Japanese N4
Lesson 13 of 24
You Can Read It Now
about 12 minutes
After this lesson you can
- Say what you are able to do.
- Use が where you expected を.
Words this lesson teaches
- よめます
- can read
- はなせます
- can speak
- きょねん
- last year
- かかります
- takes (time, money)
- おぼえます
- learns, memorises
- わすれます
- forgets
- じしん
- confidence
- れんしゅう
- practice
What it explains
Making the potential
Group 1 shifts the last sound to the e row and adds る: よむ becomes よめる, はなす becomes はなせる. Group 2 replaces る with られる: たべる becomes たべられる. する becomes できる and くる becomes こられる. Group 1 is the common case and the easy one.
Ability, permission, and the state of the world
読めます can mean I have the skill, I am allowed, or nothing is stopping me. Japanese does not separate these the way English separates can from may from is able to. 「今日は 行けません」 covers a broken train, a prior commitment and a refusal, and often that vagueness is the point.
The scene itself is in the app.
Lesson one of this track is free to read in full. From lesson two on, the story, the audio and the review are part of a free account.