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4.1: Dialogue 1

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    31525
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    Yamada:ねえ、この週 末 しゅうまつ 、忙しい? Nee, kono shuumatsu, isogashii?

    Hey, are you busy this weekend?

    Emily: ううん、別に。なんで? Uun, betsuni. Nan de?

    No, not particularly. Why?

    Yamada: 相撲 すもう 、見 み たくない? Sumo, mitaku nai?

    Wanna see sumo?

    Emily: 見 み たい! Mitai!

    I do!

    Yamada:じゃ、後 あと でメールする。 Ja, ato de meeru-suru.

    Then, I’ll email you later.

    Emily: オッケー。

    Okkee.

    Okay. Yamada:じゃ、バイバイ。 Ja bai bai.

    See you later.

    Vocabulary

    nee ねえ hey (to get attention, casual)
    shuumatsu しゅうまつ 週末 weekend
    +getsumatsu げつまつ 月末 end of the month
    +nenmatsu ねんまつ 年末 end of the year
    isogashii いそがしい 忙しい busy
    +hima (na) ひま(な) 暇 free time
    uun ううん no (informal)
    +un うん yes (informal)
    betsu ni べつに 別に not particularly (always negative
    meaning)
    nan de なんで why? what for? (casual)
    sumou すもう 相撲 sumo (wrestling)
    +omatsuri おまつり お祭り festival
    mitai みたい 見たい want to see/watch
    mitaku nai みたくない 見たくない do not want to see/watch
    ato de あとで 後で later
    meeru-suru メールする email (informal) See 8-1-1
    okkee おっけい オッケー okay
    baibai ばいばい バイバイ bye bye

    Grammar Notes

    Verb Plain Form, Non-Past, Affirmative

    Verbs have many forms. We have so far covered the formal form (~masu forms), ~te form, ~tai form and the honorific form. In this lesson, we introduce the plain (informal) form. The plain forms are typically used in the three ways below. Due to these uses the plain form is sometimes called by different names as shown in the parenthesis.

    1. Dictionaries list verbs in this form (thus called Dictionary forms)

    2. Other elements can be attached to this form to create more complex grammatical patterns (thus called Basic Forms)

    3. It is used in the informal style conversations (thus called Informal Forms)

    As explained in Lesson 7, in the informal style conversations you can simply drop desu from adjective and noun sentences. However, for verb sentences, you need to know the plain form of each verb.

    Japanese verbs are divided into the following four major groups on the basis of their conjugation patterns.

    Group 1: U-verbs (~u ending verbs)

    This is the largest verb group. If you drop ~masu from the ~masu form, you get the verb stem. The stem of all the verbs in this group ends in ~i. To make the plain form, replace the final ~i of the stem with ~u.

    Stem Plain Form
    wakar-i -> wakar-u ‘understand’
    ka-i -> ka-u ‘buy’
    kak-i -> kak-u ‘write’
    nom-i -> nom-u ‘drink’
    isog-i -> isog-u ‘hurry’
    hanash-i -> hanas-u ‘talk’

    Group 2: RU-verbs (~iru, ~eru ending verbs)

    To make the plain form of the verbs in this group, simply drop ~masu and add ~ru. In other words, you add ~ru to the stem. The stem of the verbs in this group ends in ~e or ~i .

    Stem Plain From
    tabe -> tabe-ru ‘eat’
    de -> de-ru ‘leave, go out’
    okure -> okure-ru ‘get late’
    i -> i-ru ‘be’
    mi -> mi-ru ‘look’
    deki -> deki-ru ‘can do’

    1. Is it possible to determine which group a verb belongs to by just looking at the ~masu form? Yes and No.

    Yes, because the ~emasu ending indicates that the verb is in Group 2. No, because verbs with the ~imasu ending can be either in Group 1 or Group 2. This is because the stem of Group 1 verbs and some Group 2 verb both end in ~i, and therefore have the ~imasu ending in their formal forms

    irimasu -> ir-u Group 1 ‘need’
    imasu -> i-ru Group 2 ‘be’

    2. Is it possible to determine which group a verb belongs to by just looking at the plain form? Yes and No.

    Yes, because verbs that have endings other than ~eru and ~iru are in Group 1 (except for the few irregular verbs below). No, because verbs with the ~eru or ~iru ending can be either Group 1 or 2. Iru, for example, can be either in Group 1 or Group 2 depending on where the cut is. If it is /i-ru/, then it’s group 2, meaning ‘be’, and if it is /ir-u/, then it’s in Group 1, meaning ‘need’.

    Similarly, kaeru can be either in Group 1 or Group2 depending on where the cut is. If it is /kae-ru/, then it’s in Group 2, meaning ‘change’ and if it is /kaer-u/ then it’s in Group 1 meaning ‘go home’.

    kaemasu -> kae-ru (kae-ru) Group 2 ‘change’
    kaerimasu -> kaer-u (kaer-u) Group 1 ‘go home’

    Therefore, it’s important to check other forms to determine whether a verb belongs to Group 1 or Group 2 if the verb has these endings.

    Group 6: Irregular Verbs

    There are only four irregular verbs in Japanese.

    Formal form Plain form
    kimasu -> kuru ‘come’
    shimasu -> suru ‘do’
    arimasu -> aru ‘be’
    ikimasu -> iku ‘go’

    The reason why arimasu and ikimasu are in this group and not in Group 1 will be explained when we discuss the plain negative forms and plain past forms.

    Group 4: Special Polite Verbs

    This group has only five verbs, all of which have polite meanings. We have seen the first four so far.

    clipboard_eb39dabb749f21ac42accaea673902102.png

    The reason why arimasu and ikimasu are in this group and not in Group 1 will be explained when we discuss the plain negative forms and plain past forms.

    Here is a list of all the verbs we have had so far.

    clipboard_e6913bcc0f7cee2d3943e3c8c0e42accf.pngclipboard_e6635b4dce56b5042702ca6de774287bc.png


    This page titled 4.1: Dialogue 1 is shared under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Emiko Konomi (Portland State University Library) .

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