Is かいもの a verb?

As in, is the word かいもの a verb that belongs at the end of the sentence and can be conjugated into かいもにます, or is it more for the act of shopping, rather than the verb form?

I ask because in my Japanese textbook, under the vocabulary section it's listed in the Nouns and Activities section, not in the Verb section.

Thanks in advance!

Hi Willistron,

"かいもの" expressed in kanji as "買い物" is a noun as you have guessed. It's the act of shopping or buying things at a mall, convenience store, supermarket and other places where good are sold.

If you want to use "かいもの" as a verb, you can add "する" at the end of it, as in "かいものする (to shop or to go out for shopping)".

"する" is a standalone, irregular verb which can be added at the end of nouns to form verbs as in "勉強 (study)" + "する (to do)" = "勉強する (to study)"

Hope this helped.

chldudghks0517 said:

Hi Willistron,

"かいもの" expressed in kanji as "買い物" is a noun as you have guessed. It's the act of shopping or buying things at a mall, convenience store, supermarket and other places where good are sold.

If you want to use "かいもの" as a verb, you can add "する" at the end of it, as in "かいものする (to shop or to go out for shopping)".

"する" is a standalone, irregular verb which can be added at the end of nouns to form verbs as in "勉強 (study)" + "する (to do)" = "勉強する (to study)"

Hope this helped.

Click to expand...

Helped very much so, thank you!
May I ask, does that principle apply to all nouns? For example, could I add する to アルバイト (part-time job) to make アルバイトする ("working at a part-time job" perhaps?)?
I feel like you can't, but if it works for some nouns, it just seems confusing that it can't work for all, although at the same time it seems differentiating them wouldn't be so hard.
Thanks!

Glad my answer helped.

As I'm also still in the course of learning Japanese, I'm not sure whether that principle (adding する at the end of nouns to "verb-ify" it) can be applied to all nouns. However, I've been seeing this pattern wherein if a noun implies a state of action or doing something, it can be conjugated with "する" just as "勉強する" and "かいものする" have been conjugated.

For "アルバイト", this refers to doing a part-time job (an action definitely) so I think it is safe to verb-ify it as "アルバイトする". To me, this doesn't sound awkward and delivers the full meaning clearly (to do a part-time job).

For instance, there nouns that denote a state of action such as "練習 (reads as れんしゅう and means practice, as in practicing dance moves)" and "心配 (read as しんぱい and means anxiety or worry, a mental action if you will) which are conjugated as "練習する (to practice) and "心配する (to worry)".

Meanwhile, nouns that do not denote action or nouns that are just plain nouns such as "本 (ほん; book)" and "財布 (さいふ; wallet) cannot be conjugated with する as in "本する (to book)" and "財布する (to wallet)". These sound awfully wrong (well, it just doesn't make sense "to wallet" someone or something).

For verification of your newly formed verbs using する, try typing them in a Japanese search engine enclosed in double quotes and see how many matches you get. The more matches you get, the more likely it is used in a Japanese setting. By the way, enclosing your search word in double quotes prompts the search engine to look for an exact match of that word in texts (articles, documents, news, research paper and etc.)

Hope a native speaker or a near-native speaker can verify this principle for us!

(I posted a question just a while ago, in the same Learning Japanese" thread. Hope you can help me out, too!)

You've been extremely helpful, my greatest thanks.
This is why I think it's foolish that it's REQUIRED in Universities to take, and pay for a foreign language class, when honestly with the help of people like you, and my own readings, I could just as easily (honestly I find teaching myself languages easier than in a course) learn it myself.
I guess I just wish you could opt for a final exam of sorts, proving you taught yourself, without spending hundreds on a course you don't need.
Anyway, excuse me for ranting, and thanks again! Happy Halloween!

Agree. I believe if people have enough passion and motivation to learn and do a self-study like you, university courses are not a necessity I guess (although, nothing really beats an in-classroom learning! )

Actually, I'm aiming for a Japanese proficiency test called JLPT. Hope I get certified soon and add it to my resume, though the road to achieving that is going to be reallllllllly rocky.

(Belated) Happy Halloween to you, too. And watch out for ZOMBIES! :>

Is かいもの a verb?

WillisTron said:

You've been extremely helpful, my greatest thanks.
This is why I think it's foolish that it's REQUIRED in Universities to take, and pay for a foreign language class, when honestly with the help of people like you, and my own readings, I could just as easily (honestly I find teaching myself languages easier than in a course) learn it myself.
I guess I just wish you could opt for a final exam of sorts, proving you taught yourself, without spending hundreds on a course you don't need.
Anyway, excuse me for ranting, and thanks again! Happy Halloween!

Click to expand...

Look up "CLEP".

Although I must say I don't think you're likely to CLEP your way out of Japanese any time soon.

Wasn't familiar with this program... although you are right, I certainly wouldn't be able to pass it now, just pointing out that most of my learnings of the language have been on my own terms, rather than in the class. Perhaps I should have not signed up for the course while learning the language myself and THEN taken advantage of that program. Oh wells

Is かいもの a verb?

If you're asking if かいもの can be conjugated as かいもにますthen (together with your other comments) I can't help but get the feeling you're one of those language learners who wants to dash ahead like mad, thinking the beginning lessons are beneath him, and whose inflated ideas of his abilities ends up sending him for a fall when he hits some more complex material and fails to understand it because of the "simple" material he turned his nose up at earlier and failed to get a sufficient grasp of.

Please don't be one of those. Thanks to the advent of the Internet and online learning resources, the Japanese learning community is loaded with them already.

Mike Cash said:

If you're asking if かいもの can be conjugated as かいもにますthen (together with your other comments) I can't help but get the feeling you're one of those language learners who wants to dash ahead like mad, thinking the beginning lessons are beneath him, and whose inflated ideas of his abilities ends up sending him for a fall when he hits some more complex material and fails to understand it because of the "simple" material he turned his nose up at earlier and failed to get a sufficient grasp of.

Please don't be one of those. Thanks to the advent of the Internet and online learning resources, the Japanese learning community is loaded with them already.

Click to expand...

I don't believe that to be me... just a question about what we were being tested about is all.