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Learn Japanese Lovers Group
| Profile Views: | 1825 |
| Account Type: | Open, Club |
| Location: | Learn japanese sekai |
| Creator: | Sakura-suzuki |
| Moderators: | rei_aya |
| Date Created: | Jun 18, 2008 |
| Tags: | learn japanese |
Description
Yeah!!!This group is open to who love to learn japanese!!!Let us learn japanese words!!!
Who want to be this group MOD,please contant me sakura-suzuki!!!Thank you!!!
Japanese language(History)
Japanese (日本語 / にほんご , Nihongo )is a language spoken by over 130 million[3] people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is related to the Ryukyuan languages, but whatever relationships with other languages it may have remain undemonstrated. It is an agglutinative language and is distinguished by a complex system of honorifics reflecting the hierarchical nature of Japanese society, with verb forms and particular vocabulary to indicate the relative status of speaker and listener. The sound inventory of Japanese is relatively small, and it has a lexically distinct pitch-accent system. It is a mora-timed language.
The Japanese language is written with a combination of three different types of scripts: Chinese characters called kanji (漢字 / かんじ), and two syllabic scripts made up of modified Chinese characters, hiragana (平仮名 / ひらがな) and katakana (片仮名 / カタカナ). The Latin alphabet, rōmaji (ローマ字), is also often used in modern Japanese, especially for company names and logos, advertising, and when entering Japanese text into a computer. Western style Arabic numerals are generally used for numbers, but traditional Sino-Japanese numerals are also commonplace.
Japanese vocabulary has been heavily influenced by loanwords from other languages. A vast number of words were borrowed from Chinese, or created from Chinese models, over a period of at least 1,500 years. Since the late 19th century, Japanese has borrowed a considerable number of words from Indo-European languages, primarily English. Because of the special trade relationship between Japan and first Portugal in the 16th century, and then mainly the Netherlands in the 17th century, Portuguese, German and Dutch have also been influential
Geographic distribution
Although Japanese is spoken almost exclusively in Japan, it has been and sometimes still is spoken elsewhere. When Japan occupied Korea, Taiwan, parts of the Chinese mainland, and various Pacific islands before and during World War II,[4] locals in those countries were forced to learn Japanese in empire-building programs. As a result, there are many people in these countries who can speak Japanese in addition to the local languages. Japanese emigrant communities (the largest of which are to be found in Brazil) sometimes employ Japanese as their primary language. Approximately 5% of Hawaii residents speak Japanese, with Japanese ancestry the largest single ancestry in the state (over 24% of the population). Japanese emigrants can also be found in Peru, Argentina, Australia (especially Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne), the United States (notably California, where 1.2% of the population has Japanese ancestry, and Hawaii), and the Philippines (particularly in Davao and Laguna). Their descendants, who are known as nikkei (日系, literally Japanese descendants), however, rarely speak Japanese fluently after the second generation. There are estimated[citation needed] to be several million non-Japanese studying the language as well.
Grammar[/u
Sentence structure
Inflection and conjugation
Asking Questions
Asking Questions
Let's get right to the point and check out the basic way to ask a question in Japanese. Compare these two sentences:
"Kore wa juu desu." ("This is a gun")
"Kore wa juu desu ka?" ("Is this a gun?")
Notice the little "ka" at the end of the second one. That's a new particle, and it marks any sentence as a question. That's right, all you have to do to turn any sentence into a question is add "ka" to the end. Is that easy or what? Better yet, as I mentioned in lesson one, questions sound the same in Japanese as English--your voice goes up at the end of the sentence.
Although there are ways to ask questions with more complicated answers (which we'll get to), and all of them are marked as questions by sticking a good ol' "ka" on the end, simple yes or no questions are so easy to make it's not even funny. As in the example above, just take any statement and stick "ka" on the end. Bingo! Question city! A couple more examples using statement patterns from previous lessons:
"Kore wa uchuusen desu ka?" ("Is this a spaceship?")
"Sore wa boku no tamashi desu ka?" ("Is that my soul?")
"Anata wa Oni desu ka?" ("Are you an Ogre?")
"Tiima wa ningen desu ka?" ("Is Tima human?")
Again, in every one of those cases, the only difference between the statement and question is the "ka" on the end. Note that, as we studied in this kind of sentence before, the subject and noun in the middle can be just about anything and the form doesn't change, even though the English sentence might use "a" "an" or "the".
Yes and No
Ok, now for some answers. You probably already know how to say "yes" in Japanese ("hai"), and maybe even "no" ("iie"), but let's do a couple of full-sentence examples. Remember, by the way, that even though "iie" is spelled funny, it's pronounced with a long "eee" sound, and a short, clipped "eh" at the end: "ee-eh". Lotta vowels in there.
These conversations involve Mirai and Ryuu, whom you'll be seeing more of in future examples. Mirai and Ryuu are making hot dogs:
Mirai: "Kore wa masutaado desu ka?" ("Is this mustard?")
Ryuu: "Hai. Masutaado desu." ("Yes. It's mustard.")
Ryuu: "Sore wa kechappu desu ka?" ("Is that ketchup?")
Mirai: "Iie, kore wa chi desu. Atashi no chi desu." ("No, this is blood. My blood.")
Ryuu: "Daijoubu?!" ("Are you OK?!")
Mirai: "Un! Daijoubu!" ("Yep! I'm fine!")
It would be possible to just answer "Hai" or "Iie" in all three cases, but that would be a little blunt. In the first example, you can see that it's not necessary to repeat the subject when you answer, since it's clear what you're talking about.
In the second exchange, Mirai fell victim to a freak hot dog preparation accident and has something red on her shirt. The subject is repeated in the answer to show the difference between "kore" and "sore"; Ryuu used "sore" because he's talking about something on Mirai; Mirai used "kore" when she answered, since it was on her. In the second answer sentence there is no subject, though, and the subject could have been left off of both. (If you're wondering how to say "It's not ketchup.", you'll have to wait till lesson 4 for negatives.)
In the third section, Ryuu is making sure Mirai isn't bleeding to death. He uses "daijoubu", a very useful word meaning roughly "alright" or "OK". This illustrates the simplest and most abrupt (not polite, though) way to ask a question: leave off the subject and verb, and just blurt the important word in a way that sounds like a question. The answer, similarly, omits the subject and verb, which is informal but OK in the case of "daijoubu". "Un" (sounds like a short "ooh-n") is an informal "yes", similar to the English "yep" or "uh-huh".
Here's a more polite version of that last section, using complete sentences.
Polite Person 1: "Daijoubu desu ka?" ("Are you alright?")
Polite Person 2: "Hai. Daijoubu desu!" ("Yes. I'm fine!")
Since "Daijoubu desu." alone means "I'm OK.", adding "ka" of course makes it into a question. By the way, it's worth noting that Japanese people usually match the politeness level of an answer to the question, so "Daijoubu!" would be a more natural answer in the first case, and "Daijoubu desu." is more natural in the second.
Putting it all Together
Basic Question Forms:
"[Statement] ka?" ("Is [Statement]?"; "Is [Statement] [true]?")
"Kore wa [thing] desu ka?" ("Is this (a) [thing]?")
"[Thing 1] wa [thing 2] desu ka?" ("Is [thing 1] (a) [thing 2]?")
Yes and no:
"Hai" ("Yes")
"Iie" ("No")
Person 1: "[Thing 1] wa [thing 2] desu ka?" ("Is [thing 1] (a) [thing 2]?")
Person 2: "Hai. [thing 2] desu." ("Yes. It's (a) [thing 2].")
Let's try a relatively complicated version:
"Boku no okane wa anata no mono desu ka?"
Hint: this is from a previous lesson. Since "Boku no okane" means "my money", and "anata no mono" means "your thing", the whole sentence would mean... "Is my money yours?" Make sense? (A more natural translation would be "Does my money belong to you?" Here's a possible answer:
"Hai. Ore no mono desu."
As before, the subject is usually omitted in the answer, so our bully is saying "Yes. It's mine." Incidentally, there are hints in here as to who is speaking: since "boku" is used by men, but doesn't have a particularly masculine image, while "ore" does, you can sort of guess that the first guy is being intimidated by the more aggressive second.
Several more question sentences, mostly using statements from past lessons:
"Watashi wa baka desu ka?" ("Am I stupid?")
"Anata wa baka desu ka?" ("Are you stupid?")
"Anta, baka?" ("You stupid?")
"Omae wa Shinigami desu ka?" ("Are you the God of Death?")
"Anata wa atashi no tomodachi desu ka?" ("Are you my friend?")
"Airi wa boku no tomodachi desu ka?" ("Are you my friend, Airi?")
"Airi wa boku no tomodachi desu ka?" ("Is Airi my friend?")
This is all pretty straightforward. The first two sentences are versions of turning everybody's favorite word into a question. The third one is a very blunt way of asking the same question; "anta" is a reasonably impolite "you", and most of the sentence structure other than the question inflection has been left off.
In the last four sentences, we've got three different ways of asking similar questions. In number 4, since the subject is "omae", we can assume that the person asking isn't being particularly polite. In number 5, the speaker is a woman (see the "atashi?"), and is being reasonably polite.
In the 6th and 7th ones, the speaker is probably male ("boku"), and is talking about Airi. As was mentioned in a past lesson, from these sentences alone it's not clear whether Airi is being talked about, or whether she's being talked directly to--the English sentences are different, but in Japanese you can talk directly to someone using their name.
Split the Difference
Japanese adjectives are easy, because basically, they work exactly the same as English adjectives--you stick them in front of the word you want them to modify.
At this point, the trickiest thing to learn about adjectives in Japanese is that there are two different types of them: "na" adjectives and "i" adjectives (that's "i" as in "eee", not like the letter I, by the way). Let's pick a couple of each to play with:
i Adjectives na adjectives
ii (good) hen (weird)
karai (spicy) shizuka (quiet)
"Hen" is a word fans of Urusei Yatsura are probably familiar with, meaning "strange" or "weird".
The first thing you'll notice is that the i-adjectives all end in "i". Guess why they're called i-adjectives. The na-adjectives don't, however, end in "na"... yet. Check out these example sentences:
"Kore wa ii desu." ("This is good.")
"Kore wa ii katana desu." ("This is a good sword.")
"Kore wa hen desu." ("This is weird.")
"Kore wa hen na katana desu." ("This is a weird sword.")
Now it should make some sense. In the case of i-adjectives, they work exactly like adjectives in English--you can either plunk them right in the middle of a statement to describe something, or put them right before a noun to modify it.
Na-adjectives are just a wee bit trickier, in that when you want to modify a noun with them--but only then--you need to put a "na" between the adjective and the noun. Simple? I thought so.
What About Kono?
If you've been paying attention, you might remember the first set of adjectives from way back in Lesson 2, Part 3: "kono", "sono", "ano", and "dono". And you might also be assuming that they're na-adjectives, since none of them end in "i". Tragically, it's not quite that simple--that particular set of words is sort of a special case.
Thing is, they can't really be the object of a sentence--they can only be used to modify nouns. So really, they're more like mutant half-breed adjectives that only work in one particular situation, which is when they're stuck directly before a noun to identify it as "this whatever" instead of just any old whatever. Bottom line is, they're not either type, and you can't do a whole lot with them.
They can be combined with other adjectives to do all kinds of fun stuff, though. When you do that, the kono-type word always comes first.
"Kono karee wa karai desu." ("This curry is spicy.")
"Kono karai karee wa oishii desu." ("This spicy curry is tasty.")
"Sono karai karee wa abunai desu." ("That spicy curry is dangerous.")
See how you can stick "kono" and "karai" together with "karee" ("curry") to make the double-modifier "kono karai karee" ("this spicy curry"), just like in English? Piece of cake.
"Oishii" is a very common i-adjective meaning "tasty" or "delicious" (it's not terribly specific as to the level of mouth happiness). "Abunai", as many an anime fan knows, means "dangerous". It's an i-adjective, and a handy one, particularly when fighting giant robots or genetically engineered bees or things of that sort.
Random notes: Though the Japanese eat all sorts of curry, Japanese curry is light colored, mild in flavor (certainly not the tongue-scorchers popular in India or Thailand), and a popular home cookin' dish, especially among children. "Abunai!" can be yelled by itself (and frequently is) to mean something along the lines of "Look out!", although technically that's a shortened version of the sentence "Abunai desu!" meaning "It is dangerous!".
Is It?
Asking questions is way-easy--just like with everything else in Japanese, add a "ka" to a statement, and BINGO!, you've got a question.
"Kore wa karai desu." ("This is spicy.")
"Kore wa karai desu ka?" ("Is this spicy?")
No problem, right? Here's an example exchange:
Ryuu: "Kono karee wa karai desu ka?" ("Is this curry spicy?")
Mirai: "Hai. Karai desu." ("Yes. It's spicy.")
Ryuu: "Soo desu ka? Oishii desu ka?" ("Is that so? Is it good?")
Mirai: "Oishii desu yo!" ("It's tasty!")
Ryuu: "Karai desu ne. Karai. Karai! Kuchi no naka ga moeteru yo!" ("It is spicy, isn't it. Spicy. Spicy! My mouth is on fire!")
Other than that Mirai, like Lum, apparently has a high tolerance for spicy foods, what have we learned from this exchange? You can see that after the first sentence "Sono karee" gets left off because the subject is obvious.
More Vocabulary
Here's a table of more useful adjectives with their English meanings in parentheses:
i Adjectives na adjectives
akai (red) kirei (pretty)
aoi (blue) burei (rude)
urusai (noisy) iya (unpleasant)
hayai (fast)
atarashii (new)
yasui (cheap)
ookii (big)
First off, you probably noticed that two of the adjectives in the na column end in "i". This is not a mistake--just because an adjective ends in "i" doesn't necessarily make it an "i-adjective, so you've got to be a bit careful.
There are several useful words in there; "kirei" is very common and falls somewhere between "pretty" and "beautiful". "Burei" is most commonly heard in anime as an insult from royalty or other high-and-mighty folks expecting politeness. "Urusai" "iya" and are two particularly useful adjectives:
"Urusai" literally means "noisy". It is frequently used to imply, in a not particularly polite way, that you should make the source of the noise stop--basically "Be quiet." The blunt "Urusai!" is most common, meaning "Shut up!"
"Iya" is tremendously useful word with no good English equivalent. You'll frequently hear the sentence "Iya desu." (or the blunt form "Iya da."), which literally means "it is distasteful". However, in Japanese, the feel is much more like "I don't want to." or "I don't like that." or just "Gross!". If you want to be really blunt, you can just go with "Iya." which covers everything from "No." (as in, "I refuse because I find it unpleasant.") to "Eew!" That version is frequently screamed in anime by women about to be assaulted by something particularly repulsive.
If Only It Were That Simple
Remember back when I said Japanese adjectives were really simple? I was actually lying. The problem is, Japanese adjectives get conjugated--that means that, like making a verb past tense, you change the adjective some depending on the context of the sentence. It'd just be confusing to go into much detail at this point, but I'll go ahead and give one quick and useful example of how to make an i-adjective negative.
To make an i-adjective negative (and, therefore, the whole sentence negative), chop off the "i" at the end and replace it with a "kunai". Examples:
"Kore wa oishii desu." ("This is tasty.")
"Kore wa oishikunai desu." ("This is not tasty.")
There, that wasn't so painful, was it? We'll leave it at that for now.
Putting it all Together
Basic Adjective Patters:
"[Something] wa [adjective] desu." ("[Something] is [adjective].")
"Kore wa [i-adjective] [something] desu." ("This is a [adjective] [something].")
"Kore wa [na-adjective] na [something] desu." ("This is a [adjective] [something].")
Combining kono/sono/ano/dono and an adjective:
"Kono [i-adjective] [something] wa [something] desu." ("This [adjective] [something] is [something].")
"Sono [na-adjective] na [something] wa [something] desu." ("That [adjective] [something] is [something].")
"Dono [i-adjective] [something] desu ka?" ("Which [adjective] [something]?")
Making an i-adjective negative:
[base]i = Positive
[base]kunai = Negative
Example time:
"Kono aoi uchuusen wa watashi no desu."
Remember that "uchuusen" means "space ship". Can you figure the whole thing out without peeking? "This blue space ship is mine." Another one:
"Anata no atarashii kuruma wa kakkoii desu."
Again, "kuruma" is "car", and "kakkoii" is a handy adjective meaning "cool/good looking/impressive" -- cool is probably the closest English equivalent, since "kakkoii" is a heavily used word and covers a lot of ground in Japanese (you'll hear it all the time in anime if you listen). So, if you put it together, the sentence means "Your new car is cool."
This sentence also illustrates that if you combine "anata no" (or another possessive) and an adjective, the adjective always comes last. A final example sentence
"Omae wa hen na yatsu da."
This is a less polite sentence: "omae" is an impolite version of "you"; "yatsu" is a fairly crude word for person, roughly equivalent to saying "guy" or "dude" (though it technically applies to both males and females); "da", as you've seen used a few times already, is the blunt form of "desu", which is very common in informal Japanese. So, the sentence as a whole means "You're a weird dude."
More Sentences
Here's today's set of examples, mostly involving food:
"Watashi wa kirei desu." ("I am pretty.")
"Watashi wa karai desu." ("I am spicy.")
"Watashi wa karai karee desu." ("I am spicy curry.")
"Oishii karee wa karai desu." ("Good curry is spicy.")
"Kore wa oishii yo!" ("This is tasty!")
"Hen na yatsu." ("Weird guy.")
"Anata wa kirei desu." ("You are pretty.")
"Anata wa kirei na hito desu." ("You are a beautiful person.")
"Ii yo!" ("That's fine!")
The first three sentences, though weird, are all pretty straightforward. The fourth involves a two adjectives--one modifying the subject directly, and one describing it--pretty much the same as in English. Note that in this case it's more natural to say "good curry" in English rather than "tasty curry", but "oishii" is much more natural in Japanese than "ii" (basically, "ii" really means "good", as in the good guys, not "good [tasting]" or something like that).
Sentence 5 demonstrates an informal way of using adjectives--the full, polite sentence would be "Kore wa oishii desu yo!", but cutting the "desu" out is an easy way to make it casual.
Sentence number 6 is again rather blunt, in this case omitting both the subject and the verb.
Seven and eight are similar ways to say the same thing, since "hito" just means "person". In English it's natural to use "pretty" in one case and "beautiful" in the other, but although there is a stronger word for beautiful in Japanese ("utsukushii"), "kirei" works fine in both these cases.
Finally, number 9 is another informal sentence, and a very common one. Though it literally means "It's good." or "That's good.", it's a friendly way of agreeing that covers all sorts of ground in Japanese. Equivalent phrases in English, depending on the situation, would be "That's fine.", "Ok.", "No problem.", and "Sure."
Here, There, and Everywhere
Before we get going, let's learn a new set of those ko-so-a-do words to go with places:
"koko" = here (place where the speaker is)
"soko" = there (place where the listener is)
"asoko" = over there (place near neither the speaker or listener)
"doko" = where
These words follow the same pattern as all the other ko-so-a-do words, and have nice useful English equivalents.
Only one little issue: using them isn't quite so simple. You'd think that, since "desu" is used in sentences with meanings like "I am supremely cool.", that it can be used to say something like "I am here." But no, we're going to need a whole new "to be" verb for that. Enter "imasu".
Being There
Your first non-desu verb: "imasu". Check out this sentence:
"Watashi wa koko ni imasu." ("I am here.")
Woah, that's longer that you'd think. Breaking it down, we've got the subject at the beginning, marked by the trusty particle "wa", then the location where the existing is done in the middle, marked by the new (to you) particle "ni", and a verb at the end, "imasu".
"Imasu" is a general-purpose "to be" verb, meaning "am" or "is" as they relate to the existence of something. That is, "I am.", as opposed to "I am cool."--the first one declares existence, while the second one declares some property of the person. It's a subtle difference, but you'll get the hang of it.
With some color coding, we thus have:
Watashi wa koko ni imasu. = I am here.
The Knights Who Say "ni"
Convenient Monty Python reference aside, "ni" is a particle that shows up all over the place. It gets used a few ways, but for the most part marks a location or direction that applies to the verb in the sentence. It covers some of the same ground as "in" and "at" in English, but keep in mind that is also required in places where you're not used to seeing either.
"Watashi wa koko ni imasu." ("I am here.")
"Watashi wa uchuu ni imasu." ("I am in space.")
"Watashi wa gakkou ni imasu." ("I am at school.")
Gaahhh!
The first step in making this more confusing is a second new particle, "ga". In general terms, it's the same as "wa"--it marks the subject of a sentence. Sometimes they're interchangeable, but in certain sentences you just gotta have "ga", such as this one:
"Nyan-chan ga imasu!" ("It's a kitty!")
This is a simple sentence declaring (literally speaking) that a cat exists. This comes out more like pointing out the existence of a particular cat, hence the more accurate English meaning of "It's a kitty." "Nyan-chan", if you didn't guess, combines "nyan", the sound Japanese cats make, and the affectionate "chan", to get the baby-talk word for "cat".
So how come "ga" in this case? Sadly, when exactly to use "wa" and when to use "ga" is a tricky proposition (more than you even want to think about), but in this case it's because the emphasis is on the existence of the thing, rather than its location. For the time being, just remember that "ga" is the particle of choice when you're pointing out the existence (as opposed to location) of something.
Being There and Being There
Confusion time. There are actually two words to describe the existence of something: "arimasu", which is used only with inanimate objects like TNT, trees, and stars, and "imasu", which is used for living, active things, like people, kittens, and 15-foot sharp-clawed demons. For those wondering about robots, that's your call, depending in part how close to alive the robot is.
Examples make everything clearer:
Neko ga imasu." ("There is a cat.")
Omocha ga arimasu." ("There is a toy.")
Neko no omocha ga arimasu." ("There is a cat's toy.")
Kyodai na bakemono ga Toukyo ni imasu." ("There is a giant monster in Tokyo.")
Tokorode, bakudan ga anata no kuruma no naka ni arimasu." ("By the way, there is a bomb in your car.")
As you can see, cats and giant monsters are living things, and hence need "imasu". Also note the na-adjective in there--"kyodai" ("giant"), which is modifying "bakemono" ("monster").
The other three are all inanimate objects, so must be paired with "arimasu"; "omocha" ("toy"), "neko no omocha" ("cat's toy"--recognize the possessive "no"?), and "bakudan" ("bomb"). The last two sentences also include locations, "Toukyou" (the proper way to pronounce Tokyo) getting visited by a giant monster, and "anata no kuruma no naka", which involves both another possessive phrase, "your car" and the specific location "naka" ("inside"), which we won't get into in detail until a bit later.
Here's a short conversation that, when you skim over the stuff we haven't covered yet, involves both "imasu" and "arimasu":
Mirai: "Ashita paati ga arimasu." ("There will be a party tomorrow.")
Ken: "Dare ga kimasu ka?" ("Who will be there?")
Mirai: "Watashi no tomodachi. Kawaii onnanoko ga ippai imasu yo!" ("My friends. There will be a lot of cute girls!")
Ken: "Yatta!" ("Score!")
Focusing on what Mirai is saying, she first comments that a party (which is not a living thing despite appearances) will be existing, so "arimasu" is required. "Ashita" ("tomorrow") is tacked on to the beginning to identify the time more specifically.
Mirai then points out that among her friends exist many cute girls, who, being living creatures, require "imasu". "Onna no ko" (literally "woman child") means "girl" (in the same sense as in English, so it covers both kids and young women if you're not being technical), "ippai" is a useful word meaning "lots"/"a lot", and you'd better know "kawaii" by now. This is a subtly different use of "imasu"--it isn't just pointing out that Mirai has cute friends (in which case she would have said it differently, perhaps using something along the lines of "Watashi no tomodachi wa kawaii desu.", which you can figure out if you remember the previous lesson). Rather, within the group of her friends, specifically, many cute girls exist. We don't say it like that in English, of course, but that's the way it goes.
If you're wondering about Ken, in his question you will see a different verb, which we'll be covering in lesson 4, and in his final comment you'll see the popular phrase "yatta", an all purpose expression of success made famous by Chun Li of Street Fighter fame.
Putting it all Together
Existence of living things:
"Watashi wa koko ni imasu." ("I am here.")
"Watashi wa [location] ni imasu." ("I am (in/at) [location].")
"[Living thing] wa [location] ni imasu." ("[Living thing] is (in/at) [location].")
"[Living thing] ga imasu." ("There is (a) [living thing].")
Existence of inanimate objects:
"[Thing] wa [location] ni arimasu." ("[Thing] is (in/at) [location].")
"[Thing] ga arimasu." ("There is (a) [thing].")
Have a shot at this sentence:
"Anata no kuruma wa Roshia ni arimasu."
If you've forgotten, "kuruma" means "car", and you can probably figure "Roshia" out if you say it out loud--"Russia". This means, therefore, "Your car is in Russia."
Let's try one that's a little more challenging:
"Ore no hiru-gohan wa soko ni imasu."
"Hiru-gohan" is a new word meaning simply "lunch" (literally, "afternoon-meal"), and "ore" is a masculine term for "me". As a result, the sentence in English means "My lunch is right there." ...but did you catch the subtle hint? Notice that the word "imasu" is used instead of "arimasu". This would imply that lunch is still alive and kicking, so the speaker either is getting ready to turn that "imasu" into an "arimasu", or likes his food lively. Plus, since "soko" was used, it's even possible that the lunch in question is the person being spoken to.
More Sentences
Have a look at a few more existence-related sentences:
"
Kare wa atsui tokoro ni imasu." ("He is in a hot place.")
"Miyazaki Hayao wa Nihon ni imasu." ("Hayao Miyazaki is in Japan.")
"Watashi no boushi wa uchuu ni arimasu." ("My hat is in space.")
"Aho! Deguchi wa koko ni aru yo!" ("Moron! The exit is right here!")
Only a few new words in here; in number 1, "jigoku" of course means "hell". Number 2 involves an i-adjective, "atsui" ("hot") modifying "tokoro" ("place"). Number 3 uses today's pattern to describe the location of the famous animator. Number four describes a rather odd situation, but if you know that "boushi" means "hat", should be easy enough to figure out.
The final sentence is a bit more complicated, involving both an insult, the word "deguchi" ("exit"), and the plain form of "arimasu", "aru". We'll go into plain forms in more detail eventually, but suffice it to say that if you're being blunt, very informal, or insulting, using the plain form is very common. The "yo" is, as usual, just for added emphasis
A-Z
A
B
Greetings/Apologies
Communication Difficulties
Where?
When?
What sort of...?
How much/many
Who/Which?
Whose?
How?
Finding a place to eat
Who want to be this group MOD,please contant me sakura-suzuki!!!Thank you!!!
Japanese language(History)
Japanese (日本語 / にほんご , Nihongo )is a language spoken by over 130 million[3] people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is related to the Ryukyuan languages, but whatever relationships with other languages it may have remain undemonstrated. It is an agglutinative language and is distinguished by a complex system of honorifics reflecting the hierarchical nature of Japanese society, with verb forms and particular vocabulary to indicate the relative status of speaker and listener. The sound inventory of Japanese is relatively small, and it has a lexically distinct pitch-accent system. It is a mora-timed language.
The Japanese language is written with a combination of three different types of scripts: Chinese characters called kanji (漢字 / かんじ), and two syllabic scripts made up of modified Chinese characters, hiragana (平仮名 / ひらがな) and katakana (片仮名 / カタカナ). The Latin alphabet, rōmaji (ローマ字), is also often used in modern Japanese, especially for company names and logos, advertising, and when entering Japanese text into a computer. Western style Arabic numerals are generally used for numbers, but traditional Sino-Japanese numerals are also commonplace.
Japanese vocabulary has been heavily influenced by loanwords from other languages. A vast number of words were borrowed from Chinese, or created from Chinese models, over a period of at least 1,500 years. Since the late 19th century, Japanese has borrowed a considerable number of words from Indo-European languages, primarily English. Because of the special trade relationship between Japan and first Portugal in the 16th century, and then mainly the Netherlands in the 17th century, Portuguese, German and Dutch have also been influential
Geographic distribution
Although Japanese is spoken almost exclusively in Japan, it has been and sometimes still is spoken elsewhere. When Japan occupied Korea, Taiwan, parts of the Chinese mainland, and various Pacific islands before and during World War II,[4] locals in those countries were forced to learn Japanese in empire-building programs. As a result, there are many people in these countries who can speak Japanese in addition to the local languages. Japanese emigrant communities (the largest of which are to be found in Brazil) sometimes employ Japanese as their primary language. Approximately 5% of Hawaii residents speak Japanese, with Japanese ancestry the largest single ancestry in the state (over 24% of the population). Japanese emigrants can also be found in Peru, Argentina, Australia (especially Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne), the United States (notably California, where 1.2% of the population has Japanese ancestry, and Hawaii), and the Philippines (particularly in Davao and Laguna). Their descendants, who are known as nikkei (日系, literally Japanese descendants), however, rarely speak Japanese fluently after the second generation. There are estimated[citation needed] to be several million non-Japanese studying the language as well.
Grammar[/u
Sentence structure
** Spoiler Alert!!! click to hide or show**
Japanese word order is classified as Subject Object Verb. However, unlike many Indo-European languages, Japanese sentences only require that verbs come last for intelligibility.[5] This is because the Japanese sentence elements are marked with particles that identify their grammatical functions.
The basic sentence structure is topic-comment. For example, Kochira-wa Tanaka-san desu (こちらは田中さんです). Kochira ("this") is the topic of the sentence, indicated by the particle -wa. The verb is desu, a copula, commonly translated as "to be" or "it is" (though there are other verbs that can be translated as "to be"). As a phrase, Tanaka-san desu is the comment. This sentence loosely translates to "As for this person, (it) is Mr./Mrs./Miss Tanaka." Thus Japanese, like Chinese, Korean, and many other Asian languages, is often called a topic-prominent language, which means it has a strong tendency to indicate the topic separately from the subject, and the two do not always coincide. The sentence Zō-wa hana-ga nagai (desu) (象は鼻が長いです) literally means, "As for elephants, (their) noses are long". The topic is zō "elephant", and the subject is hana "nose".
Japanese is a pro-drop language, meaning that the subject or object of a sentence need not be stated if it is obvious from context. In addition, it is commonly felt, particularly in spoken Japanese, that the shorter a sentence is, the better. As a result of this grammatical permissiveness and tendency towards brevity, Japanese speakers tend naturally to omit words from sentences, rather than refer to them with pronouns. In the context of the above example, hana-ga nagai would mean "[their] noses are long," while nagai by itself would mean "[they] are long." A single verb can be a complete sentence: Yatta! "[I / we / they / etc] did [it]!". In addition, since adjectives can form the predicate in a Japanese sentence (below), a single adjective can be a complete sentence: Urayamashii! "[I'm] jealous [of it]!".
While the language has some words that are typically translated as pronouns, these are not used as frequently as pronouns in some Indo-European languages, and function differently. Instead, Japanese typically relies on special verb forms and auxiliary verbs to indicate the direction of benefit of an action: "down" to indicate the out-group gives a benefit to the in-group; and "up" to indicate the in-group gives a benefit to the out-group. Here, the in-group includes the speaker and the out-group doesn't, and their boundary depends on context. For example, oshiete moratta (literally, "explained" with a benefit from the out-group to the in-group) means "[he/she/they] explained it to [me/us]". Similarly, oshiete ageta (literally, "explained" with a benefit from the in-group to the out-group) means "[I/we] explained [it] to [him/her/them]". Such beneficiary auxiliary verbs thus serve a function comparable to that of pronouns and prepositions in Indo-European languages to indicate the actor and the recipient of an action.
Japanese "pronouns" also function differently from most modern Indo-European pronouns (and more like nouns) in that they can take modifiers as any other noun may. For instance, one cannot say in English:
*The amazed he ran down the street. (grammatically incorrect)
But one can grammatically say essentially the same thing in Japanese:
Odoroita kare-wa michi-o hashitte itta. (grammatically correct)
This is partly due to the fact that these words evolved from regular nouns, such as kimi "you" (君 "lord"), anata "you" (あなた "that side, yonder"), and boku "I" (僕 "servant"). This is why some linguists do not classify Japanese "pronouns" as pronouns, but rather as referential nouns. Japanese personal pronouns are generally used only in situations requiring special emphasis as to who is doing what to whom.
The choice of words used as pronouns is correlated with the sex of the speaker and the social situation in which they are spoken: men and women alike in a formal situation generally refer to themselves as watashi (私 "private") or watakushi (also 私), while men in rougher or intimate conversation are much more likely to use the word ore (俺 "oneself", "myself") or boku. Similarly, different words such as anata, kimi, and omae (お前, more formally 御前 "the one before me") may be used to refer to a listener depending on the listener's relative social position and the degree of familiarity between the speaker and the listener. When used in different social relationships, the same word may have positive (intimate or respectful) or negative (distant or disrespectful) connotations.
Japanese often use titles of the person referred to where pronouns would be used in English. For example, when speaking to one's teacher, it is appropriate to use sensei (先生, teacher), but inappropriate to use anata. This is because anata is used to refer to people of equal or lower status, and one's teacher has allegedly higher status.
For English speaking learners of Japanese, a frequent beginners mistake is to include watashi-wa or anata-wa at the beginning of sentences as one would with I or you in English.[citation needed] Though these sentences are not grammatically incorrect, even in formal settings it would be considered unnatural and would equate in English to repeatedly using a noun where a pronoun would suffice
The basic sentence structure is topic-comment. For example, Kochira-wa Tanaka-san desu (こちらは田中さんです). Kochira ("this") is the topic of the sentence, indicated by the particle -wa. The verb is desu, a copula, commonly translated as "to be" or "it is" (though there are other verbs that can be translated as "to be"). As a phrase, Tanaka-san desu is the comment. This sentence loosely translates to "As for this person, (it) is Mr./Mrs./Miss Tanaka." Thus Japanese, like Chinese, Korean, and many other Asian languages, is often called a topic-prominent language, which means it has a strong tendency to indicate the topic separately from the subject, and the two do not always coincide. The sentence Zō-wa hana-ga nagai (desu) (象は鼻が長いです) literally means, "As for elephants, (their) noses are long". The topic is zō "elephant", and the subject is hana "nose".
Japanese is a pro-drop language, meaning that the subject or object of a sentence need not be stated if it is obvious from context. In addition, it is commonly felt, particularly in spoken Japanese, that the shorter a sentence is, the better. As a result of this grammatical permissiveness and tendency towards brevity, Japanese speakers tend naturally to omit words from sentences, rather than refer to them with pronouns. In the context of the above example, hana-ga nagai would mean "[their] noses are long," while nagai by itself would mean "[they] are long." A single verb can be a complete sentence: Yatta! "[I / we / they / etc] did [it]!". In addition, since adjectives can form the predicate in a Japanese sentence (below), a single adjective can be a complete sentence: Urayamashii! "[I'm] jealous [of it]!".
While the language has some words that are typically translated as pronouns, these are not used as frequently as pronouns in some Indo-European languages, and function differently. Instead, Japanese typically relies on special verb forms and auxiliary verbs to indicate the direction of benefit of an action: "down" to indicate the out-group gives a benefit to the in-group; and "up" to indicate the in-group gives a benefit to the out-group. Here, the in-group includes the speaker and the out-group doesn't, and their boundary depends on context. For example, oshiete moratta (literally, "explained" with a benefit from the out-group to the in-group) means "[he/she/they] explained it to [me/us]". Similarly, oshiete ageta (literally, "explained" with a benefit from the in-group to the out-group) means "[I/we] explained [it] to [him/her/them]". Such beneficiary auxiliary verbs thus serve a function comparable to that of pronouns and prepositions in Indo-European languages to indicate the actor and the recipient of an action.
Japanese "pronouns" also function differently from most modern Indo-European pronouns (and more like nouns) in that they can take modifiers as any other noun may. For instance, one cannot say in English:
*The amazed he ran down the street. (grammatically incorrect)
But one can grammatically say essentially the same thing in Japanese:
Odoroita kare-wa michi-o hashitte itta. (grammatically correct)
This is partly due to the fact that these words evolved from regular nouns, such as kimi "you" (君 "lord"), anata "you" (あなた "that side, yonder"), and boku "I" (僕 "servant"). This is why some linguists do not classify Japanese "pronouns" as pronouns, but rather as referential nouns. Japanese personal pronouns are generally used only in situations requiring special emphasis as to who is doing what to whom.
The choice of words used as pronouns is correlated with the sex of the speaker and the social situation in which they are spoken: men and women alike in a formal situation generally refer to themselves as watashi (私 "private") or watakushi (also 私), while men in rougher or intimate conversation are much more likely to use the word ore (俺 "oneself", "myself") or boku. Similarly, different words such as anata, kimi, and omae (お前, more formally 御前 "the one before me") may be used to refer to a listener depending on the listener's relative social position and the degree of familiarity between the speaker and the listener. When used in different social relationships, the same word may have positive (intimate or respectful) or negative (distant or disrespectful) connotations.
Japanese often use titles of the person referred to where pronouns would be used in English. For example, when speaking to one's teacher, it is appropriate to use sensei (先生, teacher), but inappropriate to use anata. This is because anata is used to refer to people of equal or lower status, and one's teacher has allegedly higher status.
For English speaking learners of Japanese, a frequent beginners mistake is to include watashi-wa or anata-wa at the beginning of sentences as one would with I or you in English.[citation needed] Though these sentences are not grammatically incorrect, even in formal settings it would be considered unnatural and would equate in English to repeatedly using a noun where a pronoun would suffice
Inflection and conjugation
** Spoiler Alert!!! click to hide or show**
Japanese nouns have no grammatical number, gender or article aspect. The noun hon (本) may refer to a single book or several books; hito (人) can mean "person" or "people"; and ki (木) can be "tree" or "trees". Where number is important, it can be indicated by providing a quantity (often with a counter word) or (rarely) by adding a suffix. Words for people are usually understood as singular. Thus Tanaka-san usually means Mr./Mrs./Miss. Tanaka. Words that refer to people and animals can be made to indicate a group of individuals through the addition of a collective suffix (a noun suffix that indicates a group), such as -tachi, but this is not a true plural: the meaning is closer to the English phrase "and company". A group described as Tanaka-san-tachi may include people not named Tanaka. Some Japanese nouns are effectively plural, such as hitobito "people" and wareware "we/us", while the word tomodachi "friend" is considered singular, although plural in form.
Verbs are conjugated to show tenses, of which there are two: past and present, or non-past, which is used for the present and the future. For verbs that represent an ongoing process, the -te iru form indicates a continuous (or progressive) tense. For others that represent a change of state, the -te iru form indicates a perfect tense. For example, kite iru means "He has come (and is still here)", but tabete iru means "He is eating".
Questions (both with an interrogative pronoun and yes/no questions) have the same structure as affirmative sentences, but with intonation rising at the end. In the formal register, the question particle -ka is added. For example, Ii desu (いいです。) "It is OK" becomes Ii desu-ka (いいですか？) "Is it OK?". In a more informal tone sometimes the particle -no (の) is added instead to show a personal interest of the speaker: Dōshite konai-no? "Why aren't (you) coming?". Some simple queries are formed simply by mentioning the topic with an interrogative intonation to call for the hearer's attention: Kore-wa? "(What about) this?"; Namae-wa? (名前は？) "(What's your) name?".
Negatives are formed by inflecting the verb. For example, Pan-o taberu (パンを食べる。) "I will eat bread" or "I eat bread" becomes Pan-o tabenai (パンを食べない。) "I will not eat bread" or "I do not eat bread".
The so-called -te verb form is used for a variety of purposes: either progressive or perfect aspect (see above); combining verbs in a temporal sequence (Asagohan-o tabete sugu dekakeru "I'll eat breakfast and leave at once"), simple commands, conditional statements and permissions (Dekakete-mo ii? "May I go out?"), etc.
The word da (plain), desu (polite) is the copula verb. It corresponds approximately to the English be, but often takes on other roles, including a marker for tense, when the verb is conjugated into its past form datta (plain), deshita (polite). This comes into use because only keiyōshi adjectives and verbs can carry tense in Japanese. Two additional common verbs are used to indicate existence ("there is") or, in some contexts, property: aru (negative nai) and iru (negative inai), for inanimate and animate things, respectively. For example, Neko ga iru "There's a cat", Ii kangae-ga nai " haven't got a good idea". Note that the negative forms of the verbs iru and aru are actually i-adjectives and inflect as such, e.g. Neko ga inakatta "There was no cat".
The verb "to do" (suru, polite form shimasu) is often used to make verbs from nouns (ryōri suru "to cook", benkyō suru "to study", etc.) and has been productive in creating modern slang words. Japanese also has a huge number of compound verbs to express concepts that are described in English using a verb and a preposition (e.g. tobidasu "to fly out, to flee," from tobu "to fly, to jump" + dasu "to put out, to emit").
There are three types of adjective (see also Japanese adjectives):
形容詞 keiyōshi, or i adjectives, which have a conjugating ending i (い) (such as あつい atsui "to be hot") which can become past (あつかった atsukatta "it was hot"), or negative (あつくない atsuku nai "it is not hot"). Note that nai is also an i adjective, which can become past (あつくなかった atsuku nakatta "it was not hot").
暑い日 atsui hi "a hot day".
形容動詞 keiyōdōshi, or na adjectives, which are followed by a form of the copula, usually na. For example hen (strange)
変なひと hen na hito "a strange person".
連体詞 rentaishi, also called true adjectives, such as ano "that"
あの山 ano yama "that mountain".
Both keiyōshi and keiyōdōshi may predicate sentences. For example,
ご飯が熱い。 Gohan-ga atsui. "The rice is hot."
彼は変だ。 Kare-wa hen da. "He's strange."
Both inflect, though they do not show the full range of conjugation found in true verbs. The rentaishi in Modern Japanese are few in number, and unlike the other words, are limited to directly modifying nouns. They never predicate sentences. Examples include ookina "big", kono "this", iwayuru "so-called" and taishita "amazing".
Both keiyōdōshi and keiyōshi form adverbs, by following with ni in the case of keiyōdōshi:
変になる hen ni naru "become strange",
and by changing i to ku in the case of keiyōshi:
熱くなる atsuku naru "become hot".
The grammatical function of nouns is indicated by postpositions, also called particles. These include for example:
が ga for the nominative case. Not necessarily a subject.
彼がやった。Kare ga yatta. "He did it."
に ni for the dative case.
田中さんにあげて下さい。 Tanaka-san ni agete kudasai "Please give it to Mr. Tanaka."
It is also used for the lative case, indicating a motion to a location.
日本 に行きたい。 Nihon ni ikitai "I want to go to Japan."
の no for the genitive case, or nominalizing phrases.
私のカメラ。 watashi no kamera "my camera"
スキーに行くのが好きです。 Sukī-ni iku no ga suki desu "(I) like going skiing."
を o for the accusative case. Not necessarily an object.
何を食べますか。 Nani o tabemasu ka? "What will (you) eat?"
は wa for the topic. It can co-exist with case markers above except no, and it overrides ga and o.
私はタイ料理がいいです。 Watashi wa tai-ryōri ga ii desu. "As for me, Thai food is good." The nominative marker ga after watashi is hidden under wa. (Note that English generally makes no distinction between sentence topic and subject.)
Note: The difference between wa and ga goes beyond the English distinction between sentence topic and subject. While wa indicates the topic, which the rest of the sentence describes or acts upon, it carries the implication that the subject indicated by wa is not unique, or may be part of a larger group.
Ikeda-san wa yonjū-ni sai da. "As for Mr. Ikeda, he is forty-two years old." Others in the group may also be of that age.
Absence of wa often means the subject is the focus of the sentence.
Ikeda-san ga yonjū-ni sai da. "It is Mr. Ikeda who is forty-two years old." This is a reply to an implicit or explicit question who in this group is forty-two years old.
Verbs are conjugated to show tenses, of which there are two: past and present, or non-past, which is used for the present and the future. For verbs that represent an ongoing process, the -te iru form indicates a continuous (or progressive) tense. For others that represent a change of state, the -te iru form indicates a perfect tense. For example, kite iru means "He has come (and is still here)", but tabete iru means "He is eating".
Questions (both with an interrogative pronoun and yes/no questions) have the same structure as affirmative sentences, but with intonation rising at the end. In the formal register, the question particle -ka is added. For example, Ii desu (いいです。) "It is OK" becomes Ii desu-ka (いいですか？) "Is it OK?". In a more informal tone sometimes the particle -no (の) is added instead to show a personal interest of the speaker: Dōshite konai-no? "Why aren't (you) coming?". Some simple queries are formed simply by mentioning the topic with an interrogative intonation to call for the hearer's attention: Kore-wa? "(What about) this?"; Namae-wa? (名前は？) "(What's your) name?".
Negatives are formed by inflecting the verb. For example, Pan-o taberu (パンを食べる。) "I will eat bread" or "I eat bread" becomes Pan-o tabenai (パンを食べない。) "I will not eat bread" or "I do not eat bread".
The so-called -te verb form is used for a variety of purposes: either progressive or perfect aspect (see above); combining verbs in a temporal sequence (Asagohan-o tabete sugu dekakeru "I'll eat breakfast and leave at once"), simple commands, conditional statements and permissions (Dekakete-mo ii? "May I go out?"), etc.
The word da (plain), desu (polite) is the copula verb. It corresponds approximately to the English be, but often takes on other roles, including a marker for tense, when the verb is conjugated into its past form datta (plain), deshita (polite). This comes into use because only keiyōshi adjectives and verbs can carry tense in Japanese. Two additional common verbs are used to indicate existence ("there is") or, in some contexts, property: aru (negative nai) and iru (negative inai), for inanimate and animate things, respectively. For example, Neko ga iru "There's a cat", Ii kangae-ga nai " haven't got a good idea". Note that the negative forms of the verbs iru and aru are actually i-adjectives and inflect as such, e.g. Neko ga inakatta "There was no cat".
The verb "to do" (suru, polite form shimasu) is often used to make verbs from nouns (ryōri suru "to cook", benkyō suru "to study", etc.) and has been productive in creating modern slang words. Japanese also has a huge number of compound verbs to express concepts that are described in English using a verb and a preposition (e.g. tobidasu "to fly out, to flee," from tobu "to fly, to jump" + dasu "to put out, to emit").
There are three types of adjective (see also Japanese adjectives):
形容詞 keiyōshi, or i adjectives, which have a conjugating ending i (い) (such as あつい atsui "to be hot") which can become past (あつかった atsukatta "it was hot"), or negative (あつくない atsuku nai "it is not hot"). Note that nai is also an i adjective, which can become past (あつくなかった atsuku nakatta "it was not hot").
暑い日 atsui hi "a hot day".
形容動詞 keiyōdōshi, or na adjectives, which are followed by a form of the copula, usually na. For example hen (strange)
変なひと hen na hito "a strange person".
連体詞 rentaishi, also called true adjectives, such as ano "that"
あの山 ano yama "that mountain".
Both keiyōshi and keiyōdōshi may predicate sentences. For example,
ご飯が熱い。 Gohan-ga atsui. "The rice is hot."
彼は変だ。 Kare-wa hen da. "He's strange."
Both inflect, though they do not show the full range of conjugation found in true verbs. The rentaishi in Modern Japanese are few in number, and unlike the other words, are limited to directly modifying nouns. They never predicate sentences. Examples include ookina "big", kono "this", iwayuru "so-called" and taishita "amazing".
Both keiyōdōshi and keiyōshi form adverbs, by following with ni in the case of keiyōdōshi:
変になる hen ni naru "become strange",
and by changing i to ku in the case of keiyōshi:
熱くなる atsuku naru "become hot".
The grammatical function of nouns is indicated by postpositions, also called particles. These include for example:
が ga for the nominative case. Not necessarily a subject.
彼がやった。Kare ga yatta. "He did it."
に ni for the dative case.
田中さんにあげて下さい。 Tanaka-san ni agete kudasai "Please give it to Mr. Tanaka."
It is also used for the lative case, indicating a motion to a location.
日本 に行きたい。 Nihon ni ikitai "I want to go to Japan."
の no for the genitive case, or nominalizing phrases.
私のカメラ。 watashi no kamera "my camera"
スキーに行くのが好きです。 Sukī-ni iku no ga suki desu "(I) like going skiing."
を o for the accusative case. Not necessarily an object.
何を食べますか。 Nani o tabemasu ka? "What will (you) eat?"
は wa for the topic. It can co-exist with case markers above except no, and it overrides ga and o.
私はタイ料理がいいです。 Watashi wa tai-ryōri ga ii desu. "As for me, Thai food is good." The nominative marker ga after watashi is hidden under wa. (Note that English generally makes no distinction between sentence topic and subject.)
Note: The difference between wa and ga goes beyond the English distinction between sentence topic and subject. While wa indicates the topic, which the rest of the sentence describes or acts upon, it carries the implication that the subject indicated by wa is not unique, or may be part of a larger group.
Ikeda-san wa yonjū-ni sai da. "As for Mr. Ikeda, he is forty-two years old." Others in the group may also be of that age.
Absence of wa often means the subject is the focus of the sentence.
Ikeda-san ga yonjū-ni sai da. "It is Mr. Ikeda who is forty-two years old." This is a reply to an implicit or explicit question who in this group is forty-two years old.
Asking Questions
Asking Questions
Let's get right to the point and check out the basic way to ask a question in Japanese. Compare these two sentences:
"Kore wa juu desu." ("This is a gun")
"Kore wa juu desu ka?" ("Is this a gun?")
Notice the little "ka" at the end of the second one. That's a new particle, and it marks any sentence as a question. That's right, all you have to do to turn any sentence into a question is add "ka" to the end. Is that easy or what? Better yet, as I mentioned in lesson one, questions sound the same in Japanese as English--your voice goes up at the end of the sentence.
Although there are ways to ask questions with more complicated answers (which we'll get to), and all of them are marked as questions by sticking a good ol' "ka" on the end, simple yes or no questions are so easy to make it's not even funny. As in the example above, just take any statement and stick "ka" on the end. Bingo! Question city! A couple more examples using statement patterns from previous lessons:
"Kore wa uchuusen desu ka?" ("Is this a spaceship?")
"Sore wa boku no tamashi desu ka?" ("Is that my soul?")
"Anata wa Oni desu ka?" ("Are you an Ogre?")
"Tiima wa ningen desu ka?" ("Is Tima human?")
Again, in every one of those cases, the only difference between the statement and question is the "ka" on the end. Note that, as we studied in this kind of sentence before, the subject and noun in the middle can be just about anything and the form doesn't change, even though the English sentence might use "a" "an" or "the".
Yes and No
Ok, now for some answers. You probably already know how to say "yes" in Japanese ("hai"), and maybe even "no" ("iie"), but let's do a couple of full-sentence examples. Remember, by the way, that even though "iie" is spelled funny, it's pronounced with a long "eee" sound, and a short, clipped "eh" at the end: "ee-eh". Lotta vowels in there.
These conversations involve Mirai and Ryuu, whom you'll be seeing more of in future examples. Mirai and Ryuu are making hot dogs:
Mirai: "Kore wa masutaado desu ka?" ("Is this mustard?")
Ryuu: "Hai. Masutaado desu." ("Yes. It's mustard.")
Ryuu: "Sore wa kechappu desu ka?" ("Is that ketchup?")
Mirai: "Iie, kore wa chi desu. Atashi no chi desu." ("No, this is blood. My blood.")
Ryuu: "Daijoubu?!" ("Are you OK?!")
Mirai: "Un! Daijoubu!" ("Yep! I'm fine!")
It would be possible to just answer "Hai" or "Iie" in all three cases, but that would be a little blunt. In the first example, you can see that it's not necessary to repeat the subject when you answer, since it's clear what you're talking about.
In the second exchange, Mirai fell victim to a freak hot dog preparation accident and has something red on her shirt. The subject is repeated in the answer to show the difference between "kore" and "sore"; Ryuu used "sore" because he's talking about something on Mirai; Mirai used "kore" when she answered, since it was on her. In the second answer sentence there is no subject, though, and the subject could have been left off of both. (If you're wondering how to say "It's not ketchup.", you'll have to wait till lesson 4 for negatives.)
In the third section, Ryuu is making sure Mirai isn't bleeding to death. He uses "daijoubu", a very useful word meaning roughly "alright" or "OK". This illustrates the simplest and most abrupt (not polite, though) way to ask a question: leave off the subject and verb, and just blurt the important word in a way that sounds like a question. The answer, similarly, omits the subject and verb, which is informal but OK in the case of "daijoubu". "Un" (sounds like a short "ooh-n") is an informal "yes", similar to the English "yep" or "uh-huh".
Here's a more polite version of that last section, using complete sentences.
Polite Person 1: "Daijoubu desu ka?" ("Are you alright?")
Polite Person 2: "Hai. Daijoubu desu!" ("Yes. I'm fine!")
Since "Daijoubu desu." alone means "I'm OK.", adding "ka" of course makes it into a question. By the way, it's worth noting that Japanese people usually match the politeness level of an answer to the question, so "Daijoubu!" would be a more natural answer in the first case, and "Daijoubu desu." is more natural in the second.
Putting it all Together
Basic Question Forms:
"[Statement] ka?" ("Is [Statement]?"; "Is [Statement] [true]?")
"Kore wa [thing] desu ka?" ("Is this (a) [thing]?")
"[Thing 1] wa [thing 2] desu ka?" ("Is [thing 1] (a) [thing 2]?")
Yes and no:
"Hai" ("Yes")
"Iie" ("No")
Person 1: "[Thing 1] wa [thing 2] desu ka?" ("Is [thing 1] (a) [thing 2]?")
Person 2: "Hai. [thing 2] desu." ("Yes. It's (a) [thing 2].")
Let's try a relatively complicated version:
"Boku no okane wa anata no mono desu ka?"
Hint: this is from a previous lesson. Since "Boku no okane" means "my money", and "anata no mono" means "your thing", the whole sentence would mean... "Is my money yours?" Make sense? (A more natural translation would be "Does my money belong to you?" Here's a possible answer:
"Hai. Ore no mono desu."
As before, the subject is usually omitted in the answer, so our bully is saying "Yes. It's mine." Incidentally, there are hints in here as to who is speaking: since "boku" is used by men, but doesn't have a particularly masculine image, while "ore" does, you can sort of guess that the first guy is being intimidated by the more aggressive second.
Several more question sentences, mostly using statements from past lessons:
"Watashi wa baka desu ka?" ("Am I stupid?")
"Anata wa baka desu ka?" ("Are you stupid?")
"Anta, baka?" ("You stupid?")
"Omae wa Shinigami desu ka?" ("Are you the God of Death?")
"Anata wa atashi no tomodachi desu ka?" ("Are you my friend?")
"Airi wa boku no tomodachi desu ka?" ("Are you my friend, Airi?")
"Airi wa boku no tomodachi desu ka?" ("Is Airi my friend?")
This is all pretty straightforward. The first two sentences are versions of turning everybody's favorite word into a question. The third one is a very blunt way of asking the same question; "anta" is a reasonably impolite "you", and most of the sentence structure other than the question inflection has been left off.
In the last four sentences, we've got three different ways of asking similar questions. In number 4, since the subject is "omae", we can assume that the person asking isn't being particularly polite. In number 5, the speaker is a woman (see the "atashi?"), and is being reasonably polite.
In the 6th and 7th ones, the speaker is probably male ("boku"), and is talking about Airi. As was mentioned in a past lesson, from these sentences alone it's not clear whether Airi is being talked about, or whether she's being talked directly to--the English sentences are different, but in Japanese you can talk directly to someone using their name.
Split the Difference
Japanese adjectives are easy, because basically, they work exactly the same as English adjectives--you stick them in front of the word you want them to modify.
At this point, the trickiest thing to learn about adjectives in Japanese is that there are two different types of them: "na" adjectives and "i" adjectives (that's "i" as in "eee", not like the letter I, by the way). Let's pick a couple of each to play with:
i Adjectives na adjectives
ii (good) hen (weird)
karai (spicy) shizuka (quiet)
"Hen" is a word fans of Urusei Yatsura are probably familiar with, meaning "strange" or "weird".
The first thing you'll notice is that the i-adjectives all end in "i". Guess why they're called i-adjectives. The na-adjectives don't, however, end in "na"... yet. Check out these example sentences:
"Kore wa ii desu." ("This is good.")
"Kore wa ii katana desu." ("This is a good sword.")
"Kore wa hen desu." ("This is weird.")
"Kore wa hen na katana desu." ("This is a weird sword.")
Now it should make some sense. In the case of i-adjectives, they work exactly like adjectives in English--you can either plunk them right in the middle of a statement to describe something, or put them right before a noun to modify it.
Na-adjectives are just a wee bit trickier, in that when you want to modify a noun with them--but only then--you need to put a "na" between the adjective and the noun. Simple? I thought so.
What About Kono?
If you've been paying attention, you might remember the first set of adjectives from way back in Lesson 2, Part 3: "kono", "sono", "ano", and "dono". And you might also be assuming that they're na-adjectives, since none of them end in "i". Tragically, it's not quite that simple--that particular set of words is sort of a special case.
Thing is, they can't really be the object of a sentence--they can only be used to modify nouns. So really, they're more like mutant half-breed adjectives that only work in one particular situation, which is when they're stuck directly before a noun to identify it as "this whatever" instead of just any old whatever. Bottom line is, they're not either type, and you can't do a whole lot with them.
They can be combined with other adjectives to do all kinds of fun stuff, though. When you do that, the kono-type word always comes first.
"Kono karee wa karai desu." ("This curry is spicy.")
"Kono karai karee wa oishii desu." ("This spicy curry is tasty.")
"Sono karai karee wa abunai desu." ("That spicy curry is dangerous.")
See how you can stick "kono" and "karai" together with "karee" ("curry") to make the double-modifier "kono karai karee" ("this spicy curry"), just like in English? Piece of cake.
"Oishii" is a very common i-adjective meaning "tasty" or "delicious" (it's not terribly specific as to the level of mouth happiness). "Abunai", as many an anime fan knows, means "dangerous". It's an i-adjective, and a handy one, particularly when fighting giant robots or genetically engineered bees or things of that sort.
Random notes: Though the Japanese eat all sorts of curry, Japanese curry is light colored, mild in flavor (certainly not the tongue-scorchers popular in India or Thailand), and a popular home cookin' dish, especially among children. "Abunai!" can be yelled by itself (and frequently is) to mean something along the lines of "Look out!", although technically that's a shortened version of the sentence "Abunai desu!" meaning "It is dangerous!".
Is It?
Asking questions is way-easy--just like with everything else in Japanese, add a "ka" to a statement, and BINGO!, you've got a question.
"Kore wa karai desu." ("This is spicy.")
"Kore wa karai desu ka?" ("Is this spicy?")
No problem, right? Here's an example exchange:
Ryuu: "Kono karee wa karai desu ka?" ("Is this curry spicy?")
Mirai: "Hai. Karai desu." ("Yes. It's spicy.")
Ryuu: "Soo desu ka? Oishii desu ka?" ("Is that so? Is it good?")
Mirai: "Oishii desu yo!" ("It's tasty!")
Ryuu: "Karai desu ne. Karai. Karai! Kuchi no naka ga moeteru yo!" ("It is spicy, isn't it. Spicy. Spicy! My mouth is on fire!")
Other than that Mirai, like Lum, apparently has a high tolerance for spicy foods, what have we learned from this exchange? You can see that after the first sentence "Sono karee" gets left off because the subject is obvious.
More Vocabulary
Here's a table of more useful adjectives with their English meanings in parentheses:
i Adjectives na adjectives
akai (red) kirei (pretty)
aoi (blue) burei (rude)
urusai (noisy) iya (unpleasant)
hayai (fast)
atarashii (new)
yasui (cheap)
ookii (big)
First off, you probably noticed that two of the adjectives in the na column end in "i". This is not a mistake--just because an adjective ends in "i" doesn't necessarily make it an "i-adjective, so you've got to be a bit careful.
There are several useful words in there; "kirei" is very common and falls somewhere between "pretty" and "beautiful". "Burei" is most commonly heard in anime as an insult from royalty or other high-and-mighty folks expecting politeness. "Urusai" "iya" and are two particularly useful adjectives:
"Urusai" literally means "noisy". It is frequently used to imply, in a not particularly polite way, that you should make the source of the noise stop--basically "Be quiet." The blunt "Urusai!" is most common, meaning "Shut up!"
"Iya" is tremendously useful word with no good English equivalent. You'll frequently hear the sentence "Iya desu." (or the blunt form "Iya da."), which literally means "it is distasteful". However, in Japanese, the feel is much more like "I don't want to." or "I don't like that." or just "Gross!". If you want to be really blunt, you can just go with "Iya." which covers everything from "No." (as in, "I refuse because I find it unpleasant.") to "Eew!" That version is frequently screamed in anime by women about to be assaulted by something particularly repulsive.
If Only It Were That Simple
Remember back when I said Japanese adjectives were really simple? I was actually lying. The problem is, Japanese adjectives get conjugated--that means that, like making a verb past tense, you change the adjective some depending on the context of the sentence. It'd just be confusing to go into much detail at this point, but I'll go ahead and give one quick and useful example of how to make an i-adjective negative.
To make an i-adjective negative (and, therefore, the whole sentence negative), chop off the "i" at the end and replace it with a "kunai". Examples:
"Kore wa oishii desu." ("This is tasty.")
"Kore wa oishikunai desu." ("This is not tasty.")
There, that wasn't so painful, was it? We'll leave it at that for now.
Putting it all Together
Basic Adjective Patters:
"[Something] wa [adjective] desu." ("[Something] is [adjective].")
"Kore wa [i-adjective] [something] desu." ("This is a [adjective] [something].")
"Kore wa [na-adjective] na [something] desu." ("This is a [adjective] [something].")
Combining kono/sono/ano/dono and an adjective:
"Kono [i-adjective] [something] wa [something] desu." ("This [adjective] [something] is [something].")
"Sono [na-adjective] na [something] wa [something] desu." ("That [adjective] [something] is [something].")
"Dono [i-adjective] [something] desu ka?" ("Which [adjective] [something]?")
Making an i-adjective negative:
[base]i = Positive
[base]kunai = Negative
Example time:
"Kono aoi uchuusen wa watashi no desu."
Remember that "uchuusen" means "space ship". Can you figure the whole thing out without peeking? "This blue space ship is mine." Another one:
"Anata no atarashii kuruma wa kakkoii desu."
Again, "kuruma" is "car", and "kakkoii" is a handy adjective meaning "cool/good looking/impressive" -- cool is probably the closest English equivalent, since "kakkoii" is a heavily used word and covers a lot of ground in Japanese (you'll hear it all the time in anime if you listen). So, if you put it together, the sentence means "Your new car is cool."
This sentence also illustrates that if you combine "anata no" (or another possessive) and an adjective, the adjective always comes last. A final example sentence
"Omae wa hen na yatsu da."
This is a less polite sentence: "omae" is an impolite version of "you"; "yatsu" is a fairly crude word for person, roughly equivalent to saying "guy" or "dude" (though it technically applies to both males and females); "da", as you've seen used a few times already, is the blunt form of "desu", which is very common in informal Japanese. So, the sentence as a whole means "You're a weird dude."
More Sentences
Here's today's set of examples, mostly involving food:
"Watashi wa kirei desu." ("I am pretty.")
"Watashi wa karai desu." ("I am spicy.")
"Watashi wa karai karee desu." ("I am spicy curry.")
"Oishii karee wa karai desu." ("Good curry is spicy.")
"Kore wa oishii yo!" ("This is tasty!")
"Hen na yatsu." ("Weird guy.")
"Anata wa kirei desu." ("You are pretty.")
"Anata wa kirei na hito desu." ("You are a beautiful person.")
"Ii yo!" ("That's fine!")
The first three sentences, though weird, are all pretty straightforward. The fourth involves a two adjectives--one modifying the subject directly, and one describing it--pretty much the same as in English. Note that in this case it's more natural to say "good curry" in English rather than "tasty curry", but "oishii" is much more natural in Japanese than "ii" (basically, "ii" really means "good", as in the good guys, not "good [tasting]" or something like that).
Sentence 5 demonstrates an informal way of using adjectives--the full, polite sentence would be "Kore wa oishii desu yo!", but cutting the "desu" out is an easy way to make it casual.
Sentence number 6 is again rather blunt, in this case omitting both the subject and the verb.
Seven and eight are similar ways to say the same thing, since "hito" just means "person". In English it's natural to use "pretty" in one case and "beautiful" in the other, but although there is a stronger word for beautiful in Japanese ("utsukushii"), "kirei" works fine in both these cases.
Finally, number 9 is another informal sentence, and a very common one. Though it literally means "It's good." or "That's good.", it's a friendly way of agreeing that covers all sorts of ground in Japanese. Equivalent phrases in English, depending on the situation, would be "That's fine.", "Ok.", "No problem.", and "Sure."
Here, There, and Everywhere
Before we get going, let's learn a new set of those ko-so-a-do words to go with places:
"koko" = here (place where the speaker is)
"soko" = there (place where the listener is)
"asoko" = over there (place near neither the speaker or listener)
"doko" = where
These words follow the same pattern as all the other ko-so-a-do words, and have nice useful English equivalents.
Only one little issue: using them isn't quite so simple. You'd think that, since "desu" is used in sentences with meanings like "I am supremely cool.", that it can be used to say something like "I am here." But no, we're going to need a whole new "to be" verb for that. Enter "imasu".
Being There
Your first non-desu verb: "imasu". Check out this sentence:
"Watashi wa koko ni imasu." ("I am here.")
Woah, that's longer that you'd think. Breaking it down, we've got the subject at the beginning, marked by the trusty particle "wa", then the location where the existing is done in the middle, marked by the new (to you) particle "ni", and a verb at the end, "imasu".
"Imasu" is a general-purpose "to be" verb, meaning "am" or "is" as they relate to the existence of something. That is, "I am.", as opposed to "I am cool."--the first one declares existence, while the second one declares some property of the person. It's a subtle difference, but you'll get the hang of it.
With some color coding, we thus have:
Watashi wa koko ni imasu. = I am here.
The Knights Who Say "ni"
Convenient Monty Python reference aside, "ni" is a particle that shows up all over the place. It gets used a few ways, but for the most part marks a location or direction that applies to the verb in the sentence. It covers some of the same ground as "in" and "at" in English, but keep in mind that is also required in places where you're not used to seeing either.
"Watashi wa koko ni imasu." ("I am here.")
"Watashi wa uchuu ni imasu." ("I am in space.")
"Watashi wa gakkou ni imasu." ("I am at school.")
Gaahhh!
The first step in making this more confusing is a second new particle, "ga". In general terms, it's the same as "wa"--it marks the subject of a sentence. Sometimes they're interchangeable, but in certain sentences you just gotta have "ga", such as this one:
"Nyan-chan ga imasu!" ("It's a kitty!")
This is a simple sentence declaring (literally speaking) that a cat exists. This comes out more like pointing out the existence of a particular cat, hence the more accurate English meaning of "It's a kitty." "Nyan-chan", if you didn't guess, combines "nyan", the sound Japanese cats make, and the affectionate "chan", to get the baby-talk word for "cat".
So how come "ga" in this case? Sadly, when exactly to use "wa" and when to use "ga" is a tricky proposition (more than you even want to think about), but in this case it's because the emphasis is on the existence of the thing, rather than its location. For the time being, just remember that "ga" is the particle of choice when you're pointing out the existence (as opposed to location) of something.
Being There and Being There
Confusion time. There are actually two words to describe the existence of something: "arimasu", which is used only with inanimate objects like TNT, trees, and stars, and "imasu", which is used for living, active things, like people, kittens, and 15-foot sharp-clawed demons. For those wondering about robots, that's your call, depending in part how close to alive the robot is.
Examples make everything clearer:
Neko ga imasu." ("There is a cat.")
Omocha ga arimasu." ("There is a toy.")
Neko no omocha ga arimasu." ("There is a cat's toy.")
Kyodai na bakemono ga Toukyo ni imasu." ("There is a giant monster in Tokyo.")
Tokorode, bakudan ga anata no kuruma no naka ni arimasu." ("By the way, there is a bomb in your car.")
As you can see, cats and giant monsters are living things, and hence need "imasu". Also note the na-adjective in there--"kyodai" ("giant"), which is modifying "bakemono" ("monster").
The other three are all inanimate objects, so must be paired with "arimasu"; "omocha" ("toy"), "neko no omocha" ("cat's toy"--recognize the possessive "no"?), and "bakudan" ("bomb"). The last two sentences also include locations, "Toukyou" (the proper way to pronounce Tokyo) getting visited by a giant monster, and "anata no kuruma no naka", which involves both another possessive phrase, "your car" and the specific location "naka" ("inside"), which we won't get into in detail until a bit later.
Here's a short conversation that, when you skim over the stuff we haven't covered yet, involves both "imasu" and "arimasu":
Mirai: "Ashita paati ga arimasu." ("There will be a party tomorrow.")
Ken: "Dare ga kimasu ka?" ("Who will be there?")
Mirai: "Watashi no tomodachi. Kawaii onnanoko ga ippai imasu yo!" ("My friends. There will be a lot of cute girls!")
Ken: "Yatta!" ("Score!")
Focusing on what Mirai is saying, she first comments that a party (which is not a living thing despite appearances) will be existing, so "arimasu" is required. "Ashita" ("tomorrow") is tacked on to the beginning to identify the time more specifically.
Mirai then points out that among her friends exist many cute girls, who, being living creatures, require "imasu". "Onna no ko" (literally "woman child") means "girl" (in the same sense as in English, so it covers both kids and young women if you're not being technical), "ippai" is a useful word meaning "lots"/"a lot", and you'd better know "kawaii" by now. This is a subtly different use of "imasu"--it isn't just pointing out that Mirai has cute friends (in which case she would have said it differently, perhaps using something along the lines of "Watashi no tomodachi wa kawaii desu.", which you can figure out if you remember the previous lesson). Rather, within the group of her friends, specifically, many cute girls exist. We don't say it like that in English, of course, but that's the way it goes.
If you're wondering about Ken, in his question you will see a different verb, which we'll be covering in lesson 4, and in his final comment you'll see the popular phrase "yatta", an all purpose expression of success made famous by Chun Li of Street Fighter fame.
Putting it all Together
Existence of living things:
"Watashi wa koko ni imasu." ("I am here.")
"Watashi wa [location] ni imasu." ("I am (in/at) [location].")
"[Living thing] wa [location] ni imasu." ("[Living thing] is (in/at) [location].")
"[Living thing] ga imasu." ("There is (a) [living thing].")
Existence of inanimate objects:
"[Thing] wa [location] ni arimasu." ("[Thing] is (in/at) [location].")
"[Thing] ga arimasu." ("There is (a) [thing].")
Have a shot at this sentence:
"Anata no kuruma wa Roshia ni arimasu."
If you've forgotten, "kuruma" means "car", and you can probably figure "Roshia" out if you say it out loud--"Russia". This means, therefore, "Your car is in Russia."
Let's try one that's a little more challenging:
"Ore no hiru-gohan wa soko ni imasu."
"Hiru-gohan" is a new word meaning simply "lunch" (literally, "afternoon-meal"), and "ore" is a masculine term for "me". As a result, the sentence in English means "My lunch is right there." ...but did you catch the subtle hint? Notice that the word "imasu" is used instead of "arimasu". This would imply that lunch is still alive and kicking, so the speaker either is getting ready to turn that "imasu" into an "arimasu", or likes his food lively. Plus, since "soko" was used, it's even possible that the lunch in question is the person being spoken to.
More Sentences
Have a look at a few more existence-related sentences:
"
Kare wa atsui tokoro ni imasu." ("He is in a hot place.")
"Miyazaki Hayao wa Nihon ni imasu." ("Hayao Miyazaki is in Japan.")
"Watashi no boushi wa uchuu ni arimasu." ("My hat is in space.")
"Aho! Deguchi wa koko ni aru yo!" ("Moron! The exit is right here!")
Only a few new words in here; in number 1, "jigoku" of course means "hell". Number 2 involves an i-adjective, "atsui" ("hot") modifying "tokoro" ("place"). Number 3 uses today's pattern to describe the location of the famous animator. Number four describes a rather odd situation, but if you know that "boushi" means "hat", should be easy enough to figure out.
The final sentence is a bit more complicated, involving both an insult, the word "deguchi" ("exit"), and the plain form of "arimasu", "aru". We'll go into plain forms in more detail eventually, but suffice it to say that if you're being blunt, very informal, or insulting, using the plain form is very common. The "yo" is, as usual, just for added emphasis
A-Z
A
** Spoiler Alert!!! click to hide or show**
1.a bit earlier-moo sukoshi hayaku
2.a bit later-moo sukoshi osoku
3.a cup of...-o ippai
4.a few-sukoshi
5.a little-sukoshi
6.a lot-takusan
7.a.m.-gozen
8.about-kurai
10.abroad-kaigai
11.accept:do you accept...?-...o tsukae masu ka
12.accessories-zakka
13.accident-kootsuu jiko
14.accidentally-machigatte
15.accompaniments-tsuke awase
16.actor/actress-haiyuu/joyuu
17.address-juusho
18.admission free-nyuujoo muryoo
19.advice-soodan
20.after(place)-no ato
21.after lunch-chuushoku go
22.afternoon-gogo
23.age-nenree
24.ago-mae ni
25.adult-otona
26.airport-kuukoo
27.almost-hotondo
28.alone-hitori
29.always-itsumo
30.ambulance-kyuukyuu sha
31.another-hoka no
32.animal-doobutsu
33.apartment-manshon
34.appointment-yoyaku
35.at least-saitee
2.a bit later-moo sukoshi osoku
3.a cup of...-o ippai
4.a few-sukoshi
5.a little-sukoshi
6.a lot-takusan
7.a.m.-gozen
8.about-kurai
10.abroad-kaigai
11.accept:do you accept...?-...o tsukae masu ka
12.accessories-zakka
13.accident-kootsuu jiko
14.accidentally-machigatte
15.accompaniments-tsuke awase
16.actor/actress-haiyuu/joyuu
17.address-juusho
18.admission free-nyuujoo muryoo
19.advice-soodan
20.after(place)-no ato
21.after lunch-chuushoku go
22.afternoon-gogo
23.age-nenree
24.ago-mae ni
25.adult-otona
26.airport-kuukoo
27.almost-hotondo
28.alone-hitori
29.always-itsumo
30.ambulance-kyuukyuu sha
31.another-hoka no
32.animal-doobutsu
33.apartment-manshon
34.appointment-yoyaku
35.at least-saitee
B
** Spoiler Alert!!! click to hide or show**
1.baby-aka-chan
2.back-ushiro
3.bad-warui
4.bag-baggu
5.baggage-nimotsu
6.bakery-pan-ya
7.ball-booru
8.ballet-baree
9.bandages-hootai
10.bank-ginkoo
11.basket-kago
12.bath-basu
13.bathroom-furoba
14.battery-denchi
15.beach-kaigan/biichi
16.beautiful-utsukushii
17.because-kara
18.because of...-no tame
19.bed-beddo
20.bedroom-shinshitsu
21.before-mae
22.before lunch-chuushoku mae
23.begin,to-hajimeru
24.belong:this belong to me
-kore wa watashi no desu
25.best-ichiban
26.best before-shoomi kigen
27.best:all the best-ganbatte
28.better-motto ii
29.bicycle-jitensha
30.big-ookii
31.bill(hotel)-kaikei
32.bill(restaurant)-o-kanjoo
33.bird-tori
34.birthday-tanjoobi
35.bitter-nigai
36.black-kuro
37.blood-ketsueki
38.book-hon
39.boring-tsumaranai
40.bookshop-hon-ya
41.boy-otoko no ko
42.bread-pan
43.breakdown-koshoo
44.breakfast-chooshoku
45.breathe,to-iki o suru
46.bridge-hashi
47.broken-kossetsu
48.brother(older)-ani
49.burn-yakedo
50.bus-basu
2.back-ushiro
3.bad-warui
4.bag-baggu
5.baggage-nimotsu
6.bakery-pan-ya
7.ball-booru
8.ballet-baree
9.bandages-hootai
10.bank-ginkoo
11.basket-kago
12.bath-basu
13.bathroom-furoba
14.battery-denchi
15.beach-kaigan/biichi
16.beautiful-utsukushii
17.because-kara
18.because of...-no tame
19.bed-beddo
20.bedroom-shinshitsu
21.before-mae
22.before lunch-chuushoku mae
23.begin,to-hajimeru
24.belong:this belong to me
-kore wa watashi no desu
25.best-ichiban
26.best before-shoomi kigen
27.best:all the best-ganbatte
28.better-motto ii
29.bicycle-jitensha
30.big-ookii
31.bill(hotel)-kaikei
32.bill(restaurant)-o-kanjoo
33.bird-tori
34.birthday-tanjoobi
35.bitter-nigai
36.black-kuro
37.blood-ketsueki
38.book-hon
39.boring-tsumaranai
40.bookshop-hon-ya
41.boy-otoko no ko
42.bread-pan
43.breakdown-koshoo
44.breakfast-chooshoku
45.breathe,to-iki o suru
46.bridge-hashi
47.broken-kossetsu
48.brother(older)-ani
49.burn-yakedo
50.bus-basu
Greetings/Apologies
** Spoiler Alert!!! click to hide or show**
1.Hello/Hi -Kon-nichi-wa
2.Good morning/Good afternoon -ohayoo gozaimasu(u)/kon-nichi-wa
3.Good evening -Konban wa
4.Good night -oyasumi nasai
5.Goodbye -sayoonara
6.Excuse me!(getting attention) -sumimasen
7.Excuse me!(may I get past) -shitsuree shimas(u)
8.Don't mention it -ki ni shinai de kudasai
9.Never mind -daijoobu des(u)
2.Good morning/Good afternoon -ohayoo gozaimasu(u)/kon-nichi-wa
3.Good evening -Konban wa
4.Good night -oyasumi nasai
5.Goodbye -sayoonara
6.Excuse me!(getting attention) -sumimasen
7.Excuse me!(may I get past) -shitsuree shimas(u)
8.Don't mention it -ki ni shinai de kudasai
9.Never mind -daijoobu des(u)
Communication Difficulties
** Spoiler Alert!!! click to hide or show**
1.Do you speak Englist? -eego ga dekimasu ka
2.Could you speak slowly? -yukkuri itte kudasai
3.Could you repeat that? -moo ichido itte kudasai
4.What is that? -nan des(u)ka
5.I understand -wakari mashita
6.I don't understand. -wakari masen
7.Do you understand? -wakari masu ka
2.Could you speak slowly? -yukkuri itte kudasai
3.Could you repeat that? -moo ichido itte kudasai
4.What is that? -nan des(u)ka
5.I understand -wakari mashita
6.I don't understand. -wakari masen
7.Do you understand? -wakari masu ka
Where?
** Spoiler Alert!!! click to hide or show**
1.Where is it? -doko desu ka
2.Where are you going? -doko e ikun desuka
2.Where are you going? -doko e ikun desuka
When?
** Spoiler Alert!!! click to hide or show**
1.When does the train arrive? -ressha wa itsu kimasu ka
2Not yet -mada
3.Now -ima
4On weekdays -uiikudee ni
5.Soon -moosugu
2Not yet -mada
3.Now -ima
4On weekdays -uiikudee ni
5.Soon -moosugu
What sort of...?
** Spoiler Alert!!! click to hide or show**
1.I'd like something -mono o kudasai
2.It's -...desu
3.Beautiful/Ugly -utsukushii/minikui
4.Better/Worse -motto ii/motto warui
5.Big/Small -ookii/chiisai
6.Cheap/Expensive -yasui/takai
7.delicious/revolting -oishii/mazui
8.Clean/Dirty -kiree/kitanai
9.Dark/Light -kurai/akarui
10.Good/Bad -ii/warui
11.It'empty/Full -kara/ippai desu
12.It's open/shut -aite/shimatte imasu
13.It's pleasant.nice/unpleasant -kimochi ii,s(u)teki/kimochi warui des(u)
2.It's -...desu
3.Beautiful/Ugly -utsukushii/minikui
4.Better/Worse -motto ii/motto warui
5.Big/Small -ookii/chiisai
6.Cheap/Expensive -yasui/takai
7.delicious/revolting -oishii/mazui
8.Clean/Dirty -kiree/kitanai
9.Dark/Light -kurai/akarui
10.Good/Bad -ii/warui
11.It'empty/Full -kara/ippai desu
12.It's open/shut -aite/shimatte imasu
13.It's pleasant.nice/unpleasant -kimochi ii,s(u)teki/kimochi warui des(u)
How much/many
** Spoiler Alert!!! click to hide or show**
1.How much is that?-ikura desu ka
2.How many are there?-ik(u)tsu arimasu ka
3.none:There is none.-hitotsu mo arimasen
4.about 100 yen-hyaku-en kurai
5.a little-sukoshi
6.enough-juubun
7.few:a few of them-sore o sukoshi
8.nothing else:There are nothing else.-hoka niwa nani mo arimasen
2.How many are there?-ik(u)tsu arimasu ka
3.none:There is none.-hitotsu mo arimasen
4.about 100 yen-hyaku-en kurai
5.a little-sukoshi
6.enough-juubun
7.few:a few of them-sore o sukoshi
8.nothing else:There are nothing else.-hoka niwa nani mo arimasen
Who/Which?
** Spoiler Alert!!! click to hide or show**
1.Who's there?-dare desu ka
2.It's me!-watashi desu
3.someone-dareka
4.no one:there is no one.-daremo imasen
5.Which one do you want?-dochira ga ii desu ka
6.this one/that one-kore/sore
7.not that one:It's not that one.-sore dewa arimasen
8.something-nanika
9.nothing:there is nothing-nani mo arimasen
2.It's me!-watashi desu
3.someone-dareka
4.no one:there is no one.-daremo imasen
5.Which one do you want?-dochira ga ii desu ka
6.this one/that one-kore/sore
7.not that one:It's not that one.-sore dewa arimasen
8.something-nanika
9.nothing:there is nothing-nani mo arimasen
Whose?
** Spoiler Alert!!! click to hide or show**
1.Whose is that?-dareno desu ka
2.It's...-desu
3.mine/ours/yours-watashi no/watashi-tachi no/anata no
4.his/hers/theirs-kare no/kanojo no/karera no
5.my/our/your-watashi no/watashi-tachi no/anata no
2.It's...-desu
3.mine/ours/yours-watashi no/watashi-tachi no/anata no
4.his/hers/theirs-kare no/kanojo no/karera no
5.my/our/your-watashi no/watashi-tachi no/anata no
How?
** Spoiler Alert!!! click to hide or show**
1.How would you like to pay?-nani de o-shiharai ni narimasu ka
2.by credit card-(kurejitto)kaado de
3.cash-genkin de
4.How are you getting here?-nani de korare masu ka
2.by credit card-(kurejitto)kaado de
3.cash-genkin de
4.How are you getting here?-nani de korare masu ka
Finding a place to eat
** Spoiler Alert!!! click to hide or show**
1.Can you recommend a good restourant?-oishii resutoran o oshiete kudasai
2.Is there a...near here?-kono chikaku ni...wa arimasu ka
3.chinese restaurant-chuuka ryoori no mise
4.Fish restaurant-sakana ryoori no mise
5.Italian restaurant-itaria ryoori no mise
6.Are there any inexpensive restaurants around here?
-kono chikaku ni yasui resutoran wa arimasu ka
7.vegetarian restaurant-bejitarian no mise
8.Where can I find a...?-wa doko ni arimasu ka
9.cafe/restaurant-kissaten/resutoran
10.fast food restaurant-faasuto fuudo no mise
2.Is there a...near here?-kono chikaku ni...wa arimasu ka
3.chinese restaurant-chuuka ryoori no mise
4.Fish restaurant-sakana ryoori no mise
5.Italian restaurant-itaria ryoori no mise
6.Are there any inexpensive restaurants around here?
-kono chikaku ni yasui resutoran wa arimasu ka
7.vegetarian restaurant-bejitarian no mise
8.Where can I find a...?-wa doko ni arimasu ka
9.cafe/restaurant-kissaten/resutoran
10.fast food restaurant-faasuto fuudo no mise
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