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Copula question

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mwilk172453
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Posts: 4
Joined: August 18th, 2011 3:09 am

Copula question

Postby mwilk172453 » February 15th, 2012 12:41 am

I am working on Beginner Lesson S2 #12. The following is in the grammar section and I am so confused I don't really know what to ask, but I will start by asking the difference between aru and desu. It looks like they are mixed up in the following "explanation".

Thanks for any help on this.

Formation: Noun + dewa arimasen/ja arimasen na-adjective + dewa
arimasen/ja arimasen Forms of the Copula: Plain Present;だdaであるde aru Plain
Negative;ではないdewa naiじゃないja nai Polite Present;ですdesuでありますde arimasu
Polite Negative;ではありませんdewa arimasenじゃありませんja arimasenじゃないですja
nai desu Extremly Polite;でございますde gozaimasu Extremely Polite
Negative;ではございませんdewa gozaimasenじゃございませんja gozaimasen

I tried formatting it so this is a little more helpful, but not much:
Formation:
Noun + dewa arimasen/ja arimasen
na-adjective + dewa arimasen/ja arimasen

Forms of the Copula:
Plain Present;だdaであるde aru
Plain Negative;ではないdewa naiじゃないja nai

Polite Present;ですdesuでありますde arimasu
Polite Negative;ではありませんdewa arimasenじゃありません
ja arimasenじゃないですjanai desu

Extremly Polite;でございますde gozaimasu
Extremely Polite
Negative;ではございませんdewa gozaimasenじゃございませんja gozaimasen

Jessi
JapanesePod101.com Team Member
Posts: 822
Joined: November 25th, 2007 9:58 am

Postby Jessi » February 15th, 2012 1:31 am

Hi mwilk,
Yikes! Sorry about the formatting in that PDF :oops: It hadn't been updated to reflect the new formatting, so I've updated it. Please redownload the PDF to see a much clearer explanation.

As for the copula, I would keep these three in mind: da (casual), desu (polite) and de gozaimasu (honorific). The "de aru" and "de arimasu" forms are only used in writing and not conversation, so I wouldn't worry too much about these forms at first. :)
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