Explanation of the 'te' form of verbs, please

[Mr Srippery]

Konnichiwa,

I had a question regarding the 'te' form of Japanese verbs. Basically, I'm not sure when the form is necessary/appropriate. From what I understand, it makes the verb act like the equivalent of an english gerund verb. Is this correct? For example, "Ame ga futte imasu." Going along that line of thinking, this translates into "The rain is falling." Is that correct?

I would appreciate any feedback.

Arigatou!

[Jake_Lucas]

I took a look at this link http://japanese.about.com/library/weekly/aa031101c.htm since i don't know much about te forms myself, but it says hat the te form can be used to show Requests, The present progressive, Listing successive actions and Asking permission.

So by the looks of things you are correct.

[Javizy]

-te and -te iru should be treated as two different forms. I don't mind answering questions on here, but these two forms are so important that you're probably better off waiting until you learn them from your teacher, Jpod, textbook, etc. -te iru can be especially difficult to fully understand and use correctly, so you are unlikely to get a quick fix answer on this.

If I was to try and explain, I'd probably refer to A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar by Seiichi Makino, which is a book I think everybody should own. It really tells you everything you need to know, in a way that doesn't leave you asking questions. The dictionary-style layout also makes it very easy to use when you're reading a book or something and come across some new grammar.

[Phro]

Javizy has a really good point about waiting to learn it from a proper teacher, but, for your purposes right now, it'd be best to think of -te as a conjunctive particle of sorts.

When you "-te" a verb (I'm making jargon up, but bear with me), you're essentially prepping the verb for conjunction. In 雨が降っています, 降る（ふる） has been conjugated into it's -te (or -ta) form. The -te doesn't actually DO anything on it's own, so to speak (it does in a colloquial sense, but let's ignore that for now). Rather, it's connecting 降る and　います (to be). In classical Japanese, て had a slightly different nuance, meaning to continue, and I only mention this because it's how I think about what -te is doing: it's "continuing" the verb (or adjective) and connecting it to another verb.

I'm not sure if that really answers your question in any helpful way, but I hope it does help to clarify the concept a bit. In my opinion, the -te form is an essential aspect of the Japanese language, but I've found it's best not to dwell on it's meaning too much.

Preston

[Mr Srippery]

Thanks Phro. Although I'm unable to read kanji (>_<) and my Japanese is quite limited, so your Japanese text examples kind of went over me, I think I was still able to grasp what you were saying by "continuing the verb," as if the verb is an ongoing action. Back to my original sentence of "Ame ga futte imasu," "furu" becomes "futte" because the the rain is falling, and will continue to do so. As opposed to, "The rain fell," which has a known time constraint. I'll do a little more research, naturally... but I don't have a teacher, I'm teaching myself.

And thanks to everyone else for your input.

[Javizy]

I'll do a little more research

If you plan to do that research online, you'll probably end up with a pretty fragmented, incomplete understanding, so I'll try explaining relying heavily on the book I recommended.

First of all, like I said, -te iru should be treated separately because its meaning is completely idiomatic and won't help you understand the -te form at all, just like other -te structures such as -te mo, -te aru, -te wa ikenai, etc.

That said, the -te form has a number of uses, some of which seem to get overlooked. Generally speaking, it links two clauses, so when you see a -te at the end of one clause, you know that another will follow. This is possible for multiple clauses, not just two. The meaning, however, varies depending on context, so here's a nice list based on that in my book (C1 can be the first clause, C2 the second). I'll take the example sentences straight out so you can avoid any of my Japanese errors.

(1) Sequence: C2 occurs after C1.
Watashi wa kooto o nuide, hangaa ni kaketa.
Taking off my coat, I hung it on a hanger.

(2) Multiple states: C1 and C2 are a list of states of someone/something.
Watashi no heya wa semakute kurai.
My room is small and dark.

(3) Reason/Cause: C1 is the reason/cause of C2.
Kono suupu wa karakute nomenai.
This soup is spicy and I can't eat it.

(4) Means/Method: C1 expresses how or in what way someone does C2.
Boku wa aruite kaetta.
I went home on foot (lit. I walked and went home).

(5) Contrast: C1 is contrasted with C2.
Otoko wa soto de hataraite, onna wa uchi de hataraku.
Men work outside and women work inside.

(6) C2 is unexpected in terms of C1.
Tomu wa itsumo asonde tesuto ga dekiru.
Tom plays around, yet he does well on tests.

There's still a lot more that could be said about the -te form, which is why I thought it best to avoid explaining here at all, but hopefully this points you in the right direction. The explanations in the book I recommended are more detailed, have more example sentences, formation rules, comparisons with similar expressions, etc.

[jaypunkrawk]

Thanks Phro. Although I'm unable to read kanji (>_<) and my Japanese is quite limited, so your Japanese text examples kind of went over me, I think I was still able to grasp what you were saying by "continuing the verb," as if the verb is an ongoing action. Back to my original sentence of "Ame ga futte imasu," "furu" becomes "futte" because the the rain is falling, and will continue to do so. As opposed to, "The rain fell," which has a known time constraint. I'll do a little more research, naturally... but I don't have a teacher, I'm teaching myself.

And thanks to everyone else for your input.

Phro wrote your example sentence in Japanese.

雨が降っています。　あめがふっています。 Ame ga futte imasu.

雨 - rain
降る - to fall

[jkid]

Mr Srippery,
Download the Rikaichan "Add On" for Firefox. It will help you read Kanji.

http://www.polarcloud.com/rikaichan/

[WalterWills]

I think Rikaichan is a MUST for any Japanese learners who frequently use the internet.