Learn Japanese using the “Able” or “not able” forms

 

How do you say, “Are you able to drink beer?” in Japanese? Let’s take a look.

ビールがのめますか、ビールが飲めますか？

ビール means “Beer”

The か is a particle added at the end to mark the sentence as a question

As for が, this particle is use together with the -eru form. This particle will be covered later.

and のめますか means “Able to drink?” or “can drink?”

So let’s take a closer look at the word のめます.

のめます comes from the plain word のむ, which means “to drink”

So to make it “able to drink” Simply add the -eru　sound like this.

のむ becomes のめる. The む is changed into め.

So you get のめる. And to make it into a polite form, you add the -masu form.

So のめる becomes のめます(can drink), finally to make it into a question, add the か after it. So it becomes のめますか, “Can you drink?”

Let’s practice changing a few verbs. Learn these Japanese verbs one by one, memorizing them until can acutally say it out by yourself. 

すむ、住む becomes すめる、住める (able to live)

いく、行く becomes いける、行ける (able to go)

まがる、曲がる becomes まがれる、曲がれる (able to turn, bend)

つかう、使う becomes つかえる、使える (able to use)

For this verb,　つかう the う is replace by the える, This rule applies to all verbs. But there are some verbs group which need special attention to when changing them to -eru.

Let’s practice another group of verbs

たべる、食べる becomes たべられる、食べられる (able to eat)

おしえる、教える becomes おしえられる、教えられる (able to teach)

おきる、起きる becomes おきられる、起きられる (able to wake up)

You can see from the change that a ら is added after the べ or い. Any verb that has a え or い sounding, should be added with a られる after it.　But Japanese tend to use the -eru sounding even for this verb group. They tend to say たべれる instead of the actual たべられる. Or おきる becomes おきれる. Learn to be able to use this Japanese forms, its very very useful.

If you feel that its just too complicating to learn all that. Then just simply add -eru for all verbs. The Japanese will still understand you 

And here are some final special verbs that you must take care of

くる、来る becomes こられる、来られる (able to come)

する becomes できる、出きる (able)

This group of Japanese verbs are fix, so you have no other choice but to learn and remember them well. 

That’s all for today’s guide to Japanese learning post.