Lesson Dialogues
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* Hover over or tap words to see definitions:
Situation 1
At the company, Saito-san is talking with his subordinate Yamada-san.
Comprehension Quiz (Skip if you don't understand the conversation yet)
山田さんは、会社に____来ている。
A 歩いて
B 帰って
C バスで
D 車で
斉藤：会社、何で来てる？
山田：今は車です。最近、買ったので。
斉藤：へー、車買ったんだ。いいね。
山田：斉藤さんは？
斉藤：俺はバスで来てる。
Situation 2
Takeshi and his elder brother Kento are talking in front of a cafe.
Comprehension Quiz (Skip if you don't understand the conversation yet)
そのお店は、人がかなり入っていますか？
A はい
B いいえ
タケシ：ここ？来たかったお店。
ケント：そう、ここ！来たかったんだ。
タケシ：へー。人、かなり入ってるね。
ケント：うん。入れるかな…。
Situation 3
In the morning, Yuko and her classmate Hiroto are talking at school.
Comprehension Quiz (Skip if you don't understand the conversation yet)
ヒロトは今日の朝、何か食べましたか？
A はい
B いいえ
ユウコ：朝、何食べてきた？
ヒロト：今日は何も食べてない。
ユウコ：え、なんで？気持ち悪かったとか？
ヒロト：いや。食べる時間、無かっただけ。
Situation 4
At the company, Yamada-san is talking with her senior employee, Matsui-san.
Comprehension Quiz (Skip if you don't understand the conversation yet)
そのスマホは、____のだ。
A 山田さん
B 松井さん
C 山田さんの家族
D 松井さんの家族
山田：松井さんのですか？そのスマホ。
松井：そうだよ。
山田：すごい小さいですよね。
松井：ほんと？別に普通だと思ってた。
Step 2 - Take the Quiz
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Take the quiz here.
Step 3 - Writing Exercises (Optional)
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Hello. In the 3rd conversation, the girl asks: 朝あさ、何なに食べてきた? Why 食べてきた instead of 食べた. I’ve noticed this verb conjugation/combo many times and sometimes it makes sense to me and other times it doesn’t.
It is made of two verbs: 食べた and きた (来た). ※ It’s the past form of 食べる + くる (来る)
食べる is the main verb, and くる is the secondary verb. The direct translation is “eat and come.”
The sentence literally means “What did you eat for breakfast and then come here?”; it actually means “What did you eat for breakfast before coming here?”
If he asks 何食べた？, it simply means “What did you eat?”
To continue the conversation naturally, 食べてきた is better.
Is there a certain way to no what pattern inflections are used when there are more than one in a word?
Hi, could you be more specific?
If you have any particular words or sentences where you’re trying to figure out which conjugation pattern each part follows, feel free to share them.
Generally speaking, identifying the stem of the word is the first step.
Once you know the stem, you can usually determine which conjugation group it belongs to (like godan, ichidan, etc.), and how the endings reflect different grammatical meanings.