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

Lesson 6: The Past Tenses

In this lesson, I will teach you how to conjugate verbs into both the polite and the plain past tense. I will first teach the polite past tense because conjugating verbs into it is easier than conjugating verbs into the plain past tense.

Conjugating verbs into the polite past tense is the same for all the groups of verbs. You first conjugate the verb into its ます-stem then add ました to the end of the verb, i.e. あい→あいました, たべ→たべました, and きき→ききました.

Conjugating Group 1 verbs into the plain past tense is a bit harder than conjugating them into the polite past tense since there's more to memorize. The basic steps are the same but there are minor differences depending on which kana ends the verb. If the verb ends in う, つ, or る, you replace ending kana with った, i.e. あう→あった, たつ→たった, and うる→うった. If the ending kana is く, you replace the kana with いた, i.e. きく→きいた. If the ending kana is ぐ, you replace it with いだ, i.e. およぐ→およいだ. If the ending kana is す, you replace it with した, i.e. ころす→ころした. If the verb ends in ぬ, ぶ, or む, you replace the ending kana with んだ, i.e. しぬ→しんだ, よぶ→よんだ , and ぬすむ→ぬすんだ. While that covers all of the normal Group 1 verbs, it does not cover the Group 1 verb 行く (いく） since it's slightly irregular. To conjugate 行く, you replace the く with った, i.e. 行く（いく）→行った（いった）.

Conjugating Group 2 verbs and the irregular verbs into the plain past tense is far easier than conjugating Group 1 verbs into the plain past tense. You just take the ます-stem of the verb and add た to the end of it, i.e. たべ→たべた, たり→たりた , い→いた , しー＞した , and 来（き）→来た（きた）, to conjugate a Group 2 verb or an irregular verb into the plain past tense.

With this lesson and lesson three, you now know all of the basic conjugations of Japanese except for the polite and plain tenses of both the negative present tense and the negative past tense, so you are halfway done learning the basic conjugations of Japanese.

John

Lesson 5: The Uses of ある and いる

In this lesson, I will explain how to use the words ある and いる. I will first explain the difference between them than explain how to use them in a sentence. Also, at the end of this post, I will have some example sentences

While ある and いる have the same meaning, their uses do not overlap. ある is used with inanimate objects, like chairs, plants, and books, and いる is used with animate objects, such as people and animals.

When ある and いる are being used to mean "to exist" in a sentence, you use the particle に to mark the location where the object exists. When they are being used to mean "to have" in a sentence, the possessor is marked with は (the topic marker), and the object that is being possessed is marked with が.

That's all I have to explain about ある and いる, so I will now give you some example sentences, so you can see them in action. The new vocabulary will be listed in my normal way.

Nouns:
猫　ねこ A cat
剣　けん A sword
戦士　せんし　A warrior
魔法使い　まほうつかい A mage
子供　こども A child
軍隊　ぐんたい A army

I will first give some example sentences for the "to exist" meaning of ある and いる.

猫が家にいる。
ねこがいえにいる。
There is a cat in the house.

剣が洞窟にある。
けんがどうくつにある。
There is a sword in the cave.

戦士は城にいます。
せんしはしろにいます。
The warrior is in the castle.

I will now give some example for the "to have" meaning of ある and いる.

戦士は剣があります。
せんしはけんがあります。
The warrior has a sword.

魔法使いは子供がいます。
まほうつかいはこどもがいます。
The mage has a child.

軍隊は魔法使いがいます。
ぐんたいはまほうつかいがいます。
The army has a mage.

That's all for this lesson.

John

Lesson 4: Place Vocabulary

In this vocabulary lesson, I will teach the words for common places that RPGs have and words that are useful learning where you are suppose to go.

The words will be listed in the same way as in lesson one: Kanji, Kana, English, Notes.

Verbs:
-- ある To exist; to have Group 1 verb. Used only with inanimate object
-- いる To exist; to have Group 2 verb. Used only with animate object
行く　いく To go Group 1 verb
来る　くる To come Irregular verb
-- わかる To understand Group 1 verb

Nouns:
砂漠　さばく A desert
森　もり A forest
町　まち A town
村　むら A village
鉱山　こうざん A mine
山　やま A mountain
都市　とし A city
神殿　しんでん A shrine
洞窟　どうくつ A cave
東　ひがし The east
西　にし The west
北　きた The north
南　みなみ The south
城　しろ A castle
国　くに A country
宮殿　きゅうでん A palace
教会　きょうかい A church
塔　とう A tower
島　しま An island
山道　やまみち A mountain path
地下室　ちかしつ A basement
道　みち A road
湖　みずうみ A lake
王国　おうこく A kingdom
川　かわ A river
火山　かざん A volcano
家　いえ A house
壁　かべ A wall
沼　ぬま A swamp
遺跡　いせき Ruins

Suffixes:
－湖　－こ Lake ... A suffix to mark a lake
－山　－さん Mt. ... A suffix to mark a mountain

With these words, you should be able to find out where you are suppose to go next in most RPGs.

John

Exercises for Lesson 2

This post contains some exercises to help you practice conjugating verbs into the the polite present tense.

The first group of exercises will let you practice conjugating Group 1 verbs, Group 2 verbs, and the irregular verbs into the polite present tense. The second group of exercises will have you conjugating verbs back from the polite present tense into the dictionary form. For all of the verbs in the exercises, I will list the verbs in this order: # of the question, Kanji, Kana, English, Verb Group. The answers for all of the exercises will be at the bottom of the post.

In this first set of verbs, you will conjugate the verbs into their ます-stem then into to their polite present tense. If a verb does not have a ます-stem, just conjugate it into it's polite present tense.

1. 買う　かう　To buy Group 1
2. --　する To do Irregular
3. 消す　けす To delete Group 1
4. 始める　はじめる To begin Group 2
5. 続く 　つづく To continue Group 1
6. 捨てる　すてる To discard Group 2
7. 呼ぶ　よぶ To call Group 1
8. 来る　くる To come Irregular
9. 立つ　たつ To stand Group 1
10. 泳ぐ　およぐ To swim Group 1
11. --　やめる To stop Group 2
12. 売る　うる To sell Group 1
13. 死ぬ　しぬ To die Group 1
14. --　だ To be Irregular
15. 盗む　ぬすむ To steal Group 1

In this next set of verbs, I will list the verbs in the same way as above, but instead of listing the verbs in their dictionary forms I will list them in their polite present tense because you will be conjugating the verbs back into their dictionary forms.

1. 使います　つかいます To use Group 1
2. 写します　うつします To copy Group 1
3. 行きます　いきます To go Group 1
4. します　します To do Irregular
5. 開けます　あけます To open Group 2
6. 来ます　きます To come Irregular
7. 寝ます　ねます To come Group 2
8. 光ります　ひかります To shine Group 1
9. 待ちます　まちます To wait Group 1
10. 選びます　えらびます To choose Group 1
11. --　です To be Irregular

This is the end of the exercises. The answers to all of these exercise problems are below.

John

Answers for the first set of verbs (highlight to see):
1. 買い（かい）→買います（かいます）
2. し→します
3. 消し（けし）→消します（けします）
4. 始め（はじめ）→始めます（はじめます）
5. 続き（つづき）→続きます（つづきます）
6. 捨て（すて）→捨てます（すてます）
7. 呼び（よび）→呼びます（よびます）
8. 来（き）→来ます（きます）
9. 立ち（たち）→立ちます（たちます）
10. 泳ぎ（およぎ）→泳ぎます（およぎます）
11. やめ→やめます
12. 売り（うり）→売ります（うります）
13. 死に（しに）→死にます（しにます）
14. です
15. 盗み（ぬすみ）→盗みます（ぬすみます）

Answer to the second set of verbs (highlight to see):
1. 使う（つかう）
2. 写す（うつす）
3. 行く（いく）
4. する
5. 開ける（あける）
6. 来る（くる）
7. 寝る（ねる）
8. 光る（ひかる）
9. 待つ（まつ）
10. 選ぶ（えらぶ）
11. だ

Example Sentences for Lesson 3: Part 2 of 2

This post is part two of the example sentences for lesson three. I will continue to have the vocabulary for the example sentences at the top of this post like in the first part.

Nouns:
剣　けん Sword　
--　ドア Door
先生　せんせい Teacher
道場　どうじょう Dojo
戦士　せんし Warrior
八時　はちじ Eight o'clock
十一時　じゅういちじ Eleven o'clock
森　もり Forest
砂漠　さばく Desert

Intransitive Verbs:
開く　あく To open
光る　ひかる To shine
行く　いく To go

Transitive Verbs:
開ける　あける To open

I will show some example sentences that show the uses of の.

戦士の剣は光る。
せんしのけんはひかる。
The warrior's sword shines.

剣の先生は道場のドアを開ける。
けんのせんせいはどうじょうのドアをあける。
The sword teacher opens the dojo's door.

I will show some example sentences for the time marking usage of に.

ドアは八時に開きます。
ドアははちじにあきます。
The door will open at eight o'clock.

戦士は十一時に行く。
せんしはじゅういちじにいく。
The warrior will go at eleven o'clock.

I will cover the usage of に for marking the location of the action of the few verbs in a later lesson.

I will now show some example sentences for the destination marking usage of に, and the usage of へ. For the ease of reading, I have only used に in the next example sentences, but you can replace all of the に's with へ's.

私は森に行きます。
わたしはもりにいきます。
I will go to the forest.

戦士は砂漠に行く。
せんしはさばくにいく。
The warrior will go to the desert.

That covers all of the particles from lesson three.

John

Example Sentences for Lesson 3: Part 1 of 2

This post contains example sentences to help you understand the particles introduced in lesson three.

Because the vocabulary I have introduced so far is not large enough to form a variety of example sentences, I will introduced some more words, but you do not have to remember them beyond this section. They will be listed in the same way as in lesson one: Kanji Kana English Notes.

A note about pluralization in Japanese: nouns are not marked as being plural unless they are pronouns or nouns that represent people. For pronouns and nouns that represent people, you add the suffix 達 （たち） to show that they are plural. For other nouns, you have to guess from context whether or not they are plural. I will cover pluralizing more in depth in a later lesson.

Nouns:
剣　けん Sword
--　ドア Door
--　ドラゴン Dragon
戦士　せんし Warrior
私　わたし First-person pronoun

Intransitive Verbs:
開く　あく To open
光る　ひかる To shine
行く　いく To go
寝る　ねる To sleep

Transitive Verbs:
開ける　あける To open
殺す　ころす To kill

I'll first show some example sentences for は.

ドアは開く。
どあはあく。
The door opens.

剣は光ります。
けんはひかります。
The sword shines.

ドラゴンは寝る
ドラゴンはねる
The dragon sleeps.

Now I'll show an example sentence for が.

戦士が行きます。
せんしがいきます。
A warrior will go.

Next I'll show some example sentences for を.

戦士はドラゴンを殺す。
せんしはドラゴンをころす。
The warrior will kill the dragon.

私はドアを開ける。
わたしはドアをあける。
I will open the door.

戦士は剣を買います。
せんしはけんをかいます。
The warrior will buy the sword.

I will show some example sentences for the three remaining particles, の, に, and へ, in the next post.

John

Lesson 3: Basic Particles

In this lesson, I will teach six basic particles needed to form some basic sentences.

In Japanese, particles are words that follow a noun to mark the purpose of the noun in a sentence.

The first particle I will teach is the topic marker は. When the kana は is being used as a particle, it is pronounced as わ. When は follows a noun, it marks it as the topic, and normally the subject, of the sentence, so it's safe to presume that the noun は is following is also the subject unless it would make no sense for it to be the subject. In Japanese, a topic is not repeated if you do not need to repeat it to understand the sentence.

The second particle is the subject marker が. When it follows a noun, it marks the noun as the subject of the sentence. Since は and が are so similar, I'll list two of the major differences between them. が is used when something is introduced for the first time, and は is used when the thing has been introduced before. が can be used in a subordinate sentence, but は can't be used in one.

The next particle is the direct object marker を. Even though を is in the same column as わ, it is pronounce as お. When を follows a noun, it marks the noun as the direct object of the sentence.

The fourth particle, の, is a bit more complex than the ones we have learned so far. It allows a noun it's following to modify the next noun, or it allows the noun to possess the next noun. It has more uses, but I will discuss those uses in later lessons.

This next particle, に, is also a little complex since it has a lot of uses. It's used to mark the time of an event, to mark the place of action for a few verbs, and to mark a place you are heading to. It has more uses, but they require more grammar knowledge than we have covered to use.

We are now on the last particle for this lesson: へ. When the kana へ is used as a particle it is pronounced as え. へ, unlike the last two particles, is very easy because it has only one use: it marks a place you are heading to. に and へ are interchangeable when they are being used for this meaning.

I'll put up some example sentences in my next posts to help show the meaning of the particles.

John

Lesson 2: The Present Tenses

In this lesson I'm going to go over both the polite and plain forms of the present tense of verbs.

Before I start explaining how to conjugate verbs, I will point out some basics of verbs. There are three groups of verbs in Japanese: verbs that end in the vowel sound う i.e. あう, きく, and ころす; verbs that end with the sound of いる or える i.e. たべる, たりる, and いる; and three irregular verbs. From here on, I'm going to call the verbs ending with the vowel sound う "Group 1" and call the verbs ending with the sound of いる or える "Group 2". One note with verbs that end in いる or える, they can be a part of either Group 1 or Group 2.

Because Japanese does not have a future tense, the present tense serves as both a present tense and a future tense. When reading a verb in Japanese, you have to guess which it is off of the context.

I'm now going to explain the difference between the politeness levels of verbs then we'll move on to the conjugations. In Japanese, there are 3 levels of politeness of verbs: the honorific and humble forms, the polite form, and the plain form. I'm going to skip the honorific and humble forms because they aren't very useful at this level and just explain the polite and plain forms. The polite form is used around strangers. The plain form is normally used with friends and family or speaking to someone who is of a lower social rank.

The plain present tense is the same as the dictionary form which is the form you find in the dictionary and the form I list here.

The polite present tense is sometime called the ます form because when you finish conjugating the verb it ends in ます. The first step to conjugating a verb into the polite present tense is to conjugate it into it's ます-Stem then add ます to the end of the verb. I'm going to first explain how to conjugate Groups 1 and 2 verbs then show how to conjugate the irregular verbs.

For Verb Group 1, you take the final kana and change the う into an い i.e. あう→あい, きく→きき, and ころす→ころし. This form is the ます-Stem for Verb Group 1 verbs. After conjugating the verb into the ます-Stem you just add ます to the end of the stem to get the polite present tense of a Verb Group i.e. あい→あいます, きき→ききます, and ころし→ころします.

Verb Groups 2 verbs are a bit easier to conjugate. To conjugate one in it's ます-Stem, you just have to remove the final る from the verb i.e. たべる→たべ, たりる→たり, and いる→い. Now just take the ます-Stem and add ます to it i.e. たべ→たべます, たり→たります, and い→います.

I'll first list all of the irregular verbs then show you how to conjugate each of them. There is the irregular copula だ (to be) and the irregular verbs する and 来る (くる To come). だ, because it's not a normal verb, does not have a ます-Stem and conjugates straight into です for it's polite present tense. For する and 来る, Their ます-Stems are し and 来 (き) respectively. To get their polite present tense add ます to the end verb i.e.　し→します and 来→来ます (きます).

Before I bring this lesson to a conclusion, I have one thing to say: do not forget how to conjugate into the ます-Stem because it will be useful later. With that said, this lesson is over, but if you need some practice conjugating verbs you can find some exercises here.

John

Lesson 1: Basic Vocabulary

In this lesson we'll learn some basic words that are useful when playing RPGs.

The word format will be as so: Kanji, Kana, English, notes. If the word does not have a kanji, it will have two dashes in the place of a kanji. Some of the words may have notes that may not mean much right now but will mean more once you get to some of the later lessons. Here are two example words one with a kanji and one without a kanji:

剣 けん Sword You do not have to learn this word
-- りんご Apple You do not have to learn this word either

I am now going to start showing the word that you will be learning.

Common Words:
-- はい Yes
-- いいえ No
-- する To do More on this word in a later lesson

Main Menu:
-- ニューゲーム New Game
-- コンティニュー Continue
-- ロード Load する-noun
設定 せってい Option
終了 しゅうりょう Quit する-noun
続く つづく To continue Group 1 verb
消す けす To delete Group 1 verb
始める はじめる To begin Group 2 verb
写す うつす To copy Group 1 verb

Game Menu:
-- セーブ Save する-noun
-- アイテム Item
-- レベル Level
魔法 まほう Magic
命中 めいちゅう A hit The same hit as in "hit percent"
防御 ぼうぎょ Defence する-noun
攻撃 こうげき An attack する-noun
力 ちから Power
経験値 けいけんち Experience point
ー力 ーりょく - power A suffix
使う つかう To use Group 1 verb
捨てる すてる To discard Group 2 verb
話す はなす To talk Group 1 verb

Treasure:
手に入れる てにいれる To acquire Group 2 verb

Combat:
戦う たたかう To fight Group 1 verb
逃げる にげる To run away Group 2 verb
受ける うける To receive Group 2 verb
与える あたえる To deal Group 2 verb

At the store:
買う かう To buy Group 1 verb
売る うる To sell Group 1 verb
-- やめる To stop Group 2 verb

That's all of the basic words. If you think I'm missing a word or have an idea for a later lesson either write me at mewone@gmail.com or leave a comment.

John

Introduction

こんにちは、みなさん! Or hello everybody!

This blog contains lessons for learning Japanese to play video games. The focus will be on RPGs because they are normally hard to play without any knowledge, but the lessons may also be useful for other types of games.

These lessons will presume that you already know some basic grammar and all of the kana because the lessons will not use any rômaji. If you don't already know all of the kana you can find a good kana lesson on this site.

If you have any suggestions for future lessons please email me at mewone@gmail.com or leave me a comment.

John