An introduction to Japanese - Syntax, Grammar & Language

114 CHAPTER 3. MORE GRAMMAR

form, which can pair up with any verb, gets its inflection specifically

from the verb , meaning ”to do”:

”Today (I) went to school, went to class and ate.”

This sentence literally reads ”Today I did: going to school, going to

class, eating”, and shows why this is only listing representative actions -

there is no way to distinguish which action occurred when, in relation to

other actions; we’re literally only summarising activities performed.

Verbs in form can also be used on their own in a sentence, in

which case it translates to ”doing things such as”, and still get closed off

by :

”Yesterday (I) did things like reading (a book).”

The negative form is constructed by placing a verb in plain

negative form first, + and then turning this verbal negative

into a form by the same formula: + (with a contraction just

as for past tense), forming +.

3.2.5 Conditional: ,

In the same series of inflections that contract with verbs ( , and

), we find , which is theconditionalform, or
, for. It
combines in the same way as , and do, being added to the
, and contracts with verbs as well as with verbal adjectives:

conditional