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Chapter 13 of 17 · Explore the Japanese path

Verbs and stories · Chapter 13 of 17

What already happened, and how a story hangs together

No new words here, only the endings stories are told in. A verb ending in ta or da already happened, and a few fixed openers and joining words tell you where a scene starts.

≈ 4 min of reading · Practise at your own pace

What’s in this chapter
  • No new words here, only the endings every story is told in.
  • The signal is the last syllable: a verb ending in たta or だda is in the past.
  • いったitta is both “went” and “said”; a quote in front of it means “said”.
  • Describing words carry their own past: かなしいkanashii → かなしかったkanashikatta.
  • からkara “because” ends the reason; でもdemo “but” starts the next sentence.

No new words in this section — only new shapes, and every book you are about to read narrates in exactly this plain past. The polite past a beginner course teaches, ましたmashita, is for talking to people; not wrong, a different job.

Your words, in the past

The signal is the last sound: a verb ending in たta or だda already happened. Compare each word you know with the shape beside it.

みるmiru“see”
みたmita“saw”
るru usually swaps for たta; so こたえたkotaeta“answered”
いうiu“say”
いったitta“said”
うu takes the held beat: ったtta
きくkiku“ask; hear”
きいたkiita“asked; heard”
くku stretches instead: いたita
いくiku“go”
いったitta“went”
irregular — the くku pattern would give いいた, and it does not
くるkuru“come”
きたkita“came”
irregular at both ends
いるiru“is there”
いたita“was there”
あるaru“exists”
あったatta“there was”
some るru verbs take the beat instead: はしったhashitta“ran”
だda“is”
だったdatta“was”
かなしいkanashii“is sad”
かなしかったkanashikatta“was sad”
a describing word swaps いi for かったkatta — no verb needed; the na class leans on だったdatta

The words that open a story and join it up

Japanese stories lean on a few fixed openers and joining words. Recognising one tells you where a scene starts and where the next sentence is heading.

JapaneseWhat it does
むかしむかし、あるところにmukashi mukashi, aru tokoro ni“long, long ago, in a certain place…”learn it as one lump — it opens half the books you will meet
ある日aru hi“one day”how a new scene starts
そしてsoshite“and then”starts the next sentence
でもdemo“but”starts the next sentence too — why a paragraph is a row of short sentences

“Because” goes on the end of the reason

からkara is the “because”. Read the left-hand half on its own, then add the tail and see what it did.

おなかが すいたonaka ga suita“I am hungry”
おなかが すいた からonaka ga suita kara“because I am hungry”
literally “stomach-emptied-because”: the stomach emptied, so you are hungry now. The reason is what you just read, not what comes next
木が たおれたki ga taoreta“the tree fell over”
木が たおれた からki ga taoreta kara“because the tree fell over”
たおれるtaoreru“fall over” is worth pocketing — the last reading leans on it. And からkara is the “from” particle: where it comes from

Past or present?

  1. ミナは もりに いった。

    Only the last word is the verb.

    Show answer +
    Mina wa mori ni itta — “Mina went to the forest.” No quote in front, so “went”, not “said”.
  2. おなかが すいた から、もりに いく。

    The reason comes first.

    Show answer +
    onaka ga suita kara, mori ni iku — “Because I am hungry, I am going to the forest.”
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