Anyone know of any good "plain style" references?

[larvi77]

みなさま、

I'm currently learning Japanese as a trainee in my company, and we're now halfway through Level 3. It seems to me, though, that I'm not quite learning enough. By that, I mean we've been learning a lot of polite (ie. ます-form) style of conversation, but I'm also interested in learning plain style.

I do want to note, though, that I realize the difference between "plain form" and "plain style", the first one being the form itself (like 食べます as opposed to 食べる)，while the latter being the 話し方 or style of speaking (国へ帰るんですか as opposed to 国へ帰るの？).

That being said, do any of you guys have references where I can learn some plain style sentence patterns (文型)? Websites maybe, or good books. Any help is much appreciated.

ありがとうございます

ラービ

 

[Glenn]

I'm not sure you'd need to study them, per se. It sounds like you already know the basics of them. Plus, they end up being all over the place in polite sentences too, as the final (main) verb is the one that shows politeness. It sounds like you just need exposure to lots of Japanese. If you want really plain (and rude at times) Japanese go to anime. You're probably going to find plain form stuff more commonly than polite stuff anyway just by being in contact with the language, especially if you have Japanese friends.

If you want more formal plain form (written-style), read Wikipedia in Japanese. Or newspapers. Google ニュース is pretty good for that.

 

[larvi77]

Thanks Glenn-さん.

Now that you've mentioned it, I do remember that Japanese news is written in plain style. Although it's probably still out of my league right now (considering I know just like 500 漢字), I'll try to get some reading done in Wikipedia or Google ニュース.

Once again, thanks. Your help is appreciated.

 

[Elizabeth]

Thanks Glenn-さん.
Now that you've mentioned it, I do remember that Japanese news is written in plain style. Although it's probably still out of my league right now (considering I know just like 500 漢字), I'll try to get some reading done in Wikipedia or Google ニュース.
Once again, thanks. Your help is appreciated.

Japanese print newspapers condense the last word to save space. Online I think they all revert back to polite again. And for either format, the language tends in the direction of super hard/formal anyway. kashii:

So here's our chat for your viewing/reading pleasure. Where the conversational flow is endlessly interrupted to ask questions and provide conversational help and let off steam and such....

Informal チャット

遠慮無く話せよ。

 

[Glenn]

Thanks Glenn-さん.
Now that you've mentioned it, I do remember that Japanese news is written in plain style. Although it's probably still out of my league right now (considering I know just like 500 漢字), I'll try to get some reading done in Wikipedia or Google ニュース.
Once again, thanks. Your help is appreciated.

Hmm, with 500 characters it might be difficult. You know what, though, if you could find some Japanese show that has subtitles that would probably help your reading and listening. タイガー＆ドラゴン is one that I've seen highly recommended. You'd have to buy the DVDs, though...

Japanese print newspapers condense the last word to save space. Online I think they all revert back to polite again.

Are you saying that online newspapers use です・ます体? If so, I can assure you that is not the case, at least not the vast majority of the time. I don't recall having ever seen a newspaper article written in です・ます体. ANNニュース is a special case, I'd say, because it's basically a transcription of what the announcer is saying. Interestingly, though, FNNニュース uses plain form for the text, even though the announcers are speaking in polite form.

 

[Elizabeth]

Ok, well, so much for lazy generalizations. I just knew NHK and ANN did. NHK is semi-transcripted but it's basically the style of their entire site...

NHK

 

[nhk9]

Even with a JLPT 1 with its 2000Kanjis, reading wikipedia in japanese is still going to be a challenge (just try reading about 'witch-hunt' or 'neutrinos' in Japanese, and you can see why).

Reading newspaper is going to be easier, but you will need to familiarize yourself with the vocab that the newspaper is going to use. Words that most people don't otherwise use like "hit and run" (hikinige) come up often.

 

[Glenn]

In that case I think picking just one page about something that you really enjoy or are really interested in and reading it over and over would be a good idea. Then you'd get familiar with the characters and their readings in the words they're in, as well as becoming familiar with the words, and you might pick up new grammar too.

 

[Elizabeth]

That's a good idea about Wikipedia. Because "da/"dearu" in articles, encyclopedias, dictionaries, academic writing, newspapers is actually considered a "formal" (for want of a better term) writing style for those materials. So the vocab and grammar is still highly standard (only make sure they are by native speakers !) which is easier to break down than colloquialisms of everyday talk.

"Desu"/"masu" are polite but more likely to be found in conversation or direct communication like letters, signs, informational material etc.