Asking the way and taking the bus in Japanese

Level A2

Asking the way and taking the bus in Japanese

By the end of this lesson you can ask the way and follow or explain a short route in Japanese: 駅にどう行きますか (eki ni dō ikimasu ka), “How do I get to the station?”, answered with ここで右に曲がってください (koko de migi ni magatte kudasai), “Please turn right here”, or バスに乗ります (basu ni norimasu), “You take the bus.” The central idea is this: a route is a sequence, so within one sentence each step before the last uses the て form and only the last verb closes with ます or 〜てください; and both new verbs take に: 右に曲がる, バスに乗る.

Recap: the て form, and two new verbs

A route needs three things you may already have seen. に marks a destination: 駅に行きます (eki ni ikimasu), “I'm going to the station.” ください after the て form makes a polite request: 食べてください (tabete kudasai), “Please eat.” And the て form links actions in order: 駅に行って、… (eki ni itte), “I go to the station and…”.

The first two rows are known verbs; the last two are new: 曲がる (magaru), “to turn”, and 乗る (noru), “to take” a bus, literally to get on it. Their て forms end in って, like 行って. 食べる also ends in る but becomes 食べて, so the ending alone doesn't tell you the form: learn these two as they are, holding the double consonant in magatte and notte. The table has no audio; the kana is in brackets, and you'll hear each new form in the sentences below.

Dictionaryます formて form
行(い)く（いく）行きます（いきます）行って（いって）
食(た)べる（たべる）食べます（たべます）食べて（たべて）
曲(ま)がる（まがる）曲がります（まがります）曲がって（まがって）
乗(の)る（のる）乗ります（のります）乗って（のって）

Five new words: 曲がる, 乗る, 右, 左 and バス

Two verbs and three nouns. 曲がる (magaru) is turning at a corner, on foot or in a vehicle. 乗る (noru) here is getting on a bus to travel, which is why its card says “catch”. 右 (migi) is “right”, 左 (hidari) is “left”, and バス (basu) is “bus”.

Model: how do I get to the station?

Listen once without reading and try to catch which way to turn first and which bus to take. A visitor stops someone in the street and asks the way to the station. The answer comes in steps: the bus, two turns to reach it, and the time. The visitor repeats the turns to check them, a useful habit: 右に曲がって、左ですか (migi ni magatte, hidari desu ka), “Turn right, then left?” そこ (soko), “there”, points back to the place just described. In the Japanese, nobody says “I” or “you”: the situation makes it clear.

Asking the way: 〜にどう行きますか

Put the destination before に, as in 駅に行きます, and add どう (dō), “how”, right before the verb, with no particle of its own: 駅にどう行きますか. If the destination has just been mentioned, you don't need to repeat it, as in the last line: first 明日、駅に行きます (ashita, eki ni ikimasu), then simply どう行きますか (dō ikimasu ka).

Don't confuse this with 駅はどこですか (eki wa doko desu ka), “Where is the station?”, which asks for a place. どう行きますか asks for the way, so the answer is a route. There is no subject: it can mean “how do I” or “how do you” get there, depending on the situation.

〜にどう行きますか

Turning right or left: 右に曲がる

English just says “turn right”, but Japanese marks the direction with a particle after 右 or 左, and here that particle is に. で gives the place where you turn, the same で as in カフェで働きます (kafe de hatarakimasu), “I work at a café”. So ここで右に曲がってください runs: here, at; right, to; turn, please. In this lesson the place of a turn always takes で, though you'll also hear を there, as in ここを右に曲がって.

With ください you ask the listener to turn. With ます you simply describe the way, as in the last two lines: ここで左に曲がります, “We turn left here”, and 駅で右に曲がります, “You turn right at the station.”

〜で右／左に曲がってください

Taking the bus: バスに乗ります

“Take the bus” has a direct object in English, but 乗る doesn't work like that: the vehicle takes に, not を. Think “get on the bus”: バスに乗ります. で still gives the place: 駅でバスに乗ります.

A known hour can join in two ways. 三時のバス (sanji no basu) says which bus, “the three o'clock bus”, with の linking two nouns as in 私の家 (watashi no ie), “my house”. 三時に (sanji ni) says when, as in 九時に行きます (kuji ni ikimasu), “I'm going at nine”. So 三時にバスに乗ります has two に with two jobs: the time, then the vehicle.

The translations say “you” or “I”, but the Japanese says neither: バスに乗ります can be either one, depending on who is talking about whom.

〜に乗ります

A route in steps: 〜て、〜てください

A route is a sequence, so put each step in the て form, add a comma and go on to the next one. In a sentence joined like this, only the last verb closes it. 駅に行って、バスに乗ってください asks the listener to do it; 駅に行って、バスに乗ります describes the way. The first verb doesn't need ください.

The order of the words is the order of the journey: 駅に行って、バスに乗ります reaches the station first, and バスに乗って、駅に行きます gets on the bus first. それから (sorekara), “then”, stresses the next step: it can follow a て form, as in the model, or open a new sentence, as in the last line.

〜て、〜てください／〜ます

Your turn, and the summary

You're out in town. Cover the lines below and say each one aloud before checking. First, ask a passer-by how to get to the station. Then someone asks you the way: ask them to turn left here, then right. Finally, ask them to take the three o'clock bus at the station.

In short: 〜にどう行きますか asks the way; 右に曲がる and バスに乗る take に; within one sentence, each step of a route before the last is a て form, and the last verb closes with ます or 〜てください.

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