Japanese Different Usage

Anyone able to help with a word -- "warate?" Many thanks!

 

Moved to Japanese

 

"waratte" is the -te form of the verb "warau", to laugh.

 

Perhaps this should be explained further, the -te form is called a 'gerund' form, it attaches to other verbs.
It also means 'to smile'.
For instance, 'waratteita' (the 'i' is optional) would mean 'laughed' (subject implied, 'I' if there was no previous context) 'warattekita' (I) came having laughed.

-UK
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*blinkblink* I'm here?

 

Need to interject here, because I'm awkward like that.

The -te is not a gerund, because "gerund" implies the noun form of the verb. In the sentence "I like reading", "reading" is a gerund. But you can't say "suki na koto wa waratte" and leave it at that, because a -te form can't ever function on its own. The only time you'll ever see one by itself is when people leave their sentences open-ended (which isn't grammatically correct) or when it's a contraction of "-te kudasai".

And yeah, the "i" is optional, but only if you're being really informal. Better way of saying it might be "leaving out the 'i' is optional".

 

Ah, I did misuse that term, thanks for the heads-up, I've never been much for english grammar terms, but 'gerund' *is* the correct way to refer to a -teiru or -teimasu form verb in japanese.
Not to be too picky myself, but the 'i' in the case of hyoujungo (standard speech) is taught as optional, even in keigo (polite speech) these days. It's not that informal anymore.

-UK