State-of-being Practice Exercises
Vocabulary used in this section
In the following exercises, we will practice the state-of-being conjugations we just covered. But first, you might want to learn or review the following useful nouns that will be used in the exercises.
To start with, I have listed the kanji you will need for the vocabulary for your convenience. The link will take you to a diagram of the stroke order. However, it doesn't clearly show the direction (though you can kind of tell by the animation) so you should check with a kanji dictionary if you're not sure. I recommend practicing the kanji in the context of real words (such as the ones below).
Here is the list of some simple nouns that might be used in the exercises.
- うん - casual word for "yes" (yeah, uh-huh)
- ううん - casual word for "no" (nah, uh-uh)
- これ - this
- それ - that
- あれ - that over there
- こう - (things are) this way
- そう - (things are) that way
- 人 【ひと】 - person
- 大人 【おとな】 - adult
- 子供 【こども】 - child
- 友達 【ともだち】 - friend
- 車 【くるま】 - car
- 学生 【がくせい】 - student
- 先生 【せんせい】 - teacher
- 学校 【がっこう】 - school
- 小学校 【しょうがっこう】 - elementary school
- 中学校 【ちゅうがっこう】 - middle school
- 高校 【こうこう】 - high school
- 大学 【だいがく】 - college
Conjugation Exercise 1
We are now going to practice the state-of-being conjugations in order. Take each noun and conjugate it to the following forms: the declarative, negative state-of-being, past state-of-being, and negative past state-of-being.
Sample: 人 ＝ 人だ、人じゃない、人だった、人じゃなかった
- これ
declarative = これだ negative = これじゃない past = これだった negative-past = これじゃなかった - 大人
declarative = 大人だ negative = 大人じゃない past = 大人だった negative-past = 大人じゃなかった - 学校
declarative = 学校だ negative = 学校じゃない past = 学校だった negative-past = 学校じゃなかった - 友達
declarative = 友達だ negative = 友達じゃない past = 友達だった negative-past = 友達じゃなかった - 学生
declarative = 学生だ negative = 学生じゃない past = 学生だった negative-past = 学生じゃなかった
Conjugation Exercise 2
In this second exercise, we are really going to test your conjugation knowledge as well as the vocabulary by translating some simple English sentences.
Please note that while the positive, non-past state-of-being can be implied, for the purpose of this exercise, we will assume it's always declaratory. Don't forget that
this creates a very firm and declaratory tone.
Sample: Is student. ＝ 学生だ。
| 1. Is college. | ＝ | 大学だ。 |
| 2. Is not high school. | ＝ | 高校じゃない。 |
| 3. Was teacher. | ＝ | 先生だった。 |
| 4. Is adult. | ＝ | 大人だ。 |
| 5. Was not child. | ＝ | 子供じゃなかった。 |
| 6. This was the way it was. | ＝ | こうだった。 |
| 7. Wasn't that over there. | ＝ | あれじゃなかった。 |
| 8. Is not middle school. | ＝ | 中学校じゃない。 |
| 9. Is friend. | ＝ | 友達だ。 |
| 10. Was not car. | ＝ | 車じゃなかった。 |
| 11. Was this. | ＝ | これだった。 |
| 12. That's not the way it is. | ＝ | そうじゃない。 |
Question Answer Exercise
In this last exercise, we'll practice answering very simple questions using the state-of-being. The yes or no answer （うん or ううん） will be given and it is your job to complete the sentence. In deciding whether to use the declaratory 「だ」, I've decided to be sexist here and assume all males use the declaratory 「だ」 and all females use the implicit state-of-being (not the case in the real world).
Sample:
Ｑ） 学生？
Ａ） ううん、学生じゃない。
| Ｑ１） 友達？ Ａ１） うん、 。 (female) |
Ｑ１） 友達？ Ａ１） うん、友達。 (female) |
| Ｑ２） 学校？ Ａ２） ううん、 。 |
Ｑ２） 学校？ Ａ２） ううん、学校じゃない。 |
| Ｑ３） それだった？ Ａ３） ううん、 。 |
Ｑ３） それだった？ Ａ３） ううん、それじゃなかった。 |
| Ｑ４） そう？ (Is that so?) Ａ４） うん、 。 (male) |
Ｑ４） そう？ (Is that so?) Ａ４） うん、そうだ。 (male) |
| Ｑ５） これ？ Ａ５） ううん、 。 (object is away from the speaker) |
Ｑ５） これ？ Ａ５） ううん、それじゃない。 (object is away from the speaker) |
| Ｑ６） 先生だった？ Ａ６） うん、 。 |
Ｑ６） 先生だった？ Ａ６） うん、先生だった。 |
| Ｑ７） 小学校だった？ Ａ７） ううん、 。 |
Ｑ７） 小学校だった？ Ａ７） ううん、小学校じゃなかった。 |
| Ｑ８） 子供？ Ａ８） うん、 。 (female) |
Ｑ８） 子供？ Ａ８） うん、子供。 (female) |
A sound clip of
A sound clip of "人だ、人じゃない、人だった、人じゃなかった" would help me a lot. I am not sure I have pronounced them correctly.
Hmm...this is how I pronounce
Hmm...this is how I pronounce it, maybe someone can tell me if it's correct or not.
http://www.goear.com/listen/c349b2d/japanese-practice-me
for Female , is it write in [
for Female , is it write in [ うん、友達です。 ] also OK??
if write in うん、友達. I feel that can't express much of the replying ~
The (female) designation on
The (female) designation on question 8 in the "Question Answer Exercise" only appears when the answers are toggled. Just thought you ought to know.
Otherwise, great stuff!
Thanks!
Thanks!
This site is better than my
This site is better than my textbook... Lol
This seems like a really
This seems like a really great site. I'm back to my Japanese studies, and I was trying to help me with grammar. I knew about this place, but just skimmed it. Now that I'm really working on exercises and reading it throughly, I'm loving it. :) Thank you sooo much. For everything.
"Wasn't that over there"
"Wasn't that over there" reads like a question and also uses the wrong sense of "over there." Compare:
1) That boy over there is my brother.
2) That boy is over there.
Maybe "That (over there) was not" would be clearer.
hello...i love the exercise
hello...i love the exercise too...
The last question in the
The last question in the excercise(Q8),how do we know if it is male or female?Is it because of the fact that the declarative だ does not always have to be there for it to be declarative?
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