Polite and plain style...
The Japanese language has two styles of speech, polite and plain style.
Polite style is accompanied by either です or ます. Plain style is similar
to dictionary form or without です.
The polite form can be used at anytime in any place, and to anybody.
Therefore the polite style is used most commonly in daily conversation
between
adults who are not close friends. It is used when talking to a person
one
has met for the first time, to one's superiors, or even to persons in a
similar age group to whom one is not very close.
The plain style is used when talking to one's close friends, colleagues
and family members. It is also used in written work such as newspapers,
books, letters and diaries.
Note that when you cannot tell the situation, it is safer to use the
polite style. Otherwise you could sound rough and impolite.
Conversation in the plain style:
1) Questions in the plain style generally omit the particle か and end
with a rising intonation such as のむ (
).
- コーヒー を のむ ( ) ...うん、 のむ。( )
2) In noun and な adjective questions, だ is omitted. In an answer in the
affirmative, ending だ could sound too rough. You can either omit だ or
add some sentence final particle to soften the tone of the sentence.
Women seldom use だ.
- きよう ひま ?
- うん、ひま/ひまだ/ひまだよ (men)
- うん、 ひま/ひまよ (women)
- ううん、 ひまじゃない (both men and women)
3) In the plain style, certain particles are often omitted if the
meaning of the sentence is evident from the context. However
で/に/から/まで/と etc are not omitted because the meaning of the sentence may
not be clear without
them.
- ごはん (を) たべる?
- あした パリ (に) いかない?
- この パイ (は) おいしいね。
- そこ に 私 の かばん (が) ある?
In the plain style, い of verb て form いる is also often dropped.
- じしょ、 もって (い)る?
- うん、もって (い)る。
- ううん、 もって (い)ない。
5) けど has the same function as が , which is used to connect two
sentences.
How to make plain style verbs: