I've been studying Genki, which I realize is probably slanted towards more polite forms and grammar, but I recently downloaded "Tae Kim's Guide to Learning Japanese" as a supplement.
In the lesson about conjugating い and な adjectives, Genki presents one conjugation pattern, but then presents a different pattern in footnotes, saying both "some speakers prefer a more regular conjugation" and "some speakers prefer an alternative paradigm". TKGtLJ presents the more "regular" or "alternative" forms.
My question is basically which one is more "normal"? Is it just a different dialect, or is one more formal than the other? Is it personal preference? Do people in Japan know both and just pick one or the other as personal preference? Do people only know one and get confused when they hear the other?
The more regular pattern sure seems easier! Thanks! -Mike
I'm not quite sure what you're getting at. Maybe if you provided some examples of these different conjugations styles for everyone, you might get some more useful feedback.
The only difference is formality level. ~くありません formal ~くないです polite ~くない casual The formal form is used in business settings (and schools). The polite form is the one most people choose, and the one you'll hear most often. The same levels apply for な-adj as well, but I don't feel like typing the rest, either. =^.^= Does this help?
Agreed with Julie. I wasn't quite sure what you meant when you said alternative forms as there aren't really any alternative forms aside from politeness level. That is, however, unless you include dialects and slang.
If you're not sure which one to use, just stick with whatever Genki teaches you. That book focuses on polite form for the first 8 chapters if I remember correctly, so you'll be fine.
Well that's why I was confused, because Genki doesn't present it as "this is more formal" it just says (several times) that some people prefer one over the other, so that left me asking why.
FWIW, Genki appears to use the "formal" varient, leaving the "polite" one to a confusing footnote.
I used Genki I myself for the level 4 test (N5 now), Further down the line, you will come to what they call is informal speech which is :
pres aff: いです pres neg: くないです past aff: かったです past neg: くなかったです
as you posted.
Genki is sometimes confusing on how they do things.
For example now in Genki II they split up そうです between 2 chapters. The ones where you can say how something looks for adjectives (oishisoudesu) , and then 9! chapters later they go into using sou desu with verbs and adjectives to explain about hearsay, rumours, etc (taberu sou desu).
I would suggest reading through the book fully to understand how things fit together.
Another big one in genki I is the INFORMAL past tense of a verb that uses the TE form to explain it.
I ate = TabeTA (Taberu->Tabete->Tabeta) or I bought = Katta (Kau -> Katte -> Katta) is how genki explains how to form it.
I found this easier than the multitude of other ways because I knew the TE forms of verbs by the time Genki got to informal conjugations. So make sure you know the rules genki uses to get TE forms. (u tsu ru, nu bu mu, ku, gu, su)
PS, I also used Tae Kim on spots where Genki I was confusing.
[quote author=darkje link=topic=928.msg5197#msg5197 date=1281978829] I used Genki I myself for the level 4 test (N5 now), Further down the line, you will come to what they call is informal speech which is :
pres aff: いです pres neg: くないです past aff: かったです past neg: くなかったです
as you posted. [/quote]
The above posted is still considered polite speech (です is [i]keigo[/i]).
Using the word formal when talking about Japanese is rather ambiguous because there are so many different levels of politeness, as well as different styles such as written or verbal discourse.
To reiterate, until you're more comfortable with your Japanese linguistic ability, I'd just stick to what you learn in your textbook, and what your teacher tells you is acceptable.
