Vocabulary

見る(み・る) ru-verb

to see

遊ぶ(あそ・ぶ) u-verb

to play

する exception

to do

来る(く・る) exception

to come

出来る(で・き・る) ru-verb

to be able to do

食べる(た・べる) ru-verb

to eat

着る(き・る) ru-verb

to wear

信じる(しん・じる) ru-verb

to believe

寝る(ね・る) ru-verb

to sleep

起きる(お・きる) ru-verb

to wake; to occur

出る(で・る) ru-verb

to come out

掛ける(か・ける) ru-verb

to hang

調べる(しら・べる) ru-verb

to investigate

話す(はな・す) u-verb

to speak

書く(か・く) u-verb

to write

待つ(ま・つ) u-verb

to wait

飲む(の・む) u-verb

to drink

取る(と・る) u-verb

to take

死ぬ(し・ぬ) u-verb

to die

買う(か・う) u-verb

to buy

漢字(かん・じ)

Kanji

残念(ざん・ねん) na-adj

unfortunate

今週末(こん・しゅう・まつ)

this weekend

行く(い・く) u-verb

to go

もう

already

Once again, the conjugation rules can be split into three major groups: ru-verbs, u-verbs, and exception verbs. However, the potential form of the verb する (meaning “to do”) is a special exception because it becomes a completely different verb: できる （出来る）

It is also possible to just add れる instead of the full られる for ru-verbs. For example, 食べる becomes 食べれる instead of 食べられる. I suggest learning the official られる conjugation first because laziness can be a hard habit to break and the shorter version, though common, is considered to be slang.

Examples

1. 漢字は書けますか？
   Can you write kanji?

2. 残念だが、今週末は行けない。
   It’s unfortunate, but can’t go this weekend.

3. もう信じられない。
   I can’t believe it already.

Vocabulary

富士山(ふ・じ・さん)

Mt. Fuji

登る(のぼ・る) u-verb

to climb

重い(おも・い) i-adj

heavy

荷物(に・もつ)

baggage

持つ(も・つ) u-verb

to hold

The potential form indicates that something is possible but no actual action is actually taken. While the potential form is still a verb, because it is describing the state of feasibility, in general, you don’t want to use the direct object を as you would with the non-potential form of the verb. For example the following sentences sound unnatural.

1. 富士山を登れた。

2. 重い荷物を持てます。

Here are the versions using either が or は instead:

1. 富士山が登れた。
   Was able to climb Fuji-san.

2. 重い荷物は持てます。
   Am able to hold heavy baggage.

Vocabulary

見える(み・える) ru-verb

to be visible

聞こえる(き・こえる) ru-verb

to be audible

今日(きょう)

today

晴れる(は・れる) ru-verb

to be sunny

富士山(ふ・じ・さん)

Mt. Fuji

友達(とも・だち)

friend

おかげ

thanks to

映画(えい・が)

movie

ただ

free of charge; only

見る(み・る) ru-verb

to see

こと

event, matter

出来る(で・き・る) ru-verb

to be able to do

久しぶり(ひさ・しぶり)

after a long time

彼(かれ)

he; boyfriend

声(こえ)

voice

聞く(き・く) u-verb

to ask; to listen

周り(まわ・り)

surroundings

うるさい i-adj

noisy

言う(い・う) u-verb

to say

あまり／あんまり

not very (when used with negative)

There are two verbs 見える and 聞こえる that mean that something is visible and audible, respectively. When you want to say that you can see or hear something, you’ll want to use these verbs. If however, you wanted to say that you were given the opportunity to see or hear something, you would use the regular potential form. However, in this case, it is more common to use the type of expression as seen in example 3.

Examples

1. 今日は晴れて、富士山が見える。
   (It) cleared up today and Fuji-san is visible.

2. 友達のおかげで、映画はただで見られた。
   Thanks to (my) friend, (I) was able to watch the movie for free.

3. 友達のおかげで、映画をただで見ることができた。
   Thanks to (my) friend, (I) was able to watch the movie for free.

You can see that example 3 uses the generic noun for an event to say literally, “The event of seeing movie was able to be done.” which essentially means the same thing as 見られる. You can also just use generic noun substitution to substitute for こと.

• 友達のおかげで、映画をただで見るのができた。

Here’s some more examples using 聞く, can you tell the difference? Notice that 聞こえる always means “audible” and never “able to ask”.

1. 久しぶりに彼の声が聞けた。
   I was able to hear his voice for the first time in a long time.

2. 周りがうるさくて、彼が言っていることがあんまり聞こえなかった。
   The surroundings were noisy and I couldn’t hear what he was saying very well.

Vocabulary

そんな

that sort of

こと

event, matter

有り得る(あ・り・え・る／あ・り・う・る) ru-verb

to possibly exist

彼(かれ)

he; boyfriend

寝坊(ね・ぼう)

oversleep

する exception

to do

それ

that

話(はなし)

story

You can say that something has a possibility of existing by combining ある and the verb 得る to produce あり得る. This essentially means あることができる except that nobody actually says that, they just use あり得る. This verb is very curious in that it can be read as either ありうる or ありえる, however; all the other conjugations such as ありえない、ありえた、and ありえなかった only have one possible reading using え.

Examples

1. そんなことはありうる。
   That kind of situation/event is possible (lit: can exist).

2. そんなことはありえる。
   That kind of situation/event is possible (lit: can exist).

3. そんなことはありえない。
   That kind of situation/event is not possible (lit: cannot exist).

4. 彼が寝坊したこともありうるね。
   It’s also possible that he overslept. (lit: The event that he overslept also possibly exists.)

5. それは、ありえない話だよ。
   That’s an impossible story/scenario. (lit: That story/scenario cannot exist.)