2008 年 5 月 22 日
Potential Verbs
Potential verbs have two uses: to express a person's ability to do something
and to express the possibility of an action in a certain situation.
- マーク さん は 漢字 が たくさん よめます。- Mark can read lots of Kanji
- このぎんこう で 日本円 が かえられます。- You can change Japanese yen at this bank.
How to make potential verbs
Group 1:
か - ない form
かきます - ます form
く - dictionary
けます - potential
こ
Note that わかります which includes the meaning of possibility itself does
not change into わかれます。.
Group 2:
- たべます
たべられます
- みます
みられます
Group 3:
- します
できます
- きます
こられます
Note that when you make plain style of potential verbs, just replace ます
with る.
No particles change except for を.
- 私は 日本 ご が はなせます。(私は 日本 ご を はなせます)
- I can speak Japanese . (I speak Japanese)
- きのう、 田中 さん に あえませんでした
- Yesterday, I couldn't meet Mr. Tanaka.
だけ and しか only
だけ means 'only'. It is added after quantifiers or nouns to express that
there is no more or nothing (no one) else. しか is also attached to nouns,
quantifiers etc, and it is always used with negative predicates. It highlights
the word, makes limitations, and negates everything except the thing expressed
by the word. It replaces が or を, but follows other particles. しか has a negative
nuance, but だけ has a positive one.
- ひらがな だけ わかります。- I can only understand Hirigana.
- ひらがな しか わかりません。- I cannot understand anything but Hiragana.