Learn Japanese Pod with Ami and Alex
Series 02 Podcast 11: Japanese Verbs Taberu - To Eat
Podcast Link: ​Podcast 11 - Japanese Verbs Taberu - To Eat
In this lesson you will learn the following:✓​ Learn about the verb Taberu - To eat✓​ Learn how to conjugate the verb for present and past tense✓​ ​Learn how to use the verb naturally in conversation

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Japanese Verbs - Taberu
In this podcast, Ami sensei and I teach you about using the verb 食べる in the casual form
which is used between people who know each other well in an informal situation. This is how
you conjugate the verb taberu in plain form or "dictionary form".

Positive
PresentPast

Negative

食べる​ Taberu​ (To eat)

食べない​ Tabenai​ (Not eat)

食べた​ ​Tabeta​ (Ate)

食べなかった​ Tabenakatta​ (Didn't eat)

Vocabulary featured in the podcast
Japanese

Pronunciation

English

ねNeHey食べる

TaberuTo eat

食べない

Tabenai

Not eat

食べた

TabetaAte

食べなかったTabenakatta

Didn't eat

食べよう

Tabeyō

Let's eat

もうMō

AlreadyからKara

BecauseいらないIranai

Don't need or want

ひとりで食べて

Hitori deBy oneself

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Podcast Dialog
A:

ね、食べる？

Ne, Taberu?

Hey, wanna eat?

B:

食べないTabenai

No, I don’t want to eat

A:

食べないの？

Tabenai no

You don’t want to eat?

B:

もう食べたから。
食べなかったの？

M​ō tabeta kara.
Tabenakatta no?

I already ate.
Didn’t you eat?

A:

うん、食べなかった。
食べようよUn, tabenakatta.
Tabey​ō yo.

No, I didn’t eat.
Let’s eat.

B:

いらない、ひとりで食べて！

Iranai,hitori de tabete.

I don’t want any.
You eat by yourself.

Grammatical Breakdown of Dialog
Rule 1 - You can drop the subject before a Japanese verb
The dialog starts with ね - Ne which means "Hey" and used to get attention to start aconversation. Then the next word is 食べる？ Taberu with a rising intonation. This
literally means "Eat?". One important thing to remember is that you don't need to use
the subject of the sentence as the meaning is understood from the context of thesituation. If someone is looking at you and simply says "Taberu" with a rising inflection.
You can be pretty sure that they mean "Do you want to eat"? which is what it means inthis situation. In fact, this entire dialog is completely devoid of sentences with the words
you or I in them. And this because...

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Rule 2 - You have to guess the meaning from the context
As we continue to the next line in the dialog we have 食べない tabenai which means"not eat". Again, from the context, you can guess this means "I don't want to eat". Andcontext is everything here. This aspect of Japanese can make it easier for you to say
more with less because minimalism is the key. It can also make it devilishly hard tounderstand what is being said because if you don't understand the situation you won'tunderstand the conversation.
Continuing we have 食べないの？Tabenai no which is literally "Not eat" + の​no ​whichsignifies a question. This means "Not eat?" or "Don't you want to eat?"
Next we haveもう食べた Mō tabeta kara - This literally means "Already ate because" or"No because I already ate". Then 食べなかったの Tabenakatta no - which means "didn'teat" with the の question marker so "Didn't you eat?".
Rule 3 - Yes means no and no means yes
The answer to the question "Didn't you eat" is うん 食べなかった Un Tabenakatta - Yes,I didn't eat. This might be confusing as in English you would usually say:
A: Didn't you eat?
B: No, I didn't
However in Japanese you have to say "Yes, I didn't eat". This is because in Japanese,when you say yes, you are agreeing directly with the statement that was just made so
you could think of it as "Yes, it is true that I didn't eat".
Rule 4 - Verbs ending in ō mean "Let's do something"
Next we hear 食べよう Tabeyō. This form of the verb is used to suggest or propose anidea. So it means "Let's eat". Theよ Yo at the end emphasizes the meaning more. Hereare some more examples:
飲もうよ Nomō yo - Come on, let's drink!
行こうよ Ikō yo - Come on, let's go!
やろうよ Yarō yo - Come on, let's do this!
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Rule 5 - Verbs ending in "Te" can be an order to do something
The last line of this dialog is いらいない Iranai - Not needed or more naturally "I don'twant any". Finally we have 一人で食べて Hitori de tabete. Hitori means one person or inthis case by yourself. 食べて Tabete is what's called the "Te" form of the verb and is anorder or request to do something so Tabete means "Eat!". In this case the speaker issaying, "I don't want any, you go ahead and eat by yourself".

What is Japanese plain verb form?
In Japanese, there are various forms of politeness from very direct to extremely polite.
Plain form verbs are considered to be less formal and are often used in casualconversation between friends and people of similar social rank in society. When looking
up verbs in the dictionary, you will always find the plain form of the verb which is why
they are also know as "dictionary form" verbs.
The more formal and polite form is the -masu form which is conjugated for the verb
Taberu like this:-Masu form verb - Taberu
Positive

Negative

Present

食べます​ Tabemasu​ (Toeat)

食べません​ Tabemasen​ (Not eat)

Past食べました​ ​Tabemashita(Ate)

食べませんでした​ Tabemasendeshita(Didn't eat)

The -masu form of the verb is used in more formal situations when to talking to peopleof senior rank. You will often here service staff use the -masu form of verbs tocustomers.

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Why study Japanese plain form verbs?
When studying Japanese for the first time it is quite common to study -masu form verbs
first. This may be because of tradition and perhaps Japanese teachers would rather
give you all the polite Japanese first before you go out and offend people with the wrong
level of politeness.
This is not necessarily a bad idea and I would advise you to definitely learn polite -masu
form verbs. However, in my experience, after studying almost exclusively polite
Japanese in my first year of university, I found that around 90% of the conversations I
was having was in plain form. That means, if you only learn the polite form, you will
have difficulty understanding taking part in conversations and discussions with yourJapanese friends, family and even coworkers.
Should you learn the safer polite form or the more plain form first? Great question and I
will let that heated debate continue as it always has. Of course, you should learn learn
both verb forms. However learning plain form verbs is your key to understanding daily
conversation and being able to speak Japanese more fluently.

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Hi, this is Alex, the creator of Learn
Japanese Pod. Thanks for downloadingthese show notes, I hope you find them
useful. If you need any help with yourJapanese or have any questions orcomments please drop me a line at
info@learnjapanesepod.com
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Alex
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