2958
I was taught that there is a grammatical form which goes like this:
[V-stem]に行く

For example: 遊びに行く, which means _"Go. Reason: to 遊ぶ"_

I was wondering does this grammatical form work for verbs whose stems are not
stand-alone words by themselves?

Ok, in case this gets confusing..

I mean 遊び is the stem of 遊ぶ, and 遊び is a standalone word in the dictionary
which means "play (n)".

選び is the stem of 選ぶ, but 選び is not a standalone word in the dictionary. 選び by
itself means nothing.

砕き is the stem of 砕く, 掘り of 掘る, 食べ of 食べる, 威張り of 威張る, 植え of 植える. but
砕き、掘り、食べ、威張り、植え by themselves are not standalone words in the dictionary. By
themselves, they mean nothing.

Does these work:

  1. 砕きにいく。 _"Go. Reason: to 砕く"_

  2. 掘りにいく。 _"Go. Reason: to 掘る"_

  3. 食べにいく。 _"Go. Reason: to 食べる"_

  4. 威張りにいく。 _"Go. Reason: to 威張る"_

  5. 植えにいく。 _"Go. Reason: to 植える"_
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-08-31T18:25:00.840
2956
2011-09-01T12:25:09.937
264
question
grammar
Does [V-stem]に行く works for verbs whose stems are not stand-alone words by themselves?
Yes, the form “[continuative form (-te stem) of a verb]に行く・来る” works even with
a verb whose continuative form is not used as a noun in isolation. For
example, 応援しに行く is perfectly fine even though the action of cheering is 応援,
not 応援し.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-08-31T19:20:29.997
2958
2011-08-31T19:36:45.397
2011-08-31T19:36:45.397
15
15
2956
answer
Yes you can use them even though they are not dictionary entries.

All verbs and い-adjectives in 連用形* inflection can be used as a noun.

> Inflections for 五段 verbs:
>

>> 未然形 (Imperfect): verb stem + あ sound

>>

>> *連用形 (Continuative): verb stem + い sound

>>

>> 連体形 (Attributive): verb stem + う sound

>>

>> 已然形 (Perfect): verb stem + え sound

>>

>> 命令形 (Command): verb stem + え sound

>
> Inflections for 一段 verbs:
>

>> 未然形: verb stem

>>

>> *連用形: verb stem

>>

>> 連体形: verb stem + る

>>

>> 已然形: verb stem + れ

>>

>> 命令形: verb stem

This noun produced from a verb in 連用形 is a noun for the act of the verb.

For example, in 1. "I walk to the park", "walk" here is a verb.

Compare this to 2. "I'm having a walk in the park". "walk" here is a noun,
this is the type of noun formed by a verb in 連用形.

* * *

And to correct you slightly, using your example, `遊び(あそび)` is not [Verb Stem],
The verb stem would be `遊（あそ）`. Some dictionaries call `あそび` the [Verb-Masu]
because that's how we would conjugate the verb to add the polite helper verb
`ます`. Technically it would be called the 連用形.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-09-01T12:25:09.937
2971
2011-09-01T12:25:09.937
542
2956
answer