Taking a break from GO fandom tonight, only a few more chapters till the end.
Watched ATLA and loving the show. Love my boy Zuko so I’m doodling him for fun, let me know if I should do more ATLA fan art ^^
I tried to picture them in Japanese style.
And later found out these just look like their usual outfits yahahaha ;-;
8.1) Verbs - Endings
Hey everyone! Let’s continue talking about Japanese verbs. I’m hoping to unravel some of the mystery of how to use them and how they work.
Last time I mentioned that every verb has 2 parts, the stem and the okurigana. The stem is the heart of the verb and contains the base meaning. The okurigana is the hiragana that comes after the stem. Today let’s look at the okurigana and what role it plays in the verb’s overall meaning.
Okurigana
Okurigana is the hiragana that is attached to the stem. The okurigana tells the listener or the reader additional information about the verb. Let’s go back to the English verb “kick.” Now think of the verb “kicked”. When we hear or read this word, we understand 1) the main action of using one’s foot to hit someone or something and 2) that this action happened in the past. Think of okurigana like the “ed” in kicked.
The great thing about Japanese is that there are very few irregular verbs. For English learners it’s not so easy to understand that there is an “ed” contained inside of “ate”. In Japanese, you will always be able to see the okurigana.
The Base (or Dictionary) Ending
The part of the okurigana that actually tells us the information is the ending. There are many kinds of endings but the simplest (and most important) one is the base or dictionary ending. This is the ending that you will find when you look up words in the dictionary. For the stem 歩, the ending is く. For the stem 食べ, the ending is る. The stem 分か (read as わか) means to understand or comprehend something. Its ending is る.
The following chart shows some examples of verb stems and their base endings. In a later post, I’ll explain the different colors.
Now, it may seem like there are lot of different base endings (10 of them!), but you will get used to seeing and hearing them pretty quickly. In the next post, I’ll help you with a good way to learn and think about new verbs that you encounter.
The ます Ending
The other common ending is ます. This ending carries 2 pieces of information: 1) the action will happen in the future {sometimes it is the present} and 2) you are expressing respect for the listener / reader. So if you hear or read the stem 歩 and the ます ending, it means “will walk”. If you hear the stem 食べ and the ending ます, it means “will eat”. I don’t have much to say about this ending because it’s pretty straightforward.
Conclusion
The last thing I want to point out is a big difference between the ます ending and the base ending. The ます ending will always be ます, no matter what verb it is attached to. It will never change. The base ending on the other hand looks different, depending on the verb. 歩く, 食べる, and 話す all look different, but the sooner you realize that the く, る and す are all base endings, the sooner you will be comfortable with Japanese verbs.
In the next post, I’ll finish up talking about okurigana and why there are 2 main categories of verbs. If this post was helpful to you, give it a reblog or a like. Remember, you can always ask me questions in the comments. If I helped you understand something that confused you, you can let me know that too! See you next time!
Rice & Peace,
– AL (アル)
👋🏾
You can fix any amount of angst if you replace it with a high school au, right? ….right??
’there’s always a voice inside me that says, ’things won’t go that smoothly.’’
whisper of the heart (1995) dir. yoshifumi kondo
Art of Ralph Breaks The Internet!
- Credit to: mmdisney200 on instagram
Leave it to the Japanese to give us the single best representation of Princess Leia Organa in her younger years that I’ve ever seen (read right to left):
