This is a sample lesson of a TE Form
Master Course at Smile Nihongo Academy.
Learn more about the course at Smile
Nihongo.com/TE. As we discussed in the
very first lesson of this course, one
function of the TE form is to list
multiple actions in one sentence.
For instance, let's say you want to say
something like this. I wake up at 6, do
yoga, eat breakfast and go to work. You
have four verbs in this sentence.
Wake up, do, eat, and go. Or, you may want to
say something like this. My wife wakes up
at 6, does yoga, eats breakfast and goes to
work. Again you have four verbs in one
sentence here. To say these sentences in
Japanese you have to say the first three
verbs in TE form and the one at the end
of the sentence in MASU form. In this
lesson, I'm going to walk you through how
to use TE forms to construct
sentences with multiple verbs.
Let's begin with sentences with two verbs.
I often go to Starbucks and buy coffee.
Here we have two verbs. Go and buy. And
the first verb go has to be in the TE form.
Let's finish the first part of the
sentence. By the way I'm not going to
state the subject I, watashi wa, in the
sentence since in Japanese the subject I
is often dropped and, in fact, it sounds
more natural that way without, watashi wa,
in the sentence.
Okay the first part. I often go to
Starbucks,
よく yoku often, スタバに sutaba ni to Starbucks, いって itte
go and. Please know that the verb いって itte
here means "go and" in English. By putting
the verb in the TE form, you are
indicating that a sentence doesn't end
there.
It's still going to continue so you
don't have to use the word "and" in the
sentence here. Instead you simply use the
TE form of the verb.
Let's finish the second part of the
sentence. Buy coffee コーヒーを Koohii o かいます kaimasu.
Very good. Now the sentence is complete.
I often go to Starbucks and buy coffee is
yoku Staba ni itte, koohii o kaimasu. Yoku
Staba ni itte, koohii o kaimasu.
By the way, this is a Japanese comma. You
don't have to use it all the time but
just so you know many people tend to use
it after each TE form especially when
they're writing an essay, official
document, or formal letter. OK, now let's
change the tense of the sentence. This
time we want to say the sentence in the
past tense like this. Yesterday I went to
Starbucks and bought coffee. How do we do
that?
Previously you learned that TE form
doesn't have any tense. It's completely
neutral and influenced by the verb at
the end of the sentence, so that means we
only need to change the ending verb
かいます kaimasu to the past tense. Let's do it.
きのう Kinoo, yesterday, スタバに Sutaba ni, to Starbucks
いって itte, went and, コーヒーを koohii o coffee, かいました kaimashita bought.
That's it
Yesterday I went to Starbucks and bought
coffee in Japanese is きのう Kinoo スタバに Sutaba ni いって itte,
コーヒーを koohii o かいました kaimashita.
きのうスタバにいって、コーヒーをかいました。Kinoo Sutaba ni itte, koohii o kaimashita.
Again what matters here is the ending.
The ending verb decides the tense of
the entire sentence, so you don't change
the TE form for the past tense or any
tense. Okay let's continue with the
lesson. Now let's say we want to add one
more action to the sentence after buy
coffee like this. I often go to Starbucks
buy coffee and take a walk. Now we have
three verbs in the sentence and the
action "buy coffee" no longer ends the
sentence. So that means we need to
convert かいます kaimasu into the TE form, which is
かって katte, かって katte, and then end the sentence with
"take a walk." さんぽします sanpo shimasu.
Now the sentence is complete.
I often go to Starbucks, buy coffee and
take a walk in Japanese is よく yoku スタバに Sutaba ni いって itte, コーヒーをかって koohii o katte, さんぽします sanpo shimasu.
よく Yoku スタバに Sutaba ni いって itte, コーヒーを koohii o かって katte, さんぽします sanpo shimasu.
And of course if you want to say the
sentence in the past tense you only need
to change the ending verb. Yesterday I
went to Starbucks bought coffee and took
a walk.
きのう kinoo スタバに Sutaba ni いって itte, コーヒーを koohii o かって katte,
さんぽしました Sanpo shimashita. From here in the course I'll
be teaching you how to change the Speech
style from Formal to Informal speech
when you have multiple TE forms in
your sentences. You will also have some
exercises to improve your pronunciation
and fluency in Japanese.
Join me in the TE form master course and
you're going to learn all about TE form.
Go to SmileNihongo.com/TE to learn more about the course