Questions tagged [conjugations]
活用. The inflections of verbs and adjectives. How the endings of verbs and adjectives change to reflect grammatical factors such as tense and aspect.
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Differences among -たら, なら, -と, -んだったら, -ば, etc
The Japanese language has a lot of patterns for "if" clauses. What are the differences among the following patterns and how do we choose to use one over the others?:
行くと
行ったら
行くなら
行けば
行くんだったら
行くのなら
...
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What is the difference between the negative forms -ず and -ぬ?
-ず and -ぬ are two alternatives to the negative form -ない / -ません. But I noticed that depending on the word, it's either -ず or -ぬ, although it seems like some words can take both suffixes. Some examples ...
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Does -ou / -you / -mashou conjugation have a negative form?
Does the -ou / -you / -mashou (the "let's X") form have a negative counterpart? For example, how do I say "let's not X" for the following?:
行こう
食べよう
寝ましょう
As far as I can remember, the Japanese ...
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~うございます - keigo い-adjectives
I'm not sure if this is actual keigo, or just a polite form of adjectives. Anyway, there are several that we're all familiar with that are still used today.
はやい → おはようございます
ありがたい → ありがとうございます
...
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How to differentiate ~られる conjugation between passive form and potential form?
For verbs of group 2, whose ~ます form is formed by dropping the ending ~る from the plain form, both the passive and potential forms have the same conjugation: ~られる. Example:
食べられる
1. to be eaten
...
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Why is 知りません the negative form of 知っています?
I'm reading Minna no Nihongo (Chapter 15) and it says what I wrote in the question. I would think the negative would be 知っていません。
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Why is it なさそう and not なそう
"It seems there is none" is なさそう, which escapes the usual rule for 形容詞 (イ-adjectives), which says "drop the い and add そう".
Is there a historical explanation for this exception? And does it have ...
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What is the difference between 見える【みえる】/聞こえる【きこえる】 and 見られる【みられる】/聞ける【きける】?
In Japanese, there is a potential form to express that it's possible for something to be done.
My own examples of potential form:
辛【から】い食【た】べ物【もの】が食【た】べられる。 (I can eat spicy foods.)
ギターが弾【ひ】ける。 (I ...
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Is Japanese really an agglutinative language?
In the linguistics topic of language typology, Japanese is often included in lists of agglutinative (or agglutinating) languages, but when learning or reading about Japanese grammar exclusively this ...
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Meaning of ぬ added to 連用形 / masu-stem, as in 風立ちぬ
What does the ぬ at the end of 立ち specify? I can't find a verb that is just 立ちぬ, is this some kind of special form? Can this be done with other verbs as well?
風立ちぬ, for reference, is Miyazaki's new ...
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Conjunctive form (e.g. 書き) vs Conj + mono (e.g. 書き物)
I'm trying to fully understand the plain conjunctive form without a suffix. I've seen it mainly in the form of 話, where it means a talk or speech. So I think it means something along the lines of "the ...
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What exactly does an adjective stem + そう mean?
The other day I posted a picture of some food on Facebook, and I noticed that all of my Japanese friends were saying 「おいしそう」. I made a good guess to what it meant, but I wasn't certain what exactly ...
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About 「同{おな}じ」 and 「同{おな}じく」
As far as I know, 「[同じ]{おなじ}」 is not a 形容詞{けいようし} (-i adjective) so how does it become 「[同じく]{おなじく}」? Or does 「同じく」 not come from 「同じ」?
Also, are there any other non i-adjectives that have -ku ...
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Difference between 書かないようになった and 書かなくなった?
Example sentences:
ぜんぜん長い手紙を書かないようになった。
ぜんぜん長い手紙を書かなくなった。
My Translation: I never write long letters anymore.
I believe they both mean the same thing but there's obviously some difference I don'...
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Where does the verbal form しとく come from?
In a manga I am currently reading, one of the character exclaims:
安心しな。秘密に しとく から。
The general meaning of the second part ("I'll keep it a secret") is quite obvious, and it seems that "しとく" (...
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住んでいたい and 住みたい
Can anyone tell me, what is the difference between 住んでいたい and 住みたい?
Both seem to be valid words... But I'm unsure which I should be using.
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About the な part in negative imperative verb form (e.g. 飲むな)
In the Japanese version of "don't drink and drive" slogan, 【乗るなら飲むな】 (also 【飲んだら乗るな】), what part of speech is the な that follows the plain verb 飲む (or 乗る in the second variation) to form the negative ...
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Why isn't ある's negative form あらない?
ある is listed in dictionaries as having ラ行五段活用, which would suggest a negative form of あらない. However, that form does not exist. Why not?
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What is the difference between [plain form of verb]~そう and [root of verb]~そう?
I heard both forms of [plain form of verb]~そう and [root of verb]~そう in an anime I watched, reproduced below, so I'm wondering how are they different and how to choose to use one over the other?
...
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Does "te-form" of a verb always include て/で? Why?
In so-called 学校文法 (the Japanese grammar which all native Japanese speakers learn at around middle school), one form of a verb is called 連用形 (aka continuative form), which looks like this (screenshot ...
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General applicability of the ~ませ conjugation
I have only found the ~ませ conjugation used in the following honorific verbs:
いらっしゃいませ
くださいませ
なさいませ
Can the conjugation be applied to other honorific verbs, like おっしゃいませ or めしあがりませ?
Or even common ...
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Iterative / repetitive る evolving from classical 連体形【れんたいけい】
This is somewhat related to the discussion of classical auxiliary verb ふ, mentioned in the answer to snailboat's question, What is the わ in 忌まわしい and 嘆かわしい?.
Another apparent iterative / repetitive ...
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What is the purpose of the suffix "さ" on adjectives?
What is the purpose of the suffix "さ" on adjectives like 美しさ and 多さ?
The former is the title of an essay by Banana Yoshimoto, so I don't have much context for it. The book editors translated it as "...
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What conjugation/form is the ませ (for example: いらっしゃいませ)?
I know it's used for greetings in a restaurant or store. But what type of verb conjugation (ex: polite, plain, honorific, imperative, or something else) is it? Is it used with other verbs? Is it ...
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Conjugated word + んだ vs nonconjugated word + conjugated んだ
Suppose I have a verb/adjective/noun, let's say 無理, and I add (な)んだ to it as an explanatory sentence-ending particle. What would be the difference in nuance between the following two conjugated ...
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"Unsolvable problem"
What is the correct construction of "unsolvable problem"? Is it "解{と}けられない問題{もんだい}"?(Question 1)
Plain(intransitive): 解{と}ける "To be solved".
Potential form(of ...
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How to distinguish between passive and potential forms of the verb?
I've read that potential form of the ru-verb is formed by replacing る with られる, which is exactly the same for the passive form of ru-verbs. How can we tell the passive form and potential apart in this ...
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~ておく or ~とく for preparation (conjugation and nuance)
A few quick questions regarding ~ておく and the casual form ~とく
Firstly, when changing from ~ておく to the more casual ~とく I'm assuming the verb is first conjugated to the ~て form then the ~て is dropped and ...
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Break down the phrase "[失礼]{しつれい}しなければならないんです"
I've just heard the phrase [失礼]{しつれい}しなければならないんです (shitsurei shinakereba naranaindesu) used as Excuse me, I have to leave.
The explanation said it literally translates to If I don't leave, it won't ...
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Why do we use 〜ないで instead of 〜なくて before auxiliary ください?
I was taught in college that the 〜ない verb conjugation behaves like an i-adjective, thus it has 〜く form, it takes 〜ければ for "if" scenario, it modifies the noun that follows it etc. Also, I know that the ...
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What exactly is the difference between <verb>-てしまう and <verb>- [切]{き}る?
I've read that both the ~てしまう and ~きる (18th meaning of 切る at http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/cgi-bin/wwwjdic.cgi?1MUE%E5%88%87%E3%82%8B) forms are used to signify something has been finished/done/...
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い-Adjective Conjugation: かったです vs でした
When we first studied adjective conjugation in my Japanese class, I kept making the same mistake habitually; I would conjugate the past tense of い-adjectives with でした at the end instead of dropping ...
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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 of as ...
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Accent changes in conjugation
I find that Japanese pitch accent seems to have some sort of interaction with the morphology. For example, 早い is pronounced [はやい]{LHL}, but 早く is pronounced [はやく]{HLL}.
Are these changes regular? No ...
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In what ways do Japanese children overgeneralize conjugation patterns?
(Preface: I'm not well-versed in language acquisition, so the context I've provided here will be dumbed-down, or perhaps just dumb.)
Context: When children acquire their first language, they ...
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よかろう - What does it mean? Where does it come from?
This is another question that's come from a 昔話。
We have the following section:
大きい箱と小さい箱がありますが、どちらがいいですか。
どちらも結構じゃが、どうしてもと言うのなら、小さいほうでよかろう。
I'm having trouble with the second sentence. My ...
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Proper form of なさる - なさります or なさいます
In Genki II (second ed.), page 168 we are given polite forms of some verbs, among them する with なさる. They have also written that some of them have irregular conjugations in long forms, among them なさる, ...
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What form is 恐るる?
In Final Fantasy VIII, Bahamut has a little speech:
…G.F.とは我らのことか
我らを力として使うとは…
恐るるべきは人間どもよ
I'd never seen two るs doubled up like that. Which conjugation is this? It seems to have plenty of ...
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Is there any difference between そこで and それで?
I know that they can both mean "so, therefore, because of that" etc., so what is the difference when I use them with that meaning?
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Are there more irregular verbs like 行く?
I thought when you have a consonant-stem verb ending with -ku you replace it with -ita. For example kaku ("to write") becomes kaita.
But this doesn't happen with iku, which becomes itta, so I guess ...
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Can verbs/i-adjectives be indefinitely conjugated, or is there a limit?
寒い can become 寒くない, which is apparently also an i-adjective. Can it be further conjugated to 寒くなくない?
What about 寒くなくなくない, and so on? Do Japanese speakers regard such expressions as outright ...
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Meaning of せい conjugation of する?
I came upon this line of dialogue in a book I'm reading, from a character who has old-fashioned speech patterns:
できる限りの鶏肉を用意せい…
I assume this せい is some form of the verb する, though I'm not even sure ...
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Usage and meaning of [passive verb]-てみれば
I am familiar with the set phrase 「言われてみれば」 as a way to say "Now that you say that", but as I examine the phrase further, the phrase structure strikes me as strange. The 〜てみる conjugation is commonly ...
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What's the difference between 言わないでほしい and 言ってほしくない
What's the difference between 言わないでほしい and 言ってほしくない ?
If the intended message is "I don't want you to say it" which of the two above would be more suitable?
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ない in つまらない and similar adjectives and their conjugation with すぎる
The usual path for conjugation would be:
高い → 高すぎる (drop い, append すぎる)
ない → なさすぎる (drop い, append さ, append すぎる)
Is ない in つまらない treated as the negative ない which conjugates as 2.? Or is つまらない a ...
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Transitive/Intransitive + にくい (and +られる)
This question is based on the discussion arising from "Unsolvable Problem"
Start of Excerpt
Relevant discourse extracted from "Unsolvable Problem":
Quoted from Derek Schaab's reply to "Unsolvable ...
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Should I use 「なすぎる」 or 「なさすぎる」?
As I was taught, with verbs and adjectives, when you want to express an excessive degree, you simply attach 「すぎる」 to the stem of the word, as below.
食【た】べる 食べ過ぎる
多【おお】い 多すぎる
However, when it comes ...
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What is going on with 書けている? What is Potential Form+ている?
I'm having difficulty in understanding 書けている (initially observed from an answer to "パソコンが 得意だ/わかる/上手だ"). Also observed from SPACEALC:
この小説は上手に書けている。
最もよく書けている記事。
いくつかのスペルミスを除けば、...
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What does the "〜やしない" conjugation mean?
In episode 76 of Fairy Tail, Gildarts said this to Natsu:
本気でそう思ったら、止めやしないよ。 (honki de sou omottara, tomeyashinai yo)
Which was translated in the subtitle as:
If that's what you honestly ...
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What conjugation of 願う is 願わくば, and what does it mean here?
This is my first post here, I'm sorry if I didn't follow any formatting or posting rules.
Original sentence, from a character's monologue:
願わくばこの時間が少しでも長く続くことを。。。
The English translation I have (...