Grammar · N5
Self Study Japanese Lesson 7: Verbs
By Can (original WordPress byline: dimitri2012) ·
Dear all,
Lesson 7 is about verbs.
There are generally 2 types of verbs, transitive (他動詞/たどうし/ta-dou-shi) and intransitive verbs (自動詞/じどうし/ji-dou-shi).
As many of you may know, transitive verbs take in a object and intransitive verbs don’t take in an object.
The general structure is like this.
Person wa Object o Verb
E.g
HKさん は いちご を たべます。
HK san wa Ichigo o tabemasu / HK is going to eat/will eat strawberry
Samuelさん は みず を のみます
Samuel san wa mizu o nomimasu / Samuel is going to drink/will drink water.
To make the sentence become a question, add a か(ka) after the verb.
Sentence Structure: Person wa Object o Verb ka
E.g
HKさんは いちご を たべますか。
HK san wa Ichigo o tabemasu ka / Is HK going to eat/will eat strawberry?
Samuelさん は みず を のみますか
Samuel san wa mizu o nomimasu ka / Is Samuel going to drink/will drink water?
You can also replace the object with the question word “なに/nani” and then add a か/ka behind to make it a question.
E.g
Samuelさん は なに を のみますか。
Samuel san wa nani o nomimasu ka. / What is Samuel going to drink/will drink?
。。。みず を のみます。
…mizu o nomimasu. / He will drink water.
Below are some common verbs that can be used with this above structure.
- うたいます (utaimasu / sing)
- みます (mimasu / watch)
- よみます (yomimasu / read)
- かきます (kakimasu / write)
- かいます (kaimasu / buy)
- とります (torimasu / take a picture)
- はらいます (haraimasu / pay)
Examples
わたしは うた を うたいます
watashi wa uta o utaimasu / I am going to sing/will sing a song
Chloeさんは テレビをみます
Chloe san wa terebi o mimasu / Chloe is going to watch/will watch TV
Andyさんは ほん を よみます
Andy san wa hon o yomimasu / Andy is going to read/will read a book
Hao Keetさんは てがみ を かきます
Hao Keet san wa tegami o kakimasu / Hao Keet is going to write/will write a letter
Samuelさんは まっく を かいますか
Samuel san wa makku o kaimasu ka / Will Samuel buy Macdonalds?
Peterさんは たかみ の しゃしん を とります
Peter san wa Takami no shashin o torimasu / Peter is going to/will take Takami’s picture
Samuelさんは がくひ を はらいます
Samuel san wa gakuhi o haraimasu / Samuel will be paying/will pay school fees