Using 間に to Express "While"

The following sentence pattern can be used to describe an action that occurs while another is taking place. The "while" action is usually written in ている form, and it always uses present tense, even if it's a situation in the past.

A ている 間に B
While A, B.

ご飯を料理してる間に、妻が帰ってきた。
While I was cooking dinner, my wife came home.

昨日働いてる間に、台風があったよ。
There was a typhoon while I was working yesterday.

日本に訪れてる間に、色々な人に会いたいよ。
I want to meet lots of people while I'm visiting Japan.

干菓子を焼いてる間に、スバル君はいつも呼ぶんだろう。
Subaru always calls me while I'm baking cookies, doesn't he?

Note that "A" in the sentence doesn't necessarily have to be a verb clause. It can also be a noun, and it would be followed by の. Here's Genki's example.

留守の間に友達が来ました。
A friend came while I was out.

Finally, it's important to note that the event B must be of shorter duration than A. That is, it must be "contained" within A and not exceed it. If B occurs throughout the entire duration of A, then 間 would be used in place of  間に.

姉は家を掃除してる間、庭で遊んでた。
While my sister was cleaning the house, I was playing in the garden.

How to Use ～てある

Creative title, huh? But I don't know what other title I could use that's not several sentences, because that's how much is needed to describe the concept that's introduced in this chapter of Genki.

The て form of a verb followed by ある is used "to characterize a situation that has been brought about on purpose by somebody who remains unnamed in the sentence." (Thanks Genki, for both that and the following example.)

寒いので、ヒーターがつけてあります。
The heater is on, because it's cold.
(The heater was turned on and has been kept that way.)

At first glance, this looks awfully similar to ～ている form because it's describing the ongoing state of an object (i.e., ヒーターがついています。) But there's a couple differences between these two sentences.

With ～てある form, we're describing an action that was purposefully performed by someone (who's unnamed), and how the noun in the sentence is affected as a result of that. This form almost always uses transitive verbs.

With ～ている form, we're describing the ongoing state of a noun, without any reference to how it reached that state. So in my example in parentheses, I'm merely saying that the heater is on, but not expressing that someone turned it on and has kept it that way. This form almost always uses intransitive verbs.

Now, ～てある form can be used to express situations that are a result of  ～ておきました (which describes actions that are done in preparation), and can still be observed at this moment. Because the action is being observed at this moment, ある will remain in present tense. Let me give another Genki example.

予約をしておきました。
I made a reservation in advance.

レストランの予約がしてあります。
A restaurant reservation has been made.

The second sentence is a result of the first sentence. You've made a reservation (a preparatory action), which has led to the state of the reservation existing (described with てあります there).

Now for a few of my own practice sentences. Note that が is often used in place of を for the direct object with these transitive verbs.

外は暑いから、ドアが開けてある。
It's hot out, so the door is open.

試合で汚くになる服が洗ってある。
The clothes that got dirty at the match are washed.

アヤトはぺこぺこだから、おにぎりを料理してある。
Ayato's hungry, so there are rice balls cooking.

カナト要ったなっとが買ってある。
The natto that Kanato wanted has been bought.

Passive Verbs

In Japanese, passive verbs can be used for a few main reasons. The first is just like English - to speak in the passive voice and describe an action that "was performed" rather than "somebody performing an action."

The second is to express annoyance, disappointment, or some other negative emotion due to the fact that this action was "inflicted" upon you (or some other subject). A good equivalent example in English would be something like "It rained" versus "I got rained on."

The conjugation rules for the passive form look rather similar to those for the potential form. In fact, they're identical for ichidan verbs. That's kind of a pain to deal with, but context should provide clues as to which form is being used when you're reading.

Ichidan verbs

• Drop る
• Add られる
• 起きられる
• 帰られる

Godan verbs

• Change the last う sound to the あ equivalent
• Add れる
• 泳がれる
• 買われる

Exceptions

• する -> される
• くる -> こられる

There's often a standard sentence structure for the passive form, as well. The subject who "received" the action is either omitted or specified at the beginning with は, while the person who performs the passive action is specified afterwards with に.

私は兄に店に連れて行かれた。
I was taken to the store by my brother.

あの男は泥棒にパソコンを盗まれたよ。
That man had his PC stolen by the burglar.

ファイルが机に置かれた。
The file was placed on the desk.

赤ちゃんに泣かれた。
The baby cried on me (and it was upsetting).

教室のドアが誰かに開けられた。
The classroom door was opened by somebody.

私はリーさんにケーキを食べられた。
My cake got eaten by Lee-san.

Using て + ほしい to Express Wants

So far I've learned two ways of expressing desire in some form - either using the verb ending たい, or using a noun with ほしい. There's a third way to express desire, and it's used for stating what you want someone else to do. The following pattern is used:

Person に + て form verb + ほしい

The "person" above refers to the person or people whom you want to complete the specified action.

兄の友達にアパートから出てほしい。
I want my brother's friends to leave the apartment.

彼氏に指輪を買ってくれてほしい。
I want my boyfriend to buy me a ring.

アヤトにご飯をおごってほしい。
I want Ayato to treat me to dinner.

弟にもうすぐ就職してほしい。
I want my little brother to find a job soon.

There are two ways to say you don't want someone to do the specified action. One is conjugating ほしい to the negative form as ほしくない. The other is negating the verb as ～ないで, rather than using the て form.

明日スバルに出てほしくないよ。
I don't want Subaru to leave tomorrow.

来年アリスに日本に行かないでほしい。
I don't want Alice to go to Japan next year.

カナトにもうサボってほしくない。
I don't want Kanato to skip class anymore.

レイジに教科書を忘れないでほしい。
I don't want Reiji to forget his textbook.

Note that this, like the other ways of expressing desire, is a private predicate, meaning that it can only be used to express your own wishes. Also note that ほしい is typically written using kana in this case.

Expressing "to make" with する

An adjective can be conjugated to its adverb form and paired with する to express "to make something [adjective]." For example:

暑くする - to make something hot/hotter

静かにする - to make something quiet/quieter

先生は宿題易しくしたよ。
The teacher made the homework easy.

人形を買って、きれいにした。
I bought a doll and made it pretty.

テーブルは少し大きくした。
I made the table a little bigger.

リーさんは部屋明るくしたよね。
Lee-san made the room brighter.

Finally, note the idiomatic use of this pattern with the phrase 静かにする, which is often said as 「静かにして」, or "Keep quiet!"

More on しまう

Awhile ago I did a post on the word しまう and how it can be combined with verbs to mean one of two things - either completing something and bringing it to a close, or expressing regret. Because it's more commonly used for the latter purpose, I'm going to focus on that in this post.

I was still having trouble understanding exactly what was being conveyed when this word was combined with another verb, so I posted a question in Tae Kim's group on Facebook. I received a few good answers that helped clear up the many meanings this word can express.

First, it's best to not think of the word solely as referring to "regret", because that limits it to your own actions that are in the past. In reality, it can be used to talk about future actions and express negative feelings towards someone else's actions. Here are a couple examples that were given:

まじっ！行ってしまうの？くそ！
Are you seriously thinking about going, you dumbass?!

あらっ！落としてしまった！
Oops, I dropped it!

As we can see, the first sentence is criticizing the future actions of somebody, expressing that there's something wrong with what they're going to be doing. The second expresses negativity towards what you just did, since you dropped something and dropping things is generally considered negative.

Now, let's look at another example sentence that I was struggling with.

もう帰っちゃっていい？
Is it okay if I went home already?

This person is doing far more than asking if it's okay to go home. With the ちゃって portion (which is the casual form of しまう, also in て form), the person is saying "I know it may inconvenience you if I go home, and I'm sorry for that, but if you could allow me to go home, I'd appreciate it. I'm sorry."

So in short, しまう used in this manner can express:

• Regret for what you've done
• Criticism of another's actions
• When things didn't go as expected
• Remorse for something you will do
• General negativity for an unintended action

I'm sure there are more contexts in which it's used, but this helps immensely in gaining a basic understanding of this word and what it means in its usage.

Dissecting Sentences

Lately I've been reading NHK Easy news articles for practice. When I first started out, I was actually pretty discouraged because I was kind of awful at it. I thought I'd never be able to understand any of it. But even in the past couple months, my reading ability there has vastly improved, allowing me to see how much I've truly progressed.

One thing that helps me improve my understanding of Japanese is occasionally taking sentences and "dissecting" them so I can see how all the parts work together. I think it helps familiarize me with Japanese grammar in general, and so the next time I go to read a longer sentence, the process is much more smooth due to increased comprehension.

I'm going to post a couple example sentences that I pulled from this article so I can take them apart and ensure I understand them correctly. This is a bit darker than usual, but the context is that there was a ceremony in Austria held for those who died at the Mauthausen-Gusen Concentration Camp, as well as their families. The following is a quote from a Jewish man who was there:

「ナチスの時代の怖さを知っている人がいなくなることが心配です。今の社会は、ナチスが出てきた時代に似ていると思います」

Let's break the first sentence down into manageable chunks.

ナチスの時代 - Nazi period/era
怖さ - fear
知っている人 - people who know
いなくなる - to disappear, to stop being
こと - thing/event
心配 - worry

The main part of this sentence is in the first half with that long noun clause. If we put that together, we get ナチスの時代の怖さを知っている人, meaning something like "people who know the fear of the Nazi era." Combine this with the remaining nouns and verbs in the sentence and we have something like:

I'm worried that there won't be any people who know the fear of the Nazi era.

Now, on to the next sentence.

今の社会 - present world/society 
ナチス - Nazi
出てきた - emerged
時代 - period/era
似ている - resembling, similar to
と思います - I think

This one's a bit harder to understand initially, but it doesn't really have any long noun phrases that are too painful. ナチスが出てきた時代 is saying something like "the period when the Nazis emerged." Let's put it all together now.

I think that present society is resembling the period when the Nazis emerged.

「ナチスの時代の怖さを知っている人がいなくなることが心配です。今の社会は、ナチスが出てきた時代に似ていると思います」

"I'm worried that there won't be any people who know the fear of the Nazi era. I think that present society is resembling the period when the Nazis emerged."

So there we have it. Difficulty in understanding sentences can be alleviated to some degree by breaking them up into smaller chunks, especially with the lengthy noun phrases that Japanese tends to have. Sentences will obviously get harder since this is only from NHK Easy, but that's where further grammar and vocab studies come in to play.

Humble Expressions

When talking about an interaction with another person, humble expressions can be used to "demote" yourself and "raise" the other person. The pattern is お + verb stem + する. However, not all verbs follow this pattern, so it's important to learn from experience which ones are appropriate to use. Meeting, borrowing, and lending are all examples of verbs that can be used with this pattern.

私は昨日先生にお会いしました。
I (humbly) met my professor yesterday.

私は先生に本をお貸しするつもりです。
I intend to (humbly) lend my professor a book.

私は先生に辞書をお借りしました。
I borrowed a dictionary from my professor (and feel very obliged).

Those are all Genki examples that showcase the use of humble expressions, where the speaker is "lowering" themselves in relation to the other person (the professor, in this case).

する verbs don't follow the aforementioned pattern since that wouldn't make sense, but they are instead prefixed with the honorific お or ご, depending on the word. There is ご紹介, ご案内, ご説明, and お電話, for example.

There are two "give" verbs that have humble counterparts, as well. もらう -> いただく and あげる -> 差し上げる.

市長にこの優秀賞をいただきました。
I (humbly) received this award from the mayor.

大統領に花束を差し上げました。
I (humbly) gave the president a bouquet.

These humble expressions can also be used with people who are associated with you, such as family members or colleagues at work.

私の姉は最近副大統領にお会いしました。
My older sister recently met with the vice president.

Finally, the verb うかがう can be used to describe humbly visiting someone or asking questions. I'll give some Genki examples to showcase its usage.

私は先生のお宅にうかがいました。
I (humbly) visited my professor's house.

私は先生にテストについてうかがいました。
I (humbly) asked my professor about the exam.

It may be confusing initially to see humble expressions alongside modest verbs and honorific expressions. I think I'll do a post in the next few days where I summarize and compare the three different types of respectful language.

Humble Verbs

There's a set of special verbs that can be used if you're speaking with someone of higher rank and want to speak modestly of your own actions. They're almost always conjugated to ます form to express proper politeness. Using these verbs is somewhat similar to adding "sir" or "madam" to the end of your sentence.

いる　　　　　 おる　　　　　　 おります
行く　　　　　  参る　　　　　　 参ります
来る
言う　　　　　 申す　　　　　 　申します
する　　　　　 いたす　　　　   いたします
食べる　　　  いただく　　　　 いただきます
飲む
ある　　　　　 ござる　　　　　 ございます
～ている　　  ～ておる　　　  ～ております
～です　　　  ～でござる　　  ～でございます

The above shows the original verbs, their corresponding humble forms, and their conjugations, some of which are irregular. I'm going to use Genki's example sentences now, since this is my first time learning about humble forms.

私は来年も日本におります。
I will be in Japan next year too, sir/ma'am.

私は今年の六月に大学を卒業いたしました。
I graduated from college this June, sir/ma'am.

私は一年間日本語を勉強しております。
I've been studying Japanese for a year.

Humble verbs can also be used to modestly speak of your family or the company you work for. People who work at shops often use humble language when speaking of themselves or their stores to customers. It's also used in public announcements, like at train stations, for example.

電車が参ります。
A train is pulling in.

お手洗いは二階でございます。
The restroom is on the second floor.

Sentences with ございます are fairly rare and not often heard outside of formal business situations. Also keep in mind that you cannot speak of someone else's actions with humble verbs, because they are only used to paint yourself or a subject related to you in a humble light.

Questions Within Sentences

When expressing a lack of knowledge or certainty in English, we may say things like "I don't know who stole my books," or "I don't know whether Greg passed math." In Japanese, stating things like this may translate literally as "Who stole my books? - I don't know," and "Whether Greg passed math? - I don't know."

トムはどこに鍵を置いたか覚えてない。
Tom doesn't remember where he put his keys.

来月日本に行くかどうか知ってないよ。
I don't know whether I'm going to Japan next month.

The question itself is expressed in the middle of a sentence, with the related statements like "I don't know" added afterwards. Sentences with question words like どこ and だれ are followed by か, while sentences with yes/no answers (generally expressing "whether") are followed by かどうか. However, in more casual speech, か is simply used in both instances.

It's also important to note that, while nouns and na-adjectives within clauses often end with だ (like with だから or だけど), it is dropped in these sentences.

リーさんはだれが先生か知ってない。
Lee-san doesn't know who his teacher is.

レイジが友達かどうか決めよう。
Let's decide whether Reiji is a friend.

Finally, the explanatory の particle can also exist within these "question clauses." As mentioned before, since だ is dropped, what is usually an ん will instead become の.

どうしてカナトがパーティーに行かなかったのか分からない。
I don't know why Kanato didn't go to the party.

アリスは彼氏がいるのかどうか知ってる？
Do you know whether Alice has a boyfriend?

Using やすい and にくい

The suffixes やすい and にくい can be used to express that a verb is "easy to do" or "difficult to do." The suffix is added to the verb stem, and from there the word conjugates like an i-adjective.

Note that やすい and にくい are generally used to describe the psychological ease or difficulty of the action being performed, rather than the "physical or statistical success rate." This should help to differentiate between using にくい and 難しい.

最近シュウとしゃべりやすい。
Lately, it's easy to chat with Shuu.

お母さんの車は運転しやすかった。
Your mom's car was easy to drive.

毎日メイシーズ を勤めにくい。
Working for Macy's every day is difficult.

去年皆にプレゼントを買いにくかった。
It was difficult to buy presents for everyone last year.

Sometimes a place or an item can be the subject of these sentences. Genki has a couple example sentences that make use of this grammar in a way that leaves the literal translation sounding a bit awkward.

この町はとても住みやすいです。
This town is quite livable.

このグラスは飲みにくいです。
This glass is hard to drink from.

Naming Things

The という grammar pattern is used to give the names of items or people, generally when speaking to someone who is not familiar with that item or person.

[name] という [item]  ->  [item] called "[name]"

今日はボボという犬を会った。
Today I met a dog called Bobo.

レコードの店で「クイズ」というアルバムを見つけた。
I found an album at the record store called "Quiz."

学校でクイーンという子に知ってる？
Do you know a girl at school called "Queen"?

ペルソナというゲームをしたの？
Have you played a game called "Persona"?
(I have, it's amazing.)

Expressing "Without doing"

To express the notion of "doing X without doing Y", the verb's plain negative form （ない） plus で is used. The present tense negative form is always used, regardless of the tense of the second verb.

今朝、計算機を使わないで、数学の宿題したよ。
This morning, I did my math homework without using a calculator.

昨日迷わないで学校に歩く。
Yesterday, I walked to school without getting lost.

パンツを汚さないで台所の床をそうじした。
I cleaned the kitchen floor without getting my pants dirty.

部長を怒らせないで仕事を辞めれたよ。
I was able to quit my job without angering my boss.