Japanese Language Stack Exchange
Japanese Language Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [conjugations]

活用. The inflections of verbs and adjectives. How the endings of verbs and adjectives change to reflect grammatical factors such as tense and aspect.

577 questions
16
votes
2 answers

What is the difference between [plain form of verb]～そう and [root of verb]～そう?

I heard both forms of [plain form of verb]～そう and [root of verb]～そう in an anime I watched, reproduced below, so I'm wondering how are they different and how to choose to use one over the other? 行けるそう 行けそう What are these conjugations called? And…
Lukman
  • 19,805
  • 20
  • 94
  • 195
8
votes
2 answers

What's the meaning of ず in 通ず? (Not a negative)

It's from the Japanese saying, 読書百遍意自ずから通ず(Repeated reading makes the meaning clear). In this case, the ず ending doesn't make the verb negative. What is the function and nuance of this usage? Is this a verb form from the old days reserved for use in…
John
  • 81
  • 2
8
votes
2 answers

言っていた Conjugation

I tried to find this answer in other questions in order to not duplicate it, but i couldn't find one answer for that. So I was trying to make the following sentence There's a ramen restaurant in my town. My friend said that there it is delicious,…
Felipe Chaves de Oliveira
  • 3,379
  • 21
  • 43
6
votes
2 answers

Conjugating present and past negative i-adjectives

I've been learning about conjugating i- and na-adjectives recently and I've stumbled onto something odd. I've seen two distinct ways of conjugating negative i-adjectives; the two ways are to replace い with either: くない (for present negative) or…
Noah Jensen
  • 73
  • 3
6
votes
3 answers

Is こればよかった correct or not?

The Tanos JLPT list contains this sentence: ディズニーランドはとても面白かったよ。君もこればよかったのに。 Disneyland was very interesting. You should have come with us. But the accepted answer at Chiebukuro for 『よかったら、一緒に来れば？』と誰かを誘ったりするときの「来れば？」ですが、... says: 東北辺りでは…
Nicolas Raoul
  • 8,650
  • 3
  • 30
  • 78
5
votes
1 answer

Te form and ru form of verbs when used with potential form

What's the difference between using the te form of a verb with the potential form as opposed to just the ru form? E.g. 食べてられない、待ってられない 食べられない、待てない
Newbie
  • 2,131
  • 6
  • 19
5
votes
1 answer

The use of ～た、～ている、～ていた to refer to a resultant state (new question)

Can someone explain why 持った is used in place of 持っている in the following sentence　(from Monday's Japan Times)? 会話能力を持った初の人間型ロボットキロボが宇宙飛行士の若田幸一さんと国際宇宙ステーションで雑談した。 The first humanoid robot with speech capability to be in space made small talk with…
Tim
  • 10,784
  • 4
  • 31
  • 68
4
votes
1 answer

"Don't say it, if you don't want to" in Japanese

Don't say it, if you don't want to. You don't have to say it, if you don't want to. How do I convey these in Japanese correctly? My idea is 言えないこと言ってないもいいです。 But I am really confused by verb conjugation here. Don't say it = iwanai? ienai? Don't want…
myasha
  • 43
  • 1
  • 4
4
votes
2 answers

Conjugations of ゆく vs. いく

What are the conjugations for [行く]{ゆく}? Are they the same as [行く]{いく} except for the plain form? I tried to google around for a conjugation table, but I can't find any. The closest that I found is…
what the
  • 297
  • 1
  • 5
4
votes
1 answer

What's the difference between using the potential form of a verb with よう and ため

For example: なるように - So that it will become なれるように - So that it will become なるために - So that it will become なれるために - So that it will become Well, they all mean the same thing
Newbie
  • 2,131
  • 6
  • 19
4
votes
2 answers

What is the difference between plain form and dictionary form of the verbs?

Can someone explain to me in colloquial term the difference between plain-form（普通形【ふつうけい】） and dictionary-form（辞書形【じしょけい】）of the verbs? As far as I can tell there is no difference between the two but my school book says plain-form and…
iamsophia
  • 151
  • 1
  • 4
4
votes
3 answers

what does it mean when a causative verb is conjugated in the causative form?

If ”かぶせる” is a "causative verb," what does it mean when a causative verb is conjugated in the causative form? プランターに生えているカタバミの葉を用意し、アルミホイルをかぶせさせる。 …
yadokari
  • 10,419
  • 7
  • 47
  • 91
4
votes
1 answer

抱った vs 抱いた and 書った vs 書いた

I have always known that for a verb that ends with a く, the past/perfective form ends with いた and the conjugative form ends with いて. But today I found in Wiktionary that there are alternative perfective forms 抱った/抱って for 抱く and 書った/書って for 書く. Are…
Lukman
  • 19,805
  • 20
  • 94
  • 195
4
votes
2 answers

What does みても mean here? Problem from workbook

From "Japanese for Busy People Level II" p 46, there is the following question: Fill in the blank with the appropriate particle: この　くつを　（　　　）みても　いいですか。（はきます） In other words, modify はきます so that the sentence makes sense when the modified word fills…
ch-pub
  • 143
  • 5
3
votes
1 answer

What is the difference between してはいない and していない

What is the difference between してはいない and していない? NOTE: This post is inspired by this one, which touched upon this topic (though I never felt like a definitive or clear answer was provided).
George
  • 2,804
  • 3
  • 14
1
2 3 4 5