Beginning Japanese for Professionals: Book 3

8 sentence remains as it was in the original quote regardless of the tense of the main verbs iu or omou . Compare the following. Meeru ga kita to itta /omotta . I said/thought that an email had come. (or, I said, “ An email came.”) Meeru ga kuru to itta/ omotta . I said/thought that an email would come. (or I said, “An email will come.”) More about [Sentence] to omou This is a structure where a smaller sentence (the quoted sentence) is embedded in a bigger sentence. The embedded sentence before /~ to omou / reflects the actual thought as it occurred and it is in the plain form regardless of whether the bigger sentence is in the formal or informal style. The final verb, omou or omoimasu, determines the speech style of the entire sentence. Formal style sentence Expressed as an opinion (Formal) Ame desu. It is raining. Ame da to omoimasu. Ame deshou It is probably raining. Ame darou to omoimasu. Ame ja nai desu. It is not raining Ame ja nai to omoimasu. Ame ja nai desu ka? Isn’t it raining? Ame ja nai ka to omoimasu. The sentences on the right above can be changed to the informal style by switching omoimasu to omou . You can ask someone for an opinion by saying: Dou omoimasu ka? What do you think? You can express your agreement by saying: Watashi mo sou omoimasu. I think so too. More about /X to iu / In a casual speech, itta ‘said’ is often dropped and the sentence is ended with the quotation particle te / tte alone. Nan te? What did he say? Meeru ga kuru tte. He said that an email would come. The verb iimasu ( iu, Group 1) means ‘say, tell’. Ossyaimasu ( ossharu , Group 4) is its honorific version (raising the person) and moushimasu ( mousu, Group 1) is its humble version (lowering the speaker). The humble form is used to lower the action of the speaker or members of the speaker’s group. In short, the honorific forms describe your out-group people and the humble forms describe your in-group. The In-group/Out-group border between two people may shift depending on who else is involved. There are a couple of special expressions that involve the quotation particle.