park and took a walk.
公園へ行って散歩しませんか。
Kōen e itte sanpo shimasen ka.
Won’t you go to the park and take a walk?
3.11. Use of the imperfect, perfect, and tentative moods
The imperfect mood (sometimes called the present tense or non-past tense) indicates that an action has not been completed: it may or may not have begun, but it must be a definite, decided action. In the following sentence, we use the imperfect because I’m still sick today:
昨日から病気です。
Kinō kara byōki desu.
I’ve been sick since yesterday.
In the following sentence, perhaps you haven’t even started to go yet, but it’s definite that you will go:
どこへ行きますか。
Doko e ikimasu ka.
Where are you going?
On the other hand, the perfect mood (sometimes called the past tense) shows that the action has been completed:
田中さんは病気でした。
Tanaka-san wa byōki deshita.
Mr. Tanaka was sick (but he’s well now).
どこへバスで行きましたか。
Doko e basu de ikimashita ka.
Where did you go by bus?
The tentative mood (sometimes called suggestive, future, probable future, or presumptive) is used when an action isn’t quite definite. You’re not sure about it—maybe it will be, probably it will be, perhaps it has already been—or you’re suggesting it for consideration.
田中さんは病気でしょう。
Tanaka-san wa byōki deshō.
Mr. Tanaka must be sick. (I’m not sure, it isn’t definite, but what do you think?)
どこへ行きましょうか。
Doko e ikimashō ka.
Where shall we go? (It hasn’t been definitely decided where we will go, but we will probably go some place, so what shall we consider?)
This sometimes corresponds to English let us:
歩いて行きましょう。
Aruite ikimashō.
Let’s walk. (It isn’t definite that we will walk, but I’m suggesting it.)
3.12. Negatives
The polite imperfect negative of a verb is made by changing -masu to -masen. The polite negative of the copula desu is the phrase ja arimasen. Or, often, ja nai desu; and arimasen is often nai desu. Ja in negative forms is often de wa in formal contexts. Do not confuse this with the word arimasen all by itself; this is the negative of arimasu and means ‘there isn’t any.’
The most common type of attention-focus for a negative sentence in Japanese is on the negation itself ‘there ISN’T any bread.’ If you want to say ‘There isn’t any BREAD’ (that is, ‘It’s BREAD that we lack (rather than something else)’), then you say Pan ga arimasen.
The polite perfect negative is a phrase, -masen deshita (for the copula ja arimasen deshita), and similarly the polite tentative negative is -nai deshō (for the copula ja nai deshō).
| There is bread. パンがあります。 Pan ga arimasu. | This is bread. これはパンです。 Kore wa pan desu. |
| There is no bread. パンはありません。 Pan wa arimasen. (パンはないです。) (Pan wa nai desu.) | This isn’t bread. これはパンじゃありません。 Kore wa pan ja arimasen. (これはパンではありません。) (Kore wa pan de wa arimasen.) (これはパンじゃないです。) (Kore wa pan ja nai desu.) (これはパンではないです。) (Kore wa pan de wa nai desu.) |
| There was bread. パンがありました。 Pan ga arimashita. | That was bread. それはパンでした。 Sore wa pan deshita. |
| There was no bread. パンはありませんでした。 Pan wa arimasen deshita. (パンはなかったです。) (Pan wa nakatta desu.) | That was not bread. それはパンじゃありませんでした。 Sore wa pan ja arimasen deshita. (それはパンではありませんでした。) (Sore wa pan de wa arimasen deshita.) (それはパンじゃなかったです。) (Sore wa pan ja nakatta desu.) (それはパンではなかったです。) (Sore wa pan de wa nakatta desu.) |
| There won’t be any bread (I bet). パンはないでしょう。 Pan wa nai deshō. | That (probably) won’t be bread. それはパンじゃないでしょう。 Sore wa pan ja nai deshō. (それはパンではないでしょう。) (Sore wa pan de wa nai deshō.) |
3.13. Words for ‘work’
You have seen two ways to say ‘I work.’ Shigoto o shimasu means ‘I do my job’; hatarakimasu means ‘I work (often, but not necessarily, at something physical).’ These two words can frequently be used in each other’s place, with no great change
