Japanese Revelations {How to conjugate う-verbs to other basic forms}

At first, the various verbs of the Japanese language seem daunting. However, stick with learning it, and you'll find out that, though there are two kinds, and both conjugate differently, the る-verbs are super simple to change to different forms, and the う-verbs are a bit trickier, but aren't as difficult as they might seem at first, possibly because a fair amount of verbs that end in る are actually う-verbs. There is a trick to being able to tell most of the time what kind of verb a verb is, though.
If the verb ends in an ～ある, ～うる, or ～おる sound (meaning the second-to-last syllable is from the あ, う, or お column), the verb is most likely a う-verb.
If the verb ends in ～える or ～いる, and the second-to-last ～え or ～い sound isn't part of the kanji, it's most likely a る-verb. On that note, let's look at う-verbs! ^^

First of all, there's a helpful little chart for the different (basic) forms of う-verbs. Study this, guys - it's absolute genius. XD

～あ*	| negative form: add ～ない
～い	| ます form: add ～ます
～う	| Dictionary form: this is what you start out with.
～え	| Command form: leave it as-is, with an え-sound at the end | 'If'-form: just add ～ば)
～お	| Volitional form (meaning "let's ____): add a ～う to the end

* If the verb ends with a う (like in 買う － to buy) change the う to a わ and then add ～ない (買う → 買わない).

The ～'s in front of the あ, い, う, え, and お mean change the syllable that ends in a u-sound (in the う column, such as う, く, ぐ, す, つ, ぬ, ぶ, む, and る, as う-verbs can end in those sounds only) to a syllable from the same consonant family. For example...

う→わ・い・え・お
く→か・き・け・こ
ぐ→が・ぎ・げ・ご
す→さ・し・せ・そ
つ→た・ち・て・と
ぬ→な・に・ね・の
ぶ→ば・び・べ・ぼ
む→ま・み・め・も
る→ ら・り・れ・ろ
（The ・ symbol is the Japanese equivalent of a slash)

Examples!!
買う「かう」 (To buy) →
     買わない → Didn't buy
     買います → To buy (polite)
     買えば→ If (I/you/he/she/etc) buy
     買おう → Let's buy
書く「かく」 (To write) →
     書かない → Didn't write
     書きます → To write (polite)
     書けば → If (I/you/he/she/etc) write
     書こう → Let's write
泳ぐ「およぐ」 (To swim) →
     泳がない → Didn't swim
     泳ぎます → To swim (polite)
     泳げば → If (I/you/he/she/etc) swim
     泳ごう → Let's swim
話す「はなす」 (To speak) →
     話さない → Didn't speak
     話します → To speak (polite)
     話せば → If (I/you/he/she/etc) speak
     話そう → Let's speak
待つ「まつ」 (To wait) →
     待たない → Didn't wait
     待ちます → To wait (polite)
     待てば → If (I/you/he/she) wait
     待とう → Let's wait
死ぬ「しぬ」 (To die - this is the only verb that ends in a ぬ) →
     死なない → Didn't die
     死にます → To die (polite)
     死ねば → If (I/you/he/she/etc) die
     死のう → Let's die
飛ぶ「とぶ」 (To fly) →
     飛ばない → Didn't fly
     飛びます → To fly (polite)
     飛べば → If (I/you/he/she/etc) fly
     飛ぼう → Let's fly
読む「よむ」 (To read) →
     読まない → Didn't read
     読みます → To read (polite)
     読めば → If (I/you/he/she/etc) read
     読もう → Let's read
帰る「かえる」 (To return) →
     帰らない → Didn't return
     帰ります → To return (polite)
     帰れば → If (I/you/he/she/etc) return
     帰ろう → Let's return

Whew! I'm NEVER typing up a chart like that again!
On a brighter note, hopefully this all makes sense now. ^^ I used a verb with each possible syllable at the end for a reason~

Have fun learning Japanese! ^u^

PS:
WARNING! 行く （いく） is NOT a う-verb! It's an irregular verb, so pay attention to its conjugations and its different forms!!

Japanese Revelations {(Verb 1) Without Doing (Verb 2)}

おはよう・こんにちは・こんばんは、みんなさん！
No matter what time it is where you are right now, I still say hello again!

So. This time, we're talking about how to say that someone did V1 without doing V2. Be careful, though - in Japanese, the order of the verbs is reversed. It would be more literally translated as, "Without doing V2, so-and-so did V1." A little more awkward, but it's simple enough! ^^
Making these types of sentences is easy enough, as well. For the verb you didn't do (we'll call this verb V2), just make it the plain, negative form. As in, the form that ends with ～ない. Then, add で after V2, and finally, stick the verb you did in spite of not doing V2 (which we'll call, V1) onto the end of the sentence. Also, V1 can be any tense and form, but V2 always ends with ～ない. Always.
Here's a helpful (in my humble opinion) formula (V1 and V2 are the same as they were for the last paragraph):
V2ないでV1.
That's all there is to it. Of course, if you want the sentence to be past tense, you're gonna have to change that yourself. Also, you can still add on things like a direct object, the indirect object, the location, etc. for either or both verbs.
Right. So, example sentences:
朝ごはんを食べないで、学校に行きました。
I went to school without eating breakfast. (Lit. Without eating breakfast, went to school.)

宿題をしないで、寝ます。
I went to bed without doing homework. (Lit. Without doing homework, go to bed.)

家族に話さないで、部屋へ行きました。
I went to my room without talking to my parents. (Lit. Without talking to parents, went to room.)

Of course, all these sentences (or any sentence you can come up with!) can be informal, negative, informal negative, heck, even volitional, causative, or passive! Here are some examples with those last three options in the order they're mentioned:

ボールペンで描かないで、バレンタインのカードを作りましょう。
Let's make Valentine's cards without using pens. (Lit. Without using pens, let's make Valentine's cards.)

待たないで、宿題をさせる。
We were made to do our homework right away. (Lit. Without waiting, we were made to do our homework.)

水滴もない惜しまないで、全部の水を飲まれる。
All the water was swallowed without sparing a drop. (Lit. Without sparing even a drop of water, all the water was swallowed.)

Causative-Passive! (See sentence and description below.)

晩ごはんを食べないで、部屋へ行かせられる。
I was sent to my room without eating dinner. (Lit. Without eating dinner, was made to go to room.)
Note: this uses what's called 'causative-passive' form, meaning someone was made to do something, and they quite frankly had no choice in the matter.
Also, please realize that using the causative form (to let someone do something) to ask to go to the bathroom or something like that sounds like a prisoner, even when translated to English - it would sound like this:
トイレいかせてくれますか？
Or, in English:
Can you let me go to the bathroom?
No. Just, no. (This little tidbit courtesy of Tae Kim's Guide to Japanese Grammar, in particular, this page.)

Well, that's it. If it's hard to remember, think of it like this: で is used when talking about 'by way of ____', right? Such as by bus, by car, etc? This is like saying 'by way of not V2, so-and-so did V1'. Maybe it's not the best explanation, but then again, I'm not a teacher, and it's the best I could come up with.

Enjoy and good luck!

Japanese Revelations { ______ + 'そう／そうです'}

This is something that I think I'll start doing every once in a while -- Just sharing things that I find out about the Japanese language and/or culture. Mostly the language part of it, though. Anyways! Today's 'lesson' is about...

-----(Verb) + 「そう」／「そうです」／「みたい」-----
So. As much as it would help for it to be here, its not. There is a short lesson here about the dictionary form + そうです, though. I guess Tim Werx's explanation is pretty much the same as what I see it as, but I'm going through with this anyway. ^.^;
Basically, he says that adding 「そうです」 to a dictionary-form verb makes it into something like a rumor. As in, "I heard that Susie likes broccoli." (No offense to anyone named Susie, or to people who like broccoli. XD;;; )
Therefore, we get a sentence like this:

日向くんはケーキを食べますそうです。

(For the people out there without Rikai-chan and/or knowledge of Hiragana/Katakana...)
Hinata-kun ha (wa) keeki wo (o) tabemasu-sou desu.

In English:
I heard Hinata eats/is eating cake.

(The syllables in parenthesis are the correct pronunciation, the syllables before them are the way they're written.)

Okay, while that seems good, the way that I've heard actual Japanese people use it is more like a 'seems like', or just 'seems'. As in...

日向くんはケーキを食べますそうです。

Hinata-kun ha (wa) keeki wo (o) tabemasu-sou desu.

It seems that Hinata eats/is eating cake.

Oh, and 「みたい」 works pretty much the same way, but it's used after the 'te-form' of a verb, and it's a little less polite, as far as I know. So now we get a sentence like this:

日向くんはケーキを食べてみたいです。

Hinata-kun ha (wa) keeki wo (o) tabete-mitai desu.

It appears that Hinata eats/is eating cake.

I hope this made sense! DX
I'm such a bad teacher...

Mmmm... Cake...