Lesson 18 of 24
Please Do Not Print 200 Yet
about 14 minutes
After this lesson you can
- Ask someone to do something, and ask them not to.
Words this lesson teaches
- まちます
- waits
- ちょっと まってください
- just a moment, please
- みせます
- shows
- もってきます
- brings
- はいります
- enters, goes in
- さわります
- touches
- でんわします
- telephones
- つかいます
- uses
What it explains
Vてください — please do
The te-form you learned last lesson, plus ください: みせてください, まってください. This is the everyday request form and is what you will use dozens of times a day. It is polite but it is still a request, not a question — softening it further is what おねがいします is for.
Vないでください — please don't
This one does not use the te-form. It takes the ない form: いんさつします → いんさつしない → いんさつしないでください. The ない form is built from the same verb groups as て but with different endings — かいます → かわない, たべます → たべない, します → しない, きます → こない. Learn it as the negative request and the full ない form will feel familiar when it arrives.
おねがいします as a softener
You met it ordering coffee. It also stands in for a whole request when the thing asked for is obvious: よさんの かくにんも おねがいします. Adding it after a てください request makes it noticeably gentler, which matters when you are asking someone to stop doing something they thought was helpful.
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.
