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GRAMMAR

This dictionary differs from other dictionaries in a number of ways. The verb forms are cited primarily in the normal polite form (…másu [… ます]), for that is what the beginning student will most often hear and practice using at the end of sentences. Other common forms are also given, such as the plain nonpast (…u […う] or …ru […る]) and the gerund (…te […て] or …de […で]). The nonpast forms, whether plain or polite, refer to general, repeated, or future situations (‘does’ or ‘will do’); they are also used for situations that started in the past but continue on into the present, such as ‘I have been staying here since the day before yesterday’ (ototói kara koko ni imásu [おとといからここにいます]), or that have a result that lasts, such as ‘I have gotten married’ (kekkon shite imásu [結婚しています]), another way to say ‘I am married.’

The past forms (‘did’) are easily made: for the polite past, change …másu […ます] to …máshita […ました], and for the plain, take the gerund and change its final e to a, with the result being …ta […た] or …da […だ]. The plain nonpast form for the [noun] désu [です] ‘it is [a matter of]’ is …dá […だ], but that is replaced by … no […の] or … na [… な] when the expression modifies a following noun. The choice of … no [… の] or … na [… な] depends on a number of factors that are described in grammars and textbooks. This dictionary gives the appropriate form in parentheses in many cases. The polite past of the [noun] désu [です] is … déshita [… でした], the plain past is … dátta [… だった] (even when the nonpast would change to na [な] or no [の]), and the gerund is … dé [… で]). The form … ni [… に], in addition to its many uses as a particle (‘to,’ ‘at,’ ‘for’), also functions as a form of … désu [… です], the infinitive in the meaning ‘so as to be,’ as in jōzu ni narimáshita né [上手にな りましたね] ‘has gotten good at it.’

The infinitive form of verbs (…i or …e) in spoken Japanese is mainly used to form compounds, and many nouns are derived from infinitives by a change of accent, e.g., yasumí [休み] ‘vacation’ or ‘work break’ from yasúmi [休み] ‘to rest’). The common nouns and infinitives derived in this manner are included in the Japanese-English section of this dictionary. The polite negative nonpast forms of verbs are made by changing …másu [… ます] to …masén [… ません] and the past to …masén deshita [… ませんでした]. They are run together as if they are one word; the plain nonpast forms end in …nai [… ない] and the plain past forms end in …nakatta [… なかった]. The negative gerund is …´náide [… ないで], as in Isogánaide kudasai [急がないで] ‘Don’t go so fast,’ but before … mo [… も] or … wa [… は], it is usually …´ nákute [… なくて], as in Isogánakute wa damé desu [急がなくてはだめです] ‘You’ve got to go fast’ and Tabénakute mo íi desu [食べなくてもいいです] ‘We don’t have to eat.’ In the English-Japanese section, the citation form for verbs is the English infinitive (‘to do’ minus the ‘to …’), whereas most Japanese-English dictionaries use the plain nonpast as a citation form; do not confuse that with the English infinitive. This dictionary gives most English translations as third-person singular (‘does’), but Japanese verbs nonspecific with reference to person.

Adjectives are cited in the plain forms -i [-い] (samui [寒い] ‘it’s cold’) for they are often used before a noun, where the plain form is most common. The polite forms appropriate at the end of a sentence end in …´-i desu (samúi desu [寒いです] ‘it’s cold’). The plain past is made by replacing -i [-い] with -kátta [-かった] (samukátta [寒かった] ‘it was cold’), and the polite past, with -kátta desu [-かったです] (samukátta desu [寒かったです] ‘it was cold’). (Do not confuse -´i desu [-いです] and -kátta desu [-かったです] with the [noun] désu [(名詞)です], for which the past is [noun] déshita [(名詞)でした].) The infinitive (‘so as to be’) ends in -ku [-く], as in sámuku narimáshita [寒くなりまし た] ‘it turned cold.’ There are many adverbs derived from the adjective infinitive, such as háyaku [速く, 早く] ‘quickly’ or ‘early.’ And the -ku [-く] combines with arimasén [ありません] (plain form nái [な い]) to make the negative: sámuku arimasén [寒くありません] ‘it isn’t cold,’ sámuku nái hí ni wa [寒くない日には] ‘on days that are not cold.’ The past of the negative is -ku arimasén deshita [-くありませんでし た] (plain past -ku nákatta [-くなかった]). The gerund of the adjective (‘being…’ or ‘is… and’) ends in -kute [-くて], and the negative gerund, as in -ku nákute [-くなくて].

But many Japanese words that translate as English adjectives belong to a different class of words and are treated more like nouns. For that reason they are sometimes called ‘adjectival nouns’ or ‘nominal adjectives,’ but you may want to think of them simply as ‘ na words,’ since they attach the word na (‘that/who is …’) when they modify a following noun: heyá ga shízuka desu [部屋が静かです] ‘the room is quiet,’ shízuka na heyá desu [静かな部屋です] ‘it is a quiet room.’ As with nouns, the nonpast form of na words is … désu [… です] (plain form dá [だ] or nothing, but replaced by no [の] or na [な] before a noun), and the past is … déshita [… でした] (plain form … dátta [… でした]). The negative is … ja arimasén [… じゃありません] (plain form … ja nái [… じゃな い]), the negative past is … ja arimasén deshita [… じゃありませんで した] (plain form …ja nákatta [… じゃなかった]); all are usually run together with the preceding word to make one long phrase. The gerund is … dé [… で], as in heyá ga shízuka de kírei desu [部屋が静かできれ いです] ‘the rooms are quiet and clean,’ and kírei de shízuka na heyá [きれいで静かな部屋] ‘rooms that are quiet and clean.’ The infinitive … ni [… に] means ‘so as to be …’ as in shízuka ni narimáshita [静か になりました] ‘became quiet’ or ‘…ly’ as in shízuka ni asonde imásu [静かに遊んでいます] ‘is playing quietly.’

In a similar manner, Japanese nouns are often followed by some form of … désu [… です] (often called the “copula”), replacing a more specific predicate. When the predicate is a verb or an adjective, the role of the noun is marked by a particle. Because the particles go on the end of the noun, they are sometimes called “postpositions,” a kind of mirror image of English prepositions: Kyō´to kara Nára e ikimáshita [京都から奈 良へ行きました] ‘I went from Kyoto to Nara.’ English subjects and objects are usually unmarked except by word order, but since that is not the case in Japanese, particles mark the subject and object: Dáre ga náni o shimásu ka [誰が何をしますか] ‘Who does what?’, Nani o dáre ga shimásu ka [何を誰がしますか] ‘Just who does what?’

There is often little semantic need for such marking, for you can usually tell subjects and objects from the context: it is usually people who act and things that are acted upon. So if the particles … ga [… が] and … o [… を] are omitted, as is required when you attach … mo [… も] ‘also …, even …’ or … wa [… は] ‘as for …’, you usually still know who is doing what: Watashi mo kikimáshita [私も聞きました] ‘I, too, heard it [as did others], ’ Sore mo kikimáshita [それも聞きました] ‘I heard that too [as well as other things]. ’

For many nouns in spoken Japanese, it is quite common to attach a personalizing prefix o- [お-], which conveys a vague sense of ‘that important thing.’ The prefix is also used to make honorific or humble verb forms, with reference to the subject of a sentence. O-tégami [お手 紙] often means ‘your letter,’ but does not tell us whether the reference is the letter you have written, or a letter that has been written to you; and it can mean just ‘the letter’ or ‘letters,’ said with a personalizing touch much appreciated by women and children. Another prefix go- [ご-] (goryōshin [ご両親] ‘your parents’) attaches to certain nouns (mostly of Chinese origin).

Although these personalized forms are ignored by most dictionaries, we have included many of them, because they are often irregular in accentuation or in some other way. Do not try to use the prefixes o- [お-] and go- [ご-] with new nouns unless you find the forms in this dictionary or hear them from a Japanese speaker. Honorific and humble verb forms, however, can be made up rather freely, though for certain common verbs they are replaced by euphemisms or unrelated forms; for example, osshaimásu [おっしゃいます] ‘deigns to say’ as the honorific of iimásu [言います] ‘says.’