Help with some grammar/sentence usage please

Hi everyone, I`m new to this forum.

I've got some questions about sentence structures I didn't encounter in my books. I`m learning japanese on my own, although I did follow Japanese college lectures for a while. I still have the books.

Most of these sentences come from anime or manga. I can understand most of it, but i'd like to know why they say some things the way they do.

Very often, a sentence will end with んだ or なんだ, instead of just だ
Even when it seems weird to use the verb だ. Why is this, and what does it mean?

Also, sometimes the 'gerund' -て+いる ends in -てる
I think it's just an abbreviation to make it more colloquial, but I'm not sure.

I've encountered inflections which are not described in my (pretty extensive grammar book.
Sometimes, verbs end in -ちゃう or someting like that.

What does the particle (is it a particle?) べく mean? I find it sometimes after a verb.

I'd appreciate any help at all.

飛火龍 said:

Very often, a sentence will end with んだ or なんだ, instead of just だ
Even when it seems weird to use the verb だ. Why is this, and what does it mean?

Click to expand...

Perhaps this will help to clear some of that up.

飛火龍 said:

Also, sometimes the 'gerund' -て+いる ends in -てる
I think it's just an abbreviation to make it more colloquial, but I'm not sure.

Click to expand...

Yup.

飛火龍 said:

Sometimes, verbs end in -ちゃう or someting like that.

Click to expand...

ちゃう is an abbreviation for てしまう. The voiced version is じゃう (from でしまう).

飛火龍 said:

What does the particle (is it a particle?) べく mean? I find it sometimes after a verb.

Click to expand...

As far as I can tell, it's the adverbial version of べき, which means "should" (but also seems to have some other meanings as well).

Glenn said:

Perhaps this will help to clear some of that up.

Click to expand...

Thanks Glenn. That's a great link.

Glenn said:

ちゃう is an abbreviation for てしまう. The voiced version is じゃう (from でしまう).

Click to expand...

Aha, thanks.
According to the dictionary, しまう means:
to finish; to close; to do something completely; to put away; to put an end to;

I`m still unsure where to use it. Although I encounter it frequently.
For example:
待ちくたびれてしまった
It was translated as: You've kept me waiting. Although I think the literal translation would be something like "I've grown tired of waiting."
But why use しまう? The dictionary meaning doesn't seem to fit with this sentence.

As far as I can tell, it's the adverbial version of べき, which means "should" (but also seems to have some other meanings as well).

Click to expand...

Ok, thanks.