Lesson 9: Giving Commands

In this lesson, you will learn the two most common ways of giving commands in Japanese and two of the less common ones.

The first command form is an informal command that has about the same formality level as the plain form of verbs. To conjugate a verb into this form, you just use the て-form of the verb. The other common command form is about as formal as the ます-form of verbs. To conjugate a verb into this form, you first take the て-form of the verb then add 下さい (ください Normally written in only kana) to the end of the verb i.e. いく→いって→いってください, ころす→ころして→ころしてください, and つかう→つかって→つかってください.

This next command form is mainly used to give commands to people of a lower social status than the person giving the command. To conjugate a verb into this form, you first take the ます-stem of the verb then add なさい to the end of the verb i.e. いき→いきなさい, ころし→ころしなさい, and つかい→つかいなさい.

This command form is a very informal form that is often used to give very blunt commands. This form is a bit more complicated than the previous three command forms since it conjugates differently depending on which Verb Group the verb is. For Group 1 verbs, you change the final kana from ending in an う sound to ending in a え sound i.e. つかう→つかえ, ころす→ころせ, and いく→いけ. For Group 2 verbs, you replace the ending る with ろ i.e. たすける→たすけろ, and たべる→たべろ. For する, you replace it with either しろ or less commonly せよ i.e. する→しろ, or する→せよ, for 来る（くる）, you replace it with 来い(こい) i.e. 来る（くる）→来い（こい）.

That's the end of this lesson. You now know all of the common and a few of the less common ways of giving commands in Japanese. After I cover the negative form of verbs, I teach you how to do negative commands in Japanese.

Lesson 8: The て-Form

In this lesson, you will learn how to conjugate verbs into the て-form.

The て-form is used for three purposes: a form to conjugate off of, like the ます-stem; an informal way to give a command; and a way to connect two sentences. I will cover its use as a way to give a command in the next lesson and cover how it connects sentences in a later lesson.

To conjugate a verb into the て-form, you first take the plain past tense of the verb then replace either the ending た with て or the ending だ with で, i.e. たべた→たべて, しんだ→しんで, and した→して. This conjugation covers both Group 1 and Group 2 verbs and する and 来る. The て-form of だ (to be) is で.

That is all for this lesson. Even though none of its uses has been covered yet, the て-form is a very useful form to know.

John

Lesson 7: Forming Questions

In this lesson, you learn the sentence structure and the particle needed to ask a question in Japanese.

Forming a question in Japanese is a pretty simple two step process. You first take a statement that is similar to the question you want to ask, then you add the particle か to the end of the sentence to change it into a question. In an informal sentence, you do not have to put か at the end of a sentence. Instead, you either end the sentence with a rising tone when speaking or put a question mark at the end of the sentence when written.

For example, to say "Will the warrior go to the cave?" you would first take the sentence below.

戦士は洞窟に行く。
せんしはどうくつにいく。
The warrior will go to the cave.

Then you add the particle か to change the sentence into a question.

戦士は洞窟に行くか。
せんしはどうくつにいくか。
Will the warrior go to the cave.

That is the only step needed to form a question in Japanese. I will include some more example sentences below to help show how to form a question in Japanese. I will first show the question I'm forming then show the sentence I will add か to then show the question with the Japanese.

Nouns:
勇者　ゆうしゃ A hero
魔法使い　まほうつかい A mage

Verb:
助ける　たすける To save

Question: "Did the hero save the village?"

勇者は村を助けた。
ゆうしゃはむらをたすける。
The hero saved the village.

勇者は村を助けたか。
ゆうしゃはむらをたすけたか。
Did the hero save the village?

Question: "Will the mage go to the desert?"

魔法使いは砂漠に行きます。
まほうつかいはさばくにいきます。
The mage will go to the desert.

魔法使いは砂漠に行きますか。
まほうつかいはさばくにいきますか。
Will the mage go to the desert?

That finishes this lesson. You should now know when you are being ask a question in a game now.

John