タグ: Japanese learning

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 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>

Today, too, we are going to learn how to read numbers in conjunction with a quantifier “en” that is a unit for counting how much the price is. Asking and answering a question about how much the price is can be a conversation as the following example;

A : Kono Kuruma wa Ikura desuka. (How much is this car?)

B : Kono Kuruma wa San Byaku Man en desu. (This car is three million yen.)

As of today, January 24, 2026, 1 US dollar is 156 Japanese yen. So you need to use “a bigger number” when saying the prices of commodities. Let’s us start with 1000 today.

1000 en = Sen’ en (one thousand-yen)

1004 en = Sen Yo en (one thousand and four-yen)

1040 en = Sen Yon Juu en (one thousand and fourty-yen)

1400 en = Sen Yon Hyaku en (one thousand and four hundred-yen)

2000 en = Ni Sen’ en (two thousand-yen)

3000 en = San Zen’ en (three thousand-yen)

4000 en = Yon Sen’ en (four thousand-yen)

5000 en = Go Sen’ en (five thousand-yen)

6000 en = Roku Sen’ en (six thousand-yen)

7000 en = Nana Sen’ en (seven thousand-yen)

8000 en = Hassen’ en (eight thousand-yen)

You see “ss” in Hassen’en. Since “s” is a fricative sound, the first “s” is leak of fricative sound with length of one mora.

9000 en = Kyuu Sen’ en (nine thousand-yen)

10,000 en = Ichi Man’ en (ten thousand-yen)

20,000 en = Ni Man’ en (twenty thousand-yen)

30,000 en = Sam Man’ en (twenty thousand-yen)

100,000 en = Juu Man’ en (one hundred thousand-yen)

200,000 en = Ni Juu Man’ en (two hundred thousand-yen)

1,000,000 en = Hyaku Man’ en (one million-yen)

10,000,000 en = Issen Man’ en (ten million-yen)

100,000,000 en = Ichi Oku en (one hundred million-yen)

As you see above, comma is used for every three digits. In fact, it is rational to put comma for every four digits in Japanese, because Man is 10^4, Oku is 10^8, Chou is 10^12, and Kei is 10^16. However, also in Japanese, a big number has commas in three digits. When you see a big number, and you want to know how big the number is, read the number from the end with the following;

Ichi – Juu – Hyaku – Sen – Man – Juu Man – Hyaku Man-…

This simply means that One – Ten – One hundred – One thousand – Ten thousand – One hundred thousand – One million

We learned the following expressions yesterday.

A : Kono Jisho wa Ikura desuka. (How much is this dictionary?)

B : Kono Jisho wa 1800 en desu. (This dictionary is 1800 yen.)

And 1800 is pronounced “Sen Happyaku”.

When it comes to numbers, there are two issues for beginners of Japanese.

– How to read (pronounce) numbers

– Use of quantifiers to be put right after the number.

For the second one, quantifiers are like “unit” for you to count a number of something. There are the quantifier for counting stick, the quantifier for counting paper, the quantifier for books, and so one. Actually, there are a lot. Today and yesterday, we use only “en” that is for counting moneys in Japanese Yen.

So for today, let’s learn how to read numbers

1 en = Ichi en (one yen)

2 en = Ni en (two-yen)

3 en = San’en (three-yen)

4 en = Yo en (four-yen)

5 en = Go en (five-yen)

6 en = Roku en (six-yen)

7 en = Nana en (seven-yen)

8 en = Hachi en (eight-yen)

9 en = Kyu en (nine-yen)

10 en = Juu en (ten-yen)

11 en = Juu Ichi en (eleven-yen)

12 en = Juu Ni en (twelve-yen)

13 en = Juu San’ en (thirteen-yen)

14 en = Juu Yo en (fourteen-yen)

15 en = Juu Go en (fifteen-yen )

16 en = Juu Roku en (sixteen-yen)

22 en = Ni Juu Ni en (twenty-two-yen)

33 en = San Juu San’ en (thirty-three-yen)

44 en = Yon Juu Yo en (fourty-four-yen)

77 en = Nana Juu Nana en (seventy-seven-yen)

99 en = Kyuu Juu Kyuu en (ninty-nine-yen)

100 en = Hyakuy en (one hundred-yen)

104 en = Hyaku Yo en (one hundred and four-yen)

140 en = Hyaku Yon Juu en (One hundred and fourty-yen)

200 en = Ni Hyaku en (two hundred-yen)

300 en = San Byaku en (three-hundred-yen)

400 en = Yon Hyaku en (four-hundred-yen)

500 en = Go Hyaku en (five-hundred-yen)

600 en = Roppyaku en (six-hundred-yen)

700 en = Nana Hyaku en (seven-hundred-yen)

800 en = Happyaku en (eight-hundred-yen)

900 en = Kyuu Hyaku en (nine-hundred-yen)

1000 en = Sen’ en (one thousand-yen)

Let’s learn the numbers more than 1000 tomorrow.

I hope you remember the sentence construction that describes ownership as below;

1. Kono hon wa watashi no desu. (This book is mine.)

Today’s sentence is similar to 1. And it uses numbers for predicate. But let’s at first review a little as preparation for today’s sentence.

From the simplest point of view, a Japanese sentence has the following structure:

2. [Subject] [Predicate].

We are still learning “Noun predicate sentences” only. In the case of a noun predicate sentence, 2 can be as follows;

3. [Noun1] wa [Noun2] desu.

where;

“wa” is the topic marker, and in a simple sentence like 3, usually “wa” is also the subject marker.

“desu” is the ending of a sentence that indicates present-positive with some extent of politeness.

Either or both of Noun1 and Noun2 can be modified;

4. Kono hon wa watashi no hon desu. (This book is my book.)

“Kono” modifies “hon” that is Noun1 and the subject, and “Watashi no” modifies “hon” that is Noun2 and the predicate. But you could feel two “hon”s are repetitive in 4, then you will get the sentence 1. by giving “no” a function as a noun.

1. Kono hon wa watashi no desu. (This book is mine.)

In today’s sentence, we will put a price into the predicate in order to describe how much a thing costs. And it needs another interrogative word “Ikura” that means how much.

Actually, Japanese has so many patterns as for counting numbers. It is too much to learn in one time. So for today, just practice and remember the following conversation;

A : Kono Jisho wa Ikura desuka. (How much is this dictionary?)

B : Kono Jisho wa 1800 en desu. (This dictionary is 1800 yen.)

1800 => Sen Happyaku

We have already learned several sentences which have construction of

[Subject] was [Noun1] no [Noun2] desu.

example : Watashi wa Niigata Daigaku no Gakusei desu. (I am a student of Niigata Univrsity)

Modification for Noun B by “A no” is limiting the range of meaning of “B”.

Look at interrogative words in the following examples;

A1 : Sore wa NAN no jisho desuka. (What kind of dictionary is that?)

B1 : Kore wa Nihongo no jisho desu. (This is a dictionary of Japanese.)

A2 : Are wa DARE no kuruma desuka. (Whose car is that?)

B2 : Are wa sensei no kuruma desu. (That is (our) teacher’s car.)

In the sentence construction “[Subject] wa [Noun1] no [Noun2] desu(ka).”, A1 uses NAN for Noun1 as interrogative word that means “what”. A2 uses DARE for Noun1 as interrogative word that means “who”. Let’s learn today sentences that use “DOKO” for Noun1 as interrogative words that means “where it has come from” or “where it was made”

A3 : Kore wa Doko no Wain desuka. (Where is this wine coming from?)

B3 : Kore wa Furansu no Wain desu. (This is wine coming from France.)

A4 : Sore wa Doko no Kuruma desuka. (Where is that car made in?)

B4 : Kore wa Nihon no Kuruma desu. (This is a car made in Japan.)

<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3課A6”の内容に準拠しています>

We are still learning “noun predicate sentences”. Two days ago, we learned the following sentence;

1. “[Something] wa [Place/location] desu.”

– Shokudou wa Ni-kai desu. (The dining room is on the second floor)

Today, we are going to use this type of sentences more widely. The predicate of the sentence 1 is a noun of place/location (Ni-kai = the second floor). But a noun having nature of place/location in its meaning is also applicable to the sentence construction of 1. Probably today’s sentences are useful for self-introduction.

2. Kuni wa Chuugoku desu. (My home country is China.)

– Kuni = country, but in this case, it means home country. “My” is omitted in Japanese, but English translation would have “My” from context.

– Chuugoku = China : Be careful for pronunciation, it’s not “Chugok”

3. Daigaku wa Niigata Daigaku desu. (The university I study at is Niigata University.)

– Daigaku = University : “I study at” is omitted in Japanese, but English translation would have “I study at” from context.

Practice and remember the following sentences;

A : Kaisha wa dochira desuka. (What company are you working at?)

B : Kaisha wa Niigata-Koutsuu desu. (The company I am work at is Niigata-Kotsu(Bus company).)

<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3課A5”の内容に準拠しています>

When something is somewhere, and the somewhere is described with “Ko-so-a” pronouns for places/locations, the following sentence constructions are used.

1. Shokudou wa koko desu. (The dining room is here.)

2. Shokudou wa soko desu. (The dining room is there.)

3. Shokudou wa asoko desu. (The dining room is over there.)

4. Shokudou wa doko desuka. (Where is the dining room?)

The above sentences have enough politeness to speak in public spaces. However, if you make a change on Ko-so-a words, you can say those expressions in more polite speech style as the followings;

5. Shokudou wa kochira desu. (The dining room is here.)

6. Shokudou wa sochira desu. (The dining room is there.)

7. Shokudou wa achira desu. (The dining room is over there.)

8. Shokudou wa dochira desuka. (Where is the dining room?)

Some textbooks say that the sentences 5 to 8 are more polite than 1 to 4. But the difference between “Kochira” and “Koko”, “Sochira” and “Soko”, and “Achira” and “Asoko” is not only the difference of politeness. “Kochira”, “Sochira”, and “Achira” are pronouns of place/location with a nuance of direction. In this regard, there are other Ko-so-a words group that is the casual version as shown below (the third one).

Ko-so-a(-do) words groups as pronoun;

– Koko, Soko, Asoko, and Doko : for places : politeness is normal

– Kochira, Sochira, Achira, and Dochira : for places and directions : politeness is high

– Kocchi, Socchi, Acchi, and Docchi : for places and directions : politeness is low (casual)

You see the double letters of consonants “cc” for the third group. Its pronunciation is quite difficult for a learner of Japanese as a foreign language.

If the consonant is a plosive or affricate, you prepare for the consonant and one-mora silent for the first letter. If the consonant is fricative, the fricative sound leaks for one-mora before the second letter. In the case of Kocchi, Socchi, Acchi, and Docchi, “ch” is a affricate. Therefore, you need to be silent for the first “c”

Kocchi => [ko][c][chi] = three moras, [c] must be silent, but has length of one mora.

At the beginning, you need to learn polite expressions first, and then casual expressions later. For today, practice and remember the following polite sentences;

A : Toire wa dochira desuka. (Where is a toilet?)

B : Toire wa achira desu. (The toilet is over there.)

－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－

< 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3課の練習A4の内容に準拠しています。>