Many Uses of て

皆さん、こんにちは！

After taking an aside to talk about immersion, I'd like to get back to playing with grammar. In class, we've recently learned about the て-form. Depending on what follows, this suffix can be used for a variety of purposes. Most commonly, you may have heard people in anime say "待って！" (matte), which means "Wait!". Often it is followed by ください (kudasai), meaning "please" Maybe your teacher has told the class to "聞いてください！" (kiite), which means "Please listen!".

Besides simply being commands, the て-form can be used to:

1) ask permission

     This form uses the ending -てもいいですか. Essentially you are asking "is it okay..." (いいですか) to perform an action.

Ex.
一緒にお風呂にはいてもいいですか。(isshoni ofuruni haitemo iidesuka)
                                                                  May we bathe together?

お金を借りてもいいですか。(okane-o karitemo iidesuka)
                                                          May I borrow money?


2) to prohibit an action

     This function is noted by the ending -てはいけません. Basically this is a way to tell someone not to do something.

Ex.
死んではいけません。(shinde haike masen.)
                                        You must not die!

入ってはいけません。 (hatte haike masen.)
                                          You must not enter!

3) to represent the same tense as next verb

     This is referred to a "Transfer of Features" by our esteemed professor. Apparently, when a verb is conjugated, it marks the end of a sentence. Therefore, to connect two verbs in the same sentence, we use the て-form to note the internal verb is not the final verb in the utterance.

Ex. 私はコーヒーを飲んで、本をよみました。(watashiwa koohii-o nonte, hon-o yonmimasen.)
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　I drank coffee and read a book.

I just recently recieved a new Japanese grammar, and I hope to share some of that information with you in future posts. Until next time...

さよなら！