BASIC JAPANESE VERBS: HELP PLS.

[urbanegloss2037]

Base 1 Base 2 Base 3 Base 4 Base 5
yoma(to read) yomi yomu yome yomou

That is the Japanese verbs for foreigners as a guide.

Correct sentence: Watashi wa Kanji o YOMEmasen.
(I can't read Kanji)

QUESTIONS:

1. Why base 4 which is YOME + masen? why can't it be YOMI ( base 2)+ masen?
(there is Base2 + Masen) PLS. EXPLAIN THOROUGHLY.

2. Is it also correct to say:

yomamasen
yomumasen
youmoumasen

why or why not??? PLS. EXPLAIN THOROUGHLY.



3. About the base 1 + Nai ( plain negative),

is it correct to say :

yomanai
yomunai
yominai
yomounai

why or why not? PLS. EXPLAIN THOROUGHLY.


P/S: If you have a SOLID KNOWLEDGE in JAPANESE, I would appreciate it if you would help me.



I NEED ACCURATE ANSWERS.


********DOMO ARIGATO GOZAIMASU TO THE KIND NATIVE IN JAPANESE OR ANYONE WHO'S PRO AT THE LANGUAGE*******

[Javizy]

1. Why base 4 which is YOME + masen? why can't it be YOMI ( base 2)+ masen?
(there is Base2 + Masen) PLS. EXPLAIN THOROUGHLY.

Because that's how the potential is conjugated.

2. Is it also correct to say:

yomamasen
yomumasen
youmoumasen

why or why not??? PLS. EXPLAIN THOROUGHLY.

None of these are correct, because you don't conjugate polite negatives like that.

3. About the base 1 + Nai ( plain negative),

is it correct to say :

yomanai
yomunai
yominai
yomounai

why or why not? PLS. EXPLAIN THOROUGHLY.

Only the first one is correct, because that's how you conjugate the plain negative form.

There are no thorough explanations to your questions (no matter how much you shout at people for them). It's no use trying to infer conjugations yourself, since they're set in stone. They don't take very long to learn with a good reference. Pretty much any grammar book you get has a conjugation chart. If yours doesn't, try googling it. I'd recommend A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar.

[tanitayou]

On my way through Japanese language I found different systems to organize verbs with contrasting divisions.
I think this one can hel you, but I agree you need a serious grammar textbook to go on step by step.

Let's consider the verb Kaku / Kakimasu
Kaku is the plain form ( or the dictionary form).
Kaka-nai is the plain negative ( and you can find yoma-nai,hanasanai...)It is on the raw A
kake-ru (you can call it conditional base) is potential, but you need the same base on E raw for conditional kake-ba.
kaki-masu is also called pre masu form. You need it to form the polite non past (kakimasu) the polite negative (kakimasen) or some structures like kaki-nagara (while writing).
Hoping this help.

[percent20]

First I want to say if you are using a book throw that book way and get a different one, unless you are skipping around. I think you are missing some basics of how verbs work. Also please learn hirigana too romaji is hard. lol.

Lets look at the verb you are using. First you have dictionary form

yomu
よむ

That is the "base" of the word. That is dictionary and where everything starts from. It is also short form present affirmative too.

For long form you will change the mu to mi. Or in another way you will take that final u and turn it into an i then add masu or masen so.

yomu -> yomi -> yomimasu (final)
よむ -> よみ -> よみます

yomu -> yomi -> yomimasen (final)
よむ -> よみ -> よみません

For short form present negative it has a similar concept of changing the u to something else. This time for the short form present negative you are going to change that u to an a. So the same sequence

yomu -> yoma -> yomanai (final)
よむ -> よま -> よまない

As you might have seen since this is a u-verb (godan) then the last "sound" or in romaji the last character changes to something else before adding. So lets look at potential form now which is where you started

For potential form we are actually turning the u-verb (godan) into a ru-verb (ichidan), and we follow the same pattern we change the u to an e. Then we just add ru.

yomu -> yome -> yomeru
よむ -> よめ -> よめる

And to jump to your final part of step 1. since we have changed yomu into a ruverb(ichidan) now we can do a simple ru-verb conjugation.

yomeru - yomemasen
よめる -> よめません

You need to forget "base 1" "base 2" "base 3" way of looking at verbs and learn the word then the proper flow of conjugation. Will make things much less confusing for you.

here are some links to my blog explaining things in a bit more detail

Understanding u-verbs and ru-verbs
Japanese Verb Conjugation Present and Future
Japanese Verb Conjugation Past Tense
Short Form Japanese Verb Conjugation Present Tense

And seriously please learn kana

Learn Katakana and Hiragana in 2 weeks

I have more than that, but that should get you started.

Hope some of this has helped.

[QuackingShoe]

These explanations are probably pretty confusing since literally every person posting in this thread is using different terminology.

[taikutsu]

This is an example of why textbooks tend to suck.

Japanese has a potential form of verbs that means the ability to do something. In the case of 読む(yomu), meaning "to read", this potential form is 読める(yomeru), meaning "able to read".

The "polite" form of 読む(yomu) is 読みます(yomimasu), and the "polite" form of 読める(yomeru) is 読めます(yomemasu). The negative of all polite verbs changes the ます(masu) on the end to ません(masen).

So the meaning of 読みません(yomimasen) is something more like "won't read". 読めません(yomemasen) means "unable to read". You probably don't want to say that you "won't read kanji". That's why it's not "yomimasen" here, even though it's a grammatically correct sentence.

Forget this stuff about bases. Seriously. I don't even know what that is, just what the words are supposed to be. I recommend learning to read kana (actual Japanese writing that Japanese use), and then learning basic grammar from Tae Kim's Guide to Japanese Grammar or some other coherent resource. I promise it will be much more fun.

[percent20]

This is an example of why textbooks tend to suck.

Not all Textbooks suck. Just most of them.

I have to say as much as I have disagreements with genki volume 1 and 2 they are actually good.