🍵 After the Vacation — Experience & Desire

Welcome back! In this final chapter of our beginner series, we learn how to express our desires, talk about our past experiences, and list multiple activities casually.

Expressing Desire: ～Tai (I want to…)

To say you want to do something, use the Verb Stem + たい (tai). It conjugates exactly like an i-adjective.

Experiences: ~Ta koto ga arimasu

To say “I have done X before”, use the Past Short Form (Ta-form) + koto ga arimasu. Literally: “The fact of having done X exists.”

• ふじさんに のぼった ことが あります。
  • Fuji-san ni nobotta koto ga arimasu.
  • (I have climbed Mt. Fuji.)
• Q: ヨーロッパに いった ことが ありますか。
  • Yooroppa ni itta koto ga arimasu ka.
  • (Have you ever been to Europe?)

Note: Do not use this for recent past (“I went yesterday”). Use it for life experiences.

Listing Representative Activities: ~Tari ~Tari

When you want to list a few examples of what you did, but not everything in order, use ~Tari.

[Verb A - Ta-form]ri, [Verb B - Ta-form]ri shimasu.

• しゅうまつは かいものを したり、 えいがを みたり しました。
  • Shuumatsu wa kaimono o shitari, eiga o mitari shimashita.
  • (On the weekend, I did things like shopping and watching movies.)

(Implies: I might have done other things too, like sleeping or cleaning.)

Inexhaustive Lists: Noun A “Ya” Noun B

Use と (to) for complete lists (A and B). Use や (ya) for partial lists (A, B, and others).

• 京都で おてら や じんじゃに いきました。
  • Kyouto de otera ya jinja ni ikimashita.
  • (In Kyoto, I went to temples, shrines, etc.)

Cultural Note: お正月 (New Year’s)

Oshougatsu (Jan 1-3) is purely Japanese, unlike the Western party-style countdown.

• Hatsumode: First shrine visit of the year to pray for luck.
• Osechi: Traditional elaborate boxed food (sweet, sour, dried) made to last days so nobody has to cook.
• Otoshidama: Envelopes of cash given to children.
• Nengajo: Postcards precisely timed to be delivered on Jan 1st.

Useful Expressions: Classroom Japanese

Using Japanese to learn Japanese.

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