Beginning Japanese for Professionals: Book 2

72 However, these sentences explicitly give the reasons. The ~n desu pattern, on the other hand, is more subtle and appealing for empathy. In responding to these indirect explanations, it is common to show your understanding by saying, Aa sou na n desu ka . ‘Oh, that explains it’ rather than Aa sou desu ka ‘Is that so?’ 8-2-2 [Purpose X ] ni iku ‘go to do X’ In Lesson 6, we learned that the /X ni iku / means ‘go to X’ and X stands for the goal of the movement presented by verbs such as iku, kuru, and kaeru . Therefore X is usually a location. When X is NOT a location, this pattern usually means ‘go to do X’ and X stands for the reason for going. The purpose X is presented by two kinds of items: action nouns and verb stems. 1. Action nouns such as benkyou ‘study’, renshuu ‘practice’ kaimono ‘shopping’ Tokyo ni kaimono ni ikimasu I’ll go to Tokyo for shopping. Toshokan ni benkyou ni ikimashita. I went to the library to study. 2. Verb stems = the ~ masu form without ~ masu Koohii o kai ni ikimasu. I’ll go to buy coffee. Tomodachi ni ai ni kaerimasu. I’ll go back to see my friends MBA o tori ni kimashita. I came to get an MBA. Nani o shi ni iku n desu ka. What are you going there to do? 8-2-3 Plain Form + deshou / darou Darou is the plain form of deshou ‘probably’. However, some female speakers tend to avoid using darou in the sentence final position, and use deshou instead even in a casual conversation. Both deshou and darou follow the plain form of adjectives, nouns, and verbs. Formal Plain Takai deshou . Takai darou. It’s probably expensive. Ame deshou . Ame darou. It will probably rain. Kuru deshou. Kuru darou . She will probably come. Like deshou , when darou is used alone, it means ‘Isn’t it?’ or ‘Didn’t I tell you so?’ Drills and Exercises A. Cue: 行きますよ。 I’m going. Response: え、行くの？ What? Are you going? Cue: 雨ですよ。 It’s raining. Response: え、雨なの？ What? Is it raining? * Repeat this drill, replacing no with n desu . B. Cue: 行きますか？ Does he go?