I know when I’m told I’ll bang my head for not seeing it immedately BUT where is カーディフ?

Isn’t the masu stem plus rareru also the passive form for ichidan (Class II) verbs? (I’ve been trying the passive recently and for a horrible moment there thought I’d gotten it wrong, when listening to this podcast)
So then are the potential and passive different for Japanese or is it a distinction made for English speaking learners?

I do notice that for godan (Class I) the stem is different. So is context the only way to tell the difference with ichidan verbs?

I’m probably just making problems for myself….

Belton-san,
Here is something we initially put into the PDF, but at the last minute took out, as we felt it might cause more confunsion than anything else.

As rareru is also used for the construction of the passive tense of Class II verbs, the intended usage is derived from context. Therefore, particle usage usually plays the important role of indicating the difference between the potential and passive for Class II verbs. We’ll be looking closely at this when we cover the passive in the near future.

a little knowledge is a dangerous thing

Thanks for those replies. The particle pointer could be useful.
I look forward to the passive podcasts.

I thought of another question.
What’s the difference between using Dic-koto dekiru construction and rareru for expressing potential?

ー

こんばんは Harv-san,
unless others come forward you might be *the* listener in カーディフ！

Haha, Vicky-san!
That’s just what I was wondering about!!
So, Yoshi-san, is it work or play that is making you sleepy and tired? Maybe you should learn our expression: “You can’t burn the candle at both ends!” yoroshiku onegai shimasu

Liz-san, that was so funny, I can’t hold a candle to your joke.

Here we go…I was waiting for that.

Hmmmm….I’m don’t quite get Liz-san’s candle thing. I feel like Sakura-san now who doesn’t get Peter-san’s joke.

Hope Yoshi-san can tell Liz-san, so she can tell us. Yeah!!!

I think there are a lot of people around here that burn the candles at both ends. Sakuraさん will be in tomorrow’s lesson? That’s great!

おやすみなさい!

oh Katie-san, speaking about thinking about us…..I have to tell you something.

I went to LA last weekend, and I was thinking about you. I’m really new in Japanese, and I kinda/just finished with hiragana. Mark-san and I are ordered same Kana book a while ago recommaned by Daniel-san, but I didn’t like it. I’m about to start Katakana now…and I took the Kana book with me to airport hoping that I will read while i’m flying over to LA….

Guess what!!!

Soon as I went to the gate, there were 20 Japanese Military guys were there that we are going to LA same flight…..20 military Japanese guys with one Korean girl…and other Americans…..

I was thinking about you….if you were here, you would talk to these guys in Japanese???

Man…I couldn’t not open the Kana book in front of 20 Japanese guys…..

Yeah, next time say hello.

They are on your “turf”, so it’s easier than if you were in Japan.
Men will *always* be happy to talk to women.
You only have to do it for the length of the flight. a couple of hours at most and you have the excuse of being somewhere else at the end if you need to make an escape.

What an opportunity.
“I couldn’t help noticing you are Japanese, I can’t understand this katakana thing would you help me out. pretty please!”

But it’s the hardest part of learning a language — being willing to try it out. totemo muzukashii desu yo! hazukashii mo!

What’s the difference between using Dic-koto dekiru construction and rareru for expressing potential?

I personally don’t know of any significant differences between them. To me ことが出来る sounds more neutral or emotionally removed, but that just may be me.

お酒を飲むことが出来ません。
お酒を飲めません。

To me, the first one sounds more matter of factly: “I can’t drink alcohol (end of statement).” The 2nd sounds more like “I can’t drink alcohol (and there may be some reason(s) for it).”

Vicky! you were in los angeles and didn’t tell me?!

I think I would have been too scared to talk to 20 guys in Japanese. When I go to little tokyo I tell people i don’t understand Japanese at all. The only native speakers I talk to occasionaly are my friends who go to the language school. They tell me that I don’t speak naturally. =)

anyone can sing though!

Not very well Michael-san, although I don’t really sing that much anyway. Why do you ask, is カーディフ well known for singing?

Vicky-san
No that bit could be English. (safe enough bet if they’re training with US forces)
And you only have to cut one out from the herd!

Ano… sumimasen ga, nihonjin desu ka?
(brandish book)
Ah, katakana wo benkyou shimasu demo totemo muzukashii desu. Tetsudaimasen ka? onega~~i.
(bat eyelids)

It’s ages before you understand what’s said back unfortunatly.
I tend to just smile and nod and they think I understand most of the time. Then I plow ahead with something and eventually they get the idea I’m either an idiot or have no great command of their language.

But you have to have some trust in the kindness of strangers. What would you do if someone with limited English started to try to talk with you? You’d give them a break.

To be honest if I met twenty Japanese women in an airport I probably wouldn’t talk to them. Maybe not twenty Japanese guys either.

End of a cock. I thought, laura. End into keira knightley nude her. One guy.