Language question

5 comments

1. So, super quick answer (sorry, on mobile)….

   Japanese verbs don’t conjugate based on person, so, there’s no difference between “I can speak” and “he can speak” in Japanese (there’s also no “future tense” really… Just “past” and “non-past”)

   Second, a note: 話せます technically means “can speak”
   話します would just be speak/am/is/are/will be speaking

   This is because there is a “potential” conjugation in Japanese… It’s probably beyond where you need to worry about it, now, but 話す is the dictionary form and, for this verb す is the dictionary ending and each other forms on that line (sa shi su se so) have other meanings so:
   話さない* – I don’t speak
   話します – I speak
   話せます – I can speak
   話そう* – it seems I speak/let’s speak

   The two marked with asterisks are shortened forms that are “impolite” (grossly oversimplified)… The polite forms are 話しません and 話まそう, respectively

   I hope that helps…? I fear it may not…

2. As for wa and ga, I had a botched understanding of them for years no matter how much I read up on them… until I watched these three videos. Cant recommend them enough.

   [https://youtu.be/pSvH9vH60Ig](https://youtu.be/pSvH9vH60Ig)

   [https://youtu.be/P3n8n0u3LHA](https://youtu.be/P3n8n0u3LHA)

   [https://youtu.be/U9_T4eObNXg](https://youtu.be/U9_T4eObNXg)

   And by the way, you should know that Japanese doesn’t really have true pronouns. You can call yourself 私 with people you don’t know well. But any so-called second and third person pronouns you hear about are only used in rare and specific situations, outside of which they will sound inappropriate.

3. Verb forms don’t change for person like they do in European languages, so no.

   You’ll also usually leave off 彼は or 私は and leave it up to context to tell who did the thing. Like, purely up to context. Other “pro-drop” languages like Spanish leave a marker on the verb, not so in Japanese.

   However 話せます is a *conjugated* form of 話す meaning “can speak” – the language still has a lot of verb forms. -せ- in this case means “can”. The corresponding form 話します means “speaks” or “will speak”.

   And ます is a polite suffix.

   “he can speak english” is (彼は)**英語**が話せます.

   btw you can also phrase it as 彼は英語が**できます**, “he can english”. in my experience this is more common than hanasemasu

   I’d recommend getting off Duolingo and/or only using it to cram vocabulary. It doesn’t give you a good overview of grammar and it’s very piecemeal/haphazard about teaching you kanji. I assume that’s why you wrote 日本ご rather than 日本語 anyway. Like technically the former is possible? But you *literally* never see it.

   As for は and が, primary reason to get off duolingo! ga is the *subject* marker. Yep. Your usual object marker is を. The potential conjugation (-se-, here), is funky and requires subject marking, essentially. So honestly i think it’s a massive oversight that they teach you this conjugation before basic ones. *Fortunately* in real life you’re allowed to drop the particles in casual-ish speech, so if you forget if it’s が or を, just leave it off. “日本語話せますか？”

   は is the topic of the sentence, the thing you’re concerned with. it may take you years to fully understand the difference between subject and topic, so don’t fret about it too much until you’ve got a more solid foundation in the language. Usually it corresponds to the subject of an english sentence, especially at your level, but it can actually replace any role of a sentence.

4. I’d like to expand on the fine comments from others about the nature of potential verbs in Japanese.

   * In English, we focus on the agent (the one doing the verb): _”`[PERSON]` can `[VERB]` `[THING]`”_. It’s a very active-voice way of saying things. The verb “can” describes an ability of the agent.

   * In Japanese, we focus on the patient (the one to which the action of the verb happens, from an English perspective): _”(As for `[PERSON`],)`[THING]` is `[VERB]`-able”_. The potential form of the `[VERB]` describes a quality of the thing.

   This is why potential verbs in Japanese (usually) require that the `[THING]` be marked with the subject particle が (_ga_) — it’s because the verb is talking about that `[THING]`. Much like if we say _”I am edible”_, we mean that “I” can _be eaten_, as a quality of “I” as the subject of the verb “am”. So, in Japanese, we say 「日本語が話せます」 (_Nihongo ga hanasemasu_) or 「日本語ができます」 (_Nihongo ga dekimasu_), we mean that “Japanese” can _be spoken_, as a quality of “Japanese” as the subject of the verb _”hanasemasu”_.

   Whenever you see a potential verb in Japanese, it might be best to think of it as “to be `[VERB]`-able”. So _hanasemasu_ isn’t “to be able to speak” (focus on the agent), but rather “to _be speakable_” (focus on the patient).

   —-

   Quick note on historical derivation:

   Japanese potential verbs for consonant-stem bases like _yak-u_ (“to roast, to grill, to fry”) or _hanas-u_ (“to speak”) originally arose out of a kind of ergative construction (where a noun that is usually the object of the verb is used instead as the subject) to talk about how that thing `[VERB]`s, much like in English constructions such as _”this car **drives** well”_, or _”this sentence **reads** poorly”_. This first appeared in the late 1500s.

   I posted more about this a while back over in [this Japanese Stack Exchange thread](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/91189/why-is-%e3%81%99%e3%82%8bs-potential-form-%e3%81%a7%e3%81%8d%e3%82%8b/92681#92681), for anyone interested. 🙂

5. Not about gramma,I try to talk a little about expression.Im also learning,so there may be some mistakes.

   彼は日本語が話せます。This is right,but weird.
   近藤さんは日本語ができます。近藤さんは日本語が上手です。These may be a more smooth expression.

   In Japanese,彼、彼女 and other third person pronoun is rarely used and often directly to use the name.

   There are mainly three methods to express ability in Japanese.できる、（ら）れる、ぇる。If you want express normal ability in common,できる is more often used.彼は日本語が話せます is like “he has the ability to use Japanese “