Rules of the game
BLUE means don’t-move words.
ORANGE means self-move words.
PURPLE means other-move words.
YELLOW means self-move words that lost their movements.
PINK means other-move words that lost their movements.
Every word links to a jisho.org page. Just click the word!
This lesson will make you say “Ohhhhh… Everything makes sense now”. Your reward for being serious and motivated to learn japanese mechanisms awaits you.
This lesson applies mainly to : だ, です, な, の. But understand that this will also apply to a few other move-word particles (They are very rare though)
Disclaimer : This lesson is purposefully not “true” to simplify the explanation. It does not treat of なり, for example.
The truth, black on white
だ particle is derived from である, verb is ある
です particle is derived from でございます, verb is ござる with helper verb ます
な particle is derived from にある, verb is ある
の particle is derived from における, verb is おく, conjugation is え (おけ); helper verb is る meaning possibility (I will explain this in a few seconds)
What do you notice? Verbs. Verbs. Verbs. I already told you in a previous lessons, these moving particles are no more than shortened versions of the original form : Particle + verb. They’re just so common that they’ve been shortened.
Now, what are the common points between them? All four of them are only self-move words ; they are all shortened with the dictionary, basic form : る ; and they are all very commonly used in a specific way, so much that they needed to be shortened.
What does it mean? Well that’s very simple. If one of these thing isn’t true anymore : A different usage, a different conjugation of the verb, or a other-move usage, and we find back their original, lengthy forms.
But… おく is a other-move word! You should say. And you’re right, it is! That’s why we need an introduction, as well as a reminder of previous lessons.
The potential form
To put it bluntly, it means “doing -verb is possible”. That’s it. The end.
To build it, you should :
- For verbs with radicals ending with a consonant (分かる ==> WAKARI-, OK), take the radical, conjugate it with え ending (分かれ), and add る (分かれる)
- For verbs with radicals ending with a vowel (食べる ==> TABE-, OK ; 買う ==> KAW-, NOT OK), take the radical and add られる (食べられる)
A little note : for verbs ending with a vowel (見る ==> MI-, OK), sometimes れる instead of られる is added (見れる). In fact, just remember that both can exist for Ichidan verbs. By the way, する is an exception : できる is its potential.
Note of the note : Ichidan verbs is the name of the words ending with a vowel. Godan is the name of the words ending with a consonant. You can find this information on jisho here :
The word added to the conjugation is a helper verb. It’s a verb. It can have subjects and objects. Here, this helper verb means “To be possible”. But the word which was before it can still have particles assigned to it, even though it lost its movement!
Are you capable to eat it? あなたはそれを食べれる？In fact, there are 2 parts of sentence here.
- それを食べる : To eat it.
- あなたは る : Are you possible (capable). Added together, it gives “Are you possible (capable of) eating it”.
Is it possible to eat it? それが食べれる？ – Why is there no を particle? In fact, I’m pretty sure you already guessed it. It’s ommited, because it’s obvious! それがそれを食べれる would give それを食べる : To eat this thing, and それが る. This thing is able. Together, it gives “The thing is able to (eat the thing)”.
!!! Bear in mind that this form means possibility, not permission. We use “can” for permission in english, but we don’t do the same in japanese.
So, I showed it to you. You can add a helper verb that works quite differently from the original verb. おく, but おける.
Back to our particles
Contraction occurs on self-move. As we saw on our previous example, における is removed from おく‘s other move and る is self-move, and then it’s contracted into の, a self-move particle. に reduces the possibilities. We can then guess it means “can be placed reduced to something”. Bingo! That’s what the の particle means. It’s a classification of the word : 私の服 : The clothes that can be attributed, classified to “me”. 多くの人 : The people that can be classified as “a lot” (majority).
In opposition, we have にある. To exist restricted to something. With a bit of imagination, you guess it’s a definition. That’s exactly what the な particle does. It defines the word after it. 大事な人 : Person that is defined as “important”, 大きな希望 : “A wish that is defined as “big”.
The difference? you may ask. Well, Definition talks more about the nature of the object. No matter from which side you’re looking at it, you can’t deny it. It’s in the word itself. It’s what it IS. Classification is more personal, depending on people who talks. It depends more on what people attribute to it. Nonetheless, this is not ALWAYS respected, and, at this point, you’ll just get them with experience. But at least, you have the theory now.
And for である？ Well, it’s because you don’t need to limit the word! You say it exists, giving other possibilities as to how it exists. And you contract である, and you get だ. 私は人間だ : I exist + add the possibility of “human”. I exist as a human. I am human.
We needed all of this to build だ in lesson. In other lessons, だ is probably one of the FIRST words you learn. But it’s in fact quite a complicated word, as we saw. Don’t worry, reading anything, may it be for an hour, will significantly fix the gap. Besides, you know much more than the others now.
です is exactly the same. ござる means exactly the same thing as ある, except it’s old japanese. ます is added to ござい (It’s い’s old japanese form), でございます ==> です ; “To be”.
But… です is used after a move words, you’re lying! I hear you, you in the back you learned some japanese before. Well, it exists, and no, I haven’t lied. それはいいです (It is good) exists… Another sweet explanation!
The language of quotes
First of all, I’d like to note that it was technically not wrong to have いいです, since で is a don’t-move word. But, let’s leave that aside.
“It’s a good thing, RIGHT?”
Have you ever thought what this “Right” was referring to? I’ll tell you. It refers to the whole sentence. It “quotes” the sentence. And guess what? We do the same thing in japanese!
いいじゃない？ (It’s good, no? – じゃない is the contraction of ではない roughly “Not to be”)
Note : ない is the antonym of ある. It means “Do not exist. ではない ==> ではある. We once again get our finding : だ is である.
You know what? Once again, in japanese this context RULES. It’s everywhere, contrary to english. You can quote sentences, sounds (seen in next lesson), and even feelings. So why do we get いいです?
です quotes “いい” and says “I say that thing respectfully”. It also exists for “いいだろう” that we’ll see in a future lesson, that means “It’s good, right?”.
In one of the first lessons, I said “The mostright move word moves the whole sentence”. That means… The whole sentence is a don’t-move word. Amazing, right? (pun intended). And now everything makes sense. And still got some precious secret to reveal to you, like…
The… past?
Yes! The past… is a PARTICLE in japanese. Mind blown. Remains of brain tissue on the floor.
To be very precise, there is in fact no past in japanese. Liquid of brain on the floor now.
作った = 作ってある. That’s how you get the た. It explicits something that is already done. It exists + added meaning of “make” = 作った.
この島を出るぞ！小型艇を用意してある！Let’s leave the isle! (I) already prepared the small boat!
してある here could have been た. It’s done. Completed. But keep in mind that past is different that “done”. What is done can also be conditional (したら, なら , future lesson), something “done in a specific way” (or simply a state) (すっきりした気分 : A refreshed feeling)… What is done is not necessarily the past! Note that we use “Refreshed” as well in english, a past participle.
When you think about it, The past acts and the current state of objects are very close concepts. It’s been done, and now it exists, either written into history or forged into objects. Damn, I knew I should have been a poet.
There is a simple rule to remember if you want to shorten the て form in japanese. The verb before and the verb after て both have the same subject. Taking the previous sentence :
(私が)小型艇を用意してある – I already prepared the little boat – てある can be shortened into た : する and ある both have 私 as subject
小型艇が用意してある – The boat is already prepared – てある cannot be shortened : ある has 小型艇 as subject and する has 私 as subject.
Some example to make it more fluid.
そして、儂の名はデアール(だ)！この街を作った古代の民の末裔であ~る (His name is Deaaru and he says であーる instead of だ. It’s obviously a joke about him being old and sage)
Let’s get other with の particle first :
- 儂の名 : Name which can be attributed to “me” ==> My name.
- この街 : Town which can be attributed to “thing right next to me” ==> This town
- 古代の民 : The citizens that can be attributed to “the old times” ==> The citizens of ancient times.
- (古代の民)の末裔 : The descendants that can be attributed to “The citizens of ancient times” ==> The decendants of the citizens of ancient times.
In this sentence, the 古代の民の末裔 is a whole body that can be decomposed in 2 ways : 古代の民 or 古代. But who did the action of “この街を作った? Is it The ancient times, the citizens or the descendants? Well, this entirely depends on context, there is no grammatical way to discern it. In that sentence, we guess it’s the citizens.
And then, we have : “And then, My name is Deaaru. (I) am the descendant of the citizens of ancient times who created this town”. As you see であーる is only used as “be” to sound older and sage and is the same as だ. “To exist + add the meaning of descendant ==> To be a descendant. Not too hard, right? Another one :
堅牢なる天使 : We see here that にある is shortened as なる instead of our usual な particle. It gives the impression of a “dignification”, “noblification”, because, well, it sounds old and stuff. I guess you already knew, but the meaning is “Robust angel. We see here that our な indicates a “definition” of the angel, showing his real, “undeniable” nature.
I’d like to note that, when we transform it into a sentence that means “The angel is robust”, we have to use だ (である) instead : 天使は堅牢である. This is because we lose our need to “define” the angel. This time, we talk about the angel itself. We ADD an information about him : He exists (ある), + meaning of “Robust” ==> “Exist as robust”.
To sum up : な = The person is BOTH Angel and Robust. だ = The Angel is, by the way, also Robust.
Last example :
We once again find this である. Why isn’t it だ now? Simply, there are words behind it. だ is usually at the end of the sentence, so this usage is uncommon. So it stayed である.
We also found できる which is the potential of する. Note that it’s used as a self-move word in this sentence : “Thing IS possible”, even though する is originally an other-move word.
“(I think,) According to my duty, (This) is a category (of actions) where the fact of overlooking is impossible”.
You see this と? You remember when I told you not too long ago that sentences being quoted is very common in japanese? That’s another example. And I’ll explain this one to you more into details in the next lesson!