Friday, May 6, 2005

so yah, how you guys like my Hikaru No Go theme? I love history and so I love Go, that is Japanese version of Chess. I would love to learn how to play it really well, but I don’t have that much side time. Well I have the first basics of sentence structure for your lesson today! ^_^ Lesson 1: It's a... This simplest structure in Japanese is the "...desu." structure. Desu is pronounced 'dess' as the u becomes silent. Simply put, desu means "It is", "Those are", or "I am." ____ desu. It's ___. Note: In Japanese, cat = neko, dog = inu. Neko desu. Inu desu.John desu. It's a cat. or Those are cats.It's a dog. or Those are dogs. I am John. There is usually no difference between plural and singular things in Japanese. To distinguish what is being said, one must rely on context or add an adjective to describe how many dogs or cats or whatevers you have.To make a sentence a question in Japanese, you add "ka" to the end. Neko desu ka. Is it a cat?Inu desu ka. Is it a dog?John-san desu ka. Are you John? Is it John? Note that the suffix 'san' was added to the end of John when it became a question. This is because you are reffering to someone else, rather than yourself. It is considered polite to add -san to people's names other than your own. Be very carefull not to add it to the end of your own name though, as it is considered very rude and unusual.To say "It's not a cat." or "I'm not John." you have to use the form dewa arimasen or janai desu. Either form means the same thing, but dewa arimasen is more formal. Neko dewa arimasen. Neko janai desu. Inu dewa arimasen. Inu janai desu. John-san janai desu. It's not a cat.It's not a cat.It's not a dog.It's not a dog.I'm not John. Note that, in the example above, you are not John, therefore refering to him with -san is ok.If someone asks you "Is it a cat?" you can respond with yes (hai) or no (iie). Neko desu ka?Hai, neko desu.Iie, neko dewa arimasen. Is it a cat?Yes, it is a cat.No, it's not a cat. If you don't know what something is, you can point to it and ask "Nan desu ka?"Nan means 'what', so the sentence means "What is it?" Do not use nan to refer to people. It is very rude. Examples:Nan desu ka? Inu desu.Nan desu ka?Neko desu. What is it?It's a dog.What is it?It's a cat. Lesson 1 Vocabulary:-san... desu.... janai desu.... arimasen.haiiienanka nekoinu polite ending for other people's namesIt's a ...It's not a ...It's not a ...yesnowhatparticle added to the end of a sentence to make it a questioncatdog 1. Watashi wa Suzuki Yota desu. This sentence means "I am Yota Suzuki." It is standard for Japanese to use their family name first followed by their given name. The sentence pattern is "Noun wa noun desu" which translates as "Noun is Noun". The wa is a particle indicating a subject or a topic, while desu is an equivalent to "am", "are", and "is". Examples: Watashi wa Sumisu desu. I am Mr. Smith. Watashi wa Tanaka desu. I am Mr. Tanaka. 2. Anata wa Amerika-jin desu ka. This sentence means "Are you an American?" The word ka is a particle which makes a sentence a question. Examples: Anata wa Nihon-jin desu ka. Are you Japanese? Anata wa Suzuki-san desu ka. Are you Mr. Suzuki? 3. Otomo-dachi mo kookoo-sei desu ka. This sentence means "Is your friend also a high school student?" The word mo is a particle and means "also". Examples: Sumisu-san mo Amerika-jin desu ka. Is Mr. Smith also an American? Watashi mo daigaku-sei desu. I am also a college student. 4. Nihon-jin desu. This sentence means "I am Japanese". The word Nihon-jin is a compound of the two words, Nihon and jin. Nihon means "Japan" and jin means "person". The word jin is added to the end of a country's names to signify a person of that country. Examples: Gaadana-san wa Igirisu-jin desu. Mr. Gardiner is English. (Igirisu=England) Rozenbawa-san wa Doitsu-jin desu. Mr. Rosenbauer is German.(Doitsu=Germany) 5. Watashi wa kookoo-sei desu. This sentence means "I am a high school student". The word kookoo-sei is a compound of the two words, kookoo and -sei. Kookoo is a shortened form of the word kootoogakkoo which means "high school" and -sei is an ending which means "student". Examples: Waatamanu-san wa daigakuin-sei desu. Mr. Waterman is a graduate student.(daigakuin=graduate school) Rassoru-san wa daigaku-sei desu. Mr. Russell is a college student. DRILL: A. Fill in the blanks with the appropriate words. 1. Watashi ( ) Amerika-jin desu. 2. Anata ( ) America-jin desu ( ). 3. Watasi wa kookoosei ( ). 4. Anata ( ) nannen-sei ( )( ). Answers: B. Answer the following questions according the question given. C. (1) Anata wa Amerika-jin desu ka. D. (yes)_______________________ E. F. (2) Yota-san wa Nihon-jin desu ka. G. (yes)_______________________ H. I. (3) Anata wa daigaku-sei desu ka. J. (yes)_______________________ K. L. (4) Anata wa nannen-sei desu ka. M. (sophomore)___________________ N. O. (5) Anata wa kookoo-sei desu ka. (yes)_______________________ O-yasuminasai #Yuutsu#

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