Lesson 7:

～ている
Verbal te-form followed by ～ている means either:
1. An action in progress
2. A past event that is connected with the present
Example: スーさんは今勉強しています。 = Sue is studying right now.
Can also use ～ている sentence to describe what a person does for an occupation.
Example: 私は英語を教えています。= I teach English/I am teaching English (right now).
～ている can also describe the result of a change
Example: スーさんはお金をくさん持っています。= Sue has a lot of money.
Example: 中国に行っています。 = Somebody has gone to/is in China. (Not: She is going to China)
食べている

Positive Negative
Present 食べています 食べていません
Past たべていました たべていませんでした

メアリーさんわ髪が長います
When describing a person’s physical attributes:

目
耳 大きい
A さんは 手 が 小さい Person A has a body part which is …
足 かわいい
… …

In idiomatic collocations, also:

背が高い = is tall 背が低い = is short 頭がいい = is bright/smart

Te-forms for Joining Sentences

Te-form of an い-Adj is formed by substituting くて for the final い. Te-form of a な-Adj and a noun + で
す sequence is formed by adding で to the base or the noun.
い-Adj: 安い 安くて
Irregular: いい よくて
な-Adj: 元気（な） 元気で

Noun + です: 日本人です 日本人で

Example: あの店の食べ物は安いくて、おいしいです。= The food at that restaurant is inexpensive and
delicious.
Verb Stem + に行く
If a person moves to another place in order to do something, we can describe their movement
and its purpose:

Destination of movement
に the purpose of movement
行く に
へ 来る
帰る

Example: デパートにカバンを買いに行きました。 = I went to a department store to buy a bag.

Counting People
Counter for people is 人（にん）, but “one person” and “two people” are irregular: ―人（ひとり） and 二人（ふ
たり）
ひとり (―人) One person
ふたり (二人) Two people
Three
さんにん（三人）
people
よにん（四人） Four people
ごにん（五人） Five people
ろくにん（六人） Six people
Seven
しちにん／ななにん（七人）
people
はしにん（八人） Eight people
きゅうにん（九人） Nine people
じゅうにん（十人） Ten people

To count people in a class, for example, you can add ～人 after a noun and the particle が:
Person が X 人 います。

Lesson 8:
Short Forms
How to utilize short forms:
 In casual conversations, as signs of intimacy
 In represented, or quoted, speech (“I think…”, “She said…”)
 In making negative requests (“Please don’t…”)
 In expressing ideas like “I like doing…” or “I am good at doing…)

Present Tense, positive

Short Forms Long Forms
Verbs: 読む A 読みます
い-Adj: かわいい A かわいいです
な-Adj: 静かだ B 静かです
Noun + です: 学生だ B 学生です
Present Tense, negative
Short Forms Long Forms
Verbs: 読まない C 読みません
い-Adj: かわいくない D かわいくないです
な-Adj: 静かじゃない D 静かじゃないです
Noun + です: 学生じゃない D 学生じゃないです

Verbs and い-Adj in the affirmative (A above)

 Same as their dictionary form

な-Adj and noun + です in the affirmative (B above)

 Replace です with だ

い-Adj and な-Adj and noun + です in the negative (D above)

Verbs in the negative conjugate differently ( C above)

る- verbs: Take the final る off and add ない (食べる＝食べない)
う- verbs: Take the final う and change to ～あない (書く＝書かない、読む＝読まない)
Irregular verbs: （する＝しない 、くる＝こない）
Exception: （ある＝ない）
With verbs in the negative, the following three points are worth noting:
 The negative short forms of verbs that end with hiragana う are ～わない instead of ～
あない
 The vowel changes with the irregular verbs する and くる
 The verb ある in the negative is ない, as in かさがない (there is no umbrella)

Informal Speech:
Used for close friends and family. Japanese are strict with seniority and casual conversation can
sometimes go one way.
 In casual conversational use of short forms, question sentences do not end with the
question particle か, but with rising intonation alone
Example:どんな音楽を聞く？＝ What kind of music do you listen to?
 The た ending of な-adj and noun + です (B in previous section) is usually dropped at the very
end of a sentence, or is followed by sentence-final ね or よ
Example: メアリーさんは二年生。＝ Mary is a sophomore
 In casual conversations, はい and いいえ are usually replaced by the less formal うん and ううん

～と思います／～と言っていました
To quote a person’s utterances or thoughts, use a clause ending with a predicate in the short
form, plus と思います (I think that...), と言っていました (They said “...”), and so forth.
 と is a quotation particle, which does the job of both the English word “that” in indirect
quotation and of quotation marks (“ ”) in direct quotation
Example: スーさんは、あした試験があると言っていました ＝Sue said that there will be an exam tomorrow

～ないでください
To request that someone refrain from doing something, one can use a negative verbal short form
plus でください
Example: ここで写真を撮らないでください = Please don’t take pictures here

Negative short form + でください = Please don’t...

Verb のが好きです
Short forms are used in constructions where verbs and adjectives are to be treated as nouns,
thus 私は～が好きです／きらいです can, besides describing your preference for items denoted by nous, such
as 猫, also describes your preference for activities, such as swimming, drinking coffee, and
studying Japanese.
 Add の to a verbal short form to express the idea of “doing x.”
Example: （私は）日本語を勉強するのがすきです。= I like studying the Japanese language
 “To be good/bad at doing something” is ～が上手です (is good at…) and ～が下手です (is bad at…)
Example: ロバートさんは料理を作るのが上手です = Robert is good at cooking meals

好き likes doing…
Person は activity (verb) のが きらい です。doesn’t like doing…
上手 is good at doing…
下手 is poor at doing…

が
In this sentence ロバートさんは沖縄に行きました = Robert went to Okinawa
 1) the noun ロバート stands as the subject in relation to the verb 行く (he was the person wo
performed the going)
 2) the noun is, per the function of the particle は, presented as the topic of the sentence
(as for Robert, he went to Okinawa)
 If we both know someone went to Okinawa, and I know that it was Robert but you do not:ロ
バートさんが沖縄に行きました = ROBERT went to Okinawa
が can also be used as a “blank on the information sheet”, is a question word like だれ and 何
Example: だれが沖縄に行きましたか。= Who went to Okinawa?
 Example: どのクラスがおもしろいですか。= Which class is (the most) interesting?, 日本語のクラスがおもしろいです =
Japanese class is.

何か and 何も
The word for “something” is 何か, and the word for “anything” is negative sentences is 何も
“Some” and “any” in:
Positive statements 何か something
Questions 何か anything?
Negative statements 何も + negative not…anything

These two words are used in places は, が, and を are expected.

Example: 猫が何か持ってきました。= The cat has brought something
Example: 猫は何か食べませんでした。= Did the cat eat anything?
Example: いいえ、猫は何も食べませんでした。= No, the cat did not eat anything.