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Yesterday we learned to make a verb a noun-equivalent using “no”. What we are learning today is to apply that noun-equivalent to a Wa-ga construction. Actually, there was already a wa-ga construction in which “Verb + no” is applied.
1. Onsen ni Hairu no wa Kimochi ga Ii desu.
(Bathing Onsen makes me feel good.)
As you see in the sentence1, “Verb + no” is applied to “Wa-word”. Let’s review about Wa-ga construction a little. There are several type of Wa-ga constructions, but today, wa-ga constructions whose predicates is I- and Na-adjectives only like below;
2. Watashi wa Ongaku ga Suki desu. (I like music.)
3. Watashi wa Ryouri ga Heta desu. (I am not good at cooking.)
4. Watashi wa Ashi ga Osoi desu. (My legs don’t run fast.)
The above sentences have adjective predicates; Suki(na) and Heta(na) are both Na-adjectives and Osoi is an I-adjective. As these sentences, some or many adjectives tend to be used in wa-ga construction. It is common to explain wa-ga constructions as below;
– [Topic] wa [Subject] ga [Predicate].
But when we look at the sentence 2 to 4 and their English translations of sentences 2 and 3, the sentence looks like;
– [Subject of sentence] wa [Subject of predicate] ga [Predicate].
And “-ga” is to identify and/or specify in conjunction with the predicate. For example, “Ongaku ga” expresses what I like (Suki) in the sentence 1, “Ryouri” expresses what I am not good at (Heta) in the sentence 2, and “Ashi ga” expresses what is slow in the sentence 3.
The review of wa-ga construction ends here, and from here, today’s construction is going to be introduced. “Ga-word”s in the sentence 2 to 4 are all nouns; Ongaku, Ryouri, and Ashi. “-ga” is a particle, which is usually attached to a noun from behind as I explained in the A1. In today’s construction, a noun-equivalent “Verb + no” is inserted to the noun in front of “-ga”.
– [Topic] wa [Subject] ga [Predicate].
=> [Topic] wa [{V-dic} + no ] ga [Predicate].
5. Watashi wa Ongaku o Kiku no ga Suki desu. (I like listening to music.)
6. Watashi wa Ryouri o Tsukuru no ga Heta desu. (I am not good at cooking a meal.)
7. Watashi wa Hashiru no ga Osoi desu. (My running is slow.)
These sentences use only dictionary forms of a verb. If we deal with Nai-form, Ta-form, I-adjective, and/or Na-adjective for what to put in front of “no ga”, things are going to be unnecessarily complicated. Thinking about frequency of use and simplifying the leaning, it would be better to introduce only dictionary form of verbs.
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This post was written with reference to the exercise A2 on Section38 of “Minna no Nihongo (2nd Edition)” published by “3A Corporation”
Their weight with shells was 83 gram. Of course the weight of the plastic container is excluded.
I used a “water pump pliers” to break the shells.
Some were rotten inside, some ran into the air, I got 40 gram of Hazelnuts without shells.
I roasted them Four minutes by an electric oven toaster.
To be honest, neither their taste nor quality of roasting were good. Since they were what I could get this year, I hope I will be able to harvest more next year. And roasting procedure needs to be improved.
The tree was “Hollywood” which I planted for pollification to the plum “Soldam”. I don’t expect much about Hollywood to have fruits, but to have flowers so that Soldam would be able to have fruits. One thing that is impressive about Hollywood is its color of leaves. It’s dark purple. I planted that tree in the entrance of my field.
But today in the morning, I found that a lot of worms were eating the leaves. Everyday I walk through by the tree. But it is wondering I haven’t noticed until the situation has gone that worse.
I picked them one by one with disposable chop sticks, and put them into a grass bottle of “Ne##afe”. And then I poured pesticide into the bottle and put the lid. They were moving, but some minutes later, – – – – – – – – –
The photos were taken in the Campus on September Eighth in 2024.
The sky was clear but my desk was dirty. Actually, I was standing when I was working with my computer, because my back was too much aching to sit on a chair. So the computer is on top of two chairs side by side, which were put on the desk.
A Japanese sentence consists of several phrases (“Bunsetsu”), or let me use, “Chunk”.
– [Chunk]+[Chunk]+ – – – + [Chunk].
Each chunk has the following structure.
– [Chunk] = [ {Word for Meaning} + {Word for Function} ]
Words for meaning can be long, while words for functions are usually short with one-letter or two-letters. For the sake of simplicity, let us think about two word-groups; they are nouns and verbs. Let us forget about adjectives and adverbs. Nouns and Verbs are, of course, words for meaning. The difference we need to care is words for functions to be connected to Nouns or Verbs. Note that I am talking in very simplified way but Chunks for Nouns and Verbs are;
– [Chunk] = [ {Noun} + {Particle} ]
– [Chunk] = [ {Verb} + {Auxiliary Verb} ]
What we can see in these two are;
– Being a noun or a verb brings is strictly distinguished in Japanese.
– A particle cannot be connected to a verb directly.
Let’s review the above argument with samples. There is a sentence below with five chunks.
1. Watashi wa Tomodachi to Resutoran de Hiru-Gohan o Tabe masu.
(I eat a lunch in a restaurant with my friends.)
If you divide the sentence 1 into chunks, you will get;
2. [Watashi wa] [Tomodachi to] [Resutoran de] [Hiru-Gohan o] [Tabe masu.]
“Watashi”, “Tomodachi”, “Resutoran”, “Hiru-Gohan”, and “Tabe(ru)” are words for meaning, on the other, “wa”, “to”, “de”, “o”, and “masu” are words for function. Words for meaning use several letters, but words for functions are short. “masu” is not four-letter, but two-letter word in Hiragana. As to distinguish nouns and verbs, “Watashi”, “Tomodachi”, “Resutoran”, and “Hiru-Gohan” are nouns. “Tabe(ru)” is a verb. Being a noun or a verb brings is strictly distinguished in Japanese. So, the five chunks are divided into two as below;
– [Chunk] = [ {Noun} + {Particle} ] ; [Watashi wa] [Tomodachi to] [Resutoran de] [Hiru-Gohan o]
– [Chunk] = [ {Verb} + {Auxiliary Verb} ] ; [Tabe masu.]
And a particle cannot be connected to a verb directly. Therefore the sentence below is WRONG.
3. (WRONG) Tomodachi to Hiru-Gohan o Taberu wa Tanoshii desu.
The error happens to “Taberu wa”, because “Taberu” is a verb, “wa” is a particle, and they cannot be connected to each other directly. But when you want to say “It is a fun to have lunch with my friends”, how do you correct the wrong sentence 3?
– WRONG: [ {Verb} + {Particle} ]
– RIGHT: [ {Noun} + {Particle} ]
The solution is to use a formal noun between a verb and a particle;
– RIGHT: [ {Noun} + {Particle} ] = [ {Verb + (formal noun)} + {Particle} ]
That is, {Verb + (formal noun)} is equivalent to {Noun}. Actually, we have already learned one of formal nouns to make a verb a noun equivalent, which is “koto”. This time we are learning “no” as this kind of word. However, there is a difficulty about “no”, because there is a particle “no” that works purely as a particle. For example, the following “no”s are works as particle in the structure of [ {Noun} + {Particle} ]. But “no” to make “noun-equivalent” is used right behind a verb, an I-adjective, and Na-adjective, and “no” itself works as a noun. Examples are;
– { Verb + no } + {Particle} ; Taberu no wa
– { I-adj + no } + {Particle} ; Oishii no wa
– { Na-adj + no } + {Particle} ; Taisetsuna no wa
Since “no” itself works as a noun, those conjugating words; verbs, I-adjectives, and Na-adjectives are in the conjugation form that can be put in front of a noun.
– Verb in forms of ; Dictionary form, Ta-form, Nai-form, and V-nakatta
– I-adejctive in form of ; [Stem]+ i
– Na-adjective in form of ; [Stem]+ na
The exercise A1 in the section 38 uses only the dictionary form to put in front of “no”. The sentence construction of A1 is as follows;
[Verb clause with verb in dictionary form]+ no + wa [Predicate using an Adjective].
Sample sentences are as below;
4. Tomodachi to Isshoni Gohan o Taberu no wa Tanoshii desu.
(It is fun to eat a meal with my friends.)
5. Ashita madeni Repo’oto o Kaku no wa Muri desu.
(It is impssible to write a report by tomorrow.)
6. Onsen ni Hairu no wa Kimochi ga Ii desu.
(Bathing Onsen makes me feel good.)
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This post was written with reference to the exercise A1 on Section38 of “Minna no Nihongo (2nd Edition)” published by “3A Corporation”
We have learned some passive sentences in which “who makes the action” is not important in the exercise A4 and A5. Today’s sentences in the exercise A6 are also this kind of passive sentences in terms of not-mentioning the actor. The difference from A4 and A5 is that a verb in passive form has become “-te iru”. We have already learned that when the action is currently ongoing, continuously keeping done, and is repeated frequently, the verb predicate is not simply “V-masu.” but becomes “V-te imasu”. Therefore, the sentences in A6 can be regarded as an application of “V-te iru” to the passive sentences.
1. Nihon no Roketto wa Tanegashima de Uchiagerarete imasu.
(Rockets of Japan have been launched in Tanegashima Island.)
“Tanegashima” is a place name; it is located south of Kagoshima. The island is famous as the launching place of the rockets. If we don’t use “V-te iru”, the sentence would be as follows;
2. Nihon no Roketto wa Tanegashima de Uchiageraremasu.
The sentence 2 is not wrong, but it makes us wonder whether the launching is one-time event or repetitive events. Or, some may think that the launching happens in near future, without knowing Japan has already launched many numbers of rockets from that Island.
Using “V-te imasu”, the sentence can express that not one but many rockets have been launched from the island.
To change a verb in passive form to be an additional Te-form is not a big issue. The Nai-form of the passive form “Uchiagerareru/Uchiageraremasu” is “Uchiagerar<e>nai”. Therefore, it can be a kind of Group 2 verbs. Simply put “te” to the stem as making a Group2 verb Te-form. No difficult procedure is needed like Group1 verbs.
3. Kono Ude-dokei wa Ano Koujou de Tsukurarete imasu.
(This wristwatch is being made in that factory.)
Something is being made in a factory. It is usually continuous and/or repetitive action, probably not one-time event in the future. The passive form of the verb “Tsukuru/Tsukurimasu” is “Tsukurareru/Tsukuraremasu”. And then it can be Te-form that is “Tsukurarete”. If we convert the sentence 3 to an active sentence, we would get a sentence as shown below;
4. Ano Koujou wa Kono Ude-dokei o Tsukutte imasu.
(That factory is making this wristwatch.)
Those who thinks “wa-ga construction” is versatile may say “(WRONG)Kono Koujou wa Kono Ude-dokei ga Tsukutte imasu.” This is terribly wrong. An object of a transitive verb must use the particle “-o” as the object marker. In this case, it is “Udedokei o Tsukuru”. In some situation of Japanese learning, both teachers and learners try to avoid using the particle “-o”. Such people tend to use “wa-ga construction” quite often because “wa-ga construction” doesn’t use the particle “-o”. And sometimes they find another way to avoid “-o”, which is to make a passive sentence like 3. You see that there is no particle “-o” in the sentence 3 even though the sentence uses transitive verb “Tsukuru/Tsukurimasu”. Of course, the sentence 3 and 4 are not the same. The subject of 3 is ”Kono Ude-dokei wa”, and that of 4 is “Ano Koujou wa”. So, the emphases are different between 3 and 4. Although today’s sentence construction doesn’t use the particle “-o”, but it is necessary to accept that it is fundamental that an object of a transitive verb needs to be followed by the particle “-o”.
The main theme of today’s post is the combination of the passive voice and “V-te iru”.
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This post was written with reference to the exercise A6 on Section37 of “Minna no Nihongo (2nd Edition)” published by “3A Corporation”
We are learning some types of passive sentences in the section 37. Today’s sentence constructions too, do not mention who makes the action like yesterday’s sentences. The difference from the yesterday’s is that “-wa” is used for the subject marker.
1. Kono Tatemono wa Raishu’u Kowasare masu. (This building will be demolished in the next week.)
The subject is “Tatemono(building)” in the sentence 1. Since the subject marker is not “-ga” but “-wa”, both the speaker and the listener have already shared what is the Tatemono, or which Tatemono they are talking about. Look at two conversations below;
(1) The subject markers are “-ga”
A : Dono Tatemono ga Raishu’u Kowasare masuka. (Which building will be demolished next week?)
B : Kono Tatemono ga Kowasare masu. (This building will be demolished.)
The person A doesn’t know which building will be demolished at the timing of asking. Therefore, only the person B knows “Kono Tatemono” will be demolished. “Kono Tatemono” will be a new information for the person A. This is the reason why “-ga” is used for the subject marker.
(2) The subject markers are “-wa”
A : Kono Tatemono wa Raishu’u Kowasare masuka. (Will this building be demolished next week?)
B : Hai, kono Tatemono wa Kowasare masu. (Yes, this building will be demolished.)
The person A and B is talking about the same building “Kono Tatemono”. Therefore, they have already shared which building they are talking about. This is the reason why “-wa” is used for the subject marker.
The following example sentences are also shown in the form of conversation, in order to make clear that the subject is shared between the asking person and the answering person.
2.
A : Kono Otera wa Itsu Taterare mashitaka. (When was this temple built?)
B : Kono Otera wa Ni-Hyaku nen mae ni Taterare mashita. (This temple was built 200 years ago.)
3.
A : Pa’ati’i wa Doko de Hirakare masuka. (Where will the party be held?)
B : Pa’ati’i wa Koube Hoteru de Hirakare masu. (The party will be held in Kobe Hotel.)
The above conversations use “-wa” for the subject markers. Can you tell whether “wa” or “ga” is used for subject marker in the following conversation?
A : Koube Hoteru de Nani<?> Hirakare masuka. (What will be held in Kobe Hotel?)
B : Pa’ati’i <?> Hirakare masu. (A party will be held there.)
The answer will be shown tomorrow.
Yesterday and today, we have been learning some passive sentences that do not mention the actor of the passive action. This kind of sentences are uttered when the actor is not the important information. If who’s the actor is important, of course it is possible to say the actor in a passive sentence.
A : Kabin wa Dareni Kowasare mashitaka. (By whom was the flower vase broken?)
B : Kabin wa Satou-san ni Kowasare mashita. (The flower vase was broken by Sato-san.)
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This post was written with reference to the exercise A5 on Section37 of “Minna no Nihongo (2nd Edition)” published by “3A Corporation”
One thing is common between the passive sentences in the exercise A4 and A5. In the sentences of A4 and A5, the actor of the action is not important. Of course, the subject and the passive action are important in the sentences of both A4 and A5. Then, the difference between A4 and A5 is the subject markers; “-ga” is used in A4, and “-wa” in A5.
Sample of the A4 type passive sentences are as follows;
1. Toukyou de Orimpikku ga Okonaware masu. (In Tokyo, the Olympic games will be carried out.)
In fact, the Olympic games were held in 2021, but the sentence 1 is of future tense. “Okonawareru/Okonawaremasu” is the passive form of the verb “Okonau/Okonaimasu” which means “carry out”. If the passive sentence 1 was converted to be an active sentence, it would be;
– Toukyou de “???” ga Orimpikku o Okonai masu. (In Tokyo, ??? will carry out the Olympic games.)
As you see in the above sentence, we don’t know who will carry out the Olympic games. And the actor of the action “carry out” doesn’t appear in the sentence 1. It is just because who makes the action is not important;
2. Sumida-gawa de Hanabi ga Uchiagerare masu. (On the Sumida River, the fireworks will be launched.)
“Uchiagerareru/Uchiageraremasu” is the passive form of the verb “Uchiageru/Uchiagemasu”. And as well as the sentence 1. this sentence 2 also doesn’t mention who is the actor, because who makes the action is not important information in this sentence.
Both in the sentence 1 and 2, the subject markers are “-ga”. The subject marker “-ga” functions to identify what the subject is. But the “-ga” in the sentence 1 and 2 are usually explained as “’-ga’ for the new information”. When “-ga” is used for the subject marker, the concept of the subject has not yet shared between the speaker and the listener. The speaker knows it, but the listener doesn’t. The listener receives the subject as a new information. This is the difference from the case that “-wa” is used for the subject marker.
When the speaker says “[Subject] wa”, the concept of the subject has already been shared between the speaker and the listener.We will see some passive sentences in which the actor doesn’t appear tomorrow, too. But they will use “-wa” for the subject marker.
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This post was written with reference to the exercise A4 on Section37 of “Minna no Nihongo (2nd Edition)” published by “3A Corporation”
These are the sunflowers whose seeds are edible.
Buds of Carrot have come out of the ground. They are not for sale, just to be eaten in my house.
Agony or Fun?! Second Language Learning 