The TE form
After learning how to form the past tense, forming the TE form is easy as pie. The TE form is a special form that is unique to Japanese. It has a couple different uses. But before I get to that, let's go over how it's formed.
Verbs
This rule applies to all RU, U, Irregular, and Semi-Irregular verbs. To create the TE form for any verb, simply take the past tense of that verb, but replace the final "a" with an "e." Note that even though it's called the TE form, a few verbs end in "de" instead under this rule.
Non-past Past TE form
taberu tabeta tabete
hanasu hanashita hanashite
kau katta katte
tobu tonda tonde
Copula
The copula is does not follow that rule, though. The TE form of "da" is actually "de." It is NOT "datte." "Datte" is another word with a different meaning.
I Adjectives
For I adjectives, remove the final "i" and simply add "kute."
Non-Past Te form
oishii oishikute
hayai hayakute
ii yokute
Now that you know how to form the TE form, let's go over what it actually is. The TE form has 3 purposes, two of which I will explain in this lesson. It's most basic purpose is to connect two sentences together. In English when two sentences are related, we connect them with the word "and." Japanese uses the TE form instead. Here's an example of this.
Watashi wa ringo o tabete mizu o nomu.
The first part is "watashi wa ringo o tabete." This means "I eat apples and..." Then the "mizu o nomu" part means "(I) drink water." So together this means
I eat apples and drink water.
You can also like more than two sentences in this way. Also notice, though, that you cannot tell if a verb in the TE form is past or non-past. Instead, you have to rely on the tense of the last verb for this.
Watashi wa ringo o tabete mizu o nomu.
I eat apples and drink water.
Watashi wa ringo o tabete mizu o nonda.
I ate some apples and I drank some water.
See how changing the last verb to past tense makes both the verbs past tense?
The second function of the TE form is to connect a main verb to a helping verb. There are many such helping verbs. For right now, though, I'm only going to explain the most common helping verb, "iru." Whenever "iru" appears after a verb in the TE form, it makes the main verb progressive. Progressive means "am/are/is doing something." However, it cannot be used to mean "I am going to go to the store" because that is a near future event, and you would translate it with the non-past tense. So basically, if the subject is doing the action as you speak, then use "te + iru." But if you mean the subject is planning on doing the action soon, use the non-past tense.
Tori wa tonde iru.
"Tori" means "the bird." "Tonde" is the TE form of "tobu" (to fly). Thus, "tonde iru" means "is flying."
The bird is flying.
I am swimming.
"I" becomes "watashi wa." "Am swimming" is translated with the progressive of "oyogu" (to swim). The TE form of "oyogu" is "oyoide" and we add "iru" after that. So this sentence is translated as
Watashi wa oyoide iru.
You can also conjugate "iru" to form the negative progressive (isn't doing), the past progressive (was doing), and the negative-past progressive (wasn't doing).
Inu wa tonde inakatta.
The dog was not flying.
I was eating apples.
Watashi wa ringo o tabete ita.
I am not going to the store.
Watashi wa mise ni itte inai.
Also, the progressive is very common, so the "i" in "iru" is often omitted in colloquial speech.
Suzuki-san wa TEREBI o mite'ru.
Mrs. Suzuki is watching TV.
The last function is used for making a request. However, I will hold off on that until chapter 4 where I will explain all kinds of requests and commands.
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