Japan 202 Final

Passive sentences

Used to express dissatisfaction when inconvenienced by someting somebody else has done

• Structure: (victim)は(villain)に(evil act)

  • Victim: the person affected by the action (marked by は or が)

  • Villain: performs the inconveniencing action (marked by に)

  • Evil act: action described with passive form

〜てほしい

Used when you want someone to do something

• the person the wish is directed at is marked with に

  • 私はルームメイト二宿題を手伝ってほしかったです。

• this same formation goes for the opposite polarity, with the difference being you negate the ほしい

  • 私は日本の友達に英語で話さないでほしいです。

Recap of the three forms for “want”

1. verb stem + たい → I want to do…

2. noun がほしい → I want something…

3. て form + ほしい → I want somebody to do…

〜のに

Connects two facts, A and B, where despite the effort or expectation created through A, the unexpected B happens

• The predicate in part A is in short form

  • この会社はお金があるのに、きゅうりょうは安いです。

• When A ends with a な-adjective or noun + です, it appears as な (like んです）

  • 大きいもんだいなのに、あの人はだれにもそうだんしません。

• のに cannot connect two non-factual sentences, like requests or suggestions

〜ても

Used as conditional form where even if A occurs, B is still true (and would always be true even if A isn’t the case)

• A ても clause is formed by taking the て-form of a verb or adjective and adding も, with な-adjectives and nouns it’s でも

  • 雨がふっても、バーベキューをします。

  • べんりじゃなくても、この仕事をするつもりです。

• ても does not have a specific tense for its use so it can follow both present and past

Causative Sentences

Used to describe someone making or letting a person do something

• Basic structure: directorは castに action. Determining whether the meaning is “make someone do” or “let someone do” is almost entirely contextual.

  • director: decides what is allowed and what is to be done (marked with は or が)

  • cast: performs the action (usually goes with に)

  • action: described with causative form of the verb

• Formation:

  • る-verbs: drop the る and add させる

    • 食べる → 食べさせる

  • う-verbs: drop the う and add あせる

    • 行く → 行かせる

    • 買う → 買わせる

  • Irregular verbs

    • 来る → 来させる

    • する → させる

• When the caused action is a reflex, the cast is marked by を

  • 母の話は子供を笑わせる

Causative + てあげる・てくれる

If the helping verb てあげる・てくれる follows a causative verb, you can assume in almost all cases that it’s a “let” causative

• 先生は私に英語を話してくれませんでした。

• 私は自分の子供に好きなことをさせてあげるつもりです。

Causative + てください can be used to ask for permission to do something and to volunteer to do something

• 私にこの仕事をやらせてください。

If causative is being placed before ていただけませんか then you have to be the one doing the action, it can’t be about asking someone else to do the action.

〜のように・のような

Noun Aのように is used when you want to describe an action which is done in the same way as A, or a characteristic which is comparable to A

• メアリーさんは魚のようにおよげます。

When ても is used preceding ように it means “like”, whereas when では is preceding ように it means “unlike”

Noun A のような noun B is used when B has the same quality or appearance as A, or A is an example of B

• 私はかまくらのような町が好きです。

〜ば

A conditional statement to describe that “if A, then B” where A describes the condition, provided the consequence described in B will follow.

• Conjugation:

  • Affirmative drops the う and adds えば

    • 食べる → 食べれば

    • 行く → 行けば

    • する → すれば

    • くる → くれば

  • Negative drops the い and adds ければ

    • 食べない → 食べなければ

    • 行かない → 行かなければ

• AばB is usually used when the condition A guarantees a good result in B

  • (i) 走れば、電車に間に合います。O

    (ii) 歩けば、電車におくれます。X

ことにしている

Describes something that is done in regular practice, in other words, you have made up your mind that you should do something and have stuck to that resolution

• 毎日十一時までに寝ることにしている。

Causative-passive

Used when you were made to do, or harassed or talked into doing, something that you did not want to

• Formation:

  • る-verbs: drop the う and add させられる

    • 食べる → 食べさせられる

  • う-verbs that end with す: drop う and add あせられる

    • 話す → 話させられる

  • All other う-verbs: drop う and add あされる

    • 行く → 行かされる

    • 待つ → 待たせれる

  • Irregular verbs

    • する → させられる

    • 来る → 来させられる

• Sentence structure: (puppet)は(puppet master)に(action)

  • Puppet: forced into performing an action (marked with は or が)

  • Puppet master: wields power over, and manipulates, the puppet (marked with に)

  • Action: forced upon the puppet and is described with a causative passive verb

Verb stem + なさい

A command used by parents or on tests due to it’s strong implication of “talking down” to somebody

• 十時までに帰りなさい。

• もんくを言うのをやめなさい。

As per the second example, the negative “don’t do” can be expressed using a verb followed by のをやめなさい

〜よかったです

Means “I’m glad that such and such is/was the case”

• 日本語を勉強してよかったです。

• メアリーさんが元気になってよかったです。

〜ことにする

Used to express having “decided to do” something. Follows the short form present tense of a verb in either polarity

• 車を買うことにしました。

• あの人がかわいそうだから、あまりもんくを言わないことにします。