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marchionessofmustacheSo we're going to learn about a tense that's called various things, like perfective or whatever. Japanese doesn't really have present and past tenses like English. This tense rather refers to actions that are completed. While generally things that have completed are in the past, it doesn't always correlate with English past tense as things can be completed in the present and that's the more important part. But the point is that the thing is ALL DONE.
To make this form of ~masu type, you change the ~masu to ~masita. Here's where we'll see an example of this perfective tense meaning something that is 'present tense' in English.
分かりました
wakarimasita
"I understand." Yup, it's the same translation as 'wakarimasu!'
'wakaru' refers to the concept of understanding, in the sense that you are making use of your brain to actively make sense of or work something through. You use 'wakarimasu' to say you understand a language because processing language is an ongoing thing. It's not completed. You're not like... done processing English or Japanese or something.
But in the case of 'wakarimasita' we refer to the act of having processed something having finished. Like if someone gives you an order at work like "Go deliver these papers to the engineering department" you would respond with wakarimasita. Because you have already finished the contemplating part. You're not like, still trying to figure out what you need to do. This is again because Japanese words are not English words and they don't actually translate like that.
To make the perfective of ~i desu type of words, you change the ~i to ~katta. The desu again is just a politeness marker and the ~i is the actual part that is changing.
寒かったです
samukatta desu
"It was cold," obviously you would only say it when it's no longer cold, because concept of cold has to be finished/completed. It's a little more straightforward to translate to English, but again don't think of it like English.
よかったです
yokatta desu
"That's good," because the thing that was good has been finished. Like if someone dodged an oncoming car. But if you're talking about the weather, you would use the normal form いいです ii desu because the weather is still ongoing and hasn't stopped being good.
With these, the desu is the main part. でした is the new form here.
勉強でした
It was study. This isn't really a great example of desita but you get it. I just wanted to use the same word.
A lot of times in English we'll use "past tense" for stuff because it already "happened" or whatever, but if the concept hasn't stopped, don't use ~desita. This is really just something you have to get a feel for. Pay attention to how other people say stuff and think about why they use one or the other.
Whatever you don't DON'T equate these things to "past tense" or whatever in English. The key part is that the concept has ceased to be ongoing.
Again negative is just the opposite. I ate. I didn't eat. Yup. Again, it doesn't always refer to things in the past. So this is when the thing that didn't happen is done not happening lol. It's a little more difficult to put into English words, but if you get the previous part you should be able to get this.
~masu becomes ~masen desita
Easy.
The next is interesting. Remember how the negative of ~i desu things is ~kunai desu? Well that ~kunai part is also an ~i thing. So to make the perfective version of that negative you change THAT ~i to ~katta. Or in other words, the ~i desu becomes ~kunakatta desu. It's kind of long, but you can also think of it as the ~katta version of ~kunai. Get it???? Well, that's just a way to remember it. Just know that ~i becomes ~kunakatta. And of course you add the desu part at the end as the politeness marker again.
Lastly you have the ****desu ones. If you remember the normal negative forms:
~de wa arimasen
~de wa nai desu
These are actually a ~masu thing and an ~i desu thing. So you can just make the perfective forms of those
~de wa arimasen desita
~de wa nakatta desu
And of course you can shorted de wa to zya
~zya nai desu
~zya arimasen desita
So we have three different types of words/sentences. And each of these we have four conjugations (kind of more for the ***desu things).
Think about what situations these would make sense for without thinking of what it would mean in English. Keep in mind whether or not something has finished/completed, and whether it's positive or negative.
wakarimasu
wakarimasita
wakarimasen
wakarimasen desita
samui desu
samukatta desu
samukunai desu
samukunakatta desu
benkyou desu
benkyou zya nai desu
benkyou desita
benkyou de wa arimasen desita
Practice thinking of things people could ask you that you would respond to in these different ways and why. Again, don't think of English or whatever other language. Just think of the concepts.
~masu types
To make this form of ~masu type, you change the ~masu to ~masita. Here's where we'll see an example of this perfective tense meaning something that is 'present tense' in English.
分かりました
wakarimasita
"I understand." Yup, it's the same translation as 'wakarimasu!'
'wakaru' refers to the concept of understanding, in the sense that you are making use of your brain to actively make sense of or work something through. You use 'wakarimasu' to say you understand a language because processing language is an ongoing thing. It's not completed. You're not like... done processing English or Japanese or something.
But in the case of 'wakarimasita' we refer to the act of having processed something having finished. Like if someone gives you an order at work like "Go deliver these papers to the engineering department" you would respond with wakarimasita. Because you have already finished the contemplating part. You're not like, still trying to figure out what you need to do. This is again because Japanese words are not English words and they don't actually translate like that.
~i desu types
To make the perfective of ~i desu type of words, you change the ~i to ~katta. The desu again is just a politeness marker and the ~i is the actual part that is changing.
寒かったです
samukatta desu
"It was cold," obviously you would only say it when it's no longer cold, because concept of cold has to be finished/completed. It's a little more straightforward to translate to English, but again don't think of it like English.
よかったです
yokatta desu
"That's good," because the thing that was good has been finished. Like if someone dodged an oncoming car. But if you're talking about the weather, you would use the normal form いいです ii desu because the weather is still ongoing and hasn't stopped being good.
***desu type
With these, the desu is the main part. でした is the new form here.
勉強でした
It was study. This isn't really a great example of desita but you get it. I just wanted to use the same word.
A lot of times in English we'll use "past tense" for stuff because it already "happened" or whatever, but if the concept hasn't stopped, don't use ~desita. This is really just something you have to get a feel for. Pay attention to how other people say stuff and think about why they use one or the other.
Whatever you don't DON'T equate these things to "past tense" or whatever in English. The key part is that the concept has ceased to be ongoing.
Negative versions!
Again negative is just the opposite. I ate. I didn't eat. Yup. Again, it doesn't always refer to things in the past. So this is when the thing that didn't happen is done not happening lol. It's a little more difficult to put into English words, but if you get the previous part you should be able to get this.
~masu becomes ~masen desita
Easy.
The next is interesting. Remember how the negative of ~i desu things is ~kunai desu? Well that ~kunai part is also an ~i thing. So to make the perfective version of that negative you change THAT ~i to ~katta. Or in other words, the ~i desu becomes ~kunakatta desu. It's kind of long, but you can also think of it as the ~katta version of ~kunai. Get it???? Well, that's just a way to remember it. Just know that ~i becomes ~kunakatta. And of course you add the desu part at the end as the politeness marker again.
Lastly you have the ****desu ones. If you remember the normal negative forms:
~de wa arimasen
~de wa nai desu
These are actually a ~masu thing and an ~i desu thing. So you can just make the perfective forms of those
~de wa arimasen desita
~de wa nakatta desu
And of course you can shorted de wa to zya
~zya nai desu
~zya arimasen desita
Recap
So we have three different types of words/sentences. And each of these we have four conjugations (kind of more for the ***desu things).
Think about what situations these would make sense for without thinking of what it would mean in English. Keep in mind whether or not something has finished/completed, and whether it's positive or negative.
wakarimasu
wakarimasita
wakarimasen
wakarimasen desita
samui desu
samukatta desu
samukunai desu
samukunakatta desu
benkyou desu
benkyou zya nai desu
benkyou desita
benkyou de wa arimasen desita
Practice thinking of things people could ask you that you would respond to in these different ways and why. Again, don't think of English or whatever other language. Just think of the concepts.
