Learn Japanese with JapanesePod101.com! It is imperative that you listen to today’s lesson! Well, that’s just a bit of a joke, because in today’s grammar point, we introduce the imperative form of Japanese class one verbs. The conversation takes place at a yakyuu game between a coach and his player, so pay attention to the way social status affects speech! After you listen, drop by JapanesePod101.com for the alternate ending bonus track!
This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 6th, 2006 at 9:24 pm and is filed under Beginner Lessons. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
33 Responses to “Beginner Lesson #119 - That’s an Order”
JapanesePod101.com says:
September 6th, 2006 at 9:26 pm
Mina-san,
Today’s location is リジャイナ・Rijaina - hello to all of our listeners in Regina, Saskatchewan! 
Yoroshiku onegai shimasu!
Nathan says:
September 6th, 2006 at 10:03 pm
Mina-san,
Just an interesting tidbit of info that we ran across earlier. The phrase “tomorrow is another day” originates from Gone With The Wind, and is the last four words of the book and movie.
In addition, we would like to add a little extra note about ゲームセット・gēmu setto - game set. In Japanese, this phrase is used with all types of sporting events. However, in English, this term is reserved for tennis. (Or so I believe… do you know of any other events using this?)
Mark says:
September 6th, 2006 at 10:10 pm
Michael-san, leave us alone. No problem in sleeping late.
Have a great day everyone!
Nathan-san, I haven’t listened to the lesson, but I’ve only heard the phrase “game, set” with tennis as well. Most commonly in the phrase “game, set, match”.
Daniel Beck says:
September 6th, 2006 at 11:07 pm
Regina, Saskatchewan? 
Did you guys do a random search for a village or something?
Belton says:
September 7th, 2006 at 1:10 am
明日があるさ(ウルフルズ） is one of 2 and a half songs I can manage at Karaoke. 
There is also the phrase in that song “the answer is blowing in the wind” (Bob Dylan? )
答えは風の中
まいいか - - never mind.
I came across this before and asked a friend about it when I couldn’t figure it out. I was told the phrase まいいか shows a very irresponsible attitude!!
Liz21 says:
September 7th, 2006 at 2:13 am
Michael-san,
It isn’t fair! 
You live in an earlier time zone than some others of us!! I mean, what if Belton, in the UK, started razzing us about sleeping late!!
Sindy says:
September 7th, 2006 at 2:56 am
I agree with Daniel-san I didn’t even knew that country exist
Yeah Liz-san is right you guys have the sun by your side when right now is Wednesday Sept 06 2006 1:47 over there is already Sept 07 2006 2:14am so that is why I never get to be first post but someday I will make an effort and be the first one to post like Michael D. Cassidy by the way he is in New York City Liz not UK! 
Today’s lesson very funny and positive ya ta Yoshi
ハンサム nathan 
I definitive willl go to visit JP101 in the future!
Rob says:
September 7th, 2006 at 4:29 am
Nice lesson.
I’m guessing tomorrows lesson will tell of the newly born Prince!
Daniel Beck says:
September 7th, 2006 at 5:30 am
Here’s my example for using imperatives:
When I’m on my bike ride, and Japanese pedestrians are wandering and weaving left and right on the sidewalk, I yell out: まっすぐ歩け！ 
Yoshiさん、
Very very nice with your “very very nice” today! 
I knew you could get it right! 
BTW, unlike someone, of course I’ve heard of Saskatchewan, Canada. But how did you guys come up with Regina? How about a shout out to Monterey, California!
Michael D. Cassidy says:
September 7th, 2006 at 5:39 am
yeh yeh liz sama you’re sleeping late because you’ve been www surfing until 5 a.m.
Mark says:
September 7th, 2006 at 6:14 am
Danielさん, maybe it was chosen because it’s the capital of Saskatchewan?
http://wikitravel.org/en/Regina
JockZon says:
September 7th, 2006 at 6:17 am
やっきゅは面白いですから、私はやがて今日のレッソンと本当に聞きます。でもそれの前、練ります。
何が日本で新ですか？
Vicky says:
September 7th, 2006 at 6:44 am
I should say…Lizdesu once in a while????
It was funny and Very Very Nice. Yoshi-san is getting funnier and funnier eh? Pretty good at getting along with Peter-san as well.
I’m still behind, and having trouble downloading from itunes.
Is Dainel-san ever go back to office again? I thought he will make some video from Peter-san??? 
Mata Ne!
Daniel Beck says:
September 7th, 2006 at 7:19 am
Markさん、
本当だ！勉強になりました。 
But, I have to ask, did you know that before looking it up? Hmm, less than 200,000 people in the capital of a province.
Our Vickyちゃん、
Yes, I will carry out my mission!
Hugo says:
September 7th, 2006 at 11:52 am
The bonus track is priceless, I’am still lauching
To tell the true before today I didn’t knew that country exist, well “always is something new to learn”
I can’t wait for see the videos…
P.D.: I have a 8 is my last japanese test, I’am really happy
Mark says:
September 7th, 2006 at 12:34 pm
Danielさん、
Unfortunately, I can’t say I did. I would have guessed Saskatoon myself. Always good to learn new things though!
Kandy says:
September 7th, 2006 at 12:58 pm
I take it Canadians don’t generally post. 
I’m not caught up on the lessons yet, but I thought I would submit a comment anyway. Regina is actually a very nice city. Small, but beautifully laid out with a ton of greenery. And a really good Sushi bar. Cheers!
Max says:
September 7th, 2006 at 2:49 pm
In last week’s intermediate lesson, we got ‘yamete kure!’
Would this be ’stop please!’?
Peter says:
September 7th, 2006 at 3:40 pm
Max-san, その通り！ You got it! Be back with more comments later.
Alan says:
September 7th, 2006 at 4:02 pm
I’m having some trouble understanding ‘kure’. I’ve been blissfully under the impression that the imperative form is the same as the Conditional Base (Base 4). My initial reaction was: Why isn’t it ‘kurere’, after all, the dictionary form is ‘kureru’; so if we shorten it to ‘kure’, what happens with the imperative form of ‘kuru’?.
After looking at a couple of grammar books, it looks like another case of irregular endings. While the Base 4 (Conditional Base) of ‘kuru’ is indeed ‘kure’ or sometimes ‘kuro’, the imperative is completely irregular and is ‘koi’. Thus this frees up ‘kure’ to be the irregular imperative form for ‘kureru’.
While I was looking at these, I also noticed that there is also the verb ‘kureru’ (to grow dark), which is almost identical to ‘kureru’ (to give), except that the imperative form is ‘kurero’. And now I come to look, there’s a bunch of other conditional’s ending in ‘o’
agero = give
akero = open
tabero = eat
osiero = teach
and there’s lot’s more.
I’ve also noticed that in two-word verbs, ’suru’ becomes ’suro’
The bottom has fallen out of my happy world of regular japanese grammar. However these all seem to be -eru Ichidan verbs. Do all -eru Ichidan verbs go to -ro in the imperative?
Alan says:
September 7th, 2006 at 4:15 pm
Correction: ’suru’ becomes ’siro’ or ’seyo’ depending on which grammar book I’m reading. Noooooooo…..!
Alan says:
September 7th, 2006 at 4:36 pm
-iru ichidan verbs seem to go to -iro. So it looks fairly consistent that Ichidan verbs end in -ro in the imperative. Is this right? Strange that one of my grammar books totally fails to mention it.
Jason says:
September 7th, 2006 at 5:43 pm
The imperative forms generally go like this:
Class I (五段） verbs:
-Change the last syllable to it’s corresponding え-column version
-行く -> 行け
-言う -> 言え
-泳ぐ -> 泳げ
-走る -> 走れ
-読む -> 読め
-出す -> 出せ
Class 2 (一段) verbs:
-change the ending る to ろ
-教える -> 教える
-やめる -> やめろ
-答える -> 答えろ
-支える -> 支えろ
-着る -> 着ろ
-起きる -> 起きろ
The exception here is the “giving” くれる which goes to くれ. Why? I don’t really know.
Class 3 (the troublemakers):
Both irregular:
-する -> しろ
-来る -> 来い
I *believe* せよ is an older imperative form of する. しろ is much more common nowadays.
Nathan says:
September 7th, 2006 at 8:50 pm
Alan-san,
The imperative form of class two and three verbs is actually featured in today’s coming lesson and PDF, so stay tuned
Yoshi says:
September 7th, 2006 at 9:37 pm
Daniel Beckさん、
ありがとう！ I’m trying!
I long to … well, I don’t wanna scare people off this time.
JapanesePod101.com says:
September 7th, 2006 at 10:14 pm
Alan-san, please check out lesson #120, read the PDF, and please let us know if this helps. You were too quick for us.
Alan says:
September 8th, 2006 at 2:50 am
Jasonさん、Nathanさん、JapanesePod101さん、
Thanks for the responses. My problem was that my most used (I was going to say favourite) grammar book states that the imperative ending is -e, but failed to mention that this was Yodan verbs only & that Ichidan verbs go to -ro. I’ll go check todays lesson now, you can be sure that I’ll remember it
Jason, thanks for the note about how する and くる change. I will mark up my grammar book now
Alan
Jason says:
September 8th, 2006 at 3:39 am
My problem was that my most used (I was going to say favourite) grammar book states that the imperative ending is -e, but failed to mention that this was Yodan verbs only & that Ichidan verbs go to -ro.
Um….you might want to consider chaning grammar books then.
Peter says:
September 8th, 2006 at 3:46 am
Alan-san, what’s the name of the grammar book?
I believe yodan verbs are now usually referred to as godan verbs.
Alan says:
September 8th, 2006 at 6:28 am
I’ve mostly been using “Japanese Verbs & Essentials of Grammar 2nd Edition” by Rita Lampkin. Mostly I’ve found it easy to use, but in this case, it completely missed out the imperative form of ichidan verbs.
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