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 サリーさんはしんぶんをよみます。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

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. 

しちじにおきてがっこうにいきます。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 に 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:

しちじにおきてがっこうにいきました。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

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。

ほんをよんでください。

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!

ビデオをみてください。Please watch the video. 

うちにきてください。 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 たべる becomes たべて. 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 ぐ, then you need to add いで。

およぐ　becomes　およいで。

If the U verb ends in す 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

＿＿＿がすきです。

In a normal conversation, you might decide you want to say you like something. Well this is very easy in Japanese!

すき is 'like' and だいすき is 'love.' だいすき is pretty strong, so I don't use it that often. Some people will say that 'love' in Japanese is あいしてる however I've never heard anyone say that, ever. It seems like it's really OTT, like something from a film?

Anyway, to make a sentence, you just need to put the thing you like followed by がすきです。

ビデオゲームがすきです。I like video games.

ビデオゲーム 'Video games.'

が This is the particle 'ga.' The usage of this is still pretty lost on me, so I use about.com  to explain it to me. Maybe this description of 'ga' will help you too. 

["Ga" is used when a situation or happening is just noticed or newly introduced.

The object of the sentence is usually marked by the particle "o," but some verbs and adjectives (expressing like/dislike, desire, potential, necessity, fear, envy etc.) take "ga" instead of "o."]

 So, in this case, 'ga' is just irregular when expressing likes and dislikes. If you know more about 'ga' and can explain it better, feel free to share!

すき As explained, this means 'to like.' 

です as explained in previous blogs, this is just 'to be' that finishes a sentence politely.

To say you love video games would be, ビデオゲームがだいすきです。But you might sound like an おたく、haha.

To add a variation, you can also add いちばん which means 'favourite.' If someone asked you what your favourite hobby is, maybe you could say ビデオゲームがいちばんすきです, which means 'I like video games the best.'

If you want to be mean and say you don't like something, you can use きらい instead. In Japanese this might be considered rude though. I've never had to say it, so I always forget what it is! ビデオゲームがきらいです。I think maybe instead of being that blunt, you could say ちょと。。。instead. It's just a kind of polite 'uhmmm not really' sound.

Thanks!

サリー

どこですか？

Today I'm learning some useful phrases for my trip to Japan. One of the first useful things I learnt was how to say where is ___?

This is an easy phrase to learn!

どこですか？Simply means 'where is?' or 'where is it?'

どこ this means 'where.'
です 'to be.'
か question marker.

You will probably want to ask where something is, though, so let's run through that.

トイレはどこですか？Where is the toilet?

All you need to do is add Place + は to the start of どこですか。

Also, another thing to note; written Japanese doesn't need an actual question mark. Usually, you wouldn't see どこですか？ you would see どこですか。

Also, in Japan, people often asked me どこですか to ask me where I was from. As an English speaker it's hard to figure out what they mean because you expect a place name or maybe something else in the sentence, but Japanese seems to be shortened a lot and relies on context a lot more.

I guess what we really need to know now, is places. It's all very well asking the question, but you need to know the answer too!

Simply, people may say あそこ、そこ、or ここ while pointing. (Over there, right near you, right here.)

But, things can get more complicated.

So, let's go through this.

First we need to know all the location words, so:

ひだり: Left
みぎ: Right
まえ: Front
うしろ: Back
なか: Inside
うえ: On
した: Under
ちかく: Near; Nearby
となり: Next to
あいだ: Between

Now, we just need to form a sentence with the particle の。

ぎんこうはとしょかんのとなりです。The library is next to the bank.

かさはテーブルのしたです。The umbrella is under the table.

So this is how you can understand an answer you may get :)

Sally