008: Sitting Down
Today we learn a something epic and huge. That is verbs. Verbs are the most important part of the Japanese sentence alongside the predicate. That is because everything in the Japanese sentence is organized around whatever is at the and of the sentence. Which in Japanese is the predicate or a verb. Verb in Japanese can be kind tricky. So in order to appropriately understand them and not get unnecessarily confused, we will first discuss the three different types of verbs before we talk about conjugation and all the other things that verbs do.
In Japanese there are three types of verbs. Ichidan, Godan (also called Yodan) and exception verbs. Unlike many other languages, Japanese does not have many exception verbs, which makes things really nice. It’s important to understand that the three unique verb types now so we can learn how to conjugate them later.
While some grammarians and old-time teachers will often over complicate this the easiest way to differentiate the two types is to spell the verbs out in romanized letters (IE; ABC.) All Ichidan verbs are verbs that end in “ERU” or “IRU” it is that simple. All other verbs are Godan verbs. Period.
Look at the verbs below and identify which are Ichidan verbs and Which are Godan verbs. The answers will be listed under the last frame of the comic.
- suwaru すわる
- naru なる
- wakaru わかる
- taberu たべる
- neru ねる
- okiru おきる
- hanasu はなす
- morau もらう
- ageru あげる
- ganbaru がんばる
リビング – Living Room
に – Directional Particle
来て（くる＝きて） – To Come
座り（すわる＝すわり） – To Sit
なさい – Command Suffix
お母さん（おかあさん） – Mom
具合（ぐあい） – Condition
が – Subject Marker
益々（ますます） – Steadily
悪く（わるく） – Badly
なっている – Becoming
何（なに） – What
原因（げんいん） – Origin
なのか – Whatever it is
よく – Very
分からない（わかる＋B1ない） – Don’t Understand
んだ – Indicates Explanation
だから – Which is why/Hence
お前たち（おまえたち） – You (plural)
には – You too
もっと – More
母さん（かあさん） – Mom
の – Connective Particle
手伝い（てつだい） – Help/Assistance
を – Object Marker
して（する） – To Verb
もらえないといけない – Must Give
家事（かじ） – Chores
の – Connective Particle
手伝い（てつだい） – Help/Assistance
や – And (Non limiting)
母さん（かあさん） – Mom
と – Quotative Particle
よく – Very
話す（はなす） – To Speak
こと – Intangible object
も – Redundant Particle
含めて（ふくめる＝ふくめて） – To Include
ね – Isn’t it
心配する（しんぱいする） – To Worry
なくていい （ない＋BTE＝なくて＋いい ） – To not it ok.
わ – ! (feminine)
よ – !
あんた達（あなたたち） – You (Plural)
お母さん（おかあさん） – Mom
は – Topic Marker
大丈夫 – OK
だから – Hence/Which is Why
早く（はやく） – Fast
よくなる – Get Better
ために – In order To
頑張る（がんばる） – To one’s best
もちろん – of course
私（わたし） – I
何でも（なんでも） – Whatever
手伝う（てつだう） – Help/Assistance
お母さん（おかあさん） – Mom
僕（ぼく） – I
も – Redundant Particle
何でも（なんでも） – Whatever
手伝う（てつだう）- Help/Assistance
suwaru すわる – To Sit (Godan)
naru なる – To Become (Godan)
wakaru わかる – To Understand (Godan)
taberu たべる – To Eat (Ichidan)
neru ねる – To Sleep (Ichidan)
okiru おきる – To Awake (Ichidan)
hanasu はなす – To Speak (Godan)
morau もらう – To receive (Godan)
ageru あげる – To Give (Ichidan)
ganbaru がんばる – To do one’s best (Godan)