Japanese Particle E and Time Expressions

Particle : E
E indicates the direction towards which an actor moves.
E is used with verbs like ikimasu"go," kimasu"come," kaerimasu"return,"etc.

Examples
1. Ruin san ga shokudoo e ikimasu.
"Mr. Lwin goes to the cafeteria."
2. Arisu san ga ryuugakusee kaikan e kaerimashita.
"Alice san went back to the Foreign Students' House."
3. Kinoo daigaku e kimashita ka.
"Did you come to the university yesterday?

Time expressions
There are some time expressions which are followed by the particle ni, and sometime expressions which are never followed by it. Kinoo"yesterday," kyoo "today, "ashita"tomorrow" and other such words are used alone without ni.
These time expressions are always nouns and usually come at the beginning of the sentence.

Examples
1. Kinoo Ruin san ga teepu o kikimashita.
"Mr. Lwin listened to the tape yesterday."
2. Ashita Arisu san ga Nihongo o benkyoo shimasu.
"Alice san will study Japanese tomorrow."
3. Kyoo sensee ga Tookyoo e ikimasu.
"Our teacher is going to Tokyo today."

Japanese Verbs

A. Classification of verbs

Verbs are classified into three types.
1. Group 1 verbs, or verbs ending in -eru or –iru
taberu neru miru okiru
"eat" "sleep" "see" "get up"
2. Group 2 verbs, or verbs ending in -u
yomu kiku iku kau
"read" "listen to" "go" "buy"
3. Irregular verbs
kuru suru
"come" "do
B. Polite form of verbs

The polite form of verbs is used between persons who are not close friends. It shows deference, respect, etc.
Students are expected to use this form when they talk to their teachers. The polite form is obtained in the following way.

1. Group 1 verbs, or verbs ending in -eru or -iru

Drop -ru and add -masu.
* Table of the polite form of Group 1 verbs *

Dictionary form Polite form
taberu tabemasu
neru nemasu
miru mimasu
okiru okimasu
(There are some exceptions such as "hashiru."
which belongs to Group II verbs.)


2. Group 2 verbs, or verbs ending in -u

Change -u to -i and add -masu.

* Table of the polite form of Group 2 verbs *

Dictionary form Polite form
yomu yomimasu
kiku kikimasu
iku ikimasu
kau kaimasu


3. Irregular verbs

The polite form of kuru is kimasu.
The polite form of suru is shimasu.

Verbs ending in -masu are used to describe a habitual action or an action in the
future. For the negative form of verbs ending in -masu, change -masu to -masen.
What has already happened can be described by verbs ending in -mashita instead of -masu. For the negative form of verbs ending in -mashita, drop –mashita and add -masen deshita.

* Table of the polite form of verbs *

-masu -masen -mashita -masen deshita
tabemasu tabemasen tabemashita tabemasen deshita
mimasu mimasen mimashita mimasen deshita
yomimasu yomimasen yomimashita yomimasen deshita
kikimasu kikimasen kikimashita kikimasen deshita
kimasu kimasen kimashita kimasen deshita
shimasu shimasen shimashita shimasen deshita


Examples
1. Ruin san ga teepu o kikimashita. "Mr. Lwin listened to the tape."
2. Ruin san ga shokudoo e ikimasen. "Mr. Lwin won't/doesn't go to the cafeteria."
3. Arisu san ga Nihongo o benkyoo shimasen deshita. Alice san didn't study Japanese."
Since verbs ending in -mashita or -masen deshita describe a completed action, this form of verbs will be called the perfective form of verbs in this textbook. On the other hand, verbs ending in -masu or -masen will be called the imperfective form of verbs in this textbook, because they describe an action not completed. In a dictionary, verbs are not listed in their polite form but in the form seen in Lesson 1, NOTES ON SENTENCE GRAMMAR II -A, which will be called the non-polite form.

Basic Structure of Sentences in Japanese

The following are examples of typical Japanese sentences.
Examples
1. Arisu san ga kimasu. "Alice san will go."
2. Ame ga furimasu. "It will rain."
3. Ruin san ga hon o yomimasu. "Mr. Lwin reads a book."
4. Arisu san ga teepu o kikimasu.
"Alice san is going to listen to the tape."
5. Ruin san ga Arisu san o sensee ni shookai shimasu.
"Mr. Lwin introduces Alice san to a teacher."

From the five examples above, you may draw some conclusions. They are :
1. All these sentences end with a word ending in -masu.
2. All of these are verbs(See Lesson 1,NOTES ON SENTENCE
3. GRAMMAR II.). Japanese sentences end in a verb.
4. All verbs are preceded by at least two words(Examples 1 and 2), Arisu san"Alice san," Ame"rain"and ga. Arisu san, Ame, etc. are nouns and ga is a particle. As you can see, nouns are followed by a particle. This applies to hon o in Example 3, teepu o in Example 4, Arisu san o and sensee ni in Example 5. These units will be called a noun phrase in this textbook.
5. Japanese sentences consist of one or more noun phrases { a verb in this order. The number of noun phrases is determined by the meaning of the verb.
6. Particles are those small words which never change their form and are used with a noun which precedes them. For further details, see Lesson 1, NOTES ON CONVERSATlONAL GRAMMAR II.
7. For many students, the selection of a particle is always confusing.
8. However, as is shown in the above examples, ga is added to a noun which ndicates the person who does something or the thing which happens; o is added to a noun which indicates the thing which an actor does and ni is added to a noun which indicates the person who is the recipient of the action. This knowledge will help you select an appropriate particle. But this does not apply to the following case.
Arisu san ga Ruin san ni aimasu.
Alice san will meet Mr. Lwin."

Aimasu is a verb which takes ga and ni and not ga and o, although some students may expect o instead of ni.
It is advisable to memorize verbs with their appropriate particles. In the vocabulary lists in this textbook, each verb is shown with particles, as shown here.

Japanese verb (particles) - English equivalent
taberu (`ga `o) eat