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In this construction, the preconditional clause has the predicates of a verb, I-adjective, Na-adjective, and Noun. Today, we are learning the same construction, but its predicates in the preconditional clause are limited to be verbs. In such case, the description below would be better to understand;
2. [Verb Clause] + tara, [Main Clause].
=> [V-ta] + ra, [What to do/What to happen next].
If a verb is in Ta-form, it means the action of the verb has been completed. Although I often call Ta-form “past/perfect tense”, but let us focus on “perfect” this time. Because Ta-form is used not only for action in the past, but also for action in the future, which will be completed in the future.
Here are exapmles;
3. Satou-san ga Kitara, Isshoni Dekake mashou. (Once Sato-san come here, let us go outside together.)
4. Kaisha ni Tsuitara, Sugu Pasokon o Tsukemasu. (As soon as I arrive at the office, I turn on my computer.)
5. Go-ji Han ni Nattara, Ie ni Kaeritai desu. (Come Five-thirty, I want to go home.)
Yesterday’s “’tara’ precondition” was just an assumed condition. Such conditions are often stative especially for the precondition clause that has a predicate of I-adjective, Na-adjective, or Noun. On the other, today’s “’tara’ precondition” describes something gets completed. Therefore, verb is used for the predicate in the precondition clause. As you see in the sentence 3 to 5, “Kita”, “Tsuita”, and “Natta” are all Ta-forms. Ta-form has the function to express that action has been completed. What is said in the main clause is what will you do (or what will happen) after an action in the precondition clause was completed. So, for this nature, the probability of occurrence of the preconditional clause tends to be higher than yesterday’s “tara precondition”s. “Sato-san ga Kitara” in 3 is about to happen, “Kaisha ni Tsuitara” in 4 is an everyday thing, and “Go-ji Han ni Nattara” in 5 is bound to happen.
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This post was written with reference to the exercise A3 on Section25 of “Minna no Nihongo (2nd Edition)” published by “3A Corporation”
The section 25 is to learn two conjunctive particles; “-tara,” and “-temo,”. Remember that “-tara,” makes So-Therefore connection and “-temo,” makes But-However type connection to the main clause. The exercise A2 and A3 introduce sentence constructions that use “-tara,”, and A2 shows variations when the preconditional clause has the predicates of a verb, I-adjective, Na-adjective, and Noun.
(1) Preconditional clause has a Positive Verb predicate
– Ame ga Futtara, Soto ni Dekake masen. (If it rains, I will not go outside.)
(2) Negative Verb
– Jikan ga Nakattara*, Asagohan o Tabemasen. (I I don’t have time, I don’t eat breakfast.)
* Note that negative form of the verb”Aru” is not “Aranai” but “Nai”.
(3) I-adjective
– Nami* ga Takakattara, Umi de Oyogimasen. (If the wave is high, I will not swim in the sea.)
* Nami : noun ; wave
(4) Na-adjective
– Heya ga Kirei*dattara, Souji Shimasen. (If the room is clean. I will not clean it.)
* Note that “Kirei” is not an I-adjective, but a Na-adjective.
(5) Noun
– Ashita Yasumi dattara, Kaimono ni Ikimasu. (If it’s day-off tomorrow, I will go shopping.)
The above examples have the construction below;
[Preconditional Clause] + tara, [Main Clause].
The speaker makes an assumption at the preconditional clause, and then says what he/she is going to do if the precondition happens. It is usually unclear as to probability of occurrence of the precondition. These things make a little bit of difference from tomorrow’s the exercise A3.
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This post was written with reference to the exercise A2 on Section25 of “Minna no Nihongo (2nd Edition)” published by “3A Corporation”
As to conjunctive particle, we have already learned a few of them such as “-kara,” and “-to,”. Let us review a little about conjunctive particles. Suppose there are two sentences.
{Sentence1}. [Conjunctive], {Sentence2}.
Usually, you put a conjunctive at the beginning of the second sentence. Depending on the relation between the Sentence 1 and 2, there are two major types of conjunctives; One is So-Therefore type, and the other is But-However type. Of course, the Sentence1 comes first, and then you will hear or read the Sentence 2. If the sentence 2 is expected one from what the sentence 1 is saying, So-Therefore type conjunctives are used. But if the sentence 2 is unexpected one from the sentence 1, But-Therefore type conjunctives are used. This combination of two sentences with a conjunctive is also used in Japanese as shown below;
(1) Kyou wa Ame desu. Dakara, Soto ni Dekakemasen. (It’s rainy. So, I will not go outside.)
(2) Kyou wa Ame desu. Demo, Soto ni Dekakemasu. (It’s rainy. But, I will go outside.)
– Dekakeru/Dekakemasu: intransitive verb, Gr2; go outside
“Dakara” in the sentence (1) is a So-Therefore type conjunctive, and “Demo” in (2) is a But-However type. Being able to use (1) and (2) like two sentence combination is good, but it is also important to learn the following construction of one sentence consisting two clauses with “Conjunctive Particle”.
[Clause1] + [conjunctive particle], [Clause2].
Also for conjunctive particles, there are two major groups as well as conjunctives; one is So-Therefore type and But-However type.
(3) Ame ga futtara, Soto ni Dekakemasen. (If it rains, I will not go outside.)
(4) Ame ga futtemo, Soto ni Dekakemasu. (Even if it rains, I will go outside.)
The conjunctive particle “-tara,” is So-Therefore type, and “-demo,” is But-However type. Do you find “If” and “Even if” in English translations of (3) and (4)? The section 25 is for learning two conjunctive particles which make conditional clauses; “-tara,” and “-temo,”. For this purpose, the exercise 1 shows you many connections of “-tara,” and “-temo,” with verbs, I-adjectives, Na-adjectives, and Nouns.
<1> Verbs
<1>-1 Verbs + tara = [V-ta] + ra
If you are not familiar with Te-form of verb, please refer to the post:
It is easy to get Ta-form of a verb if you already know how to make Te-form of a verb. It’s just replacing “te” with “ta”, or “de” with “da”. Once you have got a Ta-form, then put “ra” behind of it.
<1>-2 Verbs + temo = [V-te] + mo
It is just to put “mo” behind a [Te-form].
The following examples show you the connections of verbs and “tara” and “temo” in the order of [Masu-form], [Ta-form]+ra, and [Te-form]+mo.
The following examples show you the connections of I-adjectives and “tara” and “temo” in the order of [I-adj]+desu, [I-adj]+tara, and [I-adj]+temo.
– Samui desu — Samukattara — Samukutemo
– Tanoshii desu — Tanoshikattara — Tanoshikutemo
– Ii desu — Yokattara — Yokutemo
<3> Na-adjectives
The following examples show you the connections of Na-adjectives and “tara” and “temo” in the order of [Na-adj]+desu, [Na-adj]+tara, and [Na-adj]+demo.
– Kirei desu — Kirei dattara — Kirei demo
– Suki desu — Suki dattara — Suki demo
– Kantan desu — Kantan dattara — Kantan demo
<4> Nouns
The following examples show you the connections of Nouns and “tara” and “temo” in the order of [Noun]+desu, [Noun]+dattara, and [Noun]+demo.
– Ame desu — Ame dattara — Ame demo
– Shigoto desu — Shigoto dattara — Shigoto demo
Remember that the conjunctive particle “-tara,” is used for “So-Therefore” connection to the main clause, and “-temo,” is used for “But-However” connection to the main clause.
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This post was written with reference to the exercise A1 on Section25 of “Minna no Nihongo (2nd Edition)” published by “3A Corporation”
Now, we will learn the third benefactive expression, “[V-te] Agemashita.” This time in the section 24, all the sentences are of past/perfect tense. Let us review three types of benefactive expression as shown below;
<V-te Morau> : Watashi wa [Someone] ni [V-te] Moraimashita. — A3
<V-te Kureru> : [Someone] wa [#1]* [V-te] Kuremashita. —A4
<V-te Ageru> : Watashi wa [#2]** [V-te] Agemashita. — A5
* “Watashi” and a proper particle may be put into [#1]. As was shown in yesterday’s post;
– Satou-san wa Watashi ni Shukudai no Kotae o Misete Kuremashita.
– Suzuki-san wa Watashi o Kyouto e Tsurete Itte Kuremashita.
– Takahashi-san wa Watashi no Hikkoshi o Tetsudatte Kuremashita.
the particle for “Watashi” is “ni”, “o”, or “no” depending on the verb used in the sentence.
** [Someone] and a proper particle may be put into [#2]. This is what we are learning today.
– Watashi wa Satou-san ni DVD o Kashite Agemashita. (I lent a DVD to Sato-san.)
– Watashi wa Satou-san o Byouin ni Tsurete Itte Agemashita. (I took Sato-san to a hospital.)
– Watashi wa Satou-san no Chuugokugo o Naoshite Agemashita. (I corrected Sato-san’s Chinese.)
At the end of the section 24, here are some quizzes.
(1) Watashi wa Satou-san ni Kanji o Oshiete Moraimashita.
(2) Suzuki-san wa Watashi o Eki e Tsurete Itte Kuremashita.
(3) Watashi wa Takahashi-san no Hikkoshi o Tetsudatte Agemashita.
Q1: I helped someone, and the subject of the sentence is “I”. Which of (1)-(3) is this?
Q2: Someone helped me, and the subject is someone. Which of (1)-(3) is this?
Q3: Someone helped me, but the subject is “I”. Which of (1)-(3) is this?
This post was written with reference to the exercise A4 on Section24 of “Minna no Nihongo (2nd Edition)” published by “3A Corporation”
We have already learned another type of benefactive expression that uses “Morau/Moraimasu” for the predicate verb;
1. Watashi wa [Someone] ni [Verb Clause]+te Moraimashita.
Although the sentence construction of today is as follows;
2. [Someone] wa [Verb Clause]+te Kuremashita.
In order to compare 1 and 2, let us put the word “Watashi” into the sentence 2. Usually “Watashi” is followed by the particle “ni”
3. [Someone] wa Watashi ni [Verb Clause]+te Kuremashita.
In the followings, the example sentences are shown in the order of [V-te]Moraimashita (1.) first, and then [V-te]Kuremashita(3.).
4-1 Watashi wa Satou-san ni Shukudai no Kotae o Misete Moraimashita.
(I was shown the answers of homework by Sato-san.)
4-2 Satou-san wa Watashi ni Shukudai no Kotae o Misete Kuremashita.
(Sato-san showed me the answers of homework.)
4-1 is a sentence of “[V-te]Moraimashita”, and 4-2 is of “[V-te]Kuremashita”. When changing from 4-1 to 4-2, the subject “Watashi” turns to be “Satou-san”. When it comes to particles, “[person]ni [object]o” doesn’t change (although who the [person] is changes).
5-1 Watashi wa Suzuki-san ni Kyouto e Tsurete Itte Moraimashita.
(I was taken to Kyoto by Suzuki-san.)
5-2 Suzuki-san wa Watashi o Kyouto e Tsurete Itte Kuremashita.
(Suzuki-san took me to Kyoto.)
Different from 4-1, “[person]ni [object]o” is not used from the first (5-1), it’s “[person]ni [destination]e”. Interestingly enough, “[person]ni” doesn’t appear in 5-2, instead, “[person]o (=Watashi o)” is in 5-2. This is because the compound verb “Tsurete-iku/Tsurete-ikimasu” is a transitive verb which strongly needs the object with the particle “o”.
6-1 Watashi wa Takahashi-san ni Hikkoshi o Tetsudatte Moraimashita.
(I was helped for my moving by Takahashi-san.)
6-2 Takahashi-san wa Watashi no Hikkoshi o Tetsudatte Kuremashita.
(Takahashi-san helped me move.)
The combination of particles “[person]ni [object]o” in 6-1 cannot be retained in 6-2. “Watashi ni Hikkoshi o Tetsudau” is wrong, “Watashi no Hikkoshi o Tetsudau” is right.
Most of the case, the combination of particles “[person]ni [object]o” is applicable, but in some cases, applying “[person]ni [object]o” could end up incorrect expression.
This post was written with reference to the exercise A4 on Section24 of “Minna no Nihongo (2nd Edition)” published by “3A Corporation”
We have already learned three giving/receiving verbs; Ageru, Morau, and Kureru. So far the sentence constructions using these verbs are about giving and receiving an object.
1. [ I ]wa [ Someone ]ni [ Object ]o Agemasu. — I will be a giver
2. [ I ]wa [ Someone ]ni [ Object ]o Moraimashita. — I was a receiver
3. [ Someone ]wa [ I ]ni [ Object ]o Kuremashita. — I was a receiver, but the subject is the giver
It’s apart from the point, but did you notice that the sentence 1 is in future tense, 2 and 3 are in past tense? In the sentence 1, action “giving” will be done by me. Therefore, “I” can say what I will do in the future as an expression of will. But in the sentence 2 and 3, “giving” will be done by someone other than “I”. You can’t be perfectly sure what other people will do in the future, even if you are expecting that someone will give you something. In order to make the examples good to be practical, those 2 and 3 are using past tense. If someone gave you something in the past, it’s a sure thing so that you can express other people’s action that is “gave me”.
Anyway, the sentences 1 to 3 are expressing doing a favor by giving an object. Then, how can we express doing a favor by doing an action? The exercises A3, A4, and A5 introduce the sentence constructions that express doing a favor by doing an action. Today, we are learning one of the three, “[V-te]+Morau” as shown below;
– Watashi wa Satou-san ni Shukudai no Kotae o Misete Moraimashita.
(I was shown the answers of homework by Sato-san.)
– Watashi wa Suzuki-san ni Kyouto e Tsurete Itte Moraimashita.
(I was taken to Kyoto by Suzuki-san.)
– Watashi wa Takahashi-san ni Hikkoshi o Tetsudatte Moraimashita.
(I was helped for my moving by Takahashi-san.)
This post was written with reference to the exercise A3 on Section24 of “Minna no Nihongo (2nd Edition)” published by “3A Corporation”
The sentence construction that we learned in A1 S24 was as follows;
1. Satou-san wa Watashi ni Chokore’eto o Kuremashita. (Sato-san gave me a chocolate.)
This expression is uttered in the following situations;
<1> Both speaker and listener know who Sato-san is.
<2> The intention of this utterance is that the speaker wants the listener to know what Sato-san gave to the speaker.
Because of <1>, the particle “wa” is used as subject marker, as you see “Satou-san wa”.
Because of <2>, it is obvious that the receiver is the speaker, therefore “Watashi ni” can be omitted in this situation. Then the sentence 1 could be;
1’. Satou-san wa Chokore’eto o Kuremashita. (Sato-san gave a chocolate.)
Before introducing today’s sentences, here is a new word;
Nori（海苔）: Noun; Dried Seaweed, its shape is rectangular like sheet of paper. Usually used to wrap Sushi and Riceball.
Now, the following is the today’s sentences;
2. Kore wa Kankoku no Nori desu. Kim-san ga Kuremashita.
(This is Nori of Korea. Kim-san gave (this to me).)
If we make the two sentences of 2 a sentence like 1’, then we will get;
2’ Kim-san ga Nori o Kuremashita. (Kim-san gave Nori (to me).)
Comparing 1’ and 2’, you will find that the subject markers are different between two sentences. This is important issue. In order to think about this issue, let us stick to the sentences 2, because it is a kind of identical to what A2 S24 shows. The sentences 2 consists of two sentences, the first one is;
2-1 Kore wa Kankoku no Nori desu.
=> [Subject] [Predicate] = [Kore] wa [Kankoku no Nori] desu.
In this sentence, the particle “wa” is used as the subject marker.
– “Kore” is what the speaker and the listener are looking at.
– The purpose to utter this sentence is to tell the predicate.
For these two reasons, not “ga” but “wa” is used to indicate the subject as “Kore wa”.
The second sentence is;
2-2 Kim-san ga Kuremashita.
– “Kim-san” is what the speaker knows, but the listener doesn’t know.
– The purpose to utter this sentence is to tell who is the subject.
For these two reasons, not “wa” but “ga” is used to indicate the subject as “Kim-san ga”.
It is important to know that “ga” is used for the subject when the purpose of the sentence is to identify what/who the subject is. In order to know the difference between “wa” and “ga” as the subject markers, practice and remember the following conversation;
A : Sore wa Nandesuka. (What is it?)
B : Kore wa Nihon no Ocha desu. (This is Japanese Tea.)
A : Dare ga Kuremashitaka. (Who gave it to you?)
B : Satou-san ga Kuremashita. (Sato-san gave this to me.)
This post was written with reference to the exercise A2 on Section24 of “Minna no Nihongo (2nd Edition)” published by “3A Corporation”
As to giving/receiving verbs, we have already learned “Ageru/Agemasu” and “Morau/Moraimasu” in the section 7. Now we are learning another giving/receiving verb, which is “Kureru/Kuremasu”. In fact, there is one thing that “Kureru” is different from “Ageru” and “Morau”.
1. Watashi wa Satou-san ni Chokore’eto o Agemasu. (I will give Sato-san a chocolate.)
2. Watashi wa Satou-san ni Chokore’eto o Moraimashita. (I received a chocolate from Sato-san.)
3. Satou-san wa Watashi ni Chokore’eto o Kuremashita. (Sato-san gave me a chocolate.)
Look at the subjects of 1, 2, and 3. For the verbs “Ageru” and “Morau”, the subjects are “Watashi” which means “I” in English. On the other, for “Kureru”, the subject is “Satou-san” which is not “Watashi”. At the beginning of second language learning, it is better to use sentences whose subject is “Watashi (I)” because “Subject Watashi” increases authenticity for the learner. Since the verb “Kureru” takes a subject that is not Watashi but other people, it should be learned in a little later stage than “Ageru” and “Morau”. Note that there may be a person who say “Watashi wa Kuremasu” in some region. But this is not standard Japanese. When you give something to someone, you need to say “Watashi wa Daredare ni Naninani o Agemasu” (Daredare= someone, Naninani= something).
The followings are examples of sentences using “Kureru/Kuremasu”
4. Satou-san wa Watashi ni Hon o Kuremashita. (Sato-san gave me a book.)
5. Suzuki-san wa Watashi ni Ringo o Kuremashita. (Suzuki-san gave me an apple.)
In 1 through 5, “<person> ni <object> o” is used in common. Put in your mind this so that you can use giving/receiving verbs. But do not think the words order is always “<person> ni <object> o”. Sometimes Japanese say “<object> o <person> ni”.
4′. Satou-san wa Hon o Watashi ni Kuremashita. (Sato-san gave a book to me.)
5′. Suzuki-san wa Ringo o Watashi ni Kuremashita. (Suzuki-san gave an apple to me.)
Change of words order is likely, because not words order but function of particles is decisive for the meaning of a sentence in Japanese.
This post was written with reference to the exercise A1 on Section24 of “Minna no Nihongo (2nd Edition)” published by “3A Corporation”
In the section 23, you learned two types of sentence constructions;
A1
[Conditional Clause A]+toki, [Main Clause].
Exmaple: Douro o Wataru toki, Kuruma ni Ki o Tsukemasu. (When crossing a road, I pay attention to cars.)
A4
[Conditional Clause A]+to, [Main Clause].
Example: Douro o Wataru to, Kombini ga Arimasu. (If you corss the road, you will find a convinience store.)
Is the difference between the two clear to you?
(1) Freedom about Main clause
{[A]+toki,[B].}
— When A is happening, someone does B. The “someone” has freedom to do B to some extent. “Some extent” means that B is limited to be what an ordinary people usually do. If B is what an ordinary people usually don’t, different expression needs to be used. But it is not what we are focusing on now.
– Example: Uchi ni Kaeru toki, Osake o Kaimasu. (When I am on my way home, I will buy Sake.)
There is a freedom about what you buy on your way home. Someone wants to buy Alcohol, another person packages of ready-made food for night meal.
{[A]+to, [B].}
— When A has happened, then B happens, or B is caused as the result of A. A tends to be a hypothetical condition, but once A has happened, there is not much freedom about occurrence of B.
– Example: Uchi ni Kaeru to, Mazu Doa no Kagi o Akemasu. (When I get home, I open the door key first.)
– Example: Ame ga Furu to, Undou-kai wa Chuushi desu. (If it rains, the sports event will be cancelled.)
(2) Time sequence of the conditional clause and the main clause.
{[A]+toki,[B].}
— While A is happening, B happens.
Exmaple: Douro o Wataru toki, Kuruma ni Ki o Tsukemasu. (When crossing a road, I pay attention to cars.)
During crossing the road, you pay attention to cars.
{[A]+to, [B].}
— Once A has happened, and then B is caused.
Exmaple: Douro o Wataru to, Shoutengai ni Tsukimasu. (When you have crossed the road, you get to the shopping mall.)
When you got to the shopping mall, your action crossing the road has already ended.
<Quiz>
Choose “toki” or “to”. The answers will be shown tomorrow.
(1) Terebi o Miru { toki or to }, Megane o Kakemasu.
(2) Terebi o Miru { toki or to }, Iroirona Nyu’usu ga Wakarimasu.
(3) Ano Singou de Hidari ni Magaru { toki or to }, Yuubinkyoku ga arimasu.
(4) Eki ni Tsuita { toki or to }, Tanaka-san ni Aimashita.
This post was written with reference to the Section23 of “Minna no Nihongo (2nd Edition)” published by “3A Corporation”
A conjunctive particle is attached to the end of a dependent clause, so that the main clause of a sentence can be placed after the dependent clause. The particle “to” has already introduces as a case particle as below;
– Tomodachi to Ryokou ni Ikimasu. (I am going to travel with my friend.) — A3 S5
– Ashitano Tenki wa Yoku naranai to Omoimasu. (I don’t think weather gets good tomorrow.) — A1-3 S21
But now what we are learning is “-to,” which is a conjunctive particle. Look at the following examples;
1. Okane o Ireru to, Kippu ga Dete Kimasu. (Putting your money in, a ticket is coming out.)
2. Kono Botan o Osu to, Heya ga Akaruku Narimasu. (Pushing this button, the room gets brighter.)
3. Migi e Magaru to, Pan-ya ga Arimasu. (Turn right, then you will find a bakery.)
These sentences have the construction of;
[Clause A] + to, [Clause B].
When A happens, and then B is caused by A. In the cases of sentences 1 and 2, the machines are designed to make Action A cause Action B. Taking the action A is hypothetical, but once A happens, B will almost certainly occur. Therefore, Clause B must end assertively.
Good : Natsu ni Naru to, Atsuku Narimasu. (When summer comes, it gets hot.)
Bad : Natsu ni Naru to, Isshoni Umi e Ikimashou. (WRONG: Come summer, go to the sea together.)
A sentence using the conjunctive particle “to” should not end with expressions of will, invitation, command and so on.
This post was written with reference to the exercise A4 on Section23 of “Minna no Nihongo (2nd Edition)” published by “3A Corporation”
