I am a native Japanese speaker who used to teach Japanese in a university somewhere on this planet. Currently I don't work but stayed in my house in Northern part of JAPAN. I hope that you could enjoy reading my posts and know what life in Japan is like.
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They are almost a kind of weeds in my garden, but “Shiso” is growing many places. They are now having seeds.
And people around here like marinated shiso seeds with soy sauce very much. I decided making it this time. I gathered seeds from green and purple Shiso, and got the amount of one bowl of metal colander.
I removed seeds from the stem by my finger, one by one.
I got 132 grams of seeds. Of course, the weight of container is deducted.
I put salt on them. I tried putting salt of 10 percent of Seed’s weight.
Next day, I washed the seeds and marinated with soy sauce.
Putting them on top of Rice, and I ate it. I felt it was like a taste of autumn season.
This year too, I have got some persimmon fruits on the tree of a bitter persimmon “Koyo”.
I poured strong alcohol onto a small dish. And put the upper part of persimmon into it about ten seconds.
Then I put three persimmons into a plastic bag. I hope I will be able to eat them in several days. The strong alcohol I used was made from Gāoliang (高粱). I guess its smell will remain until I eat those persimmons.
Oh, by the way, now it’s the time for me to work a lot on my garden before the winter comes. So probably I will not be able to write a post of “Japanese Learning” for a while.
First of all, “Souda/Soudesu” we are learning in this post is a “future-bound” expression when you talk about your speculation. From the perspective of grammatical structure with verb forms;
<1> [Masu-form without “masu”] + sou desu. — Speculation for future — today (A1 S43)
<2> [Dictionary form] + sou desu. — Hearsay — A1 S47
<3> [Ta-form] + sou desu. — Hearsay — A1 S47
So, we are learning <1> today. Before looking at example sentences, let’s check the connections between verbs in “Masu-form without ‘masu’” and “sou desu”.
Group2 Verbs:
– Ochiru/Ochimasu : intransitive verb : fall down => Ochi+sou desu.
– Kieru/Kiemasu : intransitive verb : (The fire) goes out, disappear, vanish => Kie+sou desu.
Group3 Verbs:
– Kuru/Kimasu : intransitive verb : come => Ki+sou desu.
– Suru/Shimasu : transitive verb (occasionally intransitive verb) : do => Shi+sou desu.
Group1 Verbs:
Gr1-W
– Iu/Iimasu : transitive verb : say, tell => Ii+sou desu.
Gr1-K
– Naku/Nakimasu : intransitive verb : cry, weep => Naki+sou desu.
Gr1-G
– Nugu/Nugimasu : transitive verb : take off cloths => Nugi+sou desu.
Gr1-S
– Hanasu/Hanashimasu : transitive verb : speak, tell => Hanashi+sou desu.
Gr1-T
– Katsu/Kachimasu : intransitive verb : win, overcome => Kachi+sou desu.
Gr1-M
– Yamu/Yamimasu : intransitive verb : stop doing sth => Yame+sou desu.
Gr1-B
– Tobu/Tobimasu : intransitive verb : fly => Tobi+sou desu.
Gr1-R
– Naru/Narimasu : intransitive verb : become, turn to be => Nari+sou desu.
There are two types of sentences for the speculation using verbs in “Masu-form without ‘masu’” and “sou desu” as shown in (1) and (2).
(1) The speaker feel that something is about to happen immediately.
1. Jitensha ga Taore sou desu. (The bicycle is almost falling over.)
2. Imanimo Ame ga Furi sou desu. (It seems like to start raining right now.)
where, Imanimo is an adverb meaning “At any moment”
(2) The speaker expresses his/her speculation about things in future.
3. Okome no Nedan ga Agari sou desu. (It seems that the price of rice is going to go up.)
4. Kotoshi wa Natsu ga Atsuku Nari sou desu. (I guess that summer is going to be hot in this year.)
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This post was written with reference to the exercise A1 of Section43 in “Minna no Nihongo (2nd Edition)” published by “3A Corporation”
Since the exercises A2 and A3 are similar in terms of use of the combination of nominalizer “no” and particle “ni”. In A2, “-no+ni” phrase expresses a purpose of action of the predicate verb. In A3, the predicate expresses how much money or how long time it takes for accomplishing the “no+ni” phrase.
<1> An example of A2 sentence
1. Kono Pasokon wa Inta’anetto o Miru no ni Tsukai masu.
(I use this personal computer in order to browse the internet.)
<2> An example of A3 sentence
2. Kuruma o Kau no ni Nihyaku Man – en Kakari masu.
(Buying a car costs 2 million yen.)
where, Kakaru/Kakarimasu is an intransitive verb which means to take
When we look at A2 sentences and A3 sentences in macro perspective like;
[“no+ni” phrase] + [Predicate].
Saying [“no+ni” phrase] is important in the A2 sentences, while saying [Predicate] is slightly more important than [“no+ni” phrase] in the A3 sentences.
Other example sentences for A3are as below;
(1) How much money it costs;
1) [V-dic]+no+ni
3. Ryuugaku-Biza o Koushin-suru no ni Yon-man Hassen – en Kakari masu.
(In order to renew the international student visa, it costs 48,000 JPY.)
where, “Koushin-suru/Koushin-shimasu” is a transitive verb which means to “renew”.
2) [N] ni
4. Ryuugaku-Biza no Koushin ni Yon-man Hassen – en Kakari masu.
(For renewing the international student visa, it costs 48,000 JPY.)
“Koushin-suru” is a verb, but “Koushin” is a noun. Note that “Ryuugaku-Biza no Koushin” is in the form of “N1 no N2”.
(2) How long time it takes;
1) [V-dic]+no+ni
5. Kaisha e Iku no ni Ichi-jikan Kakari masu.
(In order for me to go to the office, it takes one hour.)
2) [N] ni
6. Tsuukin ni Ichi-jikan Kakari masu.
(It takes one hour for the commute.)
“Tsuukin” can be a verb in the form of “Tsuukin-suru”, but just “Tsuukin” is a noun.
Take a look at the sentences 2 and 6 again;
2. Kuruma o Kau no ni Nihyaku Man – en Kakari masu.
6. Tsuukin ni Ichi-jikan Kakari masu.
Do you find subjects in these sentences? Yesterday we learned that the subject and the predicate must be consistent in a sentence. The subject markers are particle “-wa” or “-ga”. Is there any word with “wa” or “ga”? Perhaps some people want to put “-ga” as shown below, but I don’t think it’s good.
2’. Kuruma o Kau no ni <Nihyaku Man – en ga> Kakari masu.
6’. Tsuukin ni <Ichi-jikan ga> Kakari masu.
The reason why I don’t think this is a good way to show the subject is that a number with quantifier is usually used without a particle because it works as an adverbial.
Let alone, words and phrases with the particle “ni” cannot be a subject because they are also adverbials that modify a verb behind. Therefore, if the subject should be stated in the sentences, it would be like the follows;
2’’. Kuruma o Kau no ni <Okane ga> Nihyaku Man – en Kakari masu.
6’’. Tsuukin ni <Jikan ga> Ichi-jikan Kakari masu.
Let us check the consistency between the subject and the predicate for these 2’’ and 6’’.
2’’=> [Okane ga]+[Kakari masu] => good
6’’=> [Jikan ga]+[Kakari masu] => good
But in most cases, when the predicate is “Kakari masu”, the listener can easily tell it costed some money or it takes some period of time. These [Okane ga] and [Jikan ga] can be omitted.
Anyway, it is good to look for a subject and a predicate in a sentence, and then once you have found them, to check the consistency between the subject and predicate. This procedure can improve your understanding about that particular sentence.
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This post was written with reference to the exercise A3 of Section42 in “Minna no Nihongo (2nd Edition)” published by “3A Corporation”
The last post showed the followings as alternatives for sentences of A2 S42 in Minna no Nihongo.
1. Kono Pasokon wa Inta’anetto o Miru no ni Tsukai masu.
(This is the personal computer that I use to browse the internet.)
2. Kono Pasokon wa Shigoto ni Tsukai masu.
(This is the personal computer that I use for work.)
3. Kono Pasokon wa Ge’emu o Suru no ni Ii desu.
(This personal computer is good for playing games.)
4. Kono Pasokon wa Shucchou ni Ii desu.
(This personal computer is good for business trips.)
The sentences 1 and 2 are expressing purposes of the action of predicate verbs. The sentence 3 and 4 are expressing what kind of nature the subject has for a certain purpose. Also it is important to pay attention to nominalization of verbs (Miru, Suru) using the nominalizer “no” (Muru-no, Suru-no), and to a function of the particle “ni” which is to indicate the purpose of action.
But what today’s post is going to tell you is probably not the main purpose of the exercise A2 of the section 42 in Minna no Nihongo. It is about consistency between the subject and the predicate of a sentence and changes of particles from “-o” to “-wa” when an object becomes the topic.
The difference between the sentences “1 and 2” and “3 and 4” is the predicates. The sentences 1 and 2 have verb predicates, and 3 and 4 have adjective predicates. Is it the only difference?
There is a very important thing when you make a sentence. It is that the subject and the predicate must be consistent each other. Let’s look at the sentence 3 and 4. Extracting the subject and the predicate, we can get the following (3 and 4 are the same)
3/4. {Kono Pasokon wa} {Ii desu}. — This personal computer is good.
There is no problem at all as to the consistency between the subject and the predicate. Then through the same procedure, what will we get from the sentence 1 and 2?
1/2. {Kono Pasokon wa} {Tsukai masu}. — This personal computer uses.
The problem is whether or not a personal computer can be an operator. I am not sure for English, but saying like “This PC uses a lot of electricity” may not be a problem. But it sounds funny in Japanese language*. It should be “A human kind uses a computer.” like;
5. Satou-san wa Pasokon o Tsukai masu. (Sato-san uses a personal computer.)
Therefore, the subject and the predicate are inconsistent in the sentence “{Kono Pasoko wa} {Tsukai masu}.” If the sentences 1 and 2 are right, something had happened. Let me show you a correct sentence with fixing the inconsistency between the subject and the predicate.
6. Watashi wa Kono Pasokon o Inta’anetto o Miru no ni Tsukai masu**.
(I use this personal computer for browsing the internet.)
There is no subject written in the original sentence, but it is most likely that the missing subject is “Watashi (I)”. Extracting the subject and the predicate, we can get “Watashi wa Tsukai masu.” which is no problem in respect of consistency between the subject and the predicate.
Every time you make a sentence, you need to check the consistency between the subject and the predicate. A predicate is usually placed at the end of a sentence in Japanese. And the subject is indicated by particle “-ga”. When the subject and the topic are identical in a sentence, then “-wa” can be the Subject marker.
Then we need to think how the sentence 6 can turn to be the sentence 1. Think about a situation in which saying “Watashi wa” is not so important in the conversation.
6’. Kono Pasokon o Inta’anetto o Miru no ni Tsukai masu.
And you come to think you want to emphasize the “this personal computer” like “This is the PC that I use for browsing the internet”. Then a change would happen to the object indicator “-o” in order to make the PC the topic of the sentence. The topic marker is “-wa”.
1. Kono Pasokon wa Inta’anetto o Miru no ni Tsukai masu.
(This is the personal computer that I use to browse the internet.)
So the conclusion is; as to “-wa” of “Kono Pasokon wa” in the sentence 1 through 4;
– “-wa” in the sentence 1 and 2 are the topic marker, not the subject marker for the predicate “Tsukai masu”.
– “-wa” in the sentence 3 and 4 are the topic marker, at the same time the subject marker for the predicate “Ii desu.”
* It is better to avoid using inanimate objects as subjects for sentences in Japanese.
** Don’t complain about using “-o” twice. It is good to use one particle once in one sentence if it’s a short and simple sentence, but in a complicated sentence, it is likely the same particle are used more than once. The second “-o” is inside a phrase of “-ni”.
6. Watashi wa Kono Pasokon o {Inta’anetto o Miru no ni} Tsukai masu**.
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This post was written with reference to the exercise A2 of Section42 in “Minna no Nihongo (2nd Edition)” published by “3A Corporation”
へたく○！
