Knowing the way verbs can be fashioned to derive more meanings is crucial to

your fluency. .Don’t begin your conquest of the Japanese language without learning basic
strategy. Basic strategy says always speak in the most polite level of language that can be
afforded. . Verbs manipulation is a good course of action for the SL2 learner who is in
high gear on short on time.. The boxes are the most basic way verbs are formed. Become
familiar with them by using the plug and play grammar boxes below.
This morning I was per chance perusing an old French school book that claims
that I can “learn by yourself”. Inside I saw the never ending struggle with verb
conjugations. But, unlike French, English, Spanish, or Italian, Japanese doesn’t have a
multitude of conjugations that must be memorized for any given verb. In Japanese learn
the four basic ordinal points in language learning. .l To help you start speaking Japanese
quicker, learn how to put verbs into the most common polite level and plain form
structures. Always practice saying out loud all sentences in both standard politeness
levels and plain forms. In Japanese it is easy to fall in a plain form rut because usually
that is what is being spoken around us. People are of course going to be shitashii. But we
must be careful not to get into a habit which may degrade our high and lofty goals to
speak an eloquent Japanese. One that is pure, natural, free from vulgarity and as
honorable sounding as we can make it. If we are to be dining with greatness we should
speak the part.. This lesson shows the boxes of verb of all we need to be able to say and
politely I might add is; 1. a verb in the affirmative present or future 2. a verb in the
negative future or present. 3. a verb in the affirmative past, and 4. a verb in its negative
past.
Here is a quick example of how this works: Using the verb hanasu to speak, the 4 basic
tenses would put the verb into the following English: 1. I will speak – hanashimasu, 2. I
won’t speak – hanashimasen, 3. I spoke – Hanashimashita, 4. I didn’t speak –
Hanashimasen deshita.
Plain form may be used in embedded questions but always practice putting verbs
into the polite ending of -masu, because when you speak politely to others, others treat
you with more respect and even speak it back to you but usually even more humbly and
you feel so good when spoken to in this way. For those interested in learning to speak
Japanese it is somewhat of a bonus feature and even a motivational factor that instead of
a plethora of different conjugations that we must study and memorize, in Japanese all we
have to do is be able to manipulate 4 conjugations. I like the fact that Japanese can be
understood with only 4 tenses of a verb because in that old French school book which I
perchance was perusing I saw these scary looking words. In that French book there was 5
pages of conjugations for one verb. If you can’t get my drift in this part of the lesson,
what I am saying is that Japanese is easier to speak perhaps than anyone has ever thought
or cared to discuss. So spread the word don’t let Japanese intimidate anyone and look at
all the benefits of Japanese over our traditional romance grammar translation guru pound
cake.

B.
DESU
1
+ -
(polite; state of being.)
 DESU. (is , am) DEWA ARIMASEN.
Present (isn’t , am not)

Past DESHITA. (was)

DEWA ARIMASEN DESHITA. 2
(wasn’t)

C. MASU
(Polite form verb
+ -
endings.)

Present MASU MASEN

(Will, do, shall) (will not, do not, shall not)

Past MASHITA MASEN DESHITA

(did, would) (did not, would not)

The above box is your model for polite speech. When in doubt, use this when conjugating
your verbs. It is adequate to almost all formal situations, where everyone except the
Emperor will be attending.

Plain Form
(Use with those close to your social circle, + -
never to a boss or an Emperor!)
Base III Base I + nai
1
. It is interesting to note the similarities between the language of Korea and Japanese .
One can hear the sumnida of the Korean and the desu form of de aru. Both polite endings
to sentences that seem to behave like each other. Let me assure you that both of these
languages come from one Altaic stem. In Korean the polite way to end a sentence is to
put in sumni da after the expression. In Japanese it is made in the same way only they
add this desu ending. American English really has no equivalents
2
Although dewa is spelled here with a w, dewa is actually formed by the syllable ha and not the wa
syllable.
 Present (will verb, do verb) (won’t verb, don’t verb)

Past Base TA Base I + nakatta

(didn’t verb)
(did verb)
Degrading from the polite form

Plain form - to be + -
Present de aru, da. dewa nai
(is, am) (isn’t, am not)
Past de atta, datta dewa nakatta
(was) (wasn’t)

D.V.3 Plain Form4 + -

Present
stem + i stem + kunai
(is) (is not)

Past
stem + katta stem + kunakatta
(was) (was not)

Just as sushi connotes a certain image for many Americans so does the thought of
studying Japanese. and came upon these lovely terms about verbs: indicative mood,
present, imperfect, past definite, perfect, pluperfect, past anterior, future anterior,
conditional present, conditional past, imperative mood, subjunctive mood, Infinitive
mood present, and on, and on. Our culture almost automatically assumes if it isn’t one of
the traditional romance languages then it must be hard to master, or would serve no good
or useful purpose.. But they are wrong!. Let there be no doubt about it, Japanese is a just
as hard as any language to master. You must learn Japanese in small steps, just let the
accumulating of vocabulary be a good part of your goals for Japanese acquisition method.
Of course we must have our milk before meat. But we do eventually we do want to get to
the meat… eventually. <a href="http://www.anrdoezrs.net/click-2328430-10430216"
target="_top">

3
D.V.. – Descriptive verb is a better term than adjective here because of the subtle nuances of the language.
4
Remember at the end of the above D..V. plain form to put the polite ending of dearu to the Descriptive
verb plain form.
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Ganbatte ne! Makurasuki Sensei.