Verb Templates, A shortcut to Learning Japanese Grammar
Japanese has a mix of simple grammatical rules and complex contextual rules of when you can say certain things.
Why is Japanese so Hard: Simplifying Context
It takes lots of time engaging with the language before you can start speaking naturally. Japanese is one of those languages where it is one thing to learn to speak, and another to learn to sound natural when you do so. Don’t worry too much though about this if you are just learning Japanese now. There is a simple strategy that can help you at least get a huge boost in the beginning. This will help you more easily pick up the subtleties of the language later on. That would be learning verb templates.
https://japaneseuniverse.com/2024/02/18/pac-man-in-japaneseconcepts-behind-development-to-global-icon/INDEX
Learning Verb Templates
I don’t believe that verb templates are not actually some official word. This is just what I am going to call this so it is easy to remember.
Basically, you can think of the core grammar of Japanese as a combination of verbs and particles. Verbs come at the end of the sentence and there are certain particles that you can and can not use with those verbs. By themselves, particles have a variety of different meanings and usage. But, depending on the verb they are used with, they will have a more specific meaning in that context. It is ok to learn verbs and particles separately but it is much more beneficial to learn them together. This combination of which particles you can use with specific verbs is what I am calling verb templates.
Japanese Particles
Japanese particles are words that follow other words like nouns. Let’s call these particles connected to nouns, particle phrases which I just made up for understanding. Particles phrases then connect to verbs in a sentence. When particle phrases connect with verbs that complete a phrase.
動詞 – The Basics of Japanese verbs
Japanese Verbs
Verbs are words representing movement or action and tell you that something is happening.
助詞 – Simple Explanation of Japanese Particles
Putting them together
Now that we know a little about verbs and particles we can start learning about templates.
Verbs tell you that something or someone is doing something. But, you need the particles to tell you who is doing what. Just like in English you can not just throw random words at verbs hoping they will stick and make sense in a sentence.
✖太郎が石を落ちる
✖Taro falls a stone
This sentence does not work in either Japanese or English because the nouns don’t complete the meaning of the verb. You could say instead, the following.
太郎が石を落とす
Taro drops a stone
This works because the verb drops require two things,
- Someone to drop something
- Something to be dropped
This is different from the first example which only requires one thing. That would be something that falls.
These two types of verbs, 落とす, and 落ちる are known as transitive and intransitive verbs. This is very important in Japanese since there are several similar verbs in Japanese that will be one or the other. In English lots of verbs, however, can be either one. This can be a difficult part of Japanese for learners since they have to learn different verbs when there would be only one in English. Most of the time the two verbs are pretty close and the forms can be guessed. So it is not that difficult to overcome.
Anyway, for verb templates, this is a good place to start. Basically for transitive verbs, you will have the template below.
- <Noun>が<Noun>をVerb
Then for intransitive verbs you will have.
- <Noun>がVerb
This is a basic template that you probably already know if you are learning Japanese.
- <Noun>が is the subject (Who does what)
- <Noun>を is the object (What is having something done do it)
Individual Verbs have different Particles
Japanese verbs do not always nicely translate into an exact English equivalent. For example, take a look at the word 聞こえる.
You can translate this as to be audible, to be able to hear, and so on. In English most of the time, we would say something like,
- I can hear voices
This would have a subject and an object but in Japanese, it would be different.
- 声が聞こえる
Here this follows the intransitive template we learned before. That is because 聞こえる is intransitive. So, in this case, how would you say something like Taro hears voices? You would need to use a different particle.
太郎は声が聞こえる
As for Taro, voices are audible
If you see the English translation we are required to resort to unique translation techniques to make the meanings match in both English and Japanese exactly. In most cases, though this phrase would simply be the same thing as saying, Taro hears voices.
When you are learning Japanese it is easy to get caught up in trying to make translations from Japanese to English fit nicely. Most of the time they won’t. So it is better to instead focus on the intention of the sentence instead of the meaning.
- Meaning → As for Taro, voices are audible
- Intention → Taro hears voices
In order to do that it is easier to first learn which particles you can use with which verbs when you learn new verbs. This will not always make sense at first but it will help you understand the context better later on and be able to focus on the intention in a sentence instead of translation.
