#duolingo translation

VOCABULARY

Hope:　Nozomu:　のぞむ：　望む (hope/wish/aspiration)

Searches:　Sagasu:　さがす：　探す

Fail:　Shippaisuru:　しっぱいする：　失敗する (failure/mistake/blunder)

Fail:　Fugoukaku:　ふごうかく：　不合格 (to fail an examination, disqualification)

Include:　Fukumareru:　ふくまれる：　含まれる (intransitive verb)

Pass:　Watasu:　わたす：　渡す

Pass:　Goukaku:　ごうかく：　合格 (to pass an exam/success)

Believe:　Shinjiru:　しんじる：　信じる

SENTENCES

I believe you.
Watashi wa anata o shinjimasu.
わたし　は　あなた　を　しんじます。
私はあなたを信じます。

Pass me the sugar.
Watashi ni satou o Watase.
わたし　に　さとう　を　わたせ。
私に砂糖を渡せ。

They fail.
Karera wa shippai shimasu.
かれら　は　しっぱい　します。
彼らは失敗します。

The animal searches for water.
Doubutsu wa mizu o sagashimasu.
どうぶつ　は　みず　を　さがします。
動物は水を探します。

Her breakfast and dinner include bread.
Kanojo no choushoku to yuushoku wa pan ga fukumareteiru.
かのじょ　の　ちょうしょく　と　ゆうしょく　は　パン　が　ふくまれている。
彼女の朝食と夕食はパンが含まれている。

GRAMMAR POINT

I hope they come.
Watashi wa karera ga kuru koto o Nozomu.
わたし　は　かれら　が　くる　こと　を　のぞむ。
私は彼らが来ることを望む。

This sentence has TWO verbs at once!

Here’s how it works. So first we start with the subject. The subject here is “I”. In this sentence we’re talking about the subjects hopes. In this case the subject hopes “they come”. Since the subject “I” is hoping, “hope” needs to be our final verb.
I _ hope
Watashi wa __ o Nozomu.
That leaves us with the sentence fragment “they come”. Now if “they come” was a sentence by itself we’d say “kare wa kuru”… but since we already have a main subject and that’s “I” then we need to change “wa” to “ga” making “Kare ga kuru” but we can’t insert it into the middle of our sentence yet because we’ll have “kuru o Nozomu” and that’s weird… we can’t just have a verb sitting in the middle of the sentence.

This is where the particle “koto” comes in. In situations where there are two verbs in one sentence and it’s not a compound sentence (using connectors such as and/but/because/therefore etc.) we need to keep the innermost verb in dictionary form and attach “koto” to the end. So our sentence fragment now looks like:
kare ga kuru koto
which we now insert in the middle of the sentence part that we already figured out, making:
Watashi wa kare ga kuru koto o Nozomu.

Tim Sensei is great for learning koto and other verb things :D I didn’t think I’d find this site again. I lost it in the shuffle over the years.

AlternativelyTae Kim has one too

See you next time!

VOCABULARY

Mark:　Ni shirushi o tsukeru:　に　しるし　を　つける：　に印を付ける。
NOTE: this is sort of a mini phrase all it’s own. We use “に” (ni) to show location “at/to/on”, “しるし” (shirushi) is the noun “mark”, “を” (o) is the particle to show that a verb is happening directly and physically to something, and 付ける means to “attach/join/fasten/glue on/apply/put on” so all together this means “To put a mark on something”

Feel:　Kibun:　きぶん：　気分 (feeling/mood)
NOTE: this seems to be more confined to physically feeling like well or ill.

Feel:　Kimochi:　きもち：　気持ち (feeling/sensation/mood…)
NOTE: Kimochi covers a lot more definitions than Kibun (such as the feelings in the air or more with mood or like “I have a bad feeling about this” sort of thing) but they’re pretty interchangeable otherwise. You can say “Kibun ga warui” or “kimochi ga warui” to say you feel sick, however “kimochi ga warui” can also mean that something is gross.

Feel:　Kanjiru:　かんじる：　感じる　(to feel/sense/experience)
NOTE: this is more used for physically feeling things like pain or other sensations.

Make:　Tsukuru:　つくる：　作る

Show:　Miseru:　みせる：　見せる

Remember:　Oboeru:　おぼえる：　覚える
(this also means “to memorize”/“learn by heart”)

Stop:　Yameru:　やめる：　止める。

Stop:　Tomeru:　とめる：　止める (to stop someone else)

Wish:　Negau:　ねがう：　願う

Feeling good:　Kimochi ii：　きもちい　いい：　気持ちいい

Feeling good:　Kimochiyoi:　きもちよい：　気持ち良い
NOTE: These two are interchangeable. but “ii” is used more often than “yoi” is.

Feeling bad/having a bad feeling:　Kimochiwarui:　きもちわるい：　気持ち悪い

SENTENCES

I remember the menu.
Watashi wa menyu- o oboeteimasu.
わたし　は　メニュー　を　おぼえています。
私はメニューを覚えています。

Of course we use continuous action form to show that you currently, presently, and continuously remember the thing.

We feel fine.
Watashi tachi wa kibun ga ii desu.
わたしたち　は　きぶん　が　いい　です。
私たちは気分がいいです。
(lit: We feel well)

We feel fine.
Watashi tachi wa kimochi ii desu.
わたしたち　は　きもちいい　です。 私たちは気持ちいいです。
(lit: we are feeling good)

We feel fine.
Watashi tachi wa kimochi ga ii desu.
わたしたち　は　きもち　が　いい　です。
私たちは気持ちがいいです。
(lit: Our feelings are good today)

The man makes soup.
Dansei wa su-pu o tsukurimasu.
だんせい　は　スープ　を　つくります。 男性はスープを作ります。

I stop him.
Watashi wa kare o tomemasu.
わたし　は　かれ　を　とめます。
私は彼を止めます。

As you wish.
Osuki ni douzo.
お好きにどうぞ
(lit: as [you] like, by all means)

NOTE: Sorry to say the above sentence doesn’t use “negau”… and on tatoeba I couldn’t find one that used it either. However you WILL recognize this word from お願い “Onegai” which means “please”. :( So unfortunately that vocabulary is sort of a wash. Sorry.

He shows it.
Kare wa sore o miseru.
かれ　は　それ　を　みせる。
彼はそれを見せる。
(as in he shows the thing to other people.)

I mark the shirt.
Watashi wa shatsu ni shirushi o tsukemasu.
わたし　は　しゃつ　に　しるし　を　つけます。
私はシャツに印を付けます。
(lit: I apply a mark to the shirt)

See you next lesson!

VOCABULARY

Needs:　Hitsuyou:　ひつよう：　必要 (noun/na-adjective)

Try:　Tamesu:　ためす：　試す

Try on clothes:　Shichaku:　しちゃく：　試着

Try out:　-te miru:　-てみる：　-て見る (verb conjugation)

Try (make an effort to do):　-you to suru:　-ようとする (verb conjugation)

Includes:　Fukumu:　ふくむ：　含む　(to contain, to comprise of)

Ask:　Kiku:　きく：　聞く
Note: Yes this is also the word for “listen” or “hear”.

Present:　Happyou suru:　はっぴょう　する：　発表する (to announce, publicate, or make known)

Works:　Hataraku:　はたらく：　働く (eg: a job, labor, etc.)

Talk:　Hanasu:　はなす：　話す

SENTENCES

He needs her.
Kare wa kanojo ga hitsuyou desu.
かれ　は　かのじょ　が　ひつよう　です。
彼は彼女が必要です。

I’m going to teach this the same way I taught “like” and “dislike” Since you can’t control the things you need, like you can’t control what you like or dislike, you need to use the particle “ga” instead of “o”.

I realize that’s not the textbook answer. (something about there being no direct object) but if you’re like me and understand this sentence as, in this case, “kanojo” being the object and “needing” happening to that object then the above is a good way to remember.

I ask you.
Watashi wa anata ni kikimasu.
わたし　は　あなた　に　ききます。
私はあなたに聞きます。

So again, this is kind of strange as an English speaker. Having the word for “ask” also be the same for “listen”. We want to use the directional particle に (ni) here to indicate that you are asking “anata”. So this might be literally translated to “I ask at you”, if that helps you wrap your head around it better.

You try on a dress.
Anata wa doresu o shichaku shimasu.
あなた　は　ドレス　を　しちゃく　します。
あなたはドレスを試着します。

note: in this situation only “shichakushimasu” seems applicable, however in the grammar section I’m going to show you how to conjugate verbs to show that you are trying an action! :D

The children talk.
Sono kodomo wa hanashimasu.
その　こども　は　はなします。
その子供は話します。
(lit: those children speak)

She works.
Kanojo wa hataraiteimasu.
かのじょ　は　はたらいています。
彼女は働いています。

In this case I’d use the Continuous verb form (-te imasu) to show that someone is presently doing that thing… even if they’re not necessarily doing it that moment. She has a job and therefore she presently works, even if, say, it’s her day off today.

The meal includes cheese.
Sono shokuji wa chi-zu o fukumimasu.
その　しょくじ　は　チーズ　を　ふくみます。
その食事はチーズを含みます。

I present the menu.
Watashi wa menyu- o happyou shimasu.
わたし　は　メニュー　を　はっぴょう　します。
私はメニューを発表します。
(lit: I announce/make known the menu)

GRAMMAR POINT To try something:

Tae Kim has a great lesson on this so be sure to check it out!!

In Japanese they have two different ways to express this word that we don’t in English. One is “to try something out” and the other is “to make an effort to do something”, paraphrasing Tae Kim’s lesson here.

To express “trying something out” you conjugate your verb to “te” form, and then you add “miru” 「-て見る」You can think of this as seeing if you can do something. Eh? Eh?! :D Nice little mnemonic!

“Making an effort to do something” however requires you to conjugate to “volitional” form, which we haven’t covered before. What “volitional” means is that you’re setting out with the will and intent to do something. Those of you who watch Anime might have actually heard this form often. This form ends in an “ou” you might here it in “Ikou!” or “Let’s go!” or “~mashou” when someone’s planning on leaving or doing something with someone else.

To conjugate this for RU verbs you want to take off the “ru” and add “you”. EG:　Taberu → Tabe → Tabeyou

For U verbs take off the last “u” and replace it with “ou”
EG:　Iku → Ikou

The exceptions of course being “suru” and “kuru” which change to “Shiyou” and “koyou”.

Otherwise conjugate as normal but instead of “-masu” “-masen” “-mashita” or “-masendeshita” add “-mashou”

Again paraphrased from this other lesson from Tae Kim explaining desire and volition

But back to the word try. Conjugate to the shorter volitional form like say “Ikou” and add “to suru” afterwords. This shows that you’re going to be making an attempt to do something.

… this long name thing is going to kill me. x_x

VOCABULARY

Look:　Miru:　みる：　見る

Live:　Sumu:　すむ：　住む　
Note: this is used for living someplace. eg: living in a house, or a country etc. not for living as in physically being alive.

Come:　Kuru:　くる：　来る

Note: Remember this is one of our rule breaker verbs like suru! This one conjugates to “Kimasu” “kimashita” “kimasen” “kimasen deshita” so the “ru” comes off and the “ku” changes to “ki”!! This one is kind of a toughie!

Study:　Benkyou suru:　べんきょうする：　勉強する

Offers:　Teikyou suru:　ていきょう　する：　提供する (offer, sponsor, furnish, supply)

Give:　Kureru:　くれる：　呉れる (often written using kana alone!)

Offer:　Sashidasu:　さしだす：　差し出す (to present/ to submit/ to tender/ to hold out)

SENTENCES

We look at the menu.
Watashitachi wa menyu- o mimasu. わたしたち　は　メニュー　を　みます。
私たちはメニューを見ます。

I live in Germany.
Watashi wa doitsu ni sundeimasu.
わたし　は　どいつ　に　すんでいます。
私はドイツに住んでいます。

Note: Notice we change “sumu” to continuous form to show that you currently and presently live in a place. Also notice that when conjugating a “mu” verb to present continuous or even regular “te” form you must drop the “mu” add an “n” and then use “de imasu” instead of “te imasu”!

I study.
Watashi wa benkyou shimasu.
わたし　は　べんきょう　します。
私は勉強します。

Come with us!
Watashitachi to issho ni kite!
わたしたち　と　いっしょ　に　きて。
私たちと一緒に来て！

Note: when talking about going with someone you should use “to issho ni”. The particle “to” in this case acts like “with” and “issho” means together. From an English speaking perspective that seems a little redundant and strange but give it a little bit and it will become natural to use. Then of course we use our directional particle “ni” followed by our verb.

Since the above sentence is an order, “Come with us!” you want to use “te” form on your verb to turn it into a command.

They give me rice.
Karera wa watashi ni kome o kuremasu.
かれら　は　わたし　に　こめ　を　くれます。
彼らは私に米をくれます。

He offers wine.
Kare wa wain o teikyou shimasu.
かれ　は　ワイン　を　ていきょう　します。
彼はワインを提供します。

I offer him water.
Watashi wa kare ni mizu o sashidasu.
わたし　は　かれ　に　みず　を　さしだす。
私は彼に水を差し出す。

Note: theres a difference between these two forms of “offer” that we don’t seem to have in English. Or we don’t acknowledge in any case. Teikyou 提供 seems to be closer to “supply” like there’s a lot of wine available. Plenty to go around. If you want it come get it. Like a store supplies goods. Or like Netflix supplies TV shows and movies.

Whereas Sashidasu 差し出す is to give, or present someone with a singular item. (or to hold out your hand according to jisho.org.)

That’s it for this lesson. :)

That was a mouthful.

VOCABULARY

Sign:　Shomeisuru:　しょめいする：　署名する (to sign your name)

Sign:　Sain suru:　サインする (to sign your name)

Sign:　Sain o suru:　サインをする (to sign your name)

Open:　Hiraku:　ひらく：　開く
(Shops, heart/feelings, doors, eyes, books etc.)

Open:　Akeru:　あける：　開ける
（Shops, doors, windows, eyes, locks.）

note: Mise o hiraku → A new shop opened Mise o akeru → The day’s sales start. - Distinctions courtesy of Akira0Eigo

Think:　Kangaeru:　かんがえる：　考える (to think about, to take into consideration, to think over, to ponder)

Think:　Omou:　おもう：　思う (to think, consider, believe, suppose)

Change:　Kawaru:　かわる：　変わる　(Intransitive verb: meaning it happened on its own without someone necessarily acting upon it)

Change:　Kaeru:　かえる：　変える (Transitive verb: meaning it was done by someone or something) ((used more in speech))

Change:　Henka suru:　へんか　する：　変化する (used more in writing)

Return:　Kaeru:　かえる：　帰る (to return to a point of origin or where something belongs. To return home.)

Return:　Kaesu:　かえす：　帰す (to send someone back. To send someone home)

Return:　Modoru:　もどる：　戻る (to return to a previous point. eg: school, the bar, etc…. can also be returning an object you picked up back to it’s previous location.)

Return:　Kaesu:　かえす：　返す (to return an object eg: returning a book t a friend)

Note: Watch your kanji on 返す (return an object) and 帰す (send someone back home)! Especially since they’re pronounced the same!! Call:　Yobu:　よぶ：　呼ぶ (to call out to/ to call over/ to summon/ to call a name “eg: call me ____”)

Call:　Ni denwa suru:　に　でんわ　する：　に電話する (to call on the phone)

Call:　Ni denwa o suru:　に　でんわ　を　する：　に電話をする (another way to say “to call on the phone”)

Save:　Tasukeru:　たすける：　助ける (this closer to the word “help”)

Save:　Sukuu:　すくう：　救う (to save from danger)

SENTENCES

They call the doctor.
Karera wa isha o yobu.
かれら　は　いしゃ　を　よぶ。
彼らは医者を呼ぶ。
(lit: To summon the doctor/ to call the doctor over)

They call the doctor.
Karera wa isha ni denwa shimasu.
かれら　は　いしゃ　に　でんわ　します。
彼らは医者に電話します。
(lit: they call the doctor on the phone.)

They call the doctor.
Karera wa isha ni denwa o shimasu.
かれら　は　いしゃ　に　でんわ　を　します。
彼らは医者に電話をします。
(lit: they call the doctor on the phone)

I change.
Watashi wa kawarimasu.
わたし　は　かわります。
私は変わります。
(as in you change unintentionally)

I change.
Watashi wa kaemasu.
わたし　は　かえます。
私は変えます。
(as in you change intentionally)

I change.
Watashi wa henka suru.
わたし　は　へんか　する。
私は変化する。
(lit: I change.)

They open the books.
Karera wa hon o hirakimasu.
かれら　は　ほん　を　ひらきます。
彼らは本を開きます。

We save the animals.
Watashi tachi wa doubutsu o sukuimasu.
わたし　たち　は　どうぶつ　を　すくいます。
私たちは動物を救います。
(lit: we save the animals [from danger])

We save the animals.
Watashi tachi wa doubutsu o tasukemasu.
わたし　たち　は　どうぶつ　を　たすけます。
私たちは動物を助けます。
(lit: we save/help the animals.)

I think about her.
Watashi wa kanojo no koto o kangaemasu.
わたし　は　かのじょ　の　こと　を　かんがえます。
私は彼女のことを考えます。

note: In this case adding the “no koto” is used to clarify the direction of the emotion. So we know without confusion that the “thinking” is happening to “her”. This is easier to illustrate with a sentence like “[I] like her” “kanojo no koto ga suki” because without that “no koto” it can be easily confused as “kanojo” liking something and not you liking her.

I return to France.
Watashi wa Furansu ni kaerimasu.
わたし　は　フランス　に　かえります。
私はフランスに帰ります。

I sign
Watashi wa shomei suru.
わたし　は　しょめい　する。
私は署名する。

I sign
Watashi wa sain suru.
わたし　は　サイン　する
私はサインする。

I sign.
Watashi wa sain o suru.
わたし　は　サイン　を　する
私はサインをする。

These three all mean the same exact thing they’re just different ways to say it.

This lesson was pretty fun with all the different ways to say these sentences and all the different words and meanings. :D

See you next time!

Alright guys! This is it! The last of the adjectives section! :)

VOCABULARY

Convenient：　Benri (-na):　べんり（-な）：　便利（-な）

Opposite：　Hantai (-na/-no):　はんたい（-な/-の）：　反対（-な/-の）

Note: This also means “opposition/resistance/antagonism/hostility/objection/distension” as well as “reverse/opposite/visa-versa/contrast”, the correct definition should be taken from context, much like we do when reading homonyms/homographs. EG: “Bow” (and arrow) vs “Bow” (for your hair) vs “bow” (to bow down to someone)

Afraid：　Kowagaru:　こわがる：　怖がる (verb)

Sad:　Kanashii:　かなしい：　悲しい

Frequent：　Hinpan (-na):　ひんぱん（-な）：　頻繁（-な）

Frequent:　Tabikasanaru:　たびかさなる：　度重なる （Verb）

Frequent:　Tabitabi okoru:　たびたびおこる：　たびたび起こる
Lit: “again and again happening” :) TBH I really LOVE Japanese onomatopoeia-esque words like this.

Wooden:　Mokusei (-no):　もくせい（-の）：　木製（-の）

Wooden:　Ki de dekita:　き で できた：　木で出来た
Lit: wood of made. …. though “dekiru” also means “can”… again it’s all contextual! :)

SENTENCES

I am sad.
Watashi wa kanashii desu.
わたし　は　かなしい　です。
私は悲しいです。

Why are you afraid.
Naze anata wa kowagatteiru no desu ka?
なせ　あなた　は　こわがっています　か。
なぜあなたは怖がっているのですか。

Note: The “no” after kowagatteiru softens the question and makes it less blunt. Much like when saying you want something and following “hoshii” with “n” to soften the request. Even though Kowagatteiru is a verb, because we’ve used the “no” as a softener we then add “desu” afterwords.

What is the opposite answer? Hantai no kotae wa nan desu ka? はんたい　の　こたえ　は　なん　です　か。
反対の答えは何ですか。

It is convenient.
Benri desu.
べんり　です。
便利です。

It is frequent.
Sore wa hinpan desu.
それ　は　ひんぱん　です。
それは頻繁です。

I’ve left this one for last because it’s interesting and so I’ll put it under the section we haven’t really seen in a while:

GRAMMAR POINT

Where are your wooden shoes?
Anata no ki de dekita kutsu wa doko desu ka.
あなた　の　き　で　できた　くつ　は　どこ　です　か。
あなたの木で出来た靴はどこですか。

Note: Okay so when talking about things made of other things, EG: shoes made of wood" we want to use the particle “de” after the material that the item is made out of. “de” then acts like the English word “of” making “Ki de” translate to “of wood”.

This is different than the OTHER use of “de” (which I’m not sure we actually covered yet) which translates to “by” EG: “he came by train” “densha de”.

Back to “shoes made of wood” so after “ki de” you want to use “dekita”, which usually takes on the meaning “can” but in this case taking on the meaning of “made” or “built” (even though those words already exist) making “Ki de dekita” then translate to “made of wood” or “wooden”!

Of course this works for things other than wood.

Or you could also say:

Where are your wooden shoes?
Ananta no mokusei no kutsu wa doko desu ka?
あなた　の　もくせい　の　くつ　は　どこ　です　か。
あなたの木製の靴はどこですか。

木 being “tree/wood/lumber” and 製 being “-made”… attaching “sei” (製) to other materials much like “de dekita” also works.

Or finally, you could just say

Where are your wooden shoes?
Anata no kigutsu wa doko desu ka?
あなた　の　きぐつ　は　どこ　です　か。
あなたの木靴はどこですか。

“kigutsu” in this case literally translating to “wooden shoes” and saving you from all the hassle. Unfortunately “kigutsu” only works for “wooden shoes” and isn’t as versatile as the other two ways.

And this my friends is an example of why I love languages so much. Because there are so many ways to correctly say one thing. there are so many different answers! As opposed to say, Math, when there is only one right answer. I know I tend to put down only one or two answers for most of these lessons but that’s mostly to save time or space because for a lot of these there are so many! Not just synonyms either, word order in Japanese has been known to be very fluid as well. And to me it just makes the whole thing even more neat.

But anyway I’m just rambling now.

Until next time!

We’re almost done with the Adjectives section!

VOCABULARY

Famous:　Yuumei (-na):　ゆうめい（-な）：　有名（-な）

Negative:　Hiteiteki (-na):　ひていてき（-な）：　否定的（-な） (contradictory)

Negative:　Shoukyokuteki (-na):　しょうきょくてき（-な）：　消極的（-な）(halfhearted/passive/unmotivated/pessimistic)

Efficient:　Yuunou (-na):　ゆうのう（-な）：　有能（-な）(capable, skillful.) ((use with people))

Efficent:　Kouritsuteki（-Na）：　こうりつてき（-な）：　効率的（-な）(eg: the machine is efficient.) ((do not use with people))

Expensive:　Takai:　たかい：　高い
Takai can mean both “tall” and “expensive”! It’s written the same way.

Familiar:　Yoku shirareteiru:　よく　しられている：　よく知られている (lit: well known) ((verb))

Impossible:　Fukanou (-na):　ふかのう（-な）：　不可能（-な）

Alive:　Ikiteiru:　いきている：　生きている（Verb - continuous form of “ikiru” “to live”)

SENTENCES

I am alive.
Watashi wa ikiteimasu.
わたし　は　いきています。
私は生きています。

Note: Notice that we change Ikiru to continuous action form to indicate that you are currently and presently living. Also remember to use “wa” は (ha) instead of “Ga” が or “O” を (wo).

The meal is expensive.
Shokuji wa takai desu.
しょくじ　は　たかい　です。
食事は高いです。

Note: This is definitely a weird expression for us western speakers, especially if we learned “Takai” as tall first. It will probably take a little getting used to.

I write a negative answer.
Watashi wa hiteiteki na kotae o kakimasu.
わたし　は　ひていてき　な　こたえ　を　かきます。
私は否定的な答えを書きます。
(lit: I write a contradictory answer.)

She is a negative woman.
Kanojo wa shoukyokuteki na josei desu.
かのじょ　は　しょうきょくてき　な　じょせい　です。
彼女は消極的な女性です。
(Lit: She is a pessimistic woman)

The name is familiar.
Sono namae wa yoku shirareteimasu.
その　なまえ　は　よく　しられています。
その名前はよく知られています。
(Lit: The name is well known [to me])

My dad is famous.
Watashi no otousan wa yuumei desu.
わたし　の　おとうさん　は　ゆうめい　です。
私のお父さんは有名です。

They are efficient soldiers.
Karera wa yuunou na heishi desu.
かれら　は　ゆうのう　な　へいし　です。
彼らは有能な兵士です。

Why is it impossible?
Naze sore wa fukanou desu ka?
なぜ　それ　は　ふかのう　です　か。
なぜそれは不可能ですか？

My dad is a famous lawyer.
Watashi no otousan wa yuumei na bengoshi desu.
わたし　の　おとうさん　は　ゆうめい　な　べんごし　です。
私のお父さんは有名な弁護士です。

See you next time!

VOCABULARY

Traditional:　Dentouteki (na):　でんとうてき（な）：　伝統的（な）

Wrong:　Machigai:　まちがい：　間違い (noun)

Wrong:　Machigau:　まちがう：　間違う（Verb)

Historical:　Rekishiteki (na):　れきしてき (な)：　歴史的 (な)

Cultural: 　Bunkateki (na):　ぶんかてき（な）：　文化的（な）

Interesting:　Omoshiroi:　おもしろい：　面白い (pleasant/enjoyable)
Interesting:　Kyoumibukai:　きょうみぶかい：　興味深い (very interesting/ of great interest)((intriguing?))

Religious:　Shinjinbukai:　しんじんぶかい：　信心深い　(deeply religious/devout/faithful)

Serious:　Shinken (na):　しんけん (な)：　真剣 (な)

Note: this is like, the milder of the seriouses. You’d use this one for “I’m serious” “I studied hard” etc.

Serious:　Majime:　まじめ：　真面目

Note: (diligent/serious/honest/sober/earnest) it’s used in sentences like “Be serious!” “they are sensible girls” “He’s not serious” “My personality is not at all serious.” ”I’m serious about my work" etc.

Serious:　Shinkoku:　しんこく：　深刻

Note: This seems to be the most severe of the seriouses. It’s used in sentences like “Don’t take it so hard” “It seems to be serious.” “The situation is extremely critical” “There is severe damage” etc.

Sentence examples from tatoeba.org

SENTENCES

She is an interesting woman.
Kanojo wa omoshiroi josei desu.
かのじょ　は　おもしろい　じょせい　です。
彼女は面白い女性です。
(lit: she is a pleasant woman.)

Note: This implies that the woman is interesting in an enjoyable pleasant way, where as I think using “kyoumibukai” comes off as more stiff? when talking about a person. Like you find them interesting like you find language learning interesting. You know? So I’d say “omoshiroi” is the safe bet in this situation.

I am serious.
Watashi wa shinken desu.
わたし　は　しんけん　です。
私は真剣です。

It is a historical date.
Sore wa rekishiteki na hi desu.
それ　は　れきしてき　な　ひ　です。
それは歴史的な日です。

It is a traditional newspaper.
Sore wa dentouteki na shinbun desu.
それ　は　でんとうてき　な　しんぶん　です。
それは伝統的な新聞です。

I like cultural books.
Watashi wa bunkateki na hon ga suki desu.
わたし　は　ぶんかてき　な　ほん　が　すき　です。
私は文化的な本が好きです。

The book is interesting.
Sono hon wa kyoumibukai desu.
その　ほん　は　きょうみぶかい　です。
その本は興味深いです。

Your answer is wrong.
Anata no kotae wa machigai desu.
あなた　の　こたえ　は　まちがい　です。
あなたの答えは間違いです。
(lit: your answer is a mistake)

Your answer is wrong.
Anata no kotae wa machigatteimasu.
あなた　の　こたえ　は　まちがっています。
あなたの答えは間違っています。

She is religious.
Kanojo wa shinjinbukai desu.
かのじょ　は　しんじんぶかい　です。
彼女は信心深いです。

See you next time

Thank you for continuing to bear with me and my semi-irregular posts. And thank you to everyone who takes the time to send me corrections and explanations. I’m glad that this has turned into what I wanted it to be all along. A team and community effort.

So let’s go ahead and get started!

VOCABULARY

Excellent:　Subarashii:　すばらしい：　素晴らしい

Perfect:　Kanpeki (na):　かんぺき (な)：　完璧 (な)

Beautiful:　Utsukushii:　うつくしい：　美しい

Modern:　Gendaiteki (na):　げんだいてき (な)：　現代的 (な)

Positive (Optimistic):　Rakutenteki (na)：　らくてんてき (な)：　楽天的 (な)

Positive (affirmative):　Kouteiteki (na)：　こうていてき (な):　肯定的 (な)

Normal (ordinary/usual):　Futsuu (no):　ふつう (の)：　普通 (の)

Minimum:　Saiteigen：　さいていげん：　最低限 (noun)

Least/lowest/worst:　Saitei (na/no):　さいてい (な/の)：　最低 (な/の)

Minimum age:　Saiteinenrei:　さいていねんれい：　最低年齢

Note: Just a friendly reminder that the particles in the parentheses are to be added on when the adjective goes BEFORE a noun, but left off if the adjective is at the end of the sentence instead:
EG: Blue book VS the book is blue

SENTENCES

He is not normal.
Kare wa futsuu de wa arimasen.
かれ　は　ふつう　では　ありません。
彼は普通ではありません。
(formal)

He is not normal.
Kare wa futsuu ja nai.
かれ　は　ふつう　じゃ　ない。
彼は普通じゃない。
(informal)

I am a perfect human.
Watashi wa kanpeki na ningen desu.
わたし　は　かんぺき　な　にんげん　です。
私は完璧な人間です。

It is a beautiful bird.
Sore wa utsukushii tori desu.
それ　は　うつくしい　とり　です。
それは美しい鳥です。

He’s a modern man.
Kare wa gendaiteki na dansei desu.
かれ　は　げんだいてき　な　だんせい　です。
彼は現代的な男性です。

I am positive.
Watashi wa kouteiteki desu.
わたし　は　こうていてき　です。
私は肯定的です。
(I am affirmative)

I am positive.
Watashi wa rakutenteki desu.
わたし　は　らくてんてき　です。
私は楽天的です。
(I am optimistic)

It is the minimum age. (EG: for employment)
sore wa saiteinenrei desu.
それ　は　さいていねんれい　です。
それは最低年齢です。

((and now I have to gush something in the comments section))

Thank you for joining me!

WOW guys! My lesson making days might actually be numbered now. I just found out that Japanese is in the incubator! -claps- That certainly is exciting. Before anyone asks I did put in my name to be a course contributor. So cross your fingers for me. In the meantime I’ll still continue making lessons. I said I would until I either finished the tree, or the Japanese for English speakers course came out, and it’s not out yet so let’s keep going!!

VOCABULARY

Official：　Koushiki (no/na):　こうしき (の/な)：　公式 (の/な)

Final:　Saishuuteki (na):　さいしゅうてき (な)：　最終的 (な)

Whole：　Marugoto:　まるごと：　丸ごと (without separating or deforming/ as is/ altogether/ entirely)

Whole:　Marumaru:　まるまる：　丸々 (the whole volume of a thing)
Note: much more suited to not eating things bones and all. Or when talking about the volume of things “a whole bag is left” etc.

Necessary：　Hitsuyou (na):　ひつよう (な)：　必要 (な)

Army：　Guntai:　ぐんたい：　軍隊　(noun)

Independent:　Jiritsu (no):　じりつ (の)：　自立 (の)

Responsible：　Sekinin：　せきにん：　責任　(noun)

SENTENCES

We are not responsible.
Watashi tachi ni wa sekinin wa arimasen.
わたし　たち　に　は　せきにん　は　ありません。
私たちには責任はありません。

Note: The above sentence does not seem to mean “We are not responsible (for whatever thing just happened)” but rather “(this thing) is not our job” “It’s not our duty to handle this” “Not my department” that sort of thing. The word you want when denouncing (or claiming) blame for something is the word “Sei” せい. Which is “Consequence; outcome; result; blame”.

It’s not our fault!
Watashi tachi no sei ja nai!
わたし　たち　の　せい　じゃ　ない！
私たちのせいじゃない！

What is your final answer?
Anata no saishuuteki na kotae wa nan desu ka?
あなた　の　さいしゅうてき　な　こたえ　は　なん　です　か。
あなたの最終的な答えは何ですか。

It is army food.
Sore wa guntai no tabemono desu.
それ　は　ぐんたい　の　たべもの　です。
それは軍隊の食べ物です。

It is necessary.
Sore wa hitsuyou desu.
それ　は　ひつよう　です。
それは必要です。

They are not official.
Karera wa koushiki de wa arimasen.
かれら　は　こうしき　で　は　ありません。
彼らは公式ではありません。

She is an independant woman.
Kanojo wa jiritsu shita josei desu.
かのじょ　は　じりつ　した　じょせい　です。
彼女は自立した女性です。

I eat a whole chicken.
Watashi wa niwatori o marugoto tabemasu.
わたし　は　にわとり　を　まるごと　たべます。
私は鶏を丸ごと食べます。
Note: Like BONES AND ALL!

I eat a whole chicken.
Watashi wa niwatori o marumaru tabemasu.
わたし　は　にわとり　を　まるまる　たべます。
私は鶏を丸々食べます。
Note: I eat the whole chicken… all the edible parts anyway

See you next time.

Hey guys. It’s been a while since the last lesson (not including my last upload which was to replace a deleted lesson). So here we go.

VOCABULARY

Important:　Juuyou (na):　じゅうよう (な)：　重要 （な）

Professional:　Puro (no):　プロ (の)

Living:　Ikiteiru:　いきている：　生きている (verb)

Future:　Mirai (no)：　みらい（の）：　未来（の）(distant future)
Future:　Shourai：　しょうらい：　将来 (near future)

Possible:　Kanou de aru:　かのうである：　可能である

NOTE I’m having some trouble with the possible word here as the word is listed but not used in the sentences expect corrections added in the near future!

Popular:　Ninki (no/na):　にんき (の/な)：　人気 (の/な)

SENTENCES

You are important.
Anata wa juuyou desu.
あなた　は　じゅうよう　です。
あなたは重要です。

You are my future husband.
Anata wa watashi no mirai no otto desu.
あなた　は　わたし　の　みらい　の　おっと　です。
あなたは私の未来の夫です。

NOTE: “You are my future husband” Read as “probably years and years and years from now”

You are my future wife.
Anata wa watashi no shourai no tsuma desu.
あなた　は　わたし　の　しょうらい　の　つま　です。
あなたは私の将来の妻です。

NOTE: “you are my future wife” read as “we’re getting married between now and the next 6 months probably”

We are popular.
Watashi tachi wa ninki ga arimasu.
わたし　たち　は　にんき　が　あります。
私たちは人気があります。　　

NOTE: Literally translated to “We have the people’s feelings” more or less… 人気 is a kanji compound made up of 人 (person/people) and 気 (spirit/mind/heart/nature/disposition/motivation/intention/mood/feelings/ambience). That’s a lot of definitions in one word… in cases like this I tend to mash all the definitions into a sort of feeling… and that helps me understand the nature of the word better. But anyway, “people feelings” and isn’t that what popularity is anyway? It’s a lot of people having the same basic feelings (good ones!!) toward something. That’s what makes it “Popular”. Just a little mnemonic there.

I find it interesting how the grammar works here. “We are popular” becomes “We have the popular” … or better put “We have the people’s feelings.” Definitely a different way to think about that particular sentence and how it’s presented.

He’s a professional actor.
Kare wa puro no haiyuu desu.
かれ　は　プロ　の　はいゆう　です。
彼はプロの俳優です。

A living Animal.
Ikiteiru doubutsu.
いきている　どうぶつ。
生きている動物。

NOTE: Oh! Another one. We did this before (sort of) with tsukareta (tired) where a verb is acting as an adjective. In this case it’s pretty identical to it’s English counterpart. You can use a verb as an adjective by putting it in continuous form and placing it in front of your noun (though tsukareta did not do this). This format is also used to describe other things which, if the duo-tree doesn’t cover it later I will in a separate lesson.

It is not possible for me.
Sore wa watashi ni wa kanou de arimasen.
それ　は　わたし　に　は　かのう　で　ありません。
それは私には可能でありません。

(that sentence was put together by me. I hope it’s right. x_x)
(here’s Duo’s)

It is not possible for me.
Sore wa watashi ni wa ariemasen.
それ　は　わたし　に　は　ありえません。
それは私にはありえません。

As you can see, it’s missing the vocabulary word “possible”, though this may be, in fact, a proper way of conveying the thought as well.

If anyone has any information, especially with the above phrase, please let me know!

Thank you!

VOCABULARY

Clean:　Kirei (na):　きれい (な)：　綺麗 (な)

Dirty:　Kitanai:　きたない：　汚い
(i-adjective)

Different:　Kotonaru:　ことなる：　異なる
(verb)

Left:　Hidari (no):　ひだり (の)：　左 (の)

Human:　Ningen:　にんげん：　人間
(noun)

Recent:　Saikin (no):　さいきん (の)：　最近 (の)

Legal:　Gouhou:　ごうほう：　合法

Illegal:　Ihou:　いほう：　違法

SENTENCES

Are they human?
Karera wa ningen desu ka?
かれら　は　にんげん　です　か。 彼らは人間ですか。

The shirt is clean.
Sono shatsu wa kirei desu.
その　シャツ　は　きれい　です。
そのシャツは綺麗です。

The shirt is dirty.
Sono shatsu wa kitanai desu.
その　シャツ　は　きたない　です。
そのシャツは汚いです。

His left shoe is blue.
Kare no hidari no kutsu wa ao desu.
かれ　の　ひだり　の　くつ　は　あお　です。
彼の左の靴は青です。

Is the newspaper recent?
Sono shinbun wa saikin no mono desu ka?
その　しんぶん　は　さいきん　の　もの　です　か。
その新聞は最近のものですか。
(lit: is that newspaper a recent thing?)

They are different.
Karera wa kotonatteimasu.
かれら　は　ことなっています。
彼らは異なっています。
(kotonaru is conjugated to continuous action form -te imasu)

Your marriage is not legal.
Anata no kekkon wa ihou desu.
あなた　の　けっこん　は　いほう　です。
あなたの結婚は違法です。
(lit: your marriage is illegal)

ALTERNATELY

Your marriage is not legal.
Anata no kekkon wa gouhou dewa arimasen.
あなた　の　けっこん　は　ごうほう　では　ありません。
あなたの結婚は合法ではありません。
(lit: your marriage is not legal)

See you next time!

So we’re just going to continue right along here with our adjectives.

VOCABULARY

Local:　Jimoto (-no):　じもと (-の)：　地元 (-の)

Special:　Tokubetsu (-na/-no)：　とくべつ (-な/-の)：　特別(-な/-の)

Open:　Akeru:　あける：　開ける (transitive: Someone does this action)
Open:　Aku:　あく：　開く (intransitive: No one does this action, it just is.)

Own (eg: my own/his own etc.):　Jibun (-no):　じぶん (-の)：　自分(-の)
Note: Jibun is an interesting word because it works for ALL pronouns: my own, his own, her own, it’s own, their own… it’s ALL “Jibun”

Personal:　Kojinteki (-na)：　こじんてき (-な)：　個人的(-な)

Main:　Omo (-na)：　おも(-な)：　主(-な)

Private:　Shiritsu (-no):　しりつ(-の)：　私立(-の)

SENTENCES

It is a private school.
Sore wa shiritsu no gakkou desu.
それ　は　しりつ　の　がっこう　です。
それは私立の学校です。

Note: Remember! When attached to a noun the adjective needs it’s “na” “no” or “i” endings!!

I like the local food.
Watashi wa jimoto no tabemono ga suki desu.
わたし　は　じもと　の　たべもの　が　すき　です。
私は地元の食べ物が好きです。

The wine is open.
Sono wain wa aiteiru.
その　ワイン　は　あいている。
そのワインは開いている.

Note: you’ll notice Akeru (Aiteiru) is a verb… and NOT actually an adjective… but that is what it is. Also notice we use the version “Aku”, that’s because we don’t know who opened the wine, it’s just open, so we use the intransitive verb.

I have my own dogs.
Watashi wa jibun no inu o katteimasu.
わたし　は　じぶん　の　いぬ　を　かっています。
私は自分の犬を飼っています。

My mother’s dress is special.
Watashi no haha no doresu wa tokubetsu desu.
わたし　の　はは　の　ドレス は　とくべつ　です。
私の母のドレスは特別です。

Our main food.
Watashi tachi no shushoku.
わたしたち　の　しゅしょく。
私たちの主食。
(lit: our staple food)

NOTE! Remember in the previous lesson (this was a recent change so please go back if you didn’t see) Onaji 同じ changes to 同い (onai) ONLY for the word “same age” 同い年? Same here. 主 (omo) changes to 主 (shu) when in the compound 主食 (staple food)… so this one is more a compound word, and less the use of an adjective per-se

Is the question personal?
Sono shitsumon wa kojinteki na mono desu ka?
その　しつもん　は　こじんてき　な　もの　です　か？
その質問は個人的なものですか。
(lit: is the question a personal thing?)

*Note: Here’s the neat thing about teki 的. putting it on certain nouns (not all of them! There’s a select few that do this) can turn them into adjectives 的な or adverbs 的に！ For more on this I think Maggie Sensei on Teki covers it REALLY well!

Alright guys. Moving on into Adjectives. It’s been a while since we’ve had anything grammar related to talk about. … and I’m going to try and take this slow throughout this section… because if I dump all the adjective stuff on you at once… it’s going to come out as a cluster and sound really scary and difficult… which it isn’t.

So let’s start with the basics. Japanese has 3 main types of Adjectives
い - i adjectives
な - na adjectives の - no adjectives
And then, of course, the occasional exception to throw us off. So far in my learning… sort of like “Ru” “-U” and “Hiragana U” verb endings… there’s no real reason they have different endings.

The vast majority of these words will have the “i” “na” and “no” endings when coming before the noun they’re describing: Blue book.
Aoi hon.
あおい ほん。
青い本。

But lose those endings when placed elsewhere in the sentence:
The book is blue.
Hon wa ao desu.
ほん　は　あお　です。
本は青です。

While most adjectives do this, some of them don’t. So this will have to be learned on a word-by-word basis. But that’s what EXAMPLE SENTENCES are for!! :D

Remember, there’s absolutely no shame in example sentences. That’s actually the basis by which we learn our NATIVE languages! We constantly hear grammatically correct sentences and compile these example sentences in our heads and just switch out words for ones we need in that instance. That’s why we can speak PERFECT English… but not know what a “pre-nominal adjective” is…

… because I don’t… and you don’t have to either. We’ve GOT this!

VOCABULARY

Little:　Chiisai:　ちいさい：　小さい
Little:　Chiisana:　ちいさな：　小さな
This one’s a little sneaky. As “Chiisai” is both an “i” and “na” adjective. The key difference between these two is while “Chiisai” can be used before or after a noun (eg: little bird VS the bird is little) (chiisai tori VS ano tori wa chiisai desu) “chiisana” can ONLY be used before the noun it’s describing. (EG: Chiisana tori) NEVER “ano tori wa chiisana desu” … you can however say “Ano tori wa chiisana tori desu” (that bird is a small bird)

Tired:　Tsukareta:　つかれた：　疲れた
rikaichan tells me this is an “f-adjective” … x_x it doesn’t come with one of our “i” “na” “no” endings

Tired:　Tsukareru:　つかれる：　疲れる
….. it’s also a verb…

Bilingual:　Bairingaru:　バイリンガル
This is not only a noun, but a borrowed word! … and has no “i” “na” or “no” ending

Same:　Onaji:　おなじ：　同じ
no “i”, “na”, or “no” ending

Next:　Tsugi (-no):　つぎ (-の)：　次 (-の)

General:　Taitei (-na):　たいてい (-な)

Real:　Hontou (-no/-na):　ほんとう (-の/-な)：　本当 (-の/-な)

SENTENCES

This is going to be the most handy

In General
Taitei wa.
たいていは

That is the topic-marker は. Which means the rest of the sentence is most likely dropped off the end. Think of it like this.

In a conversation where you might use “in general”: Person 1: Why is life so hard?
Person 2: … what part?
Person 1: In general.

We see that “in general” as a full sentence… but it isn’t… it’s a fragment, the rest of that sentence is implied:

“In general, why is life so hard.”

Japanese is pretty famous for dropping off entire chunks of sentences if the context is clear… this is just one of those times.

Who is next?
Tsugi wa dare desu ka?
つぎ　は　だれ　です　か。
次は誰ですか。

Though the adjective technically comes before the thing it’s describing… “next” is the topic. If we re-arrange the sentence as “The next person is who?” it becomes a little more clear that “next” is not acting on the word “who”

as opposed to:
That is the next person.
Sore wa tsugi no hito desu.
それ　は　つぎの　ひと　です。
それは次の人です
Where “tsugi” is acting on the word “hito” and so gets it’s “-no” ending

My little book.
Watashi no chiisana hon.
わたし　の　ちいさな　ほん。
私の小さな本。

You are bilingual.
Anata wa bairingaru desu.
あなた　は　バイリンガル　です。

She is tired.
Kanojo wa tsukareta.
かのじょ　は　つかれた。
彼女は疲れた。

She is tired.
Kanojo wa tsukareteimasu.
かのじょ　は　つかれています。
彼女は疲れています。
Because, remember, “Tired” is also a verb (tsukareru) and in this case you’d most likely want to use present continuous form (-teimasu)

It is the same.
Sore wa onaji desu.
それ　は　おなじ　です。
それは同じです。

She and I, in the same year, came to America Kanojo to watashi wa onajitoshi ni amerika ni kimashita. かのじょ　と　わたし　は　おなじとし　に　アメリカ　に　きました。
彼女と私 は同じ年にアメリカに来ました。

She is the same age as me.
Kanojo wa watashi to Onaidoshi desu.
かのじょ　は　わたし　と　おないどし　です。
彼女は私と同い年です。

NOTE: 同じ (onaji) only changes to 同い (onai-) when talking about age. Otherwise it will remain as (onaji)

No, it is real.
iie, hontou desu.
いいえ、ほんとう　です。
いいえ本当です。

…. it came out as sort of a cluster after all…. Well. Like I said. I’ll try to take it slow… but duo is sort of doing a trial by fire with this word selection… if I could make a suggestion for the actual course, whenever it’s made, it would be to pace out this section better. Teach the main adjective types. When they have their endings, when they don’t…. and THEN tackle the weird ones.

I hope this wasn’t too much for anybody. PLEASE if you’re lost leave a question and me, or anyone else passing through with the knowledge will be more than happy to give more in depth explanations!!

Thank you!

:) this is the last part of the Jobs section!

VOCABULARY

Cook:　Ryourinin:　りょうりにん：　料理人

Soldiers:　Heishi:　へいし：　兵士

Boss:　Joushi:　じょうし：　上司

Profession:　Shokugyou:　しょくぎょう：　職業

Farmer:　Nouka:　のうか：　農家

Architect:　Kenchikuka:　けんちくか：　建築家

Engineer:　Gijutsusha:　ぎじゅつしゃ：　技術者

Waiter:　Ueita-:　ウェイター
note: notice that the エ is small ェ… it’s important when using “U” in conjunction with a vowel to make a “W”+vowel combination. In this case “we”

Waitress:　Ueitoresu：　ウェイトレス

SENTENCES

He is the engineer, she is the architect.
Kare wa gijutsusha, kanojo wa kenchikuka desu.
かれ　は　ぎじゅつしゃ　かのじょ　は　けんちくか　です。
彼は技術者、彼女は建築家です。

We drink with the boss.
Watashitachi wa joushi to nomimasu.
わたしたち　は　じょうし　と　のみます。
私達は上司と飲みます。

Note: Remember that “to” takes the meaning “with” when placed behind a living thing (person/animal/title -eg: boss)

He is a waiter.
Kare wa ueita- desu.
かれ　は　ウェイター　です。
彼はウェイターです。

I am a cook.
Watashi wa ryourinin desu.
わたし　は　りょうりにんです。
私は料理人です。

My daughter is a waitress.
Watashi no musume wa ueitoresu desu.
わたし　の　むすめ　は　ウェイトレス　です。
私の娘はウェイトレスです。

What is your profession?
Anata no shokugyou wa nan desu ka?
あなた　の　しょくぎょう　は　なん　です　か。
あなたの職業は何ですか。

The Farmer has horses.
Nouka wa uma o katteimasu.
のうか　は　うま　を　かっています。
農家は馬を飼っています。

They are soldiers.
Karera wa heishi desu.
かれら　は　へいし　です。
彼らは兵士です。

Next time we’ll be starting on Adjectives! Which of course will come with more grammar explanation than these last several lessons have. :)

VOCABULARY

Professional:　Senmonka:　せんもんか：　専門家

Judge:　Saibankan:　さいばんかん：　裁判官

Writer:　Sakka:　さっか：　作家

Police Officer:　Keisatsukan:　けいさつかん：　警察官
Note: yes… they did give us Police Officer again…

Guard:　Keibiin:　けいびいん：　警備員

Actor:　Haiyuu:　はいゆう：　俳優

Captain:　Senchou:　せんちょう：　船長

As (i.e: in the role of):　Toshite:　として

SENTENCES

I am not a Judge.
Watashi wa saibankan dewa arimasen.
わたし　は　さいばんかん　では　ありません
私は裁判官ではありません。

*Note: It’s been several lessons, and some of you here are new, so just a review… “Dewa arimasen” is the negative conjugation of “Desu”. That’s a little weird I know. There are actually 6 different ways to say “is not” and they are, for the most part, completely interchangeable with one another. They are:

Dewa arimasen：　ではありません
Ja arimasen:　　　じゃありません
Dewa nai desu：　ではないです
Ja nai desu:　　　じゃないです
Dewa nai:　　　　ではない
Ja nai: 　　　　　じゃない

The first two are the most formal versions though. :)*

I am a professional.
Watashi wa senmonka desu.
わたし　は　せんもんか　です。
私は専門家です。

I am a police officer.
Watashi wa keisatsukan desu.
わたし　は　けいさつかん　です。
私は警察官です。

He is an actor.
Kare wa haiyuu desu.
かれ　は　はいゆう　です。
彼は俳優です。

You work as a guard
Anata wa keibiin toshite hataraiteimasu.
あなた　は　けいびいん　として　はたらいています。
あなたは警備員として働いています。

*Note: In sentences where you need to use “as”… with the definition of (in the role of) … like in the above sentence, you will use the word “toshite”. Unlike English… where we put “as” BEFORE the occupation, you will put “toshite” AFTER the occupation.

Keibiin toshite hataraiteimasu
Guard as work

Also remember when using the verb “work” (hataraku) it needs to be conjugated into continuous form (te-imasu form) to express that the person is presently and currently working in that occupation*

Let’s continue, shall we?

VOCABULARY

Director:　Kantoku:　かんとく：　監督　(supervisor/manager … etc.)

Career:　Keireki:　けいれき：　経歴

Police:　Keisatsu:　けいさつ：　警察
Cop:　Omawarisan:　おまわりさん：　お巡りさん　(police officer… but less formal… so much like the American “cop”)

Police officer:　Keisatsukan:　けいさつかん：　警察官

Note: per HappyEvilSlosh this seems to be a more formal version of cop/police officer than “omawari san”. … after staring at it for a little bit I’d say Keisatsukan is more like a single police officer, and Keisatsu would be the police as a whole. :) If we can get a native or more experienced speaker to help clear this up that’d be wonderful! Thank you!

Artist:　Geijutsuka:　げいじゅつか：　芸術家

Secretary:　Hisho:　ひしょ：　秘書

Workers:　Juugyouin:　じゅうぎょういん：　従業員 (employee)

Workers:　Roudousha:　ろうどうしゃ：　労働者 (laborer/blue collar worker)

Lawyer:　Bengoshi:　べんごし：　弁護士

SENTENCES

The Police
Keisatsu
けいさつ
警察

Note: I don’t usually put those sentences up because it’s just the vocabulary word as Japanese has no articles… and also no plurals

Her father is the director.
Kanojo no chichi wa kantoku desu.
かのじょ　の　ちち　は　かんとく　です。
彼女の父は監督です。

They are my workers.
Karera wa watashi no juugyouin desu.
かれら　は　わたし　の　じゅうぎょういん　です。
彼らは私の従業員です

My mother is a secretary.
Watashi no haha wa hisho desu.
わたし　の　はは　は　ひしょ　です。
私の母は秘書です。

Are you a lawyer?
Anata wa bengoshi desu ka?
あなた　は　べんごし　です　か。
あなたは弁護士ですか。

BONUS

Speaking of words like “Omawarisan”! I have a song for you!

迷子の迷子の子猫ちゃん。あなたのお家はどこですか。
まいご　の　まいご　の　こねこちゃん。　あなた　の　おうち　は　どこ　です　か
Maigo no maigo no konekochan. Anata no ouchi wa doko desu ka?
Lost lost kitten. Where is your home?

お家を聞いても分からない。名前を聞いても分からない。
おうち　を　きいても　わからない。　なまえ　を　きいても　わからない。
Ouchi o kiite mo wakaranai. Namae o kiite mo wakaranai.
[I] ask [about] your home, [you] don’t know. [I] ask [your] name, [you] don’t know.

ニャン（x8）泣いてばかりいる子猫ちゃん。
ニャン（x8）ないて　ばかりいる　こねこちゃん。
Nyan (x8) naite bakari iru koneko chan.
Meow (x8) The kitten that always cries.

犬のお巡りさん、困ってしまって。ワン(ｘ８)
いぬ　の　おまわりさん　こまって　しまって。　ワン（ｘ８）
Inu no omawarisan komatte shimatte. Wan (x8)
Mr. Dog policeman, [you’re] in trouble [now]. Bark (x8)

That’s only the first verse (there are 2) and it can be argued that this can be translated in a hand-full of different ways. Some that even I think better convey the message… but they tend to leave out words or scramble the sentence and right now my goal is to give you these sentences as word-for-word as humanly possible so you can match the English words to their Japanese counterparts and get a better feel of the language.

I actually had a lot of resources that didn’t give a word for word translation and I’d try to sort of reverse engineer the sentences and come up just completely lost when I was first learning. :( no fun.

ANYWAY! If you want to listen to the song here’s a youtube video The one that I used to watch that… might have actually had the English attached doesn’t seem to be on youtube anymore. :/ So I might put the second half of the song in the comments.

Today we’ll be looking at job titles. This section is difficult for me because my brain just does not want to remember these words for some reason. To others this section may seem difficult if not straight out daunting because all of these words are 2-3 kanji long.

If Kanji still scares you, don’t be afraid. We live in a digital age and you don’t have to remember these well enough to write them! And your brain can and will recognize the symbol well enough to read them even if you can’t write them! Trust me on this.

As always I will continue using hiragana and romaji in the examples. :) So don’t fret!

Let’s get started!

VOCABULARY

Student:　Gakusei:　がくせい：　学生

Doctor:　Isha:　いしゃ：　医者

Work (noun):　Shigoto:　しごと：　仕事
Work (verb):　Hataraku:　はたらく：　働く

Workplace:　Shigotoba:　しごとば：　仕事場

Author:　Sakka:　さっか：　作家

Job:　Shigoto:　しごと：　仕事
Part-time Job:　Arubaito:　あるばいと：　アルバイト

FUN FACT: “arubaito” is actually a GERMAN loan word! From “Arbeit” meaning “work”

Model:　Moderu:　モデル

Staff:　Sutaffu:　スタッフ
Staff:　Shokuin:　しょくいん：　職員

SENTENCES

The staff read the newspaper
Sutaffu wa shinbun o yomimasu.
スタッフ　は　しんぶん　を　よみます。
スタッフは新聞を読みます。

The staff read the newspaper.
Shokuin wa shinbun o yomimasu.
しょくいん　は　しんぶん　を　よみます。
職員は新聞を読みます。

Note: I’m not sure which is more common, “Sutaffu” or “Shokuin”. Duo wants me to believe it’s “Sutaffu”

My uncle is at work.
Watashi no ojisan wa shigotoba ni imasu.
わたし　の　おじさん　は　しごとば　に　います。
私の叔父さんは仕事場にいます。
(lit: My uncle is at [his] workplace)

Note: The above sentence makes a little more sense to an English speaking mind than the below one, i think.

My uncle is at work.
Watashi no ojisan wa shigotochuu desu.
わたし　の　おじさん　は　しごとちゅう　です。
私の叔父さんは仕事中です。 (lit: My uncle is in the middle of work)
note: except I think in the English translation “work” is in it’s verb form… where as in the Japanese one it’s still a noun…

*Note: Shigoto can become Shigotochuu (if you choose to use that one) kind of like a few lessons back when you say someone’s at lunch you can use “chuushokuchuu”! When using Shigotochuu you need to use “desu” as your final verb NOT “ni imasu” *

I like the students.
Watashi wa gakusei ga suki desu.
わたし　は　がくせい　が　すき　です。
私は学生が好きです。

Okay that’s it for now. I’d come up with some more sentences for you guys but I’m in the middle of a blood sugar crash so… yeeeeaaahhh. :)

Final part of the Family bubble. This one was pretty short!

VOCABULARY

Grandmother：　Obaasan:　おばあさん

Family：　Kazoku:　かぞく：　家族

Grandfather：　Ojiisan:　おじいさん

Parents：　Oya:　おや：　親 (can be just one, or both parents)
Parents:　Ryoushin:　りょうしん：　両親　(Emphasis on both parents)

Name：　Namae:　なまえ：　名前

SENTENCES

My dad eats fish
Watashi no chichi wa sakana o tabemasu.
わたし　の　ちち　は　さかな　を　たべます
私の父は魚を食べます。

What is your daughter’s name？
Anata no musume no namae wa nan desu ka?
あなた　の　むすめ　の　なまえ　は　なん　です　か。 あなたの娘の名前は何ですか。

My parents like the beer.
Watashi no oya wa sono bi-ru ga suki desu.
わたし　の　おや　は　その　ビール　が　すき　です。
私の親はそのビールが好きです。
(lit: “my parents like that beer”)

Not really a whole lot of sentences in this one… It’s more of a focus on vocabulary than grammar at this point and going forward a little bit.

.> The other example sentence listed was “It is Saturday” and that really has nothing to do with anything in this lesson.

So I guess that’s it for this part!

Next time we’ll be covering OCCUPATIONS!! (which I have a really hard time with for some reason….)

So until then!

Welp. I’ve found myself with a little unexpected free time so let’s go ahead and continue with another lesson, shall we?

VOCABULARY

Siblings：　Kyoudai:　きょうだい：　兄弟

Note: You’ll notice that this is the same word as the word for “brothers” in our last lesson! On the one hand that’s one less word to have to learn… but on the other it may make things slightly more confusing.

Husband:　Otto:　おっと：　夫

Wife:　Okusan:　おくさん：　奥さん

Husband & Wife (spouses)：　Fuufu:　ふうふ：　夫婦

Uncle：　Ojisan:　おじさん：　叔父さん / 伯父さん　　 Note: Watch the Kanji on this one! 叔父 is “younger than one’s parent” and 伯父 is “older than one’s parent”! Both words sound the same so this difference really only matters in writing.

Another Note: Also! Watch your spelling… “Ojisan” is “uncle” but “Ojiisan” is “grandpa”!! That might sound a little intimidating when dealing with spoken Japanese but you’ll get the hang of the sound of slightly elongated vowels like that. “Uncle” will sound more like “Oj'san” with the “i” barely enunciated and “Grandpa” will have a more noticeable “ee” sound. “Oh-jee-san”

Aunt:　Obasan:　おばさん：　叔母さん / 伯母さん
Note: Another one to watch your kanji on! Again 叔母 is “younger than one’s parent” and 伯母 is “older than one’s parent”, and again, as they sound the same this difference only matters in writing.

Another Note: like “Ojisan” the difference between “aunt” and “Grandma” is one sylable. “Obasan” = Aunt…. but “Obaasan” is Grandma! This one will be a little bit harder to catch when spoken because an “a” sound isn’t as easy to hop over as an “i” sound so listen carefully and pay attention to context!

Marriage:　Kekkon:　けっこん：　結婚
Note: The above is the NOUN version. To make it a verb you have to add “suru”

OTHER MISC INFORMATION

Other misc. information before we continue. “Ojisan” and “Obasan” are also used to refer to older non-relatives. As such, it’s generally a term only used by children. But it’s good to know if you’re ever watching a shounen anime -coughnarutocough-

SENTENCES

We are Husband and Wife
Watashitachi wa fuufu desu.
わたしたち　は　ふうふ　です。
私達は夫婦です。
(lit: we are spouses)

We are not siblings.
Watashitachi wa kyoudai dewa arimasen.
わたしたち　は　きょうだい　では　ありません。
私達は兄弟ではありません。

I eat with my aunt.
Watashi wa obasan to tabemasu.
わたし　は　おばさん　と　たべます。
私は伯母さんと食べます。

*NOTE: It’s been a while since this piece of grammar was covered, so let’s briefly go over it again. In these sentences you’ll be using the particle “to”, and this time “to” is acting like the word “with.”
When using this kind of sentence the first person listed will have the topic marker “wa” after. And the second person listed with always be followed by “to”.

BE CAREFUL! Unlike English you won’t want to stick “with” between the two people you’re talking about, because “to” will change it’s meaning to “and”

Watashi to obasan = Me and aunt (this gives off the feeling of a list) Watashi wa obasan to… = Me and aunt (gives off the feeling of both “me” and “aunt” doing something together….. a verb is required)*

My uncle likes the color.
Watashi no ojisan wa sono iro ga suki desu.
わたし　の　おじさん　は　その　いろ　が　すき　です。 私の叔父さんはその色が好きです。
(lit: My uncle likes that color)

Note: as long as the context is clear you can leave off “watashi no”… in fact as long as the context is clear you can leave off most if not all pronouns.

He is my husband.
Kare wa watashi no otto desu.
かれ　は　わたし　の　おっと　です。
彼は私の夫です。　　

She is my wife.
Kanojo wa watashi no Okusan desu.
かのじょ　は　わたし　の　おくさん　です。
彼女は私の奥さんです。

My wedding.
Watashi no kekkon
わたし　の　けっこん
私の結婚。

I was going to do a BONUS sentence from Full Metal Alchemist because I know of one spot where they use the word “wife” (and I managed to catch it, actually)… but unfortunately FMA: Brotherhood is no longer available through the usual means so I had to scrap that idea. ;A; Sorry everyone!! I looked hard for you!!

VOCABULARY

Mother:　Haha:　はは：　母　(one’s own)
　　　　Okaasan:　おかあさん：　お母さん (referring to another person’s) Note: I find that “okaasan” is more common, even when referring to one’s own mother. However, the Duolingo course will prefer you use “haha”

Father:　Chichi:　ちち：　父　(one’s own)
　　　　Otousan:　おとうさん：　お父さん (referring to another person’s) Note: Again, I found “otousan” to be more common, even when referring to one’s own father. But the Duolingo course will prefer you use “chichi”

Son:　Musuko:　むすこ：　息子

Daughter:　Musume:　むすめ：　娘

Brother (older):　Ani:　あに：　兄 (one’s own) Brother (older):　Oniisan:　お兄さん (referring to another person’s) Brother (younger):　Otouto:　おとうと：　弟
Brothers：　Kyoudai:　きょうだい：　兄弟

Sister (older)：　Ane:　あね：　姉 (one’s own)
Sister (older):　Oneesan：　おねえさん：　お姉さん (referring to another person’s) Sister (younger):　Imouto:　いもうと：　妹
Sisters:　Shimai:　しまい：　姉妹

NOTE: “san” “kun” “chan” and “o___” are generally reserved for talking about someone else’s family members, NOT your own!

SENTENCES

I want sons and daughters.
Watashi wa musuko to musume ga hoshii desu.
わたし　は　むすこ　と　むすめ　が　ほしい　です。
私は息子と娘が欲しいです。

He is between my brother and sister.
Kare wa watashi no (ani/otouto) to (ane/imouto) no aida ni imasu.
かれ　は　わたし　の　(あに/おとうと)　と　(あね/いもうと)　の　あいだ　に　います。 彼は私の(兄/弟)と(姉/妹)の間にいます。

My father loves my mother.
Watashi no chichi wa watashi no haha wo ai shiteimasu.
わたし　の　ちち　は　わたし　の　はは　を　あい　しています。
私の父は私の母を愛しています。

He is my son.
Kare wa watashi no musuko desu.
かれ　は　わたし　の　むすこ　です。
彼は私の息子です。

We are not brothers.
Watashi tachi wa kyoudai dewa arimasen.
わたしたち　は　きょうだい　では　ありません。
私達は兄弟ではありません。

Lessons 6, 7, and 8, are so IMPOSSIBLY SHORT that I’ll be sticking them all together. … if you want to know, that’s why this lesson has taken so long. I’ve started it like… 3 times and realized I could just tack the next lesson on and by then I didn’t have time to do anything.

VOCABULARY

Winter:　Fuyu:　ふゆ：　冬

Spring:　Haru:　はる：　春

Summer: 　Natsu:　なつ：　夏

Fall:　Aki:　あき：　秋

Generation:　Sedai:　せだい：　世代

Century:　Seiki:　せいき：　世紀

Birthday:　Tanjoubi:　たんじょうび：　誕生日

Moment:　Shunkan:　しゅんかん：　瞬間

Evening:　Yuugata:　ゆうがた：　夕方

Decade:　Juu nen:　じゅうねん：　十年

Second:　Byou：　びょう：　秒

Period:　Jikan:　じかん：　時間

A Bit:　Chotto:　ちょっと

Minute:　Fun:　ふん：　分

Until:　Made:　まで

SENTENCES

I like summer and fall.
Watashi wa natsu to aki ga suki desu.
わたし　は　なつ　と　あき　が　すき　です。
私は夏と秋が好きです。

In a moment.
Shunkan ni.
しゅんかん　に
瞬間に

Minutes and seconds.
Fun to byou.
ふん　と　びょう。
分と秒。

Until today.
Kyou made.　　 きょう　まで。
今日まで。

We read a bit.
Watashitachi wa chotto yomimasu.
わたしたち　は　ちょっと　よみます。
私たちはちょっと読みます。

I like the afternoon period.
Watashi wa hirusugi ga suki desu.
わたし　は　ひるすぎ　が　すき　です。
私は昼過ぎが好きです。

I like the afternoon period.
Watashi wa gogo no jikan ga suki desu.
わたし　は　ごご　の　じかん　が　すき　です。
私は午後の時間が好きです。

That’s it! Told you it was short for 3 lessons. The majority of the “Sample sentences” are just “A _” or “The ” and as you know Japanese doesn’t really have articles…. so it’s just the vocabulary word by itself.

So until next time!!

WOW! We’ve made it to 50 lessons!!! :D

VOCABULARY

July:　Shichigatsu:　しちがつ：　七月　（７月）

August:　Hachigatsu:　はちがつ：　八月　（８月）

September:　Kugatsu:　くがつ：　九月　（９月）

October:　Juugatsu:　じゅうがつ：　十月　（１０月）

November:　Juuichigatsu:　じゅういちがつ：　十一月　（１１月）

December:　Juunigatsu:　じゅうにがつ：　十二月　（１２月）

Season:　Kisetsu:　きせつ：　季節

SENTENCES

From October to December
Juugatsu kara juunigatsu made
じゅうがつ　から　じゅうにがつ　まで １０月から１２月まで

From July to September
Shichigatsu kara kugatsu made
しちがつ　から　くがつ　まで
７月から９月まで。

It is November.
Juuichigatsu desu.
じゅういちがつ　です。
１１月です。

We swim in August.
watashitachi wa hachigatsu ni oyogimasu.
わたしたち　は　はちがつ　に　およぎます。
私達は８月に泳ぎます。

For the record that’d be a VERY COLD idea around here.

It is tomato season.
Tomato no kisetsu desu.
トマト　の　きせつ　です。
トマトの季節です。

I like december.
Watashi wa juunigatsu ga suki desu.
わたし　は　じゅうにがつ　が　すき　です。
私は１２月が好きです。

:) This was another simple lesson, so you all get 2 today!

VOCABULARY

Date:　Hidzuke:　ひづけ：　日付
(yes I know づ is a horrendous sound to figure out.)

January:　Ichigatsu:　いちがつ：　一月　（1月）

February:　Nigatsu:　にがつ：　二月　（2月）

March:　Sangatsu:　さんがつ：　三月　（3月）

April:　Shigatsu:　しがつ：　四月　（4月）

May:　Gogatsu:　ごがつ：　五月　（5月）
(bonus: gogatsubyou = may-fever. A laziness that sparks after Golden Week, in May)

June:　Rokugatsu:　ろくがつ：　六月　（6月）

SENTENCES

In April and May.
shigatsu to Gogatsu ni
しがつ　と　ごがつ　に
四月と五月に
４月と５月に

I think Arabic numerals (1,2,3,4,5 etc…) are becoming more popular in Japan than Japanese numerals (一、二、三、四、五 etc…) but there they both are anyway.

February, March and April.
Nigatsu, sangatsu soshite shigatsu.
にがつ、　さんがつ　そして　しがつ。
二月、三月、そして四月。
２月、３月そして４月。

She plays in June.
Kanojo wa rokugatsu ni asobimasu.
かのじょ　は　ろくがつ　に　あそびます。
彼女は六月に遊びます。

Is it January?
Ima wa ichigatsu desu ka?
いま　は　いちがつ　です　か。
今は一月ですか。
(lit: is it January now?)

It is February.
Ima wa nigatsu desu.
いま　は　にがつ　です。
今は二月です。
(lit: now it is february)

Well… that was a short sweet and simple lesson. :3

VOCABULARY

Saturday：　Doyoubi:　どようび：　土曜日

Sunday：　Nichiyoubi:　にちようび：　日曜日

Year：　Toshi:　とし：　年
Nen:　ねん：　年 (This is a counter)

Age：　Toshi:　とし：　年
Nen:　ねん：　年 (This is a counter)

Yes, same word, isn’t that lovely? Oh and a “counter” is a word that goes behind a number to show what you’re talking about. sort of how we use “years old” but there are TONS more counters in Japanese than English.

Week：　Shuu:　しゅう：　週

Month：　Tsuki:　つき：　月
Gatsu:　がつ：　月 (Gatsu is used when paired with a number or “nani”)
Kagetsu:　かげつ：　ヶ月 (this is a counter!!)

Hour：　Jikan:　じかん：　時間

I personally like the fact that Sunday in Japanese is still “SUN day”. … on that note I also like how Monday is “Moon day”. :)

SENTENCES

Saturday and Sunday
Doyoubi to Nichiyoubi
どようび　と　にちようび
土曜日と日曜日

Weeks and Months
Suushuukan to suukagetsu
すうしゅうかん　と　すうかげつ
数週間と数ヶ月
(lit: Several weeks and several months)

数 (suu) means “number” or “several” (or “many”…etc. etc.) and we know 間 is a marker for a period of time. KAGETSU ヶ月 is a COUNTER for months. :)

The years
Suunen
すうねん
数年

NOTICE Pronouns are to be avoided at all costs. However to get through the reverse tree you’ll have to use them… so we’re just going to use them.

We walk for an hour
Watashitachi wa ichijikan arukimasu.
わたしたち　は　いちじかん　あるきます。
私達は一時間歩きます。

He is my age.
Kare wa watashi to onaidoshi desu.
かれ　は　わたし　と　おないどし　です。
彼は私と同い年です。 (lit: He and I are the same age)

You’ll notice for 同い年, 同じ (onaji) changes it’s sound to “onai” and 年 (toshi) changes it’s sound to “doshi”

… maybe for simplicity’s sake… try to learn it as it’s own word. :) I find that helps me out a lot instead of remembering rules. …. though it is kind of weird to think of the fragment “same age” as a singular word…

You’ll also notice the particle “to” which in this case probably takes on a closer feeling of it’s translation of “with”…. but in English that makes no sense and we’d use the definition “and” (… which actually carries with it the same sort of meaning in English… but not the same strength, I think.)

She is your age.
Kanojo wa anata to onaidoshi desu.
かのじょ　は　あなた　と　おないどし　です。
彼女はあなたと同い年です。

The week
Shuu
しゅう
週

Today is Sunday.
Kyou wa nichiyoubi desu.
きょう　は　にちようび　です。
今日は日曜日です。

Thank you.
Until next time!

So… I wrote a whole duplicate lesson. HAHA. and I forgot to delete the link when I deleted the dup lesson. So let’s try again.

VOCABULARY

Calendar:　Koyomi:　こよみ：　暦

Monday：　Getsuyoubi:　げつようび：　月曜日

Tuesday：　Kayoubi:　かようび：　火曜日

Wednesday：　Suiyoubi:　すいようび：　水曜日

Thursday：　Mokuyoubi:　もくようび：　木曜日

Friday：　Kinyoubi:　きんようび：　金曜日

Day：　Hi:　ひ：　日
(in compounds 日 changes it’s sound a bunch… you may just want to learn 日 compound words on an individual bases instead of relying on the kanji to make the same sound all the time.) ((like seriously it’s a lot))(((yeowch)))

SENTENCES

It is Tuesday.
Kayoubi desu.
かようび　です。
火曜日です。

It is Monday.
Getsuyoubi desu.
げつようび　です。
月曜日です。

What day is tomorrow?
Ashita wa nanyoubi desu ka?
あした　は　なんようび　です　か。
明日は何曜日ですか。

Tomorrow is Thursday.
Ashita wa mokuyoubi desu.
あした　は　もくようび　です。
明日は木曜日です。

Tomorrow is not Friday.
Ashita wa kinyoubi de wa arimasen.
あした　は　きんようび　で　は　ありません。
明日は金曜日ではありません。

It is Wednesday.
Suiyoubi desu.
すいようび　です。
水曜日です。

… that was a pretty painless lesson… and I tend to know my days of the week pretty well. Jeez I’m sad I put this one off for so long.
I will say this about that though. I learned the words “Tomorrow” and “Yesterday” reversed somehow… and it’s still something I fight with constantly. So if you ever see me type “Tomorrow” as “Kinou” that’s why.

:D Alright guys now we’re starting on the next tier.

VOCABULARY

Today:　Kyou:　きょう：　今日

Tomorrow:　Ashita:　あした：　明日

Tonight:　Konya:　こんや：　今夜

Night:　Yoru:　よる：　夜

Morning:　Asa:　あさ：　朝

Afternoon:　Hiru:　ひる：　昼
Afternoon:　Gogo:　ごご：　午後

NOTE: the difference is fairly minimal in English. It seems to me a bigger difference is implied in Japanese. Like “Hiru” is the afternoon as a whole… like “the middle of the day”… like “Hey wake up it’s already the afternoon!” and “gogo” is like “pm” but… like… if you were to say “Tomorrow in the afternoon” you’d use “gogo” not “hiru”.

Time:　Toki:　とき：　時
Time:　Jikan:　じかん：　時間

NOTE: I think the best way I can explain this one is “toki” is more of time in an abstract sense? And “Jikan” is something more managable like a specific amount of time. The 間 sort of denotes a specific interval. If that makes sense. …. really some of these nuances make a LOT more sense in Japanese when you begin to hear and use them and don’t really have a difference in definition in English.

SENTENCES

Tomorrow in the afternoon
Ashita no gogo.
あした　の　ごご
明日の午後。

The morning
Asa
あさ
朝

You have time.
anata wa jikan ga arimasu.
あなた　は　じかん　が　あります。
あなたは時間があります。 (lit: You [have] exiting time)

NOTE: In this sense “arimasu” sort of acts like the word “have” (it’s still intransitive though, meaning no one and nothing caused that verb to happen… so we still use “ga”) Basically you can use “arimasu” with things that you have… but is not an animal (katteimasu) 「飼っています」and not something you own and can physically touch (motteimasu) 「持っています」… but instead is something that is just sort of there… that you maybe can’t exclusively have to yourself (like time!) …. if that makes sense

I sleep at night
Watashi wa yoru ni nemasu.
わたし　は　よる　に　ねます。
私は夜に寝ます。

How are you today? (implying the person was sick the day before) Kyou wa ogenki desu ka？
きょう　は　おげんき　です　か。
今日はお元気ですか。

NOTE: Ogenki desu ka is NOT to be used as a daily greeting like in English. It implies that someone wasn’t feeling well the day before. It’s more of a “Are you feeling well” or “are you feeling better today.” This is a common mistranslation. Thanks to “akira0eigo”, “Kyou MO ogenki desu ka.” which translates to more of a “Are you also well today?” Is more a natural way of saying this if you insist on saying it on the daily. I would still recommend you do not. Akira0eigo also says that “Ogenki desu ka” is most often used in a letter. Which I actually didn’t know… but really makes sense.

A closer translation of “How are you today” would actually be:

How are you today?
Kyou no choushi wa dou desu ka.
きょう　の　ちょうし　は　どう　です　か。
今日の調子はどうですか。
Lit: How is the mood of today?

調子: ちょうし：　Choushi: tune; tone; key; pitch; time; rhythm; vein; mood; way; manner; style; knack; condition; state of health; impetus; spur of the moment; strain; trend ~rikaichan

Thanks again akira0eigo

What time is it?
Nanji desu ka?
なんじ　です　か。
何時ですか。

NOTE: Yeah, “what time” translates to “nan ji” because the kanji end up together and therefore make a compound. Which changes their sound …. I don’t know if that’s kunyomi or onyomi though because I don’t generally remember my kanji sounds like that… I learn them as whole words..

We eat fish tonight.
Watashi tachi wa sakana o konya ni tabemasu.
わたしたち　は　さかな　を　こんや　に　たべます。
私達は魚を今夜に食べます。

We eat fish tonight.
Watashi tachi wa konya ni sakana o tabemasu.
わたしたち　は　こんや　に　さかな　を　たべます。
私達は今夜に魚を食べます。

Tonight, we eat fish.
Konya、 watashitachi wa sakana o tabemasu.
こんや　わたしたち　は　さかな　を　たべます。
今夜私達は魚を食べます。

That’s it for this lesson guys. :) I hope you enjoyed it!

^_^ This is the last part of Prepositions, and the end of the second tier on the tree. So CONGRATULATIONS! :D

VOCABULARY

Towards：　No kata ni:　の　かた　に：　の方に

Towards:　Mukau:　むかう：　向かう

Near:　No chikaku ni:　の　ちかく　に：　の近くに

Over: (as in “it’s over” or the end of something!!)　Owaru:　おわる：　終わる

Over: (as in on top of something)　No ue ni:　の　うえ　に：　の上に

Except：　～Igai：　～いがい：　~以外

Against：(as in “vs”)　Tai:　たい：　対

GRAMMAR

Yeah okay I’m going to touch on some things here. First and foremost… if you can avoid a pronoun because the context is known… ALWAYS avoid the pronoun. It’s best to use someone’s name if you can.

Okay let’s start with “towards” の方に Personally I would translate this closer to “In the direction of”. That helps me remember it should have the possessive “no” の which in this case would be acting as “of”… and the directional “ni” に.

On the subject of the directional に, duolingo recommends the particle へ!

The Particle へ: The symbol へ would normally be pronounced “heh” HOWEVER. When it’s used as a directional particle it makes the sound “eh”. Otherwise it works just like the particle “ni” に, but is used in more formal settings.

In this lesson we get 2 completely different definitions of the word “over” … one is a preposition, the other is not. I suspect this was more for the ease of the Japanese speakers learning English. So in this lesson we’ll be learning both “Over” as in “it’s over” and “over” as in “on top of”

And finally, we won’t be getting the preposition version of “against” in this lesson… (which incidentally I don’t know anyway)… but you might be able to use “near” instead for those situations…. If anyone knows better PLEASE tell me!

SENTENCES

She walks towards him.
Kanojo wa kare no kata ni arukimasu.
かのじょ　は　かれ　の　かた　に　あるきます。
彼女は彼の方に歩きます。

It is over.
Owarimasu.
おわります。
終わります。

Note: Remember a while back when I said you can make a full sentence with just the verb? Here’s one of them! As long as the context is clear you only need “Owaru”.

Except for the wine.
Wain igai.
ワイン　いがい。
ワイン以外。

Kind of like with “ato” “igai” seems to be tacked right at the end of the noun you’re speaking of at the time.

The dogs sleep near us.
Inu wa watashitachi no chikaku ni nemasu.
いぬ　は　わたしたち　の　ちかく　に　ねます。
犬は私達の近くに寝ます。

The dog walks over the cat.
Inu wa neko no ue o arukimasu.
いぬ　は　ねこ　の　うえ　を　あるきます。
犬は猫の上を歩きます。
(lit: The dog walks on top of the cat)

LOOKOUT: When talking about walking on someplace or walking at a place (eg a park) you want to use the particle “o” を instead of “ni” に!! I guess in a sense you can think of it as GOING TO a destination (ni) VS walking ON or AT (essentially on) a place. Which, yes, kind of seems weird… to me anyway. … do bear in mind though… when not talking about walking… and talking about something being on top of something else we’d still use the particle “ni”.

Syntax just ALWAYS needs that one exception. Right?

I want her near me.
Watashi wa kanojo ni chikaku o ite hoshii.
わたし　は　かのじょ　に　ちかく　を　いて　ほしい。
私は彼女に近くをいて欲しい。

I walk towards them.
Watashi wa karera mukatte arukimasu.
わたし　は　かれら　に　むかって　あるきます。
私は彼らに向かって歩きます。

Note: Here we have an example of CHAINING VERBS TOGETHER. Yes you can chain verbs together. … usually not in this… sort of way. Usually they’re chained together in a list like “I’m going to do and go to _ and do _” but the same rule applies to both. When chaining verbs you want to turn the first verb into “te” form and the second one with a “masu” ending when chaining 2 verbs together. When chaining 3 verbs the first 2 need to be in “te” form and the last one with a “masu” ending…. for 4 or more you need to chill. (JK same thing).

For more on Chaining Nouns, Adjectives, Verbs, and other Compound Sentence goodness please mosey on over to Tae Kim’s Guide to Japanese: Compound Sentences!

Except for the beer.
Bi-ru igai.
ビール　いがい。
ビール以外。

They are near their children.
Karera wa karera no kodomo no chikaku ni imasu.
かれら　は　かれら　の　こども　の　ちかく　に　います。 彼らは彼らの子供の近くにいます。

Run towards me.
Watashi no kata ni hashirinasai.
わたし　の　かた　に　はしりなさい。
私の方に走りなさい。

I eat fruit except for apples.
Watashi wa ringo igai no kudamono o tabemasu.
わたし　は　リンゴ　いがい　の　くだもの　を　たべます。
私はリンゴ以外の果物を食べます。 (lit: Except for apples I eat fruit)

Note: Okay I’m having some trouble with the usage of “no” in this one. From what I can find of の’s usages this might be the one that acts more like a comma? Basically it’s there to show a relationship between the two nouns… but I don’t quite understand the function exactly. ;A; Sorry!

The cat walks over my shirt.
Neko wa watashi no shatsu no ue o arukimasu.
ねこ　は　わたし　の　シャツ　の　うえ　を　あるきます。
猫は私のシャツの上を歩きます。

Red against Blue.
(Red VS blue)
Aka tai ao.
あか　たい　あお。
赤対青。

I walk towards them.
Watashi wa karera no kata ni arukimasu.
わたし　は　かれら　の　かた　に　あるきます。
私は彼らの方に歩きます。

REMEMBER: In this example we’re talking about walking TO somebody. Not walking at a place or on someone. So we use “NI” not “o”.

That’s it for this lesson. Until next time!

^_^ So let’s move right on ahead into Prepositions part 3. Thankfully for the most part these act like their English counterparts. So there’s really not a whole lot going on grammatically, which is a nice break from those pesky conjunctions.

Let’s continue:

VOCABULARY

After:　Ato:　あと：　後

Out:　Soto:　そと：　外

Under:　No Shita ni:　の　した　に：　の下に

Off: (they mean “take off” eg: a coat)　Nugu:　ぬぐ：　脱ぐ

During:　Aida:　あいだ：　間
During:　Naka ni:　なか　に：　中に

Among:　No aida ni:　の　あいだ　に：　の間に
Among:　No naka ni:　の　なか　に：　の中に

Behind:　No ushiro ni:　の　うしろ　に：　の後ろに

LOOKOUT: “after” (ato) and “behind” (ushiro) share a kanji!! 後!! This may seem daunting to many of you. A shared Kanji with different pronunciations may seem intimidating but you’ll eventually get the hang of them. We have these in English too! Like read (present tense) and read (past tense) or lead (eg: a group) vs lead (the metal)… or wind (eg: a toy) and wind (moving air). :) You’ll learn to tell what a kanji should sound like by context I promise.

SENTENCES

I am behind you
Watashi wa anata no ushiro ni imasu.
わたし　は　あなた　の　うしろ　に　います。
私はあなたの後ろにいます。

The woman goes out.
Onna wa soto demasu.
おんな　は　そと　でます。
女は外出ます。

*NOTE: ↑ Ah that was probably a little unexpected wasn’t it. We haven’t really covered “Deru” (出る) have we? Deru means “leave”. You’ll often hear it in anime more as a command 「出て行け！」"Deteike!“ (GET OUT OF HERE!!!)

When talking about leaving somewhere (eg: home) we don’t use "go” (iku) 「行く」like you would think. In these cases we use “deru” instead.

You’ll also see 出る marking exits!! ^_^ (and 入れる marking entrances but we’re getting off subject…)*

Take off your coat
Anata no ko-to o nuginasai.
あなた　の　コート　を　ぬぎなさい
あなたのコートを脱ぎなさい。

*NOTE: Have we covered “nasai”? Well even if we have here’s a brush up. “-nasai” is a conjugation that’s a lot like the “te” form. It’s a command and it’s ….. less harsh? …. or more harsh? …. it’s an odd denomination of harsh. Here’s the best way I’ve heard it explained: “-nasai” is like when your mom’s probably asked you to do something more than once and she’s starting to get just a liiiiittle annoyed. She’d tack “-nasai” at the end of whatever she’s asking you to do.

Like you’ve slept in until NOON and so your mom’s come to get you she’d tell you “Okinasaaaaiiii” in that “I cannot BELIEVE you’re still asleep” tone. You know the one.

To conjugate for this conjugate the base of your verb like you would for a “masu” ending, and then just tack on that “nasai” instead. BAM! Instant Mom command.*

They drink coffee after lunch.
Karera wa chuushokugo de ko-hi- o nomimasu.
かれら　は　ちゅうしょくご　あと　で　こーひー　を　のみます。
彼らは昼食後でコーヒーを飲みます。

EDIT: As it turns outsticking “ato” at the end of a kanji compound actually changes the sound in these cases. In this case “ato” changes it’s sound to “go” So the correct pronunciation would be “chuushokugo”

*NOTE: well I did say that the grammar was MOSTLY the same. You’ll notice this sentence switches around the words a little bit. The verb HAS to go at the end, and it’s best to keep the noun that the verb is happening to close at hand… so “coffee” and “drink” go at the end of our sentence while “after” and “lunch” hang back.

Contrary to what I keep thinking should happen, we don’t need the possessive particle “の” to tell us that that “after” belongs to “lunch”. We just slap “ato” 後 to the end of whatever thing we’re talking about. “After lunch” ? “Lunch後”. “After school”? “School後” Just slap that on there. No particles for us. NO SIR!

That brings us to the particle “de” で Which is completely optional in this case. -shrugs- it’s just more natural to me, so I use it. The particle “de” is kind of an alternate form of “ni” it can indicate a place, or a time period, … or even what something is made of! (which “ni” cannot do by the way)… it’s also used to indicate what mode of transportation you came by (which “ni” also can’t do) but we’ll cover those uses at a later date. In this case “de” is just acting as a little emphasis time indicator… if that makes sense. … You’ll come across quite a few of these as you go. Optional particles that you’ll use just because it comes off as more natural to you…. but yeah. In this sentence “de” is totally optional.*

The mouse is among the cats.
Nezumi wa neko no aida ni imasu.
ねずみ　は　ねこ　の　あいだ　に　います。
鼠は猫の間にいます。

they gave me the option to use “no naka ni” which means “in the middle of” … but really that comes off as the mouse is inside the cats… well to me anyway.

His book is under the newspaper.
Kare no hon wa shinbun no shita ni arimasu.
かれ　の　ほん　は　しんぶん　の　した　に　あります。
彼の本は新聞の下にあります。

I read during the meal.
Watashi wa shokuji no aida yomimasu.
わたし　は　しょくじ　の　あいだ　よみます。
私は食事の間読みます。

I read during the meal.
Watashi wa shokujichuu ni yomimasu.
わたし　は　しょくじちゅう　に　よみます。
私は食事中に読みます。

EDIT: 中 also changes it’s sound when put into a compound. It changes it’s sound to “chuu” so in this case “in the middle of a meal” would be “shokujichuu”

NOTE: I bet you’re starting to see a pattern here. Quite a few of these words (de, aida, naka) 「で、間、中」 can refer to either time, or the physical placement of something. Which actually isn’t too far from English either. Have you ever said “I’m right in the middle of something.” ? You don’t generally mean you’re PHYSICALLY in the center of something, though it CAN mean that too. Same thing. I don’t know if these words sharing a temporal and physical meaning makes this easier or harder. 間 and 中 can pretty much be literally translated as “in the middle of”… if that helps the translation process. So you can be “in the middle of a bunch of cats” 猫達の間に… Or you can be “reading in the middle of a meal” 食事の間読みます。 ……. I hope I haven’t over-complicated this….

If I have managed to make this even more confusing please let me know and I will try to make a better explanation. Whether I need to add more detail or simplify it some more.

Thanks for continuing to support my lessons. I hope to provide you more as I have the time. :) Please comment, point out typos, ask questions, expand on stuff etc. as always. I do come by during the week to read comments and things even when I’m not posting.

Happy learning!

VOCABULARY

For:　You:　よう：　用

About:　Nitsuite:　について

Without:　Ga nai:　がない
Without:　Ga arimasen:　がありません

With:　To:　と

To:　Ni:　に

Like:　Suki:　すき：　好き

As:　_Nakara:なから　(“as” as in “while” or “at the same time”) ((Verb Conjugation))

GRAMMAR

So… we actually dealt with “ni” a lot in the last lesson as well.

Ni is the particle signifying place. It can best be translated to “to” or “at” :) So that’s easy. One word for both things.

To use the particle “ni” put it after the person place or thing you are at or going to.

EG: I go to her.　→　Watashi wa kanojo NI ikimasu.
I am at the station　→　Watashi wa eki NI imasu.

But, as I said before, “Ni” is a particle signifying place in general. So this also works for words that don’t HAVE “at” or “to” in them, but still signify place.

EG: The cat comes here　→　neko wa koko NI kimasu.

Today we also get to introduce a new meaning for the particle 「と」(to) You should remember this as meaning “and”. Now it takes on the meaning “with”

The particle 「と」(to) goes after the second person in a “with” sentence.

EX: I go with her 　→　Watashi wa kanojo TO ikimasu.

SENTENCES

He goes to school
Kare wa gakkou ni ikimasu. かれ　は　がっこう　に　いきます。
彼は学校に行きます。

Questions about me.
Watashi ni tsuite no shitsumon.
わたし　に　ついて　の　しつもん。
私についての質問。

They play with the cat.
Karera wa neko to asobimasu.
かれら　は　ねこ　と　あそびます。
彼らは猫と遊びます。

The Cheese is for lunch.
Chi-zu wa chuushoku you desu.
チーズ　は　ちゅうしょく　よう　です。
チーズは昼食用です。

Children like milk
Kodomo wa gyuunyuu ga suki desu.
こども　は　ぎゅうにゅう　が　すき　です。
子供は牛乳が好きです。

NOTE: Besides the fact you can use “miruku” 「ミルク」 in place of “gyuunyuu”… we’re going to talk about using “suki”. When you use the word “suki” you want to ALWAYS precede it with the particle “ga” 「が」 as opposed to “o” 「を」. “Ga” is used for intransitive verbs. Intransitive verbs are verbs that aren’t directly done by a person. Something that isn’t necessarily controlled so to speak. In this case think of it like this. You can’t control what you like or dislike… so we wouldn’t use the particle “o” like we would for any other action we personally do. … if that makes sense.

You play with the fish.
Anata wa sakana to asobimasu.
あなた　は　さかな　と　あそびます。
あなたは魚と遊びます。

We eat as we walk.
Watashitachi wa aruki nagara tabemasu.
わたしたち　は　あるき　ながら　たべます。
私たちは歩きながら食べます。
(lit: We walk as we eat)

NOTE: Nagara is a verb conjugation! Conjugate the base of your verb like normal, but instead of adding masu/masen/mashita/masendeshita add “nagara” to signify at the same time you do one action, you do another action. In this case it looks like the last verb in the English sentence gets flipped to be the first verb in the Japanese sentence!

We are without water.
Watashitachi wa mizu ga nai
わたしたち　は　みず　が　ない
私達は水がない。

:) well that was an easy one to end with.
Duo accepts the above sentence but recommends NIWA instead of just WA. Unfortunately I don’t understand the nuance of “niwa” soooo I didn’t use it.

Otherwise. That’s it for this lesson. If you have any questions feel free to ask! If I’m going too fast or something needs explained further please let me know! I do drop by now and then even when I’m not posting lessons.

So prepositions are pretty easy (in my opinion) :) So this will be a good cool down lesson after those compound sentences.

VOCABULARY

From:　Kara:　から

In:　No naka ni:　の　なか　に：　の中に

On:　no ue ni:　の　うえ　に：　の上に

At:　Ni:　に

Of: No japanese word exists for the word “of” in this context

Between:　No Aida:　の　あいだ：　の間
NOTE: Aida’s back! And this time with a slightly different meaning than last time. In this case Aida now means between two physical items as opposed to meaning “while” which is sort of like between a stretch of time. (using between like that is weird but you get it)

By:　no Soba o:　の　そば　を

Exists (animate):　Iru:　いる

Exists (inanimate):　Aru:　ある

a person’s origin:　Shusshin:　しゅっしん：　出身

Come:　Kuru:　くる：　来る
*NOTE: now if you remember way back this is an irregular verb! Kuru conjugates from the Ku part of the word into: Kimasu, Kimasen, Kimashita, Kimasendeshita and Kite.

GRAMMAR

So the main thing you want to know is if you’re talking about on, in, beside, under, or between things you’re going to want to use the possessive particle “no” between the noun that the preposition modifies and the preposition itself.

EG: On the book →　The books top →　Hon no ue ni
Between them　→　Their between　→　Karera no aida ni
Between the cat and dog　→　the cat and dog’s between 　→　Neko to inu no aida ni.
In the book　→　The book’s inside　→　Hon no naka ni

You’ll notice these all also end in “ni”, the particle for “at”. That will be true for all sentences of this type EXCEPT when talking about walking on something… or when next to, near, or beside something.

SENTENCES

He is at school.
Kare wa gakkou ni imasu
かれ　は　がっこう　に　います。
彼は学校にいます。

I am in africa.
Watashi wa afurika ni imasu.
わたし　は　アフリカ　に　います。
私はアフリカにいます。

I am from Brazil.
Watashi wa buraziru kara kimashita.
わたし　は　ブラジル　から　きました。
私はブラジルから来ました。

I am from Brazil.
Watashi wa buraziru shusshin desu.
わたし　は　ブラジル　しゅっしん　です。
私はブラジル出身です。
(lit: I’m originally from Brazil)

It is on me.
Sore wa watashi no ue ni arimasu.
それ　は　わたし　の　うえ　に　あります。
それは私の上にあります。

He is between you and me.
Kare wa anata to watashi no aida ni imasu.
かれ　は　あなた　と　わたし　の　あいだ　に　います。
彼はあなたと私の間にいます。

The color of the bear is white.
Kuma no iro wa shiro desu.
くま　の　いろ　は　しろ　です。
熊の色は白です。
(lit: The bear’s color is white)

*NOTE: I should really mention, Japanese DOES have a version of “of” but you generally use it when talking about what something is actually made of. EG: the bowl is made of wood. And there isn’t actually a Japanese version of “of” that has the same nuance as in the above sentence.

You’ll find this often in Japanese if you haven’t noticed already. And eventually it will become natural to you to see a phrase, rearrange it and remove some needless words and have a comprehensible sentence. Incidentally this is why I have a hard time translating from Japanese to English because I like to translate as word for word as possible… and sometimes it just doesn’t work out due to missing words or strange sentence structure.*

I am from Spain.
Watashi wa supein kara kimashita.
わたし　は　スペイン　から　きました。
私はスペインから来ました。

I am from Spain.
Watashi wa supein shusshin desu.
わたし　は　スペイン　しゅっしん　です。
私はスペイン出身です。

She is in Africa.
Kanojo wa afurika ni imasu.
かのじょ　は　アフリカ　に　います。
彼女はアフリカにいます。

He walks on water.
Kare wa mizu no ue o aruku.
かれ　は　みず　の　うえ　を　あるく。
彼は水の上を歩く。

NOTE: It’s kind of strange. But when talking about walking at or on a place you want to use the particle “o” instead of “ni” (which, like me, would be your first inclination to use

Where are they from?
Karera wa doko kara kimashita?
かれら　は　どこ　から　きました。
彼らはどこから来ました。
(lit: where do they come from?)

Where are they from?
Karera wa doko shusshin desu ka?
かれら　は　どこ　しゅっしん　です　か。
彼らはどこ出身ですか。
(lit: where do they originate?)

She is at lunch.
Kanojo wa chuushokuchuu desu.
かのじょ　は　ちゅうしょくちゅう　です。
彼女は昼食中です。
(lit: She’s in the middle of lunch)

EDIT: You’ll notice that 昼食中 is actually a compound… and so 中 changes it’s sound from “naka” to “chuu”

She is at lunch.
Kanojo wa chuushoku ni itteiru かのじょ　は　ちゅうしょく　に　いっている。
彼女は昼食に行っている。
(lit: She’s gone to lunch)

They are between us
Karera wa watashitachi no aida ni imasu.
かれら　は　わたしたち　の　あいだ　に　います。
彼らは私たちの間にいます。

He walks next to me.
Kare wa watashi no soba o arukimasu.
かれ　は　わたし　の　そば　を　あるきます。
彼は私のそばを歩きます。

She is next to it.
Kanojo wa sore no soba o imasu.
かのじょ　は　それ　の　そば　を　います。
彼女はそれのそばをいます。

It is next to her.
sore wa kanojo no soba o arimasu.
それ　は　かのじょ　の　そば　を　あります。
それは彼女のそばをあります。

That’s it for this lesson. :) I usually cover prepositions fairly early when I teach and I use things like tables and chairs and the like… (searches) … but it looks like we haven’t learned those words yet so we won’t be using them yet. :/ I guess.

But if you happen to know the words table (teburu) and chair (isu) or any other noun you want to use for that matter you can now talk about them. Just remember the formula: (noun) no (preposition) ni (imasu/arimasu)

:) Until next time!

VOCABULARY

Whenever:　Itsudemo:　いつだも：　何時でも

While:　Aida:　あいだ：　間

Or:　Ka:　か
Or:　Matawa:　または
Or:　Soretomo:　それとも

When:　Itsu:　いつ：　何時
When:　toki (ni):　とき　(に)：　時 (に)

That:　Sore:　それ (that over there)
That:　Are:　あれ (that over there)
NOTE: Japanese doesn’t HAVE an actual conjunction version of “that”. We’ll be using “Dato” if anything.

If that’s the case:　Dato:　だと

GRAMMAR

Japanese compound sentences are interesting, and there’s two ways to go about most of them.

The first way is to try and keep them two separate sentences as best as possible and put in something to function as a conjunction. These are quite a bit different than the last lesson though… these words don’t actually function as conjugations per-se. They’re not connecting two FULL sentences together after all… which leads us to the second way to put these sentences together

And the second way I find much more fun and interesting. You wrench open your first sentence and shove your second sentence in the middle of that first sentence and tell the world to deal with it.

No really that’s what you do.

EG: When I cook he eats.
Watashi ga ryouri suru toki, kare wa tabemasu.
OR
Kare wa watashi ga ryouri suru toki, tabemasu.

The first sentence reads like the English one. The second one reads “He, when I cook, eats”

This act of putting sentence fragments in other sentences thing works for the majority of these “When/While/That” sentences but should NOT be employed when putting together two FULL sentences with “but” “and” or “because”

I wouldn’t really call these compound sentences at all… these are more 1.5 sentences.

Anyway. When going the route of sticking sentences in other sentences the subject of your first sentence generally always gets the “wa” particle. And the subject of your second sentence gets the particle “ga”

EG: I drink when I want.
1) I drink (when) 2) I want
1) Watashi wa nomu. (toki) 2) watashi ga nomitai

Now put “toki” at the end of sentence 2

1) Watashi wa nomu 2) watashi ga nomitai

Now wrench open sentence 1 just after the particle “wa” and shove sentence two in.

Watashi wa watashi ga nomitai toki nomu.
Translation: I, when I want, drink.

The good news is, if you just can’t quite get the hang of that most of these sentences can be set up both ways and be grammatically correct. So I’ll try to give you guys both possible translations of each sentence. Don’t worry if it doesn’t click. These are still really hard for me too!

SENTENCES

Yes or no?

Note: oh I almost forgot. “or” questions can be pretty interesting. So for these we can use the particle “ka” which in this sense, inbetween two options, can mean “or”. … or I suppose you can even still think of it as a question mark. EG: Yes? No? (hai ka iie ka?). I actually learned this method from Hellsing when Integra answers the phone and asks Alucard “Teki ka mikata ka?” ([are you] enemy or ally?)

Yes or no?
Hai ka iie ka.
はい　か　いいえ　か。

I drink when I want.
Watashi wa watashi ga nomitai toki nomimasu.
わたし　は　わたし　が　のみたい　とき　のみます。
私は私が飲みたい時飲みます。

I drink when I want.
Watashi ga nomitai toki, watashi wa nomimasu.
わたし　が　のみたい　とき、　わたし　は　のみます。
私が飲みたい時、私は飲みます。
(lit: When I want to drink, I drink.)

You’ll notice in this instance the 2nd sentence now comes first… so we have “watashi GA nomitai” and then “Watashi WA nomimasu”.

Tea or coffee?
Koucha desu ka soretomo ko-hi- desu ka?
こうちゃ　です　か　それとも　コーヒー　です　か。
紅茶ですか、　それともコーヒーですか？

(you can also use “ocha” 「お茶」 instead of “koucha” 「紅茶」but they use “koucha”)

Tea or coffee?
Ocha ka, ko-hi- ka?
おちゃ　か、　コーヒー　か。
お茶か、こーひーか。

It took me a long time to remember “soretomo” so I’d generally just use the above sentence.

He eats chicken or fish.
Kare wa niwatori niku ka sakana o tabemasu.
かれ　は　にわとり　にく　か　さかな　を　たべます。
彼は鶏肉か魚を食べます。

He eats chicken or fish.
Kare wa niwatori niku mataha sakana o tabemasu.
かれ　は　にわとり　にく　または　さかな　を　たべます。
彼は鶏肉または魚を食べます。

You know that I love dogs.
Anata wa watashi ga inu ga daisuki to shitteimasu.
あなた　は　わたし　が　いぬ　が　だいすき　と　しっています。
あなたは私が犬が大好きと知っています。 (Lit: You know I love dogs)

NOTE: You’ll notice we’re using “to” like we do with direct quotes in this instance. They use the word “that” in the duolingo example… but it’s neither used nor needed. There is no Japanese conjugation form of the word “that”.

You know that I love dogs.
Watashi wa inu ga daisuki dato, anata wa shitteimasu.
わたし　は　いぬ　が　だいすき　だと　あなた　は　しっています
私は犬が大好きだと、あなたは知っています。

When I cook he eats.
Kare wa watashi ga ryouri suru toki, tabemasu.
かれ　は　わたし　が　りょうり　する　とき、　たべます。
彼は私が料理する時、食べます。

When I cook he eats.
Watashi ga ryouri suru toki, kare ha tabemasu.
わたし　が　りょうり　する　とき、　かれ　は　たべます。
私が料理するとき、彼は食べます。

When I write you write.
Watashi ga kaku toki, anata ha kakimasu.
わたし　が　かく　とき、　あなた　は　かきます。
私が書く時、あなたは書きます。

When I write you write.
Anata wa watashi ga kaku toki, kakimasu.
あなた　は　わたし　が　かく　とき、　かきます。
あなたは私が書く時、書きます。

They read when we read.
watashitachi ga yomu toki, kare wa yomimasu.
わたしたち　が　よむ　とき、　かれ　は　よみます。
私たちが読む時、彼は読みます。

I read a book while I eat.
Watashi wa watashi ga taberu aida hon o yomimasu.
わたし　は　わたし　が　たべる　あいだ　ほん　を　よみます。
私は私が食べる間本を読みます。

I tell her that I eat fish.
Watashi wa kanojo ni watashi ga sakana o taberu to iimasu.
わたし　は　かのじょ　に　わたし　が　さかな　を　たべる　と　いいます。
私は彼女に私が魚を食べると言います。

………. sorry to leave you all with that mouthful.

So as usual, and definitely on this lesson, If you have anything to add, or if I made any mistakes, or… anything really. Please comment and let me know. :)

The next several lessons are more vocabulary and less grammar! So things will be easier for a while.

Until next time!!

So help me. Here it is folks. We’ve now entered the danger zone. I have SUCH a hard time with compound sentences… I STILL don’t get them right.

But don’t worry! This is one of my language blocks. You’ll hit one eventually too, but don’t get discouraged. You can leave whatever subject you’re having trouble with and return to it now and again. Just keep chipping away at it and eventually it will click. It’s weird.

You’ll also come across language plateaus, where no matter how hard you try you just can’t seem to learn ANYTHING new. Usually at those times it’s best to study just as much vocabulary as possible and lay off of grammar… but back to the matter at hand.

VOCABULARY

If:　(Moshi) …. -eba：　(もし)．．．－えば

*GRAMMAR: so as you can see this is a two part piece of grammar. Via Tae Kim’s Guide to Japanese on the subject, “Moshi” is a conditional that sort of softens the question so to speak. “moshi” needs to be the start of your sentence if you use it.

-eba is a conjugation… let me preface this with according to Tae Kim there are 4 different ways to say “if” and this one is just a standard if question without “any assumptions or embedded meanings” For Verbs you want to change your “u” vowel to an “e” and add “ba”… for “i adjectives” you want to take off the last “i” and replace it with “kereba”.

That’s right! You can conjugate an adjective!!

Via Tae Kim for nouns and “na” adjectives you need to add “deareba”*

Because:　（Nazenara)．．．（Da)kara：　（なぜなら）．．．（だ）から：　（何故なら）．．．（だ）から

*GRAMMAR: Another two part piece of grammar… about this one… well… from what I can find about “Nazenara” … which I’ve been using because Duo told me to… I guess “Nazenara” isn’t really common to hear in Japan. If you use “nazenara” you’ll be understood but it’s just uncommon.

If you do use it, like “moshi” it’s used at the beginning of your sentence.

(da)kara is a conjunction ♪conjunction junction♪… -cough- Once again heading over to Tae Kim for help here. When making a compound sentence using the word “because” you need to start with the reason, and end with the result.

This is a little backwards compared to English because naturally we cite the result before the reason.
“I didn’t go because I didn’t have time” VS Japanese “Because I didn’t have time, I didn’t go” or… how it’s literally written… “I didn’t have time because I didn’t go”

You use “kara” when connecting two complete sentences that end in a verb… and you use “dakara” when connecting a sentence that ends in a noun or a verb to your next sentence. Otherwise that “kara” will be mistaken for the word “from” (also kara)

To take the example from Tae Kim (sorry sorry sorry!)
Tomodachi kara puresento ga kita
the present came from a friend
VS
Tomodachi dakara puresento ga kita
the present came because (that person is) friend

You can leave off the end part of a “because” compound sentence just as long as it’s still understood through context… I think most of the example sentences are missing the result part of the sentence*

But:　(da)kedo:　(だ)けど
Shikashi:　しかし
(Da)Ga:　(だ)が
Demo:　でも

*GRAMMAR: These seem to be fairly interchangeable… just remember that “demo” is to be used at the beginning of a new sentence… and not like “moshi” or “nazenara” It’s not a two part sentence piece. The others sit between two sentences with little structural change… however for the most part I’ll be using “(da)kedo”. Same rules as “(da)kara” I believe (you’ll get these confused often probably, don’t worry. :3 you’ll get it!)

SENTENCES

Because I like it
(nazenara) watashi wa suki dakara
(なぜなら)　わたし　は　すき　だから
(何故なら)私は好きだから。

If you want
(moshi) anata wa hoshikereba
(もし)　あなた　は　ほしければ
(もし)あなたは欲しければ

He likes animals but he eats meat
Kare wa doubutsu ga suki dakedo niku o tabemasu.
かれ　は　どうぶつ　が　すき　だけど　にく　をたべます。
彼は動物が好きだけど肉を食べます。

He likes animals but he eats meat.
Kare wa doubutsu ga suki desu, shikashi niku o tabemasu.
かれ　は　どうぶつ　が　すき　です、　しかし　にく　お　たべます
彼は動物が好きです、しかし肉を食べます。

He likes animals but he eats meat.
Kare wa doubutsu ga suki daga niku o tabemasu.
かれ　は　どうぶつ　が　すき　だが　にく　お　たべます
彼は動物が好きだが肉を食べます。

Because he drinks
(nazenara) kare ga nomu kara.
(なぜなら)　かれ　が　のむ　から
(何故なら)彼が飲むから
you’ll notice the result of this man’s drinking is omitted… in a real conversation we’d have that information through context at least

I hope this was informative. :( I know there aren’t a whole bunch of example sentences with this one… but hopefully it gives you some idea of how these work.

My personal advice, try to memorize these example sentences. Once you have them memorized you can replace the words in the sentences to construct new sentences. That’s really how we learn our native languages as children anyway… memorizing grammatically correct examples of sentences and replacing words.

Anyway. As always feel free to discuss, add to, or even correct this lesson in the comments, as well as ask and answer questions if you wish!

VOCABULARY

Answer:　Kotae:　こたえ：　答え

Whose：　Dare no:　だれの：　誰の

Question：　Shitsumon:　しつもん：　質問
Mondai:　もんだい：　問題 (more like “problem”)

How：　Dou:　どう (how, in what way, how about)
Ikaga:　いかが: (how, in what way, how about)
Nanto: なんと： (how, what, whatever)

NOTE: yeah there are a lot of hows and they’re not very different… :/ Unfortunately I’m not familiar with the real nuances between dou and ikaga, that’s just what rikaichan gave me. I’m used to using Dou though, so that’s what I’ll be using. For the other ones, listen out for them in anime and such. Kind of sucky advice I know. :) but doing so has really helped me in learning how to use some words like this

SENTENCES

The Answer
Kotae
こたえ
答え

I’m sort of fighting that “the = sono” thing

The question
Shitsumon
しつもん
質問

Whose tea is it?
Sono ocha wa dare no mono desu ka.
その　おちゃ　は　だれ　の　もの　です　か。
そのお茶は誰の物ですか。
（lit: That tea, whose thing is?)

Whose tea is it?
Sore wa dare no ocha desu ka.
それ　は　だれ　の　おちゃ　です　か。
それは誰のお茶ですか。
(lit: That is whose tea?)

How is she?
Kanojo wa dou desu ka.
かのじょ　は　どう　です　か。
彼女はどうですか。

What is the question？
Sono shitsumon wa nan desu ka.
その　しつもん　は　なん　です　か。
その質問は何ですか。

… well that was pretty short… It’s fine though. >.< I went through the lesson a second time and nope, that’s all the questions.

<h1>Vocabulary</h1>

Why:　Doushite:　どうして (Why/ for what reason/ how/ in what way/ for what purpose/ what for)
Naze:　なぜ　(why/how)
Nande:　なんで：　何で (Why/ what for/ how/ by what means)

Which:　Docchi:　どっち
Dochira:　どちら (Which way, Which direction/ Which ((of two alternatives)))
Dore:　どれ (Which ((of 3 or more)))

Where:　Doko:　どこ

In depth translations from Jisho.org

REMEMBER! whenever you come across multiple words that supposedly mean the same thing be sure to look it up to find out what the nuances for the words are. If you’re using a Japanese-English English-Japanese dictionary if you look up a word on one side of the dictionary flip to the other side of the dictionary to make sure that’s the nuance you want to use! This goes for any language, really.

<h1>Sentences</h1>

No, why?
iie, nande desu ka?
いいえ、なんで　です　か。
いいえ、何でですか。

Which shoe is yours?
Docchi ga anata no kutsu desu ka?
どっち　が　あなた　の　くつ　です　か。
どっちがあなたの靴ですか。

Which shoe is yours?
Docchi no kutsu ga anata no mono desu ka?
どっち　の　くつ　が　あなた　の　もの　です　か。
どっちの靴があなたの物ですか。

Note: I translated the first “which shoe is yours” sentence, it was marked as correct but suggested the bottom sentence to me. Actually, how I put together the first sentence was by using an example sentence I picked up from Ouran. When the twins are playing the “Which is Kaoru” game they say “Docchi ga Hikaru ka? Docchi ga kaoru de? Wakaru?” So I used that as the base of my sentence. :（＾ω＾） This is why it’s so important to pick up and memorize as many example sentences as possible from anywhere you can!!

＃Grammar point!

When using “Docchi” “dore” and “Dochira” replace “wa” with “ga”. I can’t really give you a grammatical reason why we do this. Actually it’s probably the same grammatical principle that changes noun classification when a verb is intransitive… but as we know I’ve made my own rule for that because I don’t agree with the people who formed that rule and it’s explanation.

In any case. When using “which” use “ga” not “wa”!!

<h1>back to sentences</h1>

Where is my white shirt?
Watashi no shiroi shatsu wa doko desu ka?
わたし　の　しろい　シャツ　は　どこ　です　か。
私の白いシャツはどこですか。

Which is his dog?
Docchi ga kare no inu desu ka?
どっち　が　かれ　の　いぬ　です　か。
どっちが彼の犬ですか。
“Which (of 2) is his dog?”

Which is his dog?
Dore ga kare no inu desu ka?
どれ　が　かれ　の　いぬ　です　か。
どれが彼の犬ですか。
“which (of 3 or more) is his dog?”

Where is your school?
Anata no gakkou wa doko desu ka?
あなた　の　がっこう　は　どこ　です　か。
あなたの学校はどこですか。

Why and when?
Naze soshite itsu?
なぜ　そして　いつ？

Note: Not covered until next lesson set, but “Soshite” is the sentence connector “and”

Where are they?
Karera wa doko desu ka?
かれら　は　どこ　です　か。
彼らはどこですか。

Which is it?
Dore desu ka?
どれ　です　か。
Which (of 3 or more) is it?

I realize there weren’t hardly any “why” examples in this. :/ there might be more further down the line though. We’ll see.

In unrelated news. I changed my language bar to kana, what that means is that every key is it’s own kana. For instance the letter t = か. I’m getting faster with it :3 it’s pretty cool.

Vocabulary

When:　Itsu:　いつ：　何時
Itsu can also be read “nan ji” or “nan toki” and literally means “what time”… You want to use “itsu” when asking when something is, and “nan ji” for “what time (is it)” …. and “nan toki” you may not hear often enough to be bothered with… but I suppose you can still keep your ears open for it

Who:　Dare:　だれ：　誰

What:　Nani:　なに：　何
Nani will actually be pronounced “nan” much more often than it will be pronounced “nani”. “nani” is more of a “what?” like a “what did you say?” or “what?” like when someone walks up to you and you know they want something, or when asking what someone is doing. and “nan” is for everything else “what is that?” “what color is it?”

What color:　Nanshoku:　なんしょく：　何色

Examples will be much better at explaining this I think.

Sentences

What color is the dress?
Doresu wa nanshoku desu ka?
ドレス　は　なんしょく　です　か。
ドレスは何色ですか。

Who are you?
Anata wa dare desu ka?
あなた　は　だれ　です　か。
あなたは誰ですか。

Alternately:
Dare desu ka?
だれ　です　か。
誰ですか。

(remember you want to avoid pronouns as much as possible in Japanese)

What?
Nani ka?
なに　か。
何か。

Alternately:
Nani?
なに。 何。

When is it?
Itsu desu ka?
いつ　です　か。
何時ですか。

What color is the skirt?
Suka-to wa nanshoku desu ka?
スカート　は　なんしょく　です　か。
スカートは何色ですか。　

When?
Itsu desu ka?
いつ　です　か。
何時ですか。

Who is she?
Kanojo wa dare desu ka?
かのじょ　は　だれ　です　か。
彼女は誰ですか。

What is it?
Nan desu ka?
なん　です　か。
何ですか。

Who am I?
Watashi wa dare desu ka?
わたし　は　だれ　です　か。 私は誰ですか。

Alternately:
Watashi wa dare da?
わたし　は　だれ　だ。 私は誰だ。

What color is the shirt?
Shatsu wa nanshoku desu ka？
シャツ　は　なんしょく　です　か。
シャツは何色ですか。

How’d you do? :)

Not too bad I hope.

See you next time!

I guess Duo deleted my other one?? So here it is again.

Alright, hey, what’s up everyone. I’m home sick (and might be tomorrow as well if this fever doesn’t break) so I might as well do something productive so let’s start on the next lesson, shall we?

VOCABULARY

… well this is awkward. The vocabulary list for this lesson has the words “do” “does” and “have”.

All of which DO have a translation…. …. however in Japanese interrogative sentences, besides the word “have” as in “to own”… you won’t be using them.

That may be a little confusing. So I think for this lesson I’m going to employ my old direct translation strategy. That’s where I’ll show you the example sentences Duo gives me… The correct Japanese equivalent, and a direct English translation OF that Japanese equivalent, as it does not contain some of the words Duo’s English example uses.

☆ related story on this topic at the end

GRAMMAR

Today we’re going to introduce you to the particle “ka” 「か」. In this case Ka is used at the end of sentences to indicate a question.

Think of it like a verbal version of a question mark.

Which makes me using actual question marks in the romaji example sentences kind of redundant… (Written Japanese doesn’t use question marks)

….. that’s pretty much the gist of it….

There are other uses for the particle Ka, but that’s the one we’re tackling right now.

EXAMPLES

Do you like it? Anata wa sore ga suki desu ka? あなた　は　それ　が　すき　です　か。 あなたはそれが好きですか。 Lit: You are liking this?

I try to move around as little words as possible let me know if a word by word translation would also make things easier. It used to for me. EG for the above: You (wa) this (ga) like (is/am/are) (ka) ……….. that’s still pretty awkward but eh…

Does he have dogs? Kare wa inu o katteimasu ka? かれ　は　いぬ　を　かっています　か。 彼は犬を飼っていますか。 Lit: He has dogs?/ He raises dogs?/ He owns dogs?

whatever you prefer. That 飼う (kau) can be translated a couple different ways

Do you drink coffee? Anata wa ko-hi- o nomimasu ka? あなた　は　コーヒー　を　のみます　か。 あなたはコーヒーを飲みますか。 Lit: You drink coffee?

Does he have a coat? Kare wa ko-to o motteimasu ka? かれ　は　コート　を　もっていますか。 彼はコートを持っていますか。 Lit: He has a coat? / He owns a coat?

Do you read books? Anata wa hon o yondeimasu ka? あなた　は　ほん　を　よんでいます　か。 あなたは本を読んでいますか。 Lit: You own books?

To us the literal translations sound more like a question we rhetorically ask in disbelief… so removing “do” or “does” from your interrogative vocabulary may be a little difficult at first.

Which leads me to my ☆ related story actually.

So I’ve noticed recently with forming Japanese sentences of my own I’ve been sort of stumbling over the differences in sentence structure/vocabulary use for the same thought in both English and Japanese.

For instance, when I went through the course lesson to do this thread here I, at first, tried to figure out where “suru” (do/does) would fit into the Japanese version of the sentence.

It doesn’t.

Then I tried to figure out what the interrogative version of “do”/“does” that I MUST have forgotten was….

It doesn’t exist.

About 45 seconds through that thought process and after throwing in a 「あなたは好きですか。」(anata wa suki desu ka?) as an answer (which is also correct for the first example sentence) my brain finally switched gears and I slapped myself in the forehead for being so dumb.

It’s not the fault of my cold. I’ve been having this problem for a while now. Cold or no cold.

So for anyone else having this problem where your brain is trying to direct translate from your L1 to your L2 and you sit there like “Why isn’t this working?” before “HURR DUH! They don’t share these words!” it’s perfectly normal.

I think that’s enough fever induced babbling for now. See you next lesson!!