Today I am going to share the Q&A quoted from my JLPT N4 course!

 

[Student’s question]

 

Sensei,
今日は仕事がたくさんあって。
How come te-form is used at the end of the sentence?

*今日(きょう)
仕事(しごと)

 

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[My Reply]

 

Actually, the sentence continues, but we use the “te-form” at the end of the sentence when we prefer not to state everything explicitly. This grammatical structure, commonly used to connect thoughts, allows the listener to predict what the speaker might say next.

We can rewrite the sentence with “…” to indicate the mood:

今日は仕事がたくさんあって…。

 

By using “…” at the end of the sentence, the speaker implies that there is more to be said.

A：これから映画(えいが)を見に行きませんか。
B：今日は仕事がたくさんあって…。
A：Would you like to go see a movie now?
B：I have a lot of work to do today…

 

In this conversation, what you’re actually trying to say is: 今日は仕事がたくさんあって、行けません。 “I can’t go to the movies today because I have a lot of work to do.”

In Japanese, it is common to avoid stating negative responses directly, as demonstrated by the avoidance of the explicit statement 行けません in this conversation.

 

I hope my answer helps you. 😊

 

 

In the JLPT course, you can ask me any questions as much as you want.
I will teach you until you get it!