Archive for 'Grammar'
すきな/きらいな Posted by Ginny on Feb 10, 2010
For today’s lesson we’ll learn how to express our likes and dislikes. First let’s take a look at this sentence: わたしはいぬがすきです (わたし = I. は = topic marking particle. いぬ = dogs. が = subject marking particle. すきです = like.) In English, this sentence would mean, “I like dogs”. これはわたしのすきないぬです (これ = this. は = topic…
Informal Forms of Verbs Posted by Ginny on Jan 28, 2010
Here are some examples of the casual form for RU verbs in the present tense affirmative and negative: おきる (to get up) : affirmative – おきる. Negative – おきない ねる (to sleep) : affirmative – ねる. Negative – ねない みる (to see) : affirmative – みる. Negative – みない Did you notice that the casual…
Informal Forms of い and な Adjectives Posted by Ginny on Jan 25, 2010
So far we looked at the polite forms of the い and な adjectives. Today we’ll look at the casual forms of い and な adjectives, but only in the present tense. The present tense polite affirmative of an い adjective : すずしいいです (cool) The present tense casual affirmative of an い adjective : すずしいい (cool) To…
Exceptions with い and な Adjectives Posted by Ginny on Jan 19, 2010
いい (good) which is an い adjective, is irregular, but only in certain cases. For example, in the present affirmative polite, いい will be いいです However in the present negative polite, いい will be よくありません Similarly, in the past affirmative polite, いい will be よかったです And the past negative polite, it will be よくありませんでした When using…
な Adjectives Posted by Ginny on Jan 16, 2010
な adjectives are adjectives that end in な. Some examples are: たいへんな (hard, serious) かんたんな (simple, easy) たいせつな (important) To form the present affirmative polite of な adjectives, drop the な and add です to the adjective しずかな (quiet) will be しずかです (It’s quiet) ひまな (not busy, to have free time) will be ひまです (It’s…
い Adjectives Posted by Ginny on Jan 13, 2010
Generally speaking, an い adjective is an adjective that ends in い. (There are exceptions to this rule, but we’ll talk about that some other time.) Examples include: はやい (fast) おそい (slow) ふるい (old for things) To form the present affirmative polite of い adjectives, add です to the adjective. Therefore: たかい (tall, expensive) will be たかいです (It’s expensive)…
あります versus います Posted by Ginny on Dec 28, 2009
あります can be used to indicate that something “is” or “exists” at a certain location. For example, あそこ に びょういん が あります = There’s a hospital over there. (あそこ = over there. に = ni particle. びょういん = hospital. が = ga particle. あります = there is.) There are a couple of things to note here. The が particle…