6.1 です (desu) and ます (masu)
Having progressed through the preceding modules and gained mastery over the です (desu) form, our focus in this module will shift towards another crucial sentence-ending form ます (masu), which is used to express politeness and formality in speech.
Congratulations, you are advancing to the next level!
Learning the ます-form opens up exciting opportunities to express more intricate details within a sentence.
Unlike the ‘XはYです’ sentence pattern you have learned, with the ます-form, you can now discuss when, where, what, how often and with whom something is happening all in one sentence.
What is the ます-form?
ます (masu) is used to convey a polite present or future tense action, while です serves as a polite copula to link the subject and predicate.
So, let’s say you are a coffee enthusiast who wants to say ‘I drink coffee’.
Here, you use the verb 飲（の）む (nomu: to drink) to describe the action ‘to drink’.
のむ is the dictionary form of the verb, commonly used in casual conversations with close friends, family members or individuals who are younger than you.
To make it polite, you need to change the dictionary form into the ます-form.
So, 飲む becomes 飲みます (nomi masu).
What sentence patterns can I use with the ます-form?
Now, how can we construct the sentence ‘I drink coffee’ with 飲みます?
Here is the sentence pattern you can use:
Topic + Particle は + Object + Particle を + Verb + ます。
So to say ‘I drink coffee’ or ‘I will drink coffee’ in Japanese:
私（わたし）はコーヒー（こおひい）を飲みます。
Watashi wa koohii o nomi masu.
I drink coffee or I will drink coffee.
What is the tense of the ます-form?
This is another vital aspect of using ます-forms: the ending itself can indicate both present and future tenses.
To identify the intended tense, it is important to pay attention to time reference words, such as 毎日（まいにち）(mainichi: every day) and 明日（あした）(ashita: tomorrow). Listeners can determine the speaker’s intended tense based on these time reference words, as the ます-form itself does not inherently specify whether it refers to the present or future.
When you want to add these time reference words, you can use the following sentence pattern:
Topic + Particle は + Time reference word + Object + Particle を + Verb + ます。
Time reference words usually come after the topic and the appropriate topic particle.
So, to say ‘I will drink coffee tomorrow’ in Japanese:
私は明日（あした）コーヒーを飲みます。
Watashi wa ashita koohii o nomi masu.
I will drink coffee tomorrow.
We will explore this sentence structure with other modifiers, including frequency words, in more depth in Chapter 7. For now, it is enough to know that sentences ending in the ます-form can include objects and time reference words.
Exercise 1
