Nete, Neru?

[animator489]

I'm currently using Rosetta Stone and one of the sentences was "Kare wa nete imasu." Under the sentence is a picture of a man sleeping. I assume nete means "to sleep," however I noticed a lot of people online were using "neru" to mean "to sleep." I'm a little confused as to the difference between the two. Can anyone help?

 

[derick78b]

Let me see if I can help you.

When a verb is in -TE form, it means "to be + -ing". For example:

Watashi wa tabete imasu. -> I'm eating.
私は食べています。

Anata-tachi wa asonde imashita. -> We were playing.
あなた達は遊んでいました。

Focus on the IRU verb in the end of the sentences. In the first sentence IRU is in future/present tense, so does the verb in the -TE form. In the second we see past tense.

See, EASY!

I'm a beginner too, sorry if I'm wrong...

Take a look:
http://www.google.com.br/url?sa=t&r...sg=AFQjCNE1gIGcHjY7LRlODBO7f8Ezl06E5Q&cad=rja

 

[Mike Cash]

Rosetta Stone sucks. It expects you to magically intuit verb conjugations.

Actually, that's not quite right. It expects you to hand over your money for a half-baked product.

 

[animator489]

Wait, are you saying that "iru" is the natural form and that "te" is the present/future tense? In that case, what does iru represent. I'm sorry, I'm just trying to get a solid understanding. I started like three days ago lol.

As for Rosetta, I understand it's not the end all of language solutions, which is why I bought several textbooks which are coming in the mail. Rosetta is a bit lacking when it comes to the rules of the language.

 

[Toritoribe]

Japanese verb conjugations and adjective declensions - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Rei Yahya]

Neru - Dictionary form. General Present/Future Tense.
彼は寝る。He sleeps/will sleep. (Polite: 彼は寝ます。）

Nete iru - Present progressive.
彼は寝ている。 He is sleeping. (Polite: 彼は寝ています。）

Please note that ~te iru does not ALWAYS mean present progressive, there are exceptions here and there, such as 'iku', to go.
彼は東京へ行っている。He has gone to Tokyo.

 

[animator489]

This seems to help a little. I'm sure once I get a few text books and start diving in, this will all make a whole lot more sense. Thanks everyone!

 

[Connoisseur]

Rosetta Stone sucks. It expects you to magically intuit verb conjugations.

Actually, that's not quite right. It expects you to hand over your money for a half-baked product.

I agree completely.

You should be starting off with even beginner lessons on a free website like Japan Digest
Anything would be btter than nothing.