Learn how to use Japanese verbs in the non-past negative form
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Intro |
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| Jessi: Hi everyone, ジェシーです (Jeshī desu)。Jessi here! |
| Motoko: こんにちは (Kon'nichiwa)、Motoko です (desu)。 |
| Jessi: Being a Vegetarian is a Bit Difficult in Japan. Thanks again for joining us for this series! Motoko, what did we learn in the last lesson, Lesson 17? |
| Motoko: はい (Hai)。In the last lesson, we learned how to make sentences with objects and verbs. For example, にくをたべます (niku o tabemasu)。 |
| Jessi: Which is “I eat meat”. And in this lesson, you'll learn how to make the negative version of these sentences. For example, I DON'T eat meat. |
| Motoko: Jessi, what's happening in the conversation? |
| Jessi: In the conversation, Taylor, Chiemi, Masato, Kaori, and Sarah are all having dinner at Masato and Kaori's house. |
| Motoko: Okay! Let's listen to the conversation. |
| Dialogue |
| みんな: いただきます。 |
| Everyone: Itadakimasu. |
| かおり: あれ？ちえみさん、にく、きらい です か。 |
| Kaori: Are? Chiemi-san, niku, kirai desu ka. |
| ちえみ: すみません。にく は ちょっと・・・。 |
| Chiemi: Sumimasen. Niku wa chotto. |
| テイラー: ちえみはにくをたべません。 |
| Taylor: Chiemi wa niku o tabemasen. |
| かおり: ・・・ベジタリアン？ |
| Kaori: ...Bejitarian ? |
| テイラー: はい。ちえみはベジタリアンです。 |
| Taylor: Hai. Chiemi wa bejitarian desu. |
| かおり: ああ、なるほど！ |
| Kaori: Ā, naruhodo! |
| Jessi: Let’s listen to the conversation again slowly. |
| みんな: いただきます。 |
| Everyone: Itadakimasu. |
| かおり: あれ？ちえみさん、にく、きらい です か。 |
| Kaori: Are? Chiemi-san, niku, kirai desu ka. |
| ちえみ: すみません。にく は ちょっと・・・。 |
| Chiemi: Sumimasen. Niku wa chotto. |
| テイラー: ちえみはにくをたべません。 |
| Taylor: Chiemi wa niku o tabemasen. |
| かおり: ・・・ベジタリアン？ |
| Kaori: ...Bejitarian ? |
| テイラー: はい。ちえみはベジタリアンです。 |
| Taylor: Hai. Chiemi wa bejitarian desu. |
| かおり: ああ、なるほど！ |
| Kaori: Ā, naruhodo! |
| Jessi: Now let’s listen to it with the translation. |
| みんな: いただきます。 |
| Everyone: Itadakimasu. |
| Jessi: Let's eat. |
| かおり: あれ？ちえみさん、にく、きらい です か。 |
| Kaori: Are? Chiemi-san, niku, kirai desu ka. |
| Jessi: Huh? Chiemi, do you dislike meat? |
| ちえみ: すみません。にく は ちょっと・・・。 |
| Chiemi: Sumimasen. Niku wa chotto. |
| Jessi: Sorry. Meat is a little… |
| テイラー: ちえみはにくをたべません。 |
| Taylor: Chiemi wa niku o tabemasen. |
| Jessi: Chiemi doesn't eat meat. |
| かおり: ・・・ベジタリアン？ |
| Kaori: ...Bejitarian ? |
| Jessi: Is she vegetarian? |
| テイラー: はい。ちえみはベジタリアンです。 |
| Hai. Chiemi wa bejitarian desu. |
| Jessi: Yes, Chiemi is a vegetarian. |
| かおり: ああ、なるほど！ |
| Kaori: Ā, naruhodo! |
| Jessi: Ah, I see! |
| Vocabulary and Phrase Usage |
| Jessi: In the dialogue, they're eating dinner at Masato and Kaori's house, and we find out that Chiemi is vegetarian. |
| Motoko: Yes, that's right. |
| Jessi: The word for vegetarian in Japanese comes from English, and it is...? |
| Motoko: ベジタリアン (Bejitarian). |
| Jessi: So, Motoko, are vegetarians common in Japan? |
| Motoko: Actually, they're not... but many people know the word ベジタリアン (bejitarian). |
| Jessi: That's true, I think many people may be familiar with the word... but I feel like it's something that hasn't really caught on. For example in the West, you can often find vegetarian restaurants or vegetarian dishes available, but in Japan... you may have to look harder! |
| Motoko: Yes, they exist, but you have to search for them! |
| Jessi: How about the concept of veganism? |
| Motoko: Actually, this is not well known at all. We have the word ビーガン (bīgan), but don't be surprised if people don't know about it. |
| Jessi: Yes, the concept of being vegan might take a little more explanation. |
| Motoko: If you say ベジタリアン (bejitarian), though, people will probably understand. |
| Jessi: Good point, you'll probably have more luck with the term ベジタリアン (bejitarian) than ビーガン (bīgan). We recommend that if you are vegetarian or vegan and plan to come to Japan, do some research on vegetarian or vegan restaurants in the area you're visiting. It would also help to know words like にく (niku), meat, and さかな (sakana), fish, so you can talk about what you can and can't eat. |
| Motoko: Yes, later in this lesson, we will learn how to say you DON'T eat something. |
| Jessi: That's right, so be sure to stay tuned for that. In the meantime, let's look at some other phrases. |
| Motoko: Sure! |
| Jessi: Next is... |
| Motoko: [A]はちょっと・・・ ([A ] wa chotto...) |
| Jessi: [A]はちょっと・・・。 ([A ] wa chotto....) You put something in place of [A], and then add はちょっと・・・ (wa chotto...)。 Literally, this means, "[A] is a little..." |
| Motoko: Right, because ちょっと (chotto) means "a little". |
| Jessi: So you might be thinking... well, a little what? But really, this is just a polite way to say that you don't like something, or that it won't work out, or that you have some reservations about it. |
| Motoko: Yes. You are not saying why directly. |
| Jessi: So in this case, にくはちょっと・・・ (niku wa chotto...) means that Chiemi doesn't like or eat meat for whatever reason. If you don't want to be direct, this is a polite way to put it. |
| Motoko: Yes, this is very common. [A]はちょっと・・・。 ([A] wa chotto....) |
| Jessi: So for example, I could ask Motoko if she likes, for example... coffee, which is コーヒー (kōhī) 。もとこさん、コーヒーがすきですか (Motoko-san, kōhī ga suki desu ka)。 |
| Motoko: コーヒーはちょっと・・・ (Kōhī wa chotto...)。Coffee is a little... |
| Jessi: So with this answer, I can see that Motoko doesn't like, or can't drink coffee. |
| Motoko: This is a useful phrase to keep in mind. |
| Jessi: I agree! So please remember this phrase, [A]はちょっと・・・ ([A] wa chotto...)。 |
| Motoko: Okay, now let's move on to the lesson focus. |
| Grammar Point |
| Jessi: In this lesson, you'll learn how to make the negative version of the pattern we learned last time. |
| Motoko: Last time, our pattern was [A]は (wa) [object] を (o) [verb], for example, くつをぬぎます (kutsu o nugimasu). |
| Jessi: I take off my shoes. So, how do we make this negative? |
| Motoko: Well, first, do you remember Lesson 12? |
| Jessi: Ah, learned that the negative form of あります (arimasu), to exist, was ありません (arimasen). |
| Motoko: That's right. The ます (masu) turns into ません (masen). |
| Jessi: Listeners, do you all remember that? |
| Motoko: For verbs, we do the same thing. |
| Jessi: So the final ます (masu) changes to ません (masen), and it becomes negative? |
| Motoko: そうです (S ōdesu)。That's right! |
| Jessi: That's simple enough, isn't it? So in the sentence we just gave... |
| Motoko: くつをぬぎます (kutsu o nugimasu) |
| Jessi: to make this verb negative, it would be... |
| Motoko: くつをぬぎません (kutsu o nugimasen) |
| Jessi: I don't take off my shoes. So ぬぎます (nugimasu), to take off, becomes ぬぎません (nugimasen)。 |
| Motoko: Let's try some others. First, let's look at just the verbs. |
| Jessi: In the last lesson, we saw the verb みます (mimasu), to watch. To get the negative, change ます (Masu) to ません (masen), and you get... |
| Motoko: みません (mimasen) |
| Jessi: みません (Mimasen), don't watch, or won't watch. How about another one? |
| Motoko: The verb "to go" is いきます (ikimasu) |
| Jessi: いきます (Ikimasu). So change the final ます (masu) to ません (masen), and you get... |
| Motoko: いきません (Ikimasen). |
| Jessi: いきません (Ikimasen). don't go, or won't go. Okay, let's have the listeners do one now. |
| Motoko: Sure! How about the verb "to eat", たべます (tabemasu)？ |
| Jessi: Listeners, in the negative, this would be? |
| [pause] |
| Jessi: The answer is, Motoko? |
| Motoko: It would be たべません (tabemasen). |
| Jessi: Don't eat, or won't eat. In season 1, if you remember, we learned how to say “I eat meat”, which is? |
| Motoko: にくをたべます。 (Niku o tabemasu.) |
| Jessi:This time, let’s make that sentence negative and say “I don’t eat meat”. |
| Motoko: にくをたべません (Niku o tabemasen). |
| Jessi: "I don't eat meat." Let's break it down. |
| Motoko: にくを (Niku o) |
| Jessi: にく (niku) plus を (o) |
| Motoko: たべません (tabemasen) |
| Jessi: the negative form of たべます (tabemasu), don't eat. |
| Jessi: This is the negative form of たべます (tabemasu). Again, that's "I don't eat meat." Listeners, please repeat. |
| Motoko: にくをたべません (niku o tabemasen) |
| [pause] |
| Jessi: All right, sounding good. Let's try making a sentence now. |
| Motoko: Okay! |
| Jessi: Last time we had the phrase テレビをみます (terebi o mimasu), “I watch TV”. Let's try and say "I don't watch TV" |
| Motoko: Sounds good. |
| Jessi: Listeners, how would you say, I don't watch TV? |
| [pause] |
| Jessi: Remember, the original phrase, I watch TV, is... |
| Motoko: テレビをみます。 (Terebi o mimasu.) |
| [pause] |
| Jessi: Okay, and so our answer is? |
| Motoko: テレビをみません。 (Terebi o mimasen.) |
| Jessi: Notice how the verb みます (mimasu) changes to みません (mimasen)。Not that bad, right? |
| Motoko: Listeners, we have some homework for you! |
| Jessi: Yes, please make a negative sentence and tell us something that you do NOT do. It can be anything. |
| Motoko: And leave us a comment with your sentence. |
| Jessi: We'd like to see what you come up with. |
Outro |
| Motoko: Okay, I think that's all for this lesson! |
| Jessi: Yup, that's going to do it for now. Thanks as always for listening... |
| Motoko: See you next time! |
| Jessi: Bye everyone. |
| Motoko: じゃあまた。 (Jā mata.) |
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