Verbs


In this lesson, you are going to learn some more about the fundementals of verbs. Verbs are pretty easy in Japanese, but you have to get used to them because they are different in many ways.

If you have ever taken a foreign language, you probably learned that you always had to conjugate your verbs:
To eat        Manger           Comer
I eat         Je mange         Yo como
You eat       Tu manges        Tu comes
He eats       Il mange         El come
We eat        Nous mangeons    Nosotros comemos
------        Vous mangez      --------
They eat      Ils mangent      Ellos comen
Well in Japanese, there is no conjugation. The word "taberu" replaces all of these words, no matter what the subject is. It never changes. Also, since there is no conjugation, there is no infinitive (to do, to eat).

The present tense in Japanese is a bit different than English. It can be used for more than just present tense actions and so it is usually called the non-past tense insead. It translates to three forms in English.
This simply means that the word "taberu" can be translated as three different things in English.
When translating from English, don't be fooled when you see a verb like "am/are/is going to..." or "will..." These are just extensions of the verb and they are absorbed into the translation of a non-past Japanese verb. Also, the non-past tense cannot be used for progressive actions (I am going to the store; he is walking the dog). There is a seperate tense for that. "I am going to..." is not really progressive, but it rather shows the action will be done in the near future.

Even though there is no conjugation, you must not forget what you've learned about postpositions. Here's some more vocabulary for you to use.

e = to [a place] (goes AFTER the place noun)  
ni = to [a place] (goes AFTER the place noun)
de = at [a place], in [a building, etc.] (goes AFTER the place noun) 

gakkou = school    jimusho = office        iku = to go      
kaigi = meeting    mise = store            kuru = to come   
uchi = home        amerika = America
nihon = Japan      resutoran = restaurant
I eat rice.
To translate to Japanese, we need our word order again, SUBJECT-OBJECT-VERB. The subject here is "I" since it is the person preforming the action. "I" is translated as "watashi" in Japanese. Since it is our subject, we add the subject marker "wa" after it, so we have "watashi wa." Next, we go on to find our object. Our object is "rice" since it is the one being acted upon. We translate it as "gohan" in Japanese. After that, we add the object marker "o" after it. Lastly, we find the verb. In this sentence, our verb is "eat." It is translated to "taberu" and we're done. The end result is
Watashi wa rice o taberu.

They are going to go to school.
In this sentence, our subject is "they." "They" is translated to "ano hito-tachi" and we add the subject marker "wa" after it. We don't have an object in this sentence, but we do have a destination. Destinations, as I briefly mentioned at the end of the last lesson, are marked by either the postposition "ni" or "e" and translate to "to (a place)." Our destination in this sentence is "school." We translate it as "gakkou" and we put the postposition "ni" after it. So far we have "ano hito-tachi wa gakkou ni." The verb in this case is really tricky. Don't be fooled by the phrase "are going to." You have to look at the entire verb phrase, which in this case is "are going to go." Pretty long, don't you think? But remember how Japanese verbs in the non-past tense have 3 different translations into English. The "are going to" part is simply absorbed in the translation. So all of that phrase is translated simply as "iku."
Ano hito-tachi wa gakkou e iku.

I eat rice at meetings.
The subject here is "I" which is translated as "watashi" and since it's the subject, it's followed by the subject marker "wa." "Meeting" is "kaigi" and we add the postposition "de" after it for the meaning of "at." Then we have our object "rice" which is translated to "gohan" and we add the object marker "o" after it. Our verb "eat" translates as "taberu."
Watashi wa kaigi de gohan o taberu.

Ano hito wa ringo o taberu.
Going from Japanese to English leaves open many more possibilities than going from English to Japanese. First, find the subject. "Ano hito" comes before the subject marker "wa" so we know it's the subject. "Ano hito" is translated as "he" or "she" depending on context. Let's assume it's "he" here. The verb, which comes at the end, is "taberu." Normally, "taberu" is just translated into "eats," but keep in mind that it could also mean "will eat" or "is going to eat." You have to rely on context to figure out which is the best translation. Usually that isn't so hard. After your verb, we have to find our object. "Ringo" comes before the object marker "o" and we can translate it as "apples" "an apple" "the apple" or "some apples." You can see now that Japanese does not make many distinctions as English does and so you often have to rely on context to figure out which translation is best.
He eats apples.
He is going to eat some apples.
He is going to eat the apples.
He is going to eat an apple.
He will eat some apples.

Watashi-tachi wa sake o nomu.
This is pretty much the same as the last one. Our subject is "watashi-tachi" since it is followed by "wa." "Watashi-tachi" translates to "we" in English. Our verb "nomu" can mean "drink" "will drink" or "are going to drink" depending on context. Our object which is followed by the object marker "o" is "sake." We can translate it as "rice wine" or "sake."
We drink rice wine.
We are going to drink some rice wine.
We will drink some rice wine.

Watashi wa kaigi ni kuru
The subject here is "watashi" since it comes after "wa." This translates to "I" in English. Then we find our verb. It is "kuru" in this case. "Kuru" means "to come" and can be translated as "come" "will come" or "am going to come." Then we have a destination instead of an object. "Kaigi ni" in all is translated as "to the meeting." After all this, we end up with any of these.
I come to the meetings.
I will come to the meeting.
I am going to come to the meetings.

You may think that Japanese is vague because of its lack of distinctions, but it's really not. If someone asked you "what are you going to eat tomarow?" in Japanese and you replied "watashi wa ringo o taberu," it is obvious you are not trying to say "I eat apples" but rather you want to say "I am going to eat apples." Don't think of Japanese's inability to distinguish such aspects as a difficult part of the language you must learn. Just think of it like a little short cut in the world's so-called hardest language.

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