Every sentence so far has ended in です and said what something is. That is a large amount of useful language, but it cannot describe anything happening. This lesson adds verbs, in the polite form you will use with almost everybody, and the one particle you need to point a verb at a thing.
The ます form
In polite Japanese, verbs end in ます, pronounced masu. This is the polite present, and it is the form to learn first: it is what you use with strangers, colleagues, shopkeepers, teachers, and anyone you do not know well.
It covers more ground than the English present. たべます is "I eat", "I will eat" and "I am going to eat", all at once. Japanese does not separate the present from the future here, which is why grammar books often call this the non-past. Context does the separating, usually with a time word.
One rule holds for every Japanese sentence and never breaks: the verb comes last. Everything else in the sentence arrives before it.
を marks the direct object
を is the kana you learned but never used inside a word, and this is why it exists. It appears only as a particle, and it is pronounced o, exactly like お. Its job is to mark the direct object: the thing the verb is done to.
わたし は パン を たべます
watashi wa pan o tabemasu
I eat bread
やまださん は おんがく を ききます
yamada san wa ongaku o kikimasu
Mr Yamada listens to music
わたし は ほん を よみます
watashi wa hon o yomimasu
I read a book
The pattern is topic は, object を, verb. Each noun carries a particle that says what it is doing, and because of that the nouns are not held in place by their position. You could move パン を to the front for emphasis and the sentence would still mean the same thing. The verb, however, stays at the end.
Present, habit and future
The same ます form does all three of these, so the work of pinning down when falls to a time word sitting near the front of the sentence.
まいあさ パン を たべます
maiasa pan o tabemasu
I eat bread every morning
あした ほん を かいます
ashita hon o kaimasu
I will buy a book tomorrow
きょう テレビ を みます
kyou terebi o mimasu
I am going to watch television today
Notice that まいあさ, あした and きょう take no particle at all. Time words of this kind simply stand in the sentence. There is a particle for pinning an action to a clock time, but you do not need it yet.
Leaving out what is obvious
Japanese omits anything the listener can already supply, and the subject is the thing most often left out. Since a sentence with no stated topic is assumed to be about you, the natural way to say "I drink coffee" is three words long.
コーヒー を のみます
koohii o nomimasu
I drink coffee
ざっし を よみます
zasshi o yomimasu
I read magazines
べんきょう を します
benkyou o shimasu
I study
Beginners who insist on わたし は at the front of every sentence sound stilted, in the way that an English speaker who says "I myself personally" sounds stilted. Say it once to establish the topic, then drop it. If you need to make it clear you mean somebody else, name them.
します, the workhorse
します means "do", and it turns a great many nouns into verbs. Take a noun for an activity, put を after it, and add します.
べんきょう を します
benkyou o shimasu
I study
しごと を します
shigoto o shimasu
I work
かいもの を します
kaimono o shimasu
I do the shopping
This is worth knowing early, because it means that any activity noun you learn is immediately a verb as well. Japanese borrows English words this way constantly.
What to watch out for
Not every verb takes an object, and not every verb that takes one in English takes を in Japanese. Verbs of going and coming use different particles, which is a later lesson, and a small group of common verbs mark what looks like an English object with が instead. When you meet a verb, learn the particle that goes with it as part of the word, in the same way you would learn the gender of a noun in French.
The most frequent beginner mistake is spelling the particle as お. The rule is clean: を is only ever the object particle, and it never appears inside a word. If it is part of a word, it is お.
The second mistake is putting the verb where English puts it. たべます パン を is not a sentence a Japanese speaker would produce. Send the verb to the end, every time, and the habit becomes automatic in a week or two.
The third is expecting ます to mean "am doing". わたし は たべます does not describe the mouthful you are chewing right now. For an action in progress you need the て form, which comes later in the course. Until then, ます is safe for both habits and plans.
What you can say now
You can now describe a routine, which is most of what small talk consists of. まいあさ コーヒー を のみます. にほんご を ならいます. あした ほん を かいます. Put a time word at the front, a noun with を in the middle and a ます verb at the end, and you have a working Japanese sentence.
Vocabulary
- たべます (tabemasu): eat
- のみます (nomimasu): drink
- よみます (yomimasu): read
- みます (mimasu): watch, see
- ききます (kikimasu): listen to, hear
- かいます (kaimasu): buy
- かきます (kakimasu): write
- します (shimasu): do
- ならいます (naraimasu): learn
- パン (pan): bread
- テレビ (terebi): television
- おんがく (ongaku): music
- にほんご (nihongo): Japanese, the language
- なまえ (namae): name
- まいあさ (maiasa): every morning