EPTOk, sorry it's been awhile since I wrote the last part, but I've been pretty busy. Anyways, part 1 was more of an introduction than anything grammatical or what not. Anyways this part will be about verbs!
In japanese, broadly speaking, there are only two tenses: past and not past( ie present or future). Verbs also have two MAIN forms: Short form (informal and used for some constructions) and long form (more formal). There are also two types of verbs: る (ru) verbs, (食べる, tabeRU) and う (u) verbs, (行く, ikU). In this part I will only go over the formal form in the present and past.
Furthermore, pronouns do accompany verbs. In english, or most other languages, verbs decline, I eat, you eat, he/she/it eats, we eat etc. The verb is almost always accompanied with a pronoun to indicate the subject. In japanese verbs do not decline like this, and there is no plural or singular or gender for verbs to agree with, and pronouns are often dropped at the beginning of sentences. I will try and explain this better below.
In るverbs, the part before the る is called the verb base, eg 食べる (taberu) 食べ (tabe) is the verb base.
To make the long form with a ru verb we simple take off the るand add ます(masu)
eg: 食べるーーー＞食べます
見るーーー＞みます
or tabeRU ----> tabeMASU I eat
miRU ----> miMASU I see
As I said earlier, verbs do not conjugate. You do not have to adjust verbs for agreement with plural subjects or gender. Furthermore pronouns do not accompany verbs, and are usually not included at all in sentences. So the verb forms presented above could also be translated as I/you/he/we/they eat depending on the context of the sentence. I hope this makes sense. If it doesn't feel free to flame me and I'll try to explain better.
This is fairly simple and if you follow this you should be ok.
To turn a る verb negative, add ません (masen) onto the verb base instead of ます. eg
In う verbs you drop the final u and turn it into an i + ます／ません.
For example, 聞くーーー＞聞きます
話すーーー＞はなします
or kikU ---> kikimasu
hanasu---> hanashimasu
When you look up a verb, you will also find it in its る／う form, so you can always turn it into its long form as long as you follow these rules.
PAST TENSE
Forming the past tense is very simple. You take the verb base, and instead of adding ます you add ました (mashita). This is the same for る and う verbs.
eg: 食べるーーー＞食べました
見るーーー＞みました
聞くーーー＞聞きました
話すーーー＞話しました
or taberu ---> tabemashita I ate
miru ---> mimashita
kiku ---> kikimashita
hanasu---> hanashimashita
I hope this makes sense.
Now, for the irregular: (there is no pattern, you just have to learn 'em)
するーーー＞します
ーーー＞しました
くるーーー＞きます
ーーー＞きました
or:
suru---> shimasu (I do)
---> shimashita (I did)
kuru---> kimasu (I come)
---> kimashita (I came) (lol)
Ok. I hope this was helpful for anyone who's working on the basics, is interested in starting or just wanted a brush up. If you have any questions/want me to continue please let me know!
PS: For anyone interested in learning how to write the basic alphabet (there are 3!!) start here: http://japanese.about.com/library/blhira.htm
It's a pretty good tutorial and will give you the basics to it.
