Passive

The passive is when sometihng is acted upon. For example, "I gave the dog a bone", which is active, compared to, "The dog was given a gift by me" (passive).

Active: トラコはねずみを食べました。Torako ate the mouse.
Passive: ねずみはトラコ食べられた。The mouse was eaten by Torako.
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Group 1 ~ Godan
Remove the ~u sound and replace it with あれる。
Because it now ends in える, it can be conjugated into any other tense just like an Ichidan verb.

Group 2 ~ Ichidan
Remove the る and replace it with られる.

Group 3
する-->させる
来る-->来られる

Transitive And Intransitive

Most verbs in Japanese can be divided into 2 groups: Transitive and Intransitive. This differentiation is essential for using the particles で and に. 


Transitive: a verb accompanied by a direct object, which is done by an active agent and from which a passive can be formed. they often show a continued or progressive action on the part of the active agent.
Intransitive: a verb which does not take a direct object and is not accompanied by a direct object. They have no duration and no distinguished end point. They express a state or condition.


Examples of Transitive Verbs: to eat, to see, to hit, to push. As you can tell, they all need a direct object. I ate an apple; he saw a pig; she hit the dog; they pushed the table.
Examples of Intransitive Verbs: to know, to be, to wonder. As you can tell, they cannot have a direct object. I know how to play tennis. I am British. I wonder what to do.
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What does this has to do with で and に?

• に is used only with used with stative verbs.
• で used by dynamic verbs to convey a the place of action, rather than the place of being.

Hang on, stative and dynamic aren't Intransitive and Transitive! I still don't get what they have to do with で and に.

Most stative verbs are intransitive, most dynamic verbs are intransitive. In fact, for now you can just say they are!

に: I'm at school: 学校にいる。

で: I'm eating at school: 私は学校で食べている。

Oh, and by the way, (and just in case if you have't figured it out already) で and に both mean in or at.

Adjectives: Conjugations and other little bits and bobs.

Conjugation


Adjectives behave very similar to verbs, you could say:

I have a red chair; or, I have a chair that is red. You can boil them down to: red chair and chair is red. These two ways of descirbing something is also present in Japanese, bu conjugation.

Before a noun


Sooo easy, just add the adjective before the noun:

Big cat --> 大きい猫 (おおきい　ねこ)

 After a noun


This is where things get a little complicated. In Japanese, there are two (arguably three) types of adjectives;

• ~ い adjectives, they are proper (true) adjectives.
• ~ な adjectives, they derive from nouns, such as 危険な "is dangerous."
• ~の; they're not really adjectives, but that particle can be used for a noun to describe a noun without the meaning of is, such as eternal darkness 永遠の闇 (eien no yami) which is different from 闇を永遠な (eien o eien na) the darkness is eternal. It doesn't really constitute as a whole group of adjectives, but its worth knowing the difference between the all three.

The complication is that the adjectives get conjugated, as shown below:

~い Adjectives
Non-Past:　い
Past:　かった
Negative Non-Past:　くない
Negative Past:　くなかった


~な Adjectives

Non-Past:　だ

Past:　だった

Negative Non-Past:　でわない

Negative Past:　でわなっかた

Polite 

~い Adjectives

Non-Past:　いです

Past:　かったです

Negative Non-Past:　くありません

Negative Past:　くありませんでした

~な Adjectives

Non-Past:　です

Past:　でした

Negative Non-Past:　でわありません

Negative Past:　でわありませんでした

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Adverbs

To make an adjective an adverb (like the ~ly in english, sudden --> suddenly):

い --> く

な --> に

Difficult --> Difficultly

難しい -->難しく

Quiet --> Quietly

静かな --> 静かに

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Linking Sentences

In Japanese, verbs and adjectives are linked by conjugation (verbs use the ~て form, which we'll come onto later). Adjectives follow the simple procedure as shown below:

い --> くて

な --> で

Notorious Relative Clauses

Relative Clauses are notorious in that the word order is totally different than English. Also, I have found no single article explicitly explaining Relative Clauses, so I thought, "Hey, I'll make one now."
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So, to start, everything that modifies the noun, i.e the relative clause come before the noun it modifies. For example (the relative clause is underlined here with the articles omitted, purely because it makes it easier when you have to translate it):

The house, that is big -->  Is big house --> 大きい家

I saw the house, that is big --> I is big house saw --> 私は大きい家を見た。
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"So, what's the difficulty in that?" you may ask.
Well, I've been using google translator to check my sentences, but since these sentences can be translated in so many different ways, it never gave me a relative clause. There's a lesson to be learnt there, never use a translator, check it yourself :). The second sentence, for example, though "I saw the house, that is big" is perfectly valid, in English we're more likely to say "I saw a big house", which comes from the same sentence.

Secondly, longer, and therefore more complex sentences take longer to translate, and you sometimes end up thinking, "how the bloody hell did I get that!" Such as:

I can see the mountain where the dragon lives --> I dragon lives (is dwelling) mountain see can.
私は竜が住んでいる山を見ること出来る。
This sentence is awfully confusing, as the word is sooooooo different to what we, as English, use.
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Some more relative clause practice:

1) I ate cheese which was nice.
2) I slept in a house which was old.
3) I want to see a movie that is new.
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1)　私はよかったチーズを食べた。
2)　私は古かった家で寝た。
3)　私は新しい見たい。

Forming Basic Sentences

Now you know how to use verbs, let's start forming some simple sentences.

In Japanese, the topic of the sentence is always followed by は、though it's pronounced as わ (this is only when that hiragana character denotes the topic).

I eat.
 私は食べます。
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The subject of the sentence is followed by が。

I like cats.
猫が好きです。
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The object of the sentence is followed by を。

I saw the tree.
私は木を見ました。

The only rule regarding Japanese sentence structure is that the verb go at the end of the sentence. Other than that (and question words which we'll come onto to later), the order does not matter as each idea is following my some kind of particle.

To say "I saw the book", the verb must follow the subject, and either the definite or indefinite article. It is very hard for people outside Japan to understand when to use は or が, not even I know. Once I do, I'll post somewhere.

This hiragana shown here belongs to a group called 'particles'. They show topics, objects, subjects, direction of travel, location, e.t.c. The three listed here are just a very small portion of what is to come.

Want + Object

To want a item in Japanes is an adjective:
欲しい。

チーズを欲しい。
I want (some) cheese.

家を欲しい。
I want a house.

本を欲しくない。
I don't want a book.

Want to do ~something

The formation of "want" is also pretty simple.

Group 1 ~ Godan


Change the ~u sound to an ~i and add たい。

泳ぐーー＞泳ぎたい
To swim --> want to swim

Group 2 ~ Ichidan


Remove the る and add たい.

食べるーー＞食べたい
To eat --> want to eat

The Continuous

The continuous is an action that is ongoing. In english there are two parts to the formation, the gerund (~ing) and conjugated "be". This is the same in Japanese, though strictly speaking, です isn't a verb and it isn't conjugated.

The て form of verbs:

Ichidan:
る-->て

Godan:
す-->いて
く-->いて
ぐ-->いで
る-->って
つ-->って
う-->って
ぶ-->んで
む-->んで
ぬ-->んで

After the ~て form of the verb, add the either いる or います, depending on the politeness required.
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私は食べています。
I am eating.
私は山に行っています。
I am going to the mountain (note 行く has an irregular ending, just like in the past tense).

The past continuous can be formed by using the past of いる or います.

ちーズを食べていました。
(I) was eating cheese.

The Volitional

The Volitional is "lets," or "shall we?"

Formation in Japanese is easy peasy lemon squeezy :P:

Group 1 Godan


Replace the ~u sound with ~o and add う.

Lets go --> 行こう

Group 2 Ichidan


Replace the る with よう.

Lets eat --> 食べよう.

Polite


Godan --> change the ~u sound to an ~i sound and add ましょう.
Ichidan --> remove the る  and add ましょう.

Simple Qestions

This is simply when you ask a question and you expect either a yes or no answer. In english, an auxilary verb, to do, is used, except when the verb is "to be", when the subject and verb become inverted. Japanese is much simpler, just add か to the end of the sentence. The tense is determined by the conjugation of the verb. As mentioned before, か belongs to a group called 'particles'.

Did you go to the river? -->　山に行ったか。
Do you like cheese? -->　チーズを好きですか。
Is there a tree? -->　木がありますか。

Past Tense Negative

Group 2

Ichidan

Informal: replace the る with なかった.

Formal: replace the る with ませんでしった.

Group 1

Godan

Informal: replace the う sound with あなかった.

Formal: replace the う sound and add いませんでした.

The Past Tense

Group 2

Ichidan

Informal: remove the る and replace it with た.

I saw to the mountain. 私は山に見た。

Formal: remove the る and replace it with ました.

I burned a tree. 私は木を燃やした。

Group 1

Godan

Informal: replace the う sound with:

すーー＞した

くーー＞いた

ぐーー＞いだ

るーー＞った

つーー＞った

うーー＞った

ぶーー＞んだ

むーー＞んだ

ぬーー＞んだ

Formal: replace the う sound with い and then add ました。

The Negative

Group 2
Ichidan


Informal: remove the る and add ない.
I do not eat --> 食べない、たべない。
Formal: remove the る and replace it with ません
I do not eat --> 食べません、たべません

Group 1
Godan
Informal: remove the う sound and replace it with あ, then add ない
I do not drink --> 飲まない
Formal: remove the う sound and replace it with いません
I do not drink -->飲みません
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Note that ある is an exception to this rule, and in fact it's negative form is just ない, instead of あらない。

Using Hiragana From Now On...

From now on I will only be using kana, so no more roomaji. I learnt that the best way to learn kana was not to sit and learn it saying the characters over and over again and killing trees by wasting loads of paper, but by conjugating verbs and making sentences using both kanji and kana. So try that, print out a kana sheet that will help you understand what I'm writing and soon you'll be able to both "alphabets" backwards!

Present Indicative

Present Indicative

Forming verbs in Japanese is possibly the easiest of any language. For example:

I eat --> 食べる

However, the Japanese also have one more possible conjugation:

I eat --> 食べます

The top one is informal, though the second is formal. Pretty simple, huh? For Ichidan verbs, remove the る and add ます for the formal, or just leave the verb in its plain form if it's directed informally.

Godan verbs are a little trickier, though only very slightly. You have to change to final う sound to a い sound. Such as:

I drink (informal) --> 飲む

I drink (formal) --> 飲みます

The same rules apply if the conversation is informal, just leave the verb in it's plain form.

Introduction

Japanese verbs are typically catagorised as one of three groups. Though it seems rather odd, I'll go through them backwards, but you'll see why soon.

Group 3

来る, kuru

する, suru

These are the only irregular verbs in Japanese. 行く is irregular in the past and ~te form and so are some other verbs, but they'll be covered when they need to be. Suru and kuru are the only verbs that are completely irregular in every conjugation.

Group 2

Ichidan-doushi

These verbs are most of the verbs ending in ~いる or ~える. However, some ending in ~いる or ~える are in fact Group 1 Godan-doushi verbs. Group 2 is the easiest group to conjugate as it only has one stem.

Group 1

Godan-doushi

This group is made up of every other verb, including the verbs ending in ~いる or ~える but do not belong to group 2.

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Japanese verbs can only end in:

す

く

ぐ

る

つ

う

ぶ

む.

ぬ only has one verbs belonging to it, 死ぬ (shinu) which means to die.

Katakana

Katakana is the second and less used, though equally important "alphabet" in Japanese. It is used mostly for loan words, such as テレビ (terebi, television). The Japanese may resemble to foreign words more or less, though they are often shortened so sometimes it is almost impossible to tell which which foreign word it came from.

Hiragana

In Japanese there are 2 alphabets, Hiragana and Katakana. Hiragana is mostly used for grammatical constructs and conjugating verbs. This post will show the layout of the hiragana chart

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