Learn Japanese
Lesson 180: The Plain Form I: Present Tense Affirmative
Until this point in the Japanese course, most lessons have been written in the neutral form. This generally entails using verbs in the long form, ending in -ます. This neutral form of Japanese is good to adopt as one's default mode of speaking or writing, especially for using with strangers or in a professional or formal situation.
However, when spending time with friends or family members, the more colloquial plain form or casual form is by far the most common mode of expression. In the next few lessons we will be going over how to create sentences in the plain form.
We'll begin with conjugating verbs to the plain form in the present tense. For verbs used in the affirmative this is actually simply the dictionary form, which we have used when introducing new verb vocabulary words.
Below are some sentences contrasting the polite and plain form.
English | Japanese |
---|---|
I drink wine at dinner. |
夜ご飯でワインを飲む。 yorugohan de wain wo nomu. |
She studies chemistry in the Netherlands. |
彼女はオランダで化学を勉強する。 kanozyo ha oranda de kagaku wo benkyousuru. |
The copula desu also has a plain form, which is だ.
English | Japanese |
---|---|
My favorite type of flower is the orchid. |
私の一番好きな花の種類はランだ。 watasi no itiban sukina hana no syurui ha ran da. |
Question | Answer |
---|---|
I drink wine at dinner. |
夜ご飯でワインを飲む。 yorugohan de wain wo nomu. |
chemistry |
化学 kagaku |
The Netherlands |
オランダ oranda |
She studies chemistry in the Netherlands. |
彼女はオランダで化学を勉強する。 kanozyo ha oranda de kagaku wo benkyousuru. |
first; best |
一番 itiban |
flower |
花 hana |
type, kind |
種類 syurui |
orchid |
ラン ran |
to be |
だ da |
My favorite type of flower is the orchid. |
私の一番好きな花の種類はランだ。 watasi no itiban sukina hana no syurui ha ran da. |
newspaper |
新聞 sinbun |
(Your) mother is reading the newspaper. |
お母さんは新聞を読んでいる。 okaasan ha sinbun wo yonde iru. |
electric train |
電車 densya |
to come to a halt, to stopintransitive |
止まる tomaru |
Nagoya |
名古屋 nagoya |
This (electric) train stops in Nagoya. |
この電車は名古屋で止まる。 kono densya ha nagoya de tomaru. |
to hate, to detest |
嫌う kirau |
oneself |
自分 zibun |
I hate myself. |
私は自分を嫌う。 watasi ha zibun wo kirau. |
always; never |
何時も itumo |
insult; slander, speaking ill |
悪口 waruguti |
(He) always speaks ill of people. |
いつも人の悪口を言う。 itumo hito no waruguti wo iu. |