“mashou” is useful because it let’s you create very mild commands and suggestions.

Instead of coming right out and saying “I want to go to McDonalds” you can politely suggest “Let’s go to McDonald’s” or even more mildly “Shall we go to McDonald’s?”

So listen carefully the next time a movie or show has a scene where characters are debating what to do next. Odds are good you’ll hear a polite character making suggestions with “mashou”.

Vocabulary

東京 = とうきょう = Tokyo

Transcript

言語ガールズ #110

Shall We?

Blue: You can turn a polite verb into a suggestion or invitation by replacing ます with ましょう

Yellow: “Let’s play a game” would be ゲームを遊びましょう

Blue: I could suggest a group trip with 東京へ行きましょう

Yellow: “Let’s play a game” would be ゲームを遊びましょう

Blue: And of course you can add か to make it a polite question.

Blue: “Shall we go to Tokyo?” with 行きましょうか

Yellow: “Let’s play a game” would be ゲームを遊びましょう

Blue: You’ve got a one-track mind today.

Yellow: I brought cards!

Winter this year has been crazy. That’s all I have to say.

Vocabulary

また = again

雪 = ゆき = snow

そうですね = that’s right / is that right?

冷たい = つめたい = cold (to the touch)

Transcript

言語ガールズ #109

The Weather Outside Is Frightful

Yellow: また雪ですか

Blue: そうですね

Yellow: 雪は寒いです

Blue: 違います。雪は冷たいです。

Yellow: Huh? I thought 寒い meant cold?

Blue: 寒い only refers to things like cold weather and cold air.

Blue: You use 冷たい for things that are cold to the touch like snow and ice.

Yellow: So I use 寒い to complain about the weather and 冷たい to complain about everything else?

Blue: They can be used in a positive way too.

Yellow: Maybe when it’s 夏…

If you ask for permission and get it the answer will usually be a pretty straightforward “Sure, that’s fine”. But if you don’t get permission things can get a bit strange.

Since the Japanese tend to avoid conflict they will almost never directly say “no” to a request even when they want to. Instead they will kind of stall and mumble something like “Well… you see… maybe… but it’s kind of… I guess you could… but still…”

As an American you might take that kind of wishy washy answer as a weak “yes”. But what you are actually supposed to do is notice their reluctance and withdraw your request without forcing them to say no. That way everybody saves face and there is no conflict.

Vocabulary

入る = はいる = to enter

Transcript

言語ガールズ #108

Close One Door, Open Another

Blue: Time for another て pattern.

Blue: verb-て　いい　です means “It’s okay to do that verb”.

Yellow: I remember いい. It means “good”.

Blue: So if someone knocked on your door you could us て　いい　です to give them permission to come in.

Yellow: 入っていいです

Blue: You can also add a か to the end of the pattern to make a request.

Blue: So you could ask “Can I come in?” with 入っていいですか

Yellow: But if you learn a little ninjitus you don’t have to worry about permission. Just smoke bomb your way in and out!

Blue: I worry that real world 日本 won’t be able to live up to the image in your head.

When you think about it the present tense in both English and Japanese has two uses:

1) To talk about something you do in general. “I write a blog.”

2) To talk about instantaneous actions. “I push the button”.

In English “to know” is used as a general present tense. “Yeah, I know the first ten digits of Pi. That’s a generally true statement about me.”

But in Japanese they prefer the ongoing “I am knowing” form instead of the general “I know”. Which is both fine and logical… but sure takes some getting used to. Just remember that “shitteru” and “shitteimasu” both mean “to know” and don’t worry too much about the grammar specifics.

Vocabulary

知る = しる = to know

Transcript

言語ガールズ #107

Goldfish

Yellow: So anytime I would use a “-ing” verb in English I use a て　います verb in 日本語?

Blue: There are also times where you should use て　います even when you wouldn’t use “-ing” in English.

Blue: One important example is “to know”. In English we just use the present tense to talk about things we know.

Yellow: I know a lot of movie trivia.

Blue: But in 日本語 you use the ongoing 知っています conjugation instead.

Yellow: I am knowing a lot of movie trivia?

Blue: Think of it this way: When you know something you keep knowing it. You don’t just forget three seconds later.

Yellow: Actually…

It’s always nice when new grammar is actually just old grammar being recycled for new purposes.

Transcript

言語ガールズ #106

And I’ll Form The Verb!

Blue: The います in て　います is just the polite form of いる.

Blue: That means you can use other いる conjugations to make other sorts of “-ing” sentences.

Yellow: Like using plain いる to be casual. “I am writing” as 書いている instead of 書いています.

Blue: Sometimes people don’t pronounce the い in the casual form, so it can also be 書いてる.

Yellow: And I guess you can talk about the past too. Like “I was writing” with書いていました.

Blue: And of course you could make a casual past “-ing” sentence too.

Blue: So by combining the て conjugation and いる conjugation rules we get a new set of conjugations.

Yellow: It would be cooler if they combined into some sort of giant grammar robot.

The Japanese drink a ton of tea and offering it to guests is an important part of their cultural manners. This can pose an interesting challenge for westerner visitors who either really don’t like tea or have dietary or religious restrictions against it. You don’t want to offend people by refusing their hospitality… but at the same time you also really don’t want the tea. Tread carefully if you find yourself in this situation.

Anyways, on a grammar note I hope you all noticed we used the te-imasu form of “nomu” to create the natural sounding question “What are you drinking?”. And as you can see “ocha” is yet another word that has an honorific “o” attached directly to it 99% of the time.

Vocabulary

お茶 = おちゃ = tea, usually green

麦茶 = むぎちゃ = wheat or barley tea

Transcript

言語ガールズ #105

Contents May Be Hot

Blue: 何を飲んでいますか

Yellow: お茶です

Blue: Speaking of お茶, the most common type of tea in 日本 is green tea.

Blue: So if you just ask for お茶 that’s what you’ll probably get.

Blue: To talk about other types of tea you usually add a prefix to 茶.

Blue: Like using the kanji for wheat to create 麦茶.

Blue: So, what’s your favorite flavor of お茶?

Yellow: They all taste like burnt tongue to me.

Blue: That’s what happens when you’re too impatient to let it cool…

In English we also use -ing both to talk about ongoing verbs and to turn verbs into nouns. I am eating (ongoing verb). Eating is important (verb as noun).

But in Japanese the te-imasu form is ONLY for ongoing verbs. Using verbs as nouns uses different rules that we’ll probably eventually get around to.

Transcript

言語ガールズ #104

Participle Are Not Gerunds

Blue: One of the most important uses of the て conjugation is talking about things that are happening right now.

Yellow: Isn’t that what the present tense is for?

Blue: The present tense let’s you say things like “I eat dinner every day”, but the て conjugation lets you say “I am eating dinner right now”.

Yellow: Oh! The -ing conjugation.

Blue: To say “I am X-ing” in 日本語 you use the て conjugation followed by います.

Yellow: So 食べる　is “eat” but 食べています is “am eating”.

Blue: Now we can have more natural sounding conversations.

Yellow: Good. All these supernatural sounding conversations were creeping me out.

Pretty straightforward and I hope everyone can see why oshieru was conjugated the way it was. But I also want to point out that “ni” at the beginning of the sentence. In this case the “ni” is pointing out the target of our verb. Who do we want to get taught? “Me” or “Watashi”.

Just a quick example of “ni” being used for something more abstract than your normal “to mark a physical location”.

Vocabulary

下さい = ください = please do something for me

教える = おしえる = to teach

Transcript

言語ガールズ #103

With A Cherry On Top

Yellow: Teach me what we can do with the て conjugation.

Blue: The first thing to learn is how to make polite requests.

Yellow: Umm… “Please” teach me what we can do with the て conjugation?

Blue: You can request that people do things by adding ください to the end of a て verb.

Blue: Sometimes it’s written with a kanji instead.

Blue: So “Please teach” would be 教えて下さい

Blue: And “Please teach me Japanese” would be 私に日本語を教えて下さい

Blue: If you use a て conjugation all on it’s own it turns into a rude demand instead of a polite request.

Yellow: Got it. Don’t’ forget the ください.

A boring but necessary review. Next time we’ll start to get into what you can actually do with your new “te” form verbs.

Transcript

言語ガールズ #102

Remixing A Classic

Blue: The て form follows the same rules as the casual past tense, but with a て instead of a た.

Yellow: I obviously remember all of those rules.

Yellow: But maybe the… audience… needs a reminder.

Blue: If a verb ends in “iru” or “eru” you replacte the last る with て.

Blue: If the verb ends in a る that isn’t “iru” or “eru” or with a つ or う you replace the last syllable with って.

Blue: If the verb ends in く you change the く to いて.

Blue: If the verb ends in ぐ change the ぐ to いで.

Blue: If the verb ends in す change the す to して.

Blue: And finally if the verb ends in ぬ, む or ぶ change the last syllable to んで

If you want to brush up on your casual past tense conjugations you’ll probably want to look here. But we’re going to spend at least a little time going over the “te” version of those rules so don’t worry if you only kind of remember.

Also, while there may be no such thing as the “Samurai Conjugation” fictional TV samurai and ninja often use extremely old fashioned conjugations such as “gozaru”. While fun to listen to this is something you should never use in real life. It will make you sound like a cartoon character with an embarrassingly bad Old English accent (on top of your default American accent) and it’s hard to imagine a situation where you would want that.

Transcript

言語ガールズ #101

It’s Grammar Time!

Yellow: For the next several strips we’re going to be talking about one of the most important conjugations in 日本語: The Samurai Conjugation.

Blue: That’s… not a real thing.

Blue: What we’re actually going to be talking about is the て conjugation.

Blue: The て conjugation is important because it allows you to combine verbs with other verbs and phrases.

Yellow: Why would I want to mix my verbs with other things?

Blue: Because mixing verbs is important for making requests, giving instructions and even normal present tense conversations.

Yellow: And why is it called the て conjugation?

Blue: Because it follows the same rules as the casual past tense but the verbs all end in て instead of た.