Hi, I hope that this video helps to clarify what 'masu' is and what it does. I don't have access to my actual microphone at the moment, hence the worse voice quality, so I apologise for that. To clarify: There are definite differences between Japanese spoken in formal settings, and normal everyday language. However, what I wanted to achieve with this video, is to explain how the conjugation differences between 'masu' and 'plain form' Japanese really doesn't make up two separate systems of conjugation. Masu is just an auxiliary verb that makes a Japanese verb more formal/polite. I.e., 食べます (tabemasu) is the more formal/polite version of 食べる (taberu). Nuance: Thank you to @jamesdowdle7587 for pointing this out. The す of ます conjugates like any other す verb until it's turned into the negative. So ます becomes ました in the same was 話す becomes 話した. However, when 話す is made negative it becomes 話さない, but ます became ません. Why is this? My video on 'negation' explains this, but a short summary is the following: ない developed as a negation in the east of Japan, where as in the west of Japan it was ぬ. So 食べない in the east of Japan, but 食べぬ. It's more nuanced than this, but that's the general gist of it. Why standard Japanese adopted western Japanese ぬ for ます, so that ます became ませぬ and then ません, rather than using eastern ない to make まさない, I do not know.
I was going to mention ません not fitting, and まさない being expected. You explained that a bit, but it is still unclear why it appears like the potential negative ませぬ rather than the non-potential negative まさぬ. Any way you look at it, it appears that ません is an outlier when it comes to other verbs ending in "su"... Also, it's ましょう rather than まそう as might be expected. ませんでした is ません plus でした rather than まさなかった. These may be why the ます form is so different as to be its own thing, rather than people thinking of it as the second part of a compound verb like 聞き取る, for example, with 聞く being in the 連用形 and a regular 取る verb being added to it.
It's also useful to point out that, while ます is merely an auxiliary verb denoting politeness and thus the past tense is essentially た-form of す-ending verbs, the negative conjugations of ます-both imperfect and perfect tenses-don't follow modern rules of conjugation for those tenses, i.e. The conjugations aren't まさない or まさなかった but using older negative form for す verbs せぬ (eventually contracted to せん) and adding the past tense of the copula でした (itself conjugated into past た form for す verbs). A followup video talking about this etymology would be equally fascinating.
@@jamesdowdle7587 thank you for the comment, that's a really good point! I overlooked that. I've conjugated ます so much, I didn't clock that exception. My video of 'negation' covers ぬ、ず、ない and せん so that might be useful! But yes, definitely still learning how to explain stuff properly with these videos so thank you.
A follow-up on the origins of です would be interesting too. To me it sounds like an obvious abbreviation of で plus some す verb, most likely であります or でございます which are both still used in some situations… but I'm too busy studying the language to actually research the hypothesis 😅 But I love the video. Not only because I'm an etymology nerd, but because I think it's super valuable to demystify so-called special cases of Japanese grammar and show they're really normal grammar, possibly with a little bit of abbreviation for convenience.
Thank you so much for this video! I love the fact that more people are understanding ます forms not as conjugations, but as auxiliary verbs added onto verb stems. It helps making Japanese grammar much more understandable and regular
@@gustavovillegas5909 thank you for the kind comment! I really struggled with Japanese, until I began to try and find out the Japanese logic behind their own language and it all suddenly began to click more easily :)
@@tonythesopranos5310i feel depressed that ppl are actually getting the etymologies and nature of jp finally on yt... It feels like I haven't gone far at all though I know the basic fundamentals people don't usually know...
rote memorization has never worked for me, I need to know the WHY for stuff, so I'm so glad this graced my recommended. Where can I find more Japanese linguistic history content? I want to be BUREID IN IT!!!
@@mayanightstar thank you for your comment. A History of the Japanese Language by Bjarke Frellesvig is a great book. However, it is very detailed, and without a background in linguistics, some of it just flies over my head. Honestly though, I'd just read through the Japanese language Wikipedia page. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_language. Wikipedia gets a bad wrap sometimes, but honestly, for some topics it's great. I think it does a great job of explaining the development in terms that non-linguists such as myself can understand. Unfortunately though, a lot of this stuff just hasn't been translated, or isn't codified in one place for an English reading audience. I only know about these little language tidbits from just studying the language over the years and finding the information here and there. I hope that helps! And I totally agree, if you can't explain how something works to someone else, you don't really understand it in my opinion. Without conceptual knowledge you're just a very humanoid parrot repeating information 🦜
What the hell!? 😂 I accidentally stumbled upon this gem; I wanted to find some more only to find it's one of the few ever made.😢 Good job, really interesting dive in the grammar ❤ Will wait for some new uploads
@@railvolt thank you :) it's only 13 minutes long, but you'd be amazed at how even simple editing like this takes, probably took a good few hours to make. I'm looking forward to making more though!
Great video! At 4:24, I will say that the main function of the auxiliary verb "to do" in this sentence isn't to express the past tense, but acts as an intensifier to the verb "to go." English has a past tense conjugation of "to go," which is "went" so it wouldn't need an auxiliary verb to express the past. However, since English does not have a future tense conjugation, it DOES require the modal auxiliary verb "will" to express the future
Ooh, I didn't know that. That's very interesting thank you. As English is my native language, it never occurred to me that English doesn't have a future tense conjugation. I just had a quick look at your channel, the production quality is insane. I've subscribed :)
a very insightful explanation! i wish i had this video when i was still a beginner learner, lol. excellent job, makes me wonder why more textbooks don't cover it this way.
@@msmarymaq I think some people just want to get on with learning the rules of the language they're learning. But I definitely prefer picking it apart like this!
I stumbled across your video on the て form this evening and loved it. Immediately watched this one too. Great work! I was a huge fan of Cure Dolly (RIP) - her explanations of the structure, and to some extent the history too, of the language were very insightful. I'm looking forward to being enlightened by your wonderful insights too. Thanks! Keep up the good work!
@@donconore ah that's very high praise! Thank you 🙏 I hope you'll enjoy. Yes, I really miss cure dolly. It was her videos that finally got me to start understanding Japanese grammar from a Japanese perspective.
This reminds me of the American Spanish informal "tu" and formal/polite "usted," both used colloquially as "you" singular. But literally and historically they are quite different. So different that "tu" takes the 2nd person conjugation while "usted" takes the 3rd. "Usted" is the contracted form of "vuestra merced," literally "your grace." While "tu" simply means "you" singular. Thus to say "how are you this evening?" one would either say "como ESTAS tu este noche?" or "como ESTA usted este noche?" The first transliterates to a simple "how ARE (2nd pers sing) you this evening?" while the second is "how IS (3rd pers sing) 'your grace' this evening?" (I should note that Spanish, much like Japanese, usually omits the pronouns in colloquial speech when they're indicated by context and verbal conjugations make the meaning clear.) This form has become so deep seated in American Spanish that the 2nd pers pl form, "vosotros" and its conjugations (very much still used in Europe) is so rarely used it's practically lost, having being replaced with "ustedes" with the 3rd pers pl conjugations that go with it: "como ustedes ESTAN" or "how are all of you ('your graces')?" I suspect this has to do with the way the Conqistadores subjugated and enslaved the native peoples of the Americas, demanding utmost respect and obeisance, even in speech, but im probably wrong.
Informative, but I’m referring to you you as tabe mashed potatoes from now on. Please make at least some effort to pronounce “a” correctly in future videos.
@@codyhodson7321 I get quite a few comments about my pronunciation. Firstly, I'm swapping between my English script and Japanese, so I struggle to keep the pronunciation as consistent. Secondly, I'm a learner, my pronunciation is not perfect. I don't know what people want to get out of pointing out my pronunciation not being perfect? Like yes. I know it isn't. You're very welcome to spend the time and research making your own videos if my pronunciation bothers you so much.
Japanese to English transliteration is awful. I do it directly myself, for example 柔道 is not Judo, but Juudou. Directly from hiragana. No point in studying two different set of rules.
@@JariSatta Oh definitely, I agree. It's a bit like Katakana transliteration. There is little standardisation, it just feels like the spellings are chosen based on 'vibes' more so than anything else lol.
That rote versus conceptual memorization is literally why I suck at math. It's all gibberish to me. Always has been. I need there to be meaning behind things to understand them. it's all abstract. Also this is the first video I've seen from you but I'm subscribing. Very well done, clear, nice to look at, helpful, and informative. I would love to see more etymology videos.
@@GustafUNL I've always been terrible with maths, I just can't conceptualise many of its rules. I always find it quite dull 😅. Thank you for your kind words.
As someone with terrible memory, I can't relate. I have a good understanding of math, so I am decent at it and find it fun, but the moment large amounts of memorisation is required, I get a headache lol
@GustafUNL all you need to know with math is why this does that. Once you understand why things do what they do, you know when and how to apply which formula to get a result. All that's left is memorising the formulas
Your language lessons about Japanese are great! they explain like a lot of things and reveal things, which are like very hard to discover, because they either hidden in very depths of internet, or textbooks, dictionaries and other resources instead of normally explaining things give false information, like translating one kanji or particle with multiple english translations, all of them mean different things and contradict each other, and at the same time they do not even match the actual japanese meaning of kanji/particle, lol. and you telling things, which I would discover like only after years of studying japanese. I would like it if you will make more of these videos. for example i interested in how 本 end up being at the same time morpheme to indicate idea of root, something from which something grows, book and classifier for cylinder-shaped things(and not only them, but for example as i know computer softwares). These things are so unrelated, i am interested in hearing the story of how 本 end up convey all of these things. or maybe I would like to hear more about common Japanese pronouns like boku, watashi, ore and maybe others. Yes, maybe on the internet there are already many videos already about these pronouns, but I think you would just explain it better. or i would like to hear more about morphemes like san, sama and お. Or maybe about particles like で, に and を. or maybe i would like hear explanation and linguistic history of 気. This is not like very necessary for you to make all these videos about all these suggested topics, I understand that you can have like different things in life, and you maybe not always have time for videos, but I would be happy if you make a video about some of these topics or I hope at least provided good ideas for new videos. and yeah I have one question. I think 気 means something like energy, but not like in sense of physics, but more as a resource, which you spent to do things, and if you don't have energy(気), you can't do things and feel all exhausted and tired and meeeehhh. How accurate is my understanding? and can be 気 viewed as karma from Naruto? I think they are quite similar. is this would be correct to explain 気 as karma from Naruto?
@@r-duppcreatstah8815 thank you very much for your long comment, it's very appreciated. Those are some great ideas, I've written them down :) I've never watched Naruto, but to my understand 気 is just a borrowing from Chinese. 気 is read as Chi I believe in modern Mandarin, and like you say, it's about one's own person vitality, energy spirit etc. Rather than a literal resource like coal or fuel. I looked up Karma because I'm no expert on Hinduism/Buddhism/Indian theology. 'Derived from the Sanskrit word karman, meaning 'act'. If Chi means something like 'life force' and Karma means an 'act', I'd guess they're different. But again, I've not seen Naruto so I'm not sure. I wanted to do a video on Chinese language influences on Japanese, so Japan's adoption of the Chinese term 気 would be a great video to do. Thank you again for your comment.
@@tonythesopranos5310 Wait..... i'm stupid. I had no clue how chakra spelled in english, and i called chakra from Naruto karma, and i haven't noticed this until now, lol. well i often do stupid mistakes like that even in my native language lol Well in any case, thanks for your answer and you are welcome;3 wish you all best and keep up in doing great videos!!!!!!
@@r-duppcreatstah8815 thank you! That's very kind :) I don't want to hurt your feelings at all, but I would be doing you a disservice if I wasn't honest. I can understand everything that you're saying, but sometimes some of the grammar/word choices are a bit different from what I would use personally. But it's great that you're practicing. It takes a lot of courage to make mistakes and learn by using a different language. Keep up the studying and I'm sure you'll be great.
@@tonythesopranos5310 Thank you, and thank you for your efforts to open our eyes. Gonna watch more of your videos later. I wonder if you’d consider making a video on the conjugations of Early Middle Japanese, ’cause I think I’ve seen somewhere that it had witness testimony information back then as well.
@@danielantony1882 oh, I believe that's けり! That's a good idea thank you, can look into that! My latest video on て goes a little bit into old Japanese verb conjugations :)
Interesting history, but I don’t fully agree with the argument that understanding automatically makes you remember language better… I speak Russian and we also have a polite form and a casual form of words, similar to Japanese. For example: Принеси платок - prinyesi platok - casual form Принесите платок - prinyesitye platok - polite form (it means, bring me headscarf) I just think of it like you’re sticking a modifying particle onto the end of the verb to make it polite. You stick other “particles”/suffixes on to do other things as well, like conjugate into imperative form or whatever.
'I just think of it like you’re sticking a modifying particle onto the end of the verb to make it polite' - Is this just not another way of understanding the language though, no?
@@tonythesopranos5310 yes… it is more of an analysis on how the language works, but I didn’t learn it because of this observation, the observation came as I learned it 😅 I also didn’t study much of English grammar, I just acquired it through immersion. But maybe part of my problem with grammar books is that I was forced to use them in school and it didn’t make sense because I was dumb as a kid, haha. So, maybe if you’re a highly intelligent and analytically-minded person, studying grammar rules would make sense, be enjoyable, and helpful in learning the language. But for most people, it would tend to be confusing and unnecessary after a certain point (of learning the basic structure of the language).
@@soleursuelos3616 Hi, sorry I am not sure that I fully understand the question. You take する, put it into its 連用形 (renyoukei) form which is し and put ます at the end. So you're just sticking ます onto the 連用形 form. する is one of the very few verbs in Japanese where the sound change is 'inconsistent'. If する followed the Ichidan verb rules exactly it should be すます. If it followed the Godan verb rules exactly it would be しります. However, there's an exceedingly small amount of verbs in Japanese that are a bit 'inconsistent' like するand くる. So to clarify, する turning into します is consistent with ます being added to the 連用形 form, but, for whatever reason, する turns into a し sound in its 連用形 form. There could be a linguistic reason for this that I don't know about, or it could just have been a random historical development.
Why would it be "impolite" if that's what Japanese children learn right away, plus it's the BASIC form in dictionaries. Textbooks that still call it the "impolite" form are WHACK. We used Eleanor Jorden & Mari Noda's "Japanese: The Spoken Language" in university and whilst Jorden's JSL system of rōmaji for transcribing Japanese into Roman script totally sucks, her sociolinguistic explanations of the subtleties of Japanese grammar and usage are still widely referenced today by linguists. We called it BLUNT form, I like to call it the BASIC form. -masu is DISTAL form, as it puts social distance between speakers, it's not necessarily polite as I have heard native Japanese speakers bitch each other out in -masu forms LOL. Polite forms would be the honorific & the built-in humble verbs.
