Learn about introducing the plain volitional form of the Class III verb suru - to do
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Natsuko: おはよう、トビリシ。ナツコです。(Ohayō, Tobirishi. Natsuko desu.) |
| Yoshi: おはよう、トビリシ。よしです。(Ohayō, Tobirishi. Yoshi desu.) |
| Peter: Peter here. Beginner lesson #126. Joined in the studio by Natsuko-san and Yoshi-san back again with another beginner lesson. Today we will be covering the plain volitional form of the class 3 verb, する (suru). Now this will almost entirely cover the plain volitional and this is an important grammatical structure for many reasons. A lot of other grammar structures are based upon this one. So you definitely want to go over this one. Now on to today’s lesson. Here we go. |
| DIALOGUE |
| 大きな音が隣の人の部屋から来る。(Ōkina oto ga tonari no hito no heya kara kuru.) |
| たけ (Take) : あの音は何？(Ano oto wa nani?) |
| よし (Yoshi) : 隣の人なんだ。毎晩毎晩、ものすごくうるさいんだ。(Tonari no hito nan da. Maiban maiban, monosugoku urusai n da.) |
| たけ (Take) : どうしよう？(Dō shiyō?) |
| よし (Yoshi) : わからない。手紙も書いた。話しにも行ったけど、まったく効かないんだ。(Wakaranai. Tegami mo kaita. Hanashi ni mo itta kedo, mattaku kikanai n da.) |
| たけ (Take) : じゃ、警察に電話しよう。(Ja, keisatsu ni denwa shiyō.) |
| よし (Yoshi) : いや、問題を起こしたくない。(Iya, mondai o okoshitakunai.) |
| たけ (Take) : じゃ、まかせて、俺が話しに行く。(Ja, makasete, ore ga hanashi ni iku.) |
| Take: もう一度お願いします。ゆっくりお願いします。(Mō ichi-do onegai shimasu. Yukkuri onegai shimasu.) |
| たけ (Take) : あの音は何？(Ano oto wa nani?) |
| よし (Yoshi) : 隣の人なんだ。毎晩毎晩、ものすごくうるさいんだ。(Tonari no hito nan da. Maiban maiban, monosugoku urusai n da.) |
| たけ (Take) : どうしよう？(Dō shiyō?) |
| よし (Yoshi) : わからない。手紙も書いた。話しにも行ったけど、まったく効かないんだ。(Wakaranai. Tegami mo kaita. Hanashi ni mo itta kedo, mattaku kikanai n da.) |
| たけ (Take) : じゃ、警察に電話しよう。(Ja, keisatsu ni denwa shiyō.) |
| よし (Yoshi) : いや、問題を起こしたくない。(Iya, mondai o okoshitakunai.) |
| たけ (Take) : じゃ、まかせて、俺が話しに行く。(Ja, makasete, ore ga hanashi ni iku.) |
| 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.) |
| 大きな音が隣の人の部屋から来る。(Ōkina oto ga tonari no hito no heya kara kuru.) |
| Loud noise comes from the room next door. |
| たけ (Take) : あの音は何？(Ano oto wa nani?) |
| Take:What's that noise? |
| よし (Yoshi) : 隣の人なんだ。(Tonari no hito nan da.) |
| YOSHI: It's the person next door. |
| よし (Yoshi) : 毎晩毎晩、ものすごくうるさいんだ。(Maiban maiban, monosugoku urusai n da.) |
| YOSHI: Night after night, it's extremely noisy. |
| たけ (Take) : どうしよう？(Dō shiyō?) |
| TAKE: What should we do? |
| よし (Yoshi) : わからない。(Wakaranai.) |
| YOSHI: I don't know. |
| よし (Yoshi) : 手紙も書いた。話しにも行ったけど、(Tegami mo kaita. Hanashi ni mo itta kedo,) |
| YOSHI: I wrote a letter. I also went to have a talk, |
| よし (Yoshi) : まったく効かないんだ。(mattaku kikanai n da.) |
| YOSHI: But it's completely ineffective. |
| たけ (Take) : じゃ、警察に電話しよう。(Ja, keisatsu ni denwa shiyō.) |
| TAKE: Then let's call the police. |
| よし (Yoshi) : いや、問題を起こしたくない。(Iya, mondai o okoshitakunai.) |
| YOSHI: Nah, I don't want to cause problems. |
| たけ (Take) : じゃ、まかせて、俺が話しに行く。(Ja, makasete, ore ga hanashi ni iku.) |
| TAKE: Then leave it to me. I'll go have a talk. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Peter: Natsuko-san, let’s ask Yoshi-san what he thinks of today’s conversation. |
| Natsuko: よしさん、今日の会話どう思いましたか。(Yoshi-san, kyō no kaiwa dō omoimashita ka.) |
| Yoshi: よくあることですよね。(Yoku aru koto desu yo ne.) |
| Peter: English please. |
| Natsuko: It happens all the time. |
| Peter: Actually I can relate to this lesson. When I used to live in Mito in Ibaraki prefecture, I lived in a place that had paper thin walls. So I could hear everything that was going on in my neighbor’s room and they could hear everything that was going on in my room and we had these signals. At first when one got loud, we would bang on the wall. Then the next step would be a letter in the mailbox. And then finally, it would be the talk. We never got to talk but I do know some people who have kind of, like a pattern. I know in the US a few good whacks usually gets a few reciprocating whacks but usually people are aware that they are being too loud and this is pretty effective in Japan too. Natsuko, do you have any tricks or do you know what I am talking about or am I just ranting? Help me. |
| Natsuko: Yeah. When I was in university, we went to the place where our friend was living. It was a really small apartment house and because we were so noisy, the other people living in that apartment called the landlord and made a claim to us. |
| Peter: Yeah, that’s another popular way. I noticed a few unique ways of dealing with the situation that I had not come across in the US. And one that’s quite common as you just said is the call to the landlord. The landlord gets the call and then the landlord calls you. |
| Natsuko: Yeah. So you don’t directly go to the person. |
| Peter: The second way is a letter and I’ve come across this quite a lot. |
| Natsuko: Quite a lot? |
| Peter: Yeah. |
| Natsuko: What noise are you making? |
| Peter: Not me Natsuko-san but some people I’ve known, they actually write a letter. |
| Natsuko: Yeah. |
| Peter: Dear sir or umm recently it’s quite loud. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: I was wondering if you – in really polite Japanese basically saying… |
| Natsuko: Right. |
| Peter: Quiet down. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: But it’s really polite. So those are the few ways. Yoshi-san, anything to add? |
| Yoshi: I used to live in a shared house. |
| Peter: Ah. |
| Yoshi: But me and all my roommates lived upstairs and the landlord lived downstairs. |
| Natsuko: Oho! |
| Peter: Tell us more. |
| Yoshi: Yes, and we partied all weekend and we made lots of noise but they were too old to hear anything. So we were just fine. |
| Natsuko: Quite a lucky situation. |
| Yoshi: Umm. |
| Peter: Definitely. Okay, with that said, let’s get into today’s vocabulary. ナツコさん、お願いします。(Natsuko-san, onegai shimasu.) |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Natsuko: 毎晩 (maiban) |
| Peter: Every night. |
| Natsuko: (slow) まいばん (maiban) (natural speed) 毎晩 (maiban) |
| Peter: Sample sentence, please. |
| Natsuko: その学生は毎晩遅くまで勉強している。(Sono gakusei wa maiban osoku made benkyō shite iru.) |
| Peter: That student studies until late every night. Next we have |
| Yoshi: 効く (kiku) |
| Peter: To be effective. |
| Yoshi: (slow) きく (kiku) (natural speed) 効く (kiku) |
| Peter: Now this word has to be derived from context because there are some other words in Japanese with the same pronunciation. Natsuko-san, when I say きく (kiku), what word do you think of? |
| Natsuko: To listen. |
| Peter: Yeah, I think that’s the most common and most popular to listen and they have the same pronunciation but the characters are different. Check out the PDF to see the difference in the characters in this word, 効く (kiku). Again to be effective. So we use this with medicine. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: And we use this with remedies and things like this. So Yoshi-san, can you give us an example sentence? |
| Yoshi: この薬はよく効く。(Kono kusuri wa yoku kiku.) |
| Peter: This medicine is pretty effective. Next we have |
| Natsuko: 保険が効く (hoken ga kiku) |
| Peter: Literally it is insurance is effective but we have to interpret it, insurance covers it. So it’s covered by insurance. So if you are pulling to the parking lot, you bump into another person’s car, your car gets scratched, it’s no problem, right? |
| Natsuko: 保険が効く (hoken ga kiku) |
| Peter: Insurance will cover it. Next we have |
| Natsuko: 任せる (makaseru) |
| Peter: To leave to. |
| Natsuko: (slow) まかせる (makaseru) (natural speed) 任せる (makaseru) |
| Peter: This is an expression. This word you will come across time and time again, really popular. Natsuko-san, how can I say leave it to me? |
| Natsuko: 私に任せてください。(Watashi ni makasete kudasai.) |
| Peter: Let me take care of it, leave it to me and among good friends, you can just say the word |
| Natsuko: 任せて (makasete) |
| Peter: Which is the te-form of 任せる (makaseru), but ください (kudasai) is inferred 任せてください (makasete kudasai), please leave it to me but again in casual situations, you can use this 任せて (makasete), leave it to me or if I don’t want it to be left to me and I want to leave it to you, one can say |
| Natsuko: 任せる。(Makaseru.) |
| Peter: It’s left to you. I will leave it to you. Now there is another way we can say this too right, leave it to someone. |
| Natsuko: 任せた。(Makaseta.) |
| Peter: I left it to you. Again, these are conversations where the subject and indirect object are inferred. Example sentence, please. |
| Yoshi: 感情に身を任せる。(Kanjō ni mi o makaseru.) |
| Peter: To go with your feelings. |
| Yoshi: この仕事を彼に任せる。(Kono shigoto o kare ni makaseru.) |
| Peter: To leave this work to him. |
| Yoshi: パーティの買い出しは私に任せて。(Pātī no kaidashi wa watashi ni makasete.) |
| Peter: Leave shopping to the party for me. Finally we have |
| Yoshi: 起こす (okosu) |
| Peter: To raise, to cause. |
| Yoshi: (slow) おこす (okosu) (natural speed) 起こす (okosu) |
| Peter: Example sentence, please. |
| Yoshi: 彼は大変な問題を起こした。(Kare wa taihen na mondai o okoshita.) |
| Peter: He caused a really big problem and the reason I like this word 起こす (okosu) so much is because I can never get up in the morning. |
| Natsuko: Right. |
| Peter: So I always ask my wife, wake me up at 7:30, which is |
| Natsuko: ７時半に起こしてください。(Shichi-ji han ni okoshite kudasai.) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Peter: Please wake me up at 7:30. Okay, now let’s take a quick look inside the conversation. A couple of points we want to look at in the dialogue. So let’s just run through that dialogue real quick. So first I want to look at |
| Yoshi: 手紙も書いた。(Tegami mo kaita.) |
| Peter: Now Natsuko-san, how come it’s not 手紙を書いた (tegami o kaita)? Why do we use も (mo) here? |
| Natsuko: Because も (mo) has the meaning, also and he wants to continue talking about what he did. So he not only wrote letters, he also had a talk. |
| Peter: Among other things. He probably has tried some other things too. So this indicates that there is more than just this. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: And this is followed up in the next sentence by |
| Yoshi: 話にも行ったけど、全く効かないんだ。(Hanashi ni mo itta kedo, mattaku kikanai n da.) |
| Peter: Notice how there is a も (mo) in between the 話に行った (hanashi ni itta). Again in addition to other things that that person tried. Now if it was just he only went to talk, it would be |
| Yoshi: 話に行った (hanashi ni itta) |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Peter: Okay, now on to today’s grammar point. Today’s grammar point is the class 3 verb する (suru) and its plain volitional form. Natsuko-san, can you give us the dictionary form of the verb to do? |
| Natsuko: する (suru) |
| Peter: Now to form the plain volitional, we have to find its masu-stem, which is |
| Natsuko: し (shi) |
| Peter: To that we attach |
| Natsuko: よう (yō) |
| Peter: And we have the plain volitional. In the dialogue we had |
| Natsuko: 警察に電話しよう。(Keisatsu ni denwa shiyō.) |
| Peter: Let’s call the police. Notice how police are marked here with |
| Natsuko: に (ni) |
| Peter: The particle に (ni). We also had |
| Natsuko: どうしよう。(Dō shiyō.) |
| Peter: What shall we do? Now this is a really popular expression. You can use it in all kinds of situations. Here they are trying to figure out what would be good to do in order that the neighbor stops being loud but you can use it to ask someone what shall we do in the weekend, what shall we do today, all types of situations. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
Outro |
| Peter: Another very useful phrase. Today’s conversation is among two friends who are talking about a third party. So they are speaking informal Japanese. So again this conversation is between two good friends speaking informal Japanese. Now what’s going to happen when the one friend goes to talk? We are going to have to wait to find out next week. Okay, so that’s going to do it for today’s lesson |
| Natsuko: じゃあ、また明日ね。(Jā, mata ashita ne.) |
| Yoshi: またね。(Mata ne.) |
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