The road to understanding
Japanese in littered with
lies. These lies aren't intended
to harm. The fact is, in the
beginning the lies seem natural
and helpful. They help make
the language 'feel' closer
to our native language (English,
most likely). Unfortunately,
the more knowledge you try
to pile on the top of these
lies, the more your house
of learning resembles a home
built on a foundation of sponges.
Instead of helping, these
myths only make life harder.
At points, they can make
you wonder:
"Why can't I understand
Japanese?"
"What's wrong with me?"
"I must just be stupid."
When I started taking a formal
Japanese class a few months
ago, I realized how harmful
those 'friendly lies' can
be. I noticed that a class
full of people who had completed
almost three quarters of a
textbook still couldn't conjugate
verbs in a negative plain
form. I realized that it was
difficult for my classmates
to naturally conjugate an
adjective. It was more than
simple memory slips - my classmates
genuinely didn't understand
how verbs worked. Though they
had the benefit of a native
Japanese teacher, and classroom
conversation time, still,
the basic verb seemed to evade
them.
I realised, as the class
progressed, that my classmates
were victims of a number of
myths that I had also faced.
These myths seem inherent
in most of the learning materials
for students. Unless you are
the kind of person who looks
at an inconstancy, and really
searches to find out why that
inconsistancy is there, it's
easy to drink in these lies,
until they grow so big they
claw their way out of your
brain, and go skittering into
the night. .
So over the course of the
next week, I'm going to post
up all of the myths I've learned
about Japanese verbs, and
how you can defeat them. Hopefully
you'll find them helpful.
Know Your Verb! (Some myths
about Japanese Verbs as seen
from a student of Japanese)
Desu = Is
If you think 'desu' = is,
congratulations, you are about
to defeat your first big myth
about Japanese.
Let me make this clear: DESU
DOES NOT MEAN IS!
Not today, not tomorrow,
not ever. Desu is a word that
has no equivilant in English.
In short, it makes what you
are saying more polite. This
is exactly, word for word,
what a Japanese friend told
me.
Okay, but what about:
Kore wa penu desu
This is a pen.
(This is possibly the most
inane sentence ever)
Doesn't desu mean is in that
sentence?
Now we get to the real secret
of desu. Desu will sometimes
pretend to mean is, if it
is the last word in the sentence,
and if there isn't a more
active verb at the end of
your sentence. It's exactly
the same thing as using the
masu form of a verb to make
a verb more polite (The Masu
Myth we will defeat next).
So why does believing that
desu = is give me problems?
Because, a whole bunch of
the time, desu doesn't mean
is at all. Further, if you
try to think 'desu' means
'is' it will only confuse
you to what's really going
on in a sentance.
EG:
Kore wa penu ja nai.
This, a pen, is not.
(casual)
Kore wa penu ja nai desu.
This, a pen, is not
(more polite - not normally
heard, but gramatically correct
and equivilant to penu ja
arimasen)
Kore wa penu ja nai 'n desu.
This, a pen, is not.
(I'm saying this to explain
something - see previous post:
no da/no desu. Polite. Seen
often.)
If you believe (as I did)
that ja nai means 'is not'
and desu means 'is', the last
two sentances are a complete
mind-twist.
Lit: This, a pen is not, is
...WTF!
You may convince yourself:
well, something like that
is just an exception to the
rule, and memorize it. But
if you are forced to memorize
everything that is an exception
to the desu = is myth, eventually,
you will quickly experiece
desu burnout. You also really
run into trouble when you
meet the word has a meaning
a lot closer to is: (what
the Genki textbook calls the
'plain form' of desu, though
calling it a plain for of
desu is more of the 'desu'
= 'is' crap)
Da
Is (in the sense of 'this
is a pen')
I say a lot closer to is,
because the word 'is' in English
is a lot different than 'is'
in Japanese. Japanese has
a bunch of different kinds
of words to express existence.
The most common ones you will
meet are:
da, aru (inanimate objects
exist), iru (animate objects
exist)
Also, because you tend to
drop redundant parts of the
sentence in Japanese, sometimes
the word 'is' will be left
off entirely. Finally, the
word 'is' is wrapped up in
every other verb, depending
on how you conjugate it (which
is why you don't need to use
a 'to be' verb to say, I am
going to the store - Mise
ni itte iru) We will get into
that more as more myths are
busted.
I hope this helps clear up
points of confusion with desu/da.
Future myths busted:
The Masu Form (it's not the
real deal)
Adjectives and Verbs: One
and the Same
How to conjugate verbs and
adjectives without sweating
blood
