My apologies for asking such a basic grammar question, but I can not seem to understand a small detail about te-form... I am following the Genki 1 book, and I have understood how to turn verbs into te-forms. I have also understood how to turn adjectives into te-form, and also noun + desu into te-form.
My question is this – if you are using the te-form plus the helping verb -iru (-imasu) for a verb which describes a continued activity / the result of a change – how do you join a sentence?
Say you want to say something like
[i]“A is skinny, but B is fat”[/i]
is it
[i]“A wa yasete imasu, demo B wa futotte imasu”[/i]
The word before the helping verb is already in te-form, but should the helping verb in the first part of the sentence be conjugated to te-form in any way as well?
I am confused, so if anybody could help me understand this I would be very grateful!
In the example sentence that you provided, you wouldn't use the te-form since you're using the word "but". It is, however, possible to use the te-form with iru.
Example:
"Mika wa futotteite, shizukana hito desu." (Mika is an overweight and quiet person.)
So when you are connecting something that is conjugated in -teiru with another part of the sentence, you use it the same way as you would the word "and".
Thank you so much for explaining that! I have been following the Genki books, and I generally think they are quite good, but then all of a sudden there are little pieces that I can not quite make out, so renshuu is really helpful :)
It makes perfect sense in the example sentence you provided.
Does this mean however, that the sentence I wrote originally in the starting post is correct?
Yes, the original sentence is correct, you're just using a different way to say it. Actually, "demo" should come after a full stop; if you want to say "but" using one sentence, you should use "ga".
Example:
"A wa yasete imasu. Demo, B wa futotte imasu” "A wa yasete imasu ga, B wa futotte imasu”
[size=8pt]I just arrived in Tokyo this week, and man, I feel like a complete illiterate in this country so far... (I have even been here three times before, but this time I am here to stay, so it all feels different!) I have to pace up the studying, but at least I am starting somewhere. :)[/size]
