• Answering a Negative Question with hai and iie

• Expressing What is Permissible with de mo ii and de wa ikemasen

• Expressing What is Required with nakute wa ikemasen/nakute mo ii desu

• The Potential Forms of Verbs

• Expressing Potential with koto ga dekiru

• Verbs with Inherent Potential Meanings

• Sports

• Hobbies

Japanese 1100-L15b-07-22-2012 1

Class Session 15bChapter 10

Japanese 1100-L15b-07-22-2012 2

Answering a Negative Question with hai and iie

• In Japanese, hai shows agreement; iie shows disagreement

• If a question is asked in the affirmative, the Japanese reply is the same as the English reply:

kyō gakkō ni ikimasu ka.Will you go to school today?

hai - Yes (I will go)iie – No (I will not go)

•If a question is asked in the negative, the Japanese reply is different than the English reply:

kyō gakkō ni ikimasen kaWill you not go to school today?

hai - Yes (I will not go)iie – No (I will go)

•Be careful in answering negative questions

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Expressing What is Permissible with de mo ii and de wa ikemasen

• Use and adjective and the copular verb (desu) in the te-form to express what is permissible and what is not permissible:

chūkosha de mo ii desu. chūkosha de wa ikemasen.A used car is acceptable (good). A used car is not acceptable (won’t do).

takakute mo ii desu. takakute wa ikemasen.It is alright if it is expensive. It is not okay if it is expensive.

fuben de mo ii desu. fuben de wa ikemasen.It is okay to be inconvenient. If it is inconvenient, it is not okay.

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Expressing What is Required with nakute wa ikemasen/nakute mo ii desu

• What is a required condition and what is not is expressed using adjectives and the copular verb in the negative te-form:

shinsha ja nakute wa ikemasen. shinsha ja nakute mo ii desu.It must be a new car. It is okay even if it is not a new car.

yasuku nakute wa ikemasen. yasuku nakute mo ii desu.It must be cheap. It need not be cheap.

shizuka ja nakute wa ikemasen. shizuka ja nakute mo ii desu.It must be quiet. It need not be quiet.

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The Potential Form of Verbs

• The potential form of an ru-verb in Japanese is created by dropping the final ru syllable from the dictionary form and adding rareru

• The potential form of a u-verb is created by dropping the final u from the dictionary Form and adding the suffix eru

• Here are the potential form of some ru and u-verbs (complete list on textbook pages 190-191):

Dictionary Form Potential Form

ru-verbs

taberu (to eat) taberareru (can eat)

miru (to watch) mirareru (can watch)

u-verbskaeru (to return) kaereru (can return)

kau (to buy) kaeru (can buy)

tobu (to fly) toberu (can fly)

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The Potential Form of Verbs

• The potential form of the irregular verbs are:

kuru (to come) korareru ( can come)

suru (to do) dekiru (can do)

• The direct object particle o is usually replaced by the particle ga in the potential form:

watashi wa katakana de namae ga kakemasu.I can write (my) name in katakana.

• If the verb is dekiru (can do), o must be replaced by ga

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Expressing Potential with koto ga dekiru

• One’s potential can be expressed using the construction koto ga dekiru (. . . can do) Rather than the potential form discussed above

• Create an expression using the plain form verb and add koto ga dekiru (koto serves as a nominalizer):

katakana de namae o kaku koto ga dekimasu.I can write (my) name in katakana.

nihon-go o sukoshi hanasu koto ga dekimasu.(I) can speak a little Japanese.

• Note: koto cannot be replaced by no in this construction

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Verbs with Inherent Potential Meanings

• Some verbs in Japanese, like kikoeru (to be heard; be audible), mieru (to be seen; be in sight ) and wakaru (to be understood; be comprehended) already have potential meanings

• These verbs cannot be conjugated into the potential form described previously

• The direct objects of these verbs are marked by the particle ga rather than the particle o:

kyō wa tenki ga ii desu ne. fujisan ga miemasu ne.Today the weather is good, isn’t it? We can Mt. Fuji, right?

kono denwa wa hen desu. zenzen kokoemasen.This phone is strange. I cannot hear at all.

nikorasu-san wa nihon-go ga sukoshi wakarimasu ka.Nicolas, can you understand Japanese a little?

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Sports

• These are Japanese words for martial arts:

sumō sumo wrestling judō judokarate karate aikidō aikidokendo kendo

• Popular Japanese sports:

sakkā soccer barē-bōru volleyballyakyū baseball sukii skiinggorufu golf sukēto skatingtenisu tennis suiei swimmingbasuketto-bōru basketball

• To say you play these sports, use the verb suru (to do):

ani wa gorufu o shimasu.My older brother plays golf.

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Hobbies

• Some popular pastime activities:

e o kaku to draw, paint

tsuri o suru to fish

ryōri o suru to cook

shashin o toru to take pictures

ikebana o suru to do flower arranging

shodō o suru to do calligraphy