20
votes
Accepted
Conjunctive form (e.g. 書き) vs Conj + mono (e.g. 書き物)
Verb stem (masu-stem) as a noun can have various meanings depending on the original verb, and you may not be able to determine its meaning without referring to a dictionary. I generally recommend you ...
18
votes
Accepted
住んでいたい and 住みたい
住みたい means "want to live" and is the default choice.
住んでいたい is its progressive form and is used when there's some sense of progression, which works best when you're already living where you want to ...
16
votes
Accepted
「捨ててしまう」Why are there two て’s used here?
The verb is 捨てる, so its て-form is 捨てて, hence the compound form Vて+しまう becomes 捨ててしまう.
If it were the casual ちゃう instead of しまう that you were using, that starts from the て-form too, but also ...
16
votes
Accepted
Can verbs/i-adjectives be indefinitely conjugated, or is there a limit?
Let's talk about something practical first. Something like 食べさせられたくなかったです, beautifully explained in this article, is probably the longest natural verb "form" that may appear in ordinary ...
15
votes
Accepted
Why does 「もう待てないよ!」 mean "I can't wait any longer"?
待って is indeed the te-form, but 待て is not. It is the potential form. Remember that the final う sound becomes an え sound for the potential form of godan verbs? I guess this verb is a little more ...
14
votes
Accepted
Ai oboete imasu ka, what does "imasu" add here?
A note on translation
Expressing the same ideas in different languages inevitably results in all kinds of things that don't fit very well, if we try to look only at the individual words used in those ...
14
votes
When on earth do you use ごろ (goro)?
In English, ~ぐらい and ~ごろ mean about, around, approximately.
~ぐらい is used for approximate quantities, which include duration.
このXはいくらぐらいですか。About how much is this X?
そのXは500円ぐらいです。 That X is about ...
14
votes
What conjugation of what word is 出なく?
なって is indeed the te form of なる.
出なく is the morphing of 出ない (the negative form of 出る) to allow it to be connected to another verb.
so 出ない + なる becomes 出なくなる (to start not coming out)
Adding the te ...
14
votes
Accepted
Conjugated word + んだ vs nonconjugated word + conjugated んだ
無理だったんだ is straightforward, it's a combination of 無理だった ("was impossible") and the explanatory-の. "So it is that it was impossible", "Because it was not possible", "(I failed but) it was impossible (...
13
votes
Accepted
Proper form of なさる - なさります or なさいます
There are five honorific (subsidiary) verbs of almost r-consonant (type I) conjugation that have very peculiar style of irregularity, ending in い in 命令形 (command form) and before ます.
plain form ...
13
votes
Accepted
What is the verb ending of われん mean?
救われん is made of 救われる and the archaic suffix ん, which came out of む. む・ん had similar roles to よう・おう today; that is to say, 救われん in modern style would be 救われよう or 救われるだろう. It is not related to the ん ...
13
votes
Accepted
Break down the phrase "[失礼]{しつれい}しなければならないんです"
失礼{しつれい}しなければならない
失礼 (shitsurei) is "rudeness".
失礼する (shitsurei suru) is "to be rude"
失礼しない (shitsurei shinai) is the negation "to not be rude".
失礼しなければ (shitsurei shinakereba) is a conditional ...
12
votes
Accepted
How to understand みんなしてお出かけですか?
What you're seeing is not お出かけする written in a strange order, but a fixed adverbial phrase みんなして ("get together and (do ~)", "with many others", 一緒になって, 集まって). 大好評 is not a suru-verb in the first place....
12
votes
Accepted
Meaning of 寒くなる vs. 寒くなっています
Actually, because なる is a change of state verb,「寒くなっています」does not mean "it is getting cold", but rather "it is cold"- or more specifically, that it got cold and remains in that state.
Any verb that ...
12
votes
Break down the phrase "[失礼]{しつれい}しなければならないんです"
① Grammar pattern
The grammar pattern used here is:
V(ない form, and drop the い) + なければならない
which means "must V", where V is any verb in the plain negative form (ending in ない) . First drop ...
12
votes
Accepted
What is the meaning of "できたれば"?
This たれ is the realis-form (已然形) of たり, which is an auxiliary in classical/archaic Japanese. This たり is like ている in modern Japanese, and 已然形 + ば means "because". So できたれば translates to ...
11
votes
Accepted
Why is an anachronistic modern conjugation thrown into the lyrics of 軍艦行進曲?
This looks like modern "浮かべる" but it is actually classical "浮かぶ" (四段, "to float") plus what is traditionally taught as the "り" auxiliary verb (助動詞).
Etymologically, of course, it is really just "ari" ...
11
votes
Accepted
meaning of 歩けなくなっちゃって
Here's where 歩けなく comes from:
Start with the verb 歩く, "to walk".
Turn it into its potential form: 歩ける, "able to walk".
Make it negative: 歩けない, "unable to walk".
Turn the newly formed i-adjective into ...
11
votes
Accepted
Differentiate a cause from a succession of terms in a sentence using ~くて / で
How do you know in English? The degree to which て/で represent causality versus things being simply sequential is ambiguous in nearly the same way that and is ambiguous in the same role in English.
...
10
votes
Why is intentional form used in 「カラオケに行こうと誘われました」?
You should parse it this way:
近所のひとに『カラオケに行こう』と誘われました。
(lit.) I was invited by my neighbor, (saying) "Let's go to Karaoke."
⇒ My neighbor invited me out to Karaoke. / suggested we go to Karaoke.
...
10
votes
Accepted
Two questions about "can"
First of all, it should be 食べられる rather than 食べれる, although the latter form is used. See this link.
Once you have conjugated a verb into the potential form it behaves just like any other iru-eru/...
10
votes
Why is the potential form of 滑る 滑れる and not 滑られる?
滑る{すべる} is not a 'る' (ichidan) verb, but a godan verb. While it is true that all ichidan verbs end in いる or える, the reverse is not true; 入る{はいる} for example is a godan verb. 滑る conjugates as normal ...
10
votes
Accepted
Where do 覚悟なさい、我慢なさい come from?
意味は同じになるのですが、「我慢しなさい」の「なさい」と「我慢なさい」の「なさい」は、文法的にちょっと異なるもので、
「しなさい」= 動詞「する」の連用形「し」+ やわらかな命令を表す補助動詞「なさい」
「なさい」= 動詞「なす・する」の尊敬語「なさる」の命令形
なので、
「我慢しなさい」は、サ変動詞「我慢する」の連用形「我慢し」+ やわらかな命令を表す補助動詞「なさい」
「我慢なさい」は、...
9
votes
Accepted
Apparent reversals of conjugation patterns in classical 形容詞 and 動詞, origin?
There is no clear-cut etymological explanation, but some think there is a connection. In A History of the Japanese Language (2010), Frellesvig says:
The suffixes which attach to the infinitive [i.e. ...
9
votes
Accepted
What conjugation of 願う is 願わくば, and what does it mean here?
This 願わくば is a fixed expression fossilized long ago, and you just have to memorize it without thinking about it too much. It's a literary expression that corresponds to "Hopefully, ..." used as a ...
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