせて、やらせてみて、 ほめてやらねば人は動かじ。(source)
やってみせ、言ってきかせて、させてみて、誉めてやらねば人は動かじ。(a different version. source)
Do it and show'em; say things and make'em ...
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It seems だ can be omitted in とは思う?
いたずらに会議体を作って、賛否両論を並べ、これ以上時間を費やすのは賢明とは思えません。(source)
しかし、何時までも状況改善を待つことは賢明とは思えません。(source)
今日のあなたの服装はとても仕事向きの服装とは思えませんが。(source)
I am under the impression after a 名詞/形容動詞, 「だとは思えません」 and the だ-less 「...
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なさい and ください using い-stem instead of う-stem
I'm curious as to why these two verbs use their い-stem, instead of う like ます does after the い-stem and くれる/あげる/おく do after the て form. (I know the two are aru special class verbs.) Does this have to ...
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Verb endings before ように
I was reading the textbook 日本語総まとめ N3 and in one of the sections there are shown 2 meanings ように can assume: first for providing explanations (ex.: ここに書いてあるように、今度の木曜日、授業は午前中だけです and 皆さまご存じのように、...
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What's the etymology of まほし?
What's the etymology of まほし? Considering it goes after the 未然形, is it something like む -> ま (未然形) + [欲]{ほ}し, or is it a totally different etymology altogether?
Thanks in advance.
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Where does the -a stem come from with auxiliary-constructed transitive/intransitive verb pairs if the base verb is a 二段活用 (or カ行変格活用)?
It seems to be generally understood that transitive/intransitive verb pairs, when they are not a 四段活用 and a 二段活用 that share the same 終止形, were created by taking a base verb, whether transitive or ...
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Where does the か in なかった come from? [duplicate]
So I'm trying to understand Genki's preferred past negative form of です, that is: じゃなかったです. I'm confused by the なかった.
As I understand it from this source, this is a combination of two 助動詞: the 連用形 ...
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Is ～がる used to speak about animals?
Does the practice of not speaking directly about others' minds, but using ～がる to be indirect, apply to animals? i.e., would you ever say something like "犬は外に行きたがっている"? If so, does this vary ...
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What is the difference between しない and じゃない?
So as the title says,
What is the difference between しない and じゃない?
And is じゃない even a verb?
I know that しない comes from する.
It's in the negative form. (It should be mizenkei)
But when I tried to ...
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What is the meaning of らん in ゆくらん?
I saw it in this tanka that I'm trying to translate:
偽のある世にだにもふるさとの契りわすれず雁のゆくらん
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に/へ/が/か in describing place
冬休{ふゆやすみ}みはどこ [か] 行{い}きましたか.
In the above sentence, I learned [か] can be used to express uncertainty, which means the person asking this question has no idea if the person being asked went to some ...
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Is there really any difference between だなんて and なんて?
1.「精霊の力を封印できるだなんて規格外の能力、持っているのはこの世にあなた一人だけよ。ーーそのあなたが嫌だと言うのだもの。もうどうしようもないじゃない」
2.「む……そうか。そうだな。シドーから鳶一折紙の匂いがするだなんて、私はどうしてしまったのだろか。シドーがあの女をおぶったりでもしない限り、匂いが付くだなんてありえないというのに」
Hi. I’m reading a novel and I’...
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Concept of Negative Form of Auxiliary Verbs
I was studying different auxiliaries and I am having a hard time understanding those auxiliaries which have their meanings attached with them.
Following the those auxiliaries and questions:
てみる - ...
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Can the auxiliary verb Vteみる along with Vteいる i.e. Vteみている make the imperfect verb into a perfect verb
I just got a hang of Vteいる form, and was studying Vteみる and I wanted to ask whether, the Vteみる form causes the imperfect verb to become perfect (for that purposes).
Background of the concept ている:
...
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Why じと instead of ず in その機を逃さじと? [duplicate]
硝煙で、鏑木肆星氏の姿は完全に覆い尽くされてしまう。その機を逃さじと、二匹のバケネズミが突進した。
I think その機を逃さじと means "not letting their chance slip away". But why isn't it just その機を逃さず?
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ください without て form and auxiliary verbs
I read the following sentence on the shinkansen:
かけ込み電車は危ないのでおやめください
I looked up on Google but I could not find any mention of やめる being used without the て form. So why is it the case in that ...
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がる passive form
In the following sentence, the verb がる appears to be used in passive form when the speaker is describing herself as a child:
私は少し奇妙がられる子供だった
What does がる indicate when used in passive form? ...
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Which categories of verbs (transitive, atelic, etc) can you use with ～そう (seems to; appears)?
I've just studied そう (as in: seems like; about to) in class and I wanted to know why you can use some verbs and not others.
For instance, 雨が｛あめが｝降りそう｛ふりそう｝ works out semantically and grammatically, ...
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Given the context, what is the correct way to parse this sentence segment 次に訊くべき言葉が出てこない。?
この寒さをしのげそうな防寒服を手渡され、それを着込みながら僕は彼女に質問した。
「君は……」
[名前なら、ないわ]
こちらから訊くより先に、低く呟くような声が返ってきた。
「呼びにくければアインと呼んで。
いつもそう呼ばれてたから」
質問の出鼻をくじかれ、次に訊くべき言葉が出てこない。
My western brain doesn't ...
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Are there any consistent rules as to how to distinguish words in Japanese?
I got involved with tokenization (mecab, kuromoji) and got confused as to what a "word" is in the Japanese language.
Scenario 1:
"たべません" analyzed by a tokenizer, outputs the following tokens:
たべ ...
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How can I use the conditional ～ば and desiderative ～たい together?
I think the title is self-explanatory.
I've been wondering how to combine the desiderative (たい) and the conditional (えば/たら).
For example, if I want to say "Excuse me, what should I do if I want to ...
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Are there any differences between 〜けらず and 〜ざりけり? Are they interchangeable?
Was ~ざりけり used in place of 〜けらず, for example in 知りけらず, to indicate the past tense in the negative form? Did 知らざりけり exist?
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Elongated お in the volitional verb form
In native Japanese words (that I know of at least) like 通り and 大きい, to elongate the お-sound, another お is added when written in Hiragana (instead of う like in Sino-Japanese words). However, it just ...
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出す as an auxiliary verb
It is my understanding that there are two different meanings when 出す is used as an auxiliary verb. One example being 走り出す meaning 'to start to run' and an example of the other being 生み出す meaning to '...
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How did でしょうand だろう come to mean "probably"?
This is something I have been struggling with for long time. I don't see why, I don't understand how でしょう and だろう convey the meaning of "probably" as in sentences such as 雨が降るでしょう。It simply doesn't ...
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Auxiliary verbs in Japanese
What are auxiliary verbs in Japanese language?
Which verbs are auxiliary and how to tell which are auxiliaries, and which are normal?
It looks like the word です is an auxiliary verb. But why? What ...
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clause ending ようで clarification
でも生徒同士で序列をつけるようで、こうした風習もどうもね……
手はまったく届かなかったが願いは届いたようで、謎の生命体は翼をはためかせてメアの頭に着地した
あいつの意見が正しかったことだけは認めざるを得ないようで、亮二もそれ以上食って掛かりはしなかった。
俺もノートに向かい続ける授業は苦手なようで、自然に体を動かす実技授業が多くなった
I can't really ...
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What is the correct way to attach 〜そう to the start of a noun? [duplicate]
Take for example the following,
よさそう
which means (it) looks good.
Is it possible for one to attach a 〜そう phrase to the start of a noun?
Taking a good apple as an example sentence, are any of the ...
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What is the conjugation form, grammar of もうすぐ込んできそう ？
アナウンス：皆様、本日はご来場ありがとうございます。午前十時現在の各館の
混雑状況と催しものの お知らせをいたします。まず、ロボット館はただいま、
一時間待ちとなっております。ロボット館のレ ストランではロボットがランチ
をお席までお運びをするサービスをしております。お昼近くになります と、さ
らに混雑が見込まれます。次に、未来館は現在すぐにお入りいただけます。なお、
...
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Is ょう still one single word/助動詞 in the expression しましょう?
Kuromoji is a Japanese tokenizer. When using it on the expression しましょう, it gave the following analysis:
Surface form Part-of-Speech Base form Reading Pronunciation
し 動詞,自立,*,* ...
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受け身形, 使役形, and 使役受け身形: A side by side comparison practice
受け身形, 使役形, and 使役受け身形. These forms confuse me to no end. Therefore, I have done a sort of comparison practice using these forms side by side. Each sentence is followed by my translation, and then a ...
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「〜すぎる」と「〜まくる」はどう違いますか。
question: Is there a difference in feeling for the words? Like すぎる feels more negative with an emphasis on disagreement with the action taken, while まくる is more about the amount?
Examples I came ...
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How to translate 'She was made to make him give me the book'?
How to translate 'She was made to make him give me the book'?
(as in: 'someone made her make him give me the book.')
Can I translate it to:
Kanojo wa watasi-ni kare-ni hon-o kure-sase-sase-rare-ta.
...
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人間は普通ここに来れんのになあ I Know it means Humans Cannot Come here usually
人間は普通ここに来れんのになあ I Know it means Humans Cannot Come here usually.
but doesn't 来られます Means can come Potential Form But 来れ Then ん Confuses me.
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verb-casual ような (possible translation)
東都大学の国際交流クラブでは、外国人と日本人が一緒に楽しめるような行事を企画したり紹介したりしている。
How should I translate this ような? The only possible translation to me is "in order that".. am I wrong?
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Difference between だと vs と before 認める
そのため、税務上の課税所得の計算は、「一般に公正妥当と認められる企業の基準」に基づく収益・費用の認識を原則としながらも、一定の調整を加えることとなっています。
I'm wondering what the difference is between
公正妥当と認められる
and
公正妥当だと認められる
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Why 寝たよう instead of 寝そう in this example
I was going through a JLPT grammar practice book and am confused on a question:
「一郎、まだ起きているかな。」
「部屋の電気が消えているから、もう＿＿＿＿＿よ。」
I choose 寝そう since ～そう is often used to make conjectures based on visual ...
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Grammar justification for 連用形 ＋ 係助詞「は」＋（ない・ある）
So recently I came across these two answers to two very interesting questions, and related: one and two.
Both mention the following form:
(連用形{れんようけい} of something) + (optional 係助詞{かかりじょし}) + (...
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What does 開けたかった mean?
From the novel The Old Man and the Sea.
Japanese translation on Aozora:
http://www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/001847/files/57347_57224.html
「食ったほうがいいか？」
「そう言ってるじゃないか」少年は優しく答えた。「サンチャゴの用意ができてから蓋を開けたかったんだ」
...
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