classroom4

Grammar is an essential part of language, of course, because without it, there would be no sentence structure, and nothing would make sense. Below I have detailed the syntax of Japanese grammar, and the four major conjugations of verbs: motion, action, linking, and existing. Before I produce an example of conjugation, let me explain and diagram of sentence structure for the Japanese language. Although I will be using Romaji, and so everything will be read from left to right, sentences were origionally written only in Hiragana or Katakana, and were thus meant to be read from right to left. Therefore, translation of these sentences in Romaji are understood from right to left.

1) Watashi wa Cameron-sen'sei desu.
       -- literally translated word for word, this sentence says:
       "I Cameron-sen'sei am."
       -- But translated correctly to English, it says:
       "I am Cameron-sen'sei."

   2) Uchi e ikimasu ka?
       -- literally translated word for word, this sentence says:
       "Home you go are?"
       -- But translated correctly to English, it says:
       "Are you going home?"

   3) Resutoran de gohan o tabemasu.
       -- literally translated word for word, this sentence says:
       "Restaurant rice I eat."
       -- But translated correctly to English, it says:
       "I eat rice in the restaurant."

Wakarimashita? Just be careful when translating, that you read "backwards", in a sense. It is important to display some of the more common uses of verbs that will be used shortly. First of all is the common verb pattern, for motion verbs: "I K K D". This is the set I want you to memorize. It stands for:

   Ikimasu (to go)

   Kimasu (to come)

   Kaerimasu (to return)

   Dekakemasu (to go out / leave)

These are the only four motion verbs I will be using in my examples at this point. They are always preceeded by the conjunction "e" (which in Hiragana is drawn as "He").

   Kissaten e ikimasu. = I am going to the coffee shop.

   Gakkoo e kimasu ka? = Are you coming to school?

   Uchi e kaerimasu. = I am returning home.

   Pan'ya e dekakemasu. = Leave the bakery.

Also imperetive to learn beforehand are action verbs. Remember that pesky letter, "(o)"? This is where that comes into play, as it always precedes an action verb, and is usually paired up with the word "de", which means "at / in".

Resutoran de gohan o tabemasu. = I eat rice in the restaurant.

   Depaato de kaimono o shimasu. = I am going to do some shopping at the department                                                              store.

Ben'kyoo o shimasu. = I am studying.

NOTE: whenever you have a question, you can easily change it to a request by changing the "-su" ending of the verb to "-sen" (which is also how you make it negative) and adding the question marker, "ka".

   Issho ni uchi e kaerimasu ka? = Are you returning home with me?

   Issho ni uchi e kaerimasen ka? = Won't you return home with me?