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The main items to learn in the section 31 are expressions to say your will. Just review the sentence constructions that we have learned recently.
1. Watashi wa Nihon e Ikou to Omotte imasu.
(I have been thinking about going to Japan.)
2. Watashi wa Shourai Nihon ni Ryuugaku-shuru Tsumori desu.
(I intend to be an international student in Japan in the future.)
The sentence 1 of A3 expresses a will that a person is currently thinking and/or has been thinking for a while. The sentence 2 of A5 expresses a strong will of a person who has determined about it. The two sentences are both about a will. Is there any other thing common to the two? The subject is “Watashi(I)” for either sentence. And the will that is expressed is a personal one. Actually, the sentences like 1 and 2 are not suitable to a public statement, an official job schedules, and alike.
Today’s expressions;
[Verb Clause]+ Yotei desu. / [Active Noun] no Yotei desu.
are suitable to talk about something planned officially and/or publicly. Sometimes this “Yotei desu” can be used when the subject is “Watashi”, but for the clear distinction to personal willingness, it is better to deal only with the subjects other than “Watashi” for the time being.
The followings are examples of today’s sentence construction;
[Verb Clause]+ Yotei desu.
– Buchou wa Raishuu Honsha e Iku Yotei desu. (It is scheduled that the manager is going to the headquarter next week.)
– Shinkansen wa JuuSan-ji ni Toukyou ni Tsuku Yotei desu. (The high-speed train is arriving in Tokyo at 13 o’clock.)
Note that train times are often stated using the 24-hour clock. In this case, Tsuku is not 付くbut 着く in kanji.
[Active Noun] no Yotei desu.
– Raishuu wa Koujou-Kengaku no Yotei desu. (A factory tour is scheduled next week.)
Koujou: noun; factory Kengaku: noun(-suru); tour to learn, observe and inspect.
Perhaps “Watashi” can be a subject of this sentence in the form below;
– Raishuu, Watashi wa Koujou-Kengaku no Yotei desu.
This sentence is not your personal willingness, but a kind of official statement about your job.
– Gogo wa Gemba-Kantoku no Yotei desu. (Supervising the site is scheduled in the afternoon.)
“Gemba-Kantoku” is not a word of beginner’s level vocabulary, sorry. But I have to be careful about wording in order to avoid copyright issue.
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This post was written with reference to the exercise A6 on Section31 of “Minna no Nihongo (2nd Edition)” published by “3A Corporation”
As to expressing one’s will, there are two sentence constructions that are introduced in beginners’ level. One is introduced in A3, and the other is in A5 which we are learning today.
1. Kyou no Yoru, Repo’oto o Kakou to Omotte imasu. (I am thinking about writing a report tonight.) — A3; [Verb in Volitional form]+to Omotte imasu.
2. Kyou no Yoru, Repo’oto o Kaku Tsumori desu. (I intend to write a report tonight.) — A5; [V-dic/V-nai] Tsumori desu.
Here is a caveat which is applied to both expressions. The subject of the sentence must be “Watashi”. In other words, only when you say your will, these two expressions are applicable with the subject “Watashi (I)”. You can say your own will, but cannot say other people’s will directly as if saying your will. Although the subject doesn’t appear in the sentence 1 and 2, it must be “Watashi.”
Then, let’s check the difference between the sentence 1 and 2. The sentence 1 ends with “-imasu.” Therefore, 1 is a verb predicate sentence. But the sentence 2 end with “Tsumori desu”. Although the English translation of 2 is a verb sentence (I intend …), the sentence 2 is a noun predicate sentence. It is neither I- nor Na- adjective sentences because it has the following structure;
[Kaku=V-dic]+ Tsumori +desu.
If “Tsumori” is an adjective, the verb in front cannot be in dictionary form.
Given that “Tsumori” is a noun, I think there are two issues to talk about.
<1> The sentence construction “[V-dic]+ Tsumori desu” doen’t need to learn new conjugation. On the other, “[V-volitional]+to Omotte imasu” needs to learn a lot of new conjugation. It usually ends up like most learner prefer the former to the latter.
<2> Although the sentence construction “[V-dic]+ Tsumori desu” is a noun predicate sentence, “Subject equals Predicate” does not hold true. Look at the simple noun predicate sentence 3;
3. Watashi wa Daigakusei desu. (I am a university student.)
In the sentence 3, “I” and “students” are both human kinds. So, “subject equals predicate” is true in the sentence 3. But what about next one?
4. Watashi wa Repo’oto o Kaku Tsumori desu.
=> [Literal translation] = I am the intention to write a report.
“I” is a human kind, but “intention” is an abstract concept. Can {“I” equals “intention”} be true? But in Japanese, this kind of noun predicate sentences really exist. One extreme example is as follows. Guests are gathering and the host is asking what they want to drink. One person answers “Watashi wa Ko’ora desu.” Is it real that a person is cold liquid with brown color and foaming? No, the guest says that what he/she wants to drink is a cup of Cola. It is possible to think that “Watashi wa Ko’ora desu.” is an abbreviation of “Watashi wa Ko’ora ga Nomi tai desu.” or “Watashi ga Nomitai mono wa Ko’ora desu.”. But anyway, “Subject equals to the predicate, vice versa” is not applied to some noun predicate sentences of Japanese.
The lengthy argument above comes from the noun “Tsumori”. When putting a verb clause just in front of Tsumori, a verb becomes dictionary form or Nai-form according to the meaning. If Ta-form or V-nakatta is used, the sentence could not be the sentence to express your will. Therefore, the cases of dictionary form and Nai-form are presented below;
<Dictionary-Form+Tsumori desu>
5. Watashi wa Shourai Nihon ni Ryuugaku-shuru Tsumori desu.
(I intend to be an international student in Japan in the future.)
6. Watashi wa Kotoshi mo N-1 no Shiken o Ukeru Tsumori desu.
(I have a will to take the N-1 test this year also.)
<Nai-Form+Tsumori desu>
7. Watashi wa Sotsugyou Shitemo, Kaisha ni Shuushoku-shinai Tsumori desu.
(Even after I graduate, I will not get a job in a company.)
As to the conjunctive particle “-temo”, refer to the Section 25. The verb “Shuushoku-suru” is an intransitive verb. Therefore, “(WRONG) Kaisha o Shuushoku-suru” is wrong, the right one is “Kaisha ni Shuushoku-suru”.
8. Watashi wa Mou Nidoto Kare ni Awanai Tsumori desu.
(I will never meet my boyfriend again.)
The verb “Au/Aimasu” is an intransitive verb. Therefore, “(WRONG) Kare o Au” is wrong, the right one is “Kare ni Au”.
Now that you have known two sentence constructions to express your will; one uses volitional form of verbs, the other uses the noun “Tsumori”. Then the question would be the difference between the two and how to select one of two for proper use. Which expresses a stronger will or determination? For this issue, please check yourself. I hope you will find an answer.
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This post was written with reference to the exercise A5 on Section31 of “Minna no Nihongo (2nd Edition)” published by “3A Corporation”
These days, I quite often find holes and droppings on some of the tomatoes in my field.
I apologize if a viewer happened to eat something (especially tomato salad) while looking at this.
I can do nothing but to throw the damaged tomatoes away.
By the way, today was a quite hot day.
We have learned some usages of “[V-te] iru/imasu”. Action ongoing is introduced in the section 14, continuing/sustained action is in the section 15, repetitive actions in the section 28, and remaining of action result in the section 29. These are introduced basically in the forms of positive sentences. But today’s sentence construction is a negative “V-te iru”, that is, “V-te inai” for short ending style and “V-te imasen” as “Desu-masu” style.
As was indicated in A2, using “V-te iru” makes an instantaneous action a stative situation. This is a direct explanation of the usage of “V-te iru” for continuing/sustained action. As for “V-te inai”, it is the negative form of “V-te iru”, and describes the situation continues in which something has not been done.
Suppose now the time is 10a.m. It’s late morning hour, but too early for lunch.
– Question : Asa-gohan o Tabe mashitaka. (Did you eat your breakfast?)
– WRONG Answer : Iie, Tabemasen. (No, I am not going to eat (breakfast).)
– RIGHT Answer : Iie, Mada Tabe———————-. (No, I haven’t eaten yet.)
You can tell why the wrong answer is wrong through the English translation. But how do you fill the brank for the right answer? Before showing how to fill the brank, let me tell you about the adverb “Mada”.
– Mada ; Adverb ; not yet (for negative expression), still (for positive expression).
There are two meanings for this “Mada”, but memorize the negative one. Usually sentence having “Mada” ends with negative ending like “-nai.” or “-masen.”. So, put in your mind as “Mada <Naninani> Nai.” so that you can remember the corresponding to the sentence end. In addition, there is a similar adverb in respect of pronunciation.
Mada <=> Mata ; again
If it is difficult for a learner to pronounce differently voiced plosive “d” and voiceless plosive “t”, Mada and Mata can be confusing.
Let us return to today’s sentence construction “V-te imasen”. The answer of the conversation above is as below;
A : Asa-gohan o Tabe mashitaka. (Did you eat your breakfast?)
B : Iie, Mada Tabete imasen. (No, I haven’t eaten yet.)
People eat their breakfast at their convenient time in the morning. Time is just up to each person, probably it would range from 6a.m. to 9a.m., or so. For the person B, his/her situation “having not eaten breakfast” continues through the time range for breakfast and now it’s 10 a.m. Taking consideration about continuous state of “having not eaten breakfast”, the person B uses the negative version of “V-te imasu”, which is “V-te imasen.”
Above conversation is thought to happen at 10a.m. Therefore time ranges is considered, and results in using “V-te imasen.” Then if the conversation happens at 8p.m. in the night, how the person B is going to answer?
A : Kyou no Asa, gohan o Tabe mashitaka. (Did you eat your breakfast this morning?)
B : Iie, Tabemasen deshita. (No, I didn’t eat the breakfast.)
Actually, answering “Iie, Tabete imasen.” is still okay, though “mada” should be eliminated. If saying at 8p.m. “Iie, Asagohan wa Tabete imasen.”, it would be the usage of “V-te iru” expressing “experience that affects present somehow”. But this usage is not essential for learners of beginners’ level. The important thing is, at 8p.m, “Breakfast eating time” has lost its time range, and become a point of time in the past. Therefore, the answer usually would be “Tabemasen deshita” that is the sentence ending for “past-negative”.
Learning the negative version of “V-te iru/imasu” that is “V-te inai/imasen” is important. But the main purpose of the section 31 is to learn how to express your will. Doesn’t it seem “V-te inai” has little to do with a will? I guess, probably the writers of Minna no Nihongo intended to make a short discourse like below;
– Ashita ga Repo’oto no Shimekiri desu. (The deadline of report is tomorrow.)
– Demo, Watashi wa Mada Repo’oto o Kaite imasen. (But I haven’t written the report yet.)
– Kyou no Yoru, Repo’oto o Kakou to Omotte imasu. (I am thinking about writing the report tonight.)
As you see, the second sentence is of today’s sentence construction, and the third yesterdays.
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This post was written with reference to the exercise A4 on Section31 of “Minna no Nihongo (2nd Edition)” published by “3A Corporation”
1. Nihon e Ikou to Omotte imasu. (I have been thinking about going to Japan.)
We can’t find a subject in the sentence 1. If there is no subject in a sentence of beginners’ level, the subject is usually “Watashi (I)”. Then the sentence structure would be displayed as below;
2. [Subject=Watashi] wa {Verb Clause} to Omotte imasu.
We have already learned an expression of embedded clause in the exercises A1 and A2 of the section 21, where the sentences end with “to omoimasu.”. “to” is a particle that marks the end of the embedded clause. As for “Omoimasu” was just a Masu-form of the verb “Omou”. In the today’s sentence construction, the sentence’s ending is “Omotte imasu.” Why “V-te imasu” is used for today’s sentence? If someone says “Ikou to Omoimasu”, would this make big difference? Probably there is not much difference between “to Omoimasu” and “to Omotte imasu” because “Omou(think)” is a verb that tends to be stative rather than active. But for the sentence 1, it would be better to use “to Omotte imasu.” because you have been thinking for some period of time about what you are going to do from now on. “Have been thinking” is the point to use “V-te imasu”. And let me say this; mastering “V-te iru” is important to proceed from beginner’s level to intermediate level. This is a good chance to learn application of “V-te iru”.
The followings are examples of today’s sentence construction.
<Group 2 Verbs>
– Ashita, Eiga o Miyou to Omotte imasu. (I have been thinking about to watching a movie tomorrow.)
– Nichiyoubi, Itaria Ryouri o Tabeyou to Omotte imasu. (I have been thinking about eating Italian food on Sunday.)
<Group 3 Verbs>
– Rainen mo Kono Umi ni Koyou to Omotte imasu. (I am thinking about coming to this seashore again next year.)
– Nihon o Ryokou-shiyou to Omotte imasu. (I have been thinking about traveling in Japan.)
<Group1 Verbs>
Gr1-W : Atarashii Pasokon o Kaou to Omotte imasu. (I have been thinking about buying a new personal computer.)
Gr-K : Nihon de Hatarakou to Omotte immasu. (I have been thinking about working in Japan.)
Gr1-G : Hawai no Umi de Oyogou to Omotte imasu. (I have been thinking about swimming in the beach in Hawaii.)
Gr1-S : Raishuu Apa’ato o Sagasou to Omotte imasu. (I have been thinking about looking for an apartment.)
Gr1-T : Tsugi no Shiai de Katou to Omotte imasu. (I have been thinking about winning the upcoming match.)
Gr1-B : Renkyuu ni Toukyou de Asobou to Omotte imasu. (I have been thinking about having a fun in Tokyo in consecutive holidays.)
Gr1-M : Shizukana Machi ni Sumou to Omotte imasu. (I have been thinking about living in a quiet town.)
Gr1-R : Ichiban Mae no Seki ni Suwarou to Omotte imasu. (I am thinking about sitting in the front raw.)
What we are learning above is a sentence to express a will with a verb in volitional form. Of course, a learner needs to learn a lot of volitional forms in order to be able to utter the sentence of today. But a fact is that many learners don’t want to learn volitional forms and would tend to substitute the following sentence for today’s sentence.
– [V-masu without “masu”]+tai desu. / tai to Omoimasu. / tai to Omotteimasu.
Example; Nihon e Ikitai desu. (I want to go to Japan.)
This sentence using “-tai” is to express your desire, hope, and wish that are a little different from a will. It is desirable for learners to learn volitional form because the form is very often used for expressing your will, and as shown yesterday, for casual suggestions.
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This post was written with reference to the exercise A3 on Section31 of “Minna no Nihongo (2nd Edition)” published by “3A Corporation”
There is a very important issue when learning Japanese. But a textbook writer hardly writes it in the book explicitly, nor a teacher teaches well in the classroom. You have to choose the speech style properly in accordance with your listeners and the situation. If the level of learners is intermediate or higher, I would present four speech style; Rough, Friendly, Polite, and Honorific. But for beginners, I would tell learners to choose one of two speech style properly. They are casual and polite speech styles.
– Casual speech style: Use this style when talking to your friends. Ends of sentence take the forms of “short ending style” and often a friendly ending particles like “-yo.”, “-ne.”, and “-yone.” are attached at the end of the sentence.
– Polite speech style: Use this style when talking in public space like a school, company, station of the public transportation, and so on. Ends of sentence take the forms of “Desu-Masu style”.
If someone speaks in casual speech style where actually people should use polite speech style, his/her Japanese would sound rude. In worst case scenario, an error on selecting speech style would bring a serious consequence for foreign people. Therefore, a Japanese teacher must teach this speech style issue well, in order to prevent the learner from such a dangerous situation.
Most of Japanese sentences in Minna no Nihongo are written in polite speech style. So, it is safe for people from foreign country to speak to native Japanese speakers with what is written in Minna no Nihongo. Some exceptions are the section 20 which is to learn the short endings for sentences and the casual speech style. And also, the exercise A2 in the section 31 is introducing expressions that is to be used in casual speech style. It’s simple. It’s just to use a volitional form when telling your suggestion to people intimate to you, like friends.
The followings are examples of casual suggestions using Volitional form of verbs;
<Group 2 Verbs>
– Ashita, Roku-ji ni Okiyou. (Let’s get up at 6 tomorrow.)
– Isshoni Hiru-Gohan o Tabeyou. (Let’s have a lunch together.)
<Group 3 Verbs>
– Rainen mo Kono Umi ni Koyou. (Let’s come to this seashore again next year.)
– Kono Kouen o Sampo-shiyou. (Let’s walk this park.)
<Group1 Verbs>
Gr1-W : Uta o Utaou. (Let’s sing a song.)
Gr-K : Eki made Arukou. (Let’s walk to the station.)
Gr1-G : Pu’uru de Oyogou. (Let’s swim in the pool.)
Gr1-S : Nihongo de Hanasou. (Let’s talk in Japanese.)
Gr1-T : Basu o Matou. (Let’s wait for a bus.)
Gr1-B : Kono Kouen de Asobou. (Let’s play in this park.)
Gr1-M : Kono Hon o Yomou. (Let’s read this book.)
Gr1-R : Basutei made Hasirou. (Let’s run to the bus stop.)
So, the above suggestions using volitional form are to be used to your friend, because they are expressions in casual speech style. If the last one (Gr1-R) is changed to be expressions of polite speech style, it would be like follows;
A: Basutei made Hashirimasenka.
B: Hai, Hashirimashou.
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This post was written with reference to the exercise A2 on Section31 of “Minna no Nihongo (2nd Edition)” published by “3A Corporation”
The section 31 of Minna no Nihongo is to learn expressions of intention. One of such sentences to express your intention, “Volitional form” of a verb is used. The exercise A1 is listing Masu-form and Volitional-form. Also in this post, Volitional forms of verbs are shown for each conjugation patterns below;
VOLITIONAL FORM of VERBS
Dictionary Form / Masu Form — Volitional Form
<Group 2 Verbs>
Okiru / Okimasu (get up) — Okiyou
Oshieru / Oshiemasu (teach/tell) — Oshieyou
Taberu / Tabemasu (eat) — Tabeyou
<Group 3 Verbs>
Kuru / Kimasu (come) — Koyou
Suru / Shimasu (do) — Shiyou
<Group1 Verbs>
Gr1-W : Tsukau / Tsukaimasu (use) — Tsukaou
Gr-K : Aruku / Arukimasu (walk) — Arukou
Gr1-G : Oyogu / Oyogimasu (swim) — Oyogou
Gr1-S : Naosu / Naoshimasu (repair, correct) — Naosou
Gr1-T : Matsu / Machimasu (wait for) — Matou
Gr1-B : Asobu / Asobimasu (play for fun) — Asobou
Gr1-M : Yomu / Yomimasu (read) — Yomou
Gr1-R : Hashiru / Hashirimasu (run) — Hasirou
It will be shown in the exercises A2 and A3 about how these verbs in volitional forms are used in a sentence. Today I just show you the above list, but let me add an explanation about a difficult part. When it comes to verb conjugations, it would be difficult for learners to distinguish between Group2 verbs and Group1-R verbs.
Gr2 : Okiru / Okimasu (get up) — <RIGHT>Okiyou <WRONG>Okirou
Gr1-R : Hashiru / Hashirimasu (run) — <RIGHT>Hasirou <WRONG>Hashiyou
As you see above, the right volitional forms use “-you” for Group2 verbs and “-rou” for Group1-R verbs. The followings are a little bit of exercises
Q: Which is the right Volitional Form?
1. Tsukuru/Tsukurimasu — Tsukuyou OR Tsukurou
2. Neru/Nemasu — Neyou OR Nerou
3. Nemuru/Nemurimasu — Nemuyou OR Nemurou
4. Shiraberu/Shirabemasu — Shirabeyou OR Shiraberou
5. Kaeru/Kaerimasu — Kaeyou OR Kaerou
6. Suwaru/Suwarimasu — Suwayou OR Suwarou
7. Kuraberu/Kurabemasu — Kurabeyou OR Kuraberou
8. Yameru/Yamemasu — Yameyou OR Yamerou
9. Sawaru/Sawarimasu — Sawayou OR Sawarou
10. Hajimeru/Hajimemasu — Hajimeyou OR Hajimerou
The answers will be shown tomorrow (Probably, maybe, perhaps…,). How to solve the above questions are as follows;
<1> Make Nai-form
<2> What is just in front of “-nai”?
<3> If it’s “i” or “e”, the verb is Group2 verb, if it’s “ra”, the verb is Group1-R.
<4> For Gr2, put “-you”. For Gr1-R, put “-rou” to the stem of verb.
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This post was written with reference to the exercise A1 on Section31 of “Minna no Nihongo (2nd Edition)” published by “3A Corporation”
This is the third one for us to learn “V-te okimasu”. Both A3 and A4 are “V-te okimasu ” to express doing a preparation (A3) and handling a situation (A4). A common nature between A2 and A3 is positively making action for the matter with prediction about near future.
1. Ichigakki ga Hajimaru Mae ni, Kyoukasho o Katte okimasu. —<A3>
(Before the first semester starts, I will buy the textbooks.)
In the sentence 1, prediction about near future is the semester’s start, and action is buying textbooks.
2. Ban-Gohan ga Owatta ra, Chawan ya Osara o Aratte okimasu. —<A4>
(I will wash Rice bowls, dishes and so on when the supper is over.)
In the sentence 2, prediction about near future is that supper ends, and action is washing dishes.
But today’s A5 is not to express positively making action but to express intentionally leaving the matter as is. Since the speaker of A5 sentences still predicts near future, some times it is difficult to make a judgement if the “V-te okimasu” is making action or leaving it as is. For example;
3. Ashita, Uchiawase ga Arimasu kara, Isu o Narabete okimasu.
(Since we’ll a small meeting tomorrow, I am going to arrange the chairs.)
4. Ashita, Uchiawase ga Arimasu kara, Isu wa Soko ni Narabete okimasu.
(Since we’ll a small meeting tomorrow, I am leaving those chairs lining up there.)
where; Uchiawase ; noun(-suru); a small scale meeting
Do you find the difference between 3 and 4? “Isu o” in 3 turns to be “Isu wa Soko ni” in 4.
– “Isu o” means that “Isu” is the object of transitive verb action “Naraberu”. Probably in the sentence 3, the action “Isu o Naraberu” will be done by positive action.
– “Isu wa” means that the object “Isu o” has changed to be the topic, because the particle “wa” is the topic marker. And usually a word with “wa” is common to both speaker and listener. In addition, the word for place “Soko ni” implies that both speaker and listener are looking the chairs there. Therefore, chairs are not going to be lined up from now, but they are already there.
Now it is clear that the sentence 3 expresses positively making action, while the 4 expresses intentionally leaving as is. In order to make easier to distinguish when the sentence expresses intentionally leaving the matter as it is, it is good to use an adverb. It is;
Sonomama(ni); Adverb ; As-is
5. Ashita, Uchiawase ga Arimasu kara, Isu wa Sonomama ni Shite okimasu.
(Since we’ll a small meeting tomorrow, I am leaving the chairs as is now.)
For your exercise, read and practice the following conversations;
A: Kono Heya o Souji Shi mashouka. (Shall I clean this room?)
B: Asita Minna de Souji Shimasu kara, Sonomama ni Shite oite kudasai.
(Since I and my colleagues will clean here tomorrow, please leave it there.)
A: Mado o Shimete, Eakon o Tsuke mashouka. (Shall I close the window and turn on the AC?)
B: Eakon wa* Kowarete imasu kara, Mado wa Sonomama Akete oite kudasai.
(Since the Air-Conditioner broke, Leave the window open. )
* : Usually “ga” is used as subject maker inside a conditional clause in order to clarify what the subject of the condition. However in this conversation, the person A has already mention “Eakon”. Since the “Eakon(Air-Conditionet)” is shared between the two people, “wa” is used even though it is a conditional clause.
A: Ano Soujiki o Shimai mashouka. (Shall I put that vacuum cleaner back?)
B: Watashi ga Kore kara Tsukai masu kara, Sonomama Oite* oite** kudasai.
(Since I am going to use it from now, please leave it there.)
* Oite : This is Te-form of a verb “Oku/Okimasu”, usually written with Kanji “置いて”
** oite : This is Te-form of a helping verb “oku/okimasu”, usually written in Hiragana “おいて”.
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This post was written with reference to the exercise A5 on Section30 of “Minna no Nihongo (2nd Edition)” published by “3A Corporation”
Yesterday’s “[V1-dic] mae ni, [V2t-te] oki masu.” is to express you do something as preparation before V1 happens. Today we are learning another “V-te okimasu” expression wich is “[V1-ta] ra, [V2t-te] oki masu.” This is to say you do something once V1 action occurred. Note the difference of verb conjugation;
– [V1-u] Mae ni, V2-te okimasu.
– [V1-ta] ra, V2-te okimasu.
Ta-form is to describe the completion of action. Therefore Ta-form is often used in the sentence of past tense. But to be precise, it is perfect tense. Ta-form is also used as “future perfect” as you see in today’s sentences. See the example sentences;
1. Ban-Gohan ga Owatta ra, Chawan ya Osara o Aratte okimasu.
(I will wash Rice bowls, dishes and so on when the dinner is over.)
When you say “Chawan to Osara”, only these two kinds of utensils are there. “Chawan ya Osara” can mean there are not only rice bowls and dishes, but also some other like cups, chopsticks, spoons and so on.
2. Dejikame o Tsukatta ra, Juuden shite okimasu.
(I will charge the (battery of) digital camera once I finished using it.)
Though I used the form of “[V-ta] ra”, it can be called as conjunctive particle “-tara,”. “-tara,” is introduced in the section 25, and is very useful for presenting conditions.
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This post was written with reference to the exercise A4 on Section30 of “Minna no Nihongo (2nd Edition)” published by “3A Corporation”
Agony or Fun?! Second Language Learning 