Verb Discussion, ばんざい!

[Karin Rengu]

You're amazing I swear. I'm not sure how much this has to do with particles but do you think you could teach me how to conjugate?

[Dreams]

Well... conjugating may prove to be impossibly time-consuming, as both verbs and adjectives have tons of different forms in Japanese. They are not affected by number or gender, as in Latin-based languages. But they change depending on formality, time (past/present, no real future tense), action, command, etc etc. I suppose it might be easier to say that verbs and adjectives both have a few standard base forms, and then endings are tacked onto those base forms that are determined by the things I listed.

Is there any particular thing you wanted to know how to say or do in the language? I could try starting threads about the forms of verbs and adjectives, but it might be overwhelming to go into all the details.

[Yuki~]

I think it's so much easier to conjugate verbs in japanese than in portuguese!
XDD

[Dreams]

Yeah, easier to do it in Japanese than in Spanish. :) Is Portuguese like Spanish?
Conjugating verbs depended on whether it was me, you, he/she, us, they, etc.

[Yuki~]

yes, Portuguese is like Spanish... u_____x'
But the worst part is: we don't use all the verbs conjugations! So why are we learning this for???
And, it's hard!

[Karin Rengu]

Well, I'd just like to know present tense for now. I know how difficult it can be to conjugate verbs (I'm in a German class and they love to make things as hard as possible).
I'd just like to know things like I walk, you walk, he/she/it walks. I think I know how to use desu though. Like, to say "I am a cat" it'd be Atashi wa neko desu right?
I'm trying to learn more than just basic japanese for now because a japanese girl may be staying at my house for a month over the summer. She'll know english but I'd still like to know japanese too

[Dreams]

Atashi wa neko desu, yes!
And that's exciting... is she an exchange student?

Oh, well, present tense is easy. :)
Of course... by the end of my post, it'll be complicated because I love to get carried away.

For starters, there are two types of verbs in Japanese:
~RU verbs (verbs that end in ~eru or ~iru)
~U verbs (verbs that end in any other letter + u)
(Of course, there are exceptions here and there, but don't worry about that.)*

So, if you were to look in a Japanese dictionary and find a verb, it's already listed in its informal present tense form. And that's all there is to it - it doesn't change for me, you, he/she, etc.

For example:
aruku - "to walk"
By itself, the verb "aruku" can be an entire sentence. It can mean "I walk" or "you walk" or "he walks" and so on. Pronouns are often omitted when the subject is understood. To attach a pronoun, you'll need to use a particle... but I'll get into that in a second. Let me continue with VOORBS.

So, like I said, "aruku" is in its informal form. This is acceptable to use between friends, etc. But in a situation where you need to be more polite (which would be a good idea with this girl staying at your house), the verb needs to change into its polite/formal form. Which is also terribly easy. All it requires is chopping off the verb ending and adding "~masu".

Remember how I said there's two types of verbs? That's why it's important - RU and U verbs always change in slightly different ways:

RU verb - replace the RU with MASU:
taberu (to eat) -> tabemasu

U verb - replace the U with IMASU:
aruku -> arukimasu

And right there, you have your polite present form. How easy is that?

*After re-reading my post, I thought it would be unfair to not point out that the verb SURU changes to SHIMASU in polite form. It is irregular. But it's used so often, you might want to jot it down.

Making basic sentences with verbs aren't too bad either, it's just a matter of knowing which particle to use.
For a statement like, "I [do this action]", you can say, "I wa verb."
(You can also use GA instead of WA, but I'd just stick with WA at this point, as they work in slightly different ways.)
So, "I walk" -> "Watashi wa aruku."
Or, "She walks" -> "Kanojo wa arukimasu."

You can add in another clause after the subject, which will specify the object, place, etc.
For example, if you wanted to say, "I eat pizza" -> "Watashi wa piza o taberu."
Generally, verbs take the particle O when specifying an object.

In the place of O, you can also use other particles like NI, DE, KARA, and E. But it's best I shut up at this point before I make it way too complicated. If you read my particles post again, you can see when to use the other particles. But that's pretty much it; present tense is quite simple. :)

[Karin Rengu]

Yea, she's an exchange student. So is the verb desu in it's formal form or does it need to be desimasu?
And verbs can be used by themselves if it's implied who is doing the action? That's why I'm having such a tough time with this!
Thanks so much! It wasn't too complicated to understand and I think you getting carried away is helping me instead of hurting me.
btw, I printed out your particles list to study from.

[Dreams]

'Desu' is already in its formal form. Its plain form is 'da'. FYI, 'desu' is not considered a verb, but a copula. It really doesn't act the way verbs do. :)

And like how 'suru' changes to 'shimasu', whenever there's an 'su' at the end of the verb, it'll change to 'shi'.
Like, 'omoidasu' (to remember/recall) changes to 'omoidashimasu'.

And... let me think if there's other important irregularities.
Oh, 'kuru' (to come) -> 'kimasu'.
Verbs with vowels are normal, though. Like 'au' (to meet) -> 'aimasu'.

Yeah, verbs don't necessarily need a subject attached to them, although it's not wrong to do so. Like if someone asked you, "What are you doing?" (Nani o shimasu ka?), you can just answer, "Drawing" (Egakimasu). Same principle. Coincidentally, there is no real present-tense action form (or future tense) in Japanese. We're able to add ~ing in English to show that we're doing something at the moment, but in Japanese, the present tense will suffice. There's also a couple other verb forms that can be read as our ~ing verbs, but nothing really specific.

So much of the language relies on context that it makes you feel kind of hopeless at first that you're going to be misunderstood, but it's not so. Time words help a lot, too. Like, "I'm drawing right now" (Ima egakimasu). And those just generally get plopped at the beginning of sentences, without the aid of particles. And see? I'm rambling on again. But if it helps you, good. lmao.

[Karin Rengu]

It really does help me. Thanks! now...what's a copula?

[Dreams]

To use the dictionary definition, a copula is "an equating verb (such as `be' or `become') that links the subject with the complement of a sentence." The real deal is that it isn't a normal verb, so it doesn't follow the rules normal verbs do.

[Karin Rengu]

Oh ok. So I take it english has copulas too. I've just never heard the word before until I started studying Japanese and I'm like "what the hell are you??" and the book I'm studying from didn't tell me so I thought "crap. looks like I'll have to wait to find out." XD

[Dreams]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verb#Copula

;D

[Karin Rengu]

o.o Wow I didn't know that. I just thought remain was a verb. Man languages are tricky! XD
btw, I was wondering, do you make a verb negative by adding -masen to the end? Like to not eat is tabemasen?

[Dreams]

Yep, a polite negative verb just changes ~masu -> ~masen.

Informal negative verbs change like this:
(RU) taberu -> tabenai (replace the 'ru' with 'nai')
(U) oyogu -> oyoganai (replace the 'u' with 'anai')

But then there's some exceptions with the U verbs... the usual irregular ones like 'suru' (becomes 'shinai') and 'kuru' (becomes 'konai'). Also, if a verb has a vowel preceding the final U, 'wa' is added in: 'au' -> 'awanai'.

Oh! And I've forgotten to point out that verbs that end in -tsu are irregular, like 'matsu' (to wait). When adding ~masu, it becomes 'machimasu'. And for the plain negative tense, it becomes 'matanai'.

Still, not too bad. When you want something challenging, let's discuss plain past tense verb forms. ;D

[Karin Rengu]

Well...if you wouldn't mind explaining it I could definitely benefit from that!