タグ: Japanese learning

Japanese Learning: Sentence expressing where the place is; “[Name of a Place] wa [Koko] desu.”; The subject and predicate are reversed compared to yesterday.

Yesterday’s construction was as below;

1. [Ko-so-a word for place] wa [Name of a Place] desu.

The sentence construction of 1 is “noun predicate sentence”. A noun predicate sentence can be segmented as follows;

[Subject]+[Predicate].

Note that a noun predicate sentence is a little like “Noun1 is Noun2.” in English. Both the subject and the predicate are nouns. Let’s learn today a sentence construction in which subject and predicate are reversed from yesterday.

2. [Name of a Place] wa [Ko-so-a word for place] desu.

The following is just a review of Ko-so-a word for place/location that we learned yesterday.

– koko : here, this place

– soko : (1) When the speaker and the listener are close and sharing a limited place, “soko” is a place a little distant from the two.

(2) When there is a distance between the speaker and the listener, and the speaker calls the place of the listener “soko”, the speaker would say “koko” ((2) won’t be applied today).

– asoko : the place over there

Actually, ko-so-a words are sometimes called as “Ko-so-a-do”. I’d like to add “doko” to the above “koko”, “soko”, and “asoko”

– doko : Interrogative word “Where”

Take a look at examples for today’s construction.

3. Kyoushitsu wa koko desu. (The classroom is here.)

4. Kyoushitsu wa soko desu. (The classroom is there.)

5. Kyoushitsu wa asoko desu. (The classroom is over there.)

6. Kyoushitsu wa doko desuka. (Where is the classroom?)

Practice and remember the following sentences;

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

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

＜説明事項の漏れを防止するために、当ブログの”Japanese Learning”では、スリーエーネットワーク、”みんなの日本語 初級I 第2版”の練習Aを参照しています。今日は第3課のA2に関連しています。＞

Japanese Learning: Sentence expressing ownership “[Pronoun] wa [Person] no desu.”; “no” that functions as a noun.

What we learned yesterday was a sentence that expresses ownership as below.

1. [Pronoun] wa [Person] no [Noun] desu.

example; Are wa watashi no Hon desu. (That is my book.)

Today, too, we are going to learn a sentence construction that expresses ownership.

2. [Pronoun] wa [Person] no desu.”

example; Are wa watashi no desu. (That is mine.)

The sentence 2 doesn’t say about “what is mine”. And it seems that the sentence 2 is a contracted form of 1. But “-no” in the sentence 1 and “no” in the sentence 2 are slightly different. “-no” in 1 is a particle. But “no” in 2 functions as if it is a noun. In later stage of Japanese learning (but still in beginner’s level), you will see that this kind of “no” has a function to make verbs, I-adjectives, and Na-adjectives “a noun phrase”.  

For today, it is better to think “no” in 2 is a contracted form of noun “mono” that means “a thing”.

Practice and remember the conversation below;

A : Kore wa dare no desuka. (Whose is this?)

B : Sore wa Satou-san no desu. (It is Ms. Sato’s.)

Japanese Learning: Sentence expressing ownership “[Pronoun] wa [Person] no [Noun] desu.”

Actually, today’s sentence is the same kind as yesterday.

1. [Pronoun] wa [Noun1] no [Noun2] desu.

Using a word for a person into [Noun1] as below, sentence “1” can express ownership.

2. [Pronoun] wa [Person] no [Noun] desu.

“-no” is a particle, and basically “A no B” in Japanese is “B of A” in English. However, in this case of 2, “A no B” can be understood as “A’s B” in English.

Example;

– Kore wa watashi no Hon desu. (This is my book.)

– Sore wa Satou-san no Jisho desu. (It is Ms. Sato’s dictionary.)

– Are wa Sensei no kuruma desu. (That is (our) teacher’s car.)

There are three pronouns “Kore”, “Sore”, “Are” in the examples above. You need to choose one of three based on spatial positions of the speaker, the listener, and the object.

Practice and remember the conversation below;

A : Sore wa dare no Nohto desuka. (Whose notebook is it?)

B : Kore wa Suzuki-san no Nohto desu. (This is Mr. Suzuki’s notebook.)

Japanese Learning: Noun predicate sentence; [Pronoun] wa [Noun1] no [Noun2] desu.

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, we have only learned “1. Noun predicate sentences”. Review one of noun predicate sentences that is using particle “-no” as below;

4. [Noun1] wa [Noun2] no [Noun3] desu.

Example;

5. Watashi wa Niigata Daigaku no Gakusei desu. (I am a student of Niigata University)

-Watashi : personal pronoun ( I )

-wa : particle ; topic marker, and in this case, also subject marker

-Niigata Daigaku : proper noun (Niigata University) ; this modifies “Gakusei (student)” to limit the range of meaning of student.

-no : particle ; “A no B” in Japanese is like “B of A” in English

-Gakusei : noun (a student/students)

5. is a sentence with the construction of 4., and also described as below;

5’. [Person] wa [modifier] no [Noun describing types of people] desu.

But the sentence construction 4. has more variations. In addition to sentences about person/people, let’s take a look at sentences about things.

6. Kore wa Nihongo no Jisho desu. (This is a dictionary of Japanese.)

You know three pronouns “Kore”, “Sore”, and “Are”. You need to choose one of three based on spatial positions of the speaker, the listener, and the object. Suppose that both the speaker and the listener are close to the object for the following conversation.

A : Kore wa Nan desuka. (What is this?)

B : Kore wa Nihon no Ringo desu. (This is an apple of Japan)

Japanese Learning: Multiple (Two) choice questions of Noun Predicate Sentence;

We have already learned two types of interrogatives;

1. Yes-No questions

A : Koukousei desuka. (Are you a high school student?)

B : Iie, watashi wa koukousei dewa arimasen. (No, I am not a high school student.)

A : Ja, Daigakusei desuka. (Then, are you a university student?)

B : Hai, Watashi wa Daigakusei desu. (Yes, I am a university student.)

2. Wh-questions

A : Ano hito wa dare desuka. (Who is that person?)

B : Ano hito wa Sato-san desu. (That person is Ms. Sato.)

Today we are going to learn another type of interrogative sentence. It is one of multiple choice questions, but with the least number of choices.

3. Multiple choice questions

A : Sore wa Hon desuka, Jisho desuka. (Is it a book or a dictionary?)

B : Kore wa Hon desu. (This is a book.)

The sentence A is a “Two-choice question”. When you are asked by the A, you cannot answer with “Hai (yes)” or “Iie (no)”. You need to choose one of the two, and to answer by saying the nouns that was used in the question. Perhaps there may be a situation in which you would say like the follows;

B’ : Iie, Hon demo Jisho demo arimasen. Nohto desu.

(No, this is neither book nor dictionary, but a notebook.)

But I want you to learn one at a time. Don’t care much about the answer B’. What you need to learn today is the question A and the answer B.

Japanese Learning: Pronoun “Sore”; A speaker calls a thing “Sore” which is on a listener’s side.

Yesterday we learned “Kore”. Kore, Sore, and Are are pronouns and one of the word groups of “Ko-So-A words”. Yesterday I wrote that Kore, Sore, and Are are corresponding to “This”, “It”, and “That”, respectively. Another definition is like; Kore is a thing here or near, Sore is a thing in middle distance, Are is a thing that is in distant place. However, “Sore” is not so simple. If a speaker and a listener are together in limited space like inside taxi, the definition “Sore is in middle distance” is okay. But in many situations, what is Sore for a speaker can be Kore for a listener.

– Kore : a thing very near to the speaker and the listener

– Sore : a thing a little distant from the speaker but very near to the listener

– Are : a thing far from both of the speaker and the listener

Suppose that there is a dictionary on the table. Person A and B are standing by the table and they are face to face.

A : Kore wa nan desuka. (What is this?)

B : Kore wa Jisho desu. (This is a dictionary.)

This is yesterday’s conversation.

Different from the situation above, suppose that Person A and B are standing face to face with the distance of 2 meters (6 feet) between the two. The person B has a smartphone on her hand.

A : Sore wa nan desuka. (What is it?)

B : Kore wa Sumaatofon desu. (This is a smartphone.)

Japanese Learning: Noun predicate sentences using Pronouns “Kore” for the subject, and using an interrogative word “Nan” for the predicate.

There are groups of words that start with one of Ko-, So-, and A-. Today we are going to learn pronouns “Kore”, which is one of Ko-So-A words “Kore, Sore, and Are”. Simply put, these three are corresponding to “This”, “It”, and “That”. But actually, it is not so simple for “Sore”. Let’s use only “Kore” for today.

Since “Kore” is a pronoun, it can be used in the same way as nouns. Although Kore can be either of a subject or a predicate, just for the sake of simplicity, let’s learn a sentence construction in which Kore is used for the subject today.

1. Kore wa Hon desu. (This is a book)

– Kore : pronoun ; this

– wa : particle ; the topic marker and also the subject marker in this case

– Hon : noun ; a book

– desu : polite ending for present-positive

The sentence 1 is a positive one. The negative one is as below;

2. Kore wa Hon dewa arimasen. /Kore wa Hon ja arimasen. (This is not a book.)

An interrogative sentence is easy to make from 1 as below:

3. Kore wa Hon desuka. (Is this a book?)

Note that 3. is an interrogative sentence of [yes-no question]. If you don’t know what “this” is, you need to make your interrogative sentence a [Wh-question].

4. Kore wa Nan desuka. (What is this?)

Nan is the short form of Nani and an interrogative corresponding to “What”. Although the interrogative “Nan” is used, the ending particle for question “ka” is also used at the end of an interrogative sentence.

Practice and remember in the form of a conversation as follows;

A : Kore wa nan desuka. (What is this?)

B : Kore wa Jisho desu. (This is a dictionary.)

Japanese Learning: Particle to indicate that the noun is the same kind with another noun that appeared in the preceding sentence; [Noun] mo

Think that two people are university students;

1. Satou-san wa dai-gakusei desu. (Ms. Sato is a university student.)

2. Suzuki-san mo dai-gakusei desu. (Mr. Suzuki is a university student, too.)

The subjects are different between sentences 1 and 2. Is there any other difference?

In the sentence 1, the subject “Satou-san” is followed by particle “-wa”, which is the topic marker and is also the subject marker in this case.

In the sentence 2, the subject “Suzuki-san” is followed by particle “mo”, which is the particle that we are going to learn today.

In the combination of { [Noun]+mo }, the particle “mo” functions to indicate the [Noun] is the same kind as the noun in preceding sentence. In the sentence 2, you see { [Suzuki-san]+mo }. This indicates that Suzuki-san is the same kind as Satou-san in terms of being a university student.

Note that the particle “mo” is NOT always placed just behind the subject. This caution is usually forgotten in Japanese teaching. So far, we have learned simple noun predicate sentences only. There are other types of sentences that are more complicated in their constructions. Sometimes, the particle “mo” is attached to a word that is NOT the subject. Remember that particle “mo” is attached to the word that you think is the same kind with a word in the preceding sentence. For this matter, an example will be shown after we learn more complicated sentence constructions.

Japanese Learning: Modifying a noun by another noun; [Noun1] no [Noun2]

We have already learned a construction of Noun predicate sentences. Its positive form is as follows;

1. [Noun1]wa [Noun2]desu.

Example : Watashi wa Dai-Gakusei desu. (I am a university student.)

When you hear this sentence, you probably want to know which university the person studies in. In other words, it would be better to have more information for the predicate “N desu”. You can say;

2. [Noun1]wa [Noun2] no [Noun3] desu.

In this sentence “2.”, Noun2 modifies Noun3 to limit the range of meaning of Noun3. Let us look at an example;

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

As shown in this example, “A no B” in Japanese is like “B of A” in English. And there　are a lot of students in this world of many types and in many schools. Modification “Niigata Daigaku no” is limiting the range of meaning of the word “students”.

＜説明事項の漏れを防止するために、当ブログの”Japanese Learning”の投稿では、スリーエーネットワーク、”みんなの日本語 初級I 第2版”の練習Aを参照しています。＞

Japanese Learning: Interrogative form of Noun Predicate Sentence; [Noun]wa [Wh- interrogative word] desuka.

Yesterday we learned one interrogative form of a noun predicate sentence. It was a “yes-no question”. Today, we are going to learn a “Wh-question”. In order to introduce a “Wh-question”, let us first look at positive forms of noun predicate sentences.

1. Ano hito wa Sato-san desu. : That person is Ms. Sato.

2. Achira no kata wa Suzuki-san desu. : That person is Mr. Suzuki.

You see differences between the sentences 1. and 2. “Ano” in 1. turned to be “Achira” in 2., and “hito” in 1. turned to be “kata” in 2. The sentence 2. is more polite than 1. The issue of politeness is not an object of today, however, please note that choices of words are affected by how much the sentence should be polite. The following explanation uses the sentence 1. whose politeness is medium level.

If you want to make the sentence 1. a yes-no questions, just put “-ka” at the end.

1’. Ano hito wa Sato-san desuka : Is that person Ms.Sato?

But today, we need to make it a “Wh-question”. There are some interrogative words in Japanese for “when”, “where”, “who”, “what” and “why”. Today only “who” is used. The question word “dare” is corresponding to “who”, so if you want the sentence 1. to be “Wh-question”, it can be as follows;

3. Ano hito wa dare desuka : Who is that person?

Do not mind that the wh-word “dare” is being used not in the subject but in the predicate. Although “dare” can also be used as a subject, that type of construction should be introduced later. Learning more commonly used expressions earlier and less common ones later is important in the second language learning.

Remember today’s expressions as a conversation of question and answer as below.

A : Ano hito wa dare desuka : Who is that person?

B : Ano hito wa Sato-san desu : That person is Ms. Sato.