83777
Can someone explain to me what 已然形 is? I've seen it brought up being related
the hypothetical form like 已然形+ ば but I just can't figure out what it was for.
I know its related to classical Japanese but I like to know about these things
and Japanese is the first language I've studied so I'm a bit lacking in
grammatical knowledge in general. Thank you in advance for anyone who answers
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-01-20T22:48:18.903
83776
2021-01-20T23:48:50.860
2021-01-20T23:26:27.550
5010
30716
question
grammar conjugations classical-japanese
What is 已然形? I know its classic Japanese but that's as far as I got
已然形【いぜんけい】 is commonly translated as **realis form** , as opposed to 未然形
(irrealis form). The literal meaning of 已然 is "already so" or "already
happened". This is a term used only in the context of 古語 (archaic Japanese) or
文語 (classical Japanese).

It's the direct ancestor of 仮定形 (hypothetical form) in modern Japanese (also
known as 口語, "colloquial" Japanese). 已然形 and 仮定形 conjugate very similarly, and
Japanese Wikipedia actually explains them in [the same
article](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B7%B2%E7%84%B6%E5%BD%A2). So you
can think they are just two names of the same conjugation form used in
different contexts. According to Wikipedia, historically, the name 已然 was
coined first. The name 仮定形 came much later to explain the 口語 version of the
Japanese language, which is now called "modern standard Japanese" (see
[言文一致](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genbun_itchi)).

There is a practical reason to call this form differently depending on whether
you are talking about 文語 or 口語; in 文語, this form **did not have the
hypothetical meaning** in the first place (well, basically). For example, in
口語, 書けば of course means "if [someone] writes". However, in 文語, 書けば basically
meant "because [someone] writes"! This is one of the trickiest points of
classical Japanese when native speakers learn it at high school. See: [using
未然形 and 已然形 with conditional
ば](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/80193/5010)
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-01-20T23:26:12.213
83777
2021-01-20T23:48:50.860
2021-01-20T23:48:50.860
5010
5010
83776
answer