Hi, I am confused as to why the following sentences are correct:
Eiga o **mi** ni ikimashita.
and
Benkyō **shi** ni kimashita.
Why is it not “**miru**” and “**suru**”? Does the verb change to its stem form if its not at the end of the sentence? I asked my husband who is Japanese and he had a very hard time trying to explain to me why its not like that.
I’d appreciate help on this very dumb question. 🙂 Thank you!
3 comments
Short answer is because に indicates a purpose, and needs to follow a noun. The correct nominalisation in this case is the verb stem. (By this I mean it should be “mi ni iku”, not “miru koto ni iku” or whatever.)
http://guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar/polite#The_stem_of_verbs
Because you’re saying “I went to see a movie” and “I came to study”, in order to say went to see and came to study, you need to shorten 見る and する in order to conjugate them using に.
Think of it like the difference between “seeing a movie” and “going to see a movie” in English. Similar adjustment of the verb tense/conjugation.