Defining and Nondefining Clauses

https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/intermediate-grammar/relative-clauses-non-defining-relative-clauses

Google mistranslate

Interestingly google gives opposite meaning for positive verb.

candy?

I wouldn't call chocolate candy...g

Stadium or Ground?

https://englishsoccerguide.com/stadium-vs-ground-in-english-football/

from the site:

The Emirates, home of Arsenal FC in London, is an expensive place to get into.

What is the difference between a stadium and a ground in English football?

Carrow Road in Norwich is what you’d call a football ground.

This is something I thought I had all figured out; ground is simply what British people call a stadium. Not so, I am beginning to understand. As with many things, it’s a bit more complicated than that.

One way of getting at this is to think of a stadium as a thing and a ground as a place. So a ground is where you would find a stadium, as well as a pitch and a carpark and club offices, etc. The stadium, then, is just the thing people sit in to watch the action on the pitch — and all of this happens at the football ground.

The Emirates Stadium, home of Arsenal FC, from a flight into London. Not exactly on a high street.

But I have heard another, subtler way of looking at it. I asked someone today about where to eat down by the Crystal Palace stadium, and she said I should use football ground instead. Her explanation was that Sulhurst Park, home of Crystal Palace, is a football ground because it is a place in a neighborhood. So for example, although she is not a football fan, she knows exactly where Selhurst Park is, and she can use it as a reference point or landmark.

“Something like the Emirates,” she said, “now that’s a stadium.” Seems the thinking goes like this: a ground isn’t as grand or modern as a stadium, and it’s rooted to a part of town — indeed is part of the community. But a stadium like The Emirates is something recently built, with nothing else around it really. Another person in the conversation said, “Right, so Wembley is a stadium, but Selhurst Park is a football ground.”

Maybe the best way to explain this is that a football ground is a place you might walk past on a non gameday, to get a pint or something. But you would never, in your ordinary life, just find yourself walking past a stadium like Wembley or the Emirates.

At least, I think that’s how it is. For now.

Learn more about English soccer.

one of the people who wanted kanji in the exam

i remember the Japanese guy who taught me apologising to me for the university allowing electronic dictionaries to be used in exams.  This meant that my then brilliant knowledge of kanji wasn't displayed...

I am glad I tore my degree up and gave it back.

I learnt Japanese with my ex-wife and by myself. I was pleased that K H said I could read 2000 kanji and I was pleased when I learnt Kanji Gold.

The degree I received was worthless.  One of the smartest things I ever did was studying French to English translation under Alexandre Coutu.

these Tw*ts

when i was a t university they made no attempt to teach me anything.

I passed the translation agency tests by myself and now I am in debt.


If I had just got my degree I wouldn't have been able to translate from Japanese and French into English, I did it all by myself....


I hate the education system and would love to see it reformed.

Life after being dead inside

University was a life ending opportunity for me when I spat at people and threatened to kill people most days.

I had no money to socialize and became involved with street gangs and drugs.

When I graduated I was competing with translators from degrees from Oxford and Cambridge as well as people who had spent significant lengths of time in foreign countries…

I self-destructed and almost got myself killed.

On one occasion I was beaten up in a gym only to go out and pick a fight with three bouncers, get hospitalized, get thrown out of A and E, go back into town and then attack the bouncers again. I then went to the gym and saw the same bouncers there training.

This was not what I hoped for from my degree.

My wife left me due to my failure to be rich. I didn’t really care as she compared me to someone who went to public school.

I am more stable now due to having several ways of making money.  I studied French to English translation under Alexandre Coutu and this got me a job as a French to English translator with Work Place Translation.  This was one of the best things I ever did.

I also branched into ebay trading and worked for an antiques shop as well as importing stuff from Turkey.

I now do matched betting and have a very positive life.  I am learning how to trade on the stock market. 

In the future I aim to study languages again however much university effected me.

I aim to continue with chess but to play less games online.

katakana

The A in

ジョン・A・ベネット

Isn't  in Katakana

/Tosiwo_Nakayama is tosio nakayama

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tosiwo_Nakayama

Resulted

I have never seen result used as a passive verb or a past participle before and decided to google it

I cant find this use in the OED.... https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/resulted

Fast Eddie

I recently read the Book Fast Eddie by Edward Maher.

I agree with his points about junkies in jail, but think he was looking back with rose-tinted spectacles when saying how everyone was depressed.

Life in Britain would have been a lot worse before human rights reforms....

I found the book very entertaining especially the stuff about the legal system.

Isuzu

I saw this online I often wondered

https://japanexplained.wordpress.com/2008/04/29/isuzu-spelling/

That last little sqiggle in the name is not normal hiragana, unlike the rest of the name. And it’s not just the truck company either, dentists and suchlike with the same (family) name always have the same last syllable. Could it be a kanji??? Totally stumped on this one, so any help gratefully received.

It’s a repetition symbol. It’s most commonly seen in its kanji form 々　(人々 [hitobito] for example), but it has hiragana and katakana forms too. The two hiragana forms are ゝ and ゞ, and the katakana forms are ヽ and ヾ. The double-ticks are used if the syllable it replaces would have them. In the case of isuzu, the repetition character is replacing a hiragana ず, so ゞ is used.

As to why they use this repetition symbol instead of plain old hiragana, I don’t know. Wikipedia just says that proper names sometimes use the double-tick in hiragana/katakana form.

BTW, I didn’t know any of this before. I just checked wikipedia when I saw this post. For more information about the repetition symbol, check 

https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%9E

A mess with a house clearance

A few years ago I cleared a house after a friend of mine sadly passed away.

The next of kin   agreed with me we would split the money from the sale of stuff in the house 50/50 after I had paid for storage and van hire etc.

I then cleared the house and put it in storage. The next of kin did not lift a finger to help me as the lady who helped me can attest.  I appreciate she was grieving, but she left me and a friend with all the work to do.

The next of kin's cousin then wound me up and got the next of kin to make a statement to the police that I had stole the stuff as opposed to clearing it, or at least I am 99% sure of this.  The police then came  to my flat and told me not to contact the next of  kin. When they entered my flat they said "you know what we are looking for". I appreciate they were probably lied to.

This woman then told a load of lies about me on Facebook which the police rightly advised me was a civil matter.  I was incandescent with rage at the legal system.

During the course of this mess the next of kins cousin attempted to emotionally blackmail me into giving her all the money I made selling the stuff in the house. This was obviously ludicrous as I had spent about 200 hours selling the stuff.  I reiterate that the next of kin or the cousin did nothing to aid in getting the stuff out of the house, with the next of kin simply ordering the stuff in the house for less than an hour.

Before I went to jail I gave a relative of the next of the kin some of the stuff back and paypalled her  money.  

After I got out of jail I paypalled this relative the money I owed due to the contract.  I no longer have the exact records due to losing ebay accounts.  if the next of Kin's cousin hadn't harassed  me I would have been more rational and able to keep better records.

One of the next of kin's relative's even said to me: I don't think S________ understands how much work is involved in the selling.

I aim to continue to do house clearances, but will let this serve as a reminder that it was a mess..... If the next of Kin didn't have a next of kin I probably wouldn't have gone the extra mile to return the stuff and paypal the money after she got the police to tell me not to contact her.

why not work up another withdrawal?

I was reading my emails when money I earned matched betting came from Betway.  The Term worked up a withdrawal surprised me as I had never heard or read it before in English.

Matched Betting 4TW

I have made about £40 today matched betting as well as another £100 from an accumulator.

I think this is one of the easiest legal ways to make money going.

https://caanberry.com/matched-betting-tips/


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRXu4fS32Yk

Samurai rock

a friend of mine in his gym had some Japanese on facebook and I couldn't read it.

I have not been doing Japanese for years due to abuse I suffered in the academic system.

i didnt lie down and cry, I went out and worked for an antiques shop in Old Swan as well as a house clearance company.

I imported stuff from Turkey where I met Antonio Inoki randomly.


https://forum.koohii.com/thread-12722.html

I learnt 6000 kanji as can be seen from Kanji gold and fought the fight of my life with Japanese grammar.

My lecturers at a university laughed at me, but I stuck it out and got a 2:1 degree as well as going on to pass some of the most difficult translation agency tests in the world.

One of them called me a dickhead and told me to kill myself. He joked when one classmate tried to commit suicide.

Today my Japanese is not very good but i am pleased I stuck out the course.

Today I earn a lot of money doing matched betting and betfair trading as well as ebay and a part time job.

I intend to post more about these ways of earning money and how marvelous I was at selling stuff online.

I am pleased I did so much with kanji and am going to do a book on this in the near future

https://www.youtube.com/user/honyakujoshua/videos?sort=dd&view=0&shelf_id=3

interesting article on gender in Spanish

https://www.thoughtco.com/greek-ending-ma-often-masculine-3079276

lost photos

i couldnt find a pen drive of photos from Tenerife so to prevent further loss i will start uploading a lot of photos on this blog and facebook.

Daily Races

I was away from the game for a bit: today's study: Spanish flashcards 1 hour. Watched Lupin films in Japanese.

An incoherent article on understanding sentences

check dictionaries

check morphology

sezuni se is causative zuni is without

For the example of hokorippoku look at morphology: Ku means adverb and therefore it is simply the adverbial form hokorippoi

To shita is Just past of to suru

When you cannot understand a word write down semantic elements like ku zu etc

Write what each part means with Furiei

Check humble and honorific verbs as these are not in grammar books: te oru was not in my book it was simply te iru.

analyze with makino and furi ei ad arrows for ESU. Draw an arrow from part to part. From the part that gives to the part that takes

strip out unnecessary lexis and just analyze grammatical skeleton.

Put nouns adjectives and other things in different colours.put prepositions and conjunctions in different colors

search internet for more grammar books (Mongolia)

Search for more examples of phrase to fathom out from other contexts, picture and numbers etc

Ask a Japanese person but DO NOT GIVE THE ANSWE YOU WANT IN THJE QUESTION

For the example of “GE” Look where it is: at the end: it is a suffix: look up ge: doesn’t come up, remove nigiri, ke.

Makino condensed

1 modifier before modified

Makino calls a modified and a modifier an ESU

Recognising ESUs is a must for reading Japanese

Guideline 1: A modified element is typically a noun, a relative clasue or a nominaliser a coordinate or subordinate conjuction, an adjective a verb or a particle

Guideline 2 If a thing before the modified element modifies something after the modified element then that thing is outside the ESU

Guideline 3 noun phrase +wa and noun phrase + mo is often said to be outside ESU (But make note)

Guideline 4 when two sentences are combined by ga sentence one is often outside the ESU of the modified element of sentence two. With te it depends on context

Guidenline five when a modified element is a modal ir usually goes to the beginning of the sentence even if it is a wa/mo phrase

Guideline 6 when the modified element is the quote marker to guideline three is over ridden

Some modified elements allow their ESU to extend beyond the sentence boundary especially sentence initial conjunctions

Book 2

Sentence initial, preverbal (modifier) modified Towards better reading comprehension

B Key elements

verbals,

nps, nouns

pronominal plus noun

demonstrative + noun

adjective + noun

noun+ no + noun

noun/verb + compound particle (pronominal; verb) + verb

relative clause + noun

noun sentence to iu + noun

sentence + nominaliser

noun to noun

embedded interrogative sentences

PREVERBAL ADVERBIALS

Adverbs

Adjectives ku

Adverbial auxillaries

Quantifiers,takusan

Phonestheme

Quotation + to

Noun verb + compound article

Verb te

Verb masu + ni

SENTENCE INITIAL ELEMENTS

Sentence initial conjunctions

Sentence initial adverbials

Sentential topics unlike preverbal wa modifies everything that follows

Sentence initial dependent clauses

C VERBAL CONNECTIVE FORMS

Te ku ari

Negative connective forms

COMPOUND SENTENCES

E complex sentences

A complex sentence is a sentence which is dependent on another clause

1 relative clauses

2 internal sentences before to iu + noun

Internal sentence before compound particle + compound particle

Sentence + nominaliser

Embedded interrogative sentences

Clause before adverbial forms of auxillary adjectives

Internal sentences as indirect quotations

Sentence initial dependent clauses

Refer to (35)

Missing elements f

Guidelines

Guideline 1 Identify major clause breaks: ga,ba, kara, node

|Guideline 2 identiy the skeleton of each major clause. The major elements who what when where why

Guideline 3 idetify the scope of all conjunctions nominalisers nouns nominalisers quotative markers and auxillaries. SEE ESUs.

Guideline 4 identify modified and modifier accurately when there are ambiguities

Guideline 5 identify each elements modified constituents

lexical items

Look up in dictionary

do a google search

google image search

type into wikipedia and translate if it is a name of a company like the seaweed brigade

analyze morphology as in ame kake ame m,eans net and kake means brackets

carters lexis thing

appendix

Examples of esu marking

私の一番好きの作曲家は緑琴です。

ｔｈis shows that the ichiban goes to suki and not composer.

智子が作ったケーキです

リサは来年日本へ行くらしい

Rasii changes, effects everything it goes after

私は中学に入った時に父が買ってくれた小さな辞書をまだ使っている。

Adjective jisho am still using

Arrows may also be used on pen and paper

Demarcate(mark) boundaries in meaning

Slice sentences up de ari marks an end of a sentence: think of it like cutting sushi.

Slice after nothing in first part qualifies anything in second part

Cut them up

Article on learning grammar I wrote...

How to learn Japanese grammar

How grammar as opposed to what grammar is

Describing grammar as opposed to listing

After having mastered kanji the next step in learning Japanese will be grammar. The reason why grammar is next is because if one learns one grammatical structure one can read many sentences.

For example if one learns that x ですtranslates into English as it’s an x one can understand a great many sentences: 本です、猫です、犬です、猿です。However if you learn a piece of vocabulary you just learn one ‘thing’ which cannot be learnt in that many situations. Learning grammar is a key to learning a language. Language is a good example of where the whole is more than the some of the parts

Myths about Japanese Grammar

Myth 1

Japanese grammar is simple

Truth

Japanese grammar is different to Euopean grammar. Whereas French has ‘conjugations’ Japanese does not. To be is desu in all ‘persons’ in Japanese. This does not mean that Japanese is easy. The very fact that Japanese is so different to the English Brain makes it harder to learn.

New statement: Japanese grammar is different. Some parts are harder, some parts are easier.

Myth 2: there are only 2 irregular verbs in Japanese kuru and suru

Truth aru is irregular, iku is irregular, many verbs are irregular in the honorific. Using European language terms like ‘irregular verbs’ is a silly way to look at Japanese grammar. The verb ai suru does not conjugate like other verbs

New statement: Japanese has many verbs that could be judged to be irregular although the verbal system is better behaved than French.

Myth 3: Japanese grammar is written with hiragana kanji are never used in grammar

New statement Kanji are sometimes used in grammar, and if one knows this kanji one will go on to know the grammar. Just as in german if you know that krank means ill and haus means house you will know hospital, so in Japanese Kanji and other motivated symbols can tell you the meaning

Types of grammar

Verb ‘conjugations’ Conjugation Grammar

which ‘tense’ the verb changes into. This bit is added on to the verb and the sound and spelling of the verb changes when it’s added on. Adjectives also conjugate in Japanese.

For example 読むbecomes読んだin the past tense.

‘Vocabulary Grammar’ ‘No New Rule grammar’

this grammar can be learnt as vocabulary. All that needs to be remembered is it’s meaning and where it goes in the sentence. For example など、ほとんど、can simply be remembered as ‘ and so on’ and ‘hardly’ respectively. Kono is simply this and all that need be remembered is that it goes before the noun. No major further explanation is needed. Makino’s entry for滅多にない

is simply　one page long the entry for の is x pages long. This grammar is the easiest grammar type to remember. This grammar may be quite easily be remembered by way of translation.

‘derivational morphology’

although grammar this is treated in a separate chapter.

New rule Grammar

Stuff that changes the meaning of the sentence and has it’s own rules of usage. Stuff with no direct equivalent translation in English

Grammar like’と　で　に These grammars need teaching of the rules surrounding them. Whereas hotondo can safely be translated as ‘scarcely’ The majority of the time で has no similar ‘direct’, ‘normal’ translation in English. It’s meaning depends on what other words it is used with whereas hotondo’s meaning does not. Further explanation is needed. Explanation of usage is needed. When teaching nomi one needs to understand what it qualifies. Is ｘのｙ x’s y or Y’s x? Further explanation is needed. This grammar is separate to conjugation grammar as the verb before it does not change. This grammar changes the sentence, but nothing else in the sentence need change grammatically. In order to say I want to go you must change the verb before adding an auxillary, but for this type of grammar nothing need be changed. For otoko no piano, only no is added and nothing else changes. One needs to understand what effect this grammar has on other words in the sentence: In otoko no piano is it the piano the property of the boy or the boy the property of the piano?

Some grammars fit into several categories for example てほしい is a conjugation grammar as the verb may be changed before adding te, but when adding hoshii nothing else need be chang

ed.

Grammar has been described as the rules governing words. Words belong to classes and if you read a grammar of Japanese IE Jonathan Bunt’s you will see Grammar put into classes. Grammar is best learnt in the beginning in word classes. Words fit into the following classes

• adjectives
• adverbs
• interjections
• nouns
• verbs (except auxiliary verbs)

• Closed word classes:
  • auxiliary verbs
  • clitics
  • coverbs
  • conjunctions
  • determiners (articles, quantifiers, demonstrative adjectives, and possessive adjectives)
  • particles
  • measure words
  • adpositions (prepositions, postpositions, and circumpositions)
  • preverbs
  • pronouns
  • contractions
  • cardinal numbers
• Relative clauses
• One should learn via makino and furiei which part of speech is doing what to what

word order and sentence structure

word order in Japanese is basically subject object verb, which means that the sentence ends in a verb, the copula or an I adjective

The basic sentences in Japanese are ( see makino, oxford japanese dictionary )

After having understood the above you should actually start to learn grammar.

First of all Get hold of, buy, loan, steal several grammar books. Somewhere between three or ten. If you do not understand something in one grammar book, refer to it in another, then another and so on. I have often not understood something in seven books and then understood in the eighth as the point was explained differently. I cannot underestimate how important it is to use as many grammar books as humanly possible

The first grammar we will study will be closed class like demonstratives as these are simpler than verbs to understand. Check that you understand this grammar and after having understood it learn it parrot fashion. DO not learn without understanding.

Things likeあの means that one over there are not hard to remember. These may be learnt like vocabulary

Next study pronouns. These may be learnt like vocabulary. Ie Boku=I, rough male. On one side write the Japanese on the other write a translation and note on usage. For kanojo note that it is not often used and that it may also mean girlfriend. N Japanese pronouns are used very differently to English pronouns. Note translations but also note usage.

There is no real equivalent to ‘it’ in Japanese

Possessive pronouns these are used in Japanese, but not as much as in English:

They are formed by taking a subject pronoun and adding no

Watashi no kuruma my car

Relative clauses　: Yes it really is that simple

In Japanese grammar there is no word for that in the sense ‘The mouse that roared”

To make this statement the describer or “modifying element” goes in front of the described or “modified element” and there is no “connector” between these two elements.

In English the modified (mouse) goes first and then we have ‘that’ and we have the modifier roared.

In Japanese we have the reverse but without the‘ that‘

た鼠 the that .

So to make the relative clause in Japanese you simply take a verb and but it before the NOUN.

The person who brought the pen ペンをった

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　読んだ猫

The cat that read the book 本をんだ

The cat that reads the book 　　　　　　　　　　　　本を読む猫

The cat that reads the book 　　　　　　　　　　本を読んでいる猫　　　

The tv programme that I watched た

It really is that simple to make the relative clause. You put the modifier before the modified, and that’s it.

In all reality there are relative clauses in Japanese, they just aren’t marked.

Now we will come to nouns and note one of the myths of Japanese: Japanese does not have plurals: This isn’t strictly true: Japanese pluralises with duplication, etc (seemakino3)

something which

modifies a noun is an adjective in the red car red modifies car the red car. In my grammar explanations the modifier is shown in coloured font, and the modified is shown in with a background color the same color as the font as the modifier.　赤い車

this concept was invented by myself to explain the concept of modified and modifier in Japanese which is one of the most important concept in Japanese grammar.

Adjectives in Japanese are traditionallt divided into two camps although there are further divisions with in these camps

The first group if adjectives is called ‘I’ adjectives as these adjectives always end in ‘I’

An ‘I’ adjective may end in ai: ‘umai’ ii oisii ui ‘samui’ or omosiroi. No ‘I’ adjective ends in ei.

‘I’ adjectives are often caused verbal adjectives as they change there endings like verbs.

The second group is ‘na’ adjectives

When used in the attributive sense, which means when they are used before a noun they have to have a na in between them and the noun: shizuka na machi.

When these adjectives are used predicatively, this meaning at the end of a sentence they need the copula or desu.: machi wa shizuka desu.

Unlike I adjectives na adjectives do not change their form to show tense mood and aspect although the copula does change

Some na adjectives end in I but these can be easily spotted as they end in ei and as is written above no ‘I’ adjective can end in ‘ei’

There are several I adjectives with na forms in front of a noun although these are not na adjectives.

Although Japanese is said to be a regular language there are irregular adverbs

Onaji reqires desu at the end oif a sentence but one may not say onaji na machi, but should say onaji machi

Chiikaku tooi and ooi are not used before nouns in the I form, instead we say tookuno: we take off one I and add a kuno.

We now get onto grammar that is extremely different to English

Next study postpositions and conjunctions as these too should be easier to remember as they may be learn like vocabulary. When learning them note the similarities and differences between their English translations. でdoes not just mean at, but has many different depending on context. Be extremely cautious of learning by translation. Don’t just learn one translation but learn the rules associated with it.

Sometimes when doing furiei with makino symbols like + and- can be used to show with or without

respectfully. 　Arrows may also be used, for example　恵美智子. This arrow shows, reminds that megumi is in someway related with tomoko.

ペン家族　A family without a pen. Arrow shows that the pen is lacking

For prepositions, arrows may also be used ロンドンへ行きました　to show that ‘he’ goes to rondon and not ikimasita. These arrows and symbols are a type of metalanguage, a language that defines another language. This is useful for learning and understanding: you are making a model of the language

Makino splits Japanese conjunctions into several camps, perhaps following halliday:

Conjunctions which indicate cause and effect a

Conjunctions which mean but

Conjunctions which mean and

Conjunctions which mean or

Conjunctions which mean to change the subject

Conjunctions which indicate paraphrasing

Conjunctions which mean for example

Conjunctions which mark a reason for something

Conjunctionsnwhich indicate contrast

Now study counter words: Note that these are learnt in English and also note that they are much more common in Japanese. After understanding their concept learn each vocabulary counter 1-10 like vocabulary. Think of it like slices of pizza.

Counters are a concept best described by equivalence

if you go a beach you do not say to your children “there are many sands” you say to them “there are many grains of sand” and grains is a counter although this term is not used in English as much.

Other examples of English counters:

Slices: There are six slices of bread.

In Japanese this system is much more developed

Counters often use the ichi ni san shi go roku nana hachi kyuu juu sequence as opposed to the hitotsu futatsu mittsu sequence

Kuruma nidai means two cars.

If an article is present the number and counter is usually placed after the noun and particle

Neko wo 6biki wo kaitai

The pattern

X y no z

May also be used where x=a number y= a counter and z= a noun

8piki no sai: 8 rhinoceroses

articles: note that Japanese does not have these, but also note ある町 is probably best translated as a town and not “A certain town”.

Now we will come to verbs and adjectives which are the hardest parts of Japanese to learn as they are so unlike English verbs and adjectives in the way they function. This is what makes \Japanese difficult , it’s difference to European languages. DO NOT TRY TO COMPARE THE JAPANESE VERBAL SYSTEM TO THE EUROPEAN Verbal SYSTEM although pronouns and demonstratives can to a certain extent be translated, explained, by means of a European example the verbal and adjectival system may never be. It is just too different.

I will first try to describe the verbal system

Unlike European verbs verbs do not conjugate for person: I go is the same as he goes in Japanese.

Japanese verbs mark in there form: levels of formality. TWO tenses: Past and Non-Past

If the last mora of a verb is た　だ this shows that the verb is in the past tense and that the action the verb describes happened in the past if we read　“僕はホンを読んだ “ knowing that x is a verb we know that the verb happens in the past without knowing anymore information

Voice. The passive and active voice are marked, though the passive voice can mean polite or potential depending upon context

Whereas in languages such as French and Spanish auxillary verbs are added in front of the verb to make a two verb construction in Japanese they are added to the end. Most of what is Japanese verbs is added to the end of verbs.

Whereas in French one must learn how to conjugate verbs for person in Japanese the main battle with verbs is learning how to add auxillaries.

To change a Japanese verb you add things to the end and not to the front. But before adding these things you must change a part of the original verb

When grammarians describe Japanese verbs they start with the plain form, and this is how we will start. The plain form of a verb is easily recognized, it’s final sound is “U”.

In Japanese there are two types of verbs “ichidan” and “Godan” as well as two very irregular verbs “Suru “ “Kuru” and quite a large amount of quite irregular verbs. To continue the analogy of Frech grammar Kuru and Suru could be seen as being like avoir and etre whereas the likes of iku and aru and ai suru could be perceived as being mangers and allers

All verbs which fall into the ichidan group act entirely the same where as within the godan group there are subgroups which act differently. Because of this we will address ichidan verbs first. As the name implies this verb only needs one “step” to change it to a state where an auxillary may be added.

A n example of an ichidan verb is食べる, which may be glossed as “eat”. To say I eat one would say Watashi wa taberu” but this verb is in the plain style which is used for informal speech: see politeness in Japanese. In Japanese the next highest level of politeness is marked with masu. To make taberu polite one must add masu.

Before adding masu we must take the last kana of the ichidan verb away: for 食べるwe take away ru　たべる,たべ

We are now left with たべ and all that is that is left to do now is add no masu, and we have have apolite form of the verb食べます

All verbs which are ichidan verbs follow this simple rule. A good dictionary will say which group a verb belongs to

Other auxillaries are added to ru verbs in exactly the same way: simply take off the last kana and add the auxillary

The auxillary tai simply means to want to do something: tabetai simply means I WANT TO eat.

たべる

たべ

食べたい

いる

い

いたい

Nai simply means “not” and is known in grammar as the negative version (Halliday) for ichidan verbs youn simply add it after taking off the last kana:

たべる、たべ、たべない　I don’t eat

Must is formed by the auxillary なければなりません、or more informally なければならない

Again you simply add it after you have cut off the last kana.

To add auxillaries to ichidan verbs all you need to do is remember which kana to take off( the last one) and which series of kana mean which things, and that you must add the auxillary after you have taken the last kana off

(chart of main auxillaries)

Godan verbs have groups within the godan group. Some auxillaries are added in exactly the same way to every godan verb, where as others are added in a different way . We will first describe each group of godan verbs