![]() We’re not going to get into that here, because it’s quite a complex topic. For instance, a woman might use すごいね ( sugoi ne, a popular, multiuse word meaning “cool” or “great”), but a man might shorten it to sound more masculine and say すげー ( suge-).Īs for counters, there are many specific words or suffixes used to count objects in Japanese. Some words or phrases are more often used by men or women, though. Here’s another easy part of Japanese: there are no genders for words! So you don’t have to worry about learning which words are feminine or masculine like in Romance languages such as French or Portuguese. So when you look up a verb in the dictionary, then it’s in its basic form, and can be used the same way to speak informally. The same is true for the others listed above: 食べる ( taberu), 飲む ( nomu), 読む ( yomu). Informal speech uses the dictionary or infinite form of the verb! So 行きます in informal speech is its dictionary form, 行く ( iku). Informal speech is simple and doesn’t conjugate in present tense. 行きます, 食べます ( tabumasu, “to eat”), 飲みます ( nomimasu, “to drink”), 読みます ( yomimasu, “to read”)… All these verbs are in formal form, using the -masu ending. Standard, polite Japanese, or formal Japanese, uses the -masu verb ending. It’s the form that you can use with anyone, and you’ll always sound polite. Speaking of 行きます, that is the standard polite form of Japanese. Understanding Japanese Formal and Informal Speech They’re common verbs though, so you’ll get used to them quickly. These verbs are する ( suru, “to do”) and 来る ( kuru, “to come”). There are only two irregular verbs in Japanese. Be careful though: some verbs that end in る are actually う verbs! We’ll get to this more in a moment, but let’s talk about irregular verbs first. る and う verbs are verbs that end in either る or う, and their conjugation changes based on which ending they have. There are also three different types of verbs in Japanese. 行きます ( ikimasu) is always the same no matter if I perform the action, you do, or they do! This is one of the easy parts of the Japanese language. “I go” becomes “she goes” or yo habla (“I speak” in Spanish) becomes tu hablas (“you speak”). Wait, what? How do you talk about the future then?įor instance, the sentence 大学に行きます ( daigaku ni ikimasu) could be either “I go to university/college” or “I will go to university/college.” But if you wanted to make it clear if this is present or future tense, you would add something like 今大学に行きます ( ima daigaku ni ikimasu, “I go to college now”) or 明日大学に行きます ( ashita daigaku ni ikimasu, “Tomorrow I will go to college”).Ī cool thing to note about verbs in Japanese: they don’t change based on who is performing the action! In English, or especially Romance languages like Spanish, the verbs change based on the person performing the act. But in Japanese, there’s only present tense and past tense. ![]() In English, there are three basic verb tenses: past, present, and future. You can also omit the subject usually, and it sounds more natural to do so. So, the key to remember here is: the verb always goes at the end. ![]() As long as you mark them with the correct particle and the verb goes at the end, you’re good to go. If you add a location, a time, a preposition, etc., they can go anywhere in the sentence. The handy thing is, every other part of the Japanese sentence is flexible. There are particles in there, too - which we’ll talk about in a minute - but that exact sentence in English would look like “I sports play.” That same sentence in Japanese looks like: 私は (“I”, subject) スポーツを (“sports”, object) します。(“to do/to play”, verb). “I” is the subject, “play” is the verb, and “sports” is the noun.īut in Japanese, the order is subject – object – verb. In English, the basic sentence order is subject – verb – object. Japanese sentence order is different than in English and takes a little bit of practice to get used to. ![]() The Basic Japanese Sentence Structure - The Verb Always Goes At the End! If you haven’t gotten very far in your Japanese studies yet, then here are the basics. I’m going to demystify Japanese grammar, and make it easy for you to understand!īefore we start learning actual Japanese grammar patterns, there are a few things you need to know about the Japanese language. That same phrase in Japanese requires learning how to conjugate the verb.ĭon’t worry, after you read this, it won’t be anymore. For instance, in English, we can say “I want to _.” Yes, it’s a grammar pattern, but it’s a simple one, and more a matter of learning vocabulary. Things you may not even realize are grammar patterns in English, you have to learn in Japanese. Japanese grammar patterns are quite different to those we have in English, and there is a lot to learn. If you’re wanting to learn how to speak Japanese, then you have to master Japanese grammar rules! Full disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.
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