Eclectic Mix

In Japanese, verbs typically have 3 different types of endings-

• る (ru)
• う (u)
• irregular verb endings.

Similar to Spanish, how the verb ends in it’s “to ___” form, changes what endings get used. For now, I’ll just cover the present tense of the regular verbs. In later posts I’ll list more so you can’t talk about doing more stuff

• [RU]
  たべる (taberu) — To Eat
  みる (miru) — To See
• [U]
  のむ (nomu) — To Drink
  はなす (hanasu) — To Speak

This is where knowing your kana is important. Looking at the romaji one might be inclined to say “But Arcsis, they both end in ‘u’! What’s the difference?”  When you take a closer look at the hiragana, taberu ends with “る.” As we’ll see later, not all the [U] verbs end with just “う”.  If you thought that, no worries, I did too. My せんせい needed to clarify.

Japanese is cool in that the present tense can also be used to describe the future.
In English we could say:

• I eat sushi. [Meaning we do eat sushi right now. ]

or, if you’re making plans later:

• I will eat sushi.  [Meaning later I will eat sushi]

In Japanese, either of those sentences could be expressed by saying

• すしを   たべます
  sushi o* tabemasu

Context is very important and will determine whether you are talking present or future. Easy! Context also allows one to leave out the “I” part of the sentence. See below.
But what if you won’t/can’t do something? You just change the ending you stick on the word!

• I can’t see the college.
  だいがく を みません
  diagaku o mimasen
• I don’t eat sushi
  すしを たべません
  sushi o tabemasen

The endings used are the same for all [RU] verbs. Just take off the る  & use the appropriate ending.

How the [U] verbs works is a little different. Like we saw above, they don’t all just end in う. Take のむ (nomu). So you use the base nom_ and an “i” and use the ending from above, masu.

I drink

のみます
nomimasu

With any [U] verb, you must note the last kana containing the “う” sound & keep the 1st part.
For verbs ending in す keep the s, く keep the k, etc.

• nuMU -> noMIMASU
  のむ   ->   のみます
• hanaSU -> hanaSHIMASEN

That verb basics! Sorry for a long & very dense post, but  there’s alot to grasp. Once it’s understood , it flows right along.  Next post I’ll be back with more verbs & more examples!

がんばって ください – Please try your best!

[*Note: を in this case is pronounced O, as it's being used as a particle. Don't fret to much about it right now. ]