Am I...

[Kenkaku musei]

corerct that a stem word in japanese is the equivallent to a root word in english?

and also that the ending -mashite reffers to past tenseand -masu reffers to present and future tense?

[PaulTB]

corerct that a stem word in japanese is the equivallent to a root word in english?
Given that I don't know what a root word in English is I'll take your word for that.

and also that the ending -mashite reffers to past tenseand -masu reffers to present and future tense?
Pretty much, except that there are also particular ways to refer to ongoing and repetitive states / actions.

[Kenkaku musei]

Given that I don't know what a root word in English is I'll take your word for that.


Pretty much, except that there are also particular ways to refer to ongoing and repetitive states / actions.


Such as
:souka:

[PaulTB]

Such as
:souka:

teiru

http://www.pikkle.com/jgram/viewOne.php?tagE=teiru

tearu

http://www.pikkle.com/jgram/viewOne.php?tagE=tearu

[Kenkaku musei]

dorry i can't read it at my job the settings on this computer won't allow me to
but i'll check it out when i get home


Domou!!

[Glenn]

Just a minor correction, mashita is the past form.

As far as roots in English and stems in Japanese, I don't really know what you mean either, but here's my guess:

A root word in English is an actual word. E.g. "friend" is a root word for "friendly" and "friendliness." "Regular" is a root word for "irregular." But in Japanese a stem in not necessarily a word. E.g. hashir would be the stem of hashiru. Note that this may not be entirely correct, because in Japanese grammar this sort of stem doesn't exist. Even so, if you say that the stem is hashi, then it still isn't a word (excluding the hashi that mean "bridge," "edge," and "chopsticks," because I'm dealing with the verb hashiru). Does that help in any way?

[Edit]: I just realized where you got that information. Go with the first example that I have given, i.e. hashir as the stem. Note that this is for Group I verbs. Group II verb stems end in either i or e. E.g. the stem of taberu is tabe, also not a word.

[Glenn]

Domou!!

Close, but you elongated the wrong vowel. It should be dômo (doumo). In order to see the word properly select Western European (ISO) encoding.

[Kenkaku musei]

Sou desu! Arigatou !!:-)

i bought a japanese grammar book to help with my confusion only because differnt sites call group I and Group II verbs by differnt names like Ru verbs and U verbs and it gets confusing to me so the grammar books help and i also started listening to my anime with no sub titles just picking out the key words that i can understand . it's a little difficult but i'm working on it. i can actually sing the theme song to Cutie Honey now *LOL*

[PaulTB]

Just a minor correction, mashita is the past form.

As always; romaji is teh evul. :relief: