I am a native Japanese speaker who used to teach Japanese in a university somewhere on this planet. Currently I don't work but stayed in my house in Northern part of JAPAN. I hope that you could enjoy reading my posts and know what life in Japan is like.
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Answers of yesterday’s Quiz :
example; Watashi wa Mainichi Hataraki masu. (I work every day.)
=> Non-past x Positive
1. Ashita, Watashi wa Hataraki masu. (I will work tomorrow.)
=> Non-past x Positive
2. Watashi wa Do-youbi Hataraki masen. (I don’t work on Saturday.)
=> Non-past x Negative
3. Watashi wa Kinou Hataraki masen deshita. (I didn’t work yesterday.)
=> Past x Negative
4. Kinou Watashi wa Hataraki mashita. (I worked yesterday.)
=> Past x Positive
Then let’s start today’s learning. There is a particle to indicate the reaching point of the action. It is similar to the preposition “to” in English. But Japanese particles are postpositions, the particle “e” is put behind a noun which means a place. The sentence construction is as below;
[Subject] wa [noun meaning a place] e [verb meaning move].
example : Watashi wa Kaisha e Iki masu.
Where;
– Watashi: pronoun; I
– wa: particle; topic marker, and in this case also subject marwer
– Kaisha: noun; company (with nuance of a place)
– e: particle; the reaching point of the action
– Ikimasu: verb in form of present-positive; go
One thing you need to know is that the pronunciation of particle “e” is “e”, but its spelling is “he: へ”. So for writing, do not use “e: え”.
Let me introduce a just one noun;
Kombini: noun; a convenience store
Practice and remember the following conversation.
A: Sato-san wa Doko e Ikimasuka. (Ms.Sato, where are you going?)
B: Watashi wa Kombini e Ikimasu. (I am going to a convenience store.)
In addition, we learned four patterns of verb predicates yesterday. Four patterns are based on combinations of non-past/past tenses and positive/negative. As a review of yesterday, read carefully the followings:
– Kyou, Watashi wa Kombini e Ikimasu. (Today, I am going to a convenience store.)
=> Non-past x Positive
– Kyou, Watashi wa Kombini e Ikimasen. (Today, I am not going to a convenience store.)
=> Non-past x Negative
– Kinou, Watashi wa Kombini e Ikimashita. (Yesterday, I went to a convenience store.)
=> Past x Positive
– Kinou, Watashi wa Kombini e Ikimasen deshita. (Yesterday, I didn’t go to a convenience store.)
=> Past x Negative
<この投稿は“スリーエーネットワーク、みんなの日本語 初級I 第2版, 第5課A1”の内容を参照しています。”In addition”以下の内容は第4課A7です。>
We learned yesterday there were two patterns of verb predicates.
[Verb] masu : Non-past tense
[Verb] mashita : Past tense
So, two patterns above come from the difference of tense. If we consider other two patterns which come from if the sentence is positive or negative, we need to use four patterns correctly.
Let us use the verb “Hataraki masu” for the example, which means “work”.
– Non-past x Positive: Hataraki masu. (work/will work)
– Non-past x Negative: Hataraki masen. (don’t work/will not work)
– Past x Positive: Hataraki masita. (worked)
– Past x Negative: Hataraki masendeshita. (didn’t work)
Quizzes: Think about what pattern a sentence is in terms of non-past/past tenses and positive/negative.
example; Watashi wa Mainichi Hataraki masu => Non-past x Positive
1. Ashita, Watashi wa Hataraki masu.
2. Watashi wa Do-youbi Hataraki masen.
3. Watashi wa Kinou Hataraki masen deshita.
4. Kinou Watashi wa Hataraki mashita.
Answers will be shown tomorrow.
<この投稿は“スリーエーネットワーク、みんなの日本語 初級I 第2版, 第4課A7”の内容を参照しています。>
First of all, we need to review yesterday’s quiz.
A. Watashi wa Getsu-youbi kara Kin-youbi made Hataraki masu.
B. Watashi wa Kin-youbi ni Hataraki masu.
Q1: Which of sentences A or B says “My work ends on Friday”?
A1: The sentence A says “My work ends on Friday”, because the particle “made” is to indicate the ending time of continuous action.
Q2: Which of A or B says “I work on Friday”?
A2: The sentence B says “I work on Friday” because the particle “ni” is to indicate the time of action.
And let’s review about “Verb predicate sentences”. Its ending of a sentence is different from “Noun predicate sentences” as below;
“Verb predicate” => [verb] masu. ; example : Hataraki masu.
“Noun predicate” => [noun] desu. ; example : Shigoto desu.
What we are going to learn today is to use properly “masu” and its past tense “mashita”. Two days ago, I wrote there were other two important things about Japanese verbs. One of two is that a verb conjugates by changing the ending part of the verb. Conjugation patterns are many, and the change between “masu” and “mashita” is one of conjugations.
Just remember the simple things below
[Verb] masu : Non-past tense
[Verb] mashita : Past tense
Actually, the issue is not so simple, because “Non-past” is adopted for both present and future, and as for “Past”, in many times it’s better to call it the perfect tense rather than the past tense. But we are still on the early stage to learn Japanese verbs, let’s make it dichotomy of non-past or past, for simplicity.
In order to learn to use verbs in non-past and past tense, words describing time are necessary.
– Mainichi: every day
– Ashita: tomorrow
– Kinou: yesterday
Practice and remember the following three sentences;
1. Watashi wa Mainichi Hataraki masu: non-past (present); (I work every day.)
2. Watashi wa Ashita Hataraki masu: non-past (future); (I will work tomorrow.)
3. Watashi wa Kinou Hataraki mashita: past; (I worked yesterday.)
<この投稿は“スリーエーネットワーク、みんなの日本語 初級I 第2版, 第4課A6”の内容を参照しています。>
Yesterday, we learned a verb predicate sentence. Its construction was the following
[Subject] wa [Time ] ni [Verb] masu.
1. Watashi wa Maiasa Shichi-ji ni okimasu. (I get up at seven every morning.)
The particle “ni” in the sentence 1 has the function to indicate the time of action “seven o’clock”. For the sake of comparison to today’s sentence, note that the action “getting up at seven” is done in very short period of time without duration.
And the day before yesterday, we learned a sentence that didn’t use a verb. The sentence was to say start and end times of the continuous state as shown below.
[Subject] wa [Time1] kara [Time2] made desu.
2. Shigoto wa Hachi-ji kara Yo-ji made desu. (My work is from eight to four.)
Today’s sentence construction is a kind of “verb predicate sentence version of 2”.
[Subject] wa [Time1] kara [Time2] made [Verb] masu.
3. Watashi wa Hachi-ji kara Yo-ji made Hataraki masu. (I work from eight to four.)
where;
– hataraki masu: verb; work
The sentence 3 means that the action “work” continues from 8a.m. to 4p.m. These hours are not short period of time, while the action of sentence 1 was. Actually, the sentence 3 is a little bit simplified because we are still in early stage of learning Japanese verbs. The verb predicate “Hataraki masu” in this case is not the best to express duration of action. The expression for duration of action is “V-te iru”, which will be introduced later. So for today, let us focus not on the verb predicate, but on the part of “[Time1] kara [Time2] made”.
Take a look at sentences 1 and 3 again;
1. Watashi wa Maiasa Shichi-ji ni okimasu. (I get up at seven every morning.)
3. Watashi wa Hachi-ji kara Yo-ji made Hataraki masu. (I work from eight to four.)
What is most important thing today is as follows;
– In 1, the particle “ni” indicates the time of action. And usually, the action is instantaneous.
– In 3, the particle “made” indicates the ending time of continuous action.
Learn the difference between the particles “ni” and “made”.
Here are two quiz;
A. Watashi wa Getsu-youbi kara Kin-youbi made Hataraki masu.
B. Watashi wa Kin-youbi ni Hataraki masu.
Q1: Which of sentences A or B says “My work ends on Friday”?
Q2: Which of A or B says “I work on Friday”?
Answers will be shown tomorrow.
<この投稿は“スリーエーネットワーク、みんなの日本語 初級I 第2版, 第4課A5”の内容を参照しています。>
Japanese sentences are classified in three by the type of predicates;
1. Noun predicate sentences
2. Adjective predicate sentences (I-adjectives and Na-adjectives)
3. Verb predicate sentences
So far, only Noun predicate sentences have been introduced. But we are going to learn Verb predicate sentences from today.
“Verb” is a word in most of the cases to express an action, although “naru(become)” is a verb to express change and “aru” and “iru” are verbs to express existence.
When a verb is used for a predicate, there is the clear difference from “noun predicate”
“Verb predicate” => [verb] masu.
“Noun predicate” => [noun] desu.
Where;
masu and desu is the sentence endings for present-positive with some politeness
As to verbs, the following two things are also important;
– A verb conjugates, in other words, the ending part of verb changes.
– Need to have a clear image of intransitive verb or transitive verb.
But these two points will be explained later. Today, you just note that a verb is a word to express action.
Along with introduction of verbs, the particle “ni” is also introduced. Particle “ni” has many functions actually, but only the function of “time of action” is introduced today.
Note that it is not a coincidence that verbs and particle “ni” are introduced at the same time. Do you remember that a segment in Japanese sentence is usually in the form of?;
[meaningful word] [functional word]
A word segment “[word][ni]” works as a modifier for a verb behind. Although there is sometimes an exception, you need to expect there is a verb behind if you find a segment using “ni”.
And new words are as below;
– Maiasa : adverb ; every morning
– Okimasu : verb ; get up
Practice and remember the following conversation;
A : Satou-san wa Maiasa Nan-ji ni okimasuka. (Ms. Sato, what time do you get up every morning?)
B : Watashi wa Maiasa Shichi-ji ni okimasu. (I get up at seven every morning.)
<この投稿は“スリーエーネットワーク、みんなの日本語 初級I 第2版, 第4課A4”の内容を参照しています。>
Simply said, what we learn today is two particles that are “from” and “to” in English. The sentence construction is as follows;
1. [Subject] wa [Time1] kara [Time2] made desu.
“1” is a noun predicate sentence (a verb predicate sentence will be introduced tomorrow).
Then, an example of sentence 1 can be;
– Shigoto wa Ku-ji kara Go-ji made desu. (My work is from nine to five.)
Where;
– Shigoto : noun : work
– wa: particle : topic marker, and in this case, “wa” also functions as the subject marker
– Ku-ji : nine o’clock
– kara : particle : marker for starting time
– Go-ji : five o’clock
– made : particle : marker for ending time
– desu : sentence ending for present-positive with some politeness
Actually, two particles “kara” and “made” are used not only for times but also for special starting and ending positions. But we are using these particles only for time today.
Practice and remember the following conversation;
A : Shigoto wa Nan-ji kara Nan-ji made desuka. (From what time to what time is your work?)
B : Shigoto wa Hachi-ji kara Yo-ji made desu. (My work is from eight to four.)
<この投稿は“スリーエーネットワーク、みんなの日本語 初級I 第2版, 第4課A3”の内容を参照しています。>
Yesterday we learned an expression to talk about days of the week;
A : Yasumi wa Nan youbi desuka. (What day of the week is your holiday?)
B : Yasumi wa Moku youbi desu. (My holiday is Thursday.)
If you are “B”, and if your holidays are Saturday and Sunday, then how do you answer to the question that “A” is asking?
1. Yasumi wa Do youbi to Nichi youbi desu. (My holidays are Saturday and Sunday.)
In the sentence 1, you see the particle “to”. This particle “to” is used when saying two nouns parallelly. Although it looks like English preposition “to”, Japanese postposition “to” has completely different function. You may think the Japanese “to” works the same as “and” in English, but you need to be careful about its application.
2. right : ringo to mikan (an apple and a Mandarin orange)
3. wrong : yasui to oishii (reasonable and tasty)
4. wrong : hashiru to oyogu (run and swim)
“To” is used to say two words parallelly, only when they are nouns. You can use Japanese particle “to” for neither two adjectives nor two verbs. When you want to say two adjectives or two verbs parallelly, they have to be connected by different ways. These “different ways” will be explained later, not today.
Let me introduce two nouns that are used in today’s practice;
– Nihongo: noun (Japanese language)
– Jugyou: noun (class, teaching in classroom)
Using the particle “to”, practice and remember the following conversation.
A : Nihongo no Jugyou wa Nan youbi desuka. (What day of the week is your Japanese class?)
B : Nihongo no Jugyou wa Ka youbi to Kin youbi desu. (My Japanese classes are on Tuesday and Friday.)
Note that;
[Noun1] no [Noun2] => particle “no” is used to modify Noun2 by Noun1.
[Noun1] to [Noun2] => particle “to” is used to say two nouns parallelly.
To begin with, let’s learn days of the week.
Getsu youbi = Monday
Ka youbi = Tuesday
Sui youbi = Wednesday
Moku youbi = Thursday
Kin youbi = Friday
Do youbi = Saturday
Nichi youbi = Sunday
And the interrogative word for “What day of the week” is “Nan youbi”.
Since they are nouns, they can be a subject of a sentence. But let’s learn today sentences that use day of the week for predicates.
1. [Subject] wa [day of the week] desu.
example ; Yasumi wa Getsu youbi desu. (The holiday is Monday.)
where,
– yasumi : noun = holiday
– wa : particle = topic marker and in this case also the subject marker
– desu : sentence ending for present-positive with some politeness
Practice and remember the conversation below;
A : Yasumi wa Nan youbi desuka. (What day of the week is your holiday?)
B : Yasumi wa Moku youbi desu. (My holiday is Thursday.)
<この投稿は“スリーエーネットワーク、みんなの日本語 初級I 第2版, 第4課A2”の内容を参照しています。ただし、名詞並列の「と」は明日説明します。>
Yesterday, we learned the following conversation.
A : Ima Nan ji desuka. (What time is it now?)
B : Ima Ku ji Juu-kyuu fun desu. (Now it is Nine Nineteen.)
Today, let’s learn how to read time for hours and minutes.
Hours
Gozen Rei ji = 0:00 a.m. (Japanese don’t use “12:00 a.m.”)
Gozen Ichi ji = 1:00 a.m.
Gozen Ni ji = 2:00 a.m.
Gozen San ji = 3:00 a.m.
Gozen Yo ji = 4:00 a.m. (Don’t say “Yon ji”)
Gozen Go ji = 5:00 a.m.
Gozen Roku ji = 6:00 a.m.
Gozen Shichi ji = 7:00 a.m. (Sometimes it’s “Nana ji”)
Gozen Hachi ji = 8:00 a.m.
Gozen Ku ji = 9:00 a.m. (Don’t say “Kyuu ji”)
Gozen Juu ji = 10:00 a.m.
Gozen Juu Ichi ji = 11:00 a.m.
Gogo Rei ji = 0:00 p.m.
Gogo Ichi ji = 1:00 p.m.
Gogo Ni ji = 2:00 p.m.
Gogo San ji = 3:00 p.m.
Gogo Yo ji = 4:00 p.m. (Don’t say “Yon ji”)
Gogo Go ji = 5:00 p.m.
Gogo Roku ji = 6:00 p.m.
Gogo Shichi ji = 7:00 p.m. (Sometimes it’s “Nana ji”)
Gogo Hachi ji = 8:00 p.m.
Gogo Ku ji = 9:00 p.m. (Don’t say “Kyuu ji”)
Gogo Juu ji = 10:00 p.m.
Gogo Juu Ichi ji = 11:00 p.m.
Gozen an Gogo are omitted when it is not necessary.
Minutes
Look at carefully if it’s “fun” or “pun” for minutes.
Ippun = Ichi + fun : One
Ni fun = Ni + fun : Two
Sampun = San + fun : Three
Yompun = Yon + fun : Four
Go fun = Go + fun : Five
Roppun = Roku + fun : Six
Nana fun = Nana + fun : Seven
Happun = Hachi + fun : Eight
Kyuu fun = Kyuu + fun : Nine
Juppun = Juu + fun : Ten (Old people may say “Jippun”)
Practice well how to read time in Japanese like the following examples;
0:41a.m. = Gozen Rei ji Yon Juu Ippun
3:27a.m. = Gozen San ji Ni Juu Nana fun
6:03a.m. = Gozen Roku ji Sampun
9:59 = Ku ji Go Juu Kyuu fun
12:35 = Juu Ni ji San Juu Go fun
4:11p.m. = Gogo Yo ji Juu Ippun
7:44p.m.= Gogo Shichi ji Yon Juu Yompun
Sometimes 24 hour system is used like 21:36 that is “Ni Juu Ichi ji San Juu Roppun”.
Today’s sentence is as follows.
1. Ima [Hour] ji [minutes] fun desu.
example; Ima Yo-ji Juu-yom pun desu. (Now, the time is Four fourteen.)
Recently I showed that a Japanese sentence can be simplified as below;
2. [Subject] [Predicate].
But this is too simple. Let’s take a look at with different concept about Japanese sentences. A Japanese sentence consists of several segments as below;
[meaningful word][functional word] + [m.w.][f.w.] + [m.w.][f.w.]+ …
For example; Watashi (I) and Daigakusei (university student) are meaningful words.
And a particle “wa” and sentence ending “desu” are functional words.
You get the sentence below;
3. Watashi wa Daigakusei desu. (I am a university student.)
This sentence 3 has the structure of [m.w.][f.w.] + [m.w.][f.w.]
If you carefully look at the sentence 1, you will find that the meaningful word “Ima (now)” is not followed by a functional word. Using the particle of topic marker “wa”, you may want to say;
4. Ima wa Yo-ji Juu-yom pun desu. (Now is the time of Four fourteen.)
This sentence 4 is okay. These is no error on grammar. However, today’s sentence is;
5. Ima Yo-ji Juu-yom pun desu. (Now, the time is Four fourteen.)
How do we think about the missing “wa”? It is possible to think that the topic marker “wa” is omitted. But I like to think that the word “Ima (now)” in sentence 5 is an adverbial. If a word is an adverb, some of them don’t need any particle behind.
The reason why I say like this is that if you are a beginner as Japanese learner, you need to try NOT to omit a particle in Japanese sentences.
In addition, you need to know how to read time to say what time it is now. Let’s learn how to read times tomorrow. For today, just practice and remember the following conversation;
A : Ima Nan ji desuka. (What time is it now?)
B : Ima Ku ji Juu-kyuu fun desu. (Now it is Nine Nineteen.)
<この投稿は“スリーエーネットワーク、みんなの日本語 初級I 第2版, 第4課A1”の内容を参照しています>
Agony or Fun?! Second Language Learning 