Verbs - habitual or present?

Dante17 · 3 Dec 2013

Hello, I'm new to this forum so please forgive me if this is in the wrong area. I've been having a bit of confusion regarding how to tell if a verb is being used in a habitual sense or a present tense. For example:

Watashi wa eki ni ikimasu

Would this mean:

I am going to the station

Or

I go to the train station (habitual)

Thanks

Toritoribe · 3 Dec 2013

It depends on the context or temporal adverbs/phrases. For instance, "Watashi wa asu eki ni ikimasu" is future, and "Watashi wa maiasa eki ni ikimasu" is a habitual action.

Dante17 · 3 Dec 2013

Ah! So something like a frequency word and context defines it. I thought there was an entirely different way of saying it to make it habitual.

Arigatou gozaimasu!

( no kana characters on my phone :c )

Dante17 · 3 Dec 2013

Toritoribe said:
It depends on the context or temporal adverbs/phrases. For instance, "Watashi wa asu eki ni ikimasu" is future, and "Watashi wa maiasa eki ni ikimasu" is a habitual action.

Oh, and if I wanted to say:

''I am going to the station now''

would I say

''Watashi wa ima eki ni ikimasu'' ?

or simply

'' Watashi wa eki ni ikimasu '' ?

Just for my understanding.

SomeCallMeChris · 4 Dec 2013

Normally you would say 'eki ni ikimasu'. If you needed to draw attention to it being -you- that's going you could put the 'watashi wa' on the front, and if you needed to draw attention to it being -now- you could use 'ima' or 'imasugu'.

LewiiG · 4 Dec 2013

Dante17 said:
>no kana characters on my phone

You can write kana and kanji using an iPhone. Just go to the keyboard settings and look for the Japanese options. You'll find it.

Toritoribe · 4 Dec 2013

Dante17 said:
Oh, and if I wanted to say:

''I am going to the station now''

would I say

''Watashi wa ima eki ni ikimasu'' ?

or simply

'' Watashi wa eki ni ikimasu '' ?

Just for my understanding.

The original English sentence "I am going to the station now" is ambiguous in meaning. It can mean both "I'm on the way to go to the station (have already left home)" and "I'll go to the station soon (still at home)" depending on the context. These two expressions are usually differentiated in Japanese. For instance, "Watashi wa eki ni ikimasu" is hardly used for the former case even when used with "ima".
I think "Eki ni iku tokoro desu" might be close to it in the sense of ambiguity. This expression can have these two meanings.

SomeCallMeChris · 4 Dec 2013

Toritoribe said:
The original English sentence "I am going to the station now" is ambiguous in meaning.

Ah. That's true, I suppose, if I think about the rules of grammar. However, in natural usage (at least in my region), it would never be used to mean "I'm on my way to the station." It always means "I'm departing shortly to go to the station." If you use the same grammar with other verbs of motion - e.g. "I'm walking to the station now" - it's slightly ambiguous but usually means "I've already departed and am traveling toward the station."

(Although "I'm on my way" is sometimes used to mean "I'm departing as soon as I possibly can", but that's not any ambiguity in grammar, that's just trying to make the situation sound better than it is.)

Glenn · 4 Dec 2013

Yeah, my first thought was 今から駅に行きます when I saw "I am going to the station now."

Toritoribe · 4 Dec 2013

Oh, interesting, really. So, the present form "ikimasu" perfectly fits that situation (I haven't departed yet). And yes, "ima kara" is a nice translation. To tell the truth, I couldn't think of it.

BTW, this is completely off topic, but I'm sorry Glenn-san for the Monday Night Football game yesterday. (The game live on-aired on NHK-BS in Japan.) The situation seems to become tougher for Saints...

Glenn · 5 Dec 2013

offtopic

Yeah, that was a bummer. I wasn't expecting a win, exactly (that's a tough place to play), but I wasn't really expecting that either. Sometimes the other guys just play better.

/offtopic

Tak Yamanaka · 5 Dec 2013

Dante17さん
こんにちは。私は日本語の先生です。

「わたしは駅に行きます」は３つの意味(mean)があります。
1.私は駅に（明日orあさってor１時間あとに…）行きます。
2.私はこれから駅に行くところです。
3.わたしは駅に（毎日orいつも）行きます。
「毎日、明日、あさって」などがある時は１の意味になります。
「毎日、明日、あさって」などがない時は１〜３の意味になります。

分からない時は、その文の前やうしろで考えてください。
例えば…
「私は明日東京へ行きますから、私は駅に行きます。」は１です。
「私の友達が今駅につきました。私は駅に行きます。」は２です。
「私の会社は東京にありますから、私は駅に行きます。」は３です。

最後に、

Verbs - habitual or present?

Dante17

先輩

Toritoribe

松葉解禁

Dante17

先輩

Dante17

先輩

SomeCallMeChris

先輩

LewiiG

先輩

Toritoribe

松葉解禁

SomeCallMeChris

先輩

Glenn

一切皆苦

Toritoribe

松葉解禁

Glenn

一切皆苦

Tak Yamanaka

後輩

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