Sequential and Parallel Actions: …て, …たり, and …し

You have entered a new section: Compound Sentences. In English, there are basically two ways to connect sentences. The first is to place conjunctions, e.g. “I will go to the park and my brother will go to the library.” The second is to utilize subordinate clauses, e.g. “I will watch a movie once my mother has gone to bed.” In Japanese, we express compound sentences by making conjugations. Thus, we will show you important sentence patterns one by one. In this lesson, you will learn how to express sequential and parallel actions.

Explanation for How to Express Sequential and Parallel Actions

Sequential actions indicate that an action is accompanied with another, e.g. “the car suddenly made a loud sound and stopped.” With this example, we can say that the “stop” is the main event and “make a sound” is the sub-event. By contrast, parallel actions indicate that each action is independent and there is no difference in priority.

The Te-form: Expressing Both Sequential and Parallel Actions

Sequential Actions or States

The te-form allows you to combine two verbs or more and express sequence of actions or states. “、” is sometimes placed after the te-form if you find sentences are difficult to read, but the nuance won’t change. You can roughly consider the te-form in this context as “and” or “then.”

Sequential actions or states can indicate reasons (causation) and means. In this context, please forget the translation “and” and “then,” and focus on the relation between the first part and the second part. The first part, expressed by the te-form, results in the second part.

The Te-form of Adjectives and Nouns

You can also conjugate adjectives and nouns into the te-form and combine them. Regarding the conjugation, you just add で after nouns and na-adjectives. With i-adjectives, you utilize the negative form and attach て instead of ない. Combinations between adjectives or nouns and verbs are applicable as the third example shows.

Parallel Actions or States

The te-form can also express parallel actions or states. If there are two topics or subjects like the above example, we don’t usually omit them. This function is also applicable for nouns and adjectives.

Here is an exception. You can connect adjectives without using the te-form if two adjectives are different categories. That is to say, adjectives are categorized into three groups: the first is "Amount" and "Kind," e.g. “多おおい: many” and “various: いろんな.” The second is "Subjective Judgments," e.g. “好すき: to like” and “いい: good.” The third is "Attributes," e.g. “大おおきい: big” and “新あたらしい: new.” When you use two adjectives from different groups, you can directly connect them.

Conjunctive Form （連用形れんようけい）

In order to make your speech more formal, you can replace the te-form with a form called "Conjunctive Form" or "Continuative Form." Depending on grammar guides, the terminology will change and thus please focus on the conjugation, which is fortunately very simple. This is applicable for only verbs and i-adjectives. You just drop ます from the polite form of verbs and ない from the negative form of i-adjectives.

…たり…たりする: Parallel Markers for Verbs and Adjectives

This is the counterpart to the parallel marker や which is for nouns. The function is to list multiple actions or states, but imply that there remains something unlisted. The conjugation is to utilize the ta-form and attach り. One important point here is that the last verb or adjective has to be with する like たりする. This is applicable for adjectives and nouns with state-of-being, too.

You can use たり with a single verb or adjective. This usage often appears when you want to imply something.

You can express “He/She sometimes does X, but sometimes doesn’t” by using the plain and the negative form.

…し: Listing Multiple Reasons

The function is to list multiple reasons, but imply that there remains something unlisted. You can attach し to any parts of speech without conjugation, but nouns and na-adjectives need to be the state-of-being style, like 日本人だし and 元気だし. Just like り, you can also use this for a single reason while implying that there are other reasons.

Other Usage

…し also has a function to just list some items like the te-form and たり. The difference is that し indicates a nuance like “Not only A, but also B.” Take a look at the following comparison.

There are a few exceptions. The typical one is that し can express contrast with a particular word: かもしれない.

Summary

1. The te-form can express both sequential and parallel actions or states.
2. The conjunctive form is interchangeable with the te-form, but sounds formal.
3. たりする is a parallel marker for verbs and adjectives.
4. …し can list multiple reasons.

The first lesson in the compound sentences section has been done. You might be surprised with the fact that Japanese can connect sentences with various nuances by not using conjunctions. Japanese certainly has conjunctions just like English does, however it is more common to use conjugations than conjunctions when connecting sentences. Thus, we will focus on that way here. Next, you will learn how to express negative sequential and parallel actions.