"Can you ?" questions

Konnichiwa ! I was doing a quiz at lesson 1.4 and gota question asking which of the following isn't a "can you?" question: tsukae masu ka? ike masu ka ? tabe masu ka ? hanase masu ka ? The correct answer is "tabe masu ka?", but I don't quite understand why this isn't a "can you?" question, because it has the "can" verb in it. Can someone clarify this for me please :) ?

Codo-san Konnichiwa! :P Yes, this is a bit tricky. Let me try to explain: Note the following - U-ending verbs: *tsuka__u__* _"to use"_ :arrow: drop the 'u' and add 'eru' :arrow: *tsuaka__eru__* _"can use"_ *ik__u__* _"to go"_ :arrow: drop the 'u' and add 'eru' :arrow: *ik__eru__* _"can go"_ *hanas__u__* _"to speak/talk"_ :arrow: drop the 'u' and add 'eru' :arrow: *hanas__eru__* _"can speak/talk"_ To form the polite versions of these three "CAN" verbs (*tsukae__ru__, ike__ru__, hanase__ru__*) you need to replace -RU with -MASU, so you get *tsukae__masu__, ike__masu__, hanase__masu__*. And, to make these questions, we just add the particle -KA :arrow: *tsuakemasu ka? ikemasu ka? hanasemasu ka?* _"Can you use?" "Can you go?" "Can you speak?*_ Now, *taberu* or _"to eat"_ is a -RU ending verb so to form the CAN-verb we need to follow these rules: *tabe__ru__* _"to eat"_ :arrow: drop the 'ru' and add 'rareru' :arrow: *tabe__rareru__* _"can eat"_ To form the polite version of *taberare__ru__* _"Can eat"_ we need to replace -RU with -MASU - which gives us *taberare__masu__* _"I can eat"_. To make this a _CAN YOU?_ question we add the question particle KA :arrow: *taberaremasu ka?* _"Can you eat?"_ :idea: As you can hopefully see, *tabe masu ka?* does not ask _"CAN you eat?"_ but rather _"DO you eat?"_ and hence is NOT a "Can you?" question. Hope that helps! Sayaka :P

Sayaka-sensei, konnichiwa ! ありがとうございました for the answer. So practically, for verbs that end directly in -ru, we have to add -rareru to form the "can" form, while for all the others we simply add -eru, am I right ? But as I know, taberu is an ichidan verb, so do we add the same suffix (-rareru) for godan verbs that end in -ru as well ?

Codoさん。 こんにちは。キエンです。 私が知っている限りに、日本語の動詞のタイプが三つあります。下記のようです。 ●Type1： 　読む（yomu）、書く（kaku）、聞く（kiku）、行く（iku）、遊ぶ（asobu）など ●Type2： 　食べる（tab*__e__*ru）、寝る（n*__e__*ru）など ●Type3： 　する（suru）、来る（kuru） 可能形（can form）に変更するのは： ●Type1： 　「u」→「eru」になります。 　　例えば： 　　　　読む（yomu）→読める（yomeru） 　　　　書く（kaku）→書ける（kakeru） ●Type2： 　「ru」→「rareru」 　　例えば： 　　　食べる（taberu）→食べられる（taberareru） ●Type3： 　来る（kuru）→来られる（korareru） 以上です。 Hope this help. I am sory that I can' t explain in English. Kien.

ありがとうございます I understand most of what you explained, except the 2 sentences which include a lot of kanji that i can't translate by myself. If someone would be willing to translate: 私が知っている限りに、日本語の動詞のタイプが三つあります。下記のようです。, it would be perfect. Thank you in advance :)

[quo]*Quote from * Codo ありがとうございます I understand most of what you explained, except the 2 sentences which include a lot of kanji that i can't translate by myself. If someone would be willing to translate: 私が知っている限りに、日本語の動詞のタイプが三つあります。下記のようです。, it would be perfect. Thank you in advance :)[/quo] Codo-san Konnichiwa :] Not sure if you still need this, or if you've already figured it out. Just felt like posting anyway: "私が知っている限りに、日本語の動詞のタイプが三つあります。下記のようです。" roughly translates as: "As far as I know, there are three types of Japanese verbs. Is as follows." Hope that helped, even though it is kind of late. Ja na ^^ ~grey

[quo]*Quote from * Grey~ [quo]*Quote from * Codo ありがとうございます I understand most of what you explained, except the 2 sentences which include a lot of kanji that i can't translate by myself. If someone would be willing to translate: 私が知っている限りに、日本語の動詞のタイプが三つあります。下記のようです。, it would be perfect. Thank you in advance :)[/quo] Codo-san Konnichiwa :] Not sure if you still need this, or if you've already figured it out. Just felt like posting anyway: "私が知っている限りに、日本語の動詞のタイプが三つあります。下記のようです。" roughly translates as: "As far as I know, there are three types of Japanese verbs. Is as follows." Hope that helped, even though it is kind of late. Ja na ^^ ~grey[/quo] Oh wait my bad i think i meant "Ja ne", 'cause I'm pretty sure "ja na" is used by men only, right? (i'm female..) >.<! I'm so sorry this is no longer irrelevant to the post.

aaa, so it wasn't that important :lol:, but thanks for the reply .