タグ: helping verb

Japanese learning (A5 S30): A Verb in Te-form with a Helping Verb “-okimasu”(3): Leaving It as It is; [Vt-te] oki masu.

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”

Japanese learning (A2 S30): A Verb in Te-form with One of Helping Verbs “-arimasu”(2); [Subject] wa [Noun] ni [Vt-te] ari masu.

Did you read the ending of yesterday’s post? For those who think the sentence 9 is okay, today’s title should use “[Topic] wa [Noun] ni [Vt-te] ari masu.”. But let me just use the construction that I put in the title;

[Subject] wa [Noun] ni [Vt-te] ari masu.

because I think this interpretation is easier to understand. And one of yesterday’s sentences was;

4. Kaban ni Denshi-Jisho ga Irete ari masu. (In the bag, an electric dictionary has been put.)

Converting 4 to today’s sentence construction, we will get;

1. Denshi-Jisho wa Kaban ni Irete ari masu. (An electric dictionary has been put in a bag.)

One of major differences between 4 and 1 is the subject markers. 4 uses “ga” and 1 uses “wa” for the subject marker. When it comes to select of “wa” or “ga”, the explanation always would be lengthy. Short explanation for 4 and 1 would be;

At the time of the speaker’s utterance,

[4 uses “ga”] The listener is unaware of an electric dictionary.

[1 uses “wa”] The speaker and the listener are commonly conscious about an electric dictionary.

Other examples of today’s sentence construction are as follows;

2. Tegami wa Tsukue no Hikidashi ni Shimatte arimasu. (The letter was put into the desk drawer and remains there.)

You can see “Shimatte” in the sentence, which is Te-form of “Shimau/Shimaimasu”. We have recently learned a helping verb “-shimau”. But here, “Shimau” is used as the original verb that means putting something in order into somewhere.

3. Shoukaki wa Iriguchi no Chikaku ni Oite arimasu. (The fire distinguisher was put near the entrance, and remains there.)

“Shoukaki(消火器)” is a fire distinguisher. Although we are learning a construction “[Noun] ni [Vt-te] ari masu.”, “Chikaku ni” comes from I-adjective “Chikai (near, close to)”. This “Chikai” is a little different from ordinary I-adjectives. Please check it out by your dictionary.

Considering the difference of yesterday’s and today’s constructions, practice and remember the following conversations.

A1: Reizouko no Naka ni Nani ga Hiyashite arimasuka?

(What is being kept cold in the refrigerator?)

B1: Bi’iru ga Hiyashite arimasu.

(It is beer that is kept cold.)

A2: Ja, Koppu wa Doko ni arimasuka?

(Well, then, where are the cups?)

B2: Koppu wa Te’eburu no Ue ni Narabete arimasu.

(The cups have been lined up on the table.)

At the time of speaking A1 and B2, A is unaware of Beer. Therefore “ga” is used as “Nani ga” and “Bi’iru ga”. I don’t know how you feel, but I like to drink beer from a glass cup rather than directly from the can. When A and B are talking about beer, they also think of cups, probably. At the time of speaking, both persons A and B are commonly conscious about “Koppu”, therefore “wa” is used as “Koppu wa ”.

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This post was written with reference to the exercise A2 on Section30 of “Minna no Nihongo (2nd Edition)” published by “3A Corporation”

Japanese learning (A1 S30): A Verb in Te-form with One of Helping Verbs “-arimasu”(1); [Noun] ni [Subject] ga [Vt-te] ari masu.

We have already learned two helping verbs;

1. [V-te]+iru

2. [V-te]+shimau

These “iru” and “shimau” are verbs. When they are combined with other verbs like 1 and 2, they slightly lose their original meanings, instead, they add some meanings to the verbs in Te-form. These “-iru” and “-shimau” are works like “auxiliary verbs”, but Japanese has the other word group that should be called “auxiliary verbs” in terms of grammar. Therefore, my posts call this kind of verbs “helping verbs”.

We are going to learn two helping verbs in the section 30. They are “-aru/arimasu” and “oku/okimasu”. The exercises A1 and A2 are for learning “-aru/arimasu”, and A3 to A5 are for “oku/okimasu”. The original meanings of these two are shown below;

“Aru/Arimasu”: Intransitive verb; A thing, an object without life, and a plant exist.

“Oku/Okimasu”: Transitive verb; put something onto somewhere

When these verbs become the helping verbs, these original meanings get weakened while they add some nuance to the verb in front of them.

We are learning one of usages of helping verb “aru/arimasu” in A1. At first, let’s check the conjugation patterns of it.

– Dictionary form = aru,   Masu-form = ari masu

– Nai-form = nai*

– Te-form = atte,    Ta-form = atta

Though the verb “aru” is a Group1-R verb, Nai-form “aranai” is hardly used in modern Japanese. Saying “Aranai desu.” will be considered incorrect. It is interesting that the negative form of verb “aru” is an I-adjective “nai”. A bit of digression, but “Arimasen” sounds better than “Naidesu.” when saying something doesn’t exist.

Let us look at today’s sentences;

3. Kokuban ni Ji ga Kaite ari masu. (Some characters have been written on the blackboard.)

Looking at this sentence 3, think about the followings

– “ga” is the subject marker.

– “Kaite” is the Te-form of the transitive verb “Kaku/Kakimasu”.

– “arimasu” is a helping verb here, which is an intransitive verb.

Since the verb “Kaku” is a transitive verb, usually it should be “Ji o Kaku”, but as you see, it’s “Ji ga”. So, it would be better to think that the subject is “Ji (ga)” whose predicate is “arimasu”. This could result in the sentence 3’ which is shorter than 3.

3’ Kokuban ni Ji ga Arimasu.”

Then, what is the difference between 3′ and 3? 3’ is simply telling current situation. On the other, 3 is telling is that someone wrote characters on the black board at some time in the past, and the characters still remain on the board even now.

4. Kaban ni Denshi-Jisho ga Irete ari masu. (An electric dictionary has been put in a bag.)

This sentence says that someone put the electric dictionary into bag at some time in the past, and the result of putting the dictionary into bag remains until now. Probably the person who put it in the bag is “Watashi (I)”. Then don’t you think that we have learned a similar sentence recently? That was at A1 and A2 in the section 29 with the construction of “[Vi-te] iru/imasu”. Look at the sentence 5 that uses “[Vi-te] iru” below;

5. Kaban ni Denshi-Jisho ga Haitte i masu. (There has been an electric dictionary in the bag.)

This sentence says that an electric dictionary itself got into a bag at some time in the past, and the result of getting into bag remains until now. Therefore, the sentence 4 and 5 have almost the same meaning. But you need to be careful about the difference between the two.

– 4 : [Vt-te] arimasu: Irete+arimasu

– 5 : [Vi-te] imasu: Haitte+imasu

Note that “Hairu” and “Ireru” are “a pair of intransitive and transitive verb”.

6. Genkan ni Surippa’a ga Narabete arimasu. (Slippers have been lined up at the entrance.)

This sentence says that someone put slippers neatly on the floor of entrance at some time in the past, and the result of putting slippers remains until now. “Narabete” is the Te-form of the transitive verb “Naraberu/Narabemasu”. The intransitive verb that can be the pair of this is “Narabu/Narabimasu”. Since Nai-form of Narabu is Nara<ba>nai, its conjugation pattern is Group1-B. Do you remember “Bi/Mi/Ni=>nde”? The Te-form of Narabu is “Narande”. Let us make a sentence using “[Vi-te]+imasu”.

7. Genkan ni Surippa’a ga Narande imasu. (There have been slippers lining up at the entrance.)

Since it is not clear where today’s sentences are in the above, for sake of review, they are as below;

3. Kokuban ni Ji ga Kaite ari masu. (Some characters have been written on the blackboard.)

4. Kaban ni Denshi-Jisho ga Irete ari masu. (An electric dictionary has been put in a bag.)

6. Genkan ni Surippa’a ga Narabete arimasu. (Slippers have been lined up at the entrance.)

The sentence construction of these is;

[Noun] ni [Subject] ga [Vt-te]+arimasu.

I think that today’s post can end here, but let me continue, although the following explanation may be a confusing one.

Using today’s sentence construction, making the sentence below is okay;

8. Shinkansen no Kippu ga Yoyaku-shite arimasu. (A ticket of high-speed train has been reserved.)

The verb “Yoyaku-suru” is a transitive verb, and today’s construction is “— [Subject] ga [Vt-te]+arimasu.” But look at the next one. Is the sentence okay?

9. Shinkansen no Kippu o Yoyaku-shite arimasu. (I have already got a high-speed train ticket reserved.)

Probably, it’s okay to say like 9 in the real situation. Sometimes a native Japanese speaker does say so. This is simply because “Yoyaku-suru” is a transitive verb. In the sentence 9, Kippu is not the subject of intransitive verb “arimasu”, but the object of transitive verb “Yoyaku-suru”. I would like to say I don’ think this sentence is okay to be written in the textbook, even if a native speaker says like the sentence 9. I may be wrong, because there is a school of thought who thinks the best way to learn a foreign language is to inundate a learner into the huge magnitude of flood of foreign language with a lot of words, expressions, and their variations. I think I am at opposite end as to teaching a foreign language. I try to facilitate learners understanding by restricting vocabulary and patterns of sentence constructions.

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This post was written with reference to the exercise A1 on Section30 of “Minna no Nihongo (2nd Edition)” published by “3A Corporation”