2011年1月21日金曜日

oboeru & omoidasu

This is a personal matter, but I moved in to a new place last month, just around the year end. I realized that moving required tough work after moving in. I had so many things that it took me about one week to open all boxes and put away my stuff. I was exhausted at the end of the day. There are lots of things I really don’t need or things that bring back fond memories. I found some teaching materials that I prepared when I first started teaching. They reminded me of my old students. It was interesting that I remember what explanation I gave them and what we talked about.

to learn, to remember or to memorize;
Oboemasu       Oboeru
Oboeteimasu    Oboeteiru
Oboemashita    Oboeta
Oboemasen      Oboenai

In fact, many people often mistakes using these verbs.  Please be careful of tense.

Oboemasu/ oboeru: the future tense, the present habitual tense
  • watashi wa ashita kanji o 10 ko oboeru. (I will memorize 10 kanjis tomorrow.)[future tense]
  • watashi wa mainichi 10 ko kanji o oboeru. (I memorize 10 kanjis every day.)[present habitual tense]
These sentences mean that I (will) learn kanji and put them into my brain.

Oboemashita/ oboeta: the past tense
  • kino watashi wa kanji o 10 ko oboeta. (I memorized 10 kanjis yesterday.) [past tense]
Oboeteimasu/ oboeteiru: the present tense of state
  • watashi wa kanji o 100 ko oboeteiru. (I know/ have learned 100 kanjis.) [present state]
This describes a state that I have learned kanji and 100 characters are now in my brain. In other words, I haven’t forgotten them.
  • shogakko no sensei no namae o oboeteiru. (I remember a name of my teacher from elementary school.) [present state]
It means that I have never forgotten the teacher’s name since I was in elementary school.
Please makes sure not to say “shogakko no sensei no namae o oboeru”. It means that I will memorize my teacher’s name.

Oboeteimasen/ oboeteinai: negative form of oboeteiru, present tense of state
  • kino nani o tabeta ka oboeteinai. (I don’t remember what I ate yesterday.)[present state]
It means that I forgot what I ate yesterday.

Moreover, “omoide”(思い出) is memory. Literally the kanji reads that your thought comes out. Its verb is “omoidasu”. When something comes to mind, you would say “Ah, omoidashita”(That reminds me.) When you are trying to recall something, you would say “omoidashiteiru”(present action). Even though you try to recall something to your memory, sometimes you can’t, “omoidesenai” (negative form of potential).

I think it is nice to remember (oboeteiru) many good things, forget bad things quickly and recall (omoidasu) what you have done to reconsider it sometimes.

8 件のコメント:

  1. Hey!

    I am still confused :( when do I use 思い出す and when do I use 覚えます?

    Thanks!
    - Anthony

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    1. Anthony san,
      According to my dictionary,
      1. "Remember" is to have or keep somthing in memory. I think this definition is almost same as "oboeteiru".

      I don't remember his name. = watshi wa kare no namae o oboeteinai.

      Do you remember where you put the key? = kagi o doko ni oita ka oboeteiru?

      2."Memorize" is to learn something well enough to remember it exactly. This is like "oboeru".

      She can memorize words very quickly. = kanojo wa tango o totemo hayaku oboeru koto ga dekiru.

      3. "Recall" is to bring something/someone back into one's mind. This is like "omoidasu".

      I can't recall his name. = watashi wa kare no namae ga omoidasu koto ga dekinai. (This situation is similar to that of the first example.)

      Try to recall what happned. = nani ga okita ka omoidashite.

      I hope this would help you understand more clearly. But, these verbs are related to each other. So, I know they are confusing. Sometimes they are interchangeable.

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  2. Ahhh! I see where the confusion arises. In English, we often say "I don't remember his name" and "I can't recall his name" both with "remember."

    But yes, this makes sense.

    おかもと先生、ありがとう!

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  3. Dear Minako,

    I have a question concerning the sentences you used to show present/futur exemples :
    1. watashi wa ashita kanji o 10 ko oboeru.
    2. watashi wa mainichi 10 ko kanji o oboeru.

    You didn't place the particle "o" at the same place in the both sentences. Could you please explain why ? Because I don't understand =$ Thank you in advance.

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  4. Thank you very much for your quesiton.

    In fact I didn't place the particle "o" at the different place. A trick is that I changed the order of words in those sentences (unconsiouslly).

    In Japanese the order of words are interchangeable as long as a verb is palced at the end.

    The particle "o" is attached to "kanji", not "oboeru". In this sentnce "kanji" is an object which should take "o".

    I will show you other examples.
    1. watashi wa/ uchi de/ bangohan o/ tabemas.
    2. bangohan o/ uchi de/ watashi wa/ tabemas.

    They are the same since the particles are attached to the words in front of them.

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  5. Thank you very much for your explanation.
    Yes in fact it's not just "o" which move, it's "kanji o" and "10 ko".
    I'm still novice, that's why my questions are a little stupid, sorry.
    But now it's clear.
    Thank you very much for your help (^-^)

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  6. Hi, I this blog a lot. I have two questions:

    + What is the difference between omou and omoidasu?
    + Are they both active verbs? (they are intended actions?)

    Thanks,

    P/S: I followed your blog yesterday but after that the whole comments section disappeared so I couldn't see or write any comments. I had to unfollow to be able to write a comment again!

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    1. "Omou" seems the same as "think".
      I hope my comment above dated on April 30, 2012 will help you understand "omoidasu". I also mentioned it at the last part of this post.

      I followed my blog with my personal account. I didn't find any problems, but I'm sorry for the trouble. Could you try to follow me on Google+? yoroshiku onegai shimas!

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