sensushi
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連用中止 details

write + cutting a clause off at the ます-stem to join the next one — the written alternative to て

kaki ,

cutting a clause off at the ます-stem (or an adjective's く-form) to join the next one — the written alternative to て

meaning: write and

毎朝まいあさ六時ろくじに起きおき、七時しちじの電車でんしゃに乗のる。

maiasa rokuji ni oki , shichiji no densha ni noru.

Every morning at six I get up and catch the seven o'clock train. neutral

この道みちは狭せまく、大おおきな車くるまは通とおれない。

kono michi wa semaku, ookina kuruma wa toorenai.

This road is narrow, and large cars cannot get through. neutral

  • ます-stem
  • i-adjective stem

Examples

and — one clause ends at the stem and the next follows, in the written style

毎朝まいあさ六時ろくじに起おき、七時しちじの電車でんしゃに乗のる。

maiasa rokuji ni oki , shichiji no densha ni noru.

Every morning at six I get up and catch the seven o'clock train. neutral

この道みちは狭せまく、大おおきな車くるまは通とおれない。

kono michi wa semaku, ookina kuruma wa toorenai.

This road is narrow, and large cars cannot get through. neutral

祖父そふは八十歳はちじゅっさいで亡なくなり、祖母そぼは今いまも一人ひとりで暮くらしている。

sofu wa hachijussai de nakunari, sobo wa ima mo hitori de kurashite iru.

My grandfather died at eighty, and my grandmother still lives on her own. neutral

本製品ほんせいひんは国内こくないの工場こうじょうで生産せいさんされ、全国ぜんこくの店舗てんぽに出荷しゅっかされております。

honseihin wa kokunai no koujou de seisan sare, zenkoku no tenpo ni shukka sarete orimasu.

This product is manufactured at our domestic plant and shipped to stores nationwide. formal

Formation

Notes

Read aloud it lands as a pause, so speech uses て instead. The stem carries no
tense of its own and takes it from context — usually the sentence's end, so
読よみ、出でかけました is one polite past sentence, not two.

Related patterns

Similar

  • て

    て joins clauses in speech and in writing alike and reads as one breath; the cut-off stem belongs to writing only and marks a heavier break, which is why a written sentence can chain three of them and a spoken one cannot chain even the first.

  • ずに

    The same written join, opposite polarity — 雨あめが降ふり、 continues an affirmative clause and 雨あめが降ふらず、 a negative one, so ず is what a である-style text uses where speech would say 降ふらなくて.

  • し

    し piles up reasons and invites the listener to draw the conclusion, and it stays firmly spoken; the cut-off stem makes no argument at all and simply lists what happened, which is what a report or a summary needs.

Lookalikes

  • つつ

    Both hook onto the ます-stem in written Japanese, and only つつ says the two acts overlap in time (考かんがえつつ歩あるく — at once); the bare cut merely ends one clause and starts the next, so its two events can be years apart.