Learning Japanese Verb Endings

When I was learning Japanese I didn't consult verb tables. There aren't as many different possible endings in Japanese as in other languages, so I never felt the need. The way I learned Japanese verb endings was to get used to them by exposing myself to lots and lots of content in Japanese.

[محمدصالح-فدب]

I cannot wait till you upload the next video


You really changed the way I learn languages
I am so grateful.

[ashie]

Wow Thanks Steve K. 日本語を勉強している in Philadelphia at the Japanese Language School of Philadelphia (I'm a Canadian living in USA btw, so hello fellow Canadian!) and I'm heading into semester 3 in a few weeks. This chat has completely helped me look at the Japanese verb ending in a different way and I think it will be helpful going forward with the language. Thank you!

[cynthiathinnes]

Thank you so much for these videos. I enjoy them very much, and I appreciate the effort you put into them.

I do have to say, though, that I think you were right the first time when you said that Japanese did not have verb endings. I completely agree that the so-called "verb endings" in Japanese are a much different animal than those of other languages, especially those of Indo-European languages. I actually think that this is one of the more confusing things that Japanese textbooks for foreigners do...teaching Japanese as if the endings were "conjugations."

In my Japanese studies, I bought and worked through a grammar workbook that was for Japanese elementary school children, and what are taught as "endings" to foreigners seem to be taught as 助動詞, jodoushi, supplemental verbs, to Japanese schoolchildren. Their term for conjugation, 活用, katsuyou, only seems to apply to the change in the stem of the word needed to glue on the jodoushi. This may seem like splitting hairs, but for myself, when I was able to understand things in this way, it helped me a great deal. Japanese made so much more sense to me after I understood things in this way.

I have also been studying Swedish for some time, and I have recently begun Latin. I have to say that in comparison to these, especially Latin, Japanese is a dream, for this very reason. Heee....I often say that about learning Swedish that the good news is that it is like English, and the bad news is that it is like English, filled with exceptions and strange spellings and pronunciations.

[alexeltroll]

I am a native spanish speaker and an english teacher by trade. I do understand how difficult it can be for someone to reprogram their brain to all the different versions of one verb as in spanish. To hear that Japanese doesn't have that makes me very happy since i am looking forward to study japanese japaneses

[Linck]

I think what you are saying is in general japanese has more functional verb endings, that actually modify the meaning or the nuance of the word, instead of just informing or indicating how it relates to the words around it like other languages do.

[Pal-qnsr]

Hi Steve. When reading/listening to Japanese on linq, I often come across sentences (sometimes several sentences at a time) that I can't understand at all, despite knowing all the words. Since Google translate is so terrible for Japanese, it's usually impossible to even get a sense of what they're saying by Google translating. Would it be a good idea to study some grammar the traditional way? (I'm just past JLPT N4 level by the way, although I learnt most of that in a classroom setting. I am now self studying using lingq.)

[mckenziewhite]

How many languages all together do you know?

[abdulmohsennalsalman]

If this is the case Japanese must be easier than Spanish. Is it?