"です is a copula and ます is an axiliary verb which means gramatical explanations aren't always useful" I fell on that line. Very funny and yet very accurate.
In case anyone is here looking for facts, the real word is "auxiliary", with a "u". An auxiliary thing is a thing that helps or provides support. So you can think of auxiliary verbs as helper verbs. We have them in English. For example, the word "can" in "I can walk".
7:50 It's funny coming across words like 原油 (crude oil), 物価 (cost of living), and 経済 (economics) in places like lessons and pre-made Anki decks. You wonder when you'll actually come across these words organically and then the Prime Minister strings them all together in two sentences.
Since I started learning Japanese, I've always used "です" and "ます" and now I've seen this, I think it's pretty interesting that both words are part of the けいご system. Definitely need to look into non-keigo forms/replacements, but still useful to know nonetheless.
Many Japanese courses start with desu/masu forms of verbs since it's the most straight-forward way to teach the basics to non-Japanese speakers. Whereas it makes sense to teach Japanese children "informal" Japanese first since that's what they're gonna hear most of the time outside of school.
This is rather similar, if more complex than german. We have simple german, what you speak everywhere between friends and family, dialects which can change the style and grammar and high german, which is used with strangers and official situations.
In my defense, in every textbook for foreigners I've come across, "keigo" is only used to refer to sonkeigo and kenjougo, while -desu and -masu are called teineigo, hence why I was misinformed when I wrote that comment. However, I would like to mention, and I promise it's true, that beginner textbooks do indeed teach plain Japanese! (-da, -shita, etc). It just comes after teineigo, because it's more important to use it with people you don't know (as you yourself admitted!) and it's easier to conjugate than plain Japanese :)
Yeah, fully enounciating otherwise unemphasized sounds is "weird" in Japanese, but not always in a bad way. Pople who say を as "wo" are definitely seen as otaku, though, lol.
When I was taking Japanese classes, keigo was the first form taught whenever we learned new words or grammar, so to me - on the exceptionally rare instances where I speak Japanese - keigo is my preferred form of speaking.
Ive been watching your videos, and I have found the same common learning obstacles that exist with Japanese, also exist with any other foreign language. Long ago , I learned German, but I also forgot German, because I live in the USA in a location where there are not any native speakers of German to practice it. The problem is. if you do not practice the language, then you forget and do not retain the language. Then your back at the beginning, learning it all over again as if you are a new person just starting to learn German. That's what happened to me. I can remember parts of the German language, but that does not mean I can remember the language as I did long ago, when I remembered how to have conversations with people who speak German. You have to learn German by practicing it, by speaking it over and over again with native speakers, to understand how it is spoken naturally. The instructor who was teaching me in a classroom with other students, emphasized that this is important in order to retain it in memory. That's just half of the battle, because you have to you also learn how to write and read the German language. This is true with Japanese, and this is true any other foreign language. There are no short cuts around learning a foreign language, in this issue. I could learn everything you could teach me about Japanese, but I have to practice it. It takes practice to remember, retain, and instantly recall the language. Just like learning German, learning Japanese requires finding someone to speak it with for the same issue of retaining it. Thats the problem I have, as much as I have with speaking German. I wish this was not the nature of things in life, but unfortunately the human brain forgets anything it learns that is complicated, that is not used often from there on. Knowledge is like a knife that a chef uses to cut food. If you don't sharpen the knife before using it, then it doesn't cut the food properly, and it will slip and cut you.
I completed level 1 and level 2 of Barron's diplomatic Japanese ... I did not even realize that multiple verb forms existed, I was told dictionary forms were "infinitives" and using masu was the conjugated verb form. Conjugated vs infinitive made sense to me as someone who had studied romance languages. As a result, my ability to understand non keigo sentences remained at effectively zero despite years of study :(
Hey Yuta. Can you please check out Chapter 2 of "Tobira: Gateway To Advanced Japanese"? The text from that chapter (page 28 「日本語のスピーチスタイル」) is about casual & everyday Japanese (written in Japanese) and I'm very curious what your opinion on that text is.
Definite source of confusion: In my college classes we first learned the difference between です/ます and no です/ます as "polite" and "casual" language. I don't recall ever really hearing the terms 敬語 or 丁寧語 at that time. Later we learned "敬語" as referring specifically to the Honorific (尊敬語) and Humble (謙譲語) forms. I don't recall it ever being explained that です/ます was a part of that umbrella term. Going forward if we talked about "studying 敬語" it was always in reference to Honorific/Humble form. Maybe it was to avoid confusion because です/ます was something we had learned from very early on as its own thing.
2:48 this japanese sentence more or less means "Speaking of the thing that you can come and go to each other's countries it is good" is something to look forward to. because the japanese don't use と for "and" here but this 行く in its い stem 行き means "go and" and 思う being a verb means to consider or to look forward to something like that and so on
Okay, so ます and です are part of 敬語 (けいご). There are 5 types of keigo. You can talk informally or formally while using keigo. 👍 I forgot Netflix added 'Love is blind - Japan', now I have one show where I can follow real Japanese.
imagine the social anxiety of transitioning to plain japanese in a sentence thinking you are good with someone only to see that person not dropping the keigo.
Tohru from Fruits Basket only speaks in Keigo out of habit! It’s a part of her back story. And I think in Sailor Moon, (might just have been the live action version) Usagi gets offended when Ami calls her Tsukino-san and speaks in keigo with her because she thought they were closer friends than that!
i am learning japanese and I think if you learn the textbook version of the japanese , you can understand the normal conversation easily. I may take few days to adjust, but you don't need to study separately for normal japanese conversation. That's what i think from my experience.
I get the gist of what you are explaining because it's the same in Spanish when you speak to older people. Learning Japanese is so much harder when, well, everything just sounds Japanese. I really want to learn but it's so discouraging when everything is still so confusing. I find reading it even more difficult because I can't tell where one word ends and the other begins.
It seems Yor even uses keigo with her adopted daughter, who doesn't reciprocate. I always wondered about Golden Darkness from To Love Ru. She seems to use keigo with everyone, but I don't recall her ever using an honorific when addressing anyone. It's easy to guess what this is meant to convey, but I wonder if there is more to it that I'm still missing.
I'm 100% gonna sign up for you soon as i get paid properly at my startup. I've been learning japanese so hard that i know how to write about 1300 kanji, but im terrified of accidentally being rude by saying the wrong 'me' like watashi, watakushi, boku, ore, or jibun. >.< id like to come across in a western sense, friendly but forward, but im not sure thats possible without perfect understanding of the language.
probably not going to happen cause you're trying to appeal to a larger audience, but I'd appreciate more advanced videos. you're actually a pretty good teacher and decent at explaining, but these very basic topics( like whats desu/masu) are only really interesting to beginners. For intermediate learners it would be nice to tackle more complicated topics? Just a suggestion.
I started his paid classes a few weeks ago and I'm having a great time. Small bite sized videos that are packed with info. And there are literally hundreds of them. Even though I bought the lesson plan, I still get emails almost daily from him with free lessons. I'd look into that!
@@saikiimhere.p1831 if you click the link in the description it lays out everything for you. Scroll through that and find out if it works for you! I think the option for payment is made towards the bottom
@Kawaii desu wa わ added to the end of a sentence is generally used by female characters to sound more feminine. It's becoming less common in real life but is very common in anime and games.
Suggestion: Say that there's anime in the thumbnail title or description so people will be more inclined to watch. I scanned immediately to check if there is anime in this video or not. Maybe others wouldn't have bothered scanning. Request: Please do a video on Itsuki Nakano from the quintessential quintuplets re Itsuki's supposed keigo and stuff. I've had this theory for the last several months about Itsuki. Part of my theory is that I ask people what Itsuki's character type is (the 4 older Quints are onee-san/ara ara, tsundere, kuudere/dandere and genki). People tell me a lot that Itsuki speaks keigo or something. Well I find it ridiculous that you have to see the original Japanese to understand what Itsuki's type is because we who watch dubs, read English manga or even watch subs but don't know enough Japanese wouldn't then quite understand Itsuki. But eh I wanna see what all the fuss is about re Itsuki's keigo. I suspect it WON'T really change my mind on what I think Itsuki's type is. Or any or all the 7 main characters in TQQ. how they speak Japanese I believe is very important to understanding the plot eg the honorifics, the lost in translation stuff (eg when they say things like tsurui, hatsukoi, uso, etc that are removed from the dub). I compiled a lot of the lost in translation stuff in r/gotoubun
Yuta, I love these videos! I would love it if you made a video on the archaic keigo that samurai characters speak, for example Kaedehara Kazuha from Genshin Impact always uses 拙者 and 御座る and the rules that apply
3:40 "As long as you add -desu or -masu at the end of a sentence, you're using keigo." How can I politely tell people to shut up? I badly need this please.
When it comes to switching from Keigo to Tamego, I always think of a Russian song about switching from formal "na Vy" language to informal "na ty". "Иду на Вы" the guy says near the start of the song. ｢(私は)敬語で行きます｡｣ "Иду на ты" he says near the end of the first verse. ｢(僕は)タメ語で行く｡｣ "Иди" the girl replies. ｢行ってよ｡｣ "Идём на ты" they both sing together near the end of the song. ｢(我々は)タメ語で行く｡｣ That is, the song is about the two of them going between different stages in their relationship, and it uses formal/informal language to show this. It's a sweet song, but also kind of weird in other parts. I wonder if there are any Japanese songs kind of like it.
I was trying to relate this in my mind when it comes to English and it sounds like the English equivalent would be when you are polite to a stranger or a person you just met you tend to air in the side of politeness as opposed to a close friend where you can skip the politeness because you know each other. If you were to talk to a close friend that way it would come off rude or maybe condescending. People talk polite to older people too like how nurses talk to elderly people in elderly home. Am I getting the sense of what this all means?
At least in Dekomori's case she's not using "desu" to be polite, she's using "desu" because it sounds like "death" and she thinks that's cool because she's a chuunibyou.
Yeah! i don't know history but it's similar here in Philippines i don't know where it came from, we also use politeness who are older & family members too.
I always had "desu" down as a present tense conjugated verb for being, and "masu" as a present tense conjugation suffix for the majority of Japanese verbs (with deshita and mashita being the past tense counterparts.) Time to watch the video and see how wrong I am :P
Well if _copula_ is "A verb, such as a form of _be_ or _seem,_ that identifies the predicate of a sentence with the subject," then the first part seems correct. Masu as an auxiliary verb implies it's used with another primary verb, similar to how "to be" and "have" are used in the phrases "to be running" and "have gone." So an additional verb and not a conjugation of the main verb. Feel free to pick this apart, as I don't really know what I'm talking about.
Actually I always thought of です as "is", as in "これはペンです" (which I didn't realize was keigo). But then the "is" in "is running" would be an auxiliary verb, so I guess that would make it more similar to ます. Of course in English it has a completely different purpose, nothing to do with politeness.
Yeah, です is copula. That is correct. But it's also polite. The informal version is た, the technical/neutral(which can also be formal) version is ある(inanimate), and いる(animate). I don't know what that form of language is called but it's used a lot in declarations, narratorrs of books, and news-papers, I think.
Well, if you go back in Japanese language history, "desu" IS a present tense verb of "de aru" from "ni te ari", which was (and is attested in print) as a conclusive present tense of being.
For some reason I didn't initially recognize that ます is an auxiliary verb because I thought of it only in the context of keigo and copula. But of course it's part of a verb, therefore it CAN NOT be a copula. copula are neccesary for nouns. It isn't that difficult, it's just not something westerners are used to.
I would love to see a video talking about Japanese media love confessions. I've heard people reference "the moon is beautiful tonight", but I'd like to hear other examples that aren't as direct as "suki/daisuki/aishiteru".
I always ask: 「敬語無しでもいいですか。」as soon as I start to build up a more personal relationship to a person. That's just how we do it in German too("Darf ich "du" sagen?"), so I never really thought about how difficult 敬語s usage must be for English native speakers.
Dutch like english is a very informal language as well, and polite forms have all but died out. This is annoying because in school we're taught mostly polite forms (like sie in german and vous in french) so we end up sounding more formal in other languages. I once kept backsliding to "Sie" in conversation with a german girl. Luckily she thought it was cute and called it my Höfflichkeitsreflex.
Personally I find it a little irritating that most classes and courses teach the keigo form of words first and not the neutral form - but we all know by now that those sources don't always teach realistic Japanese. Why teach the long and complicated form of a word prior to the simple version? Wouldn't it be easier to learn the simple form and build from there? Plus, as a 外人, Japanese people don't really expect you to have fantastic keigo skills. If you mess up, they know it's probably because you're not familiar with the language and not an intentional mistake. For japanese learners, keigo should come after learning the basics, since tbh, idc about my keigo if I can't even carry the conversation to start with
When I was taking Japanese class with a lady from Chiba, she told me that ですます調 did not count as 丁寧語 despite all the evidence I've seen to the counter. I mean, it's neither 謙譲語 or 尊敬語 specifically but I always under the impression that it under the umbrella of 敬語.
The thing that confused me the most starting out was the idea of men and women speaking different versions of Japanese and yet still understanding the other. I used to think they taught different words to each gender, and it blew my mind thinking that A:) I had to somehow separate out the words for a specific gender of speech to learn, and B:) If they never spoke the words of the opposite gender then how could they remember what they mean when used. But now I feel like this concept was an over exaggeration or slight misunderstanding from the person who told me the idea. I still try to learn keigo word structure, because even in real-life english conversations I tend to speak like I'm above the people around me and never get too close or comfortable. Although when trying to talk to someone (that I see as less intelligent than myself) about complicated topics, I try to translate the concepts into more common words and ideas that they might understand better.
Hello, great video but I have a quick question as I watch a lot of different movies and videos I don’t see Japanese people often using ません or ませんでした so what are the different ways of making a verb negative other than putting ません instead of ます.
"masen" is the non-past negative form (tabemasen - not eat), and "masen deshita" is the past negative (tabemasendeshita - had not eaten). Simple forms are "-nai" and "-natta"
You mention not pronouncing the 'u' at the end of desu and masu, which I had noticed among many, many other words both at the end of the word and anywhere else within the word. But one source I have been learning from explained that the syllable is pronounced but very subtly, which they described as being a whispered syllable. Are there various syllables that aren't pronounced at all and/or whispered? Or is this just something for 'u' in certain words?
Yeah, you're meant to hang on the consonant a bit to fill to syllable space. It's kinda like waiting out a pause when you're playing a musical instrument.
Look up a video by dogen called "Japanese Pronunciation 101: Devoicing!". It basically explains it. Its one of those things you kind of pick up naturally by just speaking and listening to Japanese natives though.
I don't know why I was so obsessed with "です means to be" I guess we hardly use words that don't have a direct meaning or translation in spanish (my native language) or english, so words like です or ます or adding お are a headache to me... so... is it correct to assume that です/ます just add a nuance of respect? I been kind of self learning this last 4 months in an app but I write (or intend to) in Twitter :) sometimes I just repeat words/kanji I learned but these kind of words like です/ます grammar particles sometimes drive me through the wall. very interesting video, sorry for the long comment. お疲れ様です、どうも有難うございます :)
it's both. it's more than a suffix because it inflects like other verbs. yet it doesn't mean anything on it's own but only when attached to real verbs. i have no idea about its etymology. i'd be interested to know myself.
@@Damianndayo from a European language perspective it behaves as a suffix like Verbal says. in Japanese grammar, they classify it as an auxiliary like Yuta says. a grammar is just a set of rules that creates valid sentences. either way of treating it seems to work, so take your pick.
"mairu", originally "mawiru" meaning (humbly) go/come. The "su" part comes from the causative form (mairu+su) meaning "cause to (humbly) go/come", this over hundreds of years became "massuru", then "masu".
If I remember correctly, the blondie anime girl isn't using Keigo to sound polite, but to sound edgy, she's actually politely saying death on every sentence, that's why she replaces mashita with "DEATH" in the last example.
Oh geez I'm embarrassed.... I am a Filipino and I know so many people (which includes me back then) speak the polite way with another people that are same level to them such as classmate. Well to give you context, Filipino language somewhat has a polite speaking manner similar to Japanese Keigo but not as intense... We put "po" after a verb, noun, or adjective in a sentence to make it more polite. So if you want to be polite to stranger when you're asking for direction to school, we say "Kuya, Saan po ang daan papuntang paaralan?" instead of plain form "Kuya, saan ang daan papuntang paaralan?". which by the way basically translate to "brother/sir, where is the way to school?" it's just that the first sentence is more polite. The issue is, I always hear people overdoing it like saying, "Kuya, saan po ang daan po papunta pong paaralan?" it just sound so wrong and pretentious.
I think formal form is a perfect name. Japanese society makes anything and everything an event. Because you use it to speak to someone older, or to a customer or a stranger this conversation becomes an event. I think what the prime minister spoke should be called something else because you can speak politely but not use a "different" pronunciation in most languages
This is kinda like usted and tu in spanish, talking by usted to someone is respectful but talking like that to a young person can be insulting because they can feel your are telling them they are old
By the way, does Yuta produce anything for free after his 3 1st lessons? Or is everything else with the premium. I cannot afford premium however I still wish anyone studying best of luck!
He gives you the first 3 lessons, then advertises his premium group for the following week without sending lessons, and afterward sends new free lessons daily. Or that’s at least what happened to me when I signed up a few weeks ago.
Hello, can you please specify, what exactly you mean by "when they are your age". Does it mean they are exactly the same age, or more less around the same age, give or take 4-5 years. For example, if I am 28 and the japanese person is 32, are they the "same" age or is the age gap too wide for that?
Is it common for foreigners to speak with Keigo in all situations? I would prefer to learn formally first, and then understand how to speak without it.
Is the transition from keigo to plain speech, like in the last segment, a conscious decision or something that people just pick up and do subconsciously?
Learn Japanese with Yuta: bit.ly/3w7ki0h
ЯR
It doesn’t work
@@lolajane9876 Why?
@@Karman7 idk it hasn’t sent me any emails
i might be reaching here but i think yuta will teach you the kind of japanese real life japanese people actually speak
🤣
I have a feeling you may be right!
Hmm you're right..... That is a bit of a reach.
What gave you that impression? 😁
Fake news 😆🤣🤣
"です is a copula and ます is an axiliary verb which means gramatical explanations aren't always useful"
I fell on that line. Very funny and yet very accurate.
They'd be useful if he went into more detail about what those words mean
A X I L I A R Y
In case anyone is here looking for facts, the real word is "auxiliary", with a "u".
An auxiliary thing is a thing that helps or provides support. So you can think of auxiliary verbs as helper verbs. We have them in English. For example, the word "can" in "I can walk".
Neither is correct. Desu is not a copula and masu is not a verb, so of course it can’t be an auxiliary verb.
@@mattiamele3015 What is your reasoning for saying that "desu" is not a copula and that "masu" is not a verb?
Yuta is easily the best Japanese teacher on RUclips
I like Yuta a lot but the best is cure dolly in my opinion
@@matoikazamaki9522 same!
Agreed. He’s helped me learn so much 🙏🏽
If you wanna learn japanese that isn't only for beginners, i recommend you watching misa from japanese ammo with misa, she is the best teacher imo
He’s good, though Misa is also extremely helpful, especially past beginner content.
7:50 It's funny coming across words like 原油 (crude oil), 物価 (cost of living), and 経済 (economics) in places like lessons and pre-made Anki decks. You wonder when you'll actually come across these words organically and then the Prime Minister strings them all together in two sentences.
Since I started learning Japanese, I've always used "です" and "ます" and now I've seen this, I think it's pretty interesting that both words are part of the けいご system. Definitely need to look into non-keigo forms/replacements, but still useful to know nonetheless.
Many Japanese courses start with desu/masu forms of verbs since it's the most straight-forward way to teach the basics to non-Japanese speakers. Whereas it makes sense to teach Japanese children "informal" Japanese first since that's what they're gonna hear most of the time outside of school.
This is rather similar, if more complex than german.
We have simple german, what you speak everywhere between friends and family, dialects which can change the style and grammar and high german, which is used with strangers and official situations.
Your videos are so helpful! They’ve made learning Japanese so much easier for me 💜
This is the best explanation I’ve ever seen of です and ます.
Sometimes I have trouble grasping the difference between "polite" and "formal" Japanese, but your explanation/examples were super helpful. Thank you!
Dropping keigo during a conversation without explicitly declaring it is so beautiful 😯❤
In my defense, in every textbook for foreigners I've come across, "keigo" is only used to refer to sonkeigo and kenjougo, while -desu and -masu are called teineigo, hence why I was misinformed when I wrote that comment.
However, I would like to mention, and I promise it's true, that beginner textbooks do indeed teach plain Japanese! (-da, -shita, etc). It just comes after teineigo, because it's more important to use it with people you don't know (as you yourself admitted!) and it's easier to conjugate than plain Japanese :)
never saw a vid that early
Same!
Thank you for making this video, it is very helpful for understanding the differences. Its great that you show so many different examples. よい しゆまつ！
Estelle from Tales of Vesperia very clearly pronounces the "U"s in です and ます. In her case I think it's just a verbal quirk though.
Nice to se a Tales fan here, I eventually want to learn more Japanese to play my games fully in Japanese.
Yeah, fully enounciating otherwise unemphasized sounds is "weird" in Japanese, but not always in a bad way. Pople who say を as "wo" are definitely seen as otaku, though, lol.
Lol, didn't expect a Tales fan here.
@@novantha1 Damn. We got an Oni who likes Tea.
Ok
ありがとございます、先生！
Didnt understand when to use keigo and now I understand it better. Thank you
i was greatly surprised by how often japanese actually DO pronounce the "U" sound in "desu" and "masu"... WHEN they talk over phone
@Dancing Queen Most of the time, yes, although they do sometimes pronounce the u.
When I was taking Japanese classes, keigo was the first form taught whenever we learned new words or grammar, so to me - on the exceptionally rare instances where I speak Japanese - keigo is my preferred form of speaking.
Another good explanation.
A very clear explanation. Thanks!
Hey Yuta! Thanks for the video, it was helpful!
Could you make a video talking about Neutral VS. Plain VS. Polite Japanese? Thank you!
0:42 nice dialogue replacement, you did a very convincing job at syncing your rerecording to your mouth! 🤣🤣
Ive been watching your videos, and I have found the same common learning obstacles that exist with Japanese, also exist with any other foreign language. Long ago , I learned German, but I also forgot German, because I live in the USA in a location where there are not any native speakers of German to practice it. The problem is. if you do not practice the language, then you forget and do not retain the language. Then your back at the beginning, learning it all over again as if you are a new person just starting to learn German. That's what happened to me. I can remember parts of the German language, but that does not mean I can remember the language as I did long ago, when I remembered how to have conversations with people who speak German. You have to learn German by practicing it, by speaking it over and over again with native speakers, to understand how it is spoken naturally. The instructor who was teaching me in a classroom with other students, emphasized that this is important in order to retain it in memory. That's just half of the battle, because you have to you also learn how to write and read the German language. This is true with Japanese, and this is true any other foreign language. There are no short cuts around learning a foreign language, in this issue. I could learn everything you could teach me about Japanese, but I have to practice it. It takes practice to remember, retain, and instantly recall the language. Just like learning German, learning Japanese requires finding someone to speak it with for the same issue of retaining it. Thats the problem I have, as much as I have with speaking German. I wish this was not the nature of things in life, but unfortunately the human brain forgets anything it learns that is complicated, that is not used often from there on. Knowledge is like a knife that a chef uses to cut food. If you don't sharpen the knife before using it, then it doesn't cut the food properly, and it will slip and cut you.
Great lesson - Thank you. 😀😀😀
Your channel is awesome !!!!
ありがとうございます
Yuta: simple video talking about です
My brain: *repressed Rozen Maiden meme memories intensifies*
finally! 🤩thank you for this very enlightening video, yuta-sensei! 🙇♂🙇♂🙇♂🙇♂ i always wondered what its about this -desu and -masu... 😅
I completed level 1 and level 2 of Barron's diplomatic Japanese ... I did not even realize that multiple verb forms existed, I was told dictionary forms were "infinitives" and using masu was the conjugated verb form. Conjugated vs infinitive made sense to me as someone who had studied romance languages. As a result, my ability to understand non keigo sentences remained at effectively zero despite years of study :(
Hey Yuta. Can you please check out Chapter 2 of "Tobira: Gateway To Advanced Japanese"? The text from that chapter (page 28 「日本語のスピーチスタイル」) is about casual & everyday Japanese (written in Japanese) and I'm very curious what your opinion on that text is.
Definite source of confusion: In my college classes we first learned the difference between です/ます and no です/ます as "polite" and "casual" language. I don't recall ever really hearing the terms 敬語 or 丁寧語 at that time. Later we learned "敬語" as referring specifically to the Honorific (尊敬語) and Humble (謙譲語) forms. I don't recall it ever being explained that です/ます was a part of that umbrella term. Going forward if we talked about "studying 敬語" it was always in reference to Honorific/Humble form. Maybe it was to avoid confusion because です/ます was something we had learned from very early on as its own thing.
2:48 this japanese sentence more or less means "Speaking of the thing that you can come and go to each other's countries it is good" is something to look forward to.
because the japanese don't use と for "and" here but this 行く in its い stem 行き means "go and" and 思う being a verb means to consider or to look forward to something like that and so on
Another wonderful video thank you senpai 😁
Okay, so ます and です are part of 敬語 (けいご). There are 5 types of keigo. You can talk informally or formally while using keigo. 👍 I forgot Netflix added 'Love is blind - Japan', now I have one show where I can follow real Japanese.
Just like in the Philippines, we normally add "po" to make it formal. But we dropped it as soon as we became friends
imagine the social anxiety of transitioning to plain japanese in a sentence thinking you are good with someone only to see that person not dropping the keigo.
Tohru from Fruits Basket only speaks in Keigo out of habit! It’s a part of her back story. And I think in Sailor Moon, (might just have been the live action version) Usagi gets offended when Ami calls her Tsukino-san and speaks in keigo with her because she thought they were closer friends than that!
Thank you, this was very useful!
Now I finally get what ますand です is used! I want to join Yuta's learning class but I think there is a age limit
i am learning japanese and I think if you learn the textbook version of the japanese , you can understand the normal conversation easily. I may take few days to adjust, but you don't need to study separately for normal japanese conversation. That's what i think from my experience.
Amazing explanation thank you 🙏
I get the gist of what you are explaining because it's the same in Spanish when you speak to older people. Learning Japanese is so much harder when, well, everything just sounds Japanese. I really want to learn but it's so discouraging when everything is still so confusing. I find reading it even more difficult because I can't tell where one word ends and the other begins.
Well, you gotta figure those out as you go on. If you can't do that then I'd recommend starting with vocabulary.
Buen vídeo Yuta. Sigue así 👍
lol, I was just thinking about exactly this about 4 hours ago on my drive into work. And specifically if you had done one on this!!
It seems Yor even uses keigo with her adopted daughter, who doesn't reciprocate.
I always wondered about Golden Darkness from To Love Ru. She seems to use keigo with everyone, but I don't recall her ever using an honorific when addressing anyone. It's easy to guess what this is meant to convey, but I wonder if there is more to it that I'm still missing.
I'm 100% gonna sign up for you soon as i get paid properly at my startup. I've been learning japanese so hard that i know how to write about 1300 kanji, but im terrified of accidentally being rude by saying the wrong 'me' like watashi, watakushi, boku, ore, or jibun. >.< id like to come across in a western sense, friendly but forward, but im not sure thats possible without perfect understanding of the language.
probably not going to happen cause you're trying to appeal to a larger audience, but I'd appreciate more advanced videos. you're actually a pretty good teacher and decent at explaining, but these very basic topics( like whats desu/masu) are only really interesting to beginners. For intermediate learners it would be nice to tackle more complicated topics? Just a suggestion.
I would love that!
I started his paid classes a few weeks ago and I'm having a great time. Small bite sized videos that are packed with info. And there are literally hundreds of them. Even though I bought the lesson plan, I still get emails almost daily from him with free lessons. I'd look into that!
@@mauvrion_fries thank you!!!
@@mauvrion_fries just a question, how did u do paid lessons? cus i wanna do one too.
@@saikiimhere.p1831 if you click the link in the description it lays out everything for you. Scroll through that and find out if it works for you! I think the option for payment is made towards the bottom
Needs more desu
If you remember this meme, you're old
@Kawaii desu wa わ added to the end of a sentence is generally used by female characters to sound more feminine. It's becoming less common in real life but is very common in anime and games.
Finally, somebody's talking about it
Suggestion: Say that there's anime in the thumbnail title or description so people will be more inclined to watch.
I scanned immediately to check if there is anime in this video or not. Maybe others wouldn't have bothered scanning.
Request: Please do a video on Itsuki Nakano from the quintessential quintuplets re Itsuki's supposed keigo and stuff.
I've had this theory for the last several months about Itsuki. Part of my theory is that I ask people what Itsuki's character type is (the 4 older Quints are onee-san/ara ara, tsundere, kuudere/dandere and genki). People tell me a lot that Itsuki speaks keigo or something.
Well I find it ridiculous that you have to see the original Japanese to understand what Itsuki's type is because we who watch dubs, read English manga or even watch subs but don't know enough Japanese wouldn't then quite understand Itsuki. But eh I wanna see what all the fuss is about re Itsuki's keigo. I suspect it WON'T really change my mind on what I think Itsuki's type is.
Or any or all the 7 main characters in TQQ. how they speak Japanese I believe is very important to understanding the plot eg the honorifics, the lost in translation stuff (eg when they say things like tsurui, hatsukoi, uso, etc that are removed from the dub). I compiled a lot of the lost in translation stuff in r/gotoubun
Yuta’s beard gets better and better
Yuta, I love these videos! I would love it if you made a video on the archaic keigo that samurai characters speak, for example Kaedehara Kazuha from Genshin Impact always uses 拙者 and 御座る and the rules that apply
3:40 "As long as you add -desu or -masu at the end of a sentence, you're using keigo."
How can I politely tell people to shut up? I badly need this please.
maybe check out yuta's video on swearing?
Title:
Japanese Swearing 101
ID:
KIPsf-_Amzs
When it comes to switching from Keigo to Tamego, I always think of a Russian song about switching from formal "na Vy" language to informal "na ty".
"Иду на Вы" the guy says near the start of the song. ｢(私は)敬語で行きます｡｣
"Иду на ты" he says near the end of the first verse. ｢(僕は)タメ語で行く｡｣
"Иди" the girl replies. ｢行ってよ｡｣
"Идём на ты" they both sing together near the end of the song. ｢(我々は)タメ語で行く｡｣
That is, the song is about the two of them going between different stages in their relationship, and it uses formal/informal language to show this. It's a sweet song, but also kind of weird in other parts. I wonder if there are any Japanese songs kind of like it.
I was trying to relate this in my mind when it comes to English and it sounds like the English equivalent would be when you are polite to a stranger or a person you just met you tend to air in the side of politeness as opposed to a close friend where you can skip the politeness because you know each other. If you were to talk to a close friend that way it would come off rude or maybe condescending. People talk polite to older people too like how nurses talk to elderly people in elderly home. Am I getting the sense of what this all means?
At least in Dekomori's case she's not using "desu" to be polite, she's using "desu" because it sounds like "death" and she thinks that's cool because she's a chuunibyou.
Yeah! i don't know history but it's similar here in Philippines i don't know where it came from, we also use politeness who are older & family members too.
2:05 oh yay! what does it mean? 2:08 YUTA.
I always had "desu" down as a present tense conjugated verb for being, and "masu" as a present tense conjugation suffix for the majority of Japanese verbs (with deshita and mashita being the past tense counterparts.)
Time to watch the video and see how wrong I am :P
Nope, it's more like the difference between "tu" and "vous" in French instead. Today I learned!
Well if _copula_ is "A verb, such as a form of _be_ or _seem,_ that identifies the predicate of a sentence with the subject," then the first part seems correct.
Masu as an auxiliary verb implies it's used with another primary verb, similar to how "to be" and "have" are used in the phrases "to be running" and "have gone." So an additional verb and not a conjugation of the main verb.
Feel free to pick this apart, as I don't really know what I'm talking about.
Actually I always thought of です as "is", as in "これはペンです" (which I didn't realize was keigo). But then the "is" in "is running" would be an auxiliary verb, so I guess that would make it more similar to ます. Of course in English it has a completely different purpose, nothing to do with politeness.
Yeah, です is copula. That is correct. But it's also polite. The informal version is た, the technical/neutral(which can also be formal) version is ある(inanimate), and いる(animate). I don't know what that form of language is called but it's used a lot in declarations, narratorrs of books, and news-papers, I think.
Well, if you go back in Japanese language history, "desu" IS a present tense verb of "de aru" from "ni te ari", which was (and is attested in print) as a conclusive present tense of being.
For some reason I didn't initially recognize that ます is an auxiliary verb because I thought of it only in the context of keigo and copula. But of course it's part of a verb, therefore it CAN NOT be a copula. copula are neccesary for nouns.
It isn't that difficult, it's just not something westerners are used to.
"masu" is from the auxilliary "mairu" (formally mawiru) meaning "(humbly) come/go". In fact, "mairu" is STILL used for even more humble keigo.
I would love to see a video talking about Japanese media love confessions. I've heard people reference "the moon is beautiful tonight", but I'd like to hear other examples that aren't as direct as "suki/daisuki/aishiteru".
私に毎日味噌汁を作ってください
Wow amazing education I need to relearn japanese
Despite being Intermediate in Japanese
I watch Yuta channel like i am a beginner 😂
It's actually sad seeing your videos get so little views considering your channel has over 1 million subscribers
It's slang for death match; a polite, gentlemanly way to settle disputes.
Bruh
I usaully only hear です in short sentenced/statements, and I hear ます in a fair bit more variety, and even in a bit more informal stuff too ide say
I always ask: 「敬語無しでもいいですか。」as soon as I start to build up a more personal relationship to a person.
That's just how we do it in German too("Darf ich "du" sagen?"), so I never really thought about how difficult 敬語s usage must be for English native speakers.
Dutch like english is a very informal language as well, and polite forms have all but died out. This is annoying because in school we're taught mostly polite forms (like sie in german and vous in french) so we end up sounding more formal in other languages. I once kept backsliding to "Sie" in conversation with a german girl. Luckily she thought it was cute and called it my Höfflichkeitsreflex.
Personally I find it a little irritating that most classes and courses teach the keigo form of words first and not the neutral form - but we all know by now that those sources don't always teach realistic Japanese.
Why teach the long and complicated form of a word prior to the simple version? Wouldn't it be easier to learn the simple form and build from there? Plus, as a 外人, Japanese people don't really expect you to have fantastic keigo skills. If you mess up, they know it's probably because you're not familiar with the language and not an intentional mistake. For japanese learners, keigo should come after learning the basics, since tbh, idc about my keigo if I can't even carry the conversation to start with
When I was taking Japanese class with a lady from Chiba, she told me that ですます調 did not count as 丁寧語 despite all the evidence I've seen to the counter. I mean, it's neither 謙譲語 or 尊敬語 specifically but I always under the impression that it under the umbrella of 敬語.
When I pick up desu or masu, I feel like I’m Leonardo DiCaprio in that scene where he points at the TV
imasu-desu mashita da deshita desuyo arimasu masu-desu!
The thing that confused me the most starting out was the idea of men and women speaking different versions of Japanese and yet still understanding the other. I used to think they taught different words to each gender, and it blew my mind thinking that A:) I had to somehow separate out the words for a specific gender of speech to learn, and B:) If they never spoke the words of the opposite gender then how could they remember what they mean when used.
But now I feel like this concept was an over exaggeration or slight misunderstanding from the person who told me the idea.
I still try to learn keigo word structure, because even in real-life english conversations I tend to speak like I'm above the people around me and never get too close or comfortable. Although when trying to talk to someone (that I see as less intelligent than myself) about complicated topics, I try to translate the concepts into more common words and ideas that they might understand better.
Desu is my favourite word in japanese lol
How did Yuta forget the one character known for saying desu?! Suiseiseki from Rozen Maiden.
Hello, great video but I have a quick question as I watch a lot of different movies and videos I don’t see Japanese people often using ません or ませんでした so what are the different ways of making a verb negative other than putting ません instead of ます.
"masen" is the non-past negative form (tabemasen - not eat), and "masen deshita" is the past negative (tabemasendeshita - had not eaten). Simple forms are "-nai" and "-natta"
Will, if you switch things around a bit, Masu = Forceu / Accelerationu
You mention not pronouncing the 'u' at the end of desu and masu, which I had noticed among many, many other words both at the end of the word and anywhere else within the word. But one source I have been learning from explained that the syllable is pronounced but very subtly, which they described as being a whispered syllable. Are there various syllables that aren't pronounced at all and/or whispered? Or is this just something for 'u' in certain words?
Yeah, you're meant to hang on the consonant a bit to fill to syllable space. It's kinda like waiting out a pause when you're playing a musical instrument.
Look up a video by dogen called "Japanese Pronunciation 101: Devoicing!". It basically explains it.
Its one of those things you kind of pick up naturally by just speaking and listening to Japanese natives though.
Yuta is there a way to watch terrace house with English translation and Japanese pronunciation like you show?
yuma sama i missed you
i just sub btw
I don't know why I was so obsessed with "です means to be" I guess we hardly use words that don't have a direct meaning or translation in spanish (my native language) or english, so words like です or ます or adding お are a headache to me... so... is it correct to assume that です/ます just add a nuance of respect? I been kind of self learning this last 4 months in an app but I write (or intend to) in Twitter :) sometimes I just repeat words/kanji I learned but these kind of words like です/ます grammar particles sometimes drive me through the wall. very interesting video, sorry for the long comment. お疲れ様です、どうも有難うございます :)
Desudesudesu
This is interesting and surprising to me! Masu is an auxiliary verb? I always thought it was a suffix. What did masu original mean as a verb?
it's both. it's more than a suffix because it inflects like other verbs. yet it doesn't mean anything on it's own but only when attached to real verbs.
i have no idea about its etymology. i'd be interested to know myself.
@@MusicalRaichu Both? It cant be both. A suffix is not a word on its own but an auxiliary verb is. I think it's just a suffix.
Masu is an auxiliary verb, but it doesn't really 'mean anything', it is used though to pay respect to the person you are talking with
@@Damianndayo from a European language perspective it behaves as a suffix like Verbal says. in Japanese grammar, they classify it as an auxiliary like Yuta says.
a grammar is just a set of rules that creates valid sentences. either way of treating it seems to work, so take your pick.
"mairu", originally "mawiru" meaning (humbly) go/come. The "su" part comes from the causative form (mairu+su) meaning "cause to (humbly) go/come", this over hundreds of years became "massuru", then "masu".
If I remember correctly, the blondie anime girl isn't using Keigo to sound polite, but to sound edgy, she's actually politely saying death on every sentence, that's why she replaces mashita with "DEATH" in the last example.
Oh geez I'm embarrassed.... I am a Filipino and I know so many people (which includes me back then) speak the polite way with another people that are same level to them such as classmate. Well to give you context, Filipino language somewhat has a polite speaking manner similar to Japanese Keigo but not as intense... We put "po" after a verb, noun, or adjective in a sentence to make it more polite. So if you want to be polite to stranger when you're asking for direction to school, we say "Kuya, Saan po ang daan papuntang paaralan?" instead of plain form "Kuya, saan ang daan papuntang paaralan?". which by the way basically translate to "brother/sir, where is the way to school?" it's just that the first sentence is more polite. The issue is, I always hear people overdoing it like saying, "Kuya, saan po ang daan po papunta pong paaralan?" it just sound so wrong and pretentious.
How does Lum from Urusei Yatsura 「うる星やつら」 speak Japanese? 👍
I think she speaks in a very funny and alien way.
What do you think?
She always attaches "cha" to the end of sentences, which is some sort of dated slang, iirc.
3:40 Is the "ikiki dekiru" part right? I thought it would be "iki dekiru" or something, does dekiru has special ways of combining with words?
I think formal form is a perfect name. Japanese society makes anything and everything an event. Because you use it to speak to someone older, or to a customer or a stranger this conversation becomes an event. I think what the prime minister spoke should be called something else because you can speak politely but not use a "different" pronunciation in most languages
Should be 王立語 or some shit.
wtf, this was great!
This is kinda like usted and tu in spanish, talking by usted to someone is respectful but talking like that to a young person can be insulting because they can feel your are telling them they are old
By the way, does Yuta produce anything for free after his 3 1st lessons? Or is everything else with the premium. I cannot afford premium however I still wish anyone studying best of luck!
He gives you the first 3 lessons, then advertises his premium group for the following week without sending lessons, and afterward sends new free lessons daily. Or that’s at least what happened to me when I signed up a few weeks ago.
@@lgndrylucas1984 I gotta re subscribe to his email group then! Thanks haha
When would you use one over the other? Are desu and masu interchangeable?
I like ラブライブ too. 😌
Hello, can you please specify, what exactly you mean by "when they are your age". Does it mean they are exactly the same age, or more less around the same age, give or take 4-5 years. For example, if I am 28 and the japanese person is 32, are they the "same" age or is the age gap too wide for that?
Is it common for foreigners to speak with Keigo in all situations? I would prefer to learn formally first, and then understand how to speak without it.
Heyy everyone :Đ
Arigato 🤘
De-De-Death! Dekomori Desu! 10hrs veteran
So it's sort of like using "usted" in Spanish or "vous" in French instead of "tu"
Is the transition from keigo to plain speech, like in the last segment, a conscious decision or something that people just pick up and do subconsciously?
Conscious.
Who’s that Digimon plush that he has on his video?