日本語を勉強します

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Fri, 22 Feb 2013 02:28:22 -0500

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Fri, 22 Feb 2013 02:26:54 -0500

Asking for a reason without using "why"

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 16:38:39 -0500

I have previously written about three different ways to say “why” but this time I’m going to write about how you can ask for a reason for something without asking why.

Say you and a friend ordered hamburgers and you notice that your friend hasn’t eaten their’s. You want to ask why. Instead of using どうして you can add んです to the verb.

Example: あなたのハンバーガーを食べないんですか。

In romaji: anata no hanbaagaa wo tabenain desu ka.

English: Are you not going to eat your hamburger? (asking for a reason)

If you leave off the んです then you are just asking if your friend is not going to eat the hamburger without asking for a reason.

Please note that that was all formal speech. In an informal situation you do not use んです but instead females add の to the end of the verb and males add　んだ.

If this post wasn’t clear in anyway or if anyone needs more elaboration just ask! Please correct me if I made any mistakes as well. Hope this was helpful! :)

好き、大好き、愛してる (like, love, and love)

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 13:32:56 -0400

There are 3 different ways to say that you like or love something in Japanese that you may commonly see.

好き（すき）means like. It is actually an adjective. So when you say “I like dogs” you would actually be saying something more like “Dogs are liked.”

犬が好きです。

いぬがすきです。

So again, I like dogs.

大好き（だいすき）is literally “big like.” This is the most common form of love that you will see. Again it is actually an adjective and will be used in the same way.

でも私は猫が大好きですよ。

でもわたしはねこがだいすきですよ。

But I love cats, you know.

愛してる（あいしてる）is another way to say love. However you probably won’t see this one very often. From what I understand it is a very serious way to say love and carries a lot of weight. I have also heard that it is considered corny or old-fashioned.

あなたを愛してる。

あなたをあいしてる。

I love you.

Sorry I haven’t updated in so long! This is also maybe a bit too much of a common knowledge post :( When I start classes again I’ll be updating much more frequently! Either way I hope this is helpful!

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Fri, 08 Jun 2012 21:06:58 -0400

明日私は大切なテストある。そうして今週は毎日もうある。

Sun, 06 May 2012 16:47:14 -0400

ごめんなさい。でも今週は書くことをではありまえん。

Tomorrow I have an important test. And every day this week also.

I’m sorry, but this week I will not be able to write anything.

I hope that was right! I will probably start posting again next week after all my finals are over. If anyone has any suggestions about things to write about let me know! :)

Where is...?

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 11:55:59 -0400

I’m going to go over describing where something is today! Location words are very important. First of all you need to know the word “where” of course.

どこ = where

どこですか？= where is it? (literally where to be? it is implied. Depending on the context this could even mean where are you?)

私の猫はどこですか？

わたしのねこはどこですか？

Where is my cat?

猫は机の上にいます。

ねこはつくえのうえにいます。

The cat is on top of the desk.

つくえ: Desk

うえ: on top of/above

います: to exist (living things. Excludes plants)

に: a particle that indicates what the location is

So it’s pretty simple! Here’s some other location words:

下（した）: below

前（まえ）: in front of

後ろ（うしろ）: behind

間（あいだ）: between

中（なか）: inside

外（そと）: outside

右（みぎ）: right

左（ひだり）: left

ここ : here

そこ : there (near the listener, but not the speaker)

あそこ : way over there (away from both the speaker and the listener)

I’ll do one more example for the word “between” since the pattern is slightly different.

猫は机と犬の間にいます。

ねこはつくえといぬのあいだにいます。

The cat is between the desk and the dog. So here’s the pattern by itself:

＿＿＿と＿＿＿の間にいます。Fill in the blanks with what you want your object to be in between. Also! If your subject is not a living thing do not end the sentence with　います！ Use あります！

メロンパン Melon Bread! This is japanese bakery product that can be...

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 11:28:26 -0400

メロンパン

Melon Bread! This is japanese bakery product that can be very easily found at many locations in the U.S. It is made of enriched dough with a layer of cookie dough on top. It’s called melon bread because the pattern on it looks like a melon. You can find them Melon flavored now as wel!

Not sure how useful anyone will find this post haha, but oh well.

Sorry I also took a bite out of the bread already..

Let's...!

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 20:40:00 -0400

Saying “let’s eat,” “let’s go,” “let’s watch,” etc., is actually really simple and handy!

We’ll start with “let’s go.”

Take the verb “to go:” 行きます　（いきます）

Next just change the ending from ます to ましょう.

行きましょう！　Let’s go!

Easy! If you turn it into a question by adding か at the end you get “shall we go?”

Let’s do another example. “let’s eat”

“to eat” is 食べます（たべます）so “let’s eat is たべましょう！

As a final note I’ll include the dictionary from of both “to eat” and “to go.”

食べる　（たべる）: to eat　

行く　(いく）: to go

々　Repeat the sound

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 15:47:31 -0400

々 This kanji is used to double the sound of the previous kanji to create certain words. You’ll see it pretty often.. however sometimes theres a sound change. I’ll provide a few examples!

人々（ひとびと）- people

時々（ときどき）- sometimes

昔々（むかしむかし）- once upon a time/ a long time ago

山々　（やまやま）- a lot of mountains

So if you see 々 and you can pronounce the first kanji, then you can probably say the whole word! (And if you know the meaning of the first kanji it shouldn’t be too difficult to figure out the meaning of the whole word!)

動物（どうぶつ）　Animals!

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 15:42:30 -0400

Thought this would be kind of fun/useful! A list of different animals.

蛇　(へび）- snake

牛　（うし）- cow

犬　（いぬ）- dog

子犬（こいぬ）- puppy

猫（ねこ）- cat

子猫（こねこ）-kitten

馬（うま）-horse

蜥蜴　（とかげ）-lizard

鳥（とり）- bird

鹿　（しか）- deer

虎（とら）- tiger

ラマ　- llama

魚（さかな）- fish

If you noticed with puppy and kitten, you just put the kanji for child infront of the kanji for the animal to change it!

あなたの好きな動物何ですか？

あなたのすきなどうぶつなんですか？

What’s your favorite animal?

"I'm hungry"

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 13:03:05 -0400

お腹がペコペコです。

おなかがペコペコです。

I’m hungry. Lit: my stomach is hungry.

So I really love this word. ペコペコ is a sound word to mean very hungry! It is written in katakana. From what I understand you should use the word stomach (おなか) when saying ペコペコ because ペコペコ has several different meanings besides being hungry!

Or another way to say I’m hungry is

お腹が空きました。

おなかがすきました。

How I just wrote it was formally. It literally means “My stomach has become empty” but is used as “I’m hungry.”

Hope this is helpful!

掃除する To clean

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 22:13:48 -0400

掃除する

そうじする

This means to clean, but more specifically to clean a space such as a room or a car. You cannot use it to clean an item, like a table or anything.

Example sentence:

今日私の部屋を掃除します。

きょうわたしのへやそうじします。

Today I will clean my room. (formal)

The first two pages from “あいうえお　もじあそび”.

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 11:02:00 -0400

The first two pages from “あいうえお　もじあそび”.

“あいうえお　もじあそび” “A I U E O Playing with the...

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 10:59:00 -0400

“あいうえお　もじあそび”

“A I U E O Playing with the Alphabet”

I think my translation is kind of clunky, but you can get the gist of it.

This is another children’s book I picked up a while ago. I may upload pictures of some of the inside pages when I get a chance because they are really helpful!

まだ + negative verb "Not yet"

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 10:14:59 -0400

So this is a word that I thought was very useful! まだ when used in a sentence where the verb is negative means “not yet.” When the verb is not negative it means “as of yet/still.”

I’m only going to go over using it to say “not yet.”

Here’s a simple sentence using まだ.

先生とまだ会うない。

In kana only: せんせいとまだあうない。

I have not yet met with my teacher. (Or in this case, since it is left kind of ambiguous, 先生 could refer to a doctor or some other professional. Context will normally make this clear.)

Hope this was helpful!

That looks interesting!

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 16:17:53 -0400

Say you want to say something that something looks おもしろい (interesting).

The key phrase here is that it “looks” interesting. This is not to say that something IS interesting.

All you do is drop the い　( or な, if it’s a な adjective!) and add そう.　おもしろそう! Look’s interesting!

You can do this with any adjective!

むずかしそう　- Looks difficult

きれいそう - Looks pretty

and so on!

ごめんなさい “I’m sorry” Another children’s...

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 14:33:04 -0400

ごめんなさい

“I’m sorry”

Another children’s book I picked up at a local bookstore recently! I encourage anyone studying japanese to look into children’s books. They are typically written in only kana making them easy to learn from!

To be bad at/unskillful

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 14:23:40 -0400

I previously wrote about the word 上手な meaning skillful, and today I’m going to write about how to say unskillful.

It follows a the same pattern as skillful. This time you use the kanji for under, 下 (した), and again the kanji for hand, 手 (て). So unskillful is 下手な. The kanji when put together is pronounced as へた.

Example sentence:

サッカーが下手です。

In kana: サッカーがへたです。

I’m bad at soccer.

Super simple sentence, sorry!

The three ways to say "Why"

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 15:40:18 -0400

なぜ

どうして

なんで

All three of these words mean why. なぜ is the most formal, however it can still be used in informal speech. どうして can also be used in both formal and informal speech. なんで however is informal only. From what I understand it can sound aggressive in some situations. (Please correct me if I’m wrong!!)

Example question and response:

Q: なぜ毎朝コーヒーを飲みますか？

Q (in kana): なぜまいあさコーヒーをのみますか？

R: コーヒーがおいしいですから。

Q: Why do you drink coffee every morning?

R: Because coffee is delicious.

When responding to a why question you always end the sentence with から either before or after です. から basically functions as “because.”

Hope this is helpful! If anyone has any corrections I would appreciate it. I may go into more detail on responding to why questions informally later.

日本語を勉強します

Photo

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Asking for a reason without using "why"

好き、大好き、愛してる (like, love, and love)

Photo

明日私は大切なテストある。そうして今週は毎日もうある。

Where is...?

メロンパン Melon Bread! This is japanese bakery product that can be...

Let's...!

々 Repeat the sound

動物 （どうぶつ） Animals!

"I'm hungry"

掃除する To clean

The first two pages from “あいうえお もじあそび”.

“あいうえお もじあそび” “A I U E O Playing with the...

まだ + negative verb "Not yet"

That looks interesting!

ごめんなさい “I’m sorry” Another children’s...

To be bad at/unskillful

The three ways to say "Why"

々　Repeat the sound

動物（どうぶつ）　Animals!

The first two pages from “あいうえお　もじあそび”.

“あいうえお　もじあそび” “A I U E O Playing with the...