This lesson is about direction verbs. For our purposes, a direction verb is one that indicates movement to or from somewhere.  In example: I go to the store.  In other words, you are moving from somewhere to the store.

In order to say "to the store" you have to use the particle ni or e.  Ni and e mean 'to' when they come before a direction verb. (Note that the particle e is only pronounced as e; it is spelled with the character he.)

Examples:

ikimasu
kimasu
kaerimasu

to go
to come
to return home

The sentence pattern for direction verbs is as follows:

location e/ni direction verb :=: direction verb to location

Examples:

Gakkou ni ikimasu.
Mise ni ikimasu.
Daidokoro ni ikimasu.
Paati ni kimasu.


Gakkou ni kimasu ka.
Hai gakkou ni ikimasu.
Iie, gakkou ni ikimasen.

Go to school.
Go to the store.
Go to the kitchen.
Come to the party.


Will you come to school?
Yes, I'll go to school.
No, I won't go to school.

It should be remembered that the response to "will you come?" should be "I will go." or "I won't go." because the two people speaking are assumed to be in different locations.

One can then add time to indicate when one will go or come.  This is generally more useful information that "I will go." Recall that the basic Japanese sentence structure is TTOPV. This stands for Topic/Time Object Place Verb. Our sentences will use T/TPV as there is no object in these sentences.

Examples:

Lesson 7 Vocabulary:

ikimasu
kimasu
kaerimasu

kyou
ashita
konya

gakkou
mise
paati
daidokoro
uchi

ni
(h)e

to go
to come
to return home

today
tomorrow
tonight

school
store/shop
party
kitchen
house

particle that means 'to'
particle that means 'to'