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Hello, just a little confused about the vocab for 話します. The PDF verb list says speak is 話します 「はなし」but I thought speak was 話せます 「はなせ」. What is the difference between the two? Online translators are saying that 話します means story.
Anonymous話します means speak. 話せます is the potential form of speak, so it means “can speak” or “able to speak”. Type 1 verbs are always with the sound i-masu, and potential form is created when changing the type 1 i-masu to an e sound.
Thanks, that is very helpful. Is this a pretty solid rule or are there a lot of exceptions?
potential form?
I’m sure others could explain it better since I am kinda new to it, but the way I understand it is….
私は日本を話せません (I can’t speak Japanese) – (You don’t have the Potential to speak it)
私は日本を話しません (I don’t speak Japanese) – (You did not state whether you can or can’t. You just said you don’t speak it)
hmm now that I think about it, I’m not sure if I should be using the を or が particle after Japanese.
Potential form is “able to do”. For う verbs, you change the -う to -える, for example: 読む －＞ 読める. For る verbs, change the る to られる, for example: 食べる －＞ 食べられる. For irregular verbs, it’s する －＞ できる and くる －＞ こられる.
There are, for once, no exceptions.
AnonymousI was taught to use the が particle when dealing with potential form, but for some reason I see native speakers using を from time to time. It still remains an unanswered question for me.
I threw up a quick post on Lang-8 and was told that using either を or が for 話せ is fine. But for 話し, only use を.
Where did you learn to use が with potential form verbs?
Since both are fine I might as well just stick with を since it works with both 話し and 話せ and it was the particle I naturally thought of at the time.
Just remember that native speakers generally don’t have perfect grammar, and I’ve heard that proper particle usage can be a particular weakness.
I can’t count the number of times I’ve had to explain to ESL students that even though they heard a native English speaker use or say something doesn’t mean it’s correct. Of course I also made sure to assure them that if they used those same things in the same context, others would still be able to understand them, and sometimes it might even feel/sound better, even though it’s not technically correct.
Perfect English example: “could of” and its loathsome ilk.
Yeah, makes sense. I hear they aren’t to good with correct kanji stroke order either.
@Joel Ugh that is my kryptonite. No matter how hard I try I can’t break out of that habit of using “of” instead of “have”.
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