Learn about introducing the imperative form of class one verbs
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Natsuko: おはよう、リジャイナ。ナツコです。(Ohayō, Rijaina. Natsuko desu.) |
| Yoshi: おはよう、リジャイナ。(Ohayō, Rijaina.) Peter here. |
| Peter: ヨシです。(Yoshi desu.) |
| Natsuko: 違うでしょ！(Chigau desho!) |
| Peter: Every once in a while, it’s all good. Right, Natsuko-san? We are back with beginner lesson #119. Natsuko-san, what are we looking at today? |
| Natsuko: これ、野球ですか。(Kore, yakyū desu ka.) |
| Peter: And what’s on the grammar menu today? |
| Natsuko: We are going to look at imperatives. |
| Peter: How much fun are these, Yoshi-san. Almost as much fun as talking about what you want to do. This has to be number two or number one. |
| Yoshi: Yes, exactly. |
| Natsuko: Really? |
| Peter: Yeah, well we are joking around now but yes, actually we want to warn you. When using this type of Japanese, you have to be extremely careful. It is very strong and Japan is a society based on politeness. So when to use this and when not to use this is a very sticky issue. Here we are talking about a baseball team. First we are going to start off with players cheering for another player. Then the coach will be giving orders to the player. So please listen to how the coach is speaking and how the player responds. Again we are going to look at the politeness level in addition to the grammar point. With that said, let’s take a look at today’s lesson. Here we go. |
| DIALOGUE |
| よし&たけ (Yoshi&Take) : 頑張れ、頑張れ！(Ganbare, ganbare!) |
| (ボールを打った音) (bōru o utta oto) |
| たけ (Take) : 走れ！走れ！行け！やった！ぎりぎりセーフだった。よっしゃ！君の出番だ。ホームランを打ってくれ！(Hashire! Hashire! Ike! Yatta! Girigiri sēfu datta. Yossha! Kimi no deban da. Hōmu ran o utte kure!) |
| よし (Yoshi) : わかりました。打ってきます。(Wakarimashita. Utte kimasu.) |
| 主審 (shushin) : ストライク。ストライク。ストライク。三振、バッターアウト。ゲームセット！(Sutoraiku. Sutoraiku. Sutoraiku. Sanshin, battā auto. Gēmu setto!) |
| よし (Yoshi) : 後もう少しでホームランだったのに。惜しかったなー。(Ato mō sukoshi de hōmu ran datta noni. Oshikatta nā.) |
| たけ (Take) : いや、それは無理だと思うけど、ま、いいか、明日があるさ。(Iya, sore wa muri da to omō kedo. Ma, ii ka, ashita ga aru sa.) |
| Take: ゆっくり、お願いします。(Yukkuri, onegai shimasu.) |
| よし&たけ (Yoshi&Take) : 頑張れ、頑張れ！(Ganbare, ganbare!) |
| たけ (Take) : 走れ！走れ！行け！やった！ぎりぎりセーフだった。よっしゃ！君の出番だ。ホームランを打ってくれ！(Hashire! Hashire! Ike! Yatta! Girigiri sēfu datta. Yossha! Kimi no deban da. Hōmu ran o utte kure!) |
| よし (Yoshi) : わかりました。打ってきます。(Wakarimashita. Utte kimasu.) |
| 主審 (shushin) : ストライク。ストライク。ストライク。三振、バッターアウト。ゲームセット！(Sutoraiku. Sutoraiku. Sutoraiku. Sanshin, battā auto. Gēmu setto!) |
| よし (Yoshi) : 後もう少しでホームランだったのに。惜しかったなー。(Ato mō sukoshi de hōmu ran datta noni. Oshikatta nā.) |
| たけ (Take) : いや、それは無理だと思うけど、ま、いいか、明日があるさ。(Iya, sore wa muri da to omō kedo. Ma, ii ka, ashita ga aru sa.) |
| Take: 次は、ピーターさんの英語が入ります。(Tsugi wa, Pītā-san no Eigo ga hairimasu.) |
| よし&たけ (Yoshi&Take) : 頑張れ、頑張れ！(Ganbare, ganbare!) |
| YOSHI&TAKE: You can do it, hang in there! |
| たけ (Take) : 走れ！走れ！行け！(Hashire! Hashire! Ike!) |
| TAKE: Run! Run! Go! |
| たけ (Take) : やった！ぎりぎりセーフだった。(Yatta! Girigiri sēfu datta.) |
| TAKE: Yes! He just made it. |
| たけ (Take) : よっしゃ！君の出番だ。ホームランを打ってくれ！(Yossha! Kimi no deban da. Hōmu ran o utte kure!) |
| TAKE: Alright! Your turn. Hit me a home run! |
| よし (Yoshi) : わかりました。打ってきます。(Wakarimashita. Utte kimasu.) |
| YOSHI: Got it. I'll hit one. |
| 主審 (shushin) : ストライク。ストライク。ストライク。三振、バッターアウト。ゲームセット！(Sutoraiku. Sutoraiku. Sutoraiku. Sanshin, battā auto. Gēmu setto!) |
| UMPIRE: Strike. Strike. Strike. Three strikes, batter's out. That's the ball game. |
| よし (Yoshi) : 後もう少しでホームランだったのに。惜しかったなー。(Ato mō sukoshi de hōmu ran datta noni. Oshikatta nā.) |
| YOSHI: I almost had a home run. I almost had it. |
| たけ (Take) : いや、それは無理だと思うけど。ま、いいか、明日があるさ。(Iya, sore wa muri da to omō kedo. Ma, ii ka, ashita ga aru sa.) |
| TAKE: I think that's unlikely, but hey, it's okay. Tomorrow's another day. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Peter: Yoshi-san, let’s ask Natsuko-san what she thought of today’s conversation. I know she loved this one. Who doesn’t love baseball? |
| Yoshi: ナツコさん、今日の会話はどうでしたか。(Natsuko-san, kyō no kaiwa wa dō deshita ka.) |
| Natsuko: ヨシさん、本当に惜しかったんですか。(Yoshi-san, hontō ni oshikatta n desu ka.) |
| Yoshi: もう後ちょっとでホームランでした。あと１インチくらいで。(Mō ato chotto de hōmu ran deshita. Ato wan-inchi kurai de.) |
| Natsuko: あ～、でも負けちゃったんですね。(Ā, demo makechatta n desu ne.) |
| Peter: Okay,okay, English please. Natsuko-san, what did you say? |
| Natsuko: I asked him if he almost had it. |
| Peter: And Yoshi-san, what did you respond to? |
| Yoshi: I said yes, I almost had it just by 1 inch. |
| Natsuko: And I said, but you lost anyway. |
| Peter: Natsuko, you are such an optimist. |
| Natsuko: Tomorrow is another day. |
| Peter: Yes, tomorrow is another day. This is just one thing we are going to look at when you take a closer look at the vocab and get into the dialogue. We are going to take apart this dialogue. Now, first thing first. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Peter: Let’s look at the vocab. That way, it will make going through the dialogue that much easier. Natsuko-san, what’s the first word we had? |
| Natsuko: やったー！(Yattā!) |
| Peter: Past tense of |
| Natsuko: やる (yaru) |
| Peter: To do. Break it down. |
| Natsuko: (slow)やった (yatta) (natural speed) やった (yatta) |
| Peter: Now in this context here, it means to have achieved something positive. To do something and have a good result. やったー！(Yattā!) |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: Yoshi-san, have you had this feeling lately? |
| Yoshi: Every day. |
| Natsuko: Wow! |
| Peter: What are you doing every day? |
| Yoshi: You know I wake up in the morning and look at this beautiful world and I say to myself, やったー！(Yattā!) |
| Peter: Ah Natsuko-san, can you help me out here? |
| Natsuko: Very positive. |
| Peter: Very positive? |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: Well yeah you know, Yoshi is just that positive person. He made it through another day. So he is happy with the results. |
| Yoshi: You know it didn’t really make any sense. Say I finally got a date with someone I really like, then I can say やったー！デートだ！(Yattā! Dēto da!) |
| Peter: I did it, I got it if you achieve a really good result. You get into the university you wanted to, you get the score results in the mail |
| Natsuko: やったー！合格だ！(Yattā! Gōkaku da!) |
| Peter: Come on, I don’t believe it. Little more emotion in there, Natsuko-san. |
| Natsuko: やったー！合格だ！(Yattā! Gōkaku da!) |
| Peter: There it is but we will take a closer look at this when we get into the dialogue. Next we had, Yoshi-san. |
| Yoshi: ぎりぎり (girigiri) |
| Peter: Barely, just. |
| Yoshi: (slow)ぎりぎり (girigiri) (natural speed) ぎりぎり (girigiri) |
| Peter: Can you give us an example sentence here? |
| Yoshi: 電車の時間にギリギリ間に合った。(Densha no jikan ni girigiri ma ni atta.) |
| Peter: I just made the train. Next we have, Natsuko-san. |
| Natsuko: セーフ (sēfu) |
| Peter: Safe. |
| Natsuko: (slow)セーフ (sēfu) (natural speed) セーフ (sēfu) |
| Peter: Comes from the baseball term to be safe but it’s also used in other contexts. Next we have |
| Yoshi: 出番 (deban) |
| Peter: Turn as in one’s turn, it’s your turn. |
| Yoshi: (slow)でばん (deban) (natural speed) 出番 (deban) |
| Peter: Yoshi-san, can we get an example sentence and how about something with karaoke? |
| Yoshi: 彼は今、歌の出番を待っています。(Kare wa ima, uta no deban o matte imasu.) |
| Peter: He is waiting for his turn to sing. I hate it when my turn comes to sing at karaoke. |
| Natsuko: Why? |
| Peter: Because I am bad, really bad and it’s like a contest over here. Everybody watches you. Nobody sings together. It’s like they pass you the mike, they get out their pens and paper. Scary, so I don’t like my 出番 (deban). Natsuko-san, how about you? |
| Natsuko: Me neither. |
| Peter: Yoshi-san? |
| Yoshi: I like it. |
| Peter: Yeah, we knew you would… Even all the lights in the studio point towards you. He comes in before and points them all his way. Okay, next we have |
| Natsuko: ストライク (sutoraiku) |
| Peter: Strike. From the baseball term. |
| Natsuko: (slow)ストライク (sutoraiku) (natural speed) ストライク (sutoraiku) |
| Peter: Three strikes is |
| Yoshi: 三振 (sanshin) |
| Peter: Three strikes and this means you are out. |
| Yoshi: (slow)さんしん (sanshin) (natural speed) 三振 (sanshin) |
| Peter: Finally on the vocab list, we have |
| Natsuko: 惜しい (oshii) |
| Peter: Almost, nice try. |
| Natsuko: (slow) おしい (oshii) (natural speed) 惜しい (oshii) |
| Peter: Regrettable. Now remember this word because I searched for it for so long. I was watching a soccer game with a Japanese friend and the team he is rooting for.. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: Was down by a goal and with a few minutes left, they almost scored but the ball sailed over the crossbar… |
| Natsuko: Yeah. |
| Peter: And at that time, he said |
| Natsuko: 惜しい！(Oshii!) |
| Peter: Almost! |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: We almost had it and that’s why it’s embedded in my brain. I haven’t forgot it since that day because I always wanted to know what Japanese word was for close, almost and if you lose and it’s a close game or if you just barely lose or you lose by some kind of unforeseen circumstances or a last minute change in the score or something, it’s that time. |
| Yoshi: 惜しかった。(Oshikatta.) |
| Peter: Can we get an example sentence? |
| Yoshi: こんな素晴らしい人を亡くすなんて、惜しいことをした。(Konna subarashii hito o nakusu nante, oshii koto o shita.) |
| Peter: To lose such an amazing person, what a regrettable thing. It’s not limited to sports which we were just talking about. It actually covers a wide range of things. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: So Yoshi almost got the part for the new drama on JTV. |
| Yoshi: あ～、惜しかった。(Ā, oshikatta.) |
| Peter: And I would say 良かった (yokatta) because we don’t want him to leave, right? Sorry, Yoshi. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Peter: Now that we have the vocab covered, let’s take a look at today’s dialogue. Now we usually give you the grammar point at the end of the lesson but what we are going to do today is cover the grammar point before we get into the dialogue. Since we are going to be using the grammar point over and over, we think that this may be a bit more beneficial. Now we’d love to hear your feedback. Please let us know as much as possible. Tell us if you like this format. Natsuko-san, we are talking about imperatives. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: Do it, do it, do it. In Japanese, the strongest – there are a bunch of ways to tell people to do something. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: Today we are talking about the strongest. What class of verbs are we looking at today? |
| Natsuko: Class 1, right? |
| Peter: Correct. Now to form the imperative of class 1 verbs, you change the final syllable from the う (u) column to the え (e) column. Did that make sense? Let’s give you an example. |
| Yoshi: 聞く (kiku) |
| Peter: To listen. く (ku) is from the う (u) column. What’s the corresponding え (e) column? |
| Yoshi: け (ke) |
| Peter: So 聞く (kiku) becomes |
| Yoshi: 聞け (kike) |
| Peter: Ordering someone. Listen, by going through the dialogue, we are going to exemplify this over and over. Natsuko-san, what’s the first line of the dialogue? |
| Natsuko: 頑張れ、頑張れ。(Ganbare, ganbare.) |
| Peter: Both the player and coach are cheering the batter on, supporting the batter by saying, you can do it, hang in there. You can do it. Here we have the imperative. Now what is the dictionary form of this verb? |
| Natsuko: 頑張る (ganbaru) |
| Peter: Again from the う (u) column. It ends in |
| Natsuko: る (ru) |
| Peter: Now we jump to the え (e) column. |
| Natsuko: れ (re) |
| Peter: So 頑張る (ganbaru) becomes |
| Natsuko: 頑張れ (ganbare) |
| Peter: Now this particular imperative is heard quite a lot. |
| Natsuko: Yes, I think it’s the most frequently used imperatives in Japanese. |
| Peter: Definitely. Not just sports events, tests. You are going to talk to someone, you are going to try and hit on someone, a guy or a girl, your friends may support you, 頑張れ！(Ganbare!) |
| Natsuko: Cheering up someone, 頑張れ (ganbare). |
| Peter: Or trying a difficult task, used in all kinds of situations. |
| Natsuko: Yes, so this particular expression is not so strong. |
| Peter: It doesn’t have that edge to it that some of the other ones will. |
| Natsuko: Yes, right. |
| Peter: But again it’s context. Okay, so we have the player and the coach yelling go, go, go followed by |
| Yoshi: 走れ！走れ！行け！ (Hashire! Hashire! Ike!) |
| Peter: So the batter just hit the ball and then the coach starts to yell, run, run. So we have the imperative here. What’s the dictionary form of to run? |
| Natsuko: 走る (hashiru) |
| Peter: And it becomes |
| Natsuko: 走れ (hashire) |
| Peter: Two times in a row and also when you are cheering someone on, the third imperative is kind of a general one. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: That takes on whatever you want that person to do, swim faster or run faster, bat better, whatever you want that person to do, this one takes care of it. |
| Natsuko: 行け！(Ike!) |
| Peter: Charge! Again, what’s the dictionary form here? |
| Natsuko: 行く (iku) |
| Peter: And we go from the う (u) column back to the え (e) column. So 行く (iku) becomes |
| Natsuko: 行け (ike) |
| Peter: Okay, then we have |
| Yoshi: やった！(Yatta!) |
| Peter: Here in this shows that the batter was safe. He was able to reach base. He was able to achieve something positive and that’s why this comes in やった (yatta),, followed by |
| Yoshi: ギリギリセーフだった。(Girigiri sēfu datta.) |
| Peter: Here is the compounding explanation, he just made it in time. He was just barely safe followed by |
| Yoshi: よっしゃ！(Yossha!) |
| Peter: Yoshi-san, what’s this? |
| Yoshi: It’s shouting to yourself. Yes, like something like that. |
| Peter: Something good happened or from this point on, something good is going to happen. You got your wind, you got your second wind, you have your first wind. You are ready for something positive to happen. よっしゃ！ (Yossha!) Then we have |
| Yoshi: 君の出番だ。(Kimi no deban da.) |
| Peter: Again coach speaking to a player and that’s why he is saying |
| Yoshi: 君の出番だ。(Kimi no deban da.) |
| Peter: He can refer to the player as 君 (kimi) because he is in a higher social status and again, just because you are in a higher social status doesn’t give you the right to use this word but it’s a team structure. So there is that kind of very strong leadership role that the coach has and that’s why he is able to use it here. Again don’t go around using this referring to other people unless you are extremely intimate and this has happened before but even in that case, we can’t really recommend you do this. Again we want to let you know about this because you hear it in anime all the time and you will hear it in other different kinds of situations. Next we have |
| Yoshi: ホームランを打ってくれ。(Hōmu ran o utte kure.) |
| Peter: Hit me a home run. This is actually giving an order but requesting it very strongly, asking for someone else to do it for him. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: Which is a very unique concept. |
| Natsuko: Oh yes, right. It’s almost like begging for favor. |
| Peter: Yeah, do it for me. |
| Natsuko: Yes right, like that. |
| Peter: And this is a construction that again doesn’t have the edge, the same edge as an imperative but it is another way of giving someone an order. Now the way we construct this is we use the verb くれる (kureru), which translated means to be given and it’s a standard class 2 verb. So how would you politely say, please hit it for me. |
| Natsuko: 打ってくれますか。(Utte kuremasu ka.) |
| Peter: くれる (kureru) is in its polite form, but when you cut everything off and you only have くれ (kure), it’s extremely strong. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: In many dramas, you will see |
| Natsuko: 帰ってくれ。(Kaette kure.) |
| Peter: “Please go home, please leave here” is the translation but it actually means “please give me leaving.” |
| Natsuko: Right. Yeah, that’s interesting, isn’t it? |
| Peter: Really interesting. Please give me this but in a very forceful way you are asking for it. |
| Natsuko: Yes, demanding. |
| Peter: Right. |
| Natsuko: Uhoo… |
| Peter: ヨシさん、黙ってくれ。(Yoshi-san, damatte kure.) See, you can tell by Natsuko’s reaction that well it seems more polite than an imperative, it is quite strong, Yoshi-san. |
| Yoshi: Umm, it's very nice. Very, very nice. |
| Natsuko: Maybe better than 黙れ (damare) but the same meaning. |
| Peter: Yeah, which translates to shut up. So again we just want to give you this nuance that it’s quite strong when spoken outside one’s circle and even in one’s circle. Again here, the relationship is between the coach and the batter and this is best exemplified by the batter’s answer. Again the coach is speaking in imperatives. Do this, do that, do that and Natsuko-san, what does the batter say? |
| Natsuko: わかりました。(Wakarimashita.) |
| Peter: In polite Japanese, I understand. Again here is where the politeness level starts to come into play. Two people on different social status levels. So again, things all tie in. Okay, we are running short on time. We are going to look at one last thing here. This final expression, Natsuko-san, |
| Natsuko: 明日がある。(Ashita ga aru.) |
| Peter: Literally translated it means, there is tomorrow but when you interpret it, it comes out to be tomorrow is another day. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: It’s an expression used by optimists to find the silver lining in a situation. |
| Natsuko: Yes, it’s like don’t worry. |
| Peter: Yeah, and you will hear this. It’s actually the name of a movie. |
| Natsuko: Oh yeah. |
| Peter: Did anyone see that movie? |
| Natsuko: Oh no! |
| Peter: Yeah, it wasn’t really… |
| Natsuko: Oh did you see it? |
| Peter: Ah no. So you will see it in many places. Again it’s kind of an idiomatic phrase. |
Outro |
| Peter: With that said, that’s going to do for today. |
| Natsuko: じゃ、また明日ね。(Ja, mata ashita ne.) |
| Yoshi: またね。(Mata ne.) |
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