ます

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Japanese

Etymology 1

(まゐ)らす (mairasu)まらす (marasu)まっす (massu)ます (masu)

The -ます ending is generally believed to have come from the Old Japanese auxiliary verb (まゐ)らす (mairasu, to humbly do something for a superior), with idiomatic use arising from the causative conjugation of 参る (mairu, to come or go to the place of a social superior, humble verb; ancient reading mawiru).[1][2]

The intermediate forms まらす (marasu) and まっす (massu) were valid as both (しも)()(だん)(かつ)(よう) (shimo nidan katsuyō) conjugations and (ぎょう)(へん)(かく)(かつ)(よう) (sa-gyō henkaku katsuyō) conjugations, even though they originally came from a purely (しも)()(だん)(かつ)(よう) (shimo nidan katsuyō) conjugation, leading to constructions off the (れん)(よう)(けい) (ren'yōkei) in the modern paradigm for -ます using the -まし stem.

Pronunciation

  • In Tokyo speech, the accent falls somewhere in the suffix, regardless of the accent type of the suffixed verb:[3]
    • If the suffix is in the form ます (-masu) or ました (-mashita, past/perfective form), the accent of the verb construction falls on the first mora of the suffix.
    • If the suffix is in the form ましょう (-mashō, volitional/conjectural form) or ません (-masen, negative form), the accent of the verb construction falls on the second mora of the suffix.
  • There are a few exceptions like 恐れ入る: れいる  (Nakadaka) → れいります  (Nakadaka).

Suffix

ます (-masu

Alternative spellings
在す
坐す (rare, dated)
  1. expresses politeness toward and distance from the listener: vaguely similar to the social context indicated by the usted verb conjugation in Spanish, the vous conjugation in French, or the Sie conjugation in German
  2. (rare, humble) to do; expresses humbleness
Usage notes
Conjugation

Classical forms:

Alternative form (to do):

Derived terms
See also

Etymology 2

The kana spelling of several native words.

Definitions

For pronunciation and definitions of ます – see the following entries.
J
trout, sea trout: more specifically, fish belonging to genera of the family Salmonidae: Salmo, Oncorhynchus, Coregonus, or Salvelinus
Alternative spelling
マス
H
masu (square wooden box)
cell of a grid
Alternative spellings
, , , マス
増す
to increase
(of water) to rise
Alternative spelling
益す
(This term, ます (masu), is the hiragana spelling of the above terms.)
For a list of all kanji read as ます, see Category:Japanese kanji read as ます.)

(The following entry is uncreated: .)

References

  1. ^ Shōgaku Tosho (1988) 国語大辞典(新装版) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, →ISBN
  2. ^ Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 (in Japanese), Third edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN
  3. ^ Online Japanese Accent Dictionary (OJAD)