Agony or Fun?! Second Language Learning

We learned yesterday there were two patterns of verb predicates.

[Verb] masu : Non-past tense

[Verb] mashita : Past tense

So, two patterns above come from the difference of tense. If we consider other two patterns which come from if the sentence is positive or negative, we need to use four patterns correctly.

Let us use the verb “Hataraki masu” for the example, which means “work”.

– Non-past x Positive: Hataraki masu. (work/will work)

– Non-past x Negative: Hataraki masen. (don’t work/will not work)

– Past x Positive: Hataraki masita. (worked)

– Past x Negative: Hataraki masendeshita. (didn’t work)

Quizzes: Think about what pattern a sentence is in terms of non-past/past tenses and positive/negative.

example; Watashi wa Mainichi Hataraki masu => Non-past x Positive

1. Ashita, Watashi wa Hataraki masu.

2. Watashi wa Do-youbi Hataraki masen.

3. Watashi wa Kinou Hataraki masen deshita.

4. Kinou Watashi wa Hataraki mashita.

Answers will be shown tomorrow.

<この投稿は“スリーエーネットワーク、みんなの日本語 初級I 第2版, 第4課A7”の内容を参照しています。>

First of all, we need to review yesterday’s quiz.

A. Watashi wa Getsu-youbi kara Kin-youbi made Hataraki masu.

B. Watashi wa Kin-youbi ni Hataraki masu.

Q1: Which of sentences A or B says “My work ends on Friday”?

A1: The sentence A says “My work ends on Friday”, because the particle “made” is to indicate the ending time of continuous action.

Q2: Which of A or B says “I work on Friday”?

A2: The sentence B says “I work on Friday” because the particle “ni” is to indicate the time of action.

And let’s review about “Verb predicate sentences”. Its ending of a sentence is different from “Noun predicate sentences” as below;

“Verb predicate” => [verb] masu. ; example : Hataraki masu.

“Noun predicate” => [noun] desu. ; example : Shigoto desu.

What we are going to learn today is to use properly “masu” and its past tense “mashita”. Two days ago, I wrote there were other two important things about Japanese verbs. One of two is that a verb conjugates by changing the ending part of the verb. Conjugation patterns are many, and the change between “masu” and “mashita” is one of conjugations.

Just remember the simple things below

[Verb] masu : Non-past tense

[Verb] mashita : Past tense

Actually, the issue is not so simple, because “Non-past” is adopted for both present and future, and as for “Past”, in many times it’s better to call it the perfect tense rather than the past tense. But we are still on the early stage to learn Japanese verbs, let’s make it dichotomy of non-past or past, for simplicity.

In order to learn to use verbs in non-past and past tense, words describing time are necessary.

– Mainichi: every day

– Ashita: tomorrow

– Kinou: yesterday

Practice and remember the following three sentences;

1. Watashi wa Mainichi Hataraki masu: non-past (present); (I work every day.)

2. Watashi wa Ashita Hataraki masu: non-past (future); (I will work tomorrow.)

3. Watashi wa Kinou Hataraki mashita: past; (I worked yesterday.)

<この投稿は“スリーエーネットワーク、みんなの日本語 初級I 第2版, 第4課A6”の内容を参照しています。>

Japanese sentences are classified in three by the type of predicates;

1. Noun predicate sentences

2. Adjective predicate sentences (I-adjectives and Na-adjectives)

3. Verb predicate sentences

So far, only Noun predicate sentences have been introduced. But we are going to learn Verb predicate sentences from today.

“Verb” is a word in most of the cases to express an action, although “naru(become)” is a verb to express change and “aru” and “iru” are verbs to express existence.

When a verb is used for a predicate, there is the clear difference from “noun predicate”

“Verb predicate” => [verb] masu.

“Noun predicate” => [noun] desu.

Where;

masu and desu is the sentence endings for present-positive with some politeness

As to verbs, the following two things are also important;

– A verb conjugates, in other words, the ending part of verb changes.

– Need to have a clear image of intransitive verb or transitive verb.

But these two points will be explained later. Today, you just note that a verb is a word to express action.

Along with introduction of verbs, the particle “ni” is also introduced. Particle “ni” has many functions actually, but only the function of “time of action” is introduced today.

Note that it is not a coincidence that verbs and particle “ni” are introduced at the same time. Do you remember that a segment in Japanese sentence is usually in the form of?;

[meaningful word] [functional word]

A word segment “[word][ni]” works as a modifier for a verb behind. Although there is sometimes an exception, you need to expect there is a verb behind if you find a segment using “ni”.

And new words are as below;

– Maiasa : adverb ; every morning

– Okimasu : verb ; get up

Practice and remember the following conversation;

A : Satou-san wa Maiasa Nan-ji ni okimasuka. (Ms. Sato, what time do you get up every morning?)

B : Watashi wa Maiasa Shichi-ji ni okimasu. (I get up at seven every morning.)

<この投稿は“スリーエーネットワーク、みんなの日本語 初級I 第2版, 第4課A4”の内容を参照しています。>

Simply said, what we learn today is two particles that are “from” and “to” in English. The sentence construction is as follows;

1. [Subject] wa [Time1] kara [Time2] made desu.

“1” is a noun predicate sentence (a verb predicate sentence will be introduced tomorrow).

Then, an example of sentence 1 can be;

– Shigoto wa Ku-ji kara Go-ji made desu. (My work is from nine to five.)

Where;

– Shigoto : noun : work

– wa: particle : topic marker, and in this case, “wa” also functions as the subject marker

– Ku-ji : nine o’clock

– kara : particle : marker for starting time

– Go-ji : five o’clock

– made : particle : marker for ending time

– desu : sentence ending for present-positive with some politeness

Actually, two particles “kara” and “made” are used not only for times but also for special starting and ending positions. But we are using these particles only for time today.

Practice and remember the following conversation;

A : Shigoto wa Nan-ji kara Nan-ji made desuka. (From what time to what time is your work?)

B : Shigoto wa Hachi-ji kara Yo-ji made desu. (My work is from eight to four.)

<この投稿は“スリーエーネットワーク、みんなの日本語 初級I 第2版, 第4課A3”の内容を参照しています。>