Learn how to use the sentence pattern "I should have done ~"
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| INTRODUCTION |
| John: Hi everyone, I'm John. |
| Risa: And I'm Risa. |
| John: And welcome to Must-Know Japanese Sentence Structures, Season 1, Lesson 39. Expressing Regret About Something Left Undone. |
| John: In this lesson, you'll learn how to use a sentence pattern for expressing regret about something left undone. |
| PATTERN |
| John: For example, |
| John: "I should have studied harder." |
| Risa: もっと勉強すればよかった。 (Motto benkyō sureba yokatta.) |
| Risa: [slow] もっと勉強すればよかった。 (Motto benkyō sureba yokatta.) |
| John: The pattern for expressing regret about something left undone has two elements. First, a verb phrase meaning "if I had studied more" with the conditional form of the verb. |
| Risa: もっと勉強すれば (Motto benkyō sureba). |
| John: Second, the past form of the i-adjective. |
| Risa: いい (ii) |
| John: meaning "was good." |
| Risa: よかった (yokatta) |
| John: Altogether, we have... "I should have studied harder." |
| Risa: もっと勉強すればよかった。 (Motto benkyō sureba yokatta.) [slow] もっと勉強すればよかった。 (Motto benkyō sureba yokatta.) [normal] もっと勉強すればよかった。 (Motto benkyō sureba yokatta.) |
| John: The sentence pattern to say "I should have done something" in Japanese, is the regrettable thing that didn't occur, expressed with the conditional form of the verb, plus |
| Risa: よかった (yokatta) |
| John: which means "was good" and is the past form of the i-adjective. |
| Risa: いい (ii) |
| John: So, "I should have studied harder." would be... |
| Risa: もっと勉強すればよかった。 (Motto benkyō sureba yokatta.) |
| John: So remember, to express regret about something left undone, say the regrettable thing with the conditional form of the verb, and just add the past form of the adjective meaning "good" at the end. |
| John: Here is another example meaning, "I should have left home earlier." First, a verb phrase meaning "if I had left home earlier," with the conditional form of the verb. |
| Risa: もっと早く家を出れば (Motto hayaku ie o dereba). |
| John: Second, the past form of the i-adjective meaning "good." |
| Risa: よかった (yokatta) |
| John: Altogether we have... |
| Risa: もっと早く家を出ればよかった。 (Motto hayaku ie o dereba yokatta.) [slow] もっと早く家を出ればよかった。 (Motto hayaku ie o dereba yokatta.) [normal] もっと早く家を出ればよかった。 (Motto hayaku ie o dereba yokatta.) |
| John: "I should have left home earlier." |
| [pause] |
| Risa: もっと早く家を出ればよかった。 (Motto hayaku ie o dereba yokatta.) |
| John: How do you say, "I should have realized that earlier." ? To give you a hint, "to realize" is... |
| Risa: 気が付く (ki ga tsuku) |
| John: which in the conditional form becomes ... |
| Risa: [normal] 気が付けば (ki ga tsukeba). [slow] 気が付けば (ki ga tsukeba) |
| John: So, "I should have realized that earlier." would be... |
| [pause] |
| Risa: 早くそれに気が付けばよかった。 (Hayaku sore ni ki ga tsukeba yokatta.) [slow] 早くそれに気が付けばよかった。 (Hayaku sore ni ki ga tsukeba yokatta.) [normal] 早くそれに気が付けばよかった。 (Hayaku sore ni ki ga tsukeba yokatta.) |
| [pause] |
| Risa: 早くそれに気が付けばよかった。 (Hayaku sore ni ki ga tsukeba yokatta.) |
| REVIEW |
| John: Let's review the sentences from this lesson. I will give you the English equivalent of the phrase and you are responsible for shouting it out loud in Japanese. Here we go. |
| John: "I should have studied harder." |
| [pause] |
| Risa: もっと勉強すればよかった。 (Motto benkyō sureba yokatta.) |
| [pause] |
| Risa: もっと勉強すればよかった。 (Motto benkyō sureba yokatta.) |
| John: "I should have left home earlier." |
| [pause] |
| Risa: もっと早く家を出ればよかった。 (Motto hayaku ie o dereba yokatta.) |
| [pause] |
| Risa: もっと早く家を出ればよかった。 (Motto hayaku ie o dereba yokatta.) |
| John: "I should have realized that earlier." |
| [pause] |
| Risa: 早くそれに気が付けばよかった。 (Hayaku sore ni ki ga tsukeba yokatta.) |
| [pause] |
| Risa: 早くそれに気が付けばよかった。 (Hayaku sore ni ki ga tsukeba yokatta.) |
Outro |
|---|
| John: Okay. That's all for this lesson. You learned a pattern for expressing regret about something left undone, as in... |
| Risa: もっと勉強すればよかった。 (Motto benkyō sureba yokatta.) |
| John: meaning "I should have studied harder." |
| John: You can find more vocab or phrases that go with this sentence pattern in the lesson notes. So please be sure to check them out on JapanesePod101.com. Thanks everyone, see you next time! |
| Risa: またね！(Mata ne!). |
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