Throughout the course of this section we will look at basic inflections for verbs and verbal adjectives‚ as well as look at a small number of particles that are intricately interwoven with verbal grammar. We shall also look at the basic use and formation of nouns and adverbs‚ so that this chapter in effect covers the minimal basics of “basic Japanese”. We will start by looking at which particles are essential in order to under-
52 Verb grammar — § 2.1 Inflecting stand basic verb grammar‚ and will move from there to simple verb forms: present and past tense‚ as well as affirmative and negative forms. In order to get an overview of the basic concepts involved without offering too much information at once‚ polite verbal grammar will not be introduced until the next chapter‚ after basic grammar has been covered.
Particles
Verbs and verbal adjectives are used in combination with a number of particles to ex- plicitly mark parts of a sentence as relating to them. For verbs‚ these are the particles を‚ に and が‚ and for verbal adjectives this is just the particle が.
First off‚ を (pronounced as お). This particle is used to mark a transitive verb’s direct object. This particle is fairly straightforward and does what one expects from it given this explanation. In “I eat an apple” the noun “apple” is the direct object for the verb “eat”‚ and in the corresponding Japanese sentence‚ リンゴを食
た
べる‚ the word リンゴ (‘apple’) is the direct object to the verb 食べる (‘eat’). However‚ not everything that is considered a direct object in Japanese is considered a direct object when translated to English. For instance‚ in Japanese an aeroplane can “fly the air”‚ whereas in English aeroplanes just fly.
Second is に‚ which broadly speaking marks verb details. Translating a sen- tence using に to English yields the parts marked with に as becoming indirect ob- jects‚ prepositional phrases or even adverbs. Anything that is “not the verb actor‚ or the direct object”‚ but adds more details to the verb action‚ will be marked with に. For instance‚ the Japanese sentence メーリに花
はな
を買
か
ってあげた translates to the En- glish sentence “I bought flowers for Mary”‚ with に mapping to the word ‘for’‚ which in English indicates an indirect object. This is hardly its only ‘meaning’; the Japanese sentence ９時
じ
に来
く
る translates to “I’ll be there at nine”‚ with に mapping to the prepo-
sition ‘at’. Moreover‚ in the Japanese きれいに分
わ
ける‚ translating to the English “to divide cleanly”‚ the に marks the noun きれい‚ “clean/neat/tidy”‚ as being used ad- verbially‚ “neatly‚ cleanly”.
Finally‚ the particle が is an interesting particle. When used with verbal adjec- tives‚ it marks the thing the adjective applies to. For instance‚ in the English sentence “that car is fast”‚ the adjective “fast” pertains to “that car”. Similarly‚ in the correspond- ing Japanese sentence その 車
くるま
が速
はや
いです‚ the verbal adjective 速い (‘fast’) pertains to その車 (‘that car’). This concept is carried over to verbs‚ too. Some verbs have what would in English be considered a direct object‚ but in Japanese are not considered di- rect object because the verb does not ‘impart’ its action on it. For instance‚ in “I throw the ball”‚ the throwing action is imparted on the ball. However‚ in “I know the text- book’s material”‚ knowing is not an action imparted ‘on’ the material — in these cases‚ rather than を‚ が is used in Japanese‚ so that for instance “I understand Japanese” is
Verb grammar — § 2.1 Inflecting 53
not expressed as 日本語
にほんご
を分
わ
かる but as 日本語が分かる. This is particularly obvious when using verbs in passive mode‚ changing for instance “I eat the cake” to “the cake is being eaten by me”. In the corresponding Japanese sentences‚ the particle changes from を to が: ケーキを食べる becomes ケーキが食べられる. In addition to this‚ が may mark a verb’s actor‚ so that it is possible to have two different uses of が in the same sentence: 私
わたし
がこれが分かる‚ translates to “I (私‚ actor) understand (分かる‚ verb) this (これ‚ pertaining object)”.
In addition to these three particles‚ you will also often see the particle は (pro- nounced as わ) being used in example sentences. This particle acts as a disambigua- tor when a sentence would otherwise be confusing in terms of who or what it was about‚ or what it was in relation to. For instance‚ 歩
ある
かない and 今日
きょう
は歩かない translate to “I do not walk” and “I won’t be walking today” by virtue of the second sentence disambiguating the context from as broad as possible (i.e.‚ ‘in general’)‚ to ‘just today’ (今日). This can have some perhaps unexpected side effects‚ too: when saying 私
わたし
は泳
およ
ぎません‚ “I do not swim”‚ the explicit presence of 私は means that you apparently felt that you needed to disambiguate the statement‚ which means any lis- tener will suddenly wonder who then ‘does swim’‚ as opposed to you. On the other hand‚ 私が泳ぎません merely means “I do not swim”‚ using が to mark yourself as verb actor for 泳
およ
ぐ.
Verbal grammar - present tense
Before we look at how to form the present tense‚ a note. There is no distinction between present tense such as “I walk” and indicative future tense such as “I will walk”. Both roles are performed by the same verb form in Japanese: the 連体形
れんたいけい
. Any verb or verbal adjective in 連体形 is automatically in present/indicative future tense. Listing this form for example words from all three verbal classes‚ we see the following:
連体形 meaning plain present affirmative
五段 verb 歩 ある く walk 連体形: 歩く 一段 verb 見 み る see 連体形: 見る verbal adjective 高 たか い high‚ expensive 連体形: 高い
Some examples of the present tense used in simple sentences: 今日
きょう
は歩く。 Today (I’ll) walk.
54 Verb grammar — § 2.1 Inflecting テレビを見る。 (I) watch TV. これが高い。 This is expensive.
Negative
Having covered the present affirmative tense‚ the next important basic inflection is the negative form. In Japanese‚ negative verb and verbal adjective forms are created with the helper adjective of negation‚ ない (無い)‚ or using the rather classical verb ぬ which will be discussed after polite forms have been introduced later in this chapter. ない is actually a verbal adjective‚ and so inflects like any other verbal adjec- tive: bases form 未然形 なく 連用形 なく 連体形 ない 已然形 なけれ
This helper is combined with both verbs and verbal adjectives by joining up with the 未然形‚ or imperfect base:
連体形 meaning plain present negative
五段 verb 歩 ある く walk 未然形+ない: 歩かない 一段 verb 見 み る see 未然形+ない: 見ない verbal adjective 高 たか い high‚ expensive 未然形+ない: 高くない
Recycling our example sentences from the present tense section‚ we get the following sentences:
今日
きょう
は歩かない。
Today (I) don’t/won’t walk. テレビを見ない。
Verb grammar — § 2.1 Inflecting 55 これが高くない。
This isn’t expensive.
However‚ please note that this rule does not apply to the special verb ある‚ which we shall treat in the next section. Rather than becoming あらない‚ it is simply replaced with ない.
(On a final note‚ it is imperative this ない should never be confused with another adjective pronounced ない‚ 亡い‚ as that means “deceased”)