Ru-verbs, past tense, & Jya - quick question

[Glenn]

It is, actually, about two posts up: します is just like all other verbs in polite form: します -> "do," しません -> "don't do," しました -> "did," しませんでした -> "didn't do."

 

[skj91]

So, we are doing homework with you?? I'm sure your teacher told you how to conjugate the irregulars. That's one of the first things teachers teach for verb conjugation. Didn't you take notes? I'm leaving this thread....

Good, I thought this forum was here to help people with questions about Japanese grammar anyway, not critique the quality of other people's textbooks.
You'r not helping at all, you're nit-picking at particulars that have nothing to do with the question at hand and ridiculing me for being in the early stages of learning Japanese. Well I'm sorry but nowhere does it say that you must be of X level of knowledge of Japanese or above in order to have any questions about it. I keep pointing out that I'M IN A BEGINNER'S COURSE and you keep reacting to me as if I should know these things already. So good, go away, I don't need your insults and attitude and convient way of avoiding the question in order to learn anything. In fact I'm quite the worse for having it.
(that was directed @grapefruit, everyone else has been helpful or at least trying to be helpful, and the above is in no way meant towards anyone else).

 

[skj91]

Thank you becki_kanou and Glenn (and tada, even though na adjectives are a chapter away still and I don't understand your answer yet... thanks all the same for an honest answer).

It is, actually, about two posts up: します is just like all other verbs in polite form: します -> "do," しません -> "don't do," しました -> "did," しませんでした -> "didn't do."

yes, thank you. I hadn't seen post you're referring to until after I submitted that one. must've been writting our posts at the same time and I finnished last.

and sidenote to ASHIKAGA - now I understand why you couldn't understand my question, the question i was asking doesn't even make sense. sorry for the confusion.

 

[grapefruit]

Good, I thought this forum was here to help people with questions about Japanese grammar anyway, not critique the quality of other people's textbooks.
You'r not helping at all, you're nit-picking at particulars that have nothing to do with the question at hand and ridiculing me for being in the early stages of learning Japanese. Well I'm sorry but nowhere does it say that you must be of X level of knowledge of Japanese or above in order to have any questions about it. I keep pointing out that I'M IN A BEGINNER'S COURSE and you keep reacting to me as if I should know these things already. So good, go away, I don't need your insults and attitude and convient way of avoiding the question in order to learn anything. In fact I'm quite the worse for having it.
(that was directed @Grapefruit, everyone else has been helpful or at least trying to be helpful, and the above is in no way meant towards anyone else).

Of coure you can ask questions but I think it's waste of everyone's effort if you are not studying anything at all by yourself. I did not say what I said to be mean to you. I wanted to point out that there are things that you should take initiative when learning something.

I sensend from the beginning that the question your were asking is kind of too fundamental. Something you can easily look up only if the person has will to do so.

You mentioned that you are using "Genki" and you are probably learning Chapter 4. Take a look at page 79. The work book that comes with the textbook, from which your homework must have been assigned, also says in the instructions of the homework you talked about to refer to the table on p.79.

The workbook p. 36 says,

Fill in the conjugation table below. If you are unclear abou the u-verb/ru-verb distinction, read Grammar 1 in Lesson 3 (pp. 58-59) once again. If you are unclear about the past tense conjugation, refer to the table on p. 79.

Genki 1st edition page 79 says loud and clearly how to do the conjugation with suru:

3. Past Tense
The past tense forms of verbs look like the following, where ~ stands for the stem of a verb.

affirmative negative
present tense ~ます ～ません
past tense ～ました ～ませんでした

メアリーさんは九時ごろうちに帰りました。 Mary returned home at about time.
私はきのう日本語を勉強しませんでした。 I did not study Japanese yesterday

The various details of formation of the long forms that we learned in Lesson 3, like the ru-verb/u-berb/irregular verb distinctions, all apply to the past tense forms as well.

Since my textbook is the first edition, it might be slightly different for the 2nd edition (I heard the newest edition is the 2nd edition). But, I'm sure the 2nd edition must have almost the same thing.

The first thing you should do is to read the textbook. I sensed you had not done that. That's what I wanted to point out.