Lesson 51
Base 4 + ru
We are now going to learn one of the handiest verb forms in the book: Base 4 + ru. I remember when I first learned this one — it was like opening a new door. Simply put, Base 4 + ru is like a super shortcut to Base 3 + koto ga dekiru, which was covered back in Lesson 31. It shows the ability to do something. For example, instead of the long Watashi wa iku koto ga dekiru ("I can go," using Base 3 + koto ga dekiru), you can use Base 4 + ru and say the same thing with a much shorter expression: Watashi wa ikeru.
Now, let's take three examples from Lesson 31 and shorten them using Base 4 + ru:
- Watashi wa nihongo o yomeru. (I can read Japanese.)
- Keiko wa piano o hikeru. (Keiko can play the piano.)
- Ashita Jack wa Tokushima ni ikeru. (Jack can go to Tokushima tomorrow.)
Now, you know that these sentences would be more polite with the masu ending. No problem. We can easily add masu to these and make them polite. Here we learn an important point — so important that I'm going to underline it: Verbs in the Base 4 + ru form can be treated the same as Base 3 (plain) ichidan verbs.
Take a good look: Base 4 + ru makes verbs end in eru, just like most ichidans. As such, they can be treated like plain ichidans. Let's look at some possibilities using endings already learned:
- Keiko wa piano o hikemasu. (Keiko can play the piano. [polite])
- Keiko wa baiorin o hikemasen. (Keiko can't play the violin.)
- Jack wa Tokushima ni ikemashita. (Jack was able to go to Tokushima.)
- Kare wa Osaka ni ikemasen deshita. (He wasn't able to go to Osaka.)
- Kare wa raigetsu ikeru kamo shiremasen. (He might be able to go next month.)
Have you got it? Great! You should be able to see how this form will make life in Japanese easier. It's very, very useful. And most of the other Base 3 endings or combinations which work with ichidans can be applied in the same way.
Please keep in mind that while grammar books state that this is only to be used with yodan verbs, there are many exceptions among the ichidans. For example, you will hear taberemasen for "I can't eat it," but you won't hear miremasen for "I can't see it." (There is a "set verb" for "able to see": mieru, which was used in Lesson 44.) These you'll just have to pick up as you go along. Please see Notes on Japanese Verbs for more.
Word Check
hiku: to play a stringed instrument
baiorin: violin (Yes, this is wasei eigo.)
raigetsu: next month
(Verbs are shown in their plain form.)
|
