How to say "how to".

[Angel Valis]

Yes, I'm asking yet another question...I hope you all will continue to bear with me.

I'm curious as to how to say that I want to learn how to do something. Specifically I want to say, "I want to learn how to play mahjong".

Looking in my dictionary it gives an example of "how to drive" as: 運転の仕方
I've seen this format before (with 作り方 "how to make") and I'd just like to make sure I use it correctly.

It seems that to form a "how to" phrase, you simply take the object of the verb (i.e. play mahjong), follow it with の, and then follow that with the appropriate verb stem + 方. Is this correct?

Then if I wanted to say I wanted to learn how to do something can I just use the 方 phrase as a noun phrase, and then follow it with を習いたいです?

Using the ideas I've thought of so far, I would think my sentence would end up as:
「まあじゃんの仕方を習いたいです。」

Is this correct? Or am I missing something? Also...I've seen Mahjong written in both kanji and katakana, which is the more common / correct way to write it (I wrote it in hiragana because I don't know the kanji)?

[EDIT:]...One last thing, is 仕 really the kanji for する? It never turns up when I type する but comes up right away with 仕方.

まだ、よろしくおねがいします。

 

[kazuau]

Yes, I'm asking yet another question...I hope you all will continue to bear with me.
It seems that to form a "how to" phrase, you simply take the object of the verb (i.e. play mahjong), follow it with の, and then follow that with the appropriate verb stem + 方. Is this correct?
Then if I wanted to say I wanted to learn how to do something can I just use the 方 phrase as a noun phrase, and then follow it with を習いたいです?
Using the ideas I've thought of so far, I would think my sentence would end up as:
「まあじゃんの仕方を習いたいです。」

Yes, everything you wrote is correct. I'm impressed.

Is this correct? Or am I missing something? Also...I've seen Mahjong written in both kanji and katakana, which is the more common / correct way to write it (I wrote it in hiragana because I don't know the kanji)?

It is usually written as 麻雀 or マージャン。
When written in kana, katakana is used because it is still considered as a foreign word.

One last thing, is 仕 really the kanji for する? It never turns up when I type する but comes up right away with 仕方.

No, this is not correct. する has no kanji. This is a special case to turn actions into how-to phrase.
<action implied noun> + の仕方 = 'How to do <noun>'
This kind of noun includes both the ones that can make verbs with attaching する, such as
運転する, and the ones usually followed by をする, such as バスケットボールをする.

 

[Toritoribe]

Yeah, I'm impressed too. Exactly, "the -masu form stem of the verb + 方" means "how to do/the way to do/the way of doing".

2 (接尾)
［1］ 動詞の連用形に付いて、そのことを行う方法または、そのありさまの意を表す。様(よう)。

・ 作り―

・ 話し―

・ 痛み―

「方」の検索結果 - Yahoo!辞書

In addition, you can think the の as 対象・主体の「の」, i.e., the noun preceding の indicates the object or subject of the verbal noun following の.

（カ） 後ろの動作性名詞が表す動作・作用の主体・対象であることを表す。

・ 彼―援助で助かる

・ 酒―飲みたさをこらえる

http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?enc=UTF-8&p=の&dtype=0&stype=0&dname=0ss&pagenum=11&index=115246000000

As for 仕方/やり方(from the verb やる), you can sometimes omit this word, thus, 車の運転を習いたい/マージャンを習いたい can work as well.

One last thing, is 仕 really the kanji for する? It never turns up when I type する but comes up right away with 仕方.

This 仕 is 当て字 as same as 仕 in 仕事/仕返す/仕掛ける. Incidentally, the correct kanji for する is 為る, it's hardly used in these days, though.

動詞「する」の連用形「し」に「こと（事）」の付いた語。「仕」は当て字

http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?p=仕事&enc=UTF-8&stype=0&dtype=0&dname=0ss

 

[Glenn]

There's nothing to add anything about the language stuff; I just wanted to say you don't have to worry about or apologize for asking questions.

 

[Elizabeth]

As for 仕方/やり方(from the verb やる), you can sometimes omit this word, thus, 車の運転を習いたい/マージャンを習いたい can work as well.

Yeah, it's the same in English for "want to learn ~~" substituting for the shortened form of "want to learn how to ~~."

So no more need to remember "Uchikata" for "go" and "sashikata" for "shogi" etc...

 

[Toritoribe]

Yeah, it's the same in English for "want to learn ~~" substituting for the shortened form of "want to learn how to ~~."

So no more need to remember "Uchikata" for "go" and "sashikata" for "shogi" etc...

Yeah, good examples. That's probably because 車の運転を習う usually means "to learn how to drive", and neither "to learn the history of car driving" nor "to learn the structure of the driving system". Actually, 将棋の指し方 sounds like "the way of moving a piece on a board" as in プロだけあって指し方が様になっている.

As for -suru verbs, you can think that when the stem can be used as a noun, the form "～の仕方" can work for the verb.

運転する → ○運転をする → ○運転の仕方
恋する → ○恋をする → ○恋の仕方
察する → ×察をする → ×察の仕方
達する → ×達をする → ×達の仕方

愛する is an exception. 愛 is indeed a noun, but 愛をする is not usually used. So 愛の仕方 is far less common than 愛し方.(愛の仕方 can have another, uh, not-appropriate-in-this-forum nuance.) In fact, 愛する is a godan verb, and not a -suru irregular verb.

 

[Angel Valis]

Thank you all for your replies. I'm glad that I was able to figure out how to construct this type of phrase by examining some examples.

愛する is an exception. 愛 is indeed a noun, but 愛をする is not usually used. So 愛の仕方 is far less common than 愛し方.(愛の仕方 can have another, uh, not-appropriate-in-this-forum nuance.) In fact, 愛する is a godan verb, and not a -suru irregular verb.

Umm...I've seen both 愛す and 愛する for "to love". What is the difference between these two versions?

And if 愛する is a godan verb and not a suru verb, does that mean it would conjugate into 愛すります?

 

[undrentide]

Umm...I've seen both 愛す and 愛する for "to love". What is the difference between these two versions?

And if 愛する is a godan verb and not a suru verb, does that mean it would conjugate into 愛すります?

愛す is 文語形 of 愛する, it is still in use but sounds more formal and a little bit old-fashioned compared with 愛する.
愛す is 五段 but 愛する is not 五段活用, as Toritoribe san pointed out, but サ行変格活用.
You cannot say 愛すります, you should say 愛します.

愛す、愛する (goo辞書）
サ行変格活用・愛す

 

[Toritoribe]

Umm...I've seen both 愛す and 愛する for "to love". What is the difference between these two versions?
And if 愛する is a godan verb and not a suru verb, does that mean it would conjugate into 愛すります?

Yeah, as undrentide-san wrote, ﾋ?､窶堋ｷ is the classical form of ﾋ?､窶堋ｷ窶堙ｩ.

Aisu, aisuru | Japan Forum

Actually, it's said that 愛する is just on the process to change its conjugation from 愛す(godan) to 愛する(-suru irregular). So the conjugations are messed up now. As you can see below, only 愛する and 愛すれば are -suru irregular origin.(Some forms, e.g., past, -te form, -masu form, etc., are the same in both conjugations, though.)

愛する(-suru irregular)
non-polite present ○愛する
negative ×愛しない
potential ×愛できる
imperative ×愛しろ
volitional ×愛しよう
-ba conditional ○愛すれば

愛す(godan)
non-polite present ○愛す
negative ○愛さない
potential ○愛せる
imperative ○愛せ
volitional ○愛そう
-ba conditional ○愛せば

 

[Elizabeth]

愛す is 文語形 of 愛する, it is still in use but sounds more formal and a little bit old-fashioned compared with 愛する.

Maybe that is why even now in 文語 I've still seen 愛すこと more than 愛すること.

Same with other godan verbs like 属す(こと) and 託す(こと) that are also supposed to be undergoing the same サ変 transformation to する...

 

[Toritoribe]

Maybe that is why even now in 文語 I've still seen 愛すこと more than 愛すること.

Same with other godan verbs like 属す(こと) and 託す(こと) that are also supposed to be undergoing the same サ変 transformation to する...

Well, more accurately to say, it's changing like 愛す（サ変）→愛する（サ変）→愛す（五段）.

negative forms
愛する: 愛さない/愛さず (X愛しない/愛せず)
託する: 託さない/託さず (X託しない/託せず)
(愛せず/託せず generally means "potential negative".）

属する: 属さない/属さず/属しない/属せず
察する: 察さない/察さず/察しない/察せず
達する: 達さない/達さず/達しない/達せず

Thus, 愛する/託する are more close to 五段.