“~n” for Verbs
“~n” is to attached at the end of the verb like : (iku) ikun, (kau) kaun. “~n” is used when you want to emphasize something that you WILL do it.
Example
Q: Kobayashi, shopping? – Kobayashi san, kaimono desu ka?
A: Yeah. Are you going for shopping too? – Ee. Toni san mo kaimono ni ikun desu ka?
Q: No, I am going to the library – Iie, watashi wa toshokan e ikun desu
Meaning : Kaimono (Shopping), Toshokan (Library)
Q: What are you doing? – Nani o shite irun desu ka?
A: I am practicing the writing of kanji – Kanji no renshÅ« o shite irun desu
Meaning : Renshū (Practice), Kanji (Chinese Characters)
July 11th, 2006 at 2:19 pm
I\’ll be a bit offtopic now. I love this site. Coz you also include the casual speech. My textbooks all written in masu form. When I went partying I got so frustrated never understanding anything. It all makes sense now! Thanks!
May 8th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
coz masu is like the very basic verb
August 16th, 2011 at 5:29 pm
hi,
I’m studying japanese, and I can’t help but feel this is a brilliant site – I’ve learnt so much from it in only 15 minutes. well done
with the second example here, I’m a little confused – you’ve got “nani o shite irun desu ka?” with the translation “what are you doing?”. I would’ve thought it “what will you be doing?”, as this form of the verb implies that it isn’t being done now, but will be done at some stage.
the other thing is, with the answer to this question, the literal translation is “I will be doing kanji practice” – why isn’t this what you have written?
(I’m not trying to correct you! I just want to know why you have written this, as the literal translation is completely different (from what I can gather) to your translation. I’m only doing fist year japanese, so this is very interesting for me – it’s far more complex than what I’m doing.)
thanks for your time!
August 16th, 2011 at 7:09 pm
Hi Theo, In my example, the person being asked is practicing kanji not “going to do”. When using ~te iru, it means doing something.
August 17th, 2011 at 4:00 pm
hi tony,
I understand that, but in your example, it uses “-te irun” – does this change it at all?
thanks!
theo.
August 17th, 2011 at 5:14 pm
Hi theo, it means the same