Limun’s Japanese Class | What are you doing? – 2/4

本編 | Main Topic

みなさんこんにちは。
急いで記事を書いているらいむーん(Limun)です。
今日ものんびり日本語を学んでいきましょう。

Hello.
I am Limun who is in a hurry and writing the article.
Let’s learn Japanese leisurely.

さて、今日も今起きていることを説明する方法について学びます。
早速例文を見てみましょう。

Well, today you will learn about how to say what is happening now.
Let’s begin.

例文 | Example

(The conversation of Tufaha and Limun)
Tufaha : 今何をしていますか？
Limun : 今記事を書いています。
Tufaha : へえ。それは大変ですね。頑張って！
Limun : 頑張ります(泣)

解説 | Explanation

The second sentence.
Limun is answering to the question. It (you know the limun is a fruit so I use “it” intentionally) says “今記事を書いています。”.

Maybe most of you understand what I will say the next.
You don’t have to say the subject.

So we don’t have to say “私は今記事を書いています。”.
(That’s important I said haha)

By the way I guess you can understand the sentence immediately (I hope so).
Because you know “今”, “記事を書く”(in the “Self introduction part“) and you learned the form of “~をしています”.

So you can guess that “記事を書く” will be transformed into “記事を書いています”.

*記事を書くこと : writing articles

I will explain the structure of this phrase. It is the form of “verb + こと”.
“verb + こと” changes the verb into noun.
So, “記事を書く” means “write articles”.
And in this article the verb “書く” (means “write”) appears a lot.

What should we do to transform it?

To understand that we have to study a little. Each verb has a stem.
Stems are never changed.
In this part The stem is “書”.
“書” have to be changed into “書い” to explain what is happening.

I don’t explain details about the grammar.
Because it is not a grammar class.

And you have to add “~ています” after the changed verb.

So now it is changed “書いています”.

“~ています” is an important part when you want to say what is happening now.

Once you have a “changed verb” for explain what is happening, all what you have to do is to connect it with “~ています”

For example

”書いています” : I am writing
“走っています” : I am running
“笑っています” : I am laughing

Some verb have to connect with “~でいます” but I don’t explain it now.

おまけ | Extra Topic

Today’s Cool Japanese Words

急がば回れ
More haste, less speed

Part1 is here

Part3 is here