verbs in kanji?

[TheAce]

I always see that the verbs are written in hiragana
are there also kanji used for the verbs?

I was looking for です in kanji, but I can't find it anywhere so I started wondering if verbs can even be written in kanji

 

[undrentide]

Part of verb can be written in kanji but the part that conjugate is always written in kana.
e.g.
走る： 走らない 走ります 走るとき 走れば 走ろ う

です is always written in kana.

 

[vivianlj]

Many verbs can be written in kanji, such as 起きゐ, 寝ゐ,行いく, etc. Most of them are notional words. Comparatively speaking, ですseems like a form word.

 

[Toritoribe]

Many verbs can be written in kanji, such as 起きゐ, 寝ゐ,行いく, etc. Most of them are notional words. Comparatively speaking, ですseems like a form word.

I'm not nitpicking, but ゐ is "i" of wa-column or "wi", which is no longer used in modern kana usage. "Okiru", "neru" should be 起きる, 寝る respectively, plus "iku" is written as 行く, not 行いく.

 

[sumaiya]

ahh...it's really confusing
m in a mess
hope patience will make me perfect

 

[Admetus]

A prolonged consonant following a character

I writing down a list of verbs to memorise and suddenly hit confusion when I started writing the -te form. For instance i(u) into i(tte). I wrote hiragana in brackets; I'm not on a computer with an IME installed.

The question is, do you write a small (tsu) following the kanji or do we assume the kanji forms the i(t) part of i(tte) and just write a (te) following it?

Thanks for any help

 

[ltsiros]

I was looking for です in kanji, but I can't find it anywhere so I started wondering if verbs can even be written in kanji

Something really important that no one apparently cared to correct: です is NOT a verb.
I used to believe it was the verb "to be", but it is not. It is an auxiliary word. "To be" is います or あります, depending on the case. There might be other variations I am unaware of too.
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Luciano

 

[Glenn]

What about this, then? 私はアメリカ人です。It doesn't mean "to be" there? And what do you mean by auxiliary? Certainly there are times when it only serves to show politeness (after adjectives, for example) and in that sense is pretty much absent meaning, but I don't think saying it isn't a verb or it doesn't mean "to be" is exactly accurate. In that sense, do you separate it completely from だ, or do you also say that だ isn't a verb?

 

[ltsiros]

First of all, I want to clarify that I am a beginner, so maybe a Japanese pro can help us with this.

While your translation makes sense, I think it is an error that comes from translating, which is not the proper way to learn a language (unless you can't avoid it, of course). Japanese is very different from English.

Look for です in jisho.org or any other dictionary. This comes up:

窶堙??堋ｷ (aux) (pol) (See 窶堋ｾ) polite copula in Japanese;

If です was a verb, which is its "te" form? As you probably know, there are only variations to indicate time (でした), but isn't it suspicious to you that there is no "te", "tai", or any other form of the "verb"?

I don't want to start a flame war here, maybe we can open a separate thread?

Cheers,

Luciano

Cheers,

Luciano

 

[ltsiros]

I noted that this already generated flame wars, for example this one:

View topic - Made up conversation in the present tense | TheJapanesePage.com

So probably the only way out is to ask a native.

 

[Glenn]

I wasn't planning on getting into a flame war.

The -te form of it is で, although perhaps more accurately that's the -te form of だ. です is the polite form of だ, and in fact it can be used in the forms でして ( 次第に長方形から「平行四辺形」になっていくもののよ うでして、それを意識せずに裁断すると「台形」になってしまい ます。from here, although it's rare) and でしたら, much like the -masu form of verbs. Its -tai form is でありたい, as in 僕でありたい (or I guess that's more だ's -tai form, but they're kind of the same thing).

In the dictionary and at Wikipedia (コピュラ) it's shown as a 助動(詞), which is an auxiliary verb. Maybe that's what was meant by "aux" in the first place, but I can't say I entirely agree with the statement that it isn't a verb. I can't really agree with the statement that "to be" is います or あります, either, because you can't, for instance, state 私はアメリカ人です using います, unless you use で with it, in which case the meaning would change a bit. If you used あります you would again have to use で, and then you would just get the longer version of です.

However, it isn't exactly a verb in that it doesn't have the full usages a verb does, so you're definitely right in that sense. But it behaves more like a verb than anything else (i.e., it's not an adjective, noun, adverb, interjection, particle, etc.). As such, I really don't see much of a problem with calling it a verb.

That aside, what problems did it cause you? Your post indicated that being told it was a verb caused issues for you, so I'm curious to know what they were. Also, has anyone else had issues with being taught that?

 

[Half-n-Half]

"What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet..."
-Shakespeare

 

[Toritoribe]

First of all, I want to clarify that I am a beginner, so maybe a Japanese pro can help us with this.
While your translation makes sense, I think it is an error that comes from translating, which is not the proper way to learn a language (unless you can't avoid it, of course). Japanese is very different from English.
Look for です in jisho.org or any other dictionary. This comes up:

です (aux) (pol) (See だ) polite copula in Japanese;

If です was a verb, which is its "te" form? As you probably know, there are only variations to indicate time (でした), but isn't it suspicious to you that there is no "te", "tai", or any other form of the "verb"?
I don't want to start a flamewar here, maybe we can open a separate thread?
Cheers,
Luciano

What is your definition of "auxiliary (verb)"? Which one are you referring to, 助動詞 in 国文法, i.e., the conjugation suffix in general linguistics(～れる/られる, ～せる/させる,,,) or the auxiliary (verb) in general linguistics, i.e., 補助動詞 in 国文法(～ている, ～ていく,,,)? In either cases, it can't be a measure of judgement whether or not to have -te form, -tai form or other conjugations. As you can see, all examples I gave here, that is, auxiliary can have those forms.

 

[Angel Valis]

です (aux) (pol) (See だ) polite copula in Japanese;

Copula by definition (from dictionary.com):

cop·u·la [kop-yuh-luh]

In this case especially, です functions as definition 2, and is mostly equivalent to the English "to be" which is itself a verb.

Also, です is the simplified form of であります, yes, あります.

So です is one of three verbs (including ある and いる) which denote existence, though です is generally more of a statement of something's state of being rather than its existence in time/space.

Example:

それはいぬです。
That is a dog.

そこにいぬがいます。
There is a dog.

あそこにいぬがあります。
There is a [stuffed /dead ] dog over there.

In all three cases the verbs are translated as "is", and tell you something about an object/creature's existence; either what or where it is.

Even though です is often dropped from casual speech, remember that so too can ある and いる. If someone asked you, 「どこにいぬがいる」, you could answer simply, 「あそこ」, or even 「あそこです」 if you wanted to; just as easily as, 「あそこにいる」.

And to reply to Admetus' question, some kanji DO include a small つ as part of one or more of their readings, however, the small つ gained from forming て / た-form is always written in kana, so 行って is how you write the て-form of 行く.

 

[ltsiros]

Well, I asked my teacher the other day and he told me it is a verb

Still when I asked him about the tenses he seemed to doubt for a little bit. So I'll settle with "auxiliary verb".

Cheers everyone!

Luciano