Queries on て form

2 comments

1. The phrase you listed connects the clauses together to mean “sorry for the late reply” (more closely translated as “I’m sorry that my reply has become late”).

2. You can pretty much see it purely as a connector if you want.

   ごめんなさい – Forgive (me).

   返事が遅くなる – The reply has become late.

   返事が遅くなってごめんなさい – The reply has become late, forgive (me).

   As you can see, both things are being connected here. It’s the same with requests.

   ください – Please (give me/do for me).

   ゴミを拾う – Pick up the trash.

   ゴミを拾ってください – Pick up the trash, please.

   It’s interesting to note that in Japanese, the only thing you need for a clause is a predicate. For example, just saying ‘happy’ in English would not be acceptable as a clause (You’d have to say something like “It’s happy.”), but in Japanese you can totally just say “うれしい”. Same with verbs and nouns. As you can see, clauses in Japanese are much more flexible.

   So て form is used in a lot of different fixed grammar expressions, but て form’s job will always be connecting things.