Present tense!? Making sentences?

[hoihoisoi]

Okay, this is my problem here. I'm kinda new to verbs (And everything else about Nippon-go) and am using Hiragana (No Kanji yet). Basically the problem is about present tense in verbs. Okay, I know that in formal group 1 take off u and add imasu, 2nd group take of ru and add masu. However, the problem arises about informal present tense.

Let's say, Kiku (Listen)
Now when it change to 'listening'......by adding the -ing does the word change? and does it vary from word to word on how it changes?

Also, how do you make a sentence?
Is it like english? Noun first then verb then adjectives?

Also, can somebody please translate for me the following sentences so I can see the difference...

I am listening
I like to listen

and underline the word listen so that I can see the difference in word change....

Thanks.

[Belton]

Firstly I would advise you to get a textbook to follow, like Genki or Japanese for Busy People that will introduce grammar in a logical and measured fashion.

You could also get a grammar book.
The ones from the Japan Times are probably the definitive ones but are quite expensive.
http://www.amazon.com/Dictionary-Basic- ... 00107DAD6/

The Oxford pocket grammar is a cheap alternative to begin with.
http://www.amazon.com/Oxford-Japanese-G ... 198603827/

Online have a look at Tae Kim's grammar ( http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar ) and there is an online grammar dictionary in the paid area of this site too.

I would also encourage you to use kana and think of verb ending changes in terms of kana not romaji, it makes things easier in the long run.

You can't really use English concepts of grammar and impose them on Japanese as the language works differently and has it's own rules and constructions.

Word order isn't as fixed as English. Subject, Object etc is given by particles ( wa, ga, ni, etc etc) rather than word order.
In general it goes Subject Object Verb, but it doesn't have to.

The non-past plain form is the dictionary form of the verb in this case kiku (to listen, hear, ask)
聞く　I listen. or, I will listen. (although the speaker isn't specified it could also be you/he/she/we/they depending on context)
the plain past is 聞いた。kiita. I listened.

The construction for a continuous action ("-ing") is ~te iru
The te form of the verb and the verb iru in the form you need it to be (masu, plain etc etc)
and yes the rules for the te form depend on whether a verb is ichidan v1 (so called group 2) or godan v5 (so called group 1)

聞いています。kiite imasu. I am listening (polite)
聞いている。kiite iru. I am listening (plain)
聞いていました。kiite imashita. I was listening (polite)
聞いていた。kiite ita. I was listening (plain)


I like to listen (to music) maybe isn't a good example but it'd be
音楽を聞くのが好きです。ongaku o kiku no ga suki desu. (polite)
音楽を聞くのが好きだ。ongaku o kiku no ga suki da. (plain)
no is used to nominalise the phase ongaku o kiku to listen to music.
like (suki) is used as a "na" adjective or noun (adjectival noun I think it's classified as) in Japanese not a verb. more along the lines of X is likeable.
(You can also only make direct statements about what is liked by yourself not other people...)

(oh and nihongo is used far more often than nippongo as the reading of 日本語)

[Javizy]

However, the problem arises about informal present tense.

This is the easiest of all because you don't have to change the verb at all. This is the real "present tense", since anything with masu is a polite form. It's best to think of it as a 'plain form', since it's not necessarily used informally.

Let's say, Kiku (Listen)

Now when it change to 'listening'......by adding the -ing does the word change? and does it vary from word to word on how it changes?

Adding -ing in English can convey a number of different meanings. The one you're thinking of is present continuous, which describes an ongoing action around the current time. In Japanese you use the ～ている form for dynamic verbs to convey the continuous aspect.

Also, how do you make a sentence?
Is it like english? Noun first then verb then adjectives?

Japanese is described as a subject-object-verb language, but more than half of the time you won't see any evidence of this in sentences. Word order depends on too many things to explain briefly. Does your little rule above work for "the beautiful lady was extremely happy to see her overweight friend finally taking some positive steps towards a better life"? Either way, there is practically no equivalence between English and Japanese, and it's important to stop trying to force it as soon as possible.

Also, can somebody please translate for me the following sentences so I can see the difference...

I am listening
I like to listen

The first one is present continuous, as mentioned above. In this case, きいている.

The second one is what is referred to as nominalisation, when a different part of speech is "turned into" a noun. 'Like' is the verb, and it requires an object 'to listen' which must be a noun. In Japanese, there are two nominalisers, こと and の, that are used for this purpose. You're better off following some sort of textbook or something though, instead of trying to learn fairly advanced points like this from me, so I'll save the explanations.

[hoihoisoi]

Hmmm...I see....Thanks for the info, I had no idea....

But just asking, if I were to start learning Japanese from the basics what would be the best order of learning? Such as Hiragana first, then verbs or nouns or something. Any recommendations on how to plan to learn Japanese step by step? Also if possible is there any good websites that can feature such lessons? (Including this site)

thanks again.

[Javizy]

Hmmm...I see....Thanks for the info, I had no idea....

But just asking, if I were to start learning Japanese from the basics what would be the best order of learning? Such as Hiragana first, then verbs or nouns or something. Any recommendations on how to plan to learn Japanese step by step? Also if possible is there any good websites that can feature such lessons? (Including this site)

thanks again.

I recommended some resources in this thread http://www.japanesepod101.com/forum/vie ... =shadowing If you need more advice on the kanji side of things, then this forum http://forum.koohii.com/index.php is a good place to go. You'll find a lot of information and resources for Anki too.

The yellow book is the one that Belton recommended, which is very good. You need something to give you a framework though, since it's primarily a reference. A textbook will give you structure and direction, and probably some comprehension questions as well. If you search the forum, you should find some recommendations.