What are the "18 modern auxiliary verbs"?

Japanese
#1

I am currently going over ない・ず・ぬ・ざる

I noticed within the ずに grammar point it states "Although it is not considered to be one of the primary 18 auxiliary verbs that are used in modern Japanese, ず is a classical auxiliary verb that has the same role as ぬ, and ない. "

I’ve never actually seen a list like that, or maybe I just don’t recall it, is it simply things I would expect like られる, させる etc?

Additionally for anybody who has a good grasp on it, my current understanding is ず is ない but only for the negative form, ざる is used as its attributive form, then ぬ serves both purposes and is basically the same thing as ない, does this sound right?

4 Likes
#2

Here is the list of 18 aux verbs. Nothing surprising, I think.

This is actually a more complicated question than it may initially appear and I don’t have time to reply to it this second so hopefully someone else comes along with an answer. I’m making a mental note to come back here though just in case!

8 Likes
#3

okay so at the next bunpro meetup, we’re going round the table and each one is naming an auxillary verb, anyone that takes longer than 5 seconds or passes, has to take a shot…

5 Likes
#4

Auxiliary verbs, or 助動詞（じょどうし）, are verbs that attach to other ‘main’ verbs and modify them to give more information, context or meaning. They typically cannot function on their own or lose their own meanings when used this way. Instead they combine with other verbs to do things like indicate volition, obligation, conjecture and so on. A simple list of the 18 auxiliaries are as follows (though it’s possible this isn’t the exact same list as everywhere else): ます、たい、ない、よう、たら、らしい、そうだ、ようだ、です、た（だ）、だ、う、ようだ、まい、たがる、せる、させる、れる、られる.

Each one of these changes the verb they attach to in one way or another which is why they’re referred to as ‘auxiliary’.

Regarding ず、ぬ and ざる, both ぬ and ざる are the attributive form of ず and are therefore used to modify nouns. Both are considered quite old-fashioned being rarely seen, with ぬ being even more rarely seen directly modifying a noun than ざる. So in a way, your last statement is functionally accurate. ぬ, although rarely seen, is more likely to simply be used like ない without directly modifying a noun.

7 Likes
#5

Wait, that’s exactly what we did at the last Bunpro meetup! :laughing:

3 Likes
#6

These are all verbs? Including the ones that don’t end in a -u kana (たい、らしい, for example).

I have heard たい called an adjective, and it conjugates like one.

I am not questioning your explanation, but there is something interesting going on here (that I don’t understand yet).

2 Likes
#7

助動詞 is the Japanese word that refers to “auxiliary verbs” but it actually has two distinct usages. In school grammar it refers to the list that’s above and is referring to any conjugable and dependent word - these could probably be less confusingly referred to with a different English term like bound auxiliary or something like that. There is a second meaning which is used in linguistics which is closer to the English term “auxiliary verb” which, in the simplest terms, refers to verbs that come after the て-form (いる、etc). There is also the English term “subsidiary verb” which means the same thing. The term 補助動詞 is also used for these “auxiliary verbs” to avoid confusion and to differentiate them from 補助形容詞 (“subsidiary adjectives”, so adjectives used after the て-form like ほしい).

I could get further into the weeds about word classification but the basic answer here is that although it says “動詞” it doesn’t strictly mean “verbs” in the case we’re talking about.

4 Likes
#8

Got it. Thanks for the detailed explanation.

1 Like