Beginning Japanese for Professionals: Book 3

2 Grammar Notes 9-1-1 Verb Plain Past form and ~ te form Having learned how to make the plain forms of verbs, we will now learn the rules governing the formation of the Plain Past form. Group 1 : The rules are different depending on the final consonant of the verb. ~(w)u, ~tsu ~ru à tta kau à katta, matsu à matta, wakaru à wakatta ~mu, ~nu, ~bu à nda nomu à nonda (shinu à shinda, asobu à asonda) ~ku à ita kaku à kaita ~gu à ida isogu à isoida ~su à shita hanasu à hanashita You can memorize these rules by saying— u . tsu.ru- tta, mu.nu.bu- nda, ku-ita, gu-ida, su- shita ( うつるった、むぬぶんだ、くいた、ぐいだ、すした) Group 2 : ru à ta taberu à tabeta Grpup 3 : Memorize each irregular form. kuru à kita, suru à shita, iku à itta, aru à atta Group 4 : ru à tta irassharu à irasshatta, ossharu à osshatta To make the Past negative form, change nai à nakatta nomu à nomanai à namanakatta taberu à tabenai à tabenakatta The ~ te form is made by switching the vowel / a / of the Past form to / e / ( te à ta; de à da ). nomu à nonda à nonde taberu à tabeta à tabete Congratulations! With this, we have completed all the three sentence types in Formal/Informal, Non-Past/Past, and Affirmative/Negative. Now let’s move on! 9-1-2 V -te iru : ‘be V-ing’ or ‘have V-ed’ The verb ~ te form + iru has two basic meanings of Progressive or Resultative. 1. Progressive: On-going process (similar to the progressive form in English) Ima, tabete iru. I’m eating now. Mainichi renshuu-shite iru. I’m practicing everyday. Asa wa benkyou-shite imashita. I was studying in the morning.