Lesson 65 - Already

You already learned in past lessons that mada means "still/not yet" and is used with a negative verb. To say the opposite, you would use a positive verb and say mou, which means "already". It is generally used after the subject. For example, to ask "Did you already see the movie?", you would say Mou eiga o mimashita ka? In response, you would either say Mou mimashita or Mada desu.

Since this concept is fairly simple, let's hop right into a conversation between Susumu and Yuki.

Yuki: Susumu-kun! Mou Michiru-chan o denwa shimashita ka?
Susumu: Aa, gomen nasai. Mada desu. Denwa bangou o shirimasen.
Yuki: Hontou ni? Watashi wa shitte imasu. Chotto matte kudasai ... aa, denwa bangou wa ichi kyuu ichi no go go roku hachi desu.
Susumu: Arigatou. Wasuremashita.
Yuki: Sou desu ka? Watashi wa itsumo oboemasu.
Susumu: Sou desu ne. Michiru-chan wa konshuu no shuumatsu ni nani o shimasu ka?
Yuki: Shirimasen. Susumu-kun wa?
Susumu: Boku wa? Yama ni nobori ni ikimasu.
Yuki: Abunai deshou ne! Yamanobori ga suki janai desu.
Susumu: Naze desu ka? Yuki-chan wa tanoshikunai desu. 

In this conversation, Yuki says, "Susumu! Did you call Michiru already?" Susumu replies, "Oh, sorry. Not yet. I don't know her phone number." Shirimasu means "to know". But note, if you currently know something, say Shitte imasu, because knowing is an ongoing activity. Yuki replies, "Really? I know it. Hold on ... oh, the phone number is 191-5568." Susumu says, "Thanks. I forgot." Wasuremasu is "to forget". Yuki replies that she always remembers. Oboemasu is "to remember". Susumu then asks, "What will Michiru do this weekend?" Yuki replies, "I don't know. What about you?" Susumu replies, "Me? I will go to the mountain to climb." Noborimasu is "to climb". Yuki replies, "That sounds dangerous! I don't like mountain climbing." Abunai is "dangerous" and yamanobori is "mountain climbing". Susumu replies, "Why? You're not fun." Please take note of the sentence Yama ni nobori ni ikimasu. This is a new sentence pattern for you to learn. Let's look at another sentence: Tomodachi no uchi ni atarashii kuruma o mi ni ikimasu. This means "I will go to my friend's house to see the new car." Mi ni ikimasu is "go to see". In order to say what you are going for, you merely drop the -masu ending off a verb and put it before the ni ikimasu. Another example is RESUTORAN ni bangohan o tabe ni ikimasu, or "I will go to the restuarant to eat dinner". Remember this sentence pattern for future lessons! It becomes very handy.

Vocabulary Review
もう Mou- already
知ります Shirimasu- to know
忘れます Wasuremasu- to forget
覚えます Oboemasu- to remember
登ります Noborimasu- to climb
危ない Abunai- dangerous
山登り Yamanobori- mountain climbing