Page 163 - Basic Japanese

Chichi wa shinzōbyō de nakunarimashita ga, haha wa

gan de nakunarimashita.
My father died of heart disease, but my mother
died of cancer.

Eigo no kyōshi datta keredomo, Eigo o hanasu kuni ni
itta koto wa arimasen.
I was an English teacher, but I have never been

to any English-speaking countries.

4.3. Shapes of the plain forms

Any Japanese inflected form may be broken up into a “stem”
and an “ending.” (Some call stems “roots,” referring to the
form without any endings.) Japanese verbs fall into two main

classes: consonant verbs and vowel verbs. The consonant
verbs are those with a stem that ends in a consonant; the

vowel verbs are those with a stem that ends in a vowel.
Vowel stems end only in -e or -i:

(1) -i as in mi-ru sees

(2) -e as in tabe- eats

ru

Consonant stems end in one of the following nine sounds

(verbs are usually mentioned by the plain imperfect form:
kau ‘buys’):

(1) -t[s] as in kats-u wins