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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Yesterday we learned an expression for comparison as the following;
1. Eigo wa Nihongo yori Muzukashii desu. (English is more difficult than Japanese.)
Some of you may say Japanese is more difficult than English, but don’t argue which is more difficult or not at this moment. Today, too, we are learning an expression for comparison, which uses “Hou ga”.
Q : Eigo to Nihongo to Dochira ga Muzukashii desuka.
(Which is more difficult, English or Japanese?)
A : Eigo no Hou ga Muzukashii desu.
(English is more difficult than Japanese.)
Actually, the sentence A can be as below;
2. Eigo no Hou ga Nihongo yori Muzukashii desu.
Look at 2. and 1. They look similar, but the difference is;
1. [Subject]= “Eigo wa”
2. [Subject]= “Eigo no Hou ga”
Knowing ‘what is the word “Hou”’ is one issue. But putting aside it, it seems like the issue of which to use for a subject, “wa”or “ga” comes again.
– “[Subject] wa” : the sentence is to explain nature/condition of the subject.
– “[Subject] ga” : the sentence is to identify what(which) the subject is.
Therefore, in the sentence 2;
2. Eigo no Hou ga Nihongo yori Muzukashii desu.
The word “Hou” helps to identify which is more difficult language in the comparison between English and Japanese.
This post was written with reference to the exercise A4 on Section 12 of “Minna no Nihongo” published by “3A Corporation”
It was real, but now I feel them like an illusion.
1. Oosaka wa Koube yori Ookiidesu. (Osaka is bigger than Kobe.)
Tokyo is not the only urban city in Japan. There are many big cities in Japan. If you look at the western part of Japan, you will find some cities are there. Both the cities of Osaka and Kobe have wide surrounding areas, but let us look at their populations under each municipal government. There are 2.8 million citizens in Osaka City, while 1.5 million in Kobe City. Therefore, we can say “Osaka is bigger than Kobe”.
In the construction of “[A] wa [B] yori [Adjective] desu.”, you can substitute [N1 no N2] into [A] and [B], as shown below;
2. Watashi no Ie wa Satou-san no Ie yori Ookiidesu. (My house is bigger than Sato-san’s.)
The above example 1 and 2 use the I-adjective “Ookii(big)”. Not only I-adjective but you can also use Na-adjective in this construction as below.
3. Kono Kouen wa Ano Kouen yori Kirei desu. (This park is more beautiful than that park.)
This post was written with reference to the exercise A3 on Section 12 of “Minna no Nihongo” published by “3A Corporation”
We learned yesterday the endings of past-positive for Noun, Na-adjective, and I-adjective predicate sentences. It is important to know that the ending of I-adjective is different from the endings of Noun and Na-adjective predicate sentences.
<Past-Positive>
1. Noun Predicate => [Noun]+deshita.
2. Na-adjective => [Na-adj]+deshita.
3. I-adjective => [I-adj]+kattadesu.
Not only for “Past-Positive”, also for “Past-Negative” there is the same kind of difference in terms of “Noun and Na-adjective versus I-adjective”
<Past-Negative>
4. Noun Predicate => [Noun]+dewa Arimasen deshita.
example : San’nen mae, Watashi wa Daigakusei dewa Arimasen deshita.
(Three years ago, I was not a university student.)
Note that “dewa” is often shortened to be “ja” which sounds a little casual.
5. Na-adjective => [Na-adj]+dewa Arimasen deshita.
example : San’nen mae, Kono kouen wa Kirei dewa Arimasen deshita.
(Three years ago, this park was neither clean nor beautiful.)
Note that “Kirei” is not an I-adjective but Na-adjective. And spelling is “Kirei”, but pronunciation is “Kire’e”.
3. I-adjective => [I-adj]+ku nakatta desu.
example : Kinou wa Atatakaku nakatta desu.
(Yesterday, it was not warm.)
This post was written with reference to the exercise A2 on Section 12 of “Minna no Nihongo” published by “3A Corporation”
Sentence endings are the most important part of Japanese sentences. We have already learned sentence endings in past tense for verb predicate sentences;
– Past-positive : V+ mashita
example: Tabemashita (ate)
– Past-negative : V+ masendeshita
example: Tabemasendeshita (didn’t eat)
There are four types of predicate sentences in Japanese. Let’s learn the endings of past-positive for Noun, Na-adjective, and I-adjective predicate sentences.
1. Noun Predicate => [Noun]+deshita.
example : San’nen mae, Watashi wa Koukousei deshita.
(Three years ago, I was a high school student.)
Note that “Koukousei” is a noun
2. Na-adjective => [Na-adj]+deshita.
example : San’nen mae. Kono kouen wa Kirei deshita.
(Three years ago, this park was clean and beautiful.)
Note that “Kirei” is not an I-adjective but Na-adjective. And spelling is “Kirei”, but pronunciation is “Kire’e”.
3. I-adjective => [I-adj]+kattadesu.
example : Kinou wa Atatakatta desu.
(Yesterday, it was warm.)
Note that you need to use “kattadesu” for “Past-Positive” of an I-adjective predicate sentence. DO NOT SAY “×Atatakai deshita”, which is wrong.
This post was written with reference to the exercise A1 on Section 12 of “Minna no Nihongo” published by “3A Corporation”
The following sentence was shown yesterday;
1. Watashi no Ie kara Kaisha made Densha de Yon juppun Kakarimasu.
(It takes forty minutes from my home to the company by train.)
How to describe minutes and hours like Yon Juppun was shown yesterday. So, let us look at some other things in the sentence 1.
[Place A] kara [Place B] made
“Kara”and “made” have been already introduced; “A kara” means the starting time, and “B made” means the ending time. Not only for starting time and ending time, “A kara B made” is also used to express spatial starting point and ending point.
[Means of Transportation] de
Particle “de” is used to describe what you use when you take action. Although there are many types of usage of “-de”, typical usages are as below;
– Means of transportation
example : Maiasa Basu de Kaisha e Ikimasu. (I go to the company by bus every morning.)
– Place where action takes
example : Ie de Nemasu. (I sleep in my house.)
– Tools/Means
example : Nihonjin wa Hashi de Gohan o Tabemasu. (Japanese eat food using chopsticks.)
– Language
example : “Butaniku” wa Eigo de Nan desuka. (What is it called for Butaniku in English?)
Practice and remember the following conversation;
A : Satou-san no Ie kara Kaisha made Densha de Donokurai Kakarimasuka.
(Sato-san, how long does it take from your home to the campany?)
B : Watashi no Ie kara Kaisha made Densha de Ichi jikan Kakarimasu.
(From my home to the company, it takes about one hour.)
This post was written with reference to the exercise A6 on Section 11 of “Minna no Nihongo” published by “3A Corporation”
Suppose you are working in a company. You need to go the company every day through Monday to Friday. You leave your home early in the morning, and get on a train. If it takes only ten minutes on the train, and then you can soon get to your working place from the station, you are lucky. But if it takes one hour and a half on the train, you would be exhausted even at the time when you get to your working place. So, it is very important for you as to how long it takes on your commute. How would you say about this in Japanese?
1. Watashi no Ie kara Kaisha made Densha de Yon juppun Kakarimasu.
Let me tell you about grammatical things about this sentence tomorrow. For today, learn the expressions about time period as a preparation to learn the sentence 1.
– one minute => Ippun
– two minutes => Ni fun
– three minutes => Sampun
– four minutes => Yompun
– five minutes => Go fun
– six minutes => Roppun
– seven minutes => Nana fun
– eight minutes => Happun
– nine minutes => Kyuu fun
– ten minutes => Juppun (Jippun)
– twenty minutes => Ni Juppun
– thirty minutes => San Juppun
– forty-four minutes => Yon Juu Yompun
– fifty-five minutes => Go Juu Go fun
– one hour => Ichi Jikan
– two hours => Ni Jikan
– three and a half hours => San Jikan Han
– four hours and thirty minutes => Yo Jikan San Juppun
– twelve hours => Juu Ni Jikan
<to be continued>
This post was written with reference to the exercise A6 on Section 11 of “Minna no Nihongo” published by “3A Corporation”
Look at the following sentence which we learned recently.
1. Ichi nichi ni San kai Gohan o Tabemasu. (I eat meals three times a day.)
The word “Ichi nichi” with particle “-ni” works as a reference time when talking about frequency.
However, today’s expression doesn’t have the particle “-ni” for a word of time period. It is because;
– Time period in the sentence is not a reference time to talk about frequency.
– The purpose is to talk about the time period itself.
– Even without the particle “-ni”, the word of time period can work as an adverbial.
Look at the following conversation and try to remember it;
A : Daigaku de Donokurai Nihongo o Benkyoushimashitaka.
(How long did you study Japanese in the university?)
B : Daigaku de Yo nen Nihongo o Benkyoushimashita.
(I studied Japanese four years in the university.)
This post was written with reference to the exercise A5 on Section 11 of “Minna no Nihongo” published by “3A Corporation”
Yesterday we learned the following sentence;
1. Ichi nichi ni San kai Gohan o Tabemasu. (I eat meals three times a day.)
This sentence is introduced in order to show one of functions of particle “-ni”. The function was to mark something that is an object to allocate numbers. And for this function, if a word of time period is placed in front of “ni”, the sentence can express frequency.
In the sentence 1, the frequency is three times a day. And you find the word “San kai” for three times. The followings are examples of uses of quantifier “-kai”.
– once => Ikkai
– twice => Ni kai
– three times => San kai
– four times => Yon kai
– five times => Go kai
– six times => Rokkai
– seven times => Nana kai
– eight times => Hakkai
– nine times => Kyuu kai
– ten times => Jukkai (Jikkai)
Practice and remember the following conversation;
A : Satou-san wa Isshuukan ni Nan kai Sentaku o Shimasuka.
(Sato-san, how many times do you wash cloths a week?)
B : Watashi wa Isshuukan ni San kai Sentaku o Shimasu.
(I wash cloths three times a week.)
This post was written with reference to the exercise A4 on Section 11 of “Minna no Nihongo” published by “3A Corporation”
Agony or Fun?! Second Language Learning 