Introduction  |   Section 1  |  Section 2  |   Section 3   |   Dictionaries

Part A |   Part B  |  Part C  

Section 2 Part B

What are the animals doing?
Most animals have something they "do." Let's learn to say what these animals are doing right now.

	さかなは　およいでいます。 （魚は　泳いでいます。）
	ちょうは　とんでいます。 （蝶は　飛んでいます。）
	ねこは　ねています。 （猫は　寝ています。）
	りすは　たべています。 （栗鼠は　食べています。）

You will remember when we first learned about verbs in the present tense that a regular verb can mean three different things in English:

If we want to emphasize that someone is doing something right now, we can use a different verb form, such as those above, when we talked about what the animals are doing. This verb is actually made up of two parts; TE form of verb and present tense form of います.

I can say “およぎます” right now because I do swim. I can not say “およいでいます” because I am not doing that right now.

See if you can see the pattern of how to form TE-Form.

Regular I Verbs (う-Verb)…..TE Form varies

Play Speedword to practice this concept. 　

More Music ... にほんのおんがく（日本の音楽）

Enka songs (Japanese ballad) deal with topics such as unlucky love and nostalgia. Enka singers, especially women, usually perform in a kimono.

Karaoke (kara 空 means “empty” or “void” and oke オケ“orchestra”) is a form of entertainment in which singers sing along with recorded music on a microphone. Karaoke has been very popular in Japan and its popularity has since spread to the world.

One of few musicians to be known outside of Japan was Kyu Sakamoto with the song "Ue o Muite Aruko" (lit. "Let's Look Up and Walk"), known in other parts of the world as "Sukiyaki".

Go on to Part C.