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.
_____________

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
_____

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.

___________________________________________________________________

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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