Structure
Verb + べき + だ
Verb + べき + Noun
Exceptions:
する → す(る)べき
Details
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Standard
使用域
一般
Rare Kanji
可き
About べき
べき will be paired with the plain (non-past) form of a verb, before being followed by either だ, or another noun.
- そういう事は本人に言うべきだ。You ought to say things like that to the person themselves.
- お客さんの意見はちゃんと聞くべきだ。You ought to properly listen to customers' opinions.
- ハマサキさんは尊敬するべき人だ。Hamasaki-san is someone you ought to look up to.
- あなたに教えるべき事はこれで全部です。Of all the things I ought to teach you, this is the last one.
- やばいやばい、車が止まりそう!高速に乗る前にガソリンを入れておくべきだった。This is not good… ahhh not good, the car is about to stop! I should have filled the car up with gasoline before I got on the highway.
- 大変申し訳ございません。こちらがもっと早く気づくべきでした。We are very sorry. We should have noticed this earlier.
- 結婚する前に相手と将来の話しをするべきだ。Before marrying, you should talk about the future with your partner.
- 家族は何があっても大切にすべきだ。You should prioritize family no matter what happens.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Examples
痩せたい人は運動をすべきだと思う。
I think people who want to slim down should exercise.
税金を払うべきです。
You should pay taxes.
明日の会議は重大な話があるので、出席をするべきだ。
Because we will talk about something important at tomorrow's meeting, everyone should attend.
君が責任を取るべきだ。リーダーなんだから。
You should take responsibility since you are the leader.
この茶碗を買うべきだ。こんな掘り出し物はあまりないよ。
You should buy this bowl. It is not often that you come across such a bargain.
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How to use べき
MaggieSensei
接続・意味・使い方・例文
にほんごの里
Offline
Tobira
Page 260
Tae Kim's Japanese Grammar Guide
Page 306
[AIAIJ] An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese
Page 55
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べき – Grammar Discussion
Most Recent Replies (16 in total)
wct
About 1 year ago
Relevant research I’ve already tried
The Information section begins with this background:
However, looking at my ‘go to’ reference Jisho.org (which may not be the best overall, I don’t know, but it’s the best thing I know how to use well), I looked up the kanji 可 in conjunction with the kana べ (using this search text: *可* *べ* ), and found three relevant listings for the ‘origin’ of this formation:
- 可き, listed as a ‘generic’ word type of
nekoyama
About 1 year ago
These are conjugated forms of the same word. It’s theorized that the origin is the adverb うべ transformed into an adjective. べし is the 終止形, べく is the 連用形, and べき is the 連体形. It somehow avoided the changes that happened since then and in modern Japanese, these classical forms are still used, but some conjugations have been (partially) replaced with ones that act like it’s a noun (べきだ、べきではない etc.). “Partially” because e.g. べからず is also still used as a negative form. But others are not, e.g. べかりき、べかりけり past forms are not used anymore.
As for whether it’s a verb or not… in Japanese grammar terms it’s a 助動詞 which could indeed be translated as “auxiliary verb”. But 助動詞 don’t necessarily act like full verbs, e.g. -た、-たい、-ない are 助動詞 too. So maybe it’s better to call them “auxiliaries”. The term has nothing to do with their origins anyway, it just describes what they’re used for now.
testing
About 9 months ago
The description says that this grammar point “implies some sort of moral obligation, or that (A) is the only reasonable course of action.”. I can see this in most of the examples, but some of them don’t feel like that to me:
- この茶碗を買うべきだ。こんな掘り出し物はあまりないよ。
You should buy this bowl. It is not often that you come across such a bargain. - 日本語を声に出して読むべきだ。その方が上達するから。
You should read Japanese aloud, because you wi...
- この茶碗を買うべきだ。こんな掘り出し物はあまりないよ。
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