Thursday 24 January 2013

て form: What are you doing now

て form is also used when you are describing what someone is doing at that moment.

So normally, you could say something like サリーさんしんぶんよみます。Sally reads a newspaper. So, let's break it down first.

サリーさん は しんぶん を よみます

Miss Sally reads a newspaper. 

This is the basic sentence we'd use in Japanese, but what happens if someone asks:

サリーさんはいまなにをしていますか。 What is Sally doing now?

サリーさん (Miss Sally) は (particle) いま (now)  なに (what) を(particle) しています (doing) か (question)

You might think that the question will actually end in をしますか but it doesn't, the reason being is that をしますか implies future tense, which will contradict your use of the word 'now' いま. So, the question ends in をしていますか.

You need て form to describe what you are doing now, too.

The て form of よみます is よんで which we learnt in the blog post about the て form in general. Add います to よんで to finish the sentence and make it polite.

So finally, the sentence would be サリーさんはいましんぶんをよんでいます。Miss Sally is reading a newspaper now.

You can ask lots of things and give lots of answers with this! All you have to do is replace the object and the verb, and of course the person.

[Person]は [Time] [Object] を [Te form verb] います。

カイさんはいまなにをしていますか?What is Kai doing now?

カイさんはいまおちゃをのんでいます。Kai is drinking Japanese tea now. (おちゃ)

サリー

Monday 14 January 2013

て form: Connecting sentences

Another use of the て form is that you can connect two related sentences together with it.

The problem though, is you can only really connect sentences that are subject and time related, so be careful how you use it. Also, you should only connect together two sentences, or three at the most otherwise you risk sounding quite unnatural. 

しちじおきてがっこういきます。I get up at 7 and go to school. 

おきて is the て form of おきる which means to get up. We use the particle here because it indicates movement from one place to another. 

When creating a sentence using the て form, you have to remember that the verb at the end shouldn't be theて form. As you can see, in our example sentence, いきます is used and not x いって。(The te form of いく which is irregular.) Also, this verb decides the tense of the sentence. So if you wanted to make it past tense, you'd say:

しちじおきてがっこういきました。I got up at 7 and went to school. 

いきました being the past tense form of いく (It's also the polite form.)

サリー

Sunday 13 January 2013

て form: Making a request

One of the ways the て form is useful, is that it can be used for making a request: that is, politely asking someone to do something.

This is really easy!

ほん means 'book.' よむ is the dictionary form of 'to read.' (When I say dictionary form, I mean literally the simplest form which is always found in the dictionary.) を is the particle that usually comes before verbs (I don't yet understand it to it's fullest extent.) Finally, the word we need is 'please,' to make it polite. This is ください。

ほんよんでください。

Please read the book.

You need to change the verb into the て form for this. ほんをよむください。X Is not correct. 

Now, as long as you know the object and the verb, you can ask politely for a person to do anything!

ビデオみてください。Please watch the video. 

うちきてください。 Please come home. 

Did you notice that in the second setence, the particle is に instead of を? When you are suggesting a movement from A to B, you usually would use に instead of を.

That's all for now! 

サリー

て form

て form in Japanese is a form of verb that allows you to do various things.

The first thing you need to know is how to turn the dictionary form of a verb into the て form. How to do this depends on how the verb ends.

There are two types of verb. RU verbs, and U verbs. RU verbs usually end in る while U verbs usually end in other things, though there are exceptions.

たべる, to eat, is a RU verb. To turn RU verbs into the て form, it's very easy. All you do is take off the る and add て.

This means that たべ becomes たべ. Easy!

U verbs are not as simple, but with practice it'll become easy to remember.

If the verb ends in う、つ、る (remember, sometimes there are verbs that end in る that just happen to be U verbs and not RU verbs,) then to make it the て form you need to add って.

あう becomes あって。

If the U verb ends in む、ぶ、め then you need んで。

よむ becomes よんで

If the U verb ends in く, then you need to make it いて。 

かく becomes かいて。

If the U verb ends in , then you need to add いで。

およぐ becomes およいで。

If the U verb ends in then it becomes して。

はなす becomes はなして。

Great! It might take a while to remember all these, but don't worry. When you hear the verbs enough you will start to learn naturally which verb needs which ending.

Also, you need to remember three important exceptions, to go, to come and to do.

いく - いって
する - して
くる - きて

You'll just have to remember these on their own.

I'll be having some more sections with the て form, because now we know how to make it, we need to know what to do with it!

サリー