Lights, Camera, ACTION!!! Masu Form.

[origamiboxers]

Masu Form
In this lesson you will learn how to politely tell someone about what you(or whoever) did, will do, did not do, etc.

In other words: Its a VERB. In Japanese, verbs are always at the end of a sentence.

Anata wa Nihongo wo Hanashimasu ka?
This sentence is asking you if you speak japanese. If you do, good job... you can stop reading now... But for those of you that dont, lets break this sentence down:

Anata: You

Wa: always comes after the subject. (Subject Indicator)

Nihon-go: Japanese language. Nihon=Japan, Go=Language.

Wo: This is a direct object indicator. Whatever came just before it is what is being "verbed". Its sometimes said "o" but its always written 'wo' so I use 'wo' so I dont confuse myself.

Hanashimasu: Speak. Masu, like Desu, indicates a positive statement. The 'u' at the end is silent as well. It can be either present tense or future tense, like desu.

Ka: The "question mark" of the japanese language. It turns almost all sentences into questions.

Note: Even if you dont put "watashi wa" its common sense that you are talking about yourself. And when asking a question, even if you dont put "anata wa" its common sense you are asking about the person you are talking to.
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Moving on,

Masen: Changing Masu to Masen makes it negative.
TEREBI wo Mimasen.

Mashita: Past tense.
SAAKAA wo shimashita.
Note: In japanese, you never "play" a sport, you "do" it.

Masen Deshita: Did Not.
Hon wo yomimasen deshita.

Mashoo: Lets...
Minna-san wo aimashoo.

Mashoo Ka?: Shall we...
Asobimashoo ka?
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Uchi ni ikimashita.
This sentence means "I went (to) home". Lets break it down:

Uchi: House/Home
Ni: This Particle means "to"or "in".
Ikimashita: Ikimasu means "go", since its past tense, it becomes "went".

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Some basic Masu form words:

Do: Shimasu
Come: Kimasu
Go: Ikimasu
Eat: Tabemasu
Drink: Nomimasu
Close: Shimemasu
Take: Torimasu
Ride: Norimasu
Swim: Oyobimasu
Play: Asobimasu
Sleep: Nemasu
Wake Up: Okirimasu
Stand: Tachimasu
Sit: Suwarimasu
Read: Yomimasu
Look/See/Watch: Mimasu
Buy: Kaimasu
Meet: Aimasu
Listen: Kikimasu  

[Vincent Valentine-Jenova]

...are you learning out of the Kimono textbooks?  

[nyanchan]

Quote:

Anata wa Nihongo wo Hanashimasu ka?
This sentence is asking you if you speak japanese.

Shouldn't the verb be in the potential?  

[origamiboxers]

nyanchan

Quote:

Anata wa Nihongo wo Hanashimasu ka?
This sentence is asking you if you speak japanese.

Shouldn't the verb be in the potential?

not quite sure what you mean...

and I don't learn from textbooks, My sensei teaches us from her crazy head. lol.  

[nyanchan]

Nihongo wo hanasemasu ka?

Are you able to/Can you speak in Japanese?  

[Vincent Valentine-Jenova]

nyanchan

Nihongo wo hanasemasu ka?

Are you able to/Can you speak in Japanese?

either way is fine, it all depends on if you want it to be an understood you, or if you want to state 'you'.

Do you know the Masu box?  

[nyanchan]

Ah, no, I was wondering about the verb, but since anata's there, I guess it means the same thing. For some reason, I got confused when I first read it.

I am familiar with desu/masu form.  

[Nyx408]

We haven't gone over the potential form yet sweatdrop We probably won't be for a while...I've studied japanese for almost 6 years and I think I'm going to learn the potential form sometime in the next 2 weeks lol.  

[chinotenshi]

Vincent Valentine-Jenova

...are you learning out of the Kimono textbooks?

*has an uncontrollable giggle fit* Kimono...That brings back memories of my first year of Japanese...

*sings*
Hanbaagaa wo
Tabemashou!
Coora wo!
Nomimashou!
Kimono
DOUZO!

*more giggling*  

[Tenzin Chodron]

The great thing about the ~masu form is that once you get it down, you can move on to the ~tai form. The extention "tai" means "want to." So ...

Tabemasu (I eat) --> Tabe masu tai (I want to eat)
Nomimasu (I drink) --> Nomitai (I want to drink)
Nemasu (I sleep) --> Netai (I want to sleep)

Yay!  

[chinotenshi]

[ Jizo Bosatsu ]

The great thing about the ~masu form is that once you get it down, you can move on to the ~tai form. The extention "tai" means "want to." So ...

Tabemasu (I eat) --> Tabe masu tai (I want to eat)
Nomimasu (I drink) --> Nomitai (I want to drink)
Nemasu (I sleep) --> Netai (I want to sleep)

Yay!

Once you can handle the ~masu form, you can jump to many other forms by dropping ~masu as most of them just add on to the stem of a verb, which is what you get when you drop ~masu. I won't add any other forms as this is a thread on just the ~masu form. Don't want to get too confusing in a simple thread.  

[x_Eternal_Ice_x]

Yay! Wanted to learn this forever!