Zelda: Ocarina of Time/Of Swords and Shields: Part 2/Grammar

The volitional form; plain tense

You probably already studied the volitional form (Let's ~) in the polite tense (～ましょう)

• (If not, check out Tae Kim's guide, "Making a motion to do something using the volitional form (polite)" here: http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar/desire )

In this lesson, we will see how to form the "Let's ~" in the plain tense.

For る verbs, take off the final る and add よう.

• 食べよう　 Let's eat
• 寝よう　　　Let's sleep

For う verbs, change the verb to Base 5 and add う

• 買う　 買おう Let's buy
• 読む　 読もう Let's read
• 乗る　 乗ろう Let's ride
• 死ぬ　 死のう Let's die (Hopefully, something you don't come across..)

する and　来る are irregular; their forms are しよう and　こよう.

• 借りておこう! Let's plan on returning (it)!
• 剣で草を切ろう Let's cut the grass with the sword.
• オイラとれんしゅうしよう Let's practice together.

When or If with たら

You can add ら after the past tense of a verb to signify when or if.

• あなたは東京に行ったら私も行きます。 If/When you go to Tokyo, I will go to
• お金が貰ったらコンサートに行きます。　If I get money, I will go to the concert.
• 表に出たら「れんしゅう」だ！ When you go out, practice!

Without doing something with ～ず

You can express doing something, while not doing something else, by putting the verb into the plain negative and replacing ない with ず.

• 食べず Without eating
• 読まず Without reading

• 晩御飯を食べず、大学に行きました。　Without eating breakfast, I went to college.
• カンバンは切らず読んでください。　Please read the sings without cutting them.

Doing two actions at once with ～ながら

To say "I did this and did this at the same time", put ながら　after the base stem of a verb.

• 食べながら　While eating
• 読みながら　While reading.

• 音楽を聞きながら本を読みました。　I read a book while listening to music.
• Ｚ押しながらＢでタテ斬り You can cut vertically with B while pressing Z.