Sunday, July 31, 2016

Conjugation Practice 7/31/2016

I don't think I've done a post of this type before, but basically I'm going to be practicing various types of verb conjugation that I've learned over the past month. I'll start by writing the standard dictionary form, then proceed from there with the originally-listed verbs in each form. I think that type of consistency will help make recalling these easier.

Plain Positive
食べる
読む
いる
走る
分かる
ある
買う
分ける
飲む

Plain Negative
食べない
読まない
いない
走らない
分からない
ない
買わない
分けない
飲まない

Polite Positive
食べます
読みます
います
走ります
分かります
あります
買います
分けます
飲みます

Polite Negative
食べません
読みません
いません
走りません
分かりません
ありません
買いません
分けません
飲みません

Desire Positive Present
食べたい
読みたい
いたい
走りたい
分かりたい
ありたい
買いたい
分けたい
飲みたい

Plain Volition
食べよう
読もう
いよう
走ろう
分かろう
あろう
買おう
分けよう
飲もう

Polite Volition
食べましょう
読みましょう
いましょう
走りましょう
分かりましょう
ありましょう
買いましょう
分けましょう
飲みましょう

I realize I left out the past and negative forms for "desire", but it's pretty much equivalent to adjective conjugation and I don't want to clog up the page even more with that.

I've got a few more non-verb lessons in the guide (and I've also started working my way through Genki alongside it), and then I'll be moving on to -te form, which is one of the most useful forms in the language.

Thursday, July 28, 2016

Sentence Practice 7/28/2016

I'm going to practice using desire and volitional forms in verbs.

買い物に行こう。
Let's go shopping.

この本を読みたいですけど、難しいですよ。
I want to read this book, but it's difficult.

図書館で勉強しましょう。
Let's study at the library.

泳ぎたくなかったのに・・・
Even though he didn't want to go swimming...

今宵は、そのレストランで食べよう。
Tonight, let's eat at that restaurant.

アリスは私の家に行きたくない。
Alice doesn't want to come over to my house.

来年は、日本に行こう!
Next year, let's go to Japan!

明日はアヤトに会いたい。
I want to meet with Ayato tomorrow.

今朝は学校に歩こう。
Let's walk to school this morning.

テレビを見たいですが、ありませんですよ。
I want to watch TV, but we don't have one.

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Notebook Correction 7/27/2016

I received an alternate correction on the notebook entry I made yesterday. It's kind of an overhaul (and therefore slightly discouraging), but I'll try to take it in stride and learn from it what I can.

Original:
ジョン: 学校に行きたくないよ。
レベッカ: なんで?
ジョン: スミス先生と授業はぜんぜん楽しいですから。
レベッカ: でも、いつも映画とかを見せる。
ジョン: うん、だけどとても退屈だよ。
レベッカ: たぶんそうだね。

Corrected:

ジョン学校に行きたくないよ。」
レベッカ「えっ?なんで?
ジョンだってスミス先生の授業つまらないもん。
レベッカでも、いつも映画とか見せてくれるじゃん?
ジョンうん、だけど退屈だよ。
レベッカうん...  確かにそうだね。

First, he added quotes to each line. Not particularly important to me since I don't really care how each line is formatted. Next, he added えっ to Rebecca's first line as kind of a "huh?" Fitting, and I originally debated adding that, but I left it out mostly because of laziness.

Next, he began Jon's second line with だって, which is kind of a colloquial "because." That also leads to the removal of the から at the end of the line. He also changed what should be ぜんぜん楽しくない to つまらない, which means "boring" as opposed to "not at all fun." Finally, he ended the sentence with もん. A dictionary tells me that もん can be used at the end of a sentence to indicate a reason or excuse, so that makes sense with Jon's explanation here.

In Rebecca's second line, he used my original 見せる, then conjugated it to the progressive form. That sentence is ended with じゃん, which is a contracted form of じゃない and says something like "isn't it?" So with those two changes in place, the sentence reads as "But he's always showing us movies and stuff, isn't he?"

With Jon's third line, he only removed the とても, so it's merely saying "yeah, but those are boring." I think とても comes off more as "very", so saying something like "yeah, but those are very boring" doesn't sound as natural.

Finally, the last line is completely changed to a different expression. 確か means "sure" or "definite", so this sentence sounds like a "yeah, I guess so, huh." That also sounds natural as a response to Jon's proclaimed boredom.

Despite that being a lot of changes, there's actually a number of useful grammar tips here, so I'm going to keep this post in mind for future reference.

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Notebook Correction 7/26/2016

In this notebook entry, I wrote a casual dialogue between two friends.

Original:
ジョン: 学校に行きたくないよ。
レベッカ: なんで?
ジョン: スミス先生と授業はぜんぜん楽しいですから。
レベッカ: でも、いつも映画とかを見せる。
ジョン: うん、だけどとても退屈だよ。
レベッカ: たぶんそうだね。

Corrected:
ジョン: 学校に行きたくないよ。
レベッカ: なんで?
ジョン: スミス先生授業はぜんぜん楽しいですくないから。
レベッカ: でも、いつも映画とかを見せる。観てるんだよね?
ジョン: うん、だけどとても退屈だよ。
レベッカ: たぶんそうだね。

For the first correction, I was initially trying to say "Smith-sensei and his class aren't fun", but it probably makes more sense to say "Smith sensei's class isn't fun" instead.

Next is changing 楽しい to its negative form, 楽しくない. I wrote it in its original form because I was trying to say "not at all fun", but it looks like I also have to conjugate the adjective to the negative if I want to achieve that. Basically, double negatives don't apply here.

The last correction is more complex. In dictionaries, I see 観る listed under the same entry as 見る as if they mean the same thing. It is then conjugated to progressive form with て plus いる at the end. In casual Japanese, the い in いる is often dropped, leaving the verb as 観てる in this case. I was trying to say "he shows us movies", but it was corrected to say something like "we're always watching movies." That makes sense, too.

Anyway, I'm pretty happy with how this one turned out. I was more confident writing it, and I only looked up one or two words. I'll give an English translation of the corrected version.

Jon: I don't want to go to school.
Rebecca: How come?
Jon: Because Mr. Smith's class isn't fun at all.
Rebecca: But we're always watching movies and stuff.
Jon: Yeah, but they're really boring.
Rebecca: I guess so.

Sunday, July 24, 2016

Sentence Practice 7/24/2016

I'm going to practice sentences containing each verb form that I've recently learned, using positive and negative conjugations of godan and ichidan verbs.

Plain Form
私は野菜やご飯を食べる。
I eat vegetables and rice.

アリスは店に走る。
Alice runs to the store.

リーさんはテレビを見ない。
Lee-san does not watch TV.

ジョンは学校に行かない。
John does not go to school.

Polite Form
毎日君は仕事に歩きます。
Every day you walk to work.

男の人は車を直します。
The man fixes the car.

君のお兄さんは話しません。
Your older brother doesn't speak to you.

トムは池で泳ぎません。
Tom doesn't swim at the pond.

State of Being
ライトは家の近くにいる。
Laito is near the house.

アヤトは肉やの後ろにいます。
Ayato is behind the butcher.

パンは机のうえにある。
The bread is on top of the desk.

食べ物がありません。
There is no food.

Desire Form
い話をかきたいです。
I want to write an amazing story.

その本は読みたくないですよ。
I don't want to read that book.

私は買い物に行きたかった。
I wanted to go shopping.

家に歩きたくなかった。
I didn't want to walk home.

Volitional Form
映画を見よう。
Let's watch a horror movie.

その皿を買おう。
Let's buy those plates.

授業を始めましょう。
Let's begin class.

数学を勉強しましょう。
Let's study math.

Saturday, July 23, 2016

Verbs - Conveying Desire

I've been using this particular form for a bit now, but it always helps to make a formal post on here about it. In order to say something like "I want to swim" or "I want to go home", I have to conjugate the verb appropriately. It's very simple - take the verb stem and add たい onto it. That's it.

私は泳ぎたい。
I want to swim.

アリスは家に行きたい。
Alice wants to go home.

In this form I can treat the words as i-adjectives, so they can be further conjugated to convey negative and past tense.

私は泳ぎたくない。
I don't want to swim.

私は泳ぎたかった。
I wanted to swim.

私は泳ぎたくなかった。
I didn't want to swim.

Next is something that Tae Kim refers to as volitional form. This is essentially saying "let's do x", depending on what the verb is.

For ichidan verbs, the rule is to drop the る and add よう. For godan verbs, the rule is to replace the う sound with the お equivalent and add う, which effectively prolongs the お.

Of course, there are the usual exceptions. する becomes しよう and くる becomes こよう.

ゲームをやろう。
Let's play a game.

買い物に行こう。
Let's go shopping.

少し話そうか?
Shall we chat a little?

There's also a polite version of the volitional form, which is even easier. Simply attaching ましょう to the verb stem achieves a polite version of "let's do x."

そのレストランで食べましょう。
Let's eat at that restaurant.

映画を見ましょう。
Let's watch a movie.

英語を勉強しましょうか?
Shall we study English?

Credit goes to Tae Kim's lesson seen here.

Friday, July 22, 2016

Notebook Correction 7/22/2016

I'm going to post another round of notebook corrections, after getting feedback on Italki.

Original:
食べ物は冷蔵庫にありませんでしたので、食品店で買いに行きました。 帰りしな、アリスと会いましたので、いささ喋りました。 先だっては彼女のお父さんが死にました。 悲しかったですが、元気づけに試みました。 有用だったは期待します。

Corrected:
食べ物冷蔵庫にありませんでしたので、食品店買いに行きました。 帰りしな、アリス会いましたので、少し喋りました。 先日彼女のお父さんが亡くなりました。 悲しかったですが、元気づけにお酒を飲みました。 彼女の気がまぎれた気がします。 

First is the particle change from は to が, which makes sense because I'm trying to say "food is the thing that did not exist in the refrigerator." Next, I completely forgot the に to say "I went to shop at the grocery store. For saying "I met Alice", I should've used the に again instead of と, since と is kind of like saying "I met with her."

The next round of edits are related to better-suited words than what I used. I was trying to say "we chatted a little", so 少し fits well there. 先日 works well to say "the other day" since I'm trying to convey that her father died recently. I believe that 亡くなりました is a more polite way of saying he died, kind of like "he passed away."

Finally, my last couple sentences were a bit more complex so I had trouble conveying myself. I attempted to say "I tried to cheer her up", but it came out mangled, so it was corrected to something more like "I had a drink with her to try to cheer her up."

Important lessons learned here: choose your particles wisely, 少し can be used for non-physical amounts, and 亡くなる can be used as a more polite version of "to die."

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Italki Notebook Entries

I've made my first couple public notebook entries on Italki (other exchanges have been private), and I'm really glad I did. People correct them fairly quickly, and so far it's surprisingly easy to understand where I went wrong and why other people's edits make more sense. I was hesitant initially because I didn't think I could understand enough to comprehend people's corrections, but it seems I was wrong.

I'm trying to decide how often I'll post there, versus doing sentence practices on here. I'm not sure if it's bad practice to post lots of random sentences there for people to correct, so maybe I'll search through other users' notebook entries to see how common that is.

Now I'll post the sentences that were corrected from my entries so I can make note of what I did wrong and remember it for future reference.

Original:
日本語が難いですのに、勉強していますのが大好きです。なお初心者ですが、たくさん学びたいです。

Corrected:
日本語は難しいですが、勉強するのが大好きです。なお(日本語は)初心者ですが、たくさん学びたいです。

The first is for 難い to 難しい. I thought the former might be a better word to convey "difficult", but I was wrong. So I should stick with 難しい for that purpose. He also changed my のに to が ("even though" to "but"), which I guess makes sense. I think that may sound more natural.

Next is 勉強していますのが to 勉強するのが. I had conjugated する to polite and ongoing form, but it looks like plain form makes more sense here for nominalizing it with の.

I haven't mentioned this in a lesson yet because it's something I've only seen in passing, but if I want to say "I like [verb]", then I have to use the format above. I can basically take the entire verb clause and make it into a noun with の, then put が after it so I'm saying "[verb phrase] is the thing that I like." That way I'm not limited to plain nouns like "book."

Finally, the last correction is in parentheses because it's not really necessary, but it's specifying that "(As for Japanese) I'm a beginner." Makes sense, though I didn't think I needed to specify it because of the context.

This was a short notebook entry for me, but it's already been very helpful. I think I may make more frequent posts on Italki and then analyze my feedback on here.

Sunday, July 17, 2016

Sentence Practice 7/17/2016

Time to make use of all the recent verb conjugations I learned.

今日アヤトは泳ぎに行きたい。
 Today, Ayato wants to go swimming.

明日ライトは買いに行く。
Tomorrow Laito will go shopping.

カナトは学校にあるですから、今すぐにこの映画を見に行きたいです。
Kanato is at school, so I want to go see this movie immediately. (Why?)

アリスは宿題がたくさんありますから、家にあります。
Alice has a lot of homework, so she's at home.

この宿題が分からないよ。
I don't understand this homework.

今日は彼と会いたくないよ。
I don't want to meet with him today.

毎日リーさんはそのレストランで食べます。
Every day, Lee eats at that restaurant.

私は、蜘蛛と遊ばない。
I don't play with spiders.

この週末、車を直します。
This weekend, I'll fix the car.

私は家に 行きたいですが、歩きたくない。
I want to go home, but I don't want to walk.

Words I looked up:
homework - 宿題 「しゅくだい」
spider -  蜘蛛 「くも」

Friday, July 15, 2016

Polite Verbs (-masu form)

I think ます form is probably the most common first-taught form for Japanese verbs in standard classes, likely because it's the most useful if you're visiting Japan. I've said this in the past, but I don't agree with only teaching ます form. Rather, I think students should first understand dictionary form and learn to conjugate from there, because it makes subsequent conjugations that much easier.

Anyway, my knowledge of how to obtain the verb stem will come in handy here. To reach the polite form for both ichidan and godan verbs, I simply take the stem of the verb and attach ます for positive or ません for negative. That's it.

する and 来る are already in "exception form" with the stems し and き, so they simply become します and きます. So really, there aren't exceptions for ます form because the exceptions are already taken care of with the verb stem.

食べる  -  食べます
走る  -  走ります
入る  -  入ります
書く  -  書きます
出る  -  出ます
知る  -  知ります

There's another way that verb stems are useful. If I want to connect or string together two verbs, I simply use the stem of the "target" verb and add に to it, then add the second verb. It's hard to explain so examples will make sense of it.

学びに見る  -  watch to learn
見つけに走る  -  run to find
買いに行く  -  go to buy

It's the opposite of English, but frankly, it makes sense with the other Japanese grammar I've learned thus far. It'd feel wrong the other way.

Credit goes to Tae Kim's lesson seen here.

Monday, July 11, 2016

Sentence Practice 7/11/2016

I'm going to try to form some longer sentences, combining all the concepts I've learned so far.

リーさんはお菓子を食べないのに、もう好きだよ。
Even though Lee-san doesn't eat candy, I still like him.

毎日アヤト君は泳ぐから、ごく元気だね。
Ayato swims every day, so he's very healthy.

明日は、ライト君が学校に行くの?
Laito goes to school tomorrow?

今は食べ物がいらないの?
You don't need food right now?

毎週末アリスちゃんは友達と遊ぶから、とてもねむいよ。
Alice plays with her friend every weekend, so she's very tired.

Sunday, July 10, 2016

Negative Verbs (Casual Form)

There are simple rules for conjugating plain verbs into their negative form, based on their type.

Ichidan Verbs:
  • Drop the る and add ない.
Godan Verbs:
  • If the verb ends in う 
    • Change the う to わ and add ない
  • If the verb ends in anything else
    • Replace the u-sound with the a-equivalent and add ない
Exception Verbs:
  • する - しない
  • 来る - こない
  • ある - ない
Ta-da! That's it for the rules! It's just that simple. ある isn't usually an exception like the other two, it just happens to be in this case.

With this in mind, I'm going to conjugate some random verbs into their negative form for practice.

死ぬ  -  死なない
分かる  -  分からない
知る  -  知らない
食べる  -  食べない
泳ぐ  -  泳がない
読む  -  読まない
買う  -  買わない
話す  -  話さない
飲む  -  飲まない
いる  -  いない
走る  -  走らない
学ぶ  -  学ばない
遊ぶ  -  遊ばない
出る  -  出ない

It's important to note that 知る and 走る are godan verbs, despite the いる ending sounds. There are several other exceptions that I'll have to note as I continue to learn.

Credit goes to Tae Kim's lesson seen here.

Sentence Practice 7/10/2016

It's time to start practicing sentences with the new verb principles I've learned. I made flash cards for the verb list I previously posted, so now I'm more familiar with them and thus more able to express actions. I think as I find myself having to look up words (mostly nouns), I'll make a list so I know to make flash cards for them.

リーさんは手紙を書く。
Lee-san writes a letter.

明日は、アヤト君が学校に行く。
Tomorrow, Ayato goes to school.

私はライト君と泳ぐ。
I swim with Laito.

彼はそのレストランで食べる。
He eats at that restaurant.

アリスちゃんは家へ歩く。
Alice walks home.

犬は友達と遊ぶ。
The dog plays with its friend.

私は面白い本を読む。
I read an interesting book.

友達は詰らない映画を見る。
My friend watches a boring movie.

枕は卓のしたにある。
The pillow is under the table.

リーさんは家の後ろにいる。
Lee-san is behind my house.

Words I looked up:
letter - 手紙 「てがみ」
boring - 詰らない 「つまらない」
table - 卓 「たく」
behind - 後ろ 「うしろ」

Saturday, July 9, 2016

Miscellaneous Learnings

I have a partner on the site italki that I've been messaging for a week or two now. He's Japanese and is learning English, so we go back and forth in speaking our languages to help each other practice reading and writing. I've learned a few things so far from this practice that I'd like to note.

1. Experiences - To say something like "I have been to Japan" or "I have not visited Osaka", the translation is roughly "As for the [description] event, it exists/does not exist." For example, I wrote: 大阪を訪ねることはありません。 A literal translation is "As for the visiting Osaka event, it does not exist." This is me saying that I haven't visited Osaka before.

2. 屋 「や」 - This kanji can mean roof or shop. It's often attached to another character to signify a business of some sort. In one of our messages it was attached to the word まんざい, which is like comedy or a comedic duo. So a まんざいや would be a comic shop. A 肉や (meat roof/shop) would be a butcher.

3. If I want to say "I live in X location", I would use 住んでいます to specify that it is an ongoing action. I currently live here and will continue to do so. Another example is marriage: 結婚しています. It's an ongoing state, so it's specified as such.

4. 何か - This and other question words with か tacked onto the end turn the word into the "uncertain" form. 何か is "something", 誰か is "someone" or "somebody", etc. This is very useful for everyday sentences.

5. This isn't about the Japanese language itself, but I learned about typhoon season and what it means for Japan. As autumn approaches, it looks like El Niño will begin to transition to La Niña, therefore making the rainy season less volatile. This means that when my friends visit Japan, they're less likely to face terrible storms that'll impact their flights, which is always a plus.

Thursday, July 7, 2016

More Verbs - To Be

There are two new verbs, ある and いる that I can use to explicitly describe the state of being for nouns. They don't express an action, but sort of represent the equivalent of "to be" or "there is" in English. I believe I said this in another post, but ある is generally for inanimate objects, while いる is for living things.

お金はあるですか?
Is there money?

アヤト君は私の家にいる。
Ayato-kun is at my house.

リーさんは学校にいる。
Lee-san is at school.

君の毛布は机の上にある。
Your blanket is above the desk.

ライト君はどこにいる?
Where's Laito-kun?

These are pretty simple to use so far, and the に particle is common here because it's being used as an "at" to say "this noun exists at this place."

Credit goes to Tae Kim's lesson seen here.

Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Important Verbs

I need to expand my verb vocabulary, because right now it's painfully limited. I'm going to list all the important verbs I'd like to know under two categories: ones I currently recognize, and ones I don't. Then I can make up flash cards appropriately.

Currently know:
to go - 行く 「いく」
to do - する、遣る 「やる」
to eat - 食べる 「たべる」
to know - 知る 「しる」
to understand - 分かる 「わかる」
to sleep - 寝る、眠る 「ねる」、「ねむる」
to walk - 歩く 「あるく」
to talk - 話す 「はなす」
to live - 生きる 「いきる」
to grow - 生える 「はえる」
to die - 死ぬ 「しぬ」
to run - 走る 「はしる」
to tell - 教える 「おしえる」
to see - 見る 「みる」
to buy - 買う 「かう」
to learn - 学ぶ 「まなぶ」
to fix - 直す 「なおす」
to meet - 会う 「あう」
to exist (inanimate) - ある
to exist (animate) - いる

Need to learn:
to laugh - 笑う 「わらう」
to cry - 泣く 「なく」
to love - 愛する 「あいする」
to drive - (having trouble finding a good answer here)
to drink - 飲む 「のむ」
to nap - 仮眠を取る 「かみんをとる」
to swim - 泳ぐ 「およぐ」
to try - 試みる 「こころみる」
to kiss - 吸う 「すう」
to possess - 擁する 「ようする」
to jump - 跳ねる 「はねる」
to read - 読む 「よむ」
to play - 遊ぶ 「あそぶ」
to say - 言う 「いう」
to smile - 微笑む 「ほほえむ」
to need - 要る 「いる」
to carry out - 行う  「おこなう」

For "to drive", the listings I found in the dictionary had a billion different options for various contexts, but nothing simple like "to drive a car", which is what I'm looking for. I'll have to check with other people to make sure.

I'm sure I'll think of more I'd like to learn over time, but for now this is a decent enough start. I'm going to make flash cards for all of them, regardless of which list they're in, because I want to ensure I know them like the back of my hand.

Verbs with Particles

There are several particles used with verbs to indicate how an action is being performed, or used with other words/phrases to provide further detail about it. One of the most useful ones is を, which is pronounced as お. It designates the previous word or phrase as the direct object of the verb. Some examples make this easy to understand.

リーさんはお菓子を食べる。
Lee eats candy.

アヤトはアニメを見る。
Ayato watches anime.

ライトが犬を教える。
Laito teaches dogs.

Tae Kim's guide does a good job of detailing the other common particles. I could do the same myself, but it'd probably be very close to his own descriptions, and I don't want to merely repeat that info word-for-word. I think what I'll do is list the basic function of each particle and give an example or two, rather than going into detail for each one. It'll be easier to get a feel for how they're used with practice, anyway.

と - Used to mean "and" or "with."

私は、友達と泳ぐ。
I swim with my friend.

に - The target of an action. A bit fuzzy to me, but it seems most useful with intransitive verbs to specify further detail as to how that action is being performed. It can also be used with a time or location.

アヤトは家に行く。
Ayato goes home.

リーさんは明日に出る。
Lee leaves tomorrow.

で - Also a bit fuzzy, but it generally reads as "by means of" to express context for a situation.

彼は会議で話す。
He talks at the meeting.

へ - Used for actual direction of movement. Pronounced as え.

彼女は学校へ歩く。
She walks to (towards) the school.

Credit goes to Tae Kim's lesson seen here.

Saturday, July 2, 2016

Verb Stems

Verb stems are important to learn because they're used in a variety of conjugations, including the common ます form. I know I've mentioned them before in a past post, but they deserve their own post because they're so useful. Thankfully, they're quite simple.

In the case of ichidan verbs, I simply drop the る to get the stem. For godan verbs, I must change the final う sound to the い equivalent. Examples will make this more clear.

食べる --> 食べ
to eat

行く --> 行き
to go

歩く --> 歩き
to walk

死ぬ --> 死に
to die

分かる --> 分かり
to understand

する --> し
to do

来る --> き
to come

The final two are the standard exception verbs, which I previously mentioned as having unique conjugations for almost everything.

Credit goes to Tae Kim's lesson seen here.

Verbs - Plain Present Tense

I've been studying and studying to reach this point for what seems like ages! (In reality it's only been a month or two, but still.) This is where I delve into the meat of the language. Obviously I'm not going to know everything about the language just by learning about verbs, but this will finally give me a great deal more expressive power. After awhile it's frustrating to only construct sentences with nouns and adjectives.

I'll note that I'm going to be learning verbs in their original dictionary form. I know that some people like to learn verbs in ます form, but I think that's a bad approach. This way allows you to see the original verb so other conjugations are easier to perform, such as past, negative, and て form. If you've only seen the ます form, you have to essentially un-conjugate that word to get to the original verb before you can proceed to perform other conjugations. That's not sensible.

One other note - Japanese verbs don't have to be conjugated based on the subject or topic. For example, in English we would say "you go" but "he goes." In Japanese, the verb would not change in those cases. That's really nice, in my opinion! Even Spanish became overwhelming with all its different forms due to varying subjects. It made speaking a lot more difficult  (not that Japanese speaking isn't difficult in its own ways).

Moving on from that... In Japanese, verbs will always come at the end of the sentence. This means that the subject/topic, direct object, and any other details like time or location will all come before the verb.

They can be divided into two categories: ichidan and godan. I know some people like to classify them as ru- or u-verbs, but I think that gets confusing due to overlap. Ichidan verbs must end in る. Godan verbs can end in any number of う sounds, including る. If the verb ends in an いる or える sound, it's probably an ichidan verb (though there are exceptions). Otherwise it must be godan. This distinction is important because conjugations vary based on which category the verb falls into.

There are also two verbs that are exceptions for nearly every conjugation: する and 来る. Frankly I don't mind this at all because other languages (including English) typically have far more exceptions when it comes to verbs (ex: went, made, slept, ate, etc). Those two verbs will always have their own separate conjugations listed. I suspect they won't be hard to remember since they're so common.

I'll write a couple practice sentences with verbs now. One thing I'll note - initially I was confused as to whether there was any conjugation required with these original verbs, or if I could just use the word 食べる and have that be considered correct. And it is correct, just as the plain or casual form.

リーさんは食べる。
Lee-san eats.

アリスちゃんが泳ぐ。
Alice-chan swims.

アヤトは寝る。
Ayato sleeps.

These are extremely basic, but still, they're actions! And I can always jazz them up in a lesson or two with some direct objects.

Credit goes to Tae Kim's lesson seen here.

Friday, July 1, 2016

Sentence Practice 7/1/2016

I've been hyped to start my verb lessons lately, but I've been so busy with work and other stuff that I haven't had time to do a post on it! I'll do some sentence practice tonight and hopefully post my very first verb lesson tomorrow.

週末は楽しみだよ!
Looking forward to the weekend!

大学生なの?
You're a university student?

どちらからきましたか。
Where are you from?

スポーツはしますか。
Do you play sports?

買い物が好きですか。
Do you like shopping?

有名な歌手はだれが好きですか。
What famous singers do you like?

リーさん、お仕事は忙しいんですか。たいへんですね!
Lee-san, you're busy at work? I'm so sorry!

私の甥はななさいですよ。
My nephew is seven years old.

姉は結婚しています。
My older sister is married.

リーさん、今週は暇じゃないんですか。
Lee-san, you're not free this weekend?

小学生だよ、高校生じゃないんだよ!
You're an elementary school student, not a high school student!