Welcome to Lesson 12!
Ready to go beyond simply stating facts and start expressing your personal feelings, desires, intentions, and even guesses in Japanese? Lesson 12 at gokigen japanese blog introduces you to versatile patterns that add depth, personality, and naturalness to your conversations.
The main goal of this lesson is to enable you to understand and use expressions that convey the speaker’s feelings and subjective perspective.
Key grammar patterns and expressions you will master in this lesson include:
- Expressing Desire: Learn how to clearly state what you “want to do” using the pattern V(stem) + たい (tai) (e.g., ラーメンを食べたいです – I want to eat ramen).
- Expressing Excess: Learn how to say that something is “too much” or “overly ~” when describing actions or states using V/adj(stem) + すぎる (sugiru) (e.g., この本は難しすぎます – This book is too difficult).
- Expressing Quantity with Feeling: Use Number + も (mo) to express a feeling of surprise or emphasis about a large quantity (“as many as ~”) and Number + しか (shika) (followed by a negative verb) to express a limited or surprisingly small quantity or limitation (“only ~”) (e.g., 車が３台もあります – There are as many as 3 cars!).
- Listing Typical Actions: Learn the useful pattern V1-たり V2-たりする (tari tari suru) to list a few representative actions among many possibilities, meaning “do such things as V1 and V2” (e.g., 休みは家でゴロゴロしたり、友達と遊んだりします – On vacation, I do things like relax at home and hang out with friends).
- Expressing Intention or Plan: Learn how to state your personal intention or plan for the future using V(short) + つもりだ (tsumori da) (e.g., 来年日本へ行くつもりです – I intend to go to Japan next year).
- Expressing Guess or Prediction: Learn how to convey your estimation, probability, or guess about a situation using (short form) + でしょう (deshou), meaning “probably ~” or “it will likely be ~” (e.g., 明日は晴れるでしょう – It will probably be sunny tomorrow).
By the end of Lesson 12, you’ll be able to talk about your wants, plans, and impressions, add subjective comments about quantity or degree, list your activities, and make predictions. These patterns are crucial for expressing yourself more fully and naturally in Japanese!
Explore the articles linked below to master expressing feelings, desires, intentions, and guesses in Japanese!
