# Nihongo-ga dekimasu / hanasemasu



## groovibaby

hi
I want to say 'I can speak a little Japanese' and I see in an earlier post that you can say:
nihongo ga sukoshi dake dekimasu. = I can only speak a little bit of japanese.
 
where 'dekimasu' means 'to be able to'
 
So does 'dake' mean 'speak' or does it mean 'only'?
 
And why don't you use the work 'hanashite,' meaning 'speak' (I think)


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## soka

"dake" means "only". 
You can say "I can speak Japanese" as "Nihongo wo hanasu koto ga dekimasu" but when a verb is closely associated with its direct object you can attach "dekimasu" directly to the noun, in this case "Nihongo ga dekimasu".
You can also use the potencial form of the verb and say "Nihongo ga hanasemasu".


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## groovibaby

Thanks -that helps.

So can you simply say 'Nihongo ga dekimasu' without saying 'speak'?

Seems strange, because in English, a sentence containing 'to be able' will always have a second verb in it.


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## holynightfever

soka said:


> You can say "I can speak Japanese" as "Nihongo wo hanasu koto ga dekimasu"


 
Could you explain the grammar behind this sentence?

Koto means 'thing', right?

And dekimasu is the polite form of the verb for being... able to do?

So my guess is that the sentence literally means, 'Thing of speaking Japanese, able to do'. 

Why does koto follow the verb hanasu?


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## Quenelle_Lyonnaise

My guess is that, well, it's the rule lol 

"Koto" can also be replaced by "no", but then again there's a nuance between "koto" and "no", and I couldn't explain it... 

You often say "... (verb at the "ru" form) koto ga dekiru/dekimasu", or, the other way would be to change the verb "hanasu" in the potential form, which gives you "hanaseru", if I'm not mistaken... As Soka said lol

Holynightfever>> Koto means "thing", yes, but it's in the sense of "fact" (at least in french, we use the same word, so there can be some confusion, but I don't know if it's the same in english) so the literal translation would be "the fact of speaking japanese, able to" >> I can speak japanese

Groovibaby>> Yes, you can simply say "nihongo ga dekimasu", it's totally correct. 

Hope that helped...


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## holynightfever

Thank you Quenelle, it did


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## Flaminius

Bienvenue *Quenelle_Lyonnaise*, à WordReference fora.  

_Koto_ here is used more for a grammatical function than a meaning.  It converts a verb to a noun.  Tensed forms of verbs (_dekiru_, _hanaseru_) cannot take postpositions by themselves as they are verbs and postpositions are for nouns.  So here comes _-koto_ to enable the verbs to take postpositions.


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## Quenelle_Lyonnaise

I wouldn't have explained it better! It's kind of hard to explain some japanese grammar point in english... But you did it very well Flaminius...  

Oh, and by the way, thanks for the welcome


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## holynightfever

Thanks Flaminius, that is perfect.


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## Arashi

So "koto" converts the verb, "hanasu" to a noun,
"koto" can only be used following the "-ru" form of a verb,
"dekimasu" means "to be able to" and can follow "nihongo" because "nihongo" is basically translated as "the Japanese language,"
and "dake" means "only."

Is that all correct?


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## Flaminius

Hello *Arashi*,

Welcome!



> "koto" can only be used following the "-ru" form of a verb (...)


Not only _ru_-forms but also _ta_-forms and _nai_-forms and _nakatta_-forms can take _-koto_.  If you feel overwhelmed by the prospect of a growing list, it is important to understand that:
a. Each item that takes _-koto_ bears tense.  Some of the tensed items in Japanese like _-nai_, _-nakatta_ do not have equivalents in English, so you might want to take special notes.
b. If an item that takes _-koto_ is conjugated, you have to find the adnominal / attributive form (連体形) of the word.  It is identical to the dictionary / conclusive  form (終止形) for most of conjugated words but _na_-adjectives have separate forms.


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