Japanese conjugation (mizenkei base)
Element of Japanese language
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Japanese conjugation, like the conjugation of verbs of many other languages, allows verbs to be morphologically modified to change their meaning or grammatical function. In Japanese, the beginning of a word (the stem) is preserved during conjugation, while the ending of the word is altered in some way to change the meaning (this is the inflectional suffix). Japanese verb conjugations are independent of person, number and gender (they do not depend on whether the subject is I, you, he, she, we, etc.); the conjugated forms can express meanings such as negation, present and past tense, volition, passive voice, causation, imperative and conditional mood, and ability. There are also special forms for conjunction with other verbs, and for combination with particles for additional meanings.
Japanese verbs have agglutinating properties: some of the conjugated forms are themselves conjugable verbs (or i-adjectives), which can result in several suffixes being strung together in a single verb form to express a combination of meanings.
Conjugable words (verbs, i‑adjectives, and na‑adjectives) are traditionally considered to have six possible conjugational stems or bases (活用形, katsuyōkei; literally "conjugation forms").[1] This article lists those from the negative base (未然形, mizenkei), as well as the tentative base (推量形/意思形, suiryōkei/ishikei) that was split off during the post‑WWII spelling reforms.[2]
Negative
The negative, apart from being plainly negative, can commonly express affirmation of the contrary but in an understated way,[3] for example in rhetorical negative questions which imply affirmation,[4] often for politeness,[5] such as for softening hortatives.[6]
| English | Japanese | Function |
|---|---|---|
| 'There's no need to lose your temper with me,' […] 'If you're upset because Isobel went back to London, then that's not my fault! She could have stayed here overnight. It's not as though Joseph is around to be offended. In fact, I'm sure that Joseph wouldn't have been offended anyway.' | "Watashi ni atari chirasu hitsuyō wa nai deshō" […] "Izaberu ga Rondon ni modotta kara kigen ga warui no da to shite mo, watashi no tsumi ja nai wa! Kanojo ni tomatte moraeba yokatta no ni. Tomatte mo Jozefu wa ki ni shinai wa" (「わたしに当たり散らす必要はないでしょう」[…]「イザベルがロンドンに戻ったから機嫌が悪いのだとしても、わたしの罪じゃないわ！ 彼女に泊まってもらえばよかったのに。泊まってもジョゼフは気にしないわ」[7]) | general negation |
| After all, she'd seen the old lady every day. He'd stayed away for six years.[a] | Fiona wa mainichi Goruda ni atte ita ga, kono rokunenkan, kare wa ichido mo ai ni konakatta. (フィオナは毎日ゴルダに会っていたが、この六年間、彼は一度も会いに来なかった。[8]) | |
| "He hasn't nerve enough to kill a fly." | "Kare ni hae mo korosenakarō" (「彼には蠅も殺せなかろう」[9]) | |
| You cannot pass! Gandalf! I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the flame of Anor. The dark fire will not avail you, flame of Udûn! Go back to the Shadow. You shall not pass! |
Kono saki wa tōsan! Gandarufu! Ware wa Shinpi no Hi ni tsukaeru mono, Anōru no honō no tsukaite ja. Kisama no hanatsu hi wa, washi ni wa tsūjin! Yami no soko ni modoru ga yoi. Koko wa danjite tōsan! (この先は通さん！ ガンダルフ！ 我は神秘の火に仕える者、アノールの炎の使い手じゃ。貴様の放つ火は、儂には通じん！闇の底に戻るがよい。ここは断じて通さん！[10]) | |
| Die for me, thou shalt not. And I too shall not die for thee. | Kisama wa kono washi no tame ni shini wa senu. Washi mo kisama no kawari ni wa shinanu. (貴様はこのわしのために死にはせぬ。わしも貴様の代りには死なぬ。[11]) | |
| Thanks to that, I did not die. | “Sono okage de watakushi wa shinananda no desu ne” (「其お蔭で私は死ななんだのですネ」[12]) | |
| Even so, he never lost hope. | Sore de mo kesshite nozomi o ushinaimasen deshita. (それでも決して望みを失いませんでした。[13]) | |
| Did you walk round the city streets in America? I didn't.[b] |
Amerika de machi no naka o oaruki ni narimashita ka Arukimasen (アメリカで街の中をお歩きになりましたか 歩きません) |
past negation in non‑past form |
| I stayed up late at night waiting, but he never came.[c] | Yoru, osoku made matte 'ta kedo, konai n da (夜、遅くまで待ってたけど、来ないんだ) | |
| Isn't the magazine interesting and doesn't it also prove of value? | Kono zasshi wa omoshiroku mo ari, tame ni mo nari wa shinai ka (この雑誌は面白くもあり、ためにもなりはしないか) | rhetorically implied affirmation of the contrary |
| Won't you read it?[d] | Yomimasen ka (読みませんか) | |
| Aren't we early?[e] | Hayai ja nai ka (早いじゃないか) | |
| Aren't we not early?[f] | Hayaku nai ja nai ka (早くないじゃないか) | |
| Isn't it nice?[g] | Ii ja nai no (いいじゃないの) | |
| He said he'd come but I guess he won't after all.[h] | Kuru to itta no ni konai ja arimasen ka (来ると言ったのに来ないじゃありませんか) | |
| Shall we leave?[i] | Kaerō ja arimasen ka (帰ろうじゃありませんか) | |
| How about a drink?[j] | Ippai nomō ja nai ka (一杯飲もうじゃないか) | |
| Of course not only is there lack of evidence to substantiate the government's theory but on the contrary a number of pieces of counter‑evidence even can be offered. | Mochiron seifusetsu o urazukeru kakushō wa ima no tokoro nai bakari ka, gyaku ni ikutsu ka no hanshō mo ageru koto ga dekiru (もちろん政府説を裏付ける確証は今のところないばかりか、逆にいくつかの反証も上げることができる) | |
| My grades were none too outstanding. | Seiseki wa yūshū na hō de wa nakatta (成績は優秀なほうではなかった) | |
| There is no reason to think that a mouse can get the better of a cat. | Nezumi ga neko ni kateru hazu ga nai (ネズミが猫に勝てるはずがない) |
Negative: Conjugation table
The negative form is created by using the mizenkei base, followed by the ‑nai (ない) suffix. This auxiliary arose in eastern dialects during Late Middle Japanese and displaced the western ‑n (see below) in standard Japanese, and while having been linked to another negative auxiliary, ‑nau → ‑nō (なふ), it appears to be a grammaticalized version of the adjective nai (無い; 'be nonexistent').[14] In masculine (or rural eastern) speech, ‑nai is smoothed out into ‑nē (see Japanese conjugation (imperfective form) § Conjugation table for more comparative examples).
‑N (karan (狩らん; 'not hunt')) is a negative auxiliary that was reduced from the earlier western[15][16][17][18][19][20] and classical ‑nu (karanu (狩らぬ)), but was largely displaced by the eastern ‑nai (karanai (狩らない)) in standard Japanese.[21][22] ‑N(u) is still found in modern Japanese and thought of as "shortened" from ‑nai, although as the fact that shin(u) (しん・しぬ) is strictly dialectal compared to the standard sen(u) (せん・せぬ) shows,[23] it is not really a "short" form. Some modern examples include tokoro ga, henji o yokosan no desu (ところが、返事を寄越さんのです; 'but they sent me no reply'), Boku wa benkai sen desu. Tada iwan koto o kakaretara komaru. (僕は弁解せんです。ただ言わん事を書かれたら困る; 'I don't make excuses. It's just that it is embarrassing to have things written as if I had said them when I haven't.'), sen de kudasai (せんでください; 'don't do it').[23] ‑N(u)'s infinitive form, ‑zu, is still used in writing. Ja nai (no) ka (じゃない(の)か; 'isn't it?') is indeed shortened to jan (じゃん) especially by young people.[24] ‑Nai and ‑nu can be used in the same sentence where ‑nai is treated as conclusive and ‑nu as attributive: Gaikōken o motanu Okinawa wa Amerika to kōshō suru koto mo dekinai (外交権を持たぬ沖縄はアメリカと交渉することもできない; 'Okinawa, which does not have diplomatic power, cannot negotiate with America').[25]
The regular negative of aru would be aranai, but it is very rarely used, for example in Honma ni uso de wa aranai to yū no ja na (本間に嘘ではあらないというのじゃな),[23] Tosa to te oni no kuni de mo hebi no kuni de mo aranai mono o (土佐とて鬼の国でも蛇の国でもあらないものを), etc.[26][27] In Murakami Haruki's 2017 novel Killing Commendatore, the character "Commendatore", who is characterized as having "an odd way of speaking" that is "not the way ordinary people would speak",[28] often, but not always, uses aranai in place of nai. The western aranu usually functions as an attributive word that idiomatically means "unexpected" or "untoward",[29][30] as in aranu koto o kuchibashiru (あらぬことを口走る; 'blurt something out out of left field'); it can still have a literal meaning and be used predicatively just like nai, but for literary or faux‑archaic effect, as in the Parmenidian phrase aru mono wa ari, aranu mono wa aranu (あるものはあり、あらぬものはあらぬ; transl. that which is, is, that which is not, is not). Arazu usually occurs in the literary negative copular phrase ni arazu (にあらず),[31] as in taben wa yūben ni arazu (多弁は雄弁にあらず; transl. a wealth of word is not eloquence).
For the negatives of suru and its compounds, the general practice is to pair the eastern shi‑ with the eastern ‑nai, and the western se‑ with the western ‑n(u) and ‑zu for mainstream Japanese (only the eastern shinai is standard). Any of such combinations as sanai, sunai, shin(u), etc are considered dialectal. The writer Mori Ōgai, hailing from the western prefecture of Shimane, reportedly rigorously used senai, apparently in accordance with the classical (western) se‑,[32] despite the dominance of sen in the west.[20] For "irregular" verbs such as aisuru (愛する) and tassuru (達する), which are irregular even compared to suru, see Japanese conjugation § The bases of suru for more.
The current negative of ‑masu is ‑masen. The unique shapes of ‑masen (rather than ‑mashinai) and the hortative ‑mashō (rather than *‑mashiyō) suggest their provenance in western polite speech.[33] Compare westernized hyper‑polite adjectival expressions with gozaimasu. The easternized ‑mashinai was first recorded in its spoken form with vowel fusion as ‑mashinē in Edo Japanese.[34] It has been attested in dialog from modern literature, for example in the speech of underclass, poor, peasant, servile or rural characters, even non‑Japanese ones, notably the eye dialect of black slaves from the novel Gone with the Wind.[35] The practice of using the stigmatized "unsophisticated" Tōhoku Japanese,[k] in which ‑mashinai and ‑mashinē figure, to translate the stereotypical speech of black Southern Americans, has become unpopular.[38] The use of a low‑class pseudo‑dialect has been claimed to contribute to the churlish stereotype of Tōhoku Japanese,[38] although it has also been argued that such use is increasingly perceived as mere fictional rural speech without necessarily any association with real‑life dialects.[37]
The negatives of kuru (来る) are regularly konai/konē/kon(u), with kinai/kinē being dialectal Kantō alternatives.[23][19]
‑N also happens to be a reduced form of ‑mu (karamu (狩らむ; 'let's hunt; probably hunt')), whose other reduced form, ‑u, is still used to make hortative forms (karō (狩ろう)).[21] ‑Nu also happens to be an archaic perfective auxiliary, with a different conjugation from the negative ‑nu; it is equivalent to ‑ta/‑da in modern Japanese,[39] and it is sometimes used elevatedly, as in Kaze to Tomo ni Sarinu (=Satta) (風と共に去りぬ; 'Gone with the Wind').
The godan and ichidan‑based negative endings ‑ranai, ‑rinai or ‑renai, specifically with the consonant r, can be reduced to ‑nnai and even ‑nnē in speech, as in wakaranai → wakannai (分かんない), naranai → nannē (なんねえ), kurenai → kunnai (呉んない).[40]
The expressions sumanai/suman/sumimasen (すまない・すまん・すみません; 'I'm sorry', lit. 'it isn't over') comes from a special use of the subsidiary verb sumu (済む; 'be over') (see Gerund: Grammatical compatibility for examples).
The godan verb shiru (知る), whose kanji represents the Chinese word for "know", is often translated as "know", but a more accurate translation would be "learn", "find out",[41] or "get to know".[42][43] In order to say "I know", the construction shitte( i)ru (知って(い)る) is used instead[42][41] (see Gerund: Grammatical compatibility for the usage of ‑te iru). This is because shiru is imbued with active recognition, which relates to the archaic meaning of taking physical command or possession of somebody or something,[44] reflected by the spellings 治る with the kanji for the Chinese word for "rule", "govern" or "control", and 領る for "lead".[45] To "know", therefore, is to take psychological command or possession of outside information, hence shiru ("I take command of this information"), and maintain it, hence shitte iru ("I took command of this information and it's still in my knowledge"). While "I know" ("I take command of it and still have it") is shitte iru, "I don't know" is actually shiranai (知らない; "I don't take command of it"),[46] which is morphologically the negative of shiru, but semantically the negative of both shitte iru and shiru.
On the other hand, shitte inai (知っていない; "I didn't take command of it and still don't have it") implies perpetuation of ignorance,[47] for example in Ningen ga naze hito o korosu no ka […] sono konponteki na riyū ni tsuite, watashitachi wa mada nani mo shitte inai, to omowareru kara de aru (人間がなぜ人を殺すか[…]その根本的な理由について、私たちはまだ何も知っていない、と思われるからである; transl. Why does a human being kill another person? […] it seems that we still remain ignorant of the basic reasons for that).[48] There have been analyses on precise cases where shitte inai is interchangeable with or even preferable to shiranai, for example when paired with shitte iru in the same clause,[49] as in Doitsu-go o shitte ite mo shiranakute mo / shitte inakute mo saiyō shiken ni wa kankei nai. (ドイツ語を知っていても知らなくても・知っていなくても採用試験には関係ない。; transl. Whether you know German or not has nothing to do with the employment test.); or in cases involving the perfect aspect, only shitte inai, not shiranai, can be used, as in Shinbun o yomu made ni, Tarō wa jiken no shinsō o shitte inai. (新聞を読むまでに、太郎は事件の真相を知っていない。; transl. By the time he reads the newspaper, Tarō won't have learnt of the incident.), Tarō wa ima made ichido mo jibun no genkai o shitte inai. (太郎は今まで一度も自分の限界を知っていない。; transl. Tarō hasn't learnt of his own limitations, even once until now.)[50] Nevertheless, the question remains as to why shiranai is uniquely more common than shitte inai as the negative of shitte iru to begin with, a phenomenon not yet observable in other verbs.[51] A recorded conversation with a young child shows that shiranai is not inherently intuitive in and of itself: when his father asked him a question with papa […] shiranai ("I don't know […]"), he mirrored his prompt with shiranai ("I don't know"); yet, when his father asked him with shitte 'ru deshō ("you know, don't you?"), he erroneously responded with *shitte 'ru nai ("I don't know", or more "accurately", shitte 'nai, though the expected response was still shiranai).[52] In western dialects, there are shitte oru → shittoru (知っておる→知っとる; ≈ shitte iru → shitte 'ru), shitte oran → shittoran (知っておらん[53][54][55][56][57][58]→知っとらん[59][60][61][62][63][64]; ≈ shitte inai → shitte 'nai), shitte oranu → shittoranu (知っておらぬ[65][66][67]→知っとらぬ[68]), and shiran (知らん; ≈ shiranai).
Unlike verbs, adjectives do not have mizenkei, and instead their negatives are formed with their infinitives followed by the negative adjective nai,[40] which is used to expand adjectives' negative conjugation similarly to how its opposite, the verb aru, is used to expand their affirmative conjugation. Since nai is of itself an adjective, it is possible to have a double negative, as in shizuka ja naku nai n da ga (静かじゃなくないんだが; transl. it's not not (=it is) quiet all right, but), hanashitaku naku nai kedo (話したくなくないけど; transl. I don't not want (=I do want) to talk, but), ippan no dokusha ni totte tashō wakarinikui ten mo naku wa nai (一般の読者に取って多少分かりにくい点もなくはない; transl. there are not not (=there are) points that, for the general reader, are hard to understand), etc.[69]
The western negative auxiliaries ‑n(u) and ‑zu cannot attach directly to adjectival infinitives, and thus require the help of aru (which does have a mizenkei, ara‑), hence ‑karan(u) (← ‑ku aran(u)), ‑karazu (← ‑ku arazu), ‑karazaru (← ‑ku arazaru), etc. These are primarily used in writing, seldom in speech.[70]
The word keshikaran(u) (怪しからん・怪しからぬ; 'insolent')[71] is the negative of the archaic adjective keshi (怪し; 'unusual'; the modern form would be *keshii).[72] Usually this western negative is used, but the easternized keshikaranai → keshikaranē (怪しからない; rather than *keshiku nai/nē) has also been reported as an Edoism.[73]
| Dictionary form | Pattern [74] | Negative form | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Godan and pseudo‑yodan verbs | ||||
| 結う (yuu/yū, fasten) | 結う | 結わ | ない ん ぬ ず |
結わない (yuwanai, not fasten) 結わん (yuwan) 結わぬ (yuwanu) 結わず (yuwazu) |
| 言う (yū, say) | ゆう | いわ ゆわ |
ない ん ぬ ず |
言わない (iwanai/yuwanai, not say) 言わん (iwan/yuwan) 言わぬ (iwanu/yuwanu) 言わず (iwazu/yuwazu) |
| 勝つ (katsu, win) | 勝つ | 勝た | ない ん ぬ ず |
勝たない (katanai, not win) 勝たん (katan) 勝たぬ (katanu) 勝たず (katazu) |
| 狩る (karu, hunt) | 狩る | 狩ら | ない ん ぬ ず |
狩らない (karanai, not hunt) 狩らん (karan) 狩らぬ (karanu) 狩らず (karazu) |
| 知る (shiru, find out) | 知る | 知ら | ない ん ぬ ず |
知らない (shiranai, not find out / have not found out) 知らん (shiran)[75][76][77][55][78][57][61] 知らぬ (shiranu)[75][78] 知らず (shirazu)[79] |
| 貸す (kasu, lend) | 貸す | 貸さ | ない ん ぬ ず |
貸さない (kasanai, not lend) 貸さん (kasan) 貸さぬ (kasanu) 貸さず (kasazu) |
| 愛す (aisu, love) | 愛す | 愛さ | ない ん ぬ ず |
愛さない (aisanai, not love)[80] 愛さん (aisan) 愛さぬ (aisanu)[81] 愛さず (aisazu)[82] |
| 達す (tassu, reach) | 達す | 達さ | ない ん ぬ ず |
達さない (tassanai, not reach)[83] 達さん (tassan) 達さぬ (tassanu) 達さず (tassazu) |
| 書く (kaku, write) | 書く | 書か | ない ん ぬ ず |
書かない (kakanai, not write) 書かん (kakan) 書かぬ (kakanu) 書かず (kakazu) |
| 嗅ぐ (kagu, smell) | 嗅ぐ | 嗅が | ない ん ぬ ず |
嗅がない (kaganai, not smell) 嗅がん (kagan) 嗅がぬ (kaganu) 嗅がず (kagazu) |
| 呼ぶ (yobu, call) | 呼ぶ | 呼ば | ない ん ぬ ず |
呼ばない (yobanai, not call) 呼ばん (yoban) 呼ばぬ (yobanu) 呼ばず (yobazu) |
| 読む (yomu, read) | 読む | 読ま | ない ん ぬ ず |
読まない (yomanai, not read) 読まん (yoman) 読まぬ (yomanu) 読まず (yomazu) |
| 死ぬ (shinu, die) | 死ぬ | 死な | ない ん ぬ ず |
死なない (shinanai, not die) 死なん (shinan) 死なぬ (shinanu) 死なず (shinazu) |
| Irregular godan verbs | ||||
| 有る (aru, exist) | ある | ない | 無い (nai, be nonexistent) | |
| あら | ない ん ぬ ず |
有らない (aranai, not exist)[84][85][86] 有らん (aran) 有らぬ (aranu)[87][88][89][90][91] 有らず (arazu)[92][93][94][95] | ||
| Ichidan verbs | ||||
| 見る (miru, look) | 見る | 見 | ない ん ぬ ず |
見ない (minai, not look) 見ん (min) 見ぬ (minu) 見ず (mizu) |
| 達しる (tasshiru, reach) | 達しる | 達し | ない ん ぬ ず |
達しない (tasshinai, not reach) 達しん (tasshin) 達しぬ (tasshinu) 達しず (tasshizu) |
| 達せ | ん ぬ ず |
達せん (tassen, not reach) 達せぬ (tassenu) 達せず (tassezu) | ||
| 察しる (sasshiru, guess) | 察しる | 察し | ない ん ぬ ず |
察しない (sasshinai, not guess)[96][97] 察しん (sasshin) 察しぬ (sasshinu)[96] 察しず (sasshizu)[98] |
| 察せ | ん ぬ ず |
察せん (sassen, not guess) 察せぬ (sassenu)[99] 察せず (sassezu)[100] | ||
| 信じる (shinjiru, believe) | 信じる | 信じ | ない ん ぬ ず |
信じない (shinjinai, not believe)[101][102] 信じん (shinjin) 信じぬ (shinjinu)[102] 信じず (shinjizu)[103] |
| 信ぜ | ん ぬ ず |
信ぜん (shinzen, not believe) 信ぜぬ (shinzenu)[104] 信ぜず (shinzezu)[105][106][107] | ||
| 進じる (shinjiru, give) | 進じる | 進じ | ない ん ぬ ず |
進じない (shinjinai, not give) 進じん (shinjin) 進じぬ (shinjinu) 進じず (shinjizu) |
| 進ぜ | ん ぬ ず |
進ぜん (shinzen, not give) 進ぜぬ (shinzenu) 進ぜず (shinzezu) | ||
| 進ぜる (shinzeru, give) | 進ぜる | 進ぜ | ない ん ぬ ず |
進ぜない (shinzenai, not give)[108] 進ぜん (shinzen) 進ぜぬ (shinzenu)[109] 進ぜず (shinzezu)[110] |
| 出る (deru, exit) | 出る | 出 | ない ん ぬ ず |
出ない (denai, not exit) 出ん (den) 出ぬ (denu) 出ず (dezu) |
| Irregular verbs | ||||
| する (suru, do) | する | し | ない | しない (shinai, not do) |
| せ | ん ぬ ず |
せん (sen, not do) せぬ (senu) せず (sezu) | ||
| 勉強する (benkyō suru, study) | 勉強する | 勉強し | ない | 勉強しない (benkyō shinai, not study) |
| 勉強せ | ん ぬ ず |
勉強せん (benkyō sen, not study) 勉強せぬ (benkyō senu) 勉強せず (benkyō sezu) | ||
| 愛する (aisuru, love) | 愛する | 愛さ | ない ん ぬ ず |
愛さない (aisanai, not love)[80][111][112] 愛さん (aisan) 愛さぬ (aisanu)[113] 愛さず (aisazu)[114] |
| 愛し | ない | 愛しない (aishinai, not love)[115][116][117][118] | ||
| 愛せ | ん ぬ ず |
愛せん (aisen, not love) 愛せぬ (aisenu) 愛せず (aisezu) | ||
| 達する (tassuru, reach) | 達する | 達さ 達し |
ない ん ぬ ず |
達さない (tassanai, not reach)[119] 達しない (tasshinai)[120] 達さん (tassan) 達しん (tasshin) 達さぬ (tassanu)[121] 達しぬ (tasshinu) 達さず (tassazu)[122] 達しず (tasshizu) |
| 達せ | ん ぬ ず |
達せん (tassen, not reach) 達せぬ (tassenu) 達せず (tassezu) | ||
| 察する (sassuru, guess) | 察する | 察し | ない ん ぬ ず |
察しない (sasshinai, not guess)[123] 察しん (sasshin) 察しぬ (sasshinu)[124] 察しず (sasshizu)[125] |
| 察せ | ん ぬ ず |
察せん (sassen, not guess) 察せぬ (sassenu) 察せず (sassezu) | ||
| 信ずる (shinzuru, believe) | 信ずる | 信じ | ない ん ぬ ず |
信じない (shinjinai, not believe)[126] 信じん (shinjin) 信じぬ (shinjinu)[127][128] 信じず (shinjizu)[129] |
| 信ぜ | ん ぬ ず |
信ぜん (shinzen, not believe) 信ぜぬ (shinzenu)[130] 信ぜず (shinzezu)[106][131] | ||
| 進ずる (shinzuru, give) | 進ずる | 進じ 進ぜ |
ない ん ぬ ず |
進じない (shinjinai, not give) 進ぜない (shinzenai) 進ぜん (shinzen) 進じん (shinjin) 進ぜぬ (shinzenu)[132] 進じぬ (shinjinu) 進ぜず (shinzezu)[133] 進じず (shinjizu) |
| 来る (kuru, come) | くる | こ | ない ん ぬ ず |
来ない (konai, not come) 来ん (kon) 来ぬ (konu) 来ず (kozu) |
| Verbal auxiliaries | ||||
| 〜ます(る) (‑masu(ru)) | ます(る) | ませ | ん ぬ ず |
〜ません (‑masen, not) 〜ませぬ (‑masenu)[132][134][135][136][137][138] 〜ませず (‑masezu)[135][139][140] |
| まし | ない | 〜ましない (‑mashinai, not)[l] | ||
| Adjectives and adjectival auxiliaries | ||||
| 〜ない (‑nai, not) | ない | なく のう |
ない | 〜なくない (‑naku nai, not not)[169][170][171] 〜のうない (‑nō nai)[172] |
| 無い (nai, be nonexistent) 無かる (nakaru) |
無くない (naku nai, not be nonexistent → be existent)[173][174] 無うない (nō nai)[175] | |||
| 無かる | 無から | ん ぬ ず |
無からん (nakaran, not be nonexistent → be existent) 無からぬ (nakaranu)[176][177] 無からず (nakarazu)[178][179] | |
| 少ない (sukunai, be scarce) 少なかる (sukunakaru) |
少ない | 少なく 少のう |
ない | 少なくない (sukunaku nai, not be scarce) 少のうない (sukunō nai)[180] |
| 少なかる | 少なから | ん ぬ ず |
少なからん (sukunakaran, not be scarce) 少なからぬ (sukunakaranu)[181][182][183] 少なからず (sukunakarazu)[184][185][186] | |
| 弱い (yowai, be weak) 弱かる (yowakaru) |
よわい | よわく よおう |
ない | 弱くない (yowaku nai, not be weak) 弱うない (yoō nai) |
| 弱かる | 弱から | ん ぬ ず |
弱からん (yowakaran, not be weak) 弱からぬ (yowakaranu)[187] 弱からず (yowakarazu)[188] | |
| 多い (ōi, be abundant) 多かる (ōkaru) |
多い | 多く 多う |
ない | 多くない (ōku nai, not be abundant) 多うない (oō nai)[189] |
| 多かる | 多から | ん ぬ ず |
多からん (ōkaran, not be abundant) 多からぬ (ōkaranu)[190] 多からず (ōkarazu)[191] | |
| 良い (ii/yoi, be good) 良かる (yokaru) |
いい よい |
よく よう |
ない | 良くない (yoku nai, not be good) 良うない (yō nai)[192] |
| 良かる | 良から | ん ぬ ず |
良からん (yokaran, not be good) 良からぬ (yokaranu)[193][194] 良からず (yokarazu)[195] | |
| 悪い (warui, be bad) 悪かる (warukaru) |
悪い | 悪く 悪う |
ない | 悪くない (waruku nai, not be bad) 悪うない (warū nai)[196] |
| 悪かる | 悪から | ん ぬ ず |
悪からん (warukaran, not be bad) 悪からぬ (warukaranu)[197] 悪からず (warukarazu)[198] | |
| 可愛い (kawaii/kawayui, be adorable) 可愛かる (kawaikaru/kawayukaru) |
かわいい かわゆい |
かわいく かわゆく かわゆう |
ない | 可愛くない (kawaiku/kawayuku nai, not be adorable) 可愛うない (kawayū nai)[199][200] |
| 可愛かる | 可愛から | ん ぬ ず |
可愛からん (kawaikaran/kawayukaran, not be adorable) 可愛からぬ (kawaikaranu[201]/kawayukaranu) 可愛からず (kawaikarazu/kawayukarazu[202]) | |
| 大きい (ōkii, be large) 大きかる (ōkikaru) |
大きい | 大きく 大きゅう |
ない | 大きくない (ōkiku nai, not be large) 大きゅうない (ōkyū nai)[203] |
| 大きかる | 大きから | ん ぬ ず |
大きからん (ōkikaran, not be large) 大きからぬ (ōkikaranu)[204] 大きからず (ōkikarazu)[205] | |
| 宜しい (yoroshii, be good) 宜しかる (yoroshikaru) |
宜しい | 宜しく 宜しゅう |
ない | 宜しくない (yoroshiku nai, not be good) 宜しゅうない (yoroshū nai)[206][207] |
| 宜しかる | 宜しから | ん ぬ ず |
宜しからん (yoroshikaran, not be good) 宜しからぬ (yoroshikaranu)[208][209] 宜しからず (yoroshikarazu)[210][211] | |
| 同じい (onajii, be alike) 同じかる (onajikaru) |
同じい | 同じく 同じゅう |
ない | 同じくない (onajiku nai, not be alike) 同じゅうない (onajū nai)[212] |
| 同じかる | 同じから | ん ぬ ず |
同じからん (onajikaran, not be alike) 同じからぬ (onajikaranu)[213] 同じからず (onajikarazu)[214] | |
| 可し (beshi, ought/have to) 可き (beki) 可い (bei) 可かる (bekaru) |
べし べき べい |
べく びょう |
ない | 可くない (beku nai, not have to)[215][216][217][218] 可うない (byō nai) |
| べかる | べから | ん ぬ ず |
可からん (bekaran, not have to) 可からぬ (bekaranu)[219][220] 可からず (bekarazu)[221][222] | |
| 如し (gotoshi, be like) 如き (gotoki) 如かる (gotokaru) |
如し 如き |
如く | ない | 如くない (gotoku nai, not be like)[223][224] |
| 如かる | 如から | ん ぬ ず |
如からん (gotokaran, not be like) 如からぬ (gotokaranu)[225] 如からず (gotokarazu)[226][227][228] | |
Negative: Grammatical compatibility
The eastern negative ‑nai generally works like an adjective, although its gerund ‑nai de is more common than the adjectival ‑nakute. The western gerund is ‑n(u) de.
The imperfect negative can be followed by the noun uchi (内; 'interval; within'), whereby it means "while it hasn't happened" or "before it happens." Contradictorily, when it is followed by the nouns mae (前; 'front; before') and saki (先; 'tip; first'), it can also mean the same thing, even though the literal meaning would suggest "before it doesn't happen." Thus, konai uchi (来ないうち; 'before one comes') would mean the same as konai mae/saki (来ない前・先),[229] and roughly as the affirmative kuru mae (来る前) which, however, may be used when the speaker has positive conviction[230] that one will in fact come.
The classical, and thus more literary than colloquial,[m] ‑zu is originally the infinitive of ‑n(u), but it is often used conclusively with a copula. It is often optionally followed by the copular infinitive particle ni as in ‑zu ni which works like a sort of adverbial gerund that means "without doing." It is possible to distinguish between coordination in Tabezu de neta (食べずで寝た; 'I did not eat, I slept') and subordination in Tabezu ni neta (食べずに寝た; 'I slept without eating (= while hungry)').[231]
| Extender | English | Japanese | Function |
|---|---|---|---|
| uchi (内) | "You good? Worst‑case scenario, you get caught before you even kill anyone." | "Ii? Saiaku na no wa, hitori mo korosanai uchi ni tsukamatchau koto yo" (「いい？ 最悪なのは、一人も殺さないうちに捕まっちゃうことよ」[232]) | while not having done something; before doing something |
| My lord, I dare not make myself so guilty, To give up willingly that noble title Your master wed me to: nothing but death Shall e'er divorce my dignities.[n] |
Kyō yo, watashi wa, ō ga fuyo sareta sonshō o jibun de suteneba naran yō na tsumi o okasu hazu wa arimasen. Shinan uchi wa, kesshite kono kurai o hanaremasen. (卿よ、わたしは、王が附與された尊稱を自分で捨てねばならんやうな罪を犯す筈はありません。死なんうちは、決して此爵位を離れません。[233]) | ||
| copulae | I do not understand a word.[o] | Ichido mo yaku ni tatazu desu (一度も役に立たずです) | elevated negative predication |
| Of course the largest borrower is America which takes up to 40 percent of the total; Japan is far from equaling that but is in second place.[p] | Mochiron saidai no karite wa zentai no yonjippāsento o shimete iru Amerika de ari, Nihon wa haruka ni oyobazu de aru ga, dainii de aru (もちろん最大の借り手は全体の40パーセントを占めているアメリカであり、日本は遥かに及ばずであるが、第二位である) | ||
| ni (に; copular infinitive) | I slept soundly without dreaming.[q] | Yume mo mizu ni gussuri nemutta (夢も見ずにぐっすり眠った) | elevated negative conjunction |
| If you keep steady, without running risks, you are safe.[r] | Bōken o sezu ni kataku yatte ireba buji da (冒険をせずに堅くやっていれば無事だ) |
Passive
The passive or passive potential[234] turns the patient (or target) or victim of an action into a subject, which can be marked with the nominative particle ga.
The pure passive simply expresses what act is done by the agent (A) to the patient (P), thus A ga P o yobu (AがPを呼ぶ; 'A calls P') becomes P ga A ni yobareru (PがAに呼ばれる; 'P is called by A'). The agent is typically marked with ni, but kara can sometimes be used instead, especially if ni might be ambiguous; for example in P ga A ni B ni shōkai sareru (PがAにBに紹介される), it is not clear which between A and B the agent is, so kara can be used instead as in P ga A kara B ni shōkai sareru (PがAからBに紹介される; 'P is introduced by A to B').[235]
The adversative, "victimizing" or affective passive expresses how a victim (V) is affected by, or suffers from, if the original verb is intransitive, the act being done by an agent, as in V ga A ni shinareru (VがAに死なれる; 'V suffers because A dies'); or, if the original verb is transitive, the act being done by an agent to a patient, as in V ga A ni P o yobareru (VがAにPを呼ばれる; 'V suffers because A calls P'). The terms adversative and victimizing are broadly correct, although the "victim" can sometimes be positively or even desirably affected by the action, so affective would be a more general term; for example, Atsui kara soto ni dete kaze ni fukarete kimasu (暑いから外に出て風に吹かれてきます; transl. It's hot so I'll go outside and get some wind, lit. 'It's hot, so I'll go outside and get affected by the wind blowing'), Sensei ni kodomo o homerareta (先生に子供を褒められた; transl. My kid was praised by her teacher, lit. 'I was affected by the fact that the teacher praised my kid'), etc. Sometimes what seems to be positive may turn out to be negative with additional context, such as Itsu datta ka, watashi wa densha no naka de seinen kara seki o yuzurareta koto ga atta […] Watashi wa sono toki, isasaka yūutsu de atta (いつだったか、私は電車の中で青年から席を譲られたことがあった[…]私はその時、いささか憂鬱であった; transl. Once on a train I was given a seat by a young man […] I was a bit depressed that time [because I would rather him ignore my disability and treat me like a normal person]).[236] English has some similar constructions with intransitive verbs, though not necessarily with a negative connotation, such as "I got rained on" or "I got talked to".
The passive can also have no passive meaning, but is merely a more honorific way to exalt the subject.[237][238][239] Some verbs that come with the particle ni may be ambiguous when used this way, as it might not be clear whether it is in the passive or the honorific without context. For example, since the verb katsu (勝つ; 'win') comes with ni whether or not it is in the passive,[s] in the line "Anata ga hime ni kataretara chin mo kōfuku de gozaimasu zo" (「王子殿が姬に勝たれたら朕も幸福で御座いますぞ」), out of context, the king could be glad either if the prince is defeated by his princess (affective passive), or if he defeats her (subject exaltation); in context, it is the subject‑exalting interpretation, hence "We would be delighted if ye defeat our princess."[240]
Actual sentences may lack one of the said components (P, V or A) and therefore can become ambiguous (purely passive, adversatively passive or honorific) without additional context, for example kekkonshiki ni yobareru (結婚式に呼ばれる; 'one gets invited to weddings; one suffers because someone else's invited to weddings; those honoroble invite others to weddings').[237] Intransitive verbs, such as korareru (来られる) and arareru (あられる), do not have the pure passive meaning, only the other two, as in V ga A ni korareru (VがAに来られる; 'V suffers because A comes') and S ga C de arareru (SがCであられる; 'S is (honorably) C').[241]
Historically, the "passive" construction has also had potential use, but except for ichidan verbs and kuru, this use now has a dialectal or old‑fashioned literary flavor.[242] It has been argued that the various meanings of the passive arose from the spontaneous potential (see #Potential for more), which spawned both the regular potential and the regular passive, the latter of which came to be used additionally for subject exaltation.[243] It has also been suggested that the pure passive came to be in its current state due to translations from the English passive.[244]
| English | Japanese | Function |
|---|---|---|
| Tarō was beaten by his father. | Tarō wa chichioya ni nagurareta. (太郎は父親に殴られた。[245]) | pure passivity (中立受身, chūritsu ukemi; the subject is the patient) |
| Today's America was made by immigrants. | Genzai no Amerika wa imintachi ni yotte tsukurareta (現在のアメリカは移民たちによって作られた) | |
| In other words, Japanese perceptual psychologists have begun to write many papers in English, and they have been read by researchers all over the world. | Tsumari, Nihon no chikaku shinrigakusha ga eigo de ronbun o ōku yō ni nari, sono ronbun ga sekaijū no kenkyūsha ni yomareru yō ni natta to yū koto de aru. (つまり，日本の知覚心理学者が英語で論文を多く書くようになり，その論文が世界中の研究者に読まれるようになったということである。[246]) | |
| Tarō's father died.[t] | Tarō wa chichioya ni shinareta. (太郎は父親に死なれた。[245]) | adversative/affective passivity (被害・迷惑受身, higai/meiwaku ukemi; the subject is affected, often negatively, by the agent's action) |
| My mother read my diary.[u] | Nikki o hahaoya ni yomareta (日記を母親に読まれた) | |
| The inspector dropped in on us without notice.[v] | Nan no sata mo naku shigakukan ni korareta (何の沙汰も無く視学官に来られた) | |
| Lilischur felt the chill as if she had been rained on, while Manfred felt like he was shaken in both mind and body.[w] | Ririshua wa ame ni furareta yō na usurasamui kibun datta ga, Manfurēto wa kokoro mo karada mo yusaburareta yō de. (リリーシュアは雨に降られたような薄ら寒い気分だったが、マンフレートは心も身体も揺さぶられたようで。[247]) | |
| […] and each, in this contest, wishes to be conquered rather than conquer.[x] | […] sō shite sōhō to mo sono kyōgi de wa, katsu yori mo, kataretagaru no de aru. ([…]さうして雙方ともその競技では、勝つよりも、勝たれたがるのである。[248]) | |
| It was Mr Brown who came to see you. | Anata ni ai ni korareta no wa Buraun-san deshita (あなたに会いに来られたのはブラウンさんでした) | subject exaltation (尊敬, sonkei; the subject is the exalted agent) |
| What school did you go to? | Gakkō wa dochira e ikaremashita ka (学校はどちらへ行かれましたか) | |
| When holy Harry died, and my sweet son. | Atta, ano shinsei na Henrī-dono ga shinareta toki ni, ore no taisetsu no ko no, ano kawaii Edowādo ga shinda toki ni! (あった、あの神聖なヘンリーどのが死なれた時に、おれの大切の子の、あの可愛いエドワードが死んだ時に！[249]) | |
| No, this man could not toil, he could never exert himself, I thought with resignation. | Iya, kono otoko ni wa tsutomerarenai, funpatsu serarenai, to akiramemashita. (いや、此男には勉められない、奮發せられない、と斷念しました。[250]) | potentiality (可能, kanō) |
| This place called Sumita was a hot‑spring town, about ten minutes by train away from the castle town, or you could walk for thirty minutes, | Kono Sumita to yū tokoro wa onsen no aru machi de, jōka kara kisha da to jippun bakari, aruite sanjippun de yukareru, (此住田と云ふ所は溫泉のある町で、城下から汽車だと十分許り、步行いて三十分で行かれる、[251]) | |
| "[…] There the Blessed One may both drink water and cool his limbs." | ――"[…] Soko de Seson wa mizu mo nomaremashō shi teashi mo hiyasaremashō." (――「[…]其處で世尊は水も飮まれませうし手足も冷されませう。」[252]) | |
| for the unhappiest man was he who could not die, and happy he who could. | Naze ka to ieba, shinenai mono wa saidai fukōmono de, shinareru mono wa kōfukumono de aru kara da. (なぜかと言へば、死ねない者は最大不幸者で、死なれる者は幸福者であるからだ。[253]) | |
| However, as the old saying goes, "You can't win against a crybaby or an estate steward," even if the government does such a thing in Japan, those calling themselves civil servants cannot do anything about it.[y] | Shika shi, naku ko to jitō ni wa katarenu to mukashi kara yūte oru tōri, Nihon de wa, seifu ga sō yū koto o shite mo, kanri taru mono wa nani to mo shikata ga nai. (併し、泣く子と地頭には勝たれぬと昔から云ふて居る通り、日本では、政府がさう云ふことをしても、官吏たるものは何とも仕方がない。[256]) | |
| Next to this woman whom I had left barely a moment ago, the rest of humanity looked very far‑off. […] The doorknob of my room differed from all other doorknobs in the world in that, without my needing to turn it, the door opens all by itself. Manually turning it was so unconscious that it seemed that way. […] My grandmother thought it was very important to not look like we served it only when there were guests, as she held that that was a kind thing to do.[z] | Tsui imashigata wakareta bakari no sono onna ni kurabereba, hoka no ningen nado haruka ni tōi sonzai no yō ni omowareta. […] Watashi no heya no ano doanobu wa sekaijū no donna doanobu to mo chigatte, wazawaza mawasanakute mo doa ga hitori de ni aku. Sō omowareru hodo, nobu o te de mawasu dōsa ga muishiki no uchi ni nasarete ita. […] Sobo wa raikyaku no toki dake tokubetsu ni shiroppu o dasu to omowarenai yō ni suru koto ga sukoburu daiji da to omotte ita shi, sono hō ga shinsetsu da to kangaete ita. (ついいましがた別れたばかりのその女に比べれば、ほかの人間などはるかに遠い存在のように思われた。[…]私の部屋のあのドアノブは世界中のどんなドアノブとも違って、わざわざ回さなくてもドアがひとりでに開く。そう思われるほど、ノブを手で回す動作が無意識のうちになされていた。[…]祖母は来客のときだけ特別にシロップを出すと思われないようにすることがすこぶる大事だと思っていたし、そのほうが親切だと考えていた。[257]) |
Passive: Conjugation table
The passive form is created by using the mizenkei base, followed by the reru/rareru (れる・られる) suffix. For ichidan verbs and kuru (来る), the passive form and the potential form have an identical conjugation pattern with the same rareru (られる) suffix. This makes it impossible to distinguish whether an ichidan verb adopts a passive or potential function without contextual information.
Arareru is historically attested with potential uses,[258] but it is now primarily the more honorific way of saying aru (ある) and iru (いる).[259][260]
Honorific verbs can be made even more polite, as in irassharareru (いらっしゃられる),[261][262][263] ossharareru (仰られる), etc.[263][264][265] Excessively honorific verbs have been proscribed by textbooks, but they seem somewhat tolerable by speakers, even though they are still not as frequent with options without ‑reru.[266][267] There are historical precedents of such double honorifics dating back to the Edo period.[268]
Sareru is said to be shortened from serareru,[269] the latter of which is said to be "pseudo‑literary" (meant to emulate the writing style of classical Japanese).[270] Shirareru is rare for Group‑A verbs,[271] and is not to be confused with the segmentally and accentually homophonous shirareru (知られる; 'be known'), which may also be spelt in hiragana. The three forms sareru, serareru and shirareru can sometimes be used interchangeably within the same text: Sono hito igai no mono kara mo, mata sono hito ga watashi o sore hodo kōfuku ni shita to wa chigatta hōhō de, watashi ga aishirareru to omou koto wa hanahada fuyukai de aru. […] Watashi wa jibun no chikara ni oyobu mono nara, arayuru hito ni aisaretai. Watashi wa tan ni ikko no ningen to shite, hoka no hito kara aisareuru kagiri kōdo no ai o, jibun no tsuma kara uketai. […] Gōman na kokoro wa sonna fū ni aisareru koto ni, isshu no yūwaku o kanzuru. […] So shite watashi to dōiken de nai kano wakaki onna ni aiseraretaku nai no da. (その人以外の者からも、又その人が私をそれほど幸福にしたとは違つた方法で、私が愛しられると思ふことは甚だ不愉快である。[…]私は自分の力に及ぶものなら、あらゆる人に愛されたい。私は單に一個の人間として、他の人から愛され得る限り高度の愛を、自分の妻から受けたい。[…]傲慢な心はそんな風に愛されることに、一種の誘惑を感ずる。[…]そして私と同意見でない彼の若き女に愛せられたくないのだ。; 'It is very unpleasant to think that I were loved by anyone other than that person, in a way other than how she has made me so happy. […] I want to be loved by everyone within my power. I want to receive from my wife as much love as possibly earned by one human being from another, […] A proud heart feels a kind of temptation to be loved in such a way, […] and I do not want to be loved by that young girl who does not share my view.').[272]
| Dictionary form | Pattern [74] | Passive form | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Godan and pseudo‑yodan verbs | ||||
| 結う (yuu/yū, fasten) | 結う | 結わ | れる | 結われる (yuwareru, (can) be fastened / suffer because one fastens / (can) fasten / be fastenable) |
| 言う (yū, say) | ゆう | いわ ゆわ |
れる | 言われる (iwareru/yuwareru, (can) be said / suffer because one says / (can) say / be sayable) |
| 勝つ (katsu, win) | 勝つ | 勝た | れる | 勝たれる (katareru, suffer because one wins / (can) win)[273][274][275][276][277] |
| 狩る (karu, hunt) | 狩る | 狩ら | れる | 狩られる (karareru, (can) be hunted / suffer because one hunts / (can) hunt / be huntable) |
| 有る (aru, exist) | 有る | 有ら | れる | 有られる (arareru, suffer because one exists / (can) exist)[278][279][280] |
| 為さる (nasaru, do) | 為さる | 為さら | れる | 為さられる (nasarareru, (can) be done / suffer because one does / (can) do / be doable/feasible)[281][282][283] |
| 貸す (kasu, lend) | 貸す | 貸さ | れる | 貸される (kasareru, (can) be lent / suffer because one lends / (can) lend / be lendable) |
| 愛す (aisu, love) | 愛す | 愛さ | れる | 愛される (aisareru, (can) be loved / suffer because one loves / (can) love / be lovable) |
| 達す (tassu, reach) | 達す | 達さ | れる | 達される (tassareru, (can) be reached / suffer because one reaches / (can) reach / be reachable) |
| 書く (kaku, write) | 書く | 書か | れる | 書かれる (kakareru, (can) be written / suffer because one writes / (can) write / be writable) |
| 嗅ぐ (kagu, smell) | 嗅ぐ | 嗅が | れる | 嗅がれる (kagareru, (can) be smelled / suffer because one smells / (can) smell / be smellable) |
| 呼ぶ (yobu, call) | 呼ぶ | 呼ば | れる | 呼ばれる (yobareru, (can) be called / suffer because one calls / (can) call / be callable) |
| 読む (yomu, read) | 読む | 読ま | れる | 読まれる (yomareru, (can) be read / suffer because one reads / (can) read / be readable/legible) |
| 死ぬ (shinu, die) | 死ぬ | 死な | れる | 死なれる (shinareru, suffer because one dies / (can) die)[284][285][286][287][288] |
| Ichidan verbs | ||||
| 見る (miru, look) | 見る | 見 | られる | 見られる (mirareru, (can) be seen / suffer because one looks / (can) look / be seeable/viewable/watchable/visible) |
| 達しる (tasshiru, reach) | 達しる | 達し 達せ |
られる | 達しられる (tasshirareru, (can) be reached / suffer because one reaches / (can) reach / be reachable) 達せられる (tasserareru) |
| 察しる (sasshiru, guess) | 察しる | 察し 察せ |
られる | 察しられる (sasshirareru, (can) be guessed / suffer because one guesses / (can) guess / be guessable)[289] 察せられる (sasserareru)[289] |
| 信じる (shinjiru, (can) believe) | 信じる | 信じ 信ぜ |
られる | 信じられる (shinjirareru, (can) be believed / suffer because one believes / (can) believe / be believable/trustable)[290][291] 信ぜられる (shinzerareru)[292][293] |
| 進ぜる (shinzeru, give) | 進ぜる | 進ぜ | られる | 進ぜられる (shinzerareru, (can) be given / suffer because one gives / (can) give / be givable)[294] |
| 出る (deru, exit) | 出る | 出 | られる | 出られる (derareru, suffer because one exits / (can) exit) |
| Irregular verbs | ||||
| する (suru, do) | する | さ | れる | される (sareru, (can) be done / suffer because one does / (can) do / be doable/feasible) |
| せ し |
られる | せられる (serareru, (can) be done / suffer because one does / (can) do / be doable/feasible)[295] しられる (shirareru) | ||
| 勉強する (benkyō suru, study) | 勉強する | 勉強さ | れる | 勉強される (benkyō sareru, (can) be studied / suffer because one studies / (can) study / be studiable)[296][297] |
| 勉強せ 勉強し |
られる | 勉強せられる (benkyō serareru, (can) be studied / suffer because one studies / (can) study / be studiable)[298][299] 勉強しられる (benkyō shirareru)[300] | ||
| 愛する (aisuru, love) | 愛する | 愛さ | れる | 愛される (aisareru, (can) be loved / suffer because one loves / (can) love / be lovable)[296][272][301] |
| 愛せ 愛し |
られる | 愛せられる (aiserareru, (can) be loved / suffer because one loves / (can) love / be lovable)[296][302][272][303] 愛しられる (aishirareru)[302][272] | ||
| 達する (tassuru, reach) | 達する | 達さ | れる | 達される (tassareru, (can) be reached / suffer because one reaches / (can) reach / be reachable)[304][305] |
| 達せ 達し |
られる | 達せられる (tasserareru, (can) be reached / suffer because one reaches / (can) reach / be reachable)[306][307] 達しられる (tasshirareru)[308][309] | ||
| 察する (sassuru, guess) | 察する | 察せ 察し |
られる | 察せられる (sasserareru, (can) be guessed / suffer because one guesses / (can) guess / be guessable)[310] 察しられる (sasshirareru)[311] |
| 信ずる (shinzuru, (can) believe) | 信ずる | 信ぜ 信じ |
られる | 信ぜられる (shinzerareru, (can) be believed / suffer because one believes / (can) believe / be believable/trustable)[312][296][313] 信じられる (shinjirareru)[312][296][314] |
| 進ずる (shinzuru, give) | 進ずる | 進ぜ 進じ |
られる | 進ぜられる (shinzerareru, (can) be given / suffer because one gives / (can) give / be givable)[315] 進じられる (shinjirareru)[316][317][318] |
| 来る (kuru, come) | くる | こ | られる | 来られる (korareru, suffer because one comes / (can) come)[319][320][321] |
Passive: Grammatical compatibility
A passive potential verb is an ichidan verb, and can be conjugated further mostly in the same way an ichidan verb can be, although its imperative is uncommon.[322]
| English | Japanese | Function |
|---|---|---|
| "Be a good piggy and let me eat you!"[aa] | "Otonashiku ore ni kuwarero, butaniku!" (「おとなしく俺に食われろ、豚肉！」[323]) | passive imperativity |
| Thou sun that comfort'st, burn!—Speak and be hang'd! | Taiyō yo, ian wa ataeru na, yakikoroshite yare! Kuchi o kiku yatsu 'a shimekorosarero! (太陽よ、慰安は與へるな、燒き殺してやれ！ 口をきくやつァ縊殺されろ！[324]) | |
| "……Go to the Archbishop? You're telling me to stab the Archbishop to death?" "You get stabbed to death!" |
"……Daishukyō no tokoro ni itte? Atashi ni Daishukyō o sashikorose tte yū no?" "Omae ga sashikorosarero" (「……大主教のところに行って？ あたしに大主教を刺し殺せっていうの？」 「おまえが刺し殺されろ」[325]) | |
| "It would take too long to get Bodie up there. I'd be arrested." "You should be!"[ab] |
"Jakuson Hōru made iku ni wa jikan ga kakaru. Bōdi ga kaketsukeru mae ni boku ga taiho sarete shimau" "Taiho sarero!" (「ジャクソン・ホールまで行くには時間がかかる。ボーディが駆けつける前に僕が逮捕されてしまう」 「逮捕されろ！」[326]) | |
| However, the adage popular in the aviation industry before COVID, "get better, get bigger or get bought out," should still ring true even today among small and medium business owners in the industry. | Shika shi, Korona-ka mae kara no kōkūki sangyō de ryūkō no kakugen, sunawachi "Get better, Get bigger or Get bought out" (kaizen seyo, kibo kakudai seyo, samo nakereba baishū sareyo) to yū kotoba wa, konnichi sara ni genjitsusei o motte, kōkūki sangyō no chūshōkigyō keieisha no mimi ni hibiite iru hazu de aru. (しかし、コロナ禍前からの航空機産業で流行の格言、すなわち「Get better, Get bigger or Get bought out」（改善せよ、規模拡大せよ、さもなければ買収されよ）という言葉は、今日さらに現実性を持って、航空機産業の中小企業経営者の耳に響いているはずである。[327]) | |
| He would have offered his own head to Nobunaga in Master Nobuyasu's stead, but Ieyasu, deeply appreciative of such sentiment, declined.[ac] | Onore no kubi o Nobuyasu-sama no kubi to shite Nobunaga ni sashidasareyo, to yū mono de atta ga, Ieyasu wa sono kokorone itaku kansha shitsutsu kyozetsu shita. (己の首を信康様の首として信長に差し出されよ、というものであったが、家康はその心根に痛く感謝しつつ拒絶した。[328]) | |
| If you can't beat them, join them.[ad] | Nagai mono ni wa makarero/makareyo (長い物には巻かれろ・巻かれよ[71][329][330]) | |
| "Come on now, Lord Ura, pray rise in haste. […]" | "Sā sā, Ura-dono mo hayaku okirareyo. […]" (「さあさあ、ウラ殿も早く起きられよ。[…]」[331]) | subject‑exalting imperativity |
| Should you wish to make the Iliad, put yourself on diet. | Shokun ga Iriaddo o tsukuran to hosseba, mazu danjiki o serareyo. (諸君がイリアツドを作らんと欲せば、先づ斷食をせられよ。[332]) | |
| And the striking thing was that the aforementioned phrase also meant "Come in to my bar." | So shite toku ni omoshiroi koto ni wa, migi no monku wa mata "Waga sakaba ni korareyo" to yū imi o fukunde ita no de aru. (そして特に面白いことには、右の文句はまた「吾が酒場に來られよ」といふ意味を含んでゐたのである。[333]) | |
| Hie you to horse: adieu, Till you return at night. Goes Fleance with you? |
Sonna uma de hayaku itte korarei. Saraba ja. Ban ni mata ome ni kakarō. Furiansu-dono mo tsurete yukareru ka. (そんな馬で早く往つて來られい。さらばぢや。 晩に又お目に掛からう。フリアンス殿も連れて往かれるか。[334]) | |
| Lo, in this right hand, whose protection Is most divinely vow'd upon the right Of him it holds, stands young Plantagenet, |
Mirarei, kono migi no te ni […] tatte orareru no ga Purantajenetto seikei no shōkōshi de, (見られい、此右の手に[…]立ってをられるのがプランタヂェネット正系の少公子で、[335]) | |
| As you shall prove us, praise us. | Teshō o mita ue de hyō o serarei. (手證を見た上で評をせられい。[336]) |
Potential
Potentiality (可能, kanō) describes the possibility for an action to happen, whether it involves an intentional acting agent or not:[337]
- With a capable agent: Kare wa yakyū ga dekiru (彼は野球ができる; lit. 'Him? Baseball is possible', transl. He can play baseball)
- Without a capable agent:
- Kosame nara undōkai ga dekiru (小雨なら運動会ができる; lit. 'Provided that it drizzles, the sports day is possible', transl. The sports day can still happen if it only drizzles)
- Kono sake wa nakanaka ikeru (この酒はなかなかいける; lit. 'This liquor? It can go very much', transl. This liquor is very good)
The patient of an action is customarily marked with the nominative particle ga (rather than the accusative o),[338] which has the same appearance as the passive voice:
- Active: A ga P o taberu (AがPを食べる; 'A eats P')
- Pure passive: A ni P ga taberareru (AにPが食べられる; 'P is eaten by A')
- Passive potential: A ni/ga P ga/o taberareru (Aに・がPが・を食べられる; 'P can be eaten by A → A can eat P')
It is not impossible to use A ga P o taberareru (AがPを食べられる; ni and o do not occur together for the potential[339]) instead in the passive potential above, but it is less preferable in this case.[338][340] However, o is more preferable to ga in the presence of a motion verb (whose pure passive does not naturally occur):[338]
- Active: A ga koko o tōru (Aがここを通る; 'A passes this place')
Pure passive: A ni B ga tōrareru (Aにここが通られる; 'this place is passed by A')- Potential: A ga B o tōreru (Aがここを通れる; 'A can pass this place')
The rise of the particle ga as a marker of the patient of the action can be attributed to the "spontaneous (or natural) passive (or potential)" (自発, jihatsu), whereby the patient or the action simply comes about, seemingly in a vacuum, without a voluntary or intentional agent acting on it.[341] This may also relate to the verb dekiru (出来る) (see the phrase koto ga dekiru mentioned below) which means "come about; come into existence; materialize; form; take shape; be done/made/born/produced → be doable/feasible/possible",[71] as in kome ga dekita (米ができた; transl. the rice was produced), kutsu ga dekita (靴ができた; transl. the shoes were made), kodomo ga dekita (子供ができた; transl. a child was born), etc.[342] Thus, such phrase as shōsetsu ga kaketa (小説が書けた), spoken in the past tense by an author who does not want to mention themself as an agent, can be translated as "the novel wrote itself" (= the novel came about in written form), rather than "I was able to write the novel".[343] Other examples without voluntary agents include shizen ni waraete kita (自然に笑えてきた; transl. I was seized by laughter = laughter spontaneously occurred to me), hontō no yō ni omoete kita (本当のように思えてきた; transl. it began to appear true = the thought of it being true occurred to me),[342] nakete kichatta (泣けてきちゃった; transl. I couldn't help crying = crying unfortunately occurred to me), tsureta (釣れた; transl. I've got one = a fish's caught itself on my line),[344] etc.
| English | Japanese | Function |
|---|---|---|
| "I can still shoot a bow and arrow." She winked. "Skin a deer. Track a cougar." She leaned closer. "Use a bowie knife." | "Ima de mo yumiya wa ireru wa yo" Tesu wa uinku shita. "Shika no kawa mo hagaseru shi, kūgā no ashiato mo oeru wa" kanojo wa Matto no hō e mi o yoseta. "Boui naifu mo tsukaeru shi ne" (「いまでも弓矢は射れるわよ」テスはウインクした。「鹿の皮も剥がせるし、クーガーの足跡も追えるわ」彼女はマットのほうへ身をよせた。「ボウイナイフも使えるしね」[345]) | capabilitative potentiality (能力可能, nōryoku kanō; an agent is (in)capable of doing something) |
| Leticia Dartois can read minds. | Retishia Darutowa wa kokoro ga yomeru. (レティシア・ダルトワは心が読める。[346]) | |
| Nobody can read my hand but my brother there—so he copies for me. | Watashi no ji o yomeru no wa, koko no watashi no otōto dake de――watashi no seisho o shite kureru no desu. (私の字を読めるのは、ここの私の弟だけで――私の清書をしてくれるのです。[347]) | |
| Still, English or no, Galen could not justify simply attacking the party and killing the woman. | To ieba, Ingurando musume de arō ga nakarō ga, sono ikkō ni kishū o kake, MaGuregā no hanayome to naru musume o korosu koto ni seigi ga aru to wa, Geiran ni wa omoenakatta. (といえば、イングランド娘であろうがなかろうが、その一行に奇襲をかけ、マグレガーの花嫁となる娘を殺すことに正義があるとは、ゲイランには思えなかった。[348]) | |
| This novel is very readable.[ae] | Kono shōsetsu wa nakanaka yomeru (この小説はなかなか読める) | circumstantial potentiality (状況可能, jōkyō kanō; something can(not) happen because of external circumstance) |
| His handwriting is messy and completely illegible. | Ano hito wa ji ga kitanakute yoku yomenai (あの人は字が汚くてよく読めない) | |
| You can't read at a place this noisy. | Konna yakamashii tokoro de wa, hon nado wa yomenai (こんなやかましい処では、本などは読めない[349]) | |
| "I wanna pick some edible stuff on the mountain. […]" […] "Well, how 'bout we go pick edible plants together by the river?" […] Oh crap, it'd be so weird if out of nowhere a one‑year‑old girl could tell if a plant is edible or not! […] While we were looking, I found a lot more edible plants than expected. Dandelions, watercress, dropwort, mugwort. […] I knew dandelions were edible in my previous life, but never thought of eating them for real. |
"Yama de, taberareru mono o toritai no. […]" […] "Sore jā, kawa no chikaku no tabereru kusa o issho ni, torō?" […] Sō yo ne, totsuzen issai no onna no ko ga, kono kusa, tabereru taberenai to ka ittara kowai yo ne! […] Sagashite miru to, angai taberareru yasō wa ōkatta. Tanpopo, kureson, seri, yomogi. […] Tanpopo tte tabereru n dā to, zense no watashi wa omotte ita ga, jissai ni tabeyō to wa omowanakatta. (「やまで、たべられるものをとりたいの。[…]」 […] 「それじゃー、かわのちかくのたべれる草をいっしょに、とろー？」 […] そうよね、突然一歳の女の子が、この草、食べれる・食べれないとか言ったら怖いよね！ […] 探してみると、案外食べられる野草は多かった。タンポポ、クレソン、セリ、ヨモギ。[…]タンポポって食べれるんだーと、前世の私は思っていたが、実際に食べようとは思わなかった。[350]) | |
| Before I knew it, it was already written.[af] | Itsu no ma ni ka kakete shimatta (いつのまにか書けてしまった[351]) | spontaneity / natural potentiality (自発・自然可能, jihatsu / shizen kanō; something seemingly spontaneously comes about) |
| Try as she might to hold back, tears just start to flow.[ag] | Koraete mo, shizen ni nakete kuru (こらえても、自然に泣けてくる[351]) | |
| The fish were biting like crazy.[ah] | Omoshiroi hodo yoku tsureta (おもしろいほどよく釣れた[71]) | |
| Stealing MacGregor's bride had seemed the perfect solution to Galen at the time. […] Aye, except for her being English it had seemed the perfect solution . . . right up until he had seen how puny and frail she appeared.[ai] |
MaGuregā no hanayome o ryakudatsu suru. Kono keikaku wa, Geiran ni wa kanpeki na kaiketsu hōhō ni omoeta. […] Jissai, sono musume ga Ingurando-jin da to yū koto o nozokeba, kore wa jitsu ni mōshibun no nai kaiketsu hōhō ni omoeta. (マグレガーの花嫁を略奪する。この計画は、ゲイランには完璧な解決方法に思えた。[…] 実際、その娘がイングランド人だということを除けば、これは実に申しぶんのない解決方法に思えた。[348]) |
Potential: Conjugation table
Potential verbs are unique to godan‑based passive potential verbs,[352][353] which have been said to have been shortened by removing ar from areru: yomareru (読まれる; 'be read; can read') → yomeru (読める; 'can read'); kakareru (書かれる; 'be written; can write') → kakeru (書ける; 'can write').[354] Other hypotheses of derivation include contractions from infinitives followed by eru (得る; 'get', see Japanese conjugation (ren'yōkei base)#Infinitive: Grammatical compatibility), presumably as in kakieru (書きえる; 'can write') → kakeru; or conversions of nidan attributives into ichidan potentials, such as kiruru → kireru (切るる→切れる), shiruru → shireru (知るる→知れる).[355] Short potential verbs of this type are conventional in Tokyo Japanese, while long verbs have become largely obsolescent, elevated or non‑Tokyo.[356]
The hypothetical short potential verb *wakareru (分かれる; 'can make sense') is not used. However, the non‑potential intransitive wakareru (分かれる; 'branch off'),[71] the adversative passive wakarareru (分かられる; 'suffer because it makes sense') and causative wakaraseru (分からせる; 'cause it to make sense') are acceptable.[357]
Non‑godan‑based verbs such as taberareru (食べられる; 'can eat; be eaten') remain ambiguous. Such ambiguity can be resolved, at least colloquially, by a process dubbed ra‑nuki kotoba (ら抜き言葉; lit. 'ra‑less word'),[358] thus distinguishing the short taberareru → tabereru (食べられる→食べれる; 'can eat') for the potential and the long taberareru (食べられる; 'be eaten') for the passive. This process was originally dialectal, but has been increasingly adopted by Tokyo speakers.[359] Preference polls have shown that even among ra‑nuki kotoba users, the likelihood of usage significantly decreases as the mora count in the verb stem exceeds two; in other words, mi.re.ru (見れる; one-mora stem) and ta.be.re.ru (食べれる; two-mora stem) are highly likely, but shi.n.ji.re.ru (信じれる; three-mora stem), ka.n.ga.e.re.ru (考えれる; four-mora stem), o.to.shi.i.re.re.ru (陥れれる; five-mora stem) are much less likely.[360]
Shortening passive verbs for potential uses is not universal among dialects, some of which may only use long verbs instead.[361]
Apart from the dedicated potential verbs, the less ambiguous but more circumlocutory phrase koto ga dekiru (ことができる) can be used, as in iku koto ga dekiru (行くことができる; 'can go'), yameru koto ga dekiru (止めることができる; 'can stop'), etc. Depending on usage, a particle such as wa, mo or no can be used instead of ga.[362][363] Some potential verbs, such as nomeru (飲める; 'can drink; can be drunk; is drinkable'), kueru (喰える; 'can eat; can be eaten; is eatable'), etc., have meanings similar to those of ‑able adjectives in English, such as drinkable/potable, eatable/edible, etc., which describe the patient's quality to be enjoyed by the agent, not the agent's capability of enjoying the patient; these verbs are not completely interchangeable with koto ga dekiru; compare Kono sake wa dō mo nomenai. (この酒はどうも飲めない。; transl. This liquor is so undrinkable. (=it tastes awful, or is not fit for drinking)) and Kono sake wa dō mo nomu koto ga dekinai. (この酒はどうも飲むことができない。; transl. It seems I can't drink this liquor. (=I'm incapable of drinking, or I can't afford to drink)).[364]
Most contemporary ‑suru verbs do not really have underlying potential verbs and must use suru koto ga dekiru, which can be shortened to dekiru only for Group‑A verbs, as in yasuku (suru koto ga) dekiru (安く(することが)できる; 'can make cheap'), benkyō (suru koto ga) dekiru (勉強(することが)できる; 'can study'), onegai (suru koto ga) dekiru (お願い(することが)できる; 'can request'); but nessuru koto ga dekiru (熱することができる; 'can heat'), kyōsuru koto ga dekiru (供することができる; 'can offer'), etc. Historically, the passive potential sareru,[365] serareru[366][367][250] and shirareru[368] were seldom used for Group‑A verbs, but they have been supplanted by (suru koto ga) dekiru, which figured in a trend towards disambiguating the polysemous passive potential during the Meiji era.[369] Non‑Group‑A verbs, which have become more like godan (partially or completely), do have potential verbs, such as aiseru (愛せる; 'can love') (short)/aisareru (愛される; 'can love; be loved') (long), nakuseru (無くせる; 'can lose')/nakusareru (無くされる; 'can lose; be lost'), etc; or more like ichidan, although probably without ra‑nuki kotoba, as in ōjirareru/ōzerareru (応じられる・応ぜられる; 'can respond'),[370] or with it, as in shinjireru (信じれる; 'can believe').[359]
Writers can make use of various ways to convey potentiality, such as how Natsume Sōseki used a short potential verb (aisezu), a long passive potential verb (irarenai), koto + particle + dekiru (hirogete dakishimeru koto no dekinai) and eru/uru (aishiuru) in the same sentence in the novel Kokoro: Ningen o aishiuru hito, aisezu ni wa irarenai hito, sore de ite jibun no futokoro ni irō to suru mono o, te o hirogete dakishimeru koto no dekinai hito,――kore ga sensei de atta. (人間を愛し得る人、愛せずにはゐられない人、それでゐて自分の懷に入らうとするものを、手をひろげて抱き締める事の出來ない人、――是が先生であつた。[371]; transl. A person who could love, a person who could not be without being able to love, yet a person who was incapable of opening his arms and embracing someone trying to get into his heart,――that was Sensei.); or how Miyahara Kōichirō used koto + particle + dekiru (shinu koto no dekinai, nete iru koto no dekinai), and both the long passive potential (shinareru) and short potential (shinenai) of the same verb in his translation of Kierkegaard's Either/Or: Sunawachi, shinu koto no dekinai hito, […] haka ni nete iru koto no dekinai hito wa saidai fukō no hito de aru kara. De, hanashi wa kaiketsu ga tsuite, kotae wa yōi ni natta. Naze ka to ieba, shinenai mono wa saidai fukōmono de, shinareru mono wa kōfukumono de aru kara da. (卽ち、死ぬことの出來ない人、[…]墓に寢てゐることの出來ない人は最大不幸の人であるから。で、話は解決がついて、答へは容易になつた。なぜかと言へば、死ねない者は最大不幸者で、死なれる者は幸福者であるからだ。[253]; transl. To wit, he who could not die, could not lie in a grave, was the unhappiest man. Thus, the case would be settled, the answer simple, for the unhappiest man was he who could not die, and happy he who could.)
| Dictionary form | Pattern [74] | Potential form | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Godan and pseudo‑yodan verbs | ||||
| 結う (yuu/yū, fasten) | 結う | 結え | る | 結える (yueru, can fasten / can be fastened / be fastenable) |
| 言う (yū, say) | ゆう | いえ | る | 言える (ieru, can say / can be said / be sayable) |
| 勝つ (katsu, win) | 勝つ | 勝て | る | 勝てる (kateru, can win) |
| 狩る (karu, hunt) | 狩る | 狩れ | る | 狩れる (kareru, can hunt / can be hunted / be huntable) |
| 貸す (kasu, lend) | 貸す | 貸せ | る | 貸せる (kaseru, can lend / can be lended / be lendable) |
| 愛す (aisu, love) | 愛す | 愛せ | る | 愛せる (aiseru, can love / can be loved / be lovable)[372][373] |
| 達す (tassu, reach) | 達す | 達せ | る | 達せる (tasseru, can reach / can be reached / be reachable)[374][375] |
| 書く (kaku, write) | 書く | 書け | る | 書ける (kakeru, can write / can be written / be writable) |
| 嗅ぐ (kagu, smell) | 嗅ぐ | 嗅げ | る | 嗅げる (kageru, can smell / can be smelled / be smellable) |
| 呼ぶ (yobu, call) | 呼ぶ | 呼べ | る | 呼べる (yoberu, can call / can be called / be callable) |
| 読む (yomu, read) | 読む | 読め | る | 読める (yomeru, can read / can be read / be readable/legible)[347] |
| 死ぬ (shinu, die) | 死ぬ | 死ね | る | 死ねる (shineru, can die) |
| Ichidan verbs | ||||
| 見る (miru, look) | 見る | 見 | (ら)れる | 見(ら)れる (mi(ra)reru, can look / can be seen / be seeable/viewable/watchable/visible) |
| 達しる (tasshiru, reach) | 達しる | 達し 達せ |
(ら)れる | 達し(ら)れる (tasshi(ra)reru, can reach / can be reached / be reachable) 達せ(ら)れる (tasse(ra)reru) |
| 察しる (sasshiru, guess) | 察しる | 察し 察せ |
(ら)れる | 察し(ら)れる (sasshi(ra)reru, can guess / can be guessed / be guessable) 察せ(ら)れる (sasse(ra)reru) |
| 信じる (shinjiru, believe) | 信じる | 信じ 信ぜ |
(ら)れる | 信じ(ら)れる (shinji(ra)reru, can believe / can be believed / be believable/trustable) 信ぜ(ら)れる (shinze(ra)reru) |
| 進ぜる (shinzeru, give) | 進ぜる | 進ぜ | (ら)れる | 進ぜ(ら)れる (shinze(ra)reru, can give / can be given / be givable) |
| 出る (deru, exit) | 出る | 出 | (ら)れる | 出(ら)れる (de(ra)reru, can exit) |
| Irregular verbs | ||||
| する (suru, do) | する | できる | 出来る (dekiru, can do / can be done / be doable/feasible) | |
| 勉強する (benkyō suru, study) | 勉強する | 勉強できる | 勉強できる (benkyō dekiru, can study / can be studied / be studiable) | |
| 愛する (aisuru, love) | 愛する | 愛せ | る | 愛せる (aiseru, can love / can be loved / be lovable)[376] |
| 達する (tassuru, reach) | 達する | 達せ | る | 達せる (tasseru, can reach / can be reached / be reachable)[377] |
| 達せ 達し |
(ら)れる | 達せ(ら)れる (tasse(ra)reru, can reach / can be reached / be reachable) 達し(ら)れる (tasshi(ra)reru) | ||
| 察する (sassuru, guess) | 察する | 察せ 察し |
(ら)れる | 察せ(ら)れる (sasse(ra)reru, can guess / can be guessed / be guessable) 察し(ら)れる (sasshi(ra)reru) |
| 信ずる (shinzuru, believe) | 信ずる | 信ぜ 信じ |
(ら)れる | 信ぜ(ら)れる (shinze(ra)reru, can believe / can be believed / be believable/trustable) 信じ(ら)れる (shinji(ra)reru) |
| 進ずる (shinzuru, give) | 進ずる | 進ぜ 進じ |
(ら)れる | 進ぜ(ら)れる (shinze(ra)reru, can give / can be given / be givable) 進じ(ら)れる (shinji(ra)reru) |
| 来る (kuru, come) | くる | こ | (ら)れる | 来(ら)れる (ko(ra)reru, can come) |
Potential: Grammatical compatibility
A potential verb is an ichidan verb, and can be conjugated further mostly in the same way an ichidan verb can be, although it may resist the imperative due to semantic difficulty.
Causative
Causativity (使役, shieki) expresses how an instigator causes an agent to do something, whether by making or letting the agent (A) do it.[244] The instigator (I) is marked with the nominative ga, while the agent is customarily marked with either ni or o depending on the original verb's transitivity:[378]
- Active with an intransitive verb: A ga kuru (Aが来る; 'A comes')
- Causative: I ga A o kosaseru (IがAを来させる; 'I has A come')
- Active with a transitive verb: A ga P o yobu (AがPを呼ぶ; 'A calls P')
- Causative: I ga A ni P o yobaseru (IがAにPを呼ばせる; 'I has A call P')
For some speakers, the agent can be marked with ni even with an intransitive verb, which is possibly intended to mean "I lets A come" rather than "I makes A come"; or marked with o even with a transitive verb, despite the presence of the other o marking the patient (P). This means that the presence of the particle o does not guarantee clear meaning, for example in ushi o tabesaseru (牛を食べさせる; 'has the cow eat; has someone eat the cow'), Tarō o mataseru (太郎を待たせる; 'has Tarō wait; has someone wait for Tarō').[378] In more elevated text, the agent can be marked with o shite instead of just o.[379]
| English | Japanese | Function |
|---|---|---|
| I had one of my staff attend the conference. | Kaigi ni wa buka o shusseki saseta (会議には部下を出席させた) | compulsion ("make do") |
| "You had him killed—hired Whidden and then didn't pay him. […]" | "Kimi wa kare o korosaseta no da――tsumari Hoiddon o yatotte korosaseta no da ga, sono toki kimi wa kare ni harawanakatta. […]" (「君は彼を殺させたのだ――つまりホイッドンを雇って殺させたのだが、そのとき君は彼に払わなかった。[…]」[380]) | |
| She disappeared down the passage while Ash soaked and resoaked the T‑shirt, being careful not to touch the doe's burns with it as he ran water over them.[aj] […] He gave her another drink of water and tried to coax the fawn into taking one and failed.[ak] | Kanojo ga tsūro no saki ni kieta ato, Asshu wa tīshatsu o nando mo mizu ni hitashi, sore ga mejika no yakedo ni chokusetsu furenai yō chūi shinagara, mizu o shitataraseta. […] Asshu wa mejika ni mata mizu o nomase, kojika ni mo nomaseyō to shite nadamesukashita ga, shippai ni owatta. (彼女が通路の先に消えたあと、アッシュはＴシャツを何度も水に浸し、それが雌鹿の火傷に直接触れないよう注意しながら、水を滴らせた。[…]アッシュは雌鹿にまた水を飲ませ、子鹿にも飲ませようとしてなだめすかしたが、失敗に終わった。[381]) | |
| Drinkers might use various tactics to try and claw you back.[al] | Dorinkā-tachi wa arayuru senryaku o tsukatte, anata ni osake o nomasō to kakusaku suru deshō. (ドリンカーたちはあらゆる戦略を使って、あなたにお酒を飲まそうと画策するでしょう。[382]) | |
| That discovery made him famous.[am] | Sono hakken ga kare ni na o nasashimeru koto ni natta (その発見が彼に名をなさしめることになった) | |
| As soon as he got the greenlight for marriage, Balghed exuded such vitality that doctors would put on the same level as cockroaches, and climbed his way out the chasm of death.[an] | Kekkon no shōdaku o eta Barugeddo wa isha ga gokiburi reberu to iwashimeru hodo no seimeiryoku o hakki shi, shi no fuchi kara yomigaette miseta. (結婚の承諾を得たバルゲッドは医者がゴキブリレベルと言わしめるほどの生命力を発揮し、死の淵から蘇ってみせた。[383]) | |
| If you ask me, that there is the major difference.[ao] | Boku o shite iwashimureba, koko ni koso hijō na sōi ga aru no desu. (僕をして言わしむれば、ここにこそ非常な相違があるのです。[384]) | |
| If you ask me, I'd say Nagano is the easiest city to live in in Japan. | Watashi o shite iwashimeru naraba, Nagano wa Nihon de ichiba sumiyasui toshi de aru (私をして言わしめるならば, 長野は日本で一番住みやすい都市である) | |
| The young republic sought its chief merit, not in instilling fear, but rather in being itself in incessant fear,[ap] | Wakaki kyōwa seiji wa, kyōfu seshimeru koto yori mo, mushiro taezu mizukara kyōfu shi, (若き共和政治は、恐怖せしめることよりも、むしろ絕えずみずから恐怖し、[385]) | |
| while all the time Nature is inviting you to talk earnestly with her, to understand her, to subdue her, and to be blessed by her![aq] | Shikaru ni ippō Daishizen o miyo. Shizen wa nanji o shite onore (Shizen) to nesshin ni hanashi o kawasashimen to shite, onore o rikai seshimen to shite, onore o seifuku seshimen to shite, kakute onore yori kōfuku o toku seshimen to shite, tsune ni nanji o oide oide to maneite iru no de aru. (然るに一方大自然を見よ。自然は汝をして己れ（自然）と熱心に話をかわさしめんとして，己れを理解せしめんとして，己れを征服せしめんとして，かくて己れより幸福を得せしめんとして，常に汝を御出で御出でと招いて居るのである。[386]) | |
| In summer we used to run a shallow bath and let the children play in it. | Natsu wa ofuro ni asaku mizu o hatte kodomo o asobaseta mono da (夏はお風呂に浅く水を張って子供を遊ばせたものだ) | permission ("let do") |
| I fed the botched pizza to my dog.[ar] | Dekisonatta piza wa inu ni tabesaseta (出来損なったピザは犬に食べさせた) | |
| * In winter, even when a woman is breastfeeding her child in the corner of the bounds of a field, you are not obliged to think that her chest is made of rubber and her child of cardboard.[as] | * Fuyu, hatake no kyōkai no katasumi de, hitori no onna ga kodomo ni chichi o nomasete ita kara tote, sono mune wa gomu-sei de ari, kodomo wa atsugami-zaiku da to kangaeneba naranu to yū hō wa nai. (＊冬、畑の境界の片隅で、一人の女が子供に乳を飮ませてゐたからとて、その胸はゴム製であり、子供は厚紙細工だと考へねばならぬといふ法はない。[387]) | |
| "Mimir, I wish to enrich my wisdom even more. Please let me drink the water from your spring." "Do you wish to drink the water from this spring so much? I cannot let you drink it so easily," Mimir said. |
"Mimīru yo, washi wa motto chishiki o tomasetai no da. Dō ka, kimi no izumi no mizu o nomashite kure" "Sonna ni kono izumi no mizu ga nomitai no ka. Da ga, yōi na koto de wa nomashite yarenai zo" to, Mimīru wa itta. (「ミミールよ、わしはもっと知識を富ませたいのだ。どうか、きみの泉の水を飲ましてくれ」 「そんなにこの泉の水が飲みたいのか。だが、容易なことでは飲ましてやれないぞ」と、ミミールはいった。[388]) | |
| It rustles and swells and sways and ripples and laps and lets pizzicati be heard, like sun flashes on the surface of waves. And it lets strange melody fragments and the sweet song "Lockt Dich der tiefe Himmel nicht, das feuchtverklärte Blau?" […] be heard. | Sore wa sawasawa to nari, namidachi, yureugoki, hamon o arawashi, hitahita to oto shi, nami no omo ni kagayaku taiyō no senkō no gotoki bachioto […] o kikaseru. So shite bimyō na senritsu no danpen to "Kano fukaki ten wa nanji o ugokasazaru ka, kano nurete kagayakeru hekikū wa" […] naru kanbi na uta o kikoeshimeru. (それはさは〱と鳴り、波立ち、搖れ動き、波紋をあらはし、ひた〱と音し、波の面に輝く太陽の閃光の如き撥音 […] を聽かせる。そして微妙な旋律の斷片と「かの深き天は汝を動さざるか、かの濡れて耀ける碧空は」 […] なる甘美な歌をきこえしめる。[226]) | |
| "Let him who wants to paint me,"[at] | "Kakitai to omou mono ni wa washi o kakasuru ga ii" (『描きたいと思ふ者には私を描かするが好い』[389]) |
Causative: Conjugation table
The causative form is created by using the mizenkei base, followed by the ichidan ‑(sa)seru ((さ)せる) suffix. Colloquially, the shorter godan ‑(sa)su ((さ)す; godan) can be used, but this may cause confusion among verbs with virtually identical forms, especially those that happen to end in ‑su already. Compare the causatives of the intransitive ugoku (動く; 'it moves') and its historically derived transitive ugokasu (動かす; 'he moves it'), the latter of which happens to resemble the godan causative ugokasu, as well as their (passive) potentials:[390]
| (Passive) potential | Causative | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ichidan causative | Godan causative | |||
| Intransitive: 'it moves' ugoku |
'it can move' ugokeru ugokareru |
'she causes it to move' | ugokaseru | ugokasu |
| (Passive) potential: 'it can be caused to move; she can cause it to move' | ugokase(ra)reru | ugokaseru ugokasareru | ||
| Transitive: 'he moves it' ugokasu |
'it can be moved; he can move it' ugokaseru ugokasareru |
'she causes him to move it' | ugokasaseru | ugokasasu |
| (Passive) potential: 'he can be caused to move it; she can cause him to move it' | ugokasase(ra)reru | ugokasaseru ugokasasareru | ||
In classical Japanese, ‑(sa)su was the nidan ancestor of the modern ichidan ‑(sa)seru; it became yodan sometime during Late Middle Japanese.[24] A survey found that respondents were more likely to use ‑(sa)su, which is now godan, over ‑(sa)seru, if the original verb was already godan.[391]
The causative of the verb matsu (待つ; 'wait') is mataseru (待たせる; 'make wait'), whose infinitive matase can be nominalized in the polite construction o‑ + <infinitive> + suru to form omatase shimashita (lit. 'I have kept you waiting')[au] as an apology for being late or having kept someone waiting,[av] and which can be idiomatically shortened to omatase.
One of the negative forms of araseru (あらせる; 'let exist'), arasezu (あらせず; 'not letting exist'), as in itoma mo arasezu (いとまもあらせず; 'not letting any spare time exist → not letting them have any spare time'), has been attested.[258] De araseru (であらせる; 'make be; let be') has also been used.
The causatives of honorific verbs do not seem to occur,[258] although at least one author has artificially used nasaraseta (なさらせた) in their literal translations of Amdo Tibetan honorific causatives.[392]
Saseru (させる; 'make/let do') has been said to be shortened from sesaseru (せさせる),[269] or even shisaseru (しさせる).[393]
The pseudo‑classical causative makes use of ‑shimeru (〜しめる) instead of ‑(sa)seru as shown above. It has ichidan conjugation, and it is meant to emulate the true classical causative with ‑shimu which has nidan conjugation. As a pseudo‑classical auxiliary, ‑shimeru combines only with classical irrealis forms, which in most cases are not different from modern ones; but in the case of suru which has three irrealis forms, only the classical se‑ is used as in seshimeru, not *sashimeru nor *shishimeru.[394] There exists a causative form for the copular taru (← to aru, 'be known as') that is tarashimeru, as in ningen o ningen tarashimeru jōken (人間を人間たらしめる条件; 'conditions that make humans human').[395][71]
| Dictionary form | Pattern [74] | Causative form | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Godan and pseudo‑yodan verbs | ||||
| 結う (yuu/yū, fasten) | 結う | 結わ | せる す しめる |
結わせる (yuwaseru, cause to fasten) 結わす (yuwasu) 結わしめる (yuwashimeru) |
| 言う (yū, say) | ゆう | いわ | せる す しめる |
言わせる (iwaseru, cause to say) 言わす (iwasu) 言わしめる (iwashimeru) |
| ゆわ | せる す |
言わせる (yuwaseru, cause to say) 言わす (yuwasu) | ||
| 勝つ (katsu, win) | 勝つ | 勝た | せる す しめる |
勝たせる (kataseru, cause to win) 勝たす (katasu) 勝たしめる (katashimeru) |
| 狩る (karu, hunt) | 狩る | 狩ら | せる す しめる |
狩らせる (karaseru, cause to hunt) 狩らす (karasu) 狩らしめる (karashimeru) |
| 有る (aru, exist) | 有る | 有ら | せる す しめる |
有らせる (araseru, cause to exist)[396][397][398][399][400][401][402][403][404] 有らす (arasu) 有らしめる (arashimeru) |
| 貸す (kasu, lend) | 貸す | 貸さ | せる す しめる |
貸させる (kasaseru, cause to lend) 貸さす (kasasu) 貸さしめる (kasashimeru) |
| 愛す (aisu, love) | 愛す | 愛さ | せる す しめる |
愛させる (aisaseru, cause to love) 愛さす (aisasu) 愛さしめる (aisashimeru) |
| 達す (tassu, reach) | 達す | 達さ | せる す しめる |
達させる (tassaseru, cause to reach) 達さす (tassasu) 達さしめる (tassashimeru) |
| 書く (kaku, write) | 書く | 書か | せる す しめる |
書かせる (kakaseru, cause to write) 書かす (kakasu) 書かしめる (kakashimeru) |
| 嗅ぐ (kagu, smell) | 嗅ぐ | 嗅が | せる す しめる |
嗅がせる (kagaseru, cause to smell) 嗅がす (kagasu) 嗅がしめる (kagashimeru) |
| 呼ぶ (yobu, call) | 呼ぶ | 呼ば | せる す しめる |
呼ばせる (yobaseru, cause to call) 呼ばす (yobasu) 呼ばしめる (yobashimeru) |
| 読む (yomu, read) | 読む | 読ま | せる す しめる |
読ませる (yomaseru, cause to read) 読ます (yomasu) 読ましめる (yomashimeru) |
| 死ぬ (shinu, die) | 死ぬ | 死な | せる す しめる |
死なせる (shinaseru, cause to die) 死なす (shinasu) 死なしめる (shinashimeru) |
| Ichidan verbs | ||||
| 見る (miru, look) | 見る | 見 | させる さす しめる |
見させる (misaseru, cause to look) 見さす (misasu) 見しめる (mishimeru) |
| 達しる (tasshiru, reach) | 達しる | 達し 達せ |
させる さす しめる |
達しさせる (tasshisaseru, cause to reach) 達せさせる (tassesaseru) 達しさす (tasshisasu) 達せさす (tassesasu) 達ししめる (tasshishimeru) 達せしめる (tasseshimeru) |
| 察しる (sasshiru, guess) | 察しる | 察し 察せ |
させる さす しめる |
察しさせる (sasshisaseru, cause to guess)[405] 察せさせる (sassesaseru) 察しさす (sasshisasu) 察せさす (sassesasu) 察ししめる (sasshishimeru) 察せしめる (sasseshimeru) |
| 信じる (shinjiru, believe) | 信じる | 信じ 信ぜ |
させる さす しめる |
信じさせる (shinjisaseru, cause to believe)[406] 信ぜさせる (shinzesaseru)[407] 信じさす (shinjisasu) 信ぜさす (shinzesasu) 信じしめる (shinjishimeru) 信ぜしめる (shinzeshimeru) |
| 進じる (shinjiru, give) | 進じじる | 進じ 進ぜ |
させる さす しめる |
進じさせる (shinjisaseru, cause to give) 進ぜさせる (shinzesaseru) 進じさす (shinjisasu) 進ぜさす (shinzesasu) 進じしめる (shinjishimeru) 進ぜしめる (shinzeshimeru) |
| 進ぜる (shinzeru, give) | 進ぜる | 進ぜ | させる さす しめる |
進ぜさせる (shinzesaseru, cause to give) 進ぜさす (shinzesasu) 進ぜしめる (shinzeshimeru) |
| 出る (deru, exit) | 出る | 出 | させる さす しめる |
出させる (desaseru, cause to exit) 出さす (desasu) 出しめる (deshimeru) |
| Irregular verbs | ||||
| する (suru, do) | する | さ | せる す |
させる (saseru, cause to do) さす (sasu) |
| せ | させる さす しめる |
せさせる (sesaseru, cause to do)[408] せさす (sesasu) せしめる (seshimeru) | ||
| し | させる さす |
しさせる (shisaseru, cause to do)[409] しさす (shisasu) | ||
| 変化する (henka suru, transform) | 変化する | 変化さ | せる す |
変化させる (henka saseru, cause to transform) 変化さす (henka sasu) |
| 変化せ | させる さす しめる |
変化せさせる (henka sesaseru, cause to transform)[410][411] 変化せさす (henka sesasu) 変化せしめる (henka seshimeru) | ||
| 変化し | させる さす |
変化しさせる (henka shisaseru, cause to transform)[412][413][414][415] 変化しさす (henka shisasu) | ||
| 愛する (aisuru, love) | 愛する | 愛さ | せる す しめる |
愛させる (aisaseru, cause to love)[296][416] 愛さす (aisasu) 愛さしめる (aisashimeru) |
| 愛せ | させる さす しめる |
愛せさせる (aisesaseru, cause to love)[417] 愛せさす (aisesasu) 愛せしめる (aiseshimeru) | ||
| 愛し | させる さす |
愛しさせる (aishisaseru, cause to love)[418] 愛しさす (aishisasu) | ||
| 達する (tassuru, reach) | 達する | 達さ | せる す しめる |
達させる (tassaseru, cause to reach)[419] 達さす (tassasu) 達さしめる (tassashimeru) |
| 達せ 達し |
させる さす しめる |
達せさせる (tassesaseru, cause to reach)[296][420] 達しさせる (tasshisaseru)[296][421] 達せさす (tassesasu) 達しさす (tasshisasu) 達せしめる (tasseshimeru) 達ししめる (tasshishimeru) | ||
| 察する (sassuru, guess) | 察する | 察せ 察し |
させる さす しめる |
察せさせる (sassesaseru, cause to guess)[422] 察しさせる (sasshisaseru)[423][424] 察せさす (sassesasu) 察しさす (sasshisasu) 察せしめる (sasseshimeru) 察ししめる (sasshishimeru) |
| 信ずる (shinzuru, believe) | 信ずる | 信ぜ 信じ |
させる さす しめる |
信ぜさせる (shinzesaseru, cause to believe)[425] 信じさせる (shinjisaseru)[426] 信ぜさす (shinzesasu) 信じさす (shinjisasu) 信ぜしめる (shinzeshimeru) 信じしめる (shinjishimeru) |
| 進ずる (shinzuru, give) | 進ずる | 進ぜ 進じ |
させる さす しめる |
進ぜさせる (shinzesaseru, cause to give)[427] 進じさせる (shinjisaseru)[428] 進ぜさす (shinzesasu) 進じさす (shinjisasu) 進ぜしめる (shinzeshimeru) 進じしめる (shinjishimeru) |
| 来る (kuru, come) | くる | こ | させる さす しめる |
来させる (kosaseru, cause to come) 来さす (kosasu) 来しめる (koshimeru) |
Causative: Grammatical compatibility
A causative verb is either an ichidan or godan verb, and can be conjugated further in the same way those types of verbs can be.
It has been suggested that the double causative is possible, as in Ichirō ga Tarō ni Jirō ni to o akesasesaseta (一郎が太郎に次郎に戸を開けさせさせた; 'Ichirō caused Tarō to cause Jirō to open the door'), although it is doubtful whether speakers would find it comfortable.[429]
The passive can be added on top of the causative to create the passivized causative:[430]
- Ichidan causative: saseru (させる; 'she causes him to do it') → saserareru (させられる; 'he is caused to do it (by her)')
- Godan causative: sasu (さす; 'she causes him to do it') → sasareru (さされる; 'he is caused to do it (by her)')
The passivized causative results from the passive built on the causative, but not the opposite. It can also be used on auxiliaries that append to infinitives or gerunds, for example in saseraretsuzukesaserareru (させられ続けさせられる; 'he is caused to continue to be caused to do it'), saseraretagaraserareru (させられたがらせられる; 'he is caused to want to be caused to do it'), although such examples, while grammatically plausible, are probably not used.[429]
| English | Japanese | Function |
|---|---|---|
| I have been made to tend the little girls in the lower schoolroom, and to talk French to the Misses, until I grew sick of my mother‑tongue. | Atashi wa shita no kyōshitsu no chiisa na seitotachi no mendō o misaserare, mata ojōsantachi aite ni wa, ikura bokokugo da tte iya ni natte shimau hodo Furansu-go o shaberaserareta wa. (あたしは下の敎室の小さな生徒達の面倒を見させられ、又お孃さん達相手には、いくら母國語だつていやになつてしまふほどフランス語をしやべらせられたわ。[431]) | passivity and passive potentiality |
| In reading this piece again, I was compelled to reflect on what it is like to be a married couple and a family. | Honpen o yonde aratamete, fūfu to wa, kazoku to wa, o watashi jishin ga kangaesaserareta. (本編を読んで改めて、夫婦とは、家族とは、を私自身が考えさせられた。[432]) | |
| '[…] You don't seriously expect me to believe that a multimillionaire playboy like Raoul de Chevnair would ever notice a little nobody like you, let alone marry her!'[aw] | '[…] Masaka anna okuman chōja no pureibōi ga, anata no yō na na nashi no gaka ni chūmoku suru nante, honki de shinjisaserareru to omotcha inai wa yo ne. Mashite kekkon suru nado to wa!' (「[…] まさかあんな億万長者のプレイボーオイが、あなたのような名なしの画家に注目するなんて、本気で信じさせられると思っちゃいないわよね。まして結婚するなどとは！」[433]) | |
| He imitated the action of a man's being impelled forward by the butt‑ends of muskets.[ax] | Kare wa shōjū no daijiri de hippatakarete muri ni arukaserareru otoko no dōsa o maneta. (彼は小銃の台尻でひっぱたかれて無理に歩かせられる男の動作をまねた。[434]) | |
| The other day, some journalist came and said, "There'll be no mission as over the top as this one. There's just no way you could get a project like this off the ground these days."[ay] | Senjitsu, aru jānarisuto no kata ga korarete, "Konna mucha kucha na misshon wa mō nai desu ne. Ima de wa tote mo konna keikaku wa hashiraserarenai desu ne". (先日，あるジャーナリストの方が来られて，「こんなムチャクチャなミッションはもうないですね。今ではとてもこんな計画は走らせられないですね」。[435]) | |
| Make your beloved child travel.[az] | Kawaii/kawayuki/ito(o)shii/ito(o)shiki ko ni wa tabi o saseyo/sasero (可愛い・可愛き・愛(お)しい・愛(お)しき子には旅をさせよ・させろ[436][437][438][439]) | imperativity |
| "They took the trouble to came here. Let them taste the food for poison first." | "Sekkaku aitsura ga tsuite kita n da. Mazu wa aitsura ni dokumi sasero yo" (「せっかくあいつらがついてきたんだ。まずはあいつらに毒見させろよ」[440]) | |
| It keeps Cirello up at night . . . well, a lot of things keep him up at night . . . that Darnell would want him to reveal an undercover, name a snitch, and get someone killed. | Dāneru ga fukumen sōsakan ya tarekomiya no shōtai o akase to, sara ni dare ka o korosasero to sematte kuru koto o kangaeru to――riyū wa sore dake de wa nai ga――Shirero wa yoru mo nemurenai. (ダーネルが覆面捜査官やタレ込み屋の正体を明かせと、さらに誰かを殺させろと迫ってくることを考えると――理由はそれだけではないが――シレロは夜も眠れない。[441]) | |
| To the privileged classes at home and to the despotic powers abroad, it was loudly proclaimed that the republic was of a peaceful nature, and "live and let live" was its motto. | Kokunai ni okeru tokken kaikyū to kokugai no senseiteki shokyōkoku ni taishite wa, kyōwa seiji wa heiwateki seishitsu no mono de aru koto, so shite ikiyo, shika shite ikishimeyo ga, sono hyōgo de aru koto ga koe takaku nobetsutaerareta. (國內における特權階級と國外の專制的諸强國にたいしては、共和政治は平和的性質のものであること、そして生きよ、しかして生きしめよが、その標語であることが聲たかくのべつたえられた。[385]) | |
| "'Dum vivimus, vivamus!'—While we live, let us live! Yes, my love, yes!"[ba] | "Dumu vivimasu vivamasu! Sei aru kagiri, warera o ikashimeyo…… Sō yo, mai rabu, sō yo!" (「ドゥム ヴィヴィマス ヴィヴァマス！ 生ある限り、われらを生かしめよ……そうよ、あなた、そうよ！」[442]) |
Hortative
The hortative or volitional expresses the speaker's or speakers' personal or collective volition ("I think I will do it", "we think we will do it"), or invitation to others ("let's do it"), to do something. The same form, otherwise known as the tentative, conjectural or presumptive, expresses subjective speculation ("I think/presume that's the case") or supposition ("perhaps that's the case", "that could be the case").[443] The tentative meanings are increasingly outdated as later generations of speakers favor using darō, deshō, or de gozaimashō as less ambiguous tentative markers (more in the subsection below).
| English | Japanese | Function |
|---|---|---|
| I'll put off this task for later. | Sono shigoto wa atomawashi ni shiyō (その仕事は後回しにしよう)[444] | personal volition ("I'll/'m going to do it") |
| I'll overlook your mistake this time. | Konkai wa anata no machigai o ōme ni miyō (今回はあなたの間違いを大目に見よう) | |
| We do not have the least intention to make up trendy slang. | Ryūkōgo o tsukurō nante ito wa, zenzen nai n desu (流行語を作ろうなんて意図は、全然ないんです) | collective volition ("we'll/'re going to do it") |
| The fact that man uses machines as tools means that man is to do what machines cannot. | Ningen ga kikai o dōgu to shite tsukau to yū koto wa, kikai ni wa dekin koto o ningen ga yarō to yū wake desu (人間が機械を道具として使うということは、機械にはできんことを人間がやろうというわけです) | |
| It's getting late, let's go home. | Osoi kara kaerō (遅いから帰ろう) | invitation to act together ("let's do it") |
| Shall we go out for dinner? | Yūshoku o soto de tabeyō ka (夕食を外で食べようか) | |
| There will probably be many objections at the meeting. | Kaigi de wa ōku no hanron ga dasareyō (会議では多くの反論が出されよう)[444] | speculation ("I think it's the case") or supposition ("it might be the case; it's the case, isn't it?") |
| Any child could do that. | Donna kodomo de mo sore wa dekiyō (どんな子供でもそれはできよう) | |
| "Sure. There are three 'will it's' in the heavens. Whaat are they?" "Ha ha ha. Easy. I learnt this in first grade. Are they 'will it shine,' 'will it rain' and 'will it cloud'?"[bb] |
"Yōshi. Ten ni mittsu no rō ka ga arimasu. Nan to nan to nān da." "Hahaha. Sonna no kantansa. Gakkō de ichinensei ni oshieta koto ga aru. Terō ka, furō ka, kumorō ka darō." (「よーし。天に三つのろうかがあります。なんとなんとなーんだ。」 「ははは。そんなのかんたんさ。学校で一年生におしえたことがある。照ろうか、降ろうか、くもろうかだろう？」[446]) | |
| and in the middle of the land rose a vast castle that seemed one mile long, with a row of awesome columns rising one above another. | Sō shite, kuni no mannaka ni wa, ichi-mairu mo arō ka to omowareru, hiroi oshiro ga sobiete ite, monosugoi hashira no rōka ga, ikutsu mo kasanariatte imashita. (そうして、国のまんなかには、一マイルもあろうかと思われる、ひろいお城がそびえていて、ものすごい柱のろうかが、いくつも重なりあっていました。[447]) | |
| "[…] Once you sublimate your wildly unruly passion into magical power, the flame you summon will surely be beautiful, won't it?" | "[…] Susamajii made no araburu jōnetsu o sono mama maryoku ni shōka sureba, omae ga yobidasu honō wa sazoya utsukushikarō?" (「[…]すさまじいまでの荒ぶる情熱をそのまま魔力に昇華すれば、お前が喚びだす炎はさぞや美しかろう？」[448]) | |
| If Anthony's love had been as egoistic as love generally is, it would have been greater than the egoism of his vanity—or of his generosity, if you like—and all this could not have happened. He would not have hit upon that renunciation at which one does not know whether to grin or shudder. It is true too that then his love would not have fastened itself upon the unhappy daughter of de Barral. | Moshi Antonī no ren'ai ga ippan ni sō de aru kurai rikoteki datta nara, sore wa kyoei no egoizumu ni――arui wa, mā, kandaisa ni――masattarō kara, kono issai wa okinakattarō. Niyatto warō beki na no ka zotto miburui su beki na no ka wakaranai, sonna dannen o omoitsuku koto mo nakattarō. Sono katei de wa, kare no ren'ai ga do Bararu no fukō na musume ni somosomo musubitsukanakattarō to yū no mono shin da. (もしアントニーの恋愛が一般にそうであるくらい利己的だったなら、それは虚栄のエゴイズムに――あるいは、まあ、寛大さに――まさったろうから、この一切は起きなかったろう。にやっと笑うべきなのかぞっと身震いすべきなのかわからない、そんな断念を思いつくこともなかったろう。その仮定では、彼の恋愛がド・バラルの不幸な娘にそもそも結びつかなかったろうというのも真だ。[449]) | |
| I told you not to be rough with them.[bc] You are far from being their equal. | Teara na mane wa suru na to itta 'rō Omaetachi ga taitō ni sesshite ii aite de wa nai zo (手荒な真似はするなと言ったろう お前たちが対等に接していい相手ではないぞ[450]) |
Hortative: Conjugation table
The so‑called "hortative form" is actually a combination of the mizenkei and the auxiliary う, which underwent systemic historical sound changes that affected all the examples below. These sound changes motivated the term godan ("five grade"), which replaced yodan ("four grade") (see Japanese godan and ichidan verbs § Godan vs yodan). For non‑godan verbs, during the final stage as shown in the table below, the vowels of the original mizenkei, i, e and o,[451] were reintroduced in some dialects, especially eastern ones, which yielded the suffix ‑yō, as in iyō, eyō and koyō. Other dialects, especially western ones, did not undergo this development.[452][453][454][455] Verbs with the vowel i in their stems may retain the forms ending in ‑yū (← ‑iu) in some dialects, hence okyu(u); or gained the normalized ‑yō in other dialects, hence okiyo(o), o(k)kyo(o).[452][456] Yet other dialects have iro(o), ero(o) and koro(o). For suru in particular, the eastern vowel i is used rather than the western e, hence shiyō rather than seyō, the latter of which is found in some Chūbu dialects.[457] The distributions of forms where the original mizenkei vowels were fused with u (okyū/okyō, akyō, nyō, kō, shō) and forms where the vowels were added back in (okiyō, akeyō, neyō, koyō, shiyō/seyō) are uneven among western dialects, where ichidan‑based forms with fused vowels are less widespread; notably, in Kyoto and Osaka Prefectures, the former capitals with historically prestigious dialects, the fused forms kō and shō are used for the irregular verbs, while the forms with the original vowels are used for ichidan verbs.[452][453][454][455][457][458] Compare the three hortatives, only the first of which is distinctly western, in the following example: Oshierareru dake de naku, chan to jibun de benkyō shō. Jibun de jibun no jinsei o kaeyō, ganbarō, to jibun ni muchi o utta. (教えられるだけでなく、ちゃんと自分で勉強しょう。自分で自分の人生を変えよう、頑張ろう、と自分に鞭を打った。; transl. I whipped myself into studying properly, not just being taught; and changing my life on my own and doing my best.)[459]
For ‑masu and desu, the unique shapes of ‑mashō and deshō, as well as of the negative ‑masen, suggest their provenance in western polite speech.[33] While ‑masen undoubtedly has eastern counterparts, ‑mashinai/‑mashinē (albeit uncommon, archaic and stereotypical), ‑mashō (ましょう) and deshō (でしょう) do not seem to have any,[460] in spite of such historical spellings as ましよう and でしよう, which appear to be pronounced *‑mashiyō and *deshiyō, but were rather variant spellings of ませう (‑mashō) and でせう (deshō),[461][462] and in some older publications these spellings were inconsistently interchangeable.[463][464][465][466][467][468][469] In contrast, suru, ‑masu's conjugational relative,[470] has both western and eastern forms, as in sen/shinai/shinē, and shō/shiyō.
Due to the said historical sound changes, all hortative/tentative forms contain the long vowel ō, but it is susceptible to shortening into an o in speech, especially in dialects.[471] In ichidan verbs, shortening results in the hortative/tentative and the imperative sharing the same segments (consonants and vowels), although they can still be distinguished by accent.[472] All hortatives and tentatives are currently accentuated on the start of the ō, as in yobō (呼ぼう; [jòbó(ò)]), yobimashō (呼びましょう; [jòbímáɕó(ò)]), yondarō (呼んだろう; [jòńdáɾó(ò)]), yobanakarō (呼ばなかろう; [jòbánákáɾó(ò)]), etc. Thus the hortative ichidan okiyō (起きよう; [òkíjó(ò)]), akeyō (開けよう; [àkéjó(ò)]) are accentually distinct from the imperative ichidan okiyo (起きよ; [ókìjò]), akeyo (開けよ; [àkéjò]).[473] On the other hand, since all hortatives are accentuated on the ō, ambiguity among themselves can arise, for example in kaō (買おう; 'let's buy', [kàóò], historically unaccentuated as [kàóó]) and kaō (飼おう; 'let's rear', [kàóò]).[474] The western hortative kō ("let's come") also resembles the eastern imperative kō ("come!").
The common form of the hortative/tentative ends in う, but occasionally a classical (thus more elevated) alternative ending in む or ん turns up in modern writing, for example in Wareware wa sono no senkusha taran to suru ikigomi de yaru tsumori na n desu (我々はその先駆者たらんとする意気込みで遣るつもりなんです; transl. We intend to work with the ambition to become the pioneers in that).[475][bd] Both う and ん derive from the earlier む, but through different mechanisms: う is from the loss of a consonant in む, /mu → ũ → u/; while ん is from the loss of a vowel, /mu → N/.[476] Since ん also happens to represent the western negative ‑n and the nominalizing particle no, the spelling ikan (行かん) represents either ikanu (行かぬ; 'not go') or ikamu (行かむ; 'let's go'), and shinan (死なん) represents not only shinanu (死なぬ; 'not die') or shinamu (死なむ; 'let's die') but also the noun phrase shi na no (死なの; 'it's that it's death'), the last of which contains the Sino‑Japanese noun shi (死; 'death'). Accentually, verbs whose dictionary forms are accentless can be distinguished, as in [ikaɴ] for "not go" and [ikáɴ] for "let's go"; but verbs whose dictionary forms are accented are ambiguous and context‑dependent, as in [kakáɴ] (kakan (書かん)) for both "not write" and "let's write."[473] It is possible to keep the hortative and negative distinct in writing respectively as ‑n (ん) and ‑nu (ぬ), for example in Ga, seikō no kikai o toraen ni wa, kare wa mata tada ni shizuka ni sono chikaku o ugokasu bakari de naku, sorezore tekitō na jiki ni oite zuibun to daitan ni, hito no yōsu o dokuha seneba ikenu no de aru. (が、成功の機械を捉へんには、彼はまた啻に冷靜にその智覺を働かすばかりでなく、それ〲適當な時機に於て隨分と大膽に、他人の容貌を讀破せねばいけぬのである。[477]; 'He must, however, to have his chance of success, be acutely besides calmly perceptive, a reader of features, audacious at the proper moment.'); or alternatively, by using ‑nai (ない) for the negative instead, as in Mizu ni oboren to suru mono, tasuke no ami o tōzen mono ni zenzaisan o ataen to yakushitari to sen ni, sore wa tōmen no kyōsei jōtai yamu naku yakusoku shita ni hoka naranai ga yue ni sono yakusoku o torikeshite yoroshikaru beku, (水に溺れんとする者、助けの網を投ぜん者に全財產を與へんと約したりとせんに、それは當面の强制狀態己むなく約束したに外ならないが故にその約束を取消して宜しかるべく、[478]; transl. Suppose that a drowning man promises to give all his fortune to whoever willing to cast a net to help, that is no other than promising involuntarily in a coercive state at hand, thus he is well within his rights to retract such promise;).
Some idioms derived from the classical hortative/tentative include sen kata (為ん方・詮方; 'means', lit. 'method to do'; synonymous with shikata (仕方)),[479] sen kata nai (為ん方無い・詮方無い; 'be helpless', lit. 'be without any means'),[480][71] iwan kata nai/nashi (言わん方無い・無し; 'be inutterable', lit. 'be without any way to say'),[481] aran kagiri (有らん限り; 'to the utmost', lit. 'limit of what could exist'),[482][71] etc.
Most verbs have hortative meanings, as in shiyō/shimashō (しよう・しましょう; 'let's do it'), although this can be interpreted as self‑tentative ("I'll probably do it"). To express tentativity unambiguously, darō/jarō, de arō or deshō (or hyper‑politely, de gozaimashō), which is unambiguously tentative, is added, as in suru darō / suru deshō / shimasu deshō (するだろう・するでしょう・しますでしょう; 'he'll probably do it'). In some cases where the subject lacks human agency, the tentative meaning is more plausible, for example, kumorō/kumorimashō (曇ろう・曇りましょう) means "it'll probably be cloudy" tentatively, not *"let's be cloudy" hortatively; ame ga furō / ame ga furimashō (雨が降ろう・雨が降りましょう) means "it'll probably rain", not *"let's rain"; dekiyō/dekimashō (できよう・できましょう) means "probably can" not *"let's be able". These have been increasingly replaced by kumoru darō / kumoru deshō / kumorimasu deshō (曇るだろう・曇るでしょう・曇りますでしょう), ame ga furu darō / ame ga furu deshō / ame ga furimasu deshō (雨が降るだろう・雨が降るでしょう・雨が降りますでしょう) and dekiru darō / dekiru deshō / dekimasu deshō (できるだろう・できるでしょう・できますでしょう). The rise of the darō/deshō‑appended tentative, as in ame ga furu/furimasu deshō (雨が降る・降りますでしょう; 'it'll probably rain'), as a distinction in form from the original polysemous tentative/hortative, is attested from the early 19th century;[471] the use of the original tentative, as in ame ga furimashō (雨が降りましょう), has become obsolescent or elevated.[483]
Arō/arimashō and their derivatives tend to be tentative, and can be replaced with aru darō / aru deshō / arimasu deshō.[484] The same applies to de arō / de arimashō, which can be replaced with de aru darō / de aru deshō / de arimasu deshō.[24] Adjectival tentatives such as akakarō (赤かろう; 'it's probably red') with a built‑in arō can be replaced with akai darō/deshō (赤いだろう・でしょう).[443] The eastern adjectival negative tentative ‑nakarō, as in yobanakarō (呼ばなかろう; 'probably not call'), ōkiku nakarō (大きくなかろう; 'probably not big') and hon de/ja nakarō (本で・じゃなかろう; 'probably not a book') are to be replaced with ‑nai darō/deshō (〜ないだろう・でしょう).[485] The past tentative ‑ta/‑da darō/deshō are preferred to ‑tarō/‑darō,[486] deshita deshō to deshitarō, and ‑mashita deshō to ‑mashitarō. However, ‑ta/‑da darō can be shortened back to ‑ta/‑da 'rō, albeit with different accent patterns; compare [táɾó(ò)] for ‑tarō,[487] and [tá | dàɾó(ò) → tá | ɾó(ò)] or [tá dàɾò(ò) → tá ɾò(ò)] for ‑ta darō → ‑ta 'rō.[488] This contraction is transferable to the polite ‑mashita 'rō, which is still not quite the same as ‑mashitarō, but which does suggest an unabbreviated form, ‑mashita darō, with a mismatch in politeness, compared to the well‑formed polite ‑mashita deshō. Martin (2004:606) doubted the plausibility of ‑mashita darō, but it is not impossible.[489][490][491][492]
The western negative ‑n(u) and ‑zu take the classical ‑ji[493] for occasional elevated use, mostly followed by the quotative particle to, as in Senshutachi wa kanko no koe ni okurarete, katazuba ikite kaeraji to yū iki de dete kite 'ru wake desu kara, ochiru to naku desu yo. (選手たちは歓呼の声に送られて、勝たずば生きて帰らじという意気で出てきてるわけですから、落ちると泣くですよ。; transl. The athletes, sent off by the cheering voices, appear with the spirit of "I shall not return alive unless I am victorious," so they weep when the lose.), as well as in some cliches such as okureji to (遅れじと; 'not to fall behind; not to be outdone'), makeji to (負けじと; 'not to lose; unyieldingly'),[494] makeji tamashii (負けじ魂; 'unyielding spirit'),[495] etc. The negative tentative/hortative has been expressed with the attributive followed by mai; in the particular case of ‑masen, there is ‑masu mai.[496] In many non‑Tokyo eastern dialects, mai (← majii) is the negative counterpart of the affirmative be(e) (← bei), the regularly modernized adjectival form of beki, which the Tokyo dialect does not use for tentative or hortative meanings.[497] ‑N darō[498]/jarō[499]/de arō[500]/deshō[501] and ‑masen deshō[502] are also used.
| Dictionary form | Pattern [74] | Hortative form | Historical evolution[503] | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Godan and pseudo‑yodan verbs | |||||
| 結う (yuu/yū, fasten) | 結う | 結お | う | 結おう (yuō, let's/probably fasten) | /amu → aũ → ɔː → oː/ /amu → aN/ |
| 結わ | ん む |
結わん (yuwan, let's/probably fasten) 結わむ (yuwamu) | |||
| 言う (yū, say) | ゆう | いお | う | 言おう (iō, let's/probably say) | |
| いわ | ん む |
言わん (iwan, let's/probably say) 言わむ (iwamu) | |||
| 通う (kayou/kayō, commute) | 通う | 通お | う | 通おう (kayoō, let's/probably commute) | |
| 通わ | ん む |
通わん (kayowan, let's/probably commute) 通わむ (kayowamu) | |||
| 拾う (hirou/hirō, pick up) | 拾う | 拾お | う | 拾おう (hiroō, let's/probably pick up) | |
| 拾わ | ん む |
拾わん (hirowan, let's/probably pick up) 拾わむ (hirowamu) | |||
| 勝つ (katsu, win) | 勝つ | 勝と | う | 勝とう (katō, let's/probably win) | |
| 勝た | ん む |
勝たん (katan, let's/probably win) 勝たむ (katamu) | |||
| 狩る (karu, hunt) | 狩る | 狩ろ | う | 狩ろう (karō, let's/probably hunt) | |
| 狩ら | ん む |
狩らん (karan, let's/probably hunt) 狩らむ (karamu) | |||
| 有る (aru, exist) | 有る | 有ろ | う | 有ろう (arō, probably exist)[504][505][506][507][508] | |
| 有ら | ん む |
有らん (aran, probably exist) 有らむ (aramu) | |||
| 下さる (kudasaru, give) | 下さる | 下さろ | う | 下さろう (kudasarō, probably give)[509][510][511][512][513] | |
| 下さら | ん む |
下さらん (kudasaran, probably give) 下さらむ (kudasaramu) | |||
| 貸す (kasu, lend) | 貸す | 貸そ | う | 貸そう (kasō, let's/probably lend) | |
| 貸さ | ん む |
貸さん (kasan, let's/probably lend) 貸さむ (kasamu) | |||
| 愛す (aisu, love) | 愛す | 愛そ | う | 愛そう (aisō, let's/probably love)[514] | |
| 愛さ | ん む |
愛さん (aisan, let's/probably love) 愛さむ (aisamu) | |||
| 達す (tassu, reach) | 達す | 達そ | う | 達そう (tassō, let's/probably reach)[374][515] | |
| 達さ | ん む |
達さん (tassan, let's/probably reach) 達さむ (tassamu) | |||
| 書く (kaku, write) | 書く | 書こ | う | 書こう (kakō, let's/probably write) | |
| 書か | ん む |
書かん (kakan, let's/probably write) 書かむ (kakamu) | |||
| 嗅ぐ (kagu, smell) | 嗅ぐ | 嗅ご | う | 嗅ごう (kagō, let's/probably smell) | |
| 嗅が | ん む |
嗅がん (kagan, let's/probably smell) 嗅がむ (kagamu) | |||
| 呼ぶ (yobu, call) | 呼ぶ | 呼ぼ | う | 呼ぼう (yobō, let's/probably call) | |
| 呼ば | ん む |
呼ばん (yoban, let's/probably call) 呼ばむ (yobamu) | |||
| 読む (yomu, read) | 読む | 読も | う | 読もう (yomō, let's/probably read) | |
| 読ま | ん む |
読まん (yoman, let's/probably read) 読まむ (yomamu) | |||
| 死ぬ (shinu, die) | 死ぬ | 死の | う | 死のう (shinō, let's/probably die) | |
| 死な | ん む |
死なん (shinan, let's/probably die) 死なむ (shinamu) | |||
| Ichidan verbs | |||||
| 見る (miru, look) | 見る | 見 | よう ん む |
見よう (miyō, let's/probably look) 見ん (min) 見む (mimu) |
/imu → iũ → juː → ijoː/ /imu → iN/ |
| 達しる (tasshiru, reach) | 達しる | 達し | よう ん む |
達しよう (tasshiyō, let's/probably reach) 達しん (tasshin) 達しむ (tasshimu) | |
| 察しる (sasshiru, guess) | 察しる | 察し | よう ん む |
察しよう (sasshiyō, let's/probably guess)[516] 察しん (sasshin) 察しむ (sasshimu) | |
| 信じる (shinjiru, believe) | 信じる | 信じ | よう ん む |
信じよう (shinjiyō, let's/probably believe)[517] 信じん (shinjin) 信じむ (shinjimu) | |
| 進じる (shinjiru, give) | 進じる | 進じ | よう ん む |
進じよう (shinjiyō, let's/probably give) 進じん (shinjin) 進じむ (shinjimu) | |
| 進ぜる (shinzeru, give) | 進ぜる | 進ぜ | よう ん む |
進ぜよう (shinzeyō, let's/probably give)[518][519][520] 進ぜん (shinzen) 進ぜむ (shinzemu) |
/emu → eũ → joː → ejoː/ /emu → eN/ |
| 出る (deru, exit) | 出る | 出 | よう ん む |
出よう (deyō, let's/probably exit) 出ん (den) 出む (demu) | |
| Irregular verbs | |||||
| する (suru, do) | する | し | よう | しよう (shiyō, let's/probably do) | /semu → seũ → sjoː → sijoː/ /semu → seN/ |
| しょ | う | しょう (shō, let's/probably do)[32][521][522][523][524] | |||
| せ | ん む |
せん (sen, let's/probably do) せむ (semu) | |||
| 勉強する (benkyō suru, study) | 勉強する | 勉強し | よう | 勉強しよう (benkyō shiyō, let's/probably study) | |
| 勉強しょ | う | 勉強しょう (benkyō shō, let's/probably study)[521][525] | |||
| 勉強せ | ん む |
勉強せん (benkyō sen, let's/probably study) 勉強せむ (benkyō semu) | |||
| 愛する (aisuru, love) | 愛する | 愛そ | う | 愛そう (aisō, let's/probably love)[526] | |
| 愛し | よう | 愛しよう (aishiyō, let's/probably love)[418][527] | |||
| 愛しょ | う | 愛しょう (aishō, let's/probably love) | |||
| 愛せ 愛さ |
ん む |
愛せん (aisen, let's/probably love) 愛さん (aisan) 愛せむ (aisemu) 愛さむ (aisamu) | |||
| 達する (tassuru, reach) | 達する | 達そ | う | 達そう (tassō, let's/probably reach)[528] | |
| 達し | よう ん む |
達しよう (tasshiyō, let's/probably reach)[529] 達しん (tasshin) 達しむ (tasshimu) | |||
| 達しょ | う | 達しょう (tasshō, let's/probably reach) | |||
| 達せ 達さ |
ん む |
達せん (tassen, let's/probably reach) 達さん (tassan) 達せむ (tassemu) 達さむ (tassamu) | |||
| 察する (sassuru, guess) | 察する | 察し | よう ん む |
察しよう (sasshiyō, let's/probably guess)[530] 察しん (sasshin) 察しむ (sasshimu) | |
| 察しょ | う | 察しょう (sasshō, let's/probably guess) | |||
| 察せ | ん む |
察せん (sassen, let's/probably guess) 察せむ (sassemu) | |||
| 信ずる (shinzuru, believe) | 信ずる | 信じ | よう ん む |
信じよう (shinjiyō, let's/probably believe)[128] 信じん (shinjin) 信じむ (shinjimu) | |
| 信じょ | う | 信じょう (shinjō, let's/probably believe) | |||
| 信ぜ | ん む |
信ぜん (shinzen, let's/probably believe) 信ぜむ (shinzemu) | |||
| 進ずる (shinzuru, give) | 進ずる | 進じ 進ぜ |
よう ん む |
進じよう (shinjiyō, let's/probably give)[518] 進ぜよう (shinzeyō)[518][531] 進じん (shinjin) 進ぜん (shinzen) 進じむ (shinjimu) 進ぜむ (shinzemu) | |
| 進じょ | う | 進じょう (shinjō, let's/probably give) | |||
| 来る (kuru, come) | くる | こ | よう う ん む |
来よう (koyō, let's/probably come) 来う (kō)[532][533][534][523][524] 来ん (kon) 来む (komu) |
/komu → koũ → koː → kojoː/ /komu → koN/ |
| Verbal auxiliaries | |||||
| 〜ます(る) (‑masu(ru)) | ます(る) | ましょ | う | 〜ましょう (‑mashō, let's/probably …) | /semu → seũ → sjoː/ /semu → seN/ |
| ませ | ん む |
〜ません (‑masen, let's/probably …) 〜ませむ (‑masemu) | |||
| です (desu, be) | です | でしょ | う | でしょう (deshō, probably be) | |
| である (de aru, be) だ (da) じゃ (ja) や (ya) |
である だ じゃ や |
であろ だろ じゃろ やろ |
う | であろう (de arō, probably be) だろう (darō) じゃろう (jarō) やろう (yarō) |
/ni te aramu → de aɾamu → d(j)aɾamu → d(j)aɾaũ → d(j)aɾɔː → d(j)aɾoː/ |
| 〜た (‑ta) 〜たる (‑taru) 〜だ (‑da) 〜だる (‑daru) |
たる だる |
たろ だろ |
う | 〜たろう (‑tarō) 〜だろう (‑darō) |
/te aɾamu → taɾamu → taɾaũ/daɾaũ → taɾɔː/daɾɔː → taɾoː/daɾoː/ |
| Adjectives and adjectival auxiliaries | |||||
| 無い (nai, be nonexistent) 無かる (nakaru) |
無かる | 無かろ | う | 無かろう (nakarō, be probably nonexistent) | /ku aɾamu → kaɾamu → kaɾaũ → kaɾɔː → kaɾoː/ /ku aɾamu → kaɾamu → kaɾaN/ |
| 無から | ん む |
無からん (nakaran, be probably nonexistent) 無からむ (nakaramu) | |||
| 良い (ii/yoi, be good) 良かる (yokaru) |
良かる | 良かろ | う | 良かろう (yokarō, be probably good) | |
| 良から | ん む |
良からん (yokaran, be probably good) 良からむ (yokaramu) | |||
| Special auxiliaries | |||||
| 〜ん (‑n) 〜ぬ (‑nu) 〜ず (‑zu) |
ん ぬ ず |
じ | 〜じ (‑ji)[535][536] | ||
Hortative: Grammatical compatibility
The hortative can be quoted with the quotative particle to,[537] with to omou (と思う; 'I think that') in particular often being used to unambiguously convey volition (as opposed to invitation to act together), similarly to the desirative with ‑tai/‑tagaru; compare kaerō to omou (帰ろうと思う; 'I think I'll go home') and kaeritai to omou (帰りたいと思う; 'I feel like going home'). The extender to suru (とする) conveys imminent realization of volition, even for actions by inanimate agents.[538]
The tentative can combine with ga or to (mo) to form the tentative concessive,[539] with meanings similar to the gerundive concessive ‑te mo, the conditional concessive ‑edo and the imperative concessive ni shiro/seyo and de are.
The classical tentative is often followed by the particle bakari ("almost").[540]
| Extender | English | Japanese | Function |
|---|---|---|---|
| to (と) | At dusk when everybody gathered at the bus to go home, we somehow seemed to be two people short. | Yūgure ni natte, basu de zen'in ga kaerō to shūgō shite miru to, dō mo futari tarinai (夕暮れになって、バスで全員が帰ろうと集合してみると、どうも二人足りない) | unambiguous volition |
| [I think] I'll try it out and buy it if I like it. | Tameshi ni tsukatte mite, yokattara kaō to omou (試しに使ってみて、よかったら買おうと思う) | ||
| I thought I'd hit him good. | Yoppodo nagutte yarō to omotta (よっぽど殴ってやろうと思った) | ||
| I had no thought of sleep. | Watashi wa nemurō to omowanakatta (私は眠ろうと思わなかった) | ||
| I'm thinking of driving around the island in a rental car. | Rentakā de shima o doraibu shiyō to omotte 'masu (レンタカーで島をドライブしようと思ってます) | ||
| He was calm. Somehow, his heart beat evenly, like that of a man determined to do something dangerous yet inevitable. | Kare wa ochitsuki haratte ita. Nani kashira, kiken na, shika mo sakeerarenai koto o shō to kesshin shita no yō ni, shinzō no kodō mo odayaka na mono de atta. (彼は落ちつき払っていた。何かしら、危険な、しかも避けえられないことをしょうと決心した人のように、心臓の鼓動もおだやかなものであった。[522]) | ||
| And thus if we, during the coming revolution, wish to leave the doors wide open to reaction, to monarchy perhaps, for us nothing beats confiding our affairs to a representative government, to a cabinet armed with all the powers that that government possesses today. | Sareba, moshi wareware ga, kuru beki kakumei ni saishite, handō no tame ni, osoraku wa ōsei no tame ni daimonko o kaihō shi okō to hossuru nara, wareware wa, daigi seifu ni, konnichi dōseifu ga yūsuru zenseiken o motte busō suru naikaku ni, wareware no jimu o inin suru ni shiku wa nai. (されば、若し吾々が、來るべき革命に際して、反動の爲に、恐らくは王政の爲に大門戶を開放し置かうと欲するなら、吾々は、代議政府に、今日同政府が有する全政權を以て武裝する內閣に、吾々の事務を委任するに如くはない。[541]) | ||
| Should you wish to make the Iliad, put yourself on diet. | Shokun ga Iriaddo o tsukuran to hosseba, mazu danjiki o serareyo. (諸君がイリアツドを作らんと欲せば、先づ斷食をせられよ。[332]) | ||
| Suppose that a drowning man promises to give all his fortune to whoever willing to cast a net to help, that is no other than promising involuntarily in a coercive state at hand, thus he is well within his rights to retract such promise; | Mizu ni oboren to suru mono, tasuke no ami o tōzen mono ni zenzaisan o ataen to yakushitari to sen ni, sore wa tōmen no kyōsei jōtai yamu naku yakusoku shita ni hoka naranai ga yue ni sono yakusoku o torikeshite yoroshikaru beku, (水に溺れんとする者、助けの網を投ぜん者に全財產を與へんと約したりとせんに、それは當面の强制狀態己むなく約束したに外ならないが故にその約束を取消して宜しかるべく、[478]) | ||
| to suru (とする) to nasaru (となさる) |
When he was about to board the train, someone called him from behind. | Densha ni norō to shita toki, ushiro kara koe o kakerareta (電車に乗ろうとしたとき、後ろから声をかけられた) | being about, being planning/intending, starting or trying to do something |
| He had a crack at singing. | Kare wa utatte miyō to shita (彼は歌ってみようとした) | ||
| The electric clock in the office is about to go past three. | Jimusho no denkidokei wa sanji o sugiyō to shite iru (事務所の電気時計は三時を過ぎようとしている) | ||
| But it isn't that the author couldn't get married, it is that she has no inclination to do so. | Da ga, chosha wa kekkon suru koto ga dekinakatta no de wa nakute, shiyō to shinai no de aru (だが、著者は結婚することができなかったのではなくて、しようとしないのである) | ||
| Nobody tried/was about to open his mouth. | Dare mo kuchi o hirakō to shinakatta (誰も口を開こうとしなかった) | ||
| The bus was not about to stop. | Basu wa tomarō to shinakatta (バスは止まろうとしなかった) | ||
| The battle is about to begin. | Tatakai wa masa ni kaishi sen to shite iru (戦いはまさに開始せんとしている) | ||
| Heaven has an end in all: yet, you that hear me, This from a dying man receive as certain: […] for those you make friends And give your hearts to, when they once perceive The least rub in your fortunes, fall away Like water from ye, never found again But where they mean to sink ye. |
Nanigoto ni mo Ten'i ga hataraite iru. Shika shinagara, shokun yo, kore dake wa tashika na koto da to shite, shinan to suru mono no yū koto o kiite oite kudasai. […] Funkei bakugyaku no tomo to iedo mo hitotabi kimigata ga kudarizaka ni sashikakatta na to mitomeru to yū, to mizu no hikuki ni tsuku yō ni hanaresatte, sugata o misenaku narimasu zo, kimitachi o horobosō to de mo suru toki no hoka wa. (何事にも天意が働いてゐる。しかしながら、諸君よ、これだけは慥かな事だとして、死なんとする者のいふことを聽いておいて下さい。[…]刎頸莫逆の友と雖も一たび君がたが降り坂にさしかゝったなと認めるといふと、水の低きに就くやうに離れ去って、姿を見せなくなりますぞ、君たちを滅さうとでもする時の外は。[542]) | ||
| while all the time Nature is inviting you to talk earnestly with her, to understand her, to subdue her, and to be blessed by her! | Shikaru ni ippō Daishizen o miyo. Shizen wa nanji o shite onore (Shizen) to nesshin ni hanashi o kawasashimen to shite, onore o rikai seshimen to shite, onore o seifuku seshimen to shite, kakute onore yori kōfuku o toku seshimen to shite, tsune ni nanji o oide oide to maneite iru no de aru. (然るに一方大自然を見よ。自然は汝をして己れ（自然）と熱心に話をかわさしめんとして，己れを理解せしめんとして，己れを征服せしめんとして，かくて己れより幸福を得せしめんとして，常に汝を御出で御出でと招いて居るのである。[386]) | ||
| But perhaps because I seemed to hit it off with Mr Andō, Mr Andō himself was not the least inclined to consult other doctors. | Shika shi, Andō-san to wa uma ga au to yū no ka, Andō-san gojishin, hoka no isha ni maru de kakarō to nasaranai n desu (しかし、安藤さんとは馬が合うと言うのか、安藤さんご自身、ほかの医者にまるでかかろうとなさらないんです) | ||
| ga (が) | Whether you go or not, I'll go. | Kimi ga ikō ga iku mai ga, ore wa iku (君が行こうが行くまいが、俺は行く) | concession |
| come hell or high water; lit. 'whether rain or spears fall' | ame ga furō ga yari ga furō ga (雨が降ろうが槍が降ろうが) | ||
| She always listened to water boil, and whenever the pot got empty, come rain, wind or shine, she always refilled it. | Kanojo wa nengara nenjū, yu ga tagiru no o kiki, nabe ga karappo ni nareba, tatoe ame ga furō ga, kaze ga fukō ga, mata hi ga terō ga, nengara nenjū, soitsu o ippai ni shite kita no da. (彼女は、年がら年じゅう、湯がたぎるのを聞き、なべがからっぽになれば、たとえ雨が降ろうが、風が吹こうが、また日が照ろうが、年がら年じゅう、そいつをいっぱいにしてきたのだ。[543]) | ||
| Still, English or no, Galen could not justify simply attacking the party and killing the woman. | To ieba, Ingurando musume de arō ga nakarō ga, sono ikkō ni kishū o kake, MaGuregā no hanayome to naru musume o korosu koto ni seigi ga aru to wa, Geiran ni wa omoenakatta. (といえば、イングランド娘であろうがなかろうが、その一行に奇襲をかけ、マグレガーの花嫁となる娘を殺すことに正義があるとは、ゲイランには思えなかった。[348]) | ||
| That said, whether they're stronger or weaker than me, I still have to beat them eventually, so as long as I'm giving it my all, it doesn't really matter……. | Te ka, ore yori tsuyokarō ga yowakarō ga, kekkyoku taosanakya ikenai wake de, zenryoku tsukusu ore kara sureba, anmari kankei nai yō……. (てか、俺より強かろうが弱かろうが、結局倒さなきゃいけないわけで、全力を尽くす俺からすれば、あんまり関係ないような……。[544]) | ||
| to (mo) (と(も)) | Whatever he does has no bearing on me. | Kare ga nani o shiyō to watashi ni wa mukankei da (彼が何をしようと私には無関係だ) | |
| Come wind, storm, cold or rain, ――nothing struck him down. | Kaze ga fukō to arashi ga koyō to, samusa ya ame ga shūrai shiyō to,――nani mono mo dageki o ataeru koto wa nakatta. (風が吹こうと嵐が来ようと、寒さや雨が襲来しようと、――何ものも打撃を与えることはなかった。[545]) | ||
| Come a hundred or myriad of you, no means no. | Hyakunin kō to, bannin kō to, dame tto ittara dame na no da. (百人來うと、萬人來うと、駄目つと云つたら駄目なのだ。[546]) | ||
| Wherever you are, don't forget I'll be thinking of you. | Anata ga doko ni iyō to mo, watashi wa anata no koto o omotte iru no da to yū koto o wasurenai de ne (あなたがどこにいようとも、私はあなたのことを思っているのだということを忘れないでね) | ||
| bakari (ばかり) | You might almost say it was your right.[be] | Anata no kenri na n da kara to iwaren bakari desu (あなたの権利なんだからと言われんばかりです) | almost/barely/virtually doing something; being just about to do something; being so close to doing something |
| It was an apology in which he kept groveling on the floor mat and all but wailed. | Tatami ni hitai o suritsuke suritsuke, gōkyū sen bakari no wabikata datta (畳に額を擦り付け擦り付け、号泣せんばかりの詫び方だった) | ||
| What surprised me was when the film got to the marathon part, the theater almost burst with frenzy. | Odoroita no wa, eiga no marason no tokoro ni naru to, gekijō ga waren bakari no nekkyō deshita yo (驚いたのは、映画のマラソンのところになると、劇場が割れんばかりの熱狂でしたよ) | ||
| Then he looked at me for a while, as I kept on silently thinking, and finally he spoke, barely suppressing a burst of laughter. | So shite kare wa, damatte kangaetsuzukete iru boku o chotto nagamete, tsui ni fukidasan bakari ni shite itta (そして彼は、黙って考え続けている僕をちょっと眺めて、ついに吹き出さんばかりにしていった) | ||
| In my true heart I find she names my very deed of love; Only she comes too short:[bf] |
Aneue wa watakushi ga omotte oru tōri o osshatta no de gozaimasu no, tada, sukōshi ossharitarimasen bakari. (姉上はわたくしが思ってをる通りをおっしゃったのでございますの、只、少ゥしおっしゃり足りませんばかり。[547]) |
See also
Notes
- He'd never come once for the past six years.
- Rather than arukimasen deshita.
- Rather than konakatta.
- Won't you read it? → Would you be kind enough to read it?
- Aren't we early? → We are surely early, aren't we?
- Are we not not early → We are surely not early, are we?
- Isn't it nice? → It is surely nice, isn't it?
- Isn't it that he won't come? → He won't come, will he?
- Isn't it that we will leave? → Shan't we leave? → Shall we leave?
- Isn't it that you'll drink a cup? → Won't you have a drink? → Will you have a drink?
- Except in western speech.
- As long as I am not dead, I shall never give up this title.
- More elevated than tatanai desu.
- More elevated than oyobanai.
- More elevated than minaku.
- More elevated than shinaku.
- A ga teki ni katsu (Aが敵に勝つ; 'A wins against an opponent'),
A ga onore ni katsu (Aが己に勝つ; 'A wins against themself'),
A ga byōki ni katsu (Aが病気に勝つ; 'A wins against sickness'),
A ga yūwaku ni katsu (Aが誘惑に勝つ; 'A wins against temptation'),
A ga tatakai ni katsu (Aが戦いに勝つ; 'A wins a battle'),
A ga soshō ni katsu (Aが訴訟に勝つ; 'A wins a lawsuit'),
A ga senkyo ni katsu (Aが選挙に勝つ; 'A wins an election'),
A ga kyōgi ni katsu (Aが競技に勝つ; 'A wins a contest'), etc. - Tarō lived through his father's death.
- I was subject to the fact that my mother read my diary.
- We were in trouble because the inspector dropped by without notice.
- She suffered as though she got caught in the rain, and he suffered as though his mind and body were shaken.
- Kataretagaru (勝たれたがる) is here translated as "wishes to be conquered," but the original verb katsu (勝つ; 'win') is intransitive, so the pure passive does not apply. The context is clear that this passive is not "adversative," but desired.
- Omowareru (思われる) is the passive potential of omou (思う; 'think'). Its short potential counterpart is omoeru (思える). Apart from passive and honorific meanings, it often has a "spontaneous potential" meaning (see #Potential for more), which means that rather than "I can think," it suggests "it occurs to me without my intention." The spontaneous potential meaning of omowareru is common enough to merit separate entries in bilingual dictionaries, which translate it as "it seems/appears," along with omoeru.[71]
- Get eaten by me quietly, Pork!
- Get arrested!
- He meant to be affected by the proposal that someone would offer his head.
- Get rolled by the long thing.
- This novel is very enjoyable to read.
- It seemingly wrote itself.
- She's overcome by an act of crying.
- The fish seemingly fished themselves.
- The thought occurred → it seemed.
- He made water drip.
- He let?/made? the doe drink water, and tried to make the fawn drink.
- Drinkers might plot to make you drink alcohol by using every strategy there is.
- That discovery made?/let? him make a name for himself.
- He exuded vitality to the extent that doctors would make to say "cockroach level."
- "If you make me say." Iwashimureba is the nidan provisional equivalent to iwashimereba, used here for literary flair.
- It sought its chief merit not in making people fear.
- "But now look at the Great Nature. All the time she is beckoning you and trying to make you exchange earnest talks with herself, understand herself, subdue herself, and earn bliss from herself." The object of the causatives, also the agent of the underlying actions, is nanji ("you"), marked with o shite. The other words marked with the other o's are the objects and patients of the actions.
- I let?/made? my dog eat the botched pizza.
- A woman is letting?/making? her child drink her milk.
- "It is good to let the one who wants to paint paint me." Kakasuru is the nidan attributive equivalent to kakaseru, used here in an otherwise relatively modern sentence as a faux archaism.
- Alternatively, with itasu (致す; 'do') to form omatase itashimashita.
- The apology can be made explicit with omatase shite sumimasen deshita (お待たせしてすみませんでした; lit. 'I have not gotten away with keeping you waiting') or omatase shite mōshiwake arimasen deshita (お待たせして申し訳ありませんでした; lit. 'there was no excuse for my having kept you waiting').
- You don't expect that I was made to believe.
- A man's being impelled to walk.
- "It's utterly impossible to make a project like this run these days" or "A project like this will never be made to run these days."
- If you love your child, send them out on a journey to toughen them up.
- Ikashimeyo is the imperative of the classical nidan ikashimu, which in turn is the causative of the classical yodan verb iku. It is equivalent to the modern pseudo-classical ichidan ikishimeyo.
- The saying is sora ni mitsu rōka (空に三つ廊下; lit. 'the three corridors in the sky').[445] The rōka (廊下; 'corridor') is a pun on the interrogative tentative endings in Furō ka (降ろうか; 'Will it rain?'), Terō ka (照ろうか; 'Will it shine?') and Kumorō ka (曇ろうか; 'Will it cloud?'), which are what one would ask about the weather.
- "Didn't I tell you?," "I told you, didn't I?," "I thought I told you," etc.
- Taran is equivalent to taru darō, and taru is equivalent to the unfused classical to aru (see Japanese conjugation § Copulae: Conjugation table).
- She almost put it adequately.
