TexMurphy01
先輩
- 25 Aug 2011
- 33
- 0
- 16
Hi there.
I was at my Japanese lesson this evening, and I came across something in the text book for which my teacher could not provide an adequate explanation, so I return to this excellent forum in the hope of answers.
So, what's the problem? So you have 'mou' which you can use to start a question in which you ask if something has already occurred. Now here's how it went (as I recall):
Question -
Mou tabemashita ka - Have you eaten already?
Positive answer -
Mou tabemashita. - I have already eaten.
Negative answer -
Mada tabete imasen. - I have not yet eaten.
So, assuming both my memory and the textbook are reporting things accurately, why in the name of Jesus himself do we use the regular past tense for the positive response and the negative te iru form for the negative?
Please, if you have the answer, I would appreciate it if you took me through it nice and slowly for my head is not really able to get this.
Thanks in advance.
I was at my Japanese lesson this evening, and I came across something in the text book for which my teacher could not provide an adequate explanation, so I return to this excellent forum in the hope of answers.
So, what's the problem? So you have 'mou' which you can use to start a question in which you ask if something has already occurred. Now here's how it went (as I recall):
Question -
Mou tabemashita ka - Have you eaten already?
Positive answer -
Mou tabemashita. - I have already eaten.
Negative answer -
Mada tabete imasen. - I have not yet eaten.
So, assuming both my memory and the textbook are reporting things accurately, why in the name of Jesus himself do we use the regular past tense for the positive response and the negative te iru form for the negative?
Please, if you have the answer, I would appreciate it if you took me through it nice and slowly for my head is not really able to get this.
Thanks in advance.