May I do this?
You know the て form and short instructions from lesson 48. Now the purpose changes: you want to do something yourself and ask whether it is allowed. For example, you consult a staff member in a shared reading room. You do not need to relearn the actions; focus on who wants to act and what the reply permits.
Start with the purpose
A visitor wants to drink water in a shared reading room. With 水を飲んでもいいですか, she asks whether she may do so. The staff member does not need to drink water or bring it. In this situation, the question concerns the visitor's own action; she does not need to repeat わたしは when the context is already clear.
Translate the question here as ‘May I…?’ rather than ‘Am I able to…?’. The visitor is physically able to drink but checks whether it is allowed in this place. Ask someone who can appropriately answer, such as a staff member or instructor. This lesson practises permission; general possibilities and abilities receive their own explanation later.
The form does not make the speaker the subject in every possible sentence. Here, we deliberately practise short questions about what you want to do yourself. First identify the person acting from the situation, then learn how to express that intention as a question.
水を飲んでもいいですか。
Keep the full て form
Take the complete て form from lesson 48 and add もいいですか. 飲む becomes 飲んで, so the complete question form is 飲んでもいいですか. A form ending in で works in the same way. Do not insert another て, and do not use ます before も here.
For 食べる (group 2), use 食べて → 食べてもいいですか. For 勉強する (group 3), first change する to して: 勉強してもいいですか. The message changes, but the て-form rules stay the same. Use the reference in lesson 48 if an ending does not come to mind immediately.
For now, learn てもいいですか as one useful pattern. Translating も separately as ‘also’ does not help with this permission question. か makes it a question; without か, てもいいです can state that something is allowed. Start by practising the question below.
食べてもいいですか。
The same action, a different purpose
You can have different intentions when talking about reading. You may state that you read, ask someone else to read, or ask whether you may read yourself. 本 and 読む can remain the same while the sentence ending changes. Do not read only the verb: check the full ending and the conversation.
In the comparison below, a visitor speaks with an instructor. In the statement, the visitor describes their own action. In the instruction, the instructor asks the visitor to read. In the permission question, the visitor wants to read and asks whether that is allowed. These roles come from context, rather than from a visible English subject in every Japanese sentence.
A sentence ending in ます can be perfectly good Japanese yet fail to fit a task asking for permission. Judge both form and purpose. The statement does not become ungrammatical; you choose a different ending for the conversation you want.
What does the reply allow?
After a permission question, はい、どうぞ and はい、いいですよ are useful positive replies: ‘Yes, go ahead’ and ‘Yes, you may’. You need not repeat the whole action when the question is still clear. In いいですよ, よ makes the confirmation a little more explicit to the listener; start by learning it as a fixed reply.
Not every reply grants permission. If a staff member answers a question about eating with すみません、ここではちょっと……, that context makes it a hesitant refusal: ‘Sorry, not here.’ Here ちょっと does not mean that a small amount of eating is allowed, or that you should merely wait a moment. The speaker leaves the difficult remainder of the refusal unsaid.
ここでは highlights ‘here, in this place’: で marks where the action occurs, and は adds contrast. The reply does not yet tell you where eating might be allowed instead. Nor is this one refusal a statement about every situation. You can respond briefly with わかりました (‘Understood’) and ask another specific question. Rules and explicit prohibitions are treated separately.
はい、どうぞ。
はい、いいですよ。
すみません、ここではちょっと……。
Make your question specific
The new ending does not replace the sentence structure you already know. Mark where the action happens with で and its object with を. ここで本を読んでもいいですか identifies the action you wish to perform in this place. ここに would not correctly express the location of reading here.
Make explicit only what is needed. If the conversation still concerns the same place, your next question might simply be 水を飲んでもいいですか. Omitting ここで does not make the question incomplete then. Your conversation partner uses the preceding context to understand you.
Now read the entire conversation before answering the meaning questions. Permission to read does not automatically permit eating there as well. Notice which answer belongs to which question. Then make a short permission question and a suitable reply yourself; compare with the examples only after your own attempt.
ここで本を読んでもいいですか。