Japanese Is Possible Lesson1to25
Japanese Is Possible Lesson1to25
Japanese Is Possible Lesson1to25
Lesson 1
Welcome!
Chances are that if you're looking at this page right now, you've thought at one
point in your life, "y'know, it would probably be fun to know Japanese, but
how?" Undoubtedly, it sure looks like a formidable task, what with all of of its
confusing-looking writing and its reputation for having a most unusual sentence
structure. Well have no fear. If you really want to learn Japanese, these lessons
can give you a push in the right direction. If you're not already convinced that it's
a good idea, here are:
Reason #1
Spoken by over 130 million people, Japanese is the among the top 10 languages
on Earth.
Reason #2
In the world of console video games/anime, it rises to 1st place. Most console
games (Playstation, Nintendo, Game Boy) are released nearly a year earlier than
they are in the USA, if they are released here at all.
Reason #3
Even today, Japanese voice actors tend to put more soul and realism into their
Anime roles than their American counterparts (not to anger any dub fans out
there). Wouldn't it be nice to have the best of both worlds? Good (Japanese)
voice acting without having to read your Anime!
Reason #4
There are a LOT of anime series (and video games) out there in Japanese only.
Some good titles too! It would be nice to be able to understand them.
Reason #5
Many of your family, friends, classmates and/or co-workers believe Japanese is
hard. Show them what you can do! They'll think you have special talent.
Actually, anyone can learn it if they want to, but people have a way of being
really impressed about somebody approaching the Japanese language. I say this
from experience.
Reason #6 "Speaks Japanese" looks great on a resume, no matter what your line
of work. Knowing any second language helps, but Japanese will have a greater
effect on an employer, since not many Americans know it. (which can't be said
for Spanish, for example)
Reason #7
Japan has the second largest economy in the world, so their language is very
relevant.
Reason #8
Japan has a fascinating culture, much of which is reflected in its language.
Reason #9
Japan controls both the video game and Anime industries.
This allows you to learn a language while enjoying an Anime or playing a video
game! What other language gives you such opportunities?
Reason #10
Japan has a lot great music. It's very enjoyable to listen to it, but to hear it and
actually know what's being said is an even better experience.
Ok, there was a bit of a trend in most of those reasons, but learning Japanese is a
great idea even if you're not a hardcore anime fan (as I personally am not).
This is the first in a long line of lessons that you will find here on Maktos. A
number of them were written years ago and are currently being revised, so you
will see those arriving bit by bit in the coming weeks. In the long term, I plan to
extend the lessons in this site beyond what has currently been written. So visit
often, updates are popping up all the time.
I will start at the very beginning, assuming that you know nothing about
Japanese right now. All you need is the desire to learn it, and I'll help with the
rest!
● Getting started
● Getting and staying motivated
● Getting the books you need
● Learning the spoken language
● Learning the written language (when the time comes)
● Learning Japanese on a tight budget
● Finding Japanese language resources on the vast Internet
● Getting free Japanese word processor software
● Getting a really good computer dictionary - for free
● Using many different resources, to make learning Japanese fun
● Finding things you can do - easily - to speed up the process
● Finding the best way for you learn
1. "Japanese is hard"
After much study and talking to several people, I must say that Japanese
is not "hard" or "complex", but "different". It's true that it is very
different from English or Spanish. However, the grammar, spelling, etc.
is very straightforward. Making sentences in the language, conversing,
etc. can occur very early on. The pronunciation is very close to Spanish,
although the accent is different.
Taking a class works for many people. I know it has helped me. I
certainly recommend taking a class if you have the oppotrunity in
addition to following this column. You DON'T have to take a class to
keep up with this column, though.
Join us in the next lesson, where we give you some useful resources for your
study of the Japanese language.
In learning Japanese (and this goes for almost any goal you set), the sooner you
can unlearn that "it's hard" the sooner you'll be able to make rapid progress. If
you've already taken my word for it and believe it, good for you.
At first, Japanese may sound very foreign to you, and your confidence may falter
at times. As you begin to listen to it and learn more about it, you will become
more comfortable with it. I speak from experience on this.
I strongly suggest that you "make friends" with the Japanese language. Don't
treat it as a monster you wish to tame, but rather approach it like a friend and an
ally, something you want to do, a fun hobby that you only approach when you
want to. Try to rekindle the love of learning that children have. Some of you still
have that love of learning, and that's great.
If you treat Japanese like a chore, it will be much harder to learn. Let's think of
Japanese study as something fun you will do alongside your favorite hobby -
anime, video games, music, or talking for that matter. You will get more
enjoyment out of any one of these.
There are many "resources" you can use in the study of Japanese, each giving
you practice in one or two particular areas. For example, listening to Japanese
music helps you in the following areas:
As this column progresses, I will point out the best ways to improve yourself in
each area.
Don't worry about what you don't know, but rather focus on what you do know.
Take it one step at a time. "Rome wasn't built in a day", as the saying goes. On
the other hand, it's very fun to look back at how far you've come in a week,
month, or year!
If you're not used to learning things on your own, don't worry. I'll help you out as
much as any teacher or professor. Also, the people in this site's forum are always
eager to help people with any questions they have. Remember that even in a
classroom environment, it's still up to you to learn. If you don't apply yourself in
a class, you fail to learn anything. Conversely, if you study outside of class, and
do your homework, you will end up with an A. Why not just study on your own
to begin with? As long as you have the materials and the guidance, you should be
able to make impressive progress.
There will be more specific tips as the lessons progress. For instance, when
studying word lists, early morning is the best time. That is because your brain,
like wet cement, is VERY receptive to new information at that time. Have you
ever awakened to a horrible song on your alarm clock radio, and then tried to get
it out of your head? It's almost impossible. This works to your advantage when
you are trying to memorize something. If you set aside at least 5 or 10 minutes in
the morning, you will notice the difference. Studies have found that school kids
do better in their 1st hour classes for the same reason.
Unless you watch a lot of subtitled anime, you probably aren't very familiar with
Japanese, and it probably sounds foreign to you. When you hear it, your instinct
is to ignore it as a "foreign" language. You must try to think of Japanese dialog
as simply, "words I don't know yet". In other words, you must believe that
"Japanese is Possible".
You may think you have very little time, but you might be surprised how much
time you can scrape together. Important parts of learning Japanese, such as
"Word Lists" can be done anytime, anywhere. You only need 10 seconds in a
row to look at a list and study some words! Other things can be done at the same
time as other things. You can listen to Japanese music or Anime while surfing
the Web, for example.
Start thinking about how you could manage your time better, to give yourself
some time each day to study. Not much time is required - just enough to look at a
word list a few times, read part of a "Learn Japanese" book, or watch a subtitled
Anime. (That part won't take too much discipline!)
The idea is to do a little bit every day. We've all heard the fable of "The Tortoise
and the Hare". Indeed, when learning a language, "Slow and steady wins the
race".
A professor walks into the room carrying an empty 10-gallon water jug and
dragging an obviously heavy bag. He places them on the teacher's desk. Without
a word, he begins placing white rocks, just big enough to fit through the mouth
of the jug, into the jug until they reach the very top. "Is it full?" he asks. The
class nods.
"Maybe not," he says. He then stuffs tiny pebbles into the jug and the pebbles
find their way through the cracks in the rock. "Full now?" he asks. The whole
class nods.
He then shovels sand into the jug, occasionally shaking the jug, and the tiny
grains sift through the rocks and pebbles. "OK," he says, "now is it full?" The
class nods in unison.
He smiles. He then slowly pours water into the jug until a water glass is finally
empty.
"The lesson here," he says, "is that there is always more room in our lives than
we think there is. When you think you're out of time, there is still more available
if you look for it."
So the moral is, whether Japanese is a rock or the water, there's always space for
even a little bit of it in your day, as long as you're ready to do it when the
opportunity comes.
Whether you are an anime fan or not, it can be a serious help for your study of
Japanese, especially if you don't have any other resource for listening to Japanese
dialogue. Anime DVDs are great because they almost always have the Japanese
speech available. If you don't have a DVD player, you might be able to rent
subtitled anime on tape and you can definitely buy it. Chances are slim that you
won't find anything that you don't enjoy at least a little bit, so give it a try, it's a
very useful method.
For instance, you can pause the tape or DVD and look up a word you don't know
in a Japanese dictionary. You can then write the word on a list so you can learn
it! If it was used in an Anime, it's probably a good word to learn. On the other
hand, writing down random words from a Japanese dictionary is a horribly
inefficient way of building a vocabulary. (Don't laugh...many people have tried
it!) I will focus on vocabulary building again in lesson four
If you don't know where to start with anime buying, here are some tips. You can
get Anime at Best Buy, Media Play, and other like stores. Also check small
hobby shops. If you happen to live in the vicinity of a Yaohan (Japanese mall-
like place) you should definitely stop by and see what they have there! If you
don't have a store that sells Anime in your vicinity, you can always turn to the
Internet. We don't have any links right now, but we may soon.
Remember, it's up to you to work on learning Japanese. I can guide you, but I
can't force you to learn.
Vowel Sounds
The vowel sounds in Japanese are as follows:
A as in "father"
E as in "seven eleven"
I as in "Easter treat"
O as in "open, Pope"
U as in "fruity moogle"
You'll notice that the vowels are pronounced the similarly to Spanish, Italian, and
Latin (and several other European languages)
kaeru
The vowels 'i' and 'u' are weak vowels. That means that many times they are not
pronounced. The most important example is:
However, don't just go around dropping u's and i's. People will have no idea
what you're saying.
Consonant sounds are generally pronounced the same way as in English, but
there are a few differences:
R - Prounounced like a combination of 'L' and 'D', with a bit of 'R' mixed in. It's
pretty close to how the R is pronounced in Spanish. (It isn't "trilled", however) In
Spanish, an R sounds a lot like a 'D'. Consider this: Say "lu." Notice how you
drag the tip of your tongue along the roof of your mouth. To say a Japanese R,
just briefly touch the tip to that spot at the moment you say the consonant, and
use a little more "punch" in your voice.
F - You can pronounce it like an F, but often it sounds more like an 'H'.
Japanese does have pitch inflections, and this is their substitute for accents. For
example, in English, we put stress on a certain part of a word to make it sound
right and this is marked by an apostrophe-like symbol in the dictionary.
In Japanese, they do not put stress on their words but raise the pitch of their
voices instead. In Chinese, there are patterns to move between five different
pitches to distinguish a word's meaning. In Japanese, there are only two pitches,
but the only real way to grasp where to raise the pitch of your voice is from
listening to Japanese speech and repeating it.
Some songs I would recommend to anyone are the Xenogears Creid songs.
Inspired by the famous Xenogears game for Playstation, these songs are eclectic
and beautiful! The lyrics are easy to understand in many of the songs, and the
songs are very unique. Some of the songs don't even have lyrics, but they're still
wonderful!
For links to great Japanese and Anime related MP3 sites, scroll to the end of this
column.
Subject
The person or thing that performs the action of the sentence's verb.
Example:
The man jumped through the frog.
"man" would be the subject of the sentence, since he is the one who jumped.
Adjective
A word used to describe a person, place, or thing
Example:
The man jumped through the holographic frog.
Adverb
A word used to modify a verb
Example:
The man quickly jumped through the frog.
"quickly" is the adverb, since it describes how he jumped. Jump is the verb, so
any word describing how he jumped would be an adverb.
Direct Object
Is the entity on which the verb is performed
Example:
The woman ate the apple.
Now figuring out the direct object is straighforward - simply ask the question,
"She ate WHAT?"
The question would be answered, "the apple". So "apple" would be the direct
object.
If you've watched Anime, you may have noticed that royalty (princesses, kings)
speak differently than most other characters. There are hundreds of examples,
including "Ayeka" from Tenchi Muyo.
In most Japanese language courses, the polite form is taught first. The instructors
reason that you can use the polite form anywhere (including with friends). The
plain form is only acceptable with friends and close family members.
However, the plain form is by far more common in songs, books, manga, anime
and on television. Since this website is somewhat focused around anime, and for
other good reasons, we will begin by teaching the plain form. Here are a number
of reasons.
1. Anime and video games tend to use the plain form, and that is where
most people will use their Japanese skills unless they go to Japan. Even
if you make Japanese friends in America, they will speak to you with the
plain form and will definitely not feel insulted if you do the same. I
personally have had conversations with Japanese teenagers, and they
have told me that I sound funny because I speak so politely (I learned
Japanese starting with the polite form and I consider myself a polite
person anyway, so that's why I use it.)
2. Once you've learned a lot of Japanese, and are making progress, it's no
problem to learn the polite form later.
3. For motivation, you need to hear what you're learning. It makes it more
"real" - it makes you realize you can actually understand some Anime if
you learn this word or phrase.
It's a big source of motivation to hear an Anime character say a phrase
you're trying to learn. If you focus on the polite form, you won't hear it
used much. It's been my experience that I learn "popular Anime" words
about 10 X faster than other more obscure words. Besides, to remember a
word 4 months later you have to use it (or hear it used).
4. Japanese people cut Americans some slack when it comes to speaking
Japanese. When a Japanese speaking American is encountered, the last
thing on their mind is "What form is he using?" They are often glad to
hear that you are learning Japanese, and you will often be complimented
if your vocabulary exceeds 10 words. Times have changed since feudal
Japan, where speaking rudely to a Samurai would cost you your life.
5. In the present tense, the plain form of verbs is the form that is printed in
dictionaries. This means that you can just pluck a word out of the
dictionary and throw it into a sentence with no conjugation.
The Internet
The independent Japanese student's best resource!
There are many webpages on the Internet devoted to the Japanese language, and
you can find help on just about every topic. Some examples of things I have seen
on webpages:
● Popular words
● Verb endings
● Pronunciation
● Java-based games and software
● Info on Kansai Ben dialect (and others)
● Making your Windows PC "Japanese friendly"
● Software to help you learn Katakana/Hiragana
● Software to help you learn Kanji
● Web-based Japanese-English dictionaries
If you want to find resources such as these, go to any search engine. Type a few
words like "Japanese study learn" followed by specific things you're looking for.
For example, if you're looking for software to drill you on the hiragana alphabet,
try:
Also remember to try more than one search engine. They all use different
databases. Try one of the "comprehensive" search engines that search all of them,
such as The Mother of All Search Engines.
Once you find a good site with a links page, follow the links and see what's out
there. You'll find some pages with even better links pages - follow those as well.
Search engines are a good start, but there is no substitute for links pages.
Here's something you can start playing with - a free Japanese word processor. It's
very small (about 4 MB) and is very advanced yet easy to use. It's called "NJStar
Japanese Word Processor 4.2" You can download it from NJStar's Website.
Once you download it, the next step is to download the latest version of the
EDICT Japanese-English dictionary (optional). You can find it at various FTP
sites, but it's rather hard to find. You can download the latest dictionary files right
here.
Another good word processor (the one I use), is JWPCE, available at this link:
JWPCE
I would also like to say something to the many students that visit the JIP forum in
seach of information. Although much of the information is helpful, some of it
may confuse and overwhelm beginners. There are many parts to learning a
language, and this column can only address them one at a time. In the meantime,
many people are offering their assistance, posting information to the forums.
Since there is no central organization or lesson plan among the various posters,
there are bound to be some things posted that are "too advanced" for some
students. When you see a post that you don't understand or feel you're not ready
for, don't worry. The subjects will all be covered in detail in future "Japanese is
POSSIBLE" columns. They will be explained so that everyone can understand
them.
To those who post in the forums, please understand that the posts ARE
appreciated. Since there are JIP readers far beyond the beginner stage, there needs
to be information for them as well. Also, the posts help me to design the course.
Internet Links!
I have one link right now. Hopefully, I'll add more later:
We'll have sentence structure, particles, and a whole lot more. You don't
want to miss it.
I will start by giving a literal translation to the example sentences that may look a
little strange. In order to avoid this as much as possible, I will incorporate
already taught concepts into translations, so they for the most part will not be
100% literal. In any case, a completely natural translation will always be
provided.
If you've seen Star Wars (and who hasn't), think back to the way Yoda spoke.
Japanese would sound a lot like that if you translated it literally.
Japanese is also a bit vague, or can seem that way. Japanese speakers tend to
have a bit of an aversion to redundancy, and if they see the opportunity to leave
something out of a sentence (say, a subject or a direct object), they will most
likely take it. In fact, Japanese pronouns actually have roots in meanings that are
unrelated to "I, you, he..." For example, two of their words for 'I' (there are
many)literally mean "personal" and "slave." As a result, Japanese will usually
avoid pronouns like the plague, and most often refer to other people by name,
even when talking directly to that person. Back to redundancy: I know I'm
getting a little ahead of myself, but I'll take you by the hand and guide you as
you look at this example:
Person A: Mise e iku ka.
Person B: Hai, iku.
Notice that there is no mention of 'you, I or there' because they aren't really
needed. To a Japanese person, it is perfectly natural to say (literally), "Yes, I go."
Particles
Note: these are by far not the only meanings for these particles, they
are only the most common usages. Other uses for these particles will
be discussed at a later time.
● wa marks the topic of a sentence. Very often this topic is the subject of
the sentence, but not always. It most closely resembles the phrase "as
for"
● ga marks the subject of a sentence and puts emphasis on it. It is very
confusing at first to distinguish between the uses of wa and ga since both
can label a subject, but they are very different sometimes and I will
strengthen this distinction as we go along
● no signifies that the item before it posesses the item after it. This
meaning can be broadened to the sense of attatching attributes to nouns.
● o marks the direct object of a sentence. It tells what or who receives the
action of the verb.
● e shows the direction or destination of a motion.
● ka shows that a sentence is a question. In English, questions can often be
very different from their corresponding statements, for example, "Does
he go to the store?" has a rather different word order from "He goes to
the store." In Japanese, this is usually not the case and a statement can be
changed to a question simply by tacking a ka onto the end.
To put it simply, after many of the words in a sentence, you have a particle
telling what the word "was" to that sentence.
After the word "Matt", the "wa" tells us that Matt is the topic of the sentence -
the sentence will be about Matt.
Let's add something to the sentence. Let's modify what kind of teacher he is:
Desu is the most often used word for "to be". In English, we have to conjugate
that verb to the following forms:
Japanese verbs are not conjugated for first, second or third person subjects or for
plural subjects. There is only one "person" as far as Japanese verbs are
concerned. Also, Japanese verbs do not distinguish between present and future
and as a result, the present-tense is often called the "non-past" form. Luckily for
us learners wading in "context," they do have a past tense:
Note: Desu is not actually a plain verb. This will be the one exception to my
policy of using plain verbs, because I think that even in plain speech, one should
use desu, not its plain form. However, since you will encounter the plain version
da in various reading and visual material, I will teach its forms, but I do not
recommend using it.
Desu doesn't conjugate like most other verbs, but luckily, there are very few
irregular verbs in Japanese, somewhere on the order of 3 to 20, depending on
how you look at it. The other hundreds of verbs follow a strict, logical pattern
that is easy to follow!
English - Japanese
------------------
is - desu
are - desu
was - deshita
were - deshita
will be - desu
Interrogatives:
doko - where
nani - what
dare - who
ikutsu - how many
Nouns:
ai - love
heya - room
hon - book
hito - person
inu - dog
kami - god
neko - cat
Verbs:
aruku - to walk
hanasu - to speak
hashiru - to run
korosu - to kill
miru - to see, to watch
taberu - to eat
Pronouns:
watashi - I
anata - you
kare - he
kanojo - she
watashitachi - we
anatatachi/anatagata - you (plural)
karetachi/karera - them (when referring to a group that includes males)
kanojotachi/kanojora - them (for an all-female group)
Note: As I stated earlier, Japanese pronouns are far less common in polite speech
than their English counterparts. Also note that these pronouns can be made plural
by adding -tachi, but where others exist (above), the other ones are more
common.
Adjectives:
akai - red
aoi - blue
kuroi - black
shiroi - white
osoi - slow
hayai - fast
Flashcards
Take some index cards (cut in half if you like) and write the Japanese word on
one side, and the English meaning on the other. Look at the flashcards when you
get time. You can practice in two different ways -
- Look at the Japanese word and try to guess the English meaning
- Look at the English meaning and try to guess the Japanese word
Lists and flashcards are an effective method of learning words for most people.
Some people learn visually, others have to hear something in order to learn it.
You can adapt a technique (like flashcards, for example) to fit your personal
learning style.
If you're a visual learner, you have to see something to learn it. If you fall into
this category, no use wasting time with oral vocabulary drills. Learning things by
sound isn't your strong suit, so you should take advantage of your visual
strengths. LOOK at your flashcards. Picture the words in your head.
If you have to hear something before you learn it, read the flashcards aloud. (or
have someone else read them, if you have a study partner)
Tips to get the most out of your study time!
(These apply to flash cards as well as word lists - however for the sake of
simplicity I am going to use word lists as an example)
Many words have more than one English meaning - pick ONE!
Don't write down too many meanings at once. The more meanings you have
written down on your list, the more memorizing work you have, and you don't
need that right now. Try to pick one or two English meanings per word. If there
are many synonyms, get rid of all but one.
Example:
BAD:
sugoi - awful, incredible, amazing, cool, unbelievable
GOOD:
sugoi - amazing, cool
If there are other meanings associated with the word, add the word to your list
again later (with one of the other meanings).
Study often
You don't have to spend more than a few minutes, but look at your list around 10
times a day. You should be able to make a big dent in a 20 word list in a 24-hour
period. If you're still in high school, you should have plenty of time, either
between classes or even during class if the teacher gives you some free time or
there's a lull in the action. Of course, in college, there are long periods of
"downtime" so you should have no trouble finding a moment to glance at a list,
but more and more colleges are offering Japanese as a foreign language, so if
you have the chance, take it.
Reviewing is important
Don't be concerned if you can't remember half of the words after a week or two.
You may be thinking, "but I knew them a week ago!". That is because they were
only in your short-term memory. However, when you learn them a second time,
it will be easier. The third time will be even easier yet. Keep learning the word,
and your brain will get the message. Eventually, your brain says, "Ok Ok...have
some storage space in long term memory if the word is so important to you!".
NEVER try to learn two words at the same time that sound or look alike!
That is, tf they look or sound alike to YOU. It's way too challenging to learn 2
similar words at the same time. You will only be confused about the two words,
and will remain that way for months. You are better off picking one of the words
for now, and totally forgetting about the other at least for a couple weeks. Then
you should go back and put both of them on the same list at a later time, to make
sure that you know the difference. There are plenty of words to learn!
Using verbs
In the present tense, it's very easy to make simple sentences with Japanese
verbs. Why? Because in plain speech, they require no conjugation. In Japanese,
the predicate verb (the main verb of a sentence), will always be at the end of a
sentence, with the exception of particles that may follow it. Let's look at an
example (from now on, any vocabulary that you don't recognize and that has not
been explained in a previous lesson will be at the bottom of the lesson):
Ame ga furu.
[Rain sj precipitate.]
It's raining.
See? It's pretty simple at this point. You can see that I put "you" in a number of
the translations. The speaker could just have easily been referring anyone else,
depending on the context, but if you ask something like the above and you are
not talking about anybody in particular, the listener will assume that you are
referring to him or her.
Now that you know how to place a verb into a sentence, let's take it up a notch
with:
Conjugation
Conjugation wise, there are three types of Japanese verbs: ichidan verbs, godan
verbs, and irregular verbs. Ichidan means "one step" and verbs are put into this
category because they are conjugated rather easily. Other teaching methods refer
to them as ru verbs or vowel verbs. The title godan, meaning "five step" will be
explained later. Godan verbs are also known as "u" verbs or consonant verbs.
Let's start with ichidan verbs first, since they are the simplest.
Ichidan verbs
All ichidan end with either -eru or -iru. So if you see a verb with any ending
other than this, it's not an ichidan verb.
Like I said, ichidans are relatively easy to conjugate and all you have to do to
change a plain ichidan verb into the past tense, all you have to do is take the -ru
off the end and replace it with -ta.
Godan verbs
Godan verbs are not so easy, so I have them herded into some groups that
conjugate similarly.
You can see that godan verbs may also end in -ru. This means that you have to
learn whether any particular verb with -iru or -eru at the end is ichidan or godan.
I would say that there are more ichidan verbs ending in -eru than godan verbs,
and more godan verbs ending in -iru than ichidan. But there are a lot of both in
both groups.
To conjugate verbs that end in -u preceded by a vowel, -tsu or -ru , remove the
final syllable (the ending) and replace it with -tta:
matsu --> matta
hashiru --> hashitta
toru --> totta
kau --> katta
Verbs with -mu, -nu or bu conjugate by removing the ending and adding -nda:
yomu --> yonda (there aren't very many -mu verbs)
shinu --> shinda (this is the only -nu verb)
yobu --> yonda (this is the same as for yomu, gotta look at context for these)
tobu --> tonda
and finally,
You can use the past tense just as you would use the present tense. Simply put it
at the end of the sentence.
Uta o utatta.
[Song oj sang.]
[I] sang a song.
Nihongo o hanashita.
[Japanese oj spoke.]
[I] spoke Japanese.
Kuruma o oshita.
[Car oj pushed.]
[She] pushed the car.
Pronouns:
kore - this
sore - that
are - that over there
ame - rain
gohan - a meal, boiled rice
kuruma - car
mizu - water
nihongo - the Japanese language
okane - money
sora - sky
terebi - T.V.
uta - song
Adjectives:
atsui - hot
ii - good
samui - cold
warui - bad
Verbs:
erabu - to choose
furu - to precipitate, to fall (for rain, snow, etc.)
hashiru - to run (godan)
iku - to go
iru - to exist (for animate objects: people, large animals, etc.) (ichi)
isogu - to hurry
kau - to buy
kiku - to listen
kuru - to come
matsu - to wait
motsu - to have
nomu - to drink
oshieru - to teach (ichidan)
osu - to push
shinu - to die
suru - to do
tataku - to hit
tobu - to jump, to fly
toru - to take
utau - to sing
yobu - to call
yomu - to read
Study Tips
To get ready for your study of Japanese, I suggest getting a good book. You can
find some on my book recommendation page here: Book Recommendations.
Next Time
● Some more use with verbs
● How to use a few particles
● And, like always, more useful words
Particles Galore
● Particles
● "Koto"
● New Words
● ko-so-a-do words
Particles
Japanese uses several particles to give most of the words in a sentence a purpose.
Usually, many of the words in a sentence will be followed by a particle. Most are
one syllable, a few are two syllables, and a precious few are more than that.
The particle WA
This particle tells that the preceding word is the topic of the sentence. A good
way to translate it is as for.
People often confuse wa and ga, since usually ga marks the subject of a
sentence, but wa often does as well. One way to think about ga is that it
emphasizes the subject as in "this and not something else did..." Wa often
emphasizes the action or verb of the sentence. Take the following examples:
If you're interested in all the nuances, I'm sure there are several websites that
have in-depth info. Also, try searching Deja.com for newsgroup posts from about
1 or 2 years ago. There was a big discussion on sci.lang.japan about this very
topic. I would also strongly recommend Making Sense of Japanese by Jay
Rubin, listed on the book recommendation page.
Example:
The particle NO
No is often best translated as 'S (the 's in Bob's). It is known as the possessive
particle. You could also think of it as the preposition of in English, de in Spanish
or di in Italian.
You can see in the above example that a boy probably does not own the store.
Boy is just a characteristic of the store, i.e. it caters to young boys. Often, you
can express an attribute this way by using no after a common noun (such as boy,
book, tree, etc.).
The particle DE
De often follows the location where an action takes place. It could translate to
at, in, on, and probably another bunch of words in English, but the important
thing to remember is that it's an action that happens, it's not a state, as you'll see
below.
Examples:
but:
Nihon de sumu. <----Bad!
[Japan loc reside.]
I live in Japan.
It looks ok, right? But it isn't. Living isn't an active sort of action; it's just a
state of being that goes on for some span of time. Be wary of this.
Sushi o taberu.
Eat sushi.
If we add "koto", it allows us to use the phrase as the subject of a larger sentence.
If we place a koto noun phrase before ga dekiru, we get a nifty way of saying
"can do..."
Now, if you're really observant, you might be saying, "hey! that first sentence
has two subjects," or "why would 'sushi eating' be performing the action in the
second sentence?" Here's your answer. Dekiru literally is closer to "is doable"
than to "can do..." So the wa in the first sentence doesn't mark the subject at all;
it just shows which topic we're discussing ("I" in this case).
akai - red
chikai - near
mijikai - short (hair, etc)
nagai - long
oishii - tasty, delicious
takai - expensive
tooi - far
tsumetai - cold
yasui - inexpensive
Adverbs:
itsumo - always
yukkuri - slowly, leisurely
Interrogatives:
itsu - when
Nouns:
Verbs:
ko-so-a-do words
In Japanese, things are often quite organized. One example of this is the ko-so-a-
do concept. Japanese has a few sets of words with the same or similar endings,
and these four syllables switched in at the beginning. Note this pattern.
kore - this
sore - that
are - that over there
dore - which?
Just as a reminder, remember that for now you should pronounce all the vowels
in Japanese. There is no such thing as a silent 'E' in Japanese. So you would
pronounce 'kore' as KO RAY, but of course with a Japanese R, not an English
one.
Back to the topic, you can see from that set that ko- denotes something within
the grasp of the speaker, so- is for things a small distance from the speaker, a- is
for something far from the speaker, and do- makes interrogative words.
kore wa watashi no mono desu.
[this as for I 's thing is.]
This is mine.
These four words are known as demonstrative pronouns, and must precede either
a particle or desu. Another useful set of ko-so-a-do words are also demonstrative
pronouns, and end with no. Nouns can follow this set, which makes them rather
useful:
kono - this
sono - that
ano - that over there
dono - which
As a side note: technically, dono and dore are for asking questions for which
there are at least three possible responses, or in other words, there are at least
three items. There is a special way of asking when there are only two choices,
and though you'll probably get the point across using dono and dore, try to avoid
them in this case. And now for some advice:
● Grammar books - This will help you learn the particles, and how to
make sentences. The books usually have several example sentences, as
well as a fair bit of vocabulary for you to can. I highly suggest checking
out one of the textbooks on the book recommendation page.
● Anime- You will encounter countless real-world sentences which help
you immensely. The only obstacle here is trying to pull words and
sentences out of the sometimes speedy speech. Many people find
anime to be very interesting, so you will probably have an easier time
remembering the sentences. The same goes for Manga, if you can get
your hands on some that's transliterated into Roman letters (as opposed
to Japanese writing). If not, don't worry. I will address Japanese writing
in an upcoming lesson..
Next Time
● A step back for a moment
Wait a minute
● Basic espressions
● Nationality
● Two more particles: yo and ne
● Kara
● Some more useful words
● How are you doing so far?
Basic expressions
All of this time, you've been going along learning Japanese
vocabulary and grammar, but there's a chance that you don't
even know simple Japanese greetings yet (through no fault of
your own). So here they are, learn them well:
Not the shortest list in the world, but an important one. Learn
those expressions well as soon as you can.
Nationality
More on Particles
The particle NE
Examples:
The particle YO
Example:
Kara
Kara is a very important particle that literally means "from," but in
Japanese it can idiomatically mean "because." To use it this
way, just put it after a verb or adjective expressing the reason,
and express the consequence afterward. Kara is called a clause
particle because it follows a chunk of words that would otherwise
be a complete sentence. Note that the subject of the clause
must be followed with ga, not wa.
Examples:
Kono heya ga hiroi kara, ii desu ne.
[This room sj wide from, good is right?]
Since this room is large, it's nice, isn't it?
Pronouns
Nouns
bakemono - monster
obake - ghost
sakana - fish
chi - blood
ningen - human
Adjectives
Verbs
Miscellaneous
kyou - today
The learning curve is pretty steep at first - you learn tons of stuff
every day and every week. However, there are also periods
where you feel like you're not learning anything. Don't worry -
you'll get through those dry periods if you stick with it.
Each time you learn a new word or piece of grammar, there are
infinitely more sentences you can make (or understand!). Your
Japanese skills can increase every day, and become more
powerful by the week and by the month. As long as you keep
trying, you will become very proficient in several months' time.
You will be surprised what you can do if you only BELIEVE that
you can. Whenever you're learning something, the most
important thing is your mindset. If you believe you can do it, you
can. If you believe you can't, you probably won't.
● More particles
● Common phrases
● More popular words (surprised?)
● Intro to Japanese writing
Lesson 8
How to exist
In English and other languages, one uses a form of the verb "to
be" to indicate his or her present location. ("I am at the store.")
Anyone who has studied Spanish knows that the verb used to
indicate location (estar literally "to stay") is not the same as the
verb used to indicate a personal characteristic (ser). Japanese is
like this. (To tell you the truth, you can use desu to indicate
location in Japanese and not be wrong, but the method that I am
about to teach you is, I believe, a bit more grammatically correct.)
And you can expand from there. Notice that you need to use the
particle ni (at/in/on) after the location and before the verb.
A Note on GA
There is a lot of similarity between WA and GA, in that they both
have to do with the subject of the sentence. However, here is a
way to keep them straight.
Example Sentences
As you learn the various parts of Japanese grammar, you need
to reinforce the new things you learn by using them in sentences.
You should read many Japanese sentences that use the words
and grammar you learned. That way, you get a feel for what
Japanese sentences look like, and exactly how the different
grammar "items" come together.
omae o korosu
[you oj kill]
I will kill you.
asa - morning
chikara - power
jibun - yourself/oneself
kage - shadow
ki - energy, spirit
kokoro - heart
kotae - answer
minna - everyone
makoto - truth
pasokon - computer
tsukue - desk
Adjectives
hitsuyou - necessary
muri - hopeless, impossible
saigo - last, the end
ookii - big
chiisai - small
Verbs
noru - to ride
tekagen suru - to hold back
tasukeru - to rescue
tamesu - to test
mukau - to face, to head for
tomaru - to stop
kikoeru - to be heard
korosu - to kill tsukeru - to attach
Extra words
Common Phrases
omae no saigo da!
you ('s) end is!
It's the end of you!
kono mama
as it is now
sou desu yo
That's the way it is!
There are many words and phrases involving the word KI.
Some examples include:
ki ga suru - to decide
ki o tsukeru - to be careful ("attach some thought/energy to it")
tenki - weather (literally, "heaven's spirit/mood")
Writing in Japanese
It's come to that point in time. It's time for you to start learning the
eerie and mysterious Japanese writing systems. But the truth is,
there's really nothing mysterious (or eerie) about them, and I will
help you to understand them.
To write it, first draw the horizontal stroke across the top. Then,
draw the vertical stroke through that. Finally, draw the third
curved stroke, starting at the higher end and finishing in the
bottom right corner of the character.
That's all there is to it. Next week, I will try to display the
characters on your screen using Japanese encoding, but I will
continue with these .gif images for the rest of the lone vowels. If a
dialog pops up on your screen on the next lesson, asking
whether you want to install Japanese language support, tell it that
you do want to.
I don't believe you can leave out either part. Unless you're under
the age of 5, you can't learn Japanese just by watching Anime.
However, I don't think a teenager or adult can learn Japanese
well without immersing him/herself to a certain degree.
Next Time
● Adjectives as modifiers
● Example Sentences
● Review
● More Popular Words
● Two more vowels
Lesson 9
A look back
● Review
● Japanese is Logical
● Adjectives
● Da
● Example Sentences
● Popular Words
● Hiragana: i and u
Review
It's been 8 weeks since the first JIP column. What have you
learned since then? I hope you've learned a lot about Japanese
in the last 2 months. Now would be an excellent time to go back
and review the previous 8 lessons. You may catch something
that you overlooked the first time through.
Japanese is Logical
Learning Japanese, like most sports or activities, involves
repetition. You start out able to do almost nothing. You are very
unskilled at first, but you make yourself practice every day. After
working at it for a while, you discover that you are becoming
more and more capable.
tekubi - wrist
(te = hand, kubi = neck)
koinu - puppy
(ko = child or small, inu = dog)
tatsumaki - tornado
(tatsu = dragon, maki = wind [as in "roll up," not the weather type
of wind])
You know how English has about 100 different words for a group
of animals? (herd, flock, ostentation, murder, gaggle, etc) In
Japanese there is just one - "mure".
There are a great many words that are made from 2 "kanji", or
Chinese characters. Over time, you get used to how the different
kanji are read, and what their meanings are.
For example:
FU - un, not
AN - rest, ease, comfortable
SHIN - heart, feelings
The kanji are like building blocks, which are used to build
different words. It does help to learn some of the more popular
kanji. I don't recommend learning them right away, but after a
while you may want to start learning them.
Regarding adjectives
It's about time you started learning the details of adjectives. Up to
now, I haven't said much about them and it's already lesson 9.
So let's start from the beginning. There are two types of
adjectives, and learners of Japanese commonly call them na-
adjectives and i-adjectives, and you will soon see why. I
adjectives always end in the vowels -ai, -ii, -ui or -oi, never -ei or
a consonant followed by -i. There is no real rule about what a na-
adjective looks like, so they are everything else. Sometimes na-
adjectives, such as kirai, can look just like i-adjectives. From now
on, if there is a na-adjective that looks like an i-adjective, I will
explicitly mark it in the word list at the end of a lesson. There
aren't very many.
If you've been following the lessons well, chances are that you
already know pretty well how to use them as predicate adjectives
in the form:
This enables to to use a verb other than "to be" to say what the
subject did or does rather than what it is. To modify a noun with a
na-adjective, you must insert the word na between the adjective
and the noun.
Example Sentences
tsumetai mizu wa ichiban desu.
cold water is the best.
omae o korosu.
I'm going to kill you.
Popular Words
New words for this week:
[Adj] ii - good
[Adj] kirai - unlikable (na-adjective)
[Adj] kirei - pretty
[Adj] taisetsu - precious, important
Here are more 129 VERY popular words. Each word you
learn from this list will be extremely useful. Most of these
appeared in previous lessons.
[Noun] ai - love
[Noun] ame - rain
[Noun] asa - morning
[Noun] atama - head
[Noun] bakemono - monster
[Noun] boushi - hat
[Noun] chi - blood
[Noun] chikara - power
[Noun] densha - train
[Noun] heya - room
[Noun] hito - person
[Noun] hon - book
[Noun] inu - dog
[Noun] jibun - yourself
[Noun] jigoku - hell
[Noun] kage - shadow
[Noun] kami - god
[Noun] kami - hair
[Noun] ki - energy, spirit
[Noun] kokoro - heart
[Noun] kotae - answer
[Noun] kuchi - mouth
[Noun] kumo - cloud
[Noun] kuruma - car
[Noun] makoto - truth
[Noun] minna - everyone
[Noun] mise - store
[Noun] mono - thing
[Noun] neko - cat
[Noun] ningen - human
[Noun] obake - ghost
[Noun] okaasan - mother
[Noun] okane - money
[Noun] onna - woman
[Noun] otoko - man
[Noun] otousan - father
[Noun] pasokon - computer
[Noun] shoujo - girl
[Noun] shounen - boy
[Noun] sora - sky
[Noun] tabemono - food
[Noun] tatakai - (a) fight
[Noun] terebi - T.V.
[Noun] tomodachi - friend
[Noun] ude - arm
[Noun] uta - song
Hiragana
If you see garbled letters in the brackets [] below, you need to set
up your computer to read Japanese text. The Japanese encoding
page should be able to solve your problem. If it doesn't,
somebody in the JIP forum will surely help you out.
In this lesson, you will learn the hiragana characters for the
vowels i and u. In English the order of the vowels is "a, e, i, o, u,"
their order in the alphabet. In Japanese, it's "a, i, u, e, o," and this
is a little more significant than it is in English, as you will see
much later. Right now, here's what i and u look like:
Writing them is pretty simple. For i just draw the left stroke from
top to bottom, then the right stroke from top to bottom. For u, first
draw the top stroke from left to right, then the bottom stroke,
starting to the left and finishing below. I'm sure you've gathered a
pattern by now. For the most part, each stroke is drawn from top
to bottom, left to right, and in a character, the top-leftmost strokes
are drawn first, proceeding down to the bottom-right ones. When
a stroke slants down and to the left or curls around, you usually
start drawing from the higher tip and finish at the lower tip of the
stroke.
With these new characters, you can already write a few simple
words:
● More Grammar
● Common Phrases
● Two more hiragana
● More Popular Words
Lesson 10
Part 10
● The Role JIP Plays
● Be Creative
● Four Important Points
● The -te form
● Kana: e and o
Be Creative!
What's your subject of expertise? I'm sure you have some
interest or hobby where you really know your stuff. How did you
become that knowledgable? Did you get a lot of hands-on
experience? Did you learn about it because you were involved in
your hobby almost every day?
The short-term goals help encourage you. You look behind you,
and see a series of goals you have reached. You feel like you're
making forward progress, and it encourages you toward your
ultimate goal. It gives you the feeling of momentum. Remember,
momentum is important indeed when you run into an obstacle!
I've talked with many people about the topic of learning a second
language. Many people reached a decent level of proficiency at
Spanish or French in high school, only to become seriously
"rusty" years later. My own Spanish teacher once recounted an
anectdote about a boy to whom he had taught English. Years
later, he saw the boy in a store and said "ソJorge como est・" But
the boy could no longer speak Spanish, his own native language
because he hadn't used it. People always seem to give the same
reason - "I never used it after high school". Now, if you're in the
United States, there are really only 2 major languages widely
spoken - English and Spanish. The other languages are tossed
into the "other" category. Don't misunderstand me, I understand
that many other languages are spoken. However, it is challenging
to find places where other languages are spoken.
Don't be afraid to mess up. You need to practice, and you must
use your skills often if you want to make them a part of you.
That's why kids learn so quickly - they just dive in and don't worry
about how hard it's supposed to be. They don't worry about what
it sounds like to a native English speaker, or anything like that.
They don't set limits on how much they can learn each day.
If all else fails, try chatting with Japanese people on the Internet.
There are several places you can go:
● Wbs.net
● MSN chat rooms support Japanese text and there are
hundreds of Japanese rooms
You might want to check out the Japanese newsgroups, which all
begin with "japan" or "fj". There are hundreds of them. I'm sure
you'll find several Japanese people to chat with. Many will want
to practice their English with you! Often you will talk in Japanese
to them, and they'll talk English to you. Other times, you both talk
Japanese. It depends on the person! Japanese people are very
forgiving when it comes to Americans speaking their language. In
America, we make fun of people that can't speak English
perfectly. However, Japanese people are not that rude. On the
contrary, they consider English to be "exotic" and "cool". They all
have taken it in high school, but few become proficient enough to
speak it.
Without going too deep into the topic of how kids learn, (a very
fascinating topic that I could talk about all day) I will just say one
thing. You want to TRY to be as childlike as possible when
learning a language. Yes, your brain isn't as "absorbent" as it
was at the age of 5, but look at the bright side! You would have a
much harder time if you waited until age 60 to start! Try to
rekindle the love of learning that all kids have.
The concepts of "hard" and "easy" are all in your mind. For
example, just look at the home PC. Modern computers are pretty
easy to learn how to use nowadays. However, many older people
believe they're "hard". If they could somehow convince
themselves that computers are no big deal, they could learn them
with no problem. Sure enough, the older folks you see on PCs
have overcome that mental block. I know people as young as 45
that are afraid of PCs! The interesting thing is, it's the same PC
that 8 year olds use with ease. It has nothing to do with age
though - it has to do with frame of mind. Little kids no reason to
fear a PC. No one told them computers were "hard" before they
first used one.
Irregular:
iku -> itta -> itte(to go) kuru -> kita -> kite
Notice that these irregular verbs are irregular with respect to the
dictionary form, but changing them from the past to the -te form is
completely regular.
Kana
Today, we'll finish up with the lone vowels and learn the last two,
e and o. Remember, this is the last time that I will be providing
.gif images of the kana, so get the Japanese viewing on your
browsers straightened out. Here's e and o:
For e, first draw the stroke at the top, going from left to right, then
draw the next stroke, which looks almost like a seven. Finally, the
curved third stroke goes from the right of the second stroke to the
bottom right.
For o, start with the short horizontal stroke from left to right.
Follow with the long vertical stroke that crosses through the first.
Next draw the long curved stroke starting at the left, curving
around and finishing at the bottom. In the diagram you can see a
small diagonal line connecting the second and third strokes. You
can write this and use it to combine the second and third strokes
or leave it out and draw them separately, depending on your
preference. Finish with the short curved stroke from left to right.
● Particles
● Commonly Heard Phrases
● More Useful Words
Copyright ゥ2002 Maktos.com. All Rights Reserved.
Japanese is Possible!
Week 11
Part 11
● Particle List
● The Conditional "-ba"
● A Note on Adjectives
● Useful Words
● Example Sentences
● Commonly Heard Phrases
Particle List
Here is a more or less complete list of particles used in Japanese. Needless to
say, it's ok if you don't know how to use some of these. As you listen to
Japanese, and read hundreds of sentences, you'll get a feel for how they are used.
I put some "Conjunctions" in this list as well, because they are almost as popular
as actual "Particles".
-eba is used to say "if" something were to happen. You would use it in sentences
like:
taberu - taber
nusumu - nusum
korosu - koros
A Note on Adjectives
Just for quick review, an adjective modifies a noun (person, place, or thing). It
gives a sentence more flavor.
Normal Adjectives
In Japanese, most adjectives end in -i. This makes it easy to recognize a word as
an adjective. You can do some really cool things with these "normal" adjectives.
For instance, by adding different endings to "shiroi", you can say something
WAS white, WASN'T white, IS BECOMING white, etc.
kawaii - cute
kuroi - black
nagai - long
osoi - slow
samui - cold
shiroi - white
yasashii - gentle
To use these adjectives, you just plop down the adjective, then plop down a noun
after it.
Quasi Adjectives
This type of adjective MAY or MAY NOT end in -i. Some books name this
group "Quasi Adjectives". Even if it happens to end in -i, You can't do the "cool
things" that you can do with normal adjectives.
benri - convenient
genki - energetic, healthy
kirai - disliked, hated
suki - liked
When using a Quasi adjective, you have to use the particle NA.
After studying Japanese for a while, you'll find it's pretty easy to tell which
"type" an adjective is. To give you an example, let's take the -ku ending. Without
getting into too much detail, let's just say you add it to "normal" adjectives (after
dropping the final 'i').
Note:
I'll teach this ending some time in the next month. I just want to use it here to
illustrate a point.
You hear people say "shiroku", "kuroku", etc. all the time. However, when you
hear "kireku" it doesn't sound right, because you never heard it before. You
basically get a sense for whether it "sounds" right or not.
Useful Words
Nouns
Adjectives
kawaii - cute
yasashii - gentle
benri (na) - convenient
genki (na) - energetic, healthy
kirai (na) - disliked, hated
Verbs
Misc
sae - only
hodo - as much as
shikashi - however
Example Sentences
kore kurai ii desu yo
this (thereabouts) good is !
This much is good.
kou shite.
do it like this.
Good luck with your studying -- hang in there! If you have any questions, please
post them in the "Japanese Is POSSIBLE!" Forum. See you next week!
Part 12
● Types of Verbs
● Verb Endings
● Useful Words
● Example Sentences
● Anime Videos and Music
Types of Verbs
There are three groups of verbs in Japanese - Irregular, Ichidan, and Yodan.
Ichidan and Yodan verbs (all but TWO verbs) use the same verb endings, and
you conjugate them the same way. However, there is a subtle difference between
the two groups.
Irregular Verbs
I bet I scared you by telling you there was a whole GROUP of irregular verbs!
Actually, there are only two.
Ichidan Verbs
Verbs in this group end with -eru or -iru. Verbs from this group include:
deru - to go out
taberu - to eat
miru - to look, watch
ochiru - to fall
Yodan Verbs
This group contains every verb except for those that belong to the Irregular and
Ichidan groups. Here you find your familiar -RU, -TSU, -U, KU, -GU, -SU, -
BU, and -MU verbs.
au - to meet
tatsu - to stand
suwaru - to sit
hairu - to enter
There are some Yodan verbs that look a lot like Ichidan verbs. Be forewarned.
^_^ I would suggest copying this list down and putting it in a safe place. That
way, when there's a verb that you aren't sure about, you can refer to this list!
Some of these verbs don't belong in the "must learn" category, by the way.
As you listen to Japanese more and become more familiar with it, you'll develop
an ear for what "sounds" right.
Verb Endings
The basic verb endings (-ITA, -SHITA, -TTA, etc) have already been discussed.
However, I thought I'd share with you the way I memorized them.
You simply memorize these 4 sentences - they are quite mesmerizing after a
while! Then when you conjugate a verb, you just recite these sentences to
yourself. It's a lot like the "ABC" song, because people often use that to
remember the alphabet.
U TSU RU tta
MU NU BU nda
KU GU ita da
SU SHITA
By the way, have you noticed what all the verb endings have in common? "A"
seems to mean past tense, and "E" is the here and now.
Useful Words
Nouns
Verbs
au - to meet
tatsu - to stand
suwaru - to sit
hairu - to enter
niau - to suit, look good on
deru - to go out
taberu - to eat
miru - to look, watch
ochiru - to fall
hajimaru - to begin
Misc
Example Sentences
oneesan wa boku wo mite iru.
big sister (subject) I (who) looking
My big sister is watching me.
Note:
matte iru - is waiting
You can conjugate IRU like any other verb. -TA is the normal past ending for -
RU verbs. Conjugating IRU in this way changes the meaning from "is waiting"
to "was waiting". Isn't that going to come in handy!
Note:
deru na - don't go out
The "na" ending can be added to any verb to mean don't ____.
It's very abrupt, and only a male would ever use it.
If you want tons of other Anime videos like this, you can stop by:
Part 13
● Negative Form - NAI
● Double Negatives
● Ja Nai
● Contractions
● Example Sentences
● Very Popular Words
You would use the negative verb ending, -nai. Before you can add the -nai, you
have to get the right verb "stem" to add it to.
In the last lesson, you learned that there are 2 main categories of verbs -- Ichidan
and Yodan.
Ichidan Verbs
Verbs in the Ichidan category (which end with -eru or -iru) are conjugated this
way:
taberu
tabe
Yodan Verbs
Remember that most verbs are in this category. Yodan verbs are conjugated this
way:
korosu
korosa
korosanai
Double Negatives
In Japanese, double negatives are ok (just like in Spanish). Not only they are OK,
but you're expected to use them.
Incorrect:
That wouldn't make any sense to a Japanese speaker. In English, the negatives
seem to cancel each other out.
niau ja nai?
to suit isn't it?
Doesn't it suit (look good on) me?
Contractions
Just like in English, there are cases where you can cut out a vowel to make a
word easier to say. Of course, doing so makes the word less formal, but in casual
speech you hear people doing it all the time. In this respect, Japanese has
something in common with English.
NDA, NDESU
NDA - NO DA
NDESU - NO DESU
You'll often hear someone use one of the above contractions. The four words
above (nda, no da, ndesu, no desu) have about the same meaning. Both nda and
ndesu are contractions - words with a letter intentionally left out so you can more
quickly say the word. We have several in English: Can't, Don't, and so on.
What does no da mean? It's about the same thing as da or desu, really.
Sometimes you can translate it 'it is that'. Chichiri from Fushigi Yuugi uses no
da at the end of all of his sentences (they did that to make Chichiri even more
unique). However, you can ignore the no and just treat it as a regular da.
Why say the no at all? It softens the sentence a bit. "How can a sentence be
soft?", you ask? Well, it makes it more gentle. That's why girls often end
sentences with no.
kore wa neko no da
This is a cat.
It's used all the time in Japanese, and often it's used with the conditional, -eba.
Example Sentences
ittai doko e iku tsumori?
in the world where (toward) to go intention?
Where in the world do you plan on going?
jishin - self-confidence
yappari - sure enough, after all
hen - strange
okama - gay person
hikari - light
kurayami - darkness
Copyright © 2001 Maktos.com. All Rights Reserved.
Japanese is Possible!
Week 14
Part 14
● How to Keep it Interesting
● Negative Adjectives
● Example Sentences
● Very Popular Words
● Learn vocabulary
● Learn grammar
● Practice making sentences
● Listen to Japanese music
● Read Japanese manga
You can also watch subtitled Anime, and try to pull out words and phrases that
you understand. The trick is to make sure you don't try to do the same thing
several days in a row. After a while, everything gets old. If you cycle through
several different activities however, none of them will get old.
For instance, if you only listened to 1 song for a week, you'd quickly grow tired
of it. If you had 3 songs, it would take considerably longer. They more songs you
have, the longer each song "lasts". Eventually, you reach a point where they
never really get old, because you have so many to listen to.
My advice:
Some days, focus on learning vocabulary. On other days, worry about grammar.
When possible, try to spend time finding good Japanese MP3s (or CDs) on the
net and listen to them. Sometimes when you're not in the mood to study, just
watch an Anime. It all helps, and adds up very slowly (but surely) to mastery of
Japanese.
If you're into Video Games, try looking up phrases you hear in the import games
you own. Many fighting games have a "victory phrase" which is usually a
commonly heard phrase.
Remember, Japanese is something you have to slowly beat into your head. It will
take a few years, but it CAN happen if you want it to.
Negative Adjectives
A couple lessons ago, we discussed the two different types of Adjectives. To
refresh your memory, they were called "normal" and "Quasi". It was mentioned
that the "normal" adjectives could have various endings tacked on to them, doing
some amazing things.
All you have to do is remove the -i from the adjective, and add -ku nai.
Examples:
yoi - good
yoku nai - not good
akai - red
akaku nai - not red
See what the -ku nai ending does for an adjective? It gives the adjective exactly
the opposite meaning it normally has.
This is a very important ending to know, as you might have guessed. Think about
how many times you need to say that something ISN'T necessary, ISN'T hot, etc.
Refer to the section below, "Example Sentences", for use of this ending.
Example Sentences
kanojo wa amari tsuyoku nai.
she (subject) too much strong not.
She isn't too strong.
Nouns
netsu - fever
bouken - adventure
kenshi - swordsman
madoushi - wizard
Adjectives
Verbs
nakusu - to lose
kirameku - to sparkle, glisten
Part 15
● The Let's Form
● What are you Let's Do ing?
● Example Sentences
● Very Popular Words
Let's go.
Let's do it!
Let's eat.
Let's go back now.
The ending for this form is -ou. All the verbs will end with those two letters.
(Sometimes you will see it spelled -oo, but it's the same thing when you write it
in the Japanese alphabet)
We will now demonstrate how to add the Let's ending to all three types of verbs.
Irregular Verbs
We'll start with the two irregular verbs:
These are irregular, and have no pattern. Luckily, there are only 2 of them in
Japanese! You'll just have to memorize these two. Luckily, they're both used a
lot -- it shouldn't take you long.
Ichidan Verbs
Then we'll move to the second most popular category, the Ichidan verbs. These
are the verbs that end in -eru or -iru. Remember, there are some Yodan verbs
that try to masquerade as Ichidan verbs. Since they end in -eru or -iru, you can
be fooled. A list of these verbs was given in Lesson 12.
Example:
miru - (to see)
First, remove the -ru from the dictionary form of the verb.
mi
Yodan Verbs
The rest of the verbs fit in this category.
Example:
asob
kore o tabeyou!
this (what) let's eat!
Let's eat this!
mou yameyou!
already let's quit!
Let's stop it already!
mamono o korosou!
monster (who) let's kill!
Let's kill the monster!
umi ni oyogou!
ocean (location) let's swim!
Let's swim in the ocean!
There isn't a lot to it. However, you can do more interesting things with this
form. For instance, if you combine it with the particle to, you can make some
very neat sentences.
I get a kick out of translating it that way, I don't know why! It is a valid
translation, although it isn't proper English.
Although we don't say "what are you let's eating", that IS an example of a normal
Japanese sentence. When you're making your own sentences, remember that you
can't just take an English sentence and replace the English words with Japanese
words.
Example Sentences
mou osoi kara, kaerou yo!
already late because, let's return !
It's late already, so let's return!
ippai - full of
mou - already
takusan - many
massugu - straight (ahead)
Nouns
ninjin - carrot
soba - nearby area
kazoku - family
hana - nose
kuchi - mouth
naka - center, inside
Adjectives
nigai - bitter
migi (no) - right
hidari (no) - left
Verbs
nageru - to throw
kekkon suru - to marry
Part 16
● Sentences are Important
● Example Sentences
● Words to Learn
When learning Japanese (or any language), it is very important to read 100's of
example sentences. This is so that you can get a feel for exactly how the words
and bits of grammar are put together. You then get a feel for how to make your
own sentences. Beleive it or not, it IS possible for an English speaker to get a
"feel" for whether or not a Japanese sentence sounds right. Just like English
speakers have an "ear" for good English, you will also acquire an "ear" for
Japanese. It will take a while, but it will happen for sure if you keep moving
toward that goal.
When you begin learning all the grammar, there are always a ton of questions in
the back (or front) of your mind:
You won't be able to answer those questions yourself until you become familiar
with Japanese . A lot of this type of knowledge can be acquired by reading tons
of actual Japanese sentences. Seeing the various words and grammar pieces used
together gives you an idea of how they are used. Many sentences have a lot in
common, which you come to realize.
Examples
X wa Y desu.
X is Y.
X wa Y ni iru.
X is in the Y.
X no Y ni wa Z ga aru.
There is a Z in X's Y.
If you replace the X's and Y's with actual nouns (or even names), the sentences
will become MUCH more interesting, and easy to remember:
They all have a 'NO' at the beginning, and they all have a verb in its -ing form.
This is what I mean by sentences being similar. Even though the sentences have
totally different topics, the structure of the sentence is identical. Some of you
may remember "diagramming" sentences in English class. That's basically what
I'm referring to here.
My friend is running.
Your big brother is hitting.
Her boyfriend is driving.
Example Sentences
kore wa ichiban daiji na mono da.
this (subject) number one important thing is.
This is the most important thing.
If 2 fighters met in a ring, and one of them pulled out a rubber duck and
squeezed it...the other fighter might say:
Darou is the let's form of DESU. It is used where something isn't set in stone. If
someone is guessing something to be true, or something is probably true, use
this.
Words to Learn
juu - gun
atarimae - natural, to be expected
shika - besides
ittai - "What in the world"
airashii - lovely
mane - imitation, farce
katsu - to win
saigo - end, last
Part 17
● Example Sentences
● New Words
● Words by Category
Example Sentences
ano imomushi wa chou ni naritai.
that caterpillar (subject) butterfly (into) wants to become
That caterpillar wants to become a butterfly.
New Words
ikiru - to live
yokatta - thank goodness
henshin suru - to transform
zannen - shame
tte - "...so he said", used to quote a person
totsuzen - all the sudden
Words by Category
I strongly recommend learning all of the words that you have seen in the
"Popular Words" section of JIP. If there are some that you haven't learned, I
suggest that you visit the archives, and add the "Popular Words" to your word
list. These words are used in just about every Anime and video game.
However, below you will find "categories" of words that are not HALF as
important. You can learn some of them if you want, but it's not critical that you
do. I suggest that you learn the words that you might need. I DON'T suggest
learning all of these words instead of more useful words.
Aquatic Animals
kame - turtle
iruka - dolphin
kingyou - goldfish
sakana - fish
same - shark
azarashi - seal
tako - octopus
kujira - whale
kurage - jellyfish
unagi - eel
hamaguri - clam
ika - squid
kani - crab
seiuchi - walrus
Insects
mushi - insect
hachi - bee
ka - mosquito
mimizu - earthworm
imomushi - caterpillar
chou - butterfly
kumo - spider
gokiburi - cockroach
hae - fly
ari - ant
inago - grasshopper
sasori - scorpion
namekuji - slug
hiru - leech
Part 18
● Adjectives - Past Tense
● Example Sentences
● Words by Category
If you wanted to say "The cat was white", you could say:
and you could get your point across. However, there is a better way to do it. It
also happens to be the form that Japanese speakers would use.
shiroi - shiroku
osoi - osoku
Remember, this only applies to normal adjectives (that end in -i) and not Quasi
adjectives. For a review on adjectives, please take a look at Week 11.
Example:
neko wa shirokatta.
cat (subject) was white
The cat was white.
osoi
osokatta
There's another place you can use this ending! Any time you have -nai, you can
change it to -nakatta to make it past tense.
dekinai - dekinakatta
can't do - couldn't do
Example Sentences
kimi wa osokatta zo!
you (subject) were slow !
You're late!
hayakatta yo!
(it) was fast !
That was quick!
Words by Category
I strongly recommend learning all of the words that you have seen in the
"Popular Words" section of JIP. If there are some that you haven't learned, I
suggest that you visit the archives, and add the "Popular Words" to your word
list. These words are used in just about every Anime and video game.
However, below you will find "categories" of words that are not HALF as
important. You can learn some of them if you want, but it's not critical that you
do. I suggest that you learn the words that you might need. I DON'T suggest
learning all of these words instead of more useful words.
hana - nose
me - eye
medama - eyeball
kuchi - mouth
mimi - ear
kuchibiru - lips
kubi - neck
atama - head
ke - hair
hidai - forehead
hou - cheek
kao - face
ha - tooth
In the Middle
hiji - elbow
ude - arm
te - hand
tekubi - wrist (kubi = neck)
yubi - finger
oyayubi - thumb (oya = parent)
naizou - internal organs
shinzou - heart
mune - chest
hara - stomach
kinniku - muscle
hone - bone
Colors
kuroi - black
kasshoku - brown
akai - red
enshoku - orange
kiiro - yellow
midori - green
aoi - blue
murasaki - purple
haiiro - grey
shiroi - white
momoiro - pink
makka - deep red
Copyright © 2001 Maktos.com. All Rights Reserved.
Japanese is Possible!
Week 19
Lyrics - Epitaph
This week we'll take a field trip to see Japanese in action. I will walk you
through an actual Japanese song, giving you a rough translation of what each
sentence means. I won't translate it into perfect English, since that wouldn't help
you understand the Japanese.
What song will we be using? We'll start with a song from the popular Anime
series "Weiss Kreuz". The song is called 'Epitaph', and there are 3 different
versions of the song. They aren't simple remixes like you might think! They all
have the exact same music. For each song, a different character from Weiss
Kreuz sings the lyrics.
To download full episodes of Weiss Kreuz, visit Maktos.com. They are found in
the Media section.
Epitaph Words
Most of these words are used in Anime, so you should learn most of them. I'll
admit that not ALL of them are popular, but it should be easy to learn them if
you learn the song.
Lyrics Walkthrough
aozameta yoake no naka de
paled dawn 's inside (restricting ourselves to)
hito wa minna
people (subject) all
akumu ni yotte
intoxicated by nightmares
shizuka ni nemutta
quietly slept
anata no kizuato
you 's scar
sekihi ni kizanda
epitaph (into) inscribed
kotoba wo nando mo
words (who or what) often
kurikaesu uta ga
repeats song (subject)
hoshi ni nari
star (into) becoming
waraiaeru hi wo
smile-meet day (answers who, what)
torimodoseru sa to tsubuyaku
force to take back (emphasis) (and) murmurs
namida ga afurete
tears (subject) flow
tomerarenai mama
won't be stopped as it is
hoshi ni nari
star (into) becoming
What you see above is the "first stage" of translation. If you only see the final
translation, you won't learn as much about what the song really means. You have
to learn to understand Japanese at this level. They don't use our grammar, so why
translate every sentence into proper English? If you get the meaning of what
they're saying, that's all that matters.
You won't understand how I arrived at some of the lines in the translation. That
is ok, because there are some endings that you don't know yet. Don't worry, they
will all be covered in the coming weeks.
Feel free to clean up the English lyrics however you wish. You'll see what it's
like to be a translator. They have to decide what words to use. They have to
maintain a balance between making it sound good in English, and staying
faithful to the original meaning.
Here are some examples of how the following line could be translated:
You can get as creative (and/or inaccurate) as you want. Some translations really
take liberties (and end up with a different meaning than the original). An
example of this would be translations by Viz Video. (Especially the Ranma
songs)
Understanding Japanese and being able to translate Japanese into English are two
completely different skills. If you doubt it, remember that most native Japanese
speakers understand Japanese perfectly, but couldn't translate Japanese into
another language.
Copyright © 2001 Maktos.com. All Rights Reserved.
Japanese is Possible!
Week 20
Part 20
● Romanization
● The Particle E
● The Particle SHI
● -ku naru (to become something)
● Example Sentences
● Useful Words
Romanization
Romanization is turning Japanese characters into our alphabet, so an average
American can read them. Our alphabet is called the Roman alphabet. In Japan,
they call our alphabet Roumaji.
Here are some examples of how the same couple of letters could be written in
several different ways:
ji = zi
e = he
o = wo
shi = si
ou = oo
ou = ô (o with a line over it)
zisin
Personally, I don't like that romanization, because it doesn't look like it sounds.
However, some books use that romanization exclusively. I find it rather
annoying.
Often times, a line will be drawn over a vowel to show that there are actually 2
of that vowel. I perfer to actually write 2 of the vowel. My reasoning is as
follows: If you're romanizing something, it should look pretty normal to an
average reader. Notice that we don't use the "bar over a letter" symbol at all in
English! I think a romanization should be pretty easy to read.
yasashî
yasashii
The above 2 words are the same, but the second one suggests how to pronounce
it. The first one looks like something out of a pronunciation dictionary.
That's also why I prefer ou to oo. If you have a double 'o' in English, you want it
to rhyme with crude. However, it's supposed to be pronounced oooh. I think
spelling it ou helps you to pronounce it the right way.
The Particle E
This particle basically means, "to" or "toward".
Examples
mise e itta.
store (to) went.
(he, she) went to the store.
Notice that it is usually used with some form of iku (to go), or a similar verb.
Examples
You're cute, and I'm in love with you, so I'm thinking marriage would be a
good idea!
You can use the -ku form of a normal adjective with the verb naru (to become),
and make some very nice sentences. This form is used a lot. If you watch just
about any Anime, you'll hear it at least once.
Examples
shiroi - white
shiroku natta - became white
osoi - slow
osoku natta - became slow
hayai - fast
hayaku natte iru - is becoming fast
Example Sentences
Akane wa Dracula o taoshita kedo,
Akane (subject) Dracula (who or what) killed but,
Useful Words
inochi - life
nakusu - to lose
rousoku - candle
tabako - cigarettes
ame - rain
Part 21
● Bakari
● Ato
● Example Sentences
● Useful Words
Bakari
Bakari, like a lot of other Japanese grammar, is best described by
using it in a sentence. If you wanted to say "I just finished drinking"
you would use bakari. You simply add bakari to the end of any
simple sentence that says "what you did". The verb will be in the -ta form
(past tense) in every case.
Examples:
Ato
If you ever want to say after, you will probably need to use this
word. Ato is very similar to the English word after. Ato, like bakari,
is used with the -ta form. You can add it to just about any "past
tense" sentence.
Example 1:
Akunin o koroshita
Scoundrel (who) killed.
Killed the scoundrel
Example 2:
hikaru o taoshita
Hikaru (who) defeated.
Hikaru was defeated.
Example Sentences
uwasa touri, aitsu wa hontou ni tsuyoi n da!
rumor (as), he (subject) really strong is!
He is as strong as the rumor said he was!
hottoite kudasai!
leave alone please!
Please leave me alone!
Adjectives
mukashi (na) - long ago
osoroshii - dreadful
Nouns
hanashi - talk, story
uwasa - rumor
omoide - memory
henji - answer
Misc
touri - as
dondon - steadily
Part 22
● -Chatta
● Kagiri
● Example Sentences
● Useful Words
-Chatta
This is probably one of the most popular endings you'll encounter. It means
"irrevocably", "can't be undone", "went and did without thinking". It's a
relatively cute ending. Most of the time a person using this ending would have to
be pretty cute, usually a girl. Guys can use this ending, but it doesn't happen as
often. You probably wouldn't see Kenshin using it!
You have to do something to the verb before you can just add this ending. It
varies, depending on what group the verb is in. For instance, with -U -TSU -RU
verbs, you remove the ending from the verb (-u, -tsu, -ru) and add -chatta.
With -MU -NU -BU verbs, you conjugate it into its -NDE form, and remove the
last -DE. Also, you use -jatta instead of -chatta.
Example Sentences
miru koto mo dekinai yo!
to see (situation) also can't !
I can't see (anything) either!
Useful Words
Verbs
yaru - to do
miru - to try (also to see, watch)
dakishimeru - to embrace
yattsukeru - to defeat
kanashimu - to be sad
Adjectives
kimyou (na) - strange
taisetsu (na) - important
Misc
doushitemo - no matter what
Copyright © 2001 Maktos.com. All Rights Reserved.
Japanese is Possible!
Week 23
Part 23
● -Rareru : the Passive Form
● Example Sentences
● Useful Words
Examples:
As you can see by the examples, you are making the sentence sound more
"formal" or "intellectual". Experts say that the brain has to go through an extra
step to process a passive sentence. Your brain converts it to an active sentence
first! So basically, you want to avoid those kind of sentences when writing. You
don't need to use them, really.
What if there was a monster approaching in the distance, and you didn't want to
be eaten by the aforementioned monster? You could express your desire to
continue living in two different ways:
You might be able to guess which one is passive -- It's the second one.
The second sentence (in the passive tense) would look like this:
Remember that tabetaku nai means "doesn't want to eat". If you throw the rare
in there, it changes the meaning to "doesn't want to be eaten". This form is very
important to learn (which of them aren't important?). I can promise you that any
Anime you watch will use this form several times!
Basically, you remove the -u from the dictionary form of the verb, and add -
areru. Just remember that you add a w in the case of -u verbs. An easy
way to remember it: You can't have ubaareru! To make it easy to pronounce,
they throw in a w.
Pay special attention to the verb hakken suru. There are tons of suru verbs
(where the second part of the verb is suru). If you ever want to make up your
own verbs, you'll need to know how to conjugate a suru verb.
This "matt" character is no doubt famous for doing something or other! It would
be like saying "He's pulling a Matt" in English.
Example Sentences
kare wa erabareta senshi desu.
he (subject) chosen warrior is.
He is the chosen warrior.
Useful Words
Nouns
shima - island
bouzu - monk
sanpatsu - haircut
koukou - high school
kyoushi - teacher
Verbs
norou - to curse
mamoru - to protect
hakken suru - to discover
kakomu - to surround
ubau - to steal
ai suru - to love
kanchigai suru - to misunderstand
Adjectives
omote (no)- front
ura (no) - behind, rear
ue (no) - above
shita (no) - below
Misc
mizukara - on purpose
saisho kara - from the beginning
ima made - up till now
Copyright © 2001 Maktos.com. All Rights Reserved.
Japanese is Possible!
Week 24
Part 24
● -TTARA : another Conditional form
● Example Sentences
● Useful Words
-eba is used to say "if" something were to happen. You would use it in sentences
like:
taberu - taber
nusumu - nusum
korosu - koros
I'll explain that last sentence a bit. shinitai is the "want to" form of shinu, "to
die". shinitaku nai is simply the -ku nai form. If you recall from our previous
study of adjectives, adding -ku nai reverses the meaning.
Any verb in the -tai or -taku nai form will do. For adjectives, you can only use
"normal" adjectives that end in -i.
tabetai
tabetaku nai
shiroi
osoi
tabetakattara
tabetaku nakattara
shirokattara
osokattara
And you're done! Here are the meanings of the phrases that you just built:
Here are a few exceptions, that are used ALL the time!
X suru = X shitara (if X is done)
X ga kuru = X ga kitara (if X comes)
X ga aru = X ga attara (if X is there)
X desu = X dattara (if it is X)
X ni naru = X ni nattara (if it becomes X)
Example Sentences
Since you need to see -TTARA in action, this week's Example Sentences will
feature -TTARA.
Useful Words
Nouns
heiwa - peace
saitei - the worst, the pits
Verbs
karakau - to tease
kau - to win
Part 25
● -ZU : without doing (intro)
● Example Sentences
● Useful Words
● Japanese Resource Links
Very frequently, you will conjugate suru (to do) into this form. As suru is one
of two irregular verbs, you will need to be told what suru turns into. (Being
irregular, it doesn't follow the normal pattern)
You'll notice that sometimes the particle ni is added after the verb in -zu form. It
doesn't change the meaning, but it's nice to know why it's there. In the first
sentence, it's telling in what way he "went out right away". That's why the
particle ni is used.
taberu - tabezu
korosu - korosazu
sorasu - sorasazu
This form isn't among the most popular, but it's nice to know it. That's why we're
only touching on it right now. If you hear someone say a word that ends in -zu,
you'll at least know it's a verb form. You then remove the -zu and see if you can
recognize the verb stem. Usually that isn't too difficult, if you know enough
verbs.
Example Sentences
pikachu wo korosezu, uchi ni kaetta.
pikachu (answers who) without killing, home (to) returned.
Without killing Pikachu, he returned home.
51 keikenchi wo moratta
51 experience points (what) received.
Received 51 experience points.
Useful Words
Nouns
meiwaku - pain in the butt, burden
tsuzuki - continuance
toki - time, occasion
shoubu - challenge
keikenchi - experience points
saisho - beginning
kougeki - attack
Verbs
tsuzuku - to continue
morau - to receive
sorasu - to turn away, avert (your eyes)
Japanese Resource Links
I found some great websites that students of Japanese might want to use to
further their studies. Don't forget about Maktos' "Japanese is Possible!" column,
because there's a LOT more great information on the way! Besides, many more
great links will be given out in the future ^_^ Remember too, that not all online
Japanese courses help the Otaku to learn Japanese. JIP's mission is to help
Anime and Video Game fans to learn the language, to get more enjoyment and
satisfaction out of their hobby. Any information helps though, which is why
these links are being provided!