Learn how to form the future tense of Japanese verbs
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Kat: Hi everyone, Kat here! |
| Naomi: こんにちは、みなさん！なおみです！(Kon’nichiwa, mina-san! Naomi desu!) |
| Kat: What will you do tomorrow in Japan? Thanks very much for joining us!! |
| Naomi: Kat-san, please tell us what we're going to learn in this lesson. |
| Kat: In this lesson you will learn how to talk about future actions and events in Japanese, and also how to ask simple questions using verbs. |
| Naomi: Where does this conversation take place and who is it between? |
| Kat: The conversation takes place at Madoka's house where Kent is staying. And it’s between Kent and Madoka and Madoka’s mother. |
| Naomi: What level of Japanese will be they speaking? |
| Kat: Madoka and her mother speak informally, but Kent speaks formally when speaking to Madoka's mother. OK, so let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| まどか (Madoka):ママ、紅茶、飲む？(Mama, kōcha, nomu?) |
| お母さん (o-kā-san):うん。お願い。(Un. Onegai.) |
| まどか (Madoka):ミルクとおさとう、使う？(Miruku to o-satō, tsukau?) |
| お母さん (o-kā-san):うん。使う。(Un. Tsukau.) |
| まどか (Madoka):はい、どうぞ。(Hai, dōzo.) |
| まどか (Madoka):ケントも紅茶、飲む？(Kento mo kōcha, nomu?) |
| ケント (Kento):いや。コーラ飲む。(Iya. Kōra nomu.) |
| まどか (Madoka):コーラとケーキ？(Kōra to kēki?) |
| もう一度、お願いします。今度はゆっくりお願いします。(Mō ichi-do, onegai shimasu. Kondo wa yukkuri onegai shimasu.) |
| まどか (Madoka):ママ、紅茶、飲む？(Mama, kōcha, nomu?) |
| お母さん (o-kā-san):うん。お願い。(Un. Onegai.) |
| まどか (Madoka):ミルクとおさとう、使う？(Miruku to o-satō, tsukau?) |
| お母さん (o-kā-san):うん。使う。(Un. Tsukau.) |
| まどか (Madoka):はい、どうぞ。(Hai, dōzo.) |
| まどか (Madoka):ケントも紅茶、飲む？(Kento mo kōcha, nomu?) |
| ケント (Kento):いや。コーラ飲む。(Iya. Kōra nomu.) |
| まどか (Madoka):コーラとケーキ？(Kōra to kēki?) |
| 今度は英語が入ります。(Kondo wa Eigo ga hairimasu.) |
| まどか (Madoka):ママ、紅茶、飲む？(Mama, kōcha, nomu?) |
| Kat: Mom, do you want some tea? |
| お母さん (o-kā-san):うん。お願い。(Un. Onegai.) |
| Kat: Yes, please. |
| まどか (Madoka):ミルクとおさとう、使う？(Miruku to o-satō, tsukau?) |
| Kat: Do you want milk and sugar? |
| お母さん (o-kā-san):うん。使う。(Un. Tsukau.) |
| Kat: Yes, I do. |
| まどか (Madoka):はい、どうぞ。(Hai, dōzo.) |
| Kat: Here you are. |
| まどか (Madoka):ケントも紅茶、飲む？(Kento mo kōcha, nomu?) |
| Kat: Kent, do you want some tea too? |
| ケント (Kento):いや。コーラ飲む。(Iya. Kōra nomu.) |
| Kat: No, I'll have Coke. |
| まどか (Madoka):コーラとケーキ？(Kōra to kēki?) |
| Kat: Coke with cake...? |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Kat: Coke and cake? What do you think of this combination, Naomi-sensei? |
| Naomi: Umm… I've never heard of someone having coke and cake before, but... |
| Kat: It seems like something like a three-year old would want to eat. There’s like the two different sweetnesses, they won’t go together surely. It seems like a really weird combination.... I'd say that 紅茶 (kōcha) or black tea, probably goes a lot better with cake, wouldn't you? |
| Naomi: うーん、そうね。(Ūn, sō ne.) By the way, do you like 紅茶 (kōcha)? キャットさん、紅茶好きですか。(Kyatto-san, kōcha suki desu ka.) |
| Kat: はい、紅茶が好きですけど、ミルクティーのほうが好きですね。(Hai, kōcha ga suki desu kedo, miruku tī no hō ga suki desu ne.) |
| Naomi: ああ、ミルクティーね。(Ā, miruku tī ne.) |
| Kat: I like black tea, but I like milk tea better. |
| Naomi: Oh, I see. When you order 紅茶 (kōcha) or black tea in Japan, the waiter or waitress asks you if you want lemon or milk to go with it. レモンティーとミルクティー があります。(Remon tī to miruku tī ga arimasu.) |
| Kat: なおみ先生は、カフェに行く時、何を飲みますか。(Naomi-sensei wa, kafe ni iku toki, nani o nomimasu ka.) When you go to a café, what do you like to drink? |
| Naomi: カプチーノ... かなあ。(Kapuchīno… ka nā.) |
| Kat: Cappuccino, that’s so おしゃれ (oshare). That’s so fashionable of you. I don’t know, maybe. Maybe I have low expectations of what おしゃれ (oshare) is. OK, so now, let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| Kat: The first word we are going to see is |
| Naomi: 紅茶 (kōcha) [natural native speed] |
| Kat: black or Western tea |
| Naomi: 紅茶 (kōcha) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Naomi: 紅茶 (kōcha) [natural native speed] |
| Kat: OK, and next. |
| Naomi: 飲む (nomu) [natural native speed] |
| Kat: to drink |
| Naomi: 飲む (nomu) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Naomi: 飲む (nomu) [natural native speed] |
| Kat: And next. |
| Naomi: 砂糖 (satō) [natural native speed] |
| Kat: sugar |
| Naomi: 砂糖 (satō) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Naomi: 砂糖 (satō) [natural native speed] |
| Kat: Next. |
| Naomi: どうぞ (dōzo) [natural native speed] |
| Kat: please |
| Naomi: どうぞ (dōzo) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Naomi: どうぞ (dōzo) [natural native speed] |
| Kat: And finally. |
| Naomi: 使う (tsukau) [natural native speed] |
| Kat: to use |
| Naomi: 使う (tsukau) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Naomi: 使う (tsukau) [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Kat: So now, let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Naomi: The first word we will look at is お願い (onegai). |
| Kat: "Please". When used as a noun, it also means "favor" as in a favor that someone does for you. |
| Naomi: That's true. In this lesson, we'll focus on how it's used an expression. |
| Kat: You probably remember the phrase お願いします (onegai shimasu) from the other Newbie Series. |
| Naomi: We've covered it a LOT. |
| Kat: Yes, this phrase is very common in Japanese. So that’s why we hammer it to do. So now we'll look at the informal way to say it. |
| Naomi: Just take off します (shimasu) at the end, and you have お願い (onegai). |
| Kat: Like "yes please", or "please do this for me." |
| Naomi: In the dialogue, when Madoka asked her mother if she wanted some tea, her mother said… うん。お願い。(Un. Onegai.) |
| Kat: "Yes, please." The next word is...? |
| Naomi: どうぞ (dōzo) |
| Kat: "Please go ahead", or "here you are." You can use this in a variety of situations. So it's a bit difficult to translate. |
| Naomi: Yes. For example, if you are handing something to someone, you can say どうぞ (dōzo). |
| Kat: Like please take this. This is how we saw it used in the dialogue, when Madoka handed her mother some tea. |
| Naomi: She said… はい、どうぞ。(Hai, dōzo.) |
| Kat: You can also use it to indicate that someone can go ahead and do something. For example, if you want to tell someone to go ahead and eat, or to go ahead of you through the door or something like that, you can use どうぞ (dōzo). |
| Naomi: Yes. For these situations, I think "please go ahead" is the perfect English translation. |
| Kat: Yes, that’s right, I think so. Okay. So now, may I move on to the next vocabulary word? |
| Naomi: はい、どうぞ！(Hai, dōzo!) Sure, go ahead. |
| Kat: OK, and the next and last vocabulary word is... |
| Naomi: 紅茶 (kōcha) |
| Kat: “Black tea” meaning tea that isn’t Japanese tea, green tea. |
| Naomi: There are many different kinds of tea in Japan, but this one means "black tea" in particular. |
| Kat: So, when you go to a cafe and order a set that includes a drink, you'll often have the option of コーヒー (kōhī) or 紅茶 (kōcha). Coffee or black tea. |
| Naomi: Right. You can get it hot or cold. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Kat: In this lesson, you'll learn how to talk about future actions and events, and also how to ask simple questions using verbs. First, let's start with talking about the future. The first thing you should know is that Japanese does NOT have a future tense, which is one of the reasons I love it so much. |
| Naomi: That's right. When talking about the future, you use the plain present form. |
| Kat: Let's look at one of the lines from the dialogue as an example. |
| Naomi: In the dialogue, Kent said… コーラ飲む。(Kōra nomu.) |
| Kat: コーラ (kōra) which is Coke, and the verb 飲む (nomu), which means "to drink". So this could mean "I drink Coke" or "I will drink Coke", right? |
| Naomi: Right! |
| Kat: So let me ask you, Naomi-sensei... how do you know that someone's talking about the future, and not the present in Japanese? |
| Naomi: Well, you mostly have to figure it out by context. In this case, Madoka asked him if he wanted some tea, and he said… いや。コーラ飲む。(Iya. Kōra nomu.) |
| Kat: "No, I'll have Coke." So it's pretty clear that he's talking about what he's GOING to drink. Because he is not actually drinking tea right now. |
| Naomi: Exactly. That's what I mean when I say you can figure out the meaning from the context. |
| Kat: Another way to know is if there is a word that indicates the future in the sentence, like a word referring to time, then it's definitely talking about a future action. |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) Right. For example, a word like 明日 (ashita). |
| Kat: Which means "tomorrow". In a sentence like this, we are obviously talking about the future. |
| Naomi: Right. Okay, let's do some more examples. |
| Kat: First, let's introduce a few verbs. We'll be using these over and over in our sample sentences. |
| Naomi: The first one is 飲む (nomu), which means |
| Kat: “To drink.” |
| Naomi: The second one is 行く (iku), which means |
| Kat: "To go." |
| Naomi: The third one is 使う (tsukau) which means |
| Kat: "To use." These are all the informal or dictionary forms. For the corresponding polite forms, please check the Lesson Notes. |
| Naomi: Here's the first example sentence. 駅に行く。(Eki ni iku.) |
| Kat: 駅 (eki) is station, に (ni) here is a particle here that indicates destination. It's like "to" in English. So 駅に行く (eki ni iku) means "I'm going to the station." So if I see Naomi-sensei, leaving and I ask her, Naomi-sensei, where are you going? |
| Naomi: Ah. 駅に行く。(Eki ni iku.) |
| Kat: "I'm going to the station." |
| Naomi: Here's another one. ビールを飲む。(Bīru o nomu.) |
| Kat: ビール (bīru) of course is beer, so this means "I'll drink beer." を (o) is marking the object. So I could say Naomi-sensei, what are you going to drink? |
| Naomi: Hmm...ビールを飲む！(Bīru o nomu!) |
| Kat: “I'll have beer!" So from the context, we could tell that these sentences are referring to future actions as the past is not actually doing the thing yet. And like we mentioned earlier, if you include a word that specifies some point of time in the future, then it's clear that you're talking about the future. |
| Naomi: Right. Before we mentioned the word 明日 (ashita), which means "tomorrow", so let's try using it in a sentence. |
| Kat: In Lesson 11, we introduced the word for school, 学校 (gakkō). |
| Naomi: So we could say… 明日、学校に行く。(Ashita, gakkō ni iku.) |
| Kat: "I'm going to school tomorrow." With the word for "tomorrow" 明日 (ashita) in there, this is obviously talking about the future. |
| Naomi: Right! Same goes for expressions like next week, next month, next year, etc. |
| Kat: That’s right. So in Japanese you have to infer quite a lot from the context. Okay, so now let's move on to our next topic. We're going to take the same future sentences we've been looking at, and turning them into questions. We have covered asking questions in this series, but the questions in this lesson all use verbs. |
| Naomi: If you have done the other Newbie Series, you probably know how to make a question in polite speech. |
| Kat: Ah, you mean using the か (ka) question particle. |
| Naomi: Right. For example, let's take the formal verb 行きます (ikimasu), meaning to go. If you add か (ka) to the end, it becomes a question. 行きますか。(Ikimasu ka.) |
| Kat: “Are you going?” or "will you go?" |
| Naomi: Exactly. We don’t usually add the か (ka) question particle after the dictionary form of a verb. |
| Kat: Ah right. Because if you did, it would sound kind of rough, wouldn't it? 行くか。(Iku ka.) “Are you going?” "Will you go?" It sounds interrogative, kind of like male speech. |
| Naomi: Right. So we don't recommend using か (ka) in informal speech. |
| Kat: So then, how can we take sentences like コーラ飲む (kōra nomu) or 駅に行く (eki ni iku) and make them questions then without using か (ka)? |
| Naomi: Well, we've touched on this in earlier lessons, but the key is rising intonation. The sentence itself doesn't change. |
| Kat: Ah, okay. So, for コーラ飲む (kōra nomu), I'll drink coke, we'd make this a question just by saying コーラ飲む？ (Kōra nomu?) ↑ "Are you gonna drink Coke?" or "Do you want Coke?" |
| Naomi: Yes, that's right. コーラ飲む？(Kōra nomu?) ↑ |
| Kat: How about the other sentence? 駅に行く。(Eki ni iku.) “I'm going to the station.” |
| Naomi: That would be… 駅に行く？ (Eki ni iku?) ↑ |
| Kat: "Are you going to the station?" That's not so difficult, is it? |
| Naomi: Not at all! |
| Kat: Let's take a look at the examples we had in the dialogue. |
| Naomi: Sure! First, Madoka said… ママ、紅茶飲む？(Mama, kōcha nomu?) |
| Kat: "Mom, do you want some tea?" |
| Naomi: Her mother said yes, so then she asked her… ミルクとお砂糖、使う？(Miruku to o-satō, tsukau?) |
| Kat: Literally, "are you going to use milk and sugar?" |
| Naomi: And then Madoka asked Kent… ケントも紅茶、飲む？(Kento mo kōcha, nomu?) |
| Kat: "Kent, do you want some tea too?" |
| Naomi: So did you notice how the intonation rose every time? |
| Kat: To end the lesson, let's practice the intonation of these questions. Listen closely to Naomi-sensei, and please repeat the questions the way she does! Okay, first, let's say you ask your friend if they'd like some water. What could we say? |
| Naomi: 水飲む？(Mizu nomu?) ↑ |
| [pause] |
| Kat: If your friend wants water, what could they say? |
| Naomi: うん、飲む。(Un, nomu.) ↓ In informal speech, just the verb by itself is enough as an answer. |
| Kat: Okay, let's do another one. Let's say you ask your friend if they'd like some cake. The verb "to eat" is 食べる (taberu). |
| Naomi: ケーキ食べる？(Kēki taberu?) ↑ |
| [pause] |
| Kat: うん、食べる！(Un, taberu!) ↓ |
| Naomi: You answered the question. |
| Kat: Well, cake sounds really good about that. |
Outro |
| Naomi: Okay, so now, you know how to ask questions in informal speech using rising intonation, and also how to talk about future actions. Well, that's all for this lesson! |
| Kat: Thanks for listening, and see you next time!! |
| Naomi: じゃあね！(Jā ne!) |
| まどか (Madoka):ママ、紅茶、飲む？(Mama, kōcha, nomu?) |
| お母さん (o-kā-san):うん。お願い。(Un. Onegai.) |
| まどか (Madoka):ミルクとおさとう、使う？(Miruku to o-satō, tsukau?) |
| お母さん (o-kā-san):うん。使う。(Un. Tsukau.) |
| まどか (Madoka):はい、どうぞ。(Hai, dōzo.) |
| まどか (Madoka):ケントも紅茶、飲む？(Kento mo kōcha, nomu?) |
| ケント (Kento):いや。コーラ飲む。(Iya. Kōra nomu.) |
| まどか (Madoka):コーラとケーキ？(Kōra to kēki?) |
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