日本語　１３２ Eliciting and Making Proposals using the 「～ましょう」form (polite)

See the Guide to Japanese page here.

 

The conjugation for the polite form is simple. All you have to do is add 「～ましょう」 to the stem of the verb. As with the ます-form, verbs in this form must always come at the end of the sentence. In fact, all polite endings must always come at the end and nowhere else as we've already seen.

[Of course, there is a Non-ます-form of the volitional or "OO" form of the verb: we say things like

食べよう、飲もう、行こう、見よう

but that is for a another lesson!]

What are the "conjugation" rules for the polite volitional form? It's pretty easy:

We just Add 「～ましょう」 to the stem of the verb

例） る-Verbs:　食べる → 食べ + ましょう → 食べましょう = Let's eat;

見るー＞　見　＋　ましょう　ー＞見ましょう

例）う-Verbs　 入る → 入り + ましょう → 入りましょう = Let's go in；

帰る　ー＞　帰りましょう

Add a か and you have a nice way of eliciting a proposal:

Shall we?

どこに　行きましょうか　＝ Where shall we go?

何を　食べましょうか= What shall we eat?

何か　食べましょうか = Shall we eat something?

コーヒーを　飲みましょうか = Shall we drink Coffee?

どこかで　コーヒーを　飲みましょう＝ (note, no か) so...

Let's drink a cup of coffee somewhere? (どこかで)

コーヒーを　飲み＋に＋行きましょうか =

Shall we go (in order) to drink coffee?

 

More examples:　

行きましょう。Let's go.

遊びましょう。Let's play.

先生と話しましょう。(My favorite!)

Let's talk to the teacher.

日本語を勉強しましょう。

Let's study Japanese.

そろそろ　帰りましょう。

Maybe we should get going...

 

Add か and it becomes "Shall we...?"

 

どこへ 行きましょうか　= Where shall we go?

Possible Responses:

きょうとへ　行きましょう = Let's go to Kyoto.

きょうとへ　行きませんか＝ Why don't we go to Kyoto?

 

何を　食べましょうか = What shall we eat?

Possible Responses:

和(わ)食 に　しませんか = Why don't we have Japanese

food?　

和食 に　しましょう = Let's have Japanese food

どこで　会いましょうか　= Where shall we meet?　

えきで　会いませんか = Why don't we meet at the station?　

えきで　会いましょう = Let's meet at the station.

 

Of course, we could also use the どう question in our response:

えきは　どうですか= How would the station be?

和(わ)食 は どうですか = How about Japanese food?

See also here.

 

 

Instructions