43859
I'm learning a bit of Japanese with Memrise. They translate しあわせです with "is
happy" and かなしんでいます with "is sad". From what I understand, adjectives are
ending with です and verbs with ます. I see both expressions as opposites
(happy<->sad), why do they have a different ending?
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2017-02-25T10:18:15.937
43855
2017-02-25T11:56:12.353
20033
question
grammar
Why does しあわせです end with です, but かなしんでいます with ます?
The key factor here is the difference in **parts of speech** between 「しあわせ」
and 「かなしむ」.

「しあわせ」 is a noun and also a na-adjective.

「かなしむ」 is a verb.

This cold fact alone makes huge differences as to what words can surround each
of the two words.

You can simply attach 「です」 to noun/na-adjectives as in 「しあわせです」, 「きれいです」, etc.

It is, however, utterly incorrect to just attach 「です」 to verbs. You cannot say
「かなし **む** です」. If you had the i-adjective 「かなし **い** 」, however, you could
just add 「です」 to it to form 「かなし **い** です」.

「かなしんでいます」 is formed from the verb 「かなし **む** 」 and not the i-adjective 「かなし
**い** 」.

To form it, you first turn 「かなしむ」 into its te-form 「かなしんで」. Then attach the
present-progressive verb 「いる/います」 to finally form 「かなしんでいる」 or 「かなしんでいます」. The
latter is politer than the former.

What caused the confusion in your understanding this time? I think it is none
other than the fact that you "looked" at the translations too hard. The
translations were " **is happy** " and " **is sad** ", respectively. They both
use the same word " **is** " so why not in Japanese? Right? Unintentionally,
you sort of allowed the translations to fool you even though those are good
and valid translations. Please tell me if my analysis is off here.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-02-25T11:56:12.353
43859
2017-02-25T11:56:12.353
43855
answer