Mixing Formal And Informal
“I love mixing amateurs and professionals.” - Mark Oliphant
Maybe you noticed this, maybe you didn’t. There were some sentences on the previous page used both formal and informal (dictionary form) verbs. I’ve mentioned this a few times in the past, but this is the first really solid example of this in action. It’s the end of the sentence that usually dictates whether you’re being formal or informal. Let’s take a look at some sentences so you can see what I’m talking about:
aすし を たべる ために レストラン に いきます
In order to eat sushi, I will go to the restaurant
aすし を たべる ために レストラン に いく
In order to eat sushi, I will go to the restaurant (casual)
These two sentences mean the same thing, but the second one is casual/informal, and the first one is neutral/formal. The thing that stays the same, however, is the first verb (たべます／たべる). A lot of the time, everything in a sentence up until the very end is going to be casual form when two sentences are connected together by something (like ために). You can see this in the example above. たべる is a verb that comes before the end of the sentence, and it’s casual.
The verb at the end (いきます／いく), however, is different. There’s the formal いきます and the casual いく. It’s the end of the sentence, though, so it pretty much dictates how formal/informal the entire sentence is (even though the first verb is casual).
So, as you go through, try to remember this (especially with longer sentences that usually consist of multiple smaller sentences patched together). A lot of the time, it’s safe to assume that everything up until the last part of the sentence should be casual form. The end is what you want to look out for.