Quote:
Originally Posted by curiosityshop
Thanks for that! I don't think any of my books have introduced me to colloquial language yet, so it would probably be better for me to stick to the polite form until I get better, but just out of curiosity, is 'iku' the informal version of 'ikimasu'? And what is this (んだいけど）you added?
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1. Yes, 行く is the plain form of 行きます. A few of points: (1) Japanese people call it 普通体 (normal form) and it is often (for some reason) translated as "direct form"; (2) Sashimister likes to point out that ます／です form isn't really "polite"; however, it's a useful term for beginners to distinguish it from "plain"; it's just not useful to call it that once you learn the actual polite forms (honorific, humble, etc.); (3) don't think of 行く as the plain form of 行きます because 行く is the original word, not the other way around.
2. it's んだけど not んだいけど. んだけど is ん＋だ＋けど, where ん adds a colloquial, slightly emphatic feel to the preceding plain form sentence, then だ makes everything up through ん into a grammatical sentence by itself (です is the plain form of だ), and then けど means "however/but."
Altogether, often 〜んだけど is a less direct, nicer-sounding way of saying whatever came before it.
Contrast
寝坊してしまった
with
寝坊してしまったんだ
They both mean something like "I overslept/slept in" but the former is more direct/harsh/abrupt than the second.
The art of Japanese is the art of saying as little as possible with as many syllables as possible
hehehehe