Nihongo - First Step

Grammar Notes

Ashita means "tomorrow". Senshuu means "last week".

Ikimasu is a verb meaning "go".
Ikimashita is the past tense of ikimasu.

Ni is a particle. This particle is basically used to indicate an indirect object.
Put simply, here, the particle ni indicates the direction of going.
The word followed by ni is the destination.

The word order is [subject] wa [time] [destination] ni ikimasu.
When the subject is "I" or "You", it is normally omitted.

The Japanese verb comes at the end of the sentence and conjugates to show the present or the past tense as well as the affirmative and the negative.
See the table below.

	Affirmative	Negative
non-past	いきます	いきません
Past	いきました	いきませんでした

Practice 1

Let's practice the following words.

	きのう	yesterday			きょう	today			あした	tomorrow
	せんしゅう	last week			こんしゅう	this week			らいしゅう	next week

	がっこう	school
	かいしゃ	company, office
	びょういん	hospital, clinic

Practice 2

Let's make sentences and speak it.

	(わたしは) あした　きょうとに　いきます。
	I will go to Kyoto tomorrow.
	(わたしは) らいしゅう　とうきょうに　いきます
	I will go to Tokyo next week.
	(わたしは) きょう　がっこうに　いきます。
	I'm going to (my) school today.
	(わたしは) あした　かいしゃに　いきません。
	I'm not going to (my) office tomorrow.
	たなかさんは　きのう　びょういんに　いきました。
	Tanaka-san went to a clinic yesterday.