Learn Japanese from The Former Thunder Hashira Who Never Gave Up On Zenitsu (Demon Slayer)

みなさんこんにちは。Welcome to Sakura Neko’s Japanese Study Room, where you can learn Japanese from anime quotes! Today’s topic isDemon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (鬼滅の刃, Kimetsu no Yaiba). We will look at a quote by the former Thunder Hashira (鳴柱なりばしら Nari Bashira), 桑島慈悟郎 くわじまじごろう(Jigoro Kuwajima).

Today’s quote is this one

泣ないていい。逃にげてもいい。ただ、諦あきらめるな。

naite ii. nigete mo ii. tada akirameruna

You may cry and you may run, but never give up.

If you read this article, you will find out

✅How to give permission in Japanese (It is OK to do…/ You may do …)

✅How to change verbs into the て form

✅How to give a negative command in Japanese (Don’t do..)

It is OK to do…/ You may do …　て（も）いい

When you request or grant permission, you use the following sentence pattern.

Here, if you remove も it can sound quite pushy and self-assertive.

Kuwajima uses this sentence pattern when he tells Zenitsu “you may cry and you may run”, he says…

泣ないていい。逃にげげてもいい。　It’s OK that you cry. It’s OK that you run.

✅泣いて is the て form of 泣きます・泣く (to cry)

✅逃げて is the て form of 逃げます・逃げて (to escape, to run away)

So what are the rules for making the て form verbs?

Well, it depends. You will have to learn different rules depending on you remember verbs in the ます form or in the dictionary form. In my experience, it’s common to teach verbs to learners of Japanese in the ます first, but I have also seen other teachers teach dictionary form verbs first as well. So, let’s look at these two patterns of て form rules!

Making て Form Verbs From ます Verbs

If you learn the ます form verbs first, you might want to know how to make the て form verbs out of them. To do that, first, you need divide verbs into 3 groups.

Group 1

Group 1 verbs are ones that end with 〜i ます such as 書かきます、聞ききます、飲のみます etc). To change a Group 1 verb into its て form, you will need

1️⃣ Remove the ます

2️⃣ Swap the last remaining hiragana to an appropriate て form ending.

い、ち、り→って

び、み、に→んで

き→いて

ぎ→いで

For example,

If you want to say ‘May I drink this?’ you need to apply the verb 「飲みみます」to the sentence pattern above.

Firstly, 「飲みます」is ending with 〜みmiます so it’s a Group 1 verb.

Following the rules above, get rid of 「ます」at the end.

Now you have 「飲み」 and the last remaining hiragana み must be swapped for an appropriate て form ending. Looking at the chart above, and find out which hiragana.

You can find 「み」in the second line and it tells that you have to change it to 「んで」, so the て form of 「飲みます」is 「飲んで」.

Note: 「行いきます」, while if you follow the rules above becomes 「行いて」but actually becomes 「行って」. You will have to memorise this as an exception.

Group 2

Group 2 verbs are ones that end with 〜e ます such as  食べます、寝ます etc). To change a Group 2 verb into its て form, you will need

1️⃣ Remove the 「ます」

2️⃣ Simply add 「る」.

For example, if you are changing 「食べます」to the て form, you will have 「食べ」after removing the 「ます」 ending.

Then, you simply add 「る」, so the て form of 「食べます」will be 「食べて」.

An important note is that if there is only one hiragana before the 「ます」then that verb is considered Group 2. For example, 「見ます」and 「います」will be considered in this group even though these verbs both end with 〜iます. Therefore, these will be 「見て」and「いて」respectively.

You can apply these rules most of the times, but there is one more rule you have to remember. There are other verbs that have a〜iます ending. These include

起おきます: to wake up

おります: to get off (a transport)

あびます: to take (a shower)

かります: to borrow

できます: can do

Group 3

Group 3 words are irregular verbs. However, don’t worry! There are only two verbs in this group.

します (to do) becomes して

来きます (to come) becomes 来きて

These patterns don’t look so irregular at this stage, but you will have to know these two verbs are irregular verbs. They will follow irregular patterns when you need other forms.

[Verb て form] is a really useful concept to know because it allows you to create more complex grammar points. If you want to know more about how to make verb て form, I recommend you to have a look at resources here.

Making て Form Verbs From Dictionary Form Verbs

If you learn verbs in the dictionary form, you must follow different rules to make the て form.

る verbs

Dictionary form verbs that end with る can be changed into the て form by simply replacing the る for て. For example,

見る becomes 見て

食べる becomes 食べて

う verbs

Dictionary form verbs that don’t end with る are in this group. You have to swap the ending hiragana character for an appropriate て form hiragana.

う、つ、る→って

む、ぶ、ぬ→んで

く→いて

ぐ→いで

す→して

Cautionary note: there are some verbs that end with る yet are considered う verbs. Unfortunately, there is no surefire way to figure them out and you will have to learn as you go. Some examples are

入る (to enter)→入って

走る (to run)→走って

帰る (to return)→帰って

切る (to cut)→切って

しゃべる (to talk)→しゃべって

If you learned verbs in the dictionary form first, I recommend try listening this song! It’s great to way to enhance your vocabulary.

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

www.youtube.com

Don’t Do / Negative Imperative Form

The former Thunder Hashira ends the quote with 「ただ、諦あきらめるな。」. You can translate「ただ」as ‘just’, emphasising the contrast between the first part of the quote and the last part (諦めるな).

「諦めるな」is the imperative form of 「諦めます・諦める (to give up)」. Like the て form, you will have to look at different rules to make the imperative form verbs depending on whether you are making it from the ます form verbs or dictionary form verbs.

Making Imperative Verb From ます verbs

In order to get verbs in the imperative form from the ます form verbs, we are again going to use the 3 groups we discussed above.

Group 1

1️⃣ Remove 「ます」

2️⃣ Change the vowel of the last hiragana from ‘i’ to ‘u’

3️⃣ Add 「な」

For example, if you want to command someone not to drink something, you will need to change 「飲みます」to the imperative form. First, you remove 「ます」so you will end up with 「飲み」. The last hiragana character is 「みmi」so swap the vowel ‘i’ to ‘u’ and you will have「飲むのむ」. Then add 「な」to have 「飲むな」, which is thenegative imperative form of「飲みます」.　

Other examples include…

読よみます (to read) →読むな (don’t read)

泳およぎます (to swim)→泳ぐな (don’t swim)

話はなします (to speak)→話すな (don’t speak)

死しにます (to die)→死ぬな (don’t die)

Group 2

1️⃣ Remove「ます」

2️⃣ Add 「るな」

For example, if you want to command someone not to eat something, you will need to change 「食べます」to the imperative form. First, you remove 「ます」so you will end up with 「食べ」. Then, you simply add 「るな」, so you will have 「食べるな」. This is thenegative imperative form of「食べます」.

「諦あきらめます」is a Group 2 verb, so in order to change this to the imperative form, you remove the ます to have 「諦め」, Then simply add 「るな」to have the negative imperative form 「諦めるな」.

Group 3

As was the case for the て form, they have to be individually memorised.

します→するな

来きます→来くるな　Note the change in the kanji pronunciation.

まとめ　Summary

To summarise, this article looked at the quote fromthe former Thunder Hashira (鳴柱なりばしら Nari Bashira), 桑島慈悟郎 くわじまじごろう(Jigoro Kuwajima), and discussed…

✅How to give permission in Japanese (It is OK to do…/ You may do …)

✅How to change verbs into the て form

✅How to give a negative command in Japanese (Don’t do..)

I hope you found this helpful! If you liked this post, make sure you check out other articles as well! You can also find more phrases from my twitter account.  じゃあ、みなさん、さようなら！