Japanese Lesson 21: Te-Imasu

Please view previous lessons for additional vocabulary and grammar.

This lesson covers the sentence pattern "te-imasu". With this sentence, you will be able to express the current action in progress.

Notes:

ほんをよみます。　／　[I] Read a book.
ほんをよんでいます。　／　[I] am reading a book.
ほんをよみました。　／　[I] have read a book.

ジュースをのみます。　／　[I] drink juice.
ジュースをのんでいます。　／　[I] am drinking juice.
ジュースをのみました。　／　[I] drank juice.

ケーキをたべます。　／　[I] eat cake.
ケーキをたべています。　／　[I] am eating a cake.
ケーキをたべました。　／　[I] ate a cake.

ブラウンさんはなにをしていますか？　／　What is Brown doing?
ばんごはをつくります。　／　[Brown] makes dinner.
ばんごはんをつくっています。　／　[Brown] is making dinner.
なにをしていますか？　／　What [is Brown] doing?
でんわをします。　／　[Brown] makes a telephone call.
でんわをしています。　／　[Brown] is making a telephone call.
なにをしていますか？　／　What [is Brown] doing?
えいがをみます。　／　[Brown] watches a film.
えいがをみています。　／　[Brown] is watching a film.
なにをしていますか？　／　What [is Brown] doing?
そうじをします。　／　[Brown] cleans [the room].
そうじをしています。　／　[Brown] is cleaning [the room].
なにをしていますか？　／　What [is Brown] doing?
ギターをひきます。　／　[Brown] plays the guitar.
ギターをひいてます。　／　[Brown] is playing the guitar.
なにをしていますか？　／　What [is Brown] doing?
シーディーをききます。　／　[Brown] listens to a CD.
シーディーをきいています。　／　[Brown] is listening to a CD.
なにをしていますか？　／　What [is Brown] doing?
ねます。　／　[Brown] sleeps.
ねています。　／　[Brown] is sleeping.

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[Al_Mic]

These lessons are fantastic. So simple and to the point. You really progress. Thank you so much.

[AlexanderMarks]

These lessons with this teacher are literally the best on the internet

[ムンクミン]

All the lessons is useful and educational 🙏🙏🙏
Thank you so much 🥰

[jeansat]

Thank you for these lessons, I've understood more about the te form here than I have elsewhere. I'm going to keep watching all of your lessons on the te form until I 100% understand it! Thanks again for the simple and to the point lessons.

[valhallashock]

I would just like to say that I love these videos. I'm from Houston and I've been trying to learn Japanese for 3 years by studying, but because most classes are too complex or too simple, I have never shown much improvement. This channel is wonderful. Thank you, JapanSocietyNYC!!! :D

[rubenbarrera]

teacher... you just a make a little mistake in the sentence: Gita o HIITEMASU? or It is HITEIMASU?....Hiteimasu, isn´t it?...
Thank you very much

[amelied.]

All your videos are so useful and helpful!

[sundownerjames]

Great lesson ! Domo arigatou gozaimashita.

[JPAS-YT]

This lesson is genius, its very useful

[MrMacktheknife]

Hello class, when writting double letters like "tt" you need to use this "っ"  when you type using Hiragana, just type "xtu" and this will give you this, "っ".  Here is another example, okay or Ok in Hiragana is wakatta, you could use yoshi, but yoshi is a bit rude, so use wakatta instead.  (wa  わ)    (ka  か)   (t  っ)   (ta  た)     (wakatta   わかった)  wakarimaska

[StarLad]

Mr. Brown is also concerned he's life is being spied upon.

[sonofheru]

Is the Hiragana wrong on "[Brown] is playing the guitar"? Seems to be missing i before masu. She even says Hiteimasu.

[Teto]

Buraun san no beddo no naka ni neko ga imasuka?

[dzc]

I couldn't continue after you guys ditched the Romaji...I guess it was taking longer to put together, so, I get it. 

[ranamostafa]

Make some other videos, please
You are the only good sensei on youtube, please

[greyeye]

thanks to you a right it all down and i know almost all

[berenicegaytan]

I got lost after they took the topic away and weren’t adding Mr. Brown to the sentence.
Do you do that when the topic is obvious and there’s no need to point out who you are speaking of ?
Help !!

[LittleLulubee]

Thanks, I had been wondering about this form. So would saying it the 1st way, (without the te-imasu), be wrong? Does anybody say it the 1st way?

[miyazakisarah]

Doumo arigatou gozaimashita sensei :D 

[catskatcats]

If the verb for cleaning is そうじする why is the te imasu form そうじをしています instead of そうじしています?　why the particle を?