{"id":1665,"date":"2009-11-03T04:43:39","date_gmt":"2009-11-03T06:43:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/comoaprenderjapones.net\/?p=1665"},"modified":"2018-03-09T21:46:32","modified_gmt":"2018-03-10T00:46:32","slug":"desu-the-verb-to-be-in-japanese","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/comoaprenderjapones.net\/en\/desu-o-verbo-ser-em-japones\/","title":{"rendered":"Desu \u2013 The verb to be in Japanese"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"604ea9ec9f03ce20cb5fee53cf49f850\" data-index=\"2\" style=\"float: none; margin:0px;\">\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-0652292147574552\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Ads responsivo Inicio Post CAJap -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-0652292147574552\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3298668993\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p><em>Learn more about\u00a0<strong>Desu \u2013 The verb to be in Japanese<\/strong>!<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The verbs in Japanese are something quite different from the concept of verbs existing in the Portuguese language.<\/p>\n<h2>Desu \u2013 The verb to be in Japanese<\/h2>\n<p>One of the main difficulties for students of Japanese is the fact that the Japanese language has only four verb tenses: present affirmative, past affirmative, present negative and past negative. That&#039;s right, it has no conjugation for the future tense.<\/p>\n<p>Another interesting fact is that the Japanese language has levels of formality. This means that most Japanese verbs have two forms for each tense. One form for the formal mode and the other for the informal mode. Complicated? Not so much.<\/p>\n<p>Although these concepts are important, it is not necessary to worry about them now, in future articles, we will talk more about the subject.<\/p>\n<h2>What is Desu and what is it for?<\/h2>\n<p><acronym title=\"desu - be\">\u3067\u3059<\/acronym>\u00a0is a politeness auxiliary that indicates the verb tense of the sentence and can assume the meaning of \u201cser\u201d or \u201cestar\u201d. Although not a verb,\u00a0<acronym title=\"desu - be\">\u3067\u3059<\/acronym>\u00a0has the same characteristics as verbs in Japanese. It can be inflected in all tenses.<\/p>\n<p>To summarize, today we are going to know the push-ups of\u00a0<acronym title=\"desu - be\">\u3067\u3059<\/acronym>\u00a0and its formal and informal ways.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>For now, I don&#039;t intend to dwell on explanations of what a politeness assistant is. Just know that the\u00a0<acronym title=\"desu - be\">\u3067\u3059<\/acronym>\u00a0can assume the meaning of our verb ser or estar in the Portuguese language.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>See too:<\/strong><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/comoaprenderjapones.net\/en\/download-free-book-unveiling-japanese-language\/\">Download now the book unraveling the Japanese language!<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/comoaprenderjapones.net\/en\/download-audio-google-translator\/\">Download audio from Google translator<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>The formal mode of desu<\/h2>\n<h3>the present affirmative<\/h3>\n<p>The present affirmative usually refers to an action or state existing at that very moment.<\/p>\n<p><acronym title=\"kore wa kuruma desu. - This is a car.\">\u3053\u308c\u306f\u8eca<span class=\"orange\">\u3067\u3059<\/span>\u3002<\/acronym><\/p>\n<p><acronym title=\"are wa tori desu. - That&#039;s a bird.\">\u3042\u308c\u306f\u9ce5<span class=\"orange\">\u3067\u3059<\/span>\u3002<\/acronym><\/p>\n<p>By itself,\u00a0<acronym title=\"desu - be\">\u3067\u3059<\/acronym>\u00a0is the formal way and can be used in the most diverse situations of everyday life. Another interesting feature is that the syllable\u00a0<acronym title=\"su\">\u3059<\/acronym>\u00a0in\u00a0<acronym title=\"desu - be\">\u3067\u3059<\/acronym>\u00a0is almost not pronounced. The pronunciation would be closer to a \u201cdes\u201d than a \u201cdesu\u201d.<\/p>\n<h3>the negative present<\/h3>\n<p>The present negative is not complicated to learn and conjugate. Just understand that it is just a negation of the verb used. In our case, we will just change the\u00a0<acronym title=\"desu - to be\">\u3067\u3059<\/acronym>\u00a0per\u00a0<acronym title=\"dewa arimasen - is not, not to be\">\u3067\u306f\u3042\u308a\u307e\u305b\u3093<\/acronym>.<\/p>\n<p><acronym title=\"kore wa kuruma dewa arimasen. - This is not a car.\">\u3053\u308c\u306f\u8eca<span class=\"orange\">\u3067\u306f\u3042\u308a\u307e\u305b\u3093<\/span>\u3002<\/acronym><\/p>\n<p><acronym title=\"are wa tori dewa arimasen. - That&#039;s not a bird.\">\u3042\u308c\u306f\u9ce5<span class=\"orange\">\u3067\u306f\u3042\u308a\u307e\u305b\u3093<\/span>\u3002<\/acronym><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<h3>the affirmative past<\/h3>\n<p>The affirmative past tense speaks of an action or state that has been modified, determining something that has already happened. To perform this task, simply change the\u00a0<acronym title=\"desu - be\">\u3067\u3059<\/acronym>\u00a0per\u00a0<acronym title=\"deshita - was, was\">\u3067\u3057\u305f<\/acronym>\u00a0at the end of sentences.<\/p>\n<p><acronym title=\"kore wa kuruma deshita - This was (was) a car.\">\u3053\u308c\u306f\u8eca<span class=\"orange\">\u3067\u3057\u305f<\/span>\u3002<\/acronym><\/p>\n<p><acronym title=\"are wa tori deshita. - That was a bird.\">\u3042\u308c\u306f\u9ce5<span class=\"orange\">\u3067\u3057\u305f<\/span>\u3002<\/acronym><\/p>\n<h3>the negative past<\/h3>\n<p>Like the present, the past negative demonstrates an action (or state) contrary to the meaning of the verb. Only this time the verb is in the past tense. To do this, we just need to put the\u00a0<acronym title=\"desu - be\">\u3067\u3059<\/acronym>\u00a0in the negative present followed by\u00a0<acronym title=\"deshita - was, was\">\u3067\u3057\u305f<\/acronym>, staying\u00a0<acronym title=\"dewa arimasen deshita. - It wasn&#039;t, it wasn&#039;t.\">\u3067\u306f\u3042\u308a\u307e\u305b\u3093\u3067\u3057\u305f<\/acronym>. Check it out:<\/p>\n<p><acronym title=\"kore wa kuruma dewa arimasen deshita. - This wasn&#039;t a car.\">\u3053\u308c\u306f\u8eca<span class=\"orange\">\u3067\u306f\u3042\u308a\u307e\u305b\u3093\u3067\u3057\u305f<\/span>\u3002<\/acronym><\/p>\n<p><acronym title=\"are wa tori dewa arimasen deshita. - That wasn&#039;t a bird.\">\u3042\u308c\u306f\u9ce5<span class=\"orange\">\u3067\u306f\u3042\u308a\u307e\u305b\u3093\u3067\u3057\u305f<\/span>\u3002<\/acronym><\/p>\n<p>Another interesting feature of\u00a0<acronym title=\"deshita - was, was\">\u3067\u3057\u305f<\/acronym>\u00a0is that the\u00a0<acronym title=\"shi\">\u3057<\/acronym>\u00a0is hardly pronounced, or is spoken more quickly than usual. It&#039;s like saying &quot;this&quot; instead of &quot;deshita&quot;.<\/p>\n<h2>Desu&#039;s informal way<\/h2>\n<p>This second topic about\u00a0<acronym title=\"desu - be\">\u3067\u3059<\/acronym>\u00a0will be faster and easier to learn since we already know the verb tenses and the standard form of the\u00a0<acronym title=\"desu - be\">\u3067\u3059<\/acronym>\u00a0in each of them. Now we are going to know forms of conjugations for\u00a0<acronym title=\"desu - be\">\u3067\u3059<\/acronym>\u00a0not very publicized, but widely used in the Japanese language.<\/p>\n<h3>The affirmative present and the affirmative past<\/h3>\n<p>In some cases, Japanese sentences may end with\u00a0<acronym title=\"da - be\">\u3060<\/acronym>. This is just a simplified way of\u00a0<acronym title=\"desu - be\">\u3067\u3059<\/acronym>\u00a0in the present affirmative and their meaning is the same.<\/p>\n<p>In the negative past,\u00a0<acronym title=\"desu - be\">\u3067\u3059<\/acronym>\u00a0can take another simplified form:\u00a0<acronym title=\"date - be\">\u3060\u3063\u305f<\/acronym>. As in the previous situation,\u00a0<acronym title=\"date - be\">\u3060\u3063\u305f<\/acronym>\u00a0has the same function and meaning as\u00a0<acronym title=\"deshita - was, was\">\u3067\u3057\u305f<\/acronym>.<span id=\"more-463\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>These two forms seem to me to be little used, despite appearing in some books and grammars. Just in case, I decided it would be better to add this information in this article.<\/p>\n<h3>The negative present and the negative past<\/h3>\n<p>This is where the most used part of the alternative forms of\u00a0<acronym title=\"desu - be\">\u3067\u3059<\/acronym>. Many Japanese people use it in informal conversations, and sometimes these forms seem to me to be used more than the forms studied in the previous article.<\/p>\n<p><acronym title=\"ja arimasen - not be\">\u3058\u3083\u3042\u308a\u307e\u305b\u3093<\/acronym>\u00a0,\u00a0<acronym title=\"ja nai - not be\">\u3058\u3083\u306a\u3044<\/acronym>\u00a0and\u00a0<acronym title=\"dewa nai - not to be\">\u3067\u306f\u306a\u3044<\/acronym><br \/>\n<acronym title=\"ja arimasen - not be\">\u3058\u3083\u3042\u308a\u307e\u305b\u3093<\/acronym>\u00a0it&#039;s more formal than\u00a0<acronym title=\"ja nai - not be\">\u3058\u3083\u306a\u3044<\/acronym>\u00a0and\u00a0<acronym title=\"dewa nai - not to be\">\u3067\u306f\u306a\u3044<\/acronym>.\u00a0<acronym title=\"dewa nai - not to be\">\u3067\u306f\u306a\u3044<\/acronym>\u00a0seemed to be out of use. I&#039;ve never seen anyone use this expression. In contrast,\u00a0<acronym title=\"ja arimasen - not be\">\u3058\u3083\u3042\u308a\u307e\u305b\u3093<\/acronym>\u00a0and\u00a0<acronym title=\"ja nai - not be\">\u3058\u3083\u306a\u3044<\/acronym>\u00a0are widely used and both have the same function and meaning of\u00a0<acronym title=\"dewa arimasen - not to be\">\u3067\u306f\u3042\u308a\u307e\u305b\u3093<\/acronym>\u00a0in the negative present.<\/p>\n<p><acronym title=\"ja arimasen deshita - it wasn&#039;t, it wasn&#039;t\">\u3058\u3083\u3042\u308a\u307e\u305b\u3093\u3067\u3057\u305f<\/acronym>,\u00a0<acronym title=\"ja nakatta - it wasn&#039;t, it wasn&#039;t\">\u3058\u3083\u306a\u304b\u3063\u305f<\/acronym>\u00a0and\u00a0<acronym title=\"dewa nakatta - it wasn&#039;t, it wasn&#039;t\">\u3067\u306f\u306a\u304b\u3063\u305f<\/acronym><br \/>\nFollowing the same pattern as the previous item,\u00a0<acronym title=\"ja arimasen deshita - it wasn&#039;t, it wasn&#039;t\">\u3058\u3083\u3042\u308a\u307e\u305b\u3093\u3067\u3057\u305f<\/acronym>\u00a0it&#039;s more formal than\u00a0<acronym title=\"ja nakatta - it wasn&#039;t, it wasn&#039;t\">\u3058\u3083\u306a\u304b\u3063\u305f<\/acronym>\u00a0and\u00a0<acronym title=\"dewa nakatta - it wasn&#039;t, it wasn&#039;t\">\u3067\u306f\u306a\u304b\u3063\u305f<\/acronym>. Furthermore\u00a0<acronym title=\"ja arimasen deshita - it wasn&#039;t, it wasn&#039;t\">\u3058\u3083\u3042\u308a\u307e\u305b\u3093\u3067\u3057\u305f<\/acronym>\u00a0It is much more used than the other two.<\/p>\n<p>When it comes to the negative past tense, the three forms mentioned above have the same function and meaning as\u00a0<acronym title=\"dewa arimasen deshita. - It wasn&#039;t, it wasn&#039;t.\">\u3067\u306f\u3042\u308a\u307e\u305b\u3093\u3067\u3057\u305f<\/acronym>.<\/p>\n<p>To conclude the article, I will leave some examples of using the alternative forms of \u3067\u3059. Below are the examples:<\/p>\n<p><acronym title=\"are wa tori ja arimasen. - That&#039;s not a bird.\">\u3042\u308c\u306f\u9ce5<span class=\"orange\">\u3058\u3083\u3042\u308a\u307e\u305b\u3093<\/span><\/acronym>(<acronym title=\"ja nai - not be\">\u3058\u3083\u306a\u3044<\/acronym>)\u3002<\/p>\n<p><acronym title=\"kore wa ringo ja arimasen deshita. - This was not (was) an apple.\">\u3053\u308c\u306f\u308a\u3093\u3054<span class=\"orange\">\u3058\u3083\u3042\u308a\u307e\u305b\u3093\u3067\u3057\u305f<\/span>\u3002<\/acronym><\/p>\n<p><acronym title=\"sore wa teeburu ja nakatta. - That wasn&#039;t (was) a table.\">\u305d\u308c\u306f\u30c6\u30fc\u30d6\u30eb<span class=\"orange\">\u3058\u3083\u306a\u304b\u3063\u305f<\/span>\u3002<\/acronym><\/p>\n<h2>Kanji calligraphy exercise<\/h2>\n<p>Below are the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/comoaprenderjapones.net\/en\/the-jouyou-kanji-japanese-symbols\/\">Japanese ideographic symbols<\/a>\u00a0used in this article. Selecting the desired kanji, copy and paste them into\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/comoaprenderjapones.net\/en\/in\/imprimir-para-treinar-kanas-e-kanjis\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Worksheet for Kana and Kanji Practice<\/a>\u00a0, a new window will open where you can view the printable file and practice Japanese calligraphy by covering the gray symbols and then trying to write yourself. Just print and practice.<\/p>\n<table style=\"height: 47px\" border=\"0\" width=\"253\" cellspacing=\"2\" cellpadding=\"2\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td align=\"left\" valign=\"middle\">\u8eca<\/td>\n<td align=\"left\" valign=\"middle\">\u9ce5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Learn more about Desu \u2013 The verb to be in Japanese! The verbs in Japanese are something quite different from the concept of verbs existing in the Portuguese language. Desu \u2013 The verb to be in Japanese One of the<\/p>","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":1667,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,70,73,60],"tags":[27,71,2,3],"class_list":["post-1665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-curso-de-japones-gratis","category-gramatica-japonesa","category-verbos-em-japones","category-vocabulario-japones","tag-gramatica","tag-gramatica-japonesa","tag-idioma-japones","tag-nihongo","resize-featured-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/comoaprenderjapones.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/comoaprenderjapones.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/comoaprenderjapones.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comoaprenderjapones.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comoaprenderjapones.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/comoaprenderjapones.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comoaprenderjapones.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/comoaprenderjapones.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comoaprenderjapones.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comoaprenderjapones.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}