Learn Casual Japanese at JapanesePod101.com! Japanese are notoriously punctual. But from time to time things happen and you end up running a little late. Today two friends are waiting for their friend who is late. Our grammar is -te miru, which is used to express things you are trying. After listening, stop by JapanesePod101.com and be sure to leave us a post!
This entry was posted on Saturday, May 10th, 2008 at 6:30 pm and is filed under Premium 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.
7 Responses to “Premium Lesson #23 - SS19: Meeting up with my Friend”
JapanesePod101.com says:
May 10th, 2008 at 6:30 pm
Mina-san, have you ever stolen a car to avoid taking the train to a meet up?
プチクレア says:
May 10th, 2008 at 11:22 pm
Hmm… wait, I’m thinking… NO !!!! 
The part about the license plates was very interesting ! It would have been nice to have a line or two in the PDF about it, as a cultural note. I’ve always wondered what the kana on the plates meant…
watermen says:
May 10th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
Can someone explain this sentence found in the PDF, 確か、サトシは７時に来るって言ってたと思うよ。
I don’t understand the た in the sentence. Why is it 言ってた and not 言った?
ジャービジ says:
May 11th, 2008 at 12:18 am
Sakuraさん 
congratulations on the 2.5 
Trains aren’t usually so bad (usually), but buses make car theft seem like less of a crime 
Does watermen’s point have anything to do with progressive tense being more commonly used in Japanese? 確か, that point hasn’t really been covered.
プチクレア says:
May 11th, 2008 at 1:26 am
言ってた is the spoken form of 言っていた , the past progressive of 言う.
The いる part of the progressive tense is often shortened to just -る
(言う->言っている->言ってる->言ってた)
As to why it’s the past progressive instead of the plain past … hm, I guess it’s because the speaker is talking about the result of the 言う action (”I thought he said he would be here at 7″ ie: we have this information as a result of his saying so) rather than simply describing the fact that サトシ said something (7時に来るって言った : he said “I’ll be here at 7″)
I’m not sure if it’s right and/or clear….
sTeVe aUsTiN says:
May 12th, 2008 at 3:19 am
I agree with ジャービジ , I think the て いる forms are used more than the progressive English forms. It’s kind of a mistake to think of them as the same thing probably. 
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Category: Premium Lessons |
Grammar: te miru | Topic: waiting | Politeness Level: casual
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