Japanese 31-Legged Race
I realize I haven’t been posting, please don’t think I forgot about this blog. This semester’s just been very tough and I’m busier than usual. I hope to put up some posts over spring break (next week), but again I may lapse back into inactivity once I get back into class schedule. On the plus side, I should be in Japan next semester so I’ll have lots of useful things for you!
Hello! Im still a beginner so i've got a question (probably a stupid one). If I ask someone 今日は忙しい？And they answer うん、忙しい。And then I ask them 明日は？ Can they just say 明日も。? Or they have to complete the sentence since I asked it the short way? Hope you understand, I'm terrible at explaining! Also thank you very much this blog is really beautiful and its helping me a lot!
Yep! Like in English, when you write Japanese, you generally shouldn’t use sentence fragment, but in spoken Japanese, fragments are actually generally more acceptable in spoken Japanese than in English, and the one you posted is fine.
The new tumblr keeps reblogging things to this blog instead of my personal, if you see something seemingly random it should get deleted within a minute, my apologies :)
若いうちに楽しい時間を過ごすべきです。- You should have a good time while you’re young.
若いうちに楽しい時間を過ごすべきです。(Wakai uchi ni tanoshii jikan o sugosu beki desu) - You should have a good time while you’re young.
若いうちに (Wakai uchi ni) - While young (若い, wakai = young; うちに, uchi ni = literally ‘inside,’ see below)
楽しい (Tanoshii) - Fun
時間 (Jikan) - Time
を (O) - Object marker
過ごす (Sugosu) - To spend (time)
べき (Beki) - Should
です (Desu) - Polite copula
Literally, “While you’re young, you should spend fun times.”
天気が良くなるかどうか分かりません。- I don’t know whether or not the weather will improve.
天気が良くなるかどうか分かりません。(Tenki ga yoku naru ka dou ka wakarimasen)- I don’t know whether or not the weather will improve
天気 (Tenki) - Weather
が (Ga) - Subject marker
良く (Yoku) - Adverb (ku) form of いい (ii, good - originally 良い, yoi, hence this irregular form)
なる (Naru) - To become
かどうか (Ka dou ka) - “Whether or not” - Used to form question clauses in sentences without question words (who, what, when, etc)
分かりません (Wakarimasen) - Polite negative form of 分かる (Wakaru, to know/understand)
This sentence literally means “I don’t know whether or not the weather will become good.”
次の電車がいつ来るか教えてくれませんか？- Could you tell me when the next train comes?
次の電車がいつ来るか教えてくれませんか？(Tsugi no densha ga itsu kuru ka oshiete kuremasen ka?) - Could you tell me when the next train comes?
次 (Tsugi) - Next
の (No) - Adjective marker with 次
電車 (Densha) - Train
が (Ga) - Subject marker
いつ (Itsu) - When
来る (Kuru) - To come
か (Ka) - Particle attached to the end of question phrases in clauses
教えて(Oshiete) - Te form of 教える (Oshieru, To teach/inform)
くれません (Kuremasen) - Polite negative form of くれる, to give (to me); attached after the -te form to mean “to do __ for someone”
か (Ka) - Question marker
Literally means, “Will you not do me the favor of telling me when the next train comes?”
hi amazing blog but I have a question, I'm learning japanese by myself at the moment and I find it hard to read just the "symbols" any advice? ps sorry I don't know the same of the Japanese writing.
Start with hiragana, the simple roundish characters, like あいうえおかきくけこ. These all have fixed pronunciations, and they’re used as particles/connecting words in Japanese as well. This is sort of like the “alphabet” of Japanese, early-level books will have these above the Kanji to teach you how to pronounce some you may not know yet. Here’s a hiragana table for practicing.
Next I’d learn katakana, the squarish looking ones, ie アイウエオカキクケコ. These are used from borrowed foreign words (ie アメリカ, amerika), onomatopoeia (ドキドキ, dokidoki), and combined words (カラオケ, karaoke). Here’s a katakana table.
Once you’ve memorized those two sets (and they’re not terribly difficult), you can start on kanji, which is a daunting but very feasible task. There are a lot, but if you learn them by frequency, you’ll be able to read a lot of things quickly and be able to guess the meanings of ones you don’t know.
東京駅はどこかわかりますか？ - Do you know where Tokyo Station is?
東京駅はどこかわかりますか？ (Toukyou eki wa doko ka wakarimasu ka?) - Do you know where Tokyo Station is?
東京 (Toukyou) - Tokyo
駅 (Eki) - Station, attached to the end of the name
は (Wa) - Topic marker
どこ (Doko) - Where
か (Ka) - Attached to the end of question phrases in clauses
分かります (Wakarimasu) - Polite form of 分かる (Wakaru, to know/understand)
か (Ka) - Question marker
