You might think casual past tense isn’t that important for speaking formal Japanese, but it uses the same basic rules as another incredibly important piece of grammar that you absolutely can’t speak Japanese without. So memorize all these past tense rules; you’re going to need them again in just a few more strips.

Vocabulary

食べる = たべる = to eat

Transcript

言語ガールズ #59

Super-Niche Movies

Yellow: Teach me casual past tense so I can watch 日本の movies!

Blue: And pass your next 日本語 test?

Yellow: Sure, that too.

Blue: All casual past tense verbs end in た or だ, so they’re easy to recognize.

Blue: But how you add た to the verb depends on the verb’s dictionary form.

Blue: If the dictionary form ends in “iru” or “eru” you can just switch the final る to た.

Yellow: That means 見る to 見た and 食べる to 食べた.

Blue: Other verbs can be a little more complicated.

Yellow: Maybe I can find a movie that only uses “iru” and “eru” verbs…

You’ve already seen “dekiru” as a verb meaning “to be able to do”. But when used in the past tense it also means “to have completed”.

This might seem a little confusing, but it actually makes a lot of sense. To be able to do something means being able to complete whatever tasks are associated with that thing. From that perspective it makes a lot of sense to use the same verb for “to be able” and “to complete”.

Vocabulary

出来る = できる = to complete; to be able to do

書く = かく = to write

Transcript

言語ガールズ #58

Details, Details

Yellow: 私は宿題を出来ました！

Yellow: Turned it in right before the teacher walked into class.

Blue: That was really cutting it close.

Blue: What’s wrong?

Yellow: 私の名前を書きませんでした

Those of you that speak Portuguese or it’s close relative Spanish might recognize “pan” as the word for “bread”. From what I’ve heard the Japanese’s first exposure to western style bread came from Portuguese traders so they adopted the Portuguese word for the food.

Vocabulary

朝ご飯 = あさごはん = breakfast

パン = bread

Transcript

言語ガールズ #56

What Was THAT?

Blue: です has an irregular past tense.

Blue: The polite past tense is でした. The casual past tense is だった.

Blue: But you only use these verbs when comparing nouns to other nouns.

Blue: Talking about adjectives in the past tense has different rules.

Yellow: So I could say “breakfast was bread”?

Blue: 朝ご飯はパンでした

Yellow: But I can’t say “breakfast was tasty”?

Blue: I’m trying to build suspense by leaving that lesson for later.

Yellow: It’s not working.

Trying to come up with present tense sample dialogue for the comics up to this point really drove home just how much we use the past tense in everyday conversation. But I guess it makes sense. The past is much bigger than the present so it makes sense a lot of conversations would be about past events.

Anyways, now that we’re learning past tense we can hopefully start working on some more natural sounding dialogue.

Transcript

言語ガールズ #55

Putting The Past Behind Us

Blue: To make a polite verb past tense just replace ます with ました.

Blue: 行きます(I go) becomes 行きました (I went).

Blue: Your turn: The student studied.

Yellow: 生徒は勉強しました

Yellow: Right?

Blue: Very good! Now you can talk about the past.

Yellow: Guess that means I have to do my history homework.

Blue: You were putting off your English history homework because you didn’t know Japanese past tense?

Yellow: I’m not picky when it comes to excuses.

Interesting trivia: In Japanese you can say “thank you” in the past tense by conjugating “gozaimasu”. You then use the past tense “thank you” for favors that people did in the past. Example: If someone gave you a book you would use the present tense “thanks” because it was happening right now. But if someone mailed you a book you would use the past tense “thanks” the next time you saw them because the favor of mailing you the book was also a past tense event.

But wait! We don’t know how to conjugate for the past! I guess we’d better do something about that.

Vocabulary

ありがとう = thank you

どうも = thanks

ございま = extremely formal, ancient verb. Usually shows up in set phrases.

Transcript

言語ガールズ #54

There’s A Song Stuck In My Head

Blue: Here’s that book you lent me the other day.

Yellow: ありがとう

Blue: Did you know you can make ありがとう even more polite by adding どうも to the front or ございます to the end?

Blue: You can even be super polite by using both at once: どうも ありがとうございます

Yellow: You’re going to need to do a lot more than return a book if you want more than plain ありがとう out of me.

Yellow: Like buying me lunch.

Yellow: Let’s do that. You buy me lunch and then I can practice using どうも ありがとうございます.

Blue: I think I’ll pass.

There are a few set phrases and words that come with “o” and “go” built right in. Things like “onegai”, “okyakusan”, “onamae ha nan desu ka” and so on. You can find these in just about any beginning level textbook or tourist guidebook and memorizing them would be a good way to spend an evening or two if you ever decide to actually go to Japan.

Outside of these set phrases it can be hard to figuring out when you should and shouldn’t add “o” or “go” to words. It’s something you just have to develop an instinct for by listening to lots of real Japanese. But don’t worry too much; as long as you remember to use polite verbs I imagine most Japanese will think you’re doing pretty good for a foreigner.

Vocabulary

御 = お or ご = Honorific word prefix

Transcript

言語ガールズ #53

Pleasantly Polite

Blue: Remember how you can make verbs more polite by conjugating them?

Yellow: That’s what we use ます for.

Blue: Well, you can also make some non-verbs more polite by adding an お or ご to the front of the word.

Blue: There’s a kanji form too: 御.

Blue: So when you ask someone what their name is it’s polite to use お名前.

Yellow: あなたのお名前はなんですか

Blue: But remember, it’s rude to use honorifics when talking about yourself. Use plain 名前 for your own introductions.

Yellow: I need a T-shirt that says: “I’m not rude, honorifics are confusing”.

お願いします is actually two words, お願い (request) and します (polite form of “suru”, to do or to make). It literally translates as “I am humbly making a request” and is a fairly formal way to ask for favors. This is another common phrase that sticks out in most Japanese media, so see if you can find it in your favorite show, book, game or comic.

Vocabulary

はじめまして = nice to meet you

よろしく = please treat me well;

please take care of things

お願いします = おねがいします = please (very polite)

Transcript

言語ガールズ #52

Politely Pleasant

Blue: When you first meet someone it’s polite to say はじめまして

Blue: And after introducing yourself you should say よろしく

Blue: It’s even more polite to say よろしくお願いします instead of plain よろしく

Yellow: So a full introduction would be something like:

Yellow: はじめまして。私はSchneiderです。よろしくお願いします。

Blue: You’re really stuck on this “Schneider” thing, aren’t you?

Yellow: It has four consonants in a row!

“anata” is kind of weird. It has a kanji symbol but it usually gets written using hiragana instead. I have no idea why. That’s just how it’s done.

Vocabulary

生徒 = せいと = student

貴方 = あなた = you (polite, usually written in hiragana)

Transcript

言語ガールズ #50

Mine! Mine! Mine!

Blue: In English you use “apostrophe s” to show ownership.

Yellow: Like “The student’s book” or “Japan’s language”.

Blue: In 日本語 you use の to do the same thing.

Yellow: So… 生徒の本 and 日本の言語?

Blue: That’s right.

Blue: English has some special ownership words like “my” and “your”, but in 日本語 you always use の.

Blue: “My book” is 私の本. “Your book” is あなたの本.

Blue: So, do you have any questions?

Yellow: No. I know の now.

Remember, the を marks the object of the sentence. In this case it marks exactly what is being seen.

We also have some good examples of implied sentence subjects here. In fact, none of the three Japanese sentences in this strip had an explicit subject.

In the first sentence it’s obviously the speaker who has just seen something because you don’t generally start conversations by telling other people what they see. (You might ask them if they saw something, but you wouldn’t just tell them.) There was no need to start with something like “Watashi wa”.

Then from there it’s obvious that the other two sentences are focused on the car that got brought up in the first sentence, so there’s no reason to explicitly mention it again and again.

Vocabulary

かっこいい = cool, stylish

車 = くるま = car

Transcript

言語ガールズ #49

Inexpert Opinion

Yellow:　かっこいい 車を見ます

Blue: どこですか

Yellow: あそこです

Blue: I’m not really a car person. What makes that one so cool?

Yellow: Umm…. It’s kind of… swooshy shaped?

Blue: You’re not a car person either, are you?

Yellow: “Swooshy shaped” is a very technical automotive term.

Here’s another set of super common words to help round out your vocabulary. They’re short and easy to understand too so see if you can pick them out of your favorite Japanese media.

The difference between “soko” and “asoko” is a lot like the difference between “sore” and “are”. When talking about a place far from you but close to your listener you use “soko”. When talking about a place far away from both of you you use “asoko”. That general guidline should get you through most situations until you start to pick up a real instinct for which word to use when.

Vocabulary

ここ = here

そこ = there

あそこ = way over there

どこ = where (question word)

Transcript

言語ガールズ #48

Co-dependence

Blue: Remember the words for “this” and “that”?

Yellow: Yeah. これ is “this”, それ is “that” and あれ is “that thing way over there”.

Blue: There are similar words for talking about places.

Blue: ここ means “here”, そこ means “there”, and あそこ means “way over there”.

Blue: There is also どこ, a question word which means “where”.

Yellow: That’s a lot of different words that all end in こ…

Yellow: But the only word I can focus on right now is “taco”.

Blue: That’s what you get for skipping lunch.