Useful Japanese Phrases

Useful Japanese phrases A collection of useful phrases in Japanese. Click on the English phrases to see them in many other languages. Key to abbreviations: frm = formal, inf = informal, f = said by women, >f = said to women

English

日本語 (Japanese)

Welcome

ようこそ (yōkoso)

Hello

今日は (konnichiwa) おっす (ossu) - used between close male friends もしもし (moshi moshi) - on phone お元気ですか？ (o genki desu ka)

How are you? I'm fine, thanks. And you?

はい、元気です。あなたは？ (hai, genki desu. anata wa?) お蔭様で元気です (o kagesama de genki desu)

Long time no see

久しぶり (hisashiburi) お久しぶりですね (o hisashiburi desu ne)

What's your name?

お名前はなんですか? (o-namae wa nan desu ka)

My name is ...

... だ (... da) (inf) ...です (... desu) (frm)

Where are you from?

出身はどこですか？ (Shusshin wa doko desu ka?) どちらからですか (Dochira kara desu ka?) - frm

I'm from ...

（私は）～出身です ((watashi wa) ... shusshin desu)

Pleased to meet you

初めまして (hajimemashite) 初めまして。どうぞ宜しく (hajimemashite. dōzo yoroshiku) reply お会いできて嬉しいです (oaidekite ureshii desu)

Good morning

お早うございます / おはようございます (ohayō gozaimasu) お早う / おはよう (ohayō)

Good afternoon

今日は / こんにちは (konnichiwa)

Good evening

今晩は / こんばんは (konbanwa)

Good night

おやすみなさい (oyasumi nasai) おやすみ (oyasumi)

Goodbye

さようなら (sayōnara) いって来ます (ittekimasu) - 'I'll be back' - you are leaving いってらっしゃい (itterasshai) - 'come back soon' - you are staying じゃあまたね (jā mata ne) - see you later

Good luck

ご幸運を祈ります! (gokoūn o inorimasu) - frm 頑張って ね (gambatte ne) - inf

Have a nice day

良い一日を (Yoi ichinichi o)

Bon voyage (Have a good journey)

よい旅行を (yoi ryokō o) ごきげんよう！ (gokigen yō - Goodbye / Good luck) いってらっしゃい (itte irasshai - Go and come back) 一路平安を祈る (ichiroheian o inoru) - I wish you a smooth road (old fashioned)

Excuse me

すみません! (sumimasen)

How much is this?

いくらですか (ikura desu ka?)

Sorry

ごめんなさい! (gomen nasai)

Thank you

どうも (dōmo) ありがとう (arigatō) ありがとうございます (arigatō gozaimasu) どうもありがとう (dōmo arigatō) どうもありがとうございます (dōmo arigatō gozaimasu)

Response

どう致しましてどういたしまして (dō itashimashite)

Where's the toilet?

便所はどこですか (benjo wa doko desu ka?) トイレはどこですか (toire wa doko desu ka?) 手洗いはどこですか (tearai wa doko desu ka?)

This gentleman/lady will pay for everything

この人が全部払います (konohito ga zembu haraimasu)

Would you like to dance with me?

一緒に踊りませんか (isshoni odorimasenka?)

I love you

好きです (suki desu) 好きだ (suki da) 好きだよ (suki dayo) 好きよ (suki yo) f 大好きです (daisuki desu)

愛してるよ (aishiteru yo) 愛してるわ (aishiteru wa) >f Get well soon

お大事に (odaiji ni)

Language difficulties

Do you understand?

分かりますか (wakarimasu ka?) - frm

I understand

わかります (wakarimasu) わかる (wakaru) inf

I don't understand

わかりません (wakarimasen) - frm わからない (wakaranai) - inf

I understood

分かりました (wakarimashta) - frm

Please speak more slowly

ゆっくり話してください (yukkuri hanashite kudasai) ゆっくり言ってください (yukkuri itte kudasai)

Please write it down

書いてください (kaite kudasai) 書いて、頂けますか (kaite itadakemasu ka)

Please say that again

もう一度、言ってください (mō ichido, itte kudasai)

Do you speak Japanese?

日本語を話しますか (Nihongo o hanashimasu ka?) 日本語は話せますか (Nihongo wa hanasemasu ka?) 日本語はできますか (Nihongo wa dekimasu ka?)

Yes, a little

はい、話します (Hai, hanashimasu) はい、話せます (Hai, hanasemasu) はい、出来ます (Hai, dekimasu)

How do you say ... in Japanese?

... は日本語でなんと言いますか。 (... wa nihongo de nanto īmasu ka?)

I don't speak Japanese

日本語を話せません (Nihongo o hanasemasen)

Do you speak English?

英語はできますか (Eigo wa dekimasu ka?)

Does anyone speak English?

英語の話せる人はいませんか (Eigo no hanaseru hito wa imasen ka) 誰か、英語が話せますか (dare ka, eigo ga hanasemasu ka?)

Sorry, I didn't understand that

すみません。分かりませんでした (sumimasen. wakarimasen deshita)

What did you say?

なんて言いましたか

(nan te iimashita ka?) Can you translate it for me?

訳してください (yakushite kudasai)

What does this mean?

これはどういう意味ですか (kore wa dōiu imi desu ka)

How do you pronounce that?

これはどんな風に発音しますか (kore wa donna fū ni hatsuon shimasu ka)

In the hotel

There's a problem in the room

部屋の設備が壊れていて困っています (heya no setsubi ga kowarete ite komatteimasu)

There's no hot water

お湯がありません (oyu ga arimasen)

The tap/faucet is leaking

蛇口が漏れています (jaguchi ga moreteimasu)

The drain is blocked

排水溝が詰まっています (haisuikō ga tsumatteimasu)

The air conditioner is too noisy

エアコンがうるさすぎます (eakon ga urusasugimasu)

Can I have another room?

他の部屋へ移れますか (hoka no heya e utsuremasu ka?)

When should I vacate the room?

いつ、部屋を出なくてはなりませんか (itsu, heya o denakute wa narimasen ka?)

I'd like to check out

チェックアウトしたいのですが (chekkuauto shitai no desu ga)

I'd check out on this date

この日にチェックアウトしたいのですが (kono hi ni chekkuauto shitai no desu ga)

Could you call a taxi please?

タクシーを呼んで下さい (takusī o yonde kudasi?)

May I see the bill please?

請求書を見せて頂けますか (seikyūsho o misete itadakemasu ka?)

How much is the total bill?

請求書の合計額は、いくらですか (seikyūsho no gōkei wa ikura desu ka?)

Can I have an itemised bill?

明細書を見せて頂けますか (meisaisho o misete itadakemasu ka?)

I think there's a mistake on this bill

この請求書に間違いがあるように思うのですが (kono seikyūsho ni machigai ga aruyō ni omō no desu ka?)

Eating out

Is there a restaurant near here?

近くにレストランはありますか (chikaku ni resutoran wa arimasu ka?)

I'd like to reserve a table

テーブルの予約を取りたいのですが (tēburu no yoyaku o toritai no desu ga)

We have a reservation

既に予約をとっています (sudeni yoyaku o totte imasu)

Do you have an English menu?

英語のメ二ューはありますか (eigo no menyu wa arimasu ka?)

Can I see the wine list?

ワインのリストを見せて頂けませんか (wain no risuto o misete itadakemasen ka?)

I am a vegetarian

私は菜食主義者です (watashi wa saishokushugisha desu)

Bon appetit (Have a good meal)

どうぞめしあがれ (douzo meshiagare) = 'enjoy your meal' - said by the cook/chef いただきます (itadakimasu) - said before a meal by those eating it ご馳走さまでした (gochisōsama deshita) - said after a meal by those who have eaten it

Cheers/Good health!

乾杯 (kanpai) lit. "dry glass"

Emergencies

Leave me alone!

ほっといて! (hottoite!)

Help! Fire!

助けて! (tasukete!) 火事だ! (kaji da!)

Call the police!

警察を呼んでください! (keisatsu o yonde kudasai!)

Special occasions

Merry Christmas

メリークリスマス (merī kurisumasu)

Happy New Year

New Year greeting - 'Western' style

新年おめでとうございます (shinnen omedetō gozaimasu) New Year greetings (used before New Year) 良いお年を (yoi otoshi o) - inf 良いお年をお迎え下さい (yoi otoshi o omukae kudasai) frm New Year greetings (used at New Year, not before) 明けましておめでとうございます (akemashite omedetō gozaimasu) 旧年中大変お世話になりました (kyūnenjū taihen osewa ni narimashita) 今年もよろしくお願いします (kotoshi mo yoroshiku onegai itashimasu)

Happy Easter

復活祭おめでとうございます (fukkatsu-sai omedetō gozaimasu) イースターおめでとうございます (īsutā omedetō gozaimasu)

Happy Birthday

お誕生日おめでとうございます (otanjōbi omedetō gozaimasu)

Other phrases

One language is never enough

言語を一つは決して足りない (gengo o hitotsu wa kesshite tarinai) 言語は一つだけでは足りない (gengo hitotsu dake de wa tarinai)

My hovercraft is full of eels What!? Why this phrase?

私のホバークラフトは鰻でいっぱいです (Watashi no hobākurafuto wa unagi de ippai desu.)

Download all the audio files (Zip format, 417K) If you would like to make any corrections or additions to this page, or if you can provide recordings, please contact me. Japanese language | Written Japanese | Hiragana | Katakana | Kanji | Rōmaji | Phrases |Numbers | Colours | Tower of Babel | Japanese links My Japanese learning experiences | Learning materials | Learn to speak Japanese confidently and naturally with Rocket Japanese | Learn Japanese online with JapanesePod101 | Learn Japanese online Master Japanese: Self-Guided Immersion for the Passionate Language Learner

Japanese Translation of names and phrases

Links Other collections of Japanese phrases (some with audio) http://japanese-phrases.sakura.ne.jp/ http://linguanaut.com/english_japanese http://www.cnfj.navy.mil/phrases.html http://japanese.about.com/library/blsoundfile.htm http://genkienglish.net/genkijapan/menu.htm http://www.nafai.org/japanese/grammar/nafjpphrases/ http://www.jref.com/language/japanese_common_phrases.shtml

Phrases in Japanonic languages Japanese, Okinawan Phrases in other languages

http://www.omniglot.com/language/phrases/japanese.php

Japanese proverbs For the meaning and classification of kotowaza (諺, Japanese proverbs), see: Japanese proverbs.

Sayings[edit] •

•

Ryooyaku Kuchi ni Nigashi. •

English equivalent: Advice most needed is the least heeded. Aka The cock

•

Maynard (1993). Listen \& Learn: 101 Japanese Idioms. McGraw-Hill. p. 123. ISBN 1.

Tsuno o tamete ushi o korosu. •

English equivalent: The remedy is often worse than the disease; Burn not your house to rid it of the mouse.

•

"Action taken to put something right is often more unpleasant or damaging than the original problem."

•

Martin H. Manser (2007). The Facts on File Dictionary of Proverbs. Infobase Publishing. p. 232. ISBN 978-0-8160-6673-5.

• •

池田彌三郎; Donald Keene; 常名鉾二郎 (1982). 日英故事ことわざ辞典. 北星堂書店. p. 56.

継続は力なり。 •

Keizoku wa chikara nari.

•

Translation: Perseverance is strength.

•

English equivalent: Persevere and never fear.

•

ポケット図解ドラッカー経営のツボがよーくわかる本:. 秀和システム. 2008. p. 37. ISBN 4798020680.

•

鳥なき里の蝙蝠 •

Tori naki sato no koumori.

•

Translation: Bat in island without birds.

•

English equivalent: In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.

•

Meaning: "People of only limited ability can succeed when surrounded by those who are even less able than themselves." Reportedly used by Oda Nobunaga to refer to Chōsokabe Motochika.[1]

•

Source for meaning: Martin H. Manser (2007). The Facts on File Dictionary of Proverbs. Infobase Publishing. p. 143. ISBN 978-0-8160-6673-5. 書か...

手紙を書かない。 tegami o kakanai. (I) don`t write letters.

Finally we come to する and the other irregular verbs. する is しない in the simple form and しません in the polite form

スカイダイビングをしません。 sukaidaibingu o shimasen. (I) don`t do sky diving. And 来る kuru is 来ない konai and 来ません kimasen in the formal...

ゴジラが来ない。 gojira ga konai. Godzilla doesn`t come. To review the 3 types of verbs click here.

Plan to 予定、つもり If you plan on speaking Japanese these two words are very useful.予定 yotei and つもり tsumori 予定 yotei and つもり are very similar in meaning and usage. 予定 conveys more of a `schedule` feel whereas つもり is more of a `conviction of doing something. All you have to do is to stick either on the end of a verb (simple form)... To add つもり or 予定 to any verb just find the simple form...

日本に行くつもり/予定です。 nihon ni iku tsumori (or yotei) desu. I intend to go to Japan. [if you use tsumori, you `intend` to go one way or another; if you use yotei you already have a hard schedule set to leave at a certain time.] Here is how you add it to a する verb

あなたと結婚するつもり/予定です。 anata to kekkon suru tsumori (or yotei) desu. I intend to marry you. You can also use it with nouns by sticking a の before the tsumori and after adjectives. But for now concentrate on the verb usage.

Punctuation 。、「」 Punctuation is in many ways similar to English. You have a comma, called a てん and a period at the end of a sentence called a まる. Let`s quickly go over some common Punctuation thingies:

。

the まる acts just like our period by ending the sentence. It looks like a ball - maru

、

the てん acts like a comma. This is often found after は as in わたしは、あなたが好きです。 (I, like you)

「 and 」

These brackets hold quotations and work like our "" marks

Should/Must はず You should know はず. It is easy and useful, therefore you have no excuse :) Hazu shows an expectation that something should happen. In other words, you are pretty sure something is true. Let`s see how it works... To add はず to any adjective just add it...

そのかばんは、高いはずです。 sono kaban wa, takai hazu desu. That bag must be expensive. [It is expected to be expensive] Just add it to the simple form of any verb

あなたは、ゴジラを知っているはずです。 anata wa, gojira o shitteiru hazu desu. You should/must know Godzilla.

Because II ので We have looked at some 'becauses' that mainly act as a preposition. ので comes at the end of the phrase. In English we start the phrase with `because`; in Japanese you often say the reason first and then the because... Just add it after an adjective... そのかばんは高いので、ずっと使うつもりです。 sono kaban wa takai node, zutto tsukau tsumori desu. Since that bag was expensive, I plan on using it for a long time.

Just add it to the simple form of any verb ゴジラが来るので、東京は怖いところです。 gojira ga kuru node, toukyou wa kowai tokoro desu. Since Godzilla comes, Tokyo is a scary place. After a noun or a -na adjective add a NA before NODE... 私はまだ学生なので、お金がない。 watashi wa mada gakusei na node, okane ga nai . Because I am still a student, I don`t have any money.

Although のに A close cousin to ので (above), is のに. It is often used to show disappointment in the current situation. Just add it after an adjective... 一生懸命勉強したのに、テストを落ちた。 isshou kenmei benkyou shita noni, tesuto o ochita. Even though I studied really hard, I flunked the test.

Using 何 This is a very useful add-on. Use it as a counter:

何人

nan nin how many people 来るのは何人ですか？kuru no wa nan nin desu ka? - How many people are coming?

何年

nan nen how many years 何年アメリカに住んでいましたか？ nan nen amerika ni sunde imashita ka? - How many years did you live in America?

何番

nan ban what number 次は何番ですか？ tsugi wa nan ban desu ka? - What is the next number?

何度

nan do what`s the temperature 温度は何度ですか？ ondo wa nando desu ka? - What is the temperature at?

何曜 日

nan you bi what day of the week 今日は何曜日ですか？ kyou wa nan youbi desu ka? - What is the day of the week?

何日

nan nichi which day パーティーは何日？ pa-ti wa nan nichi? - What day is the party?

何個

nan ko how many pieces ジェリービーンを何個ほしいですか？ jeri-bi-n o nanko hoshii desu ka? - How many jelly beans do you want?

And the following are a few of the adverbial usages of 何

何か

nani ka something 何か飲みたい。 nanika nomitai - I want something to drink

何でも

nan demo anything, whatever 何でもいいです。 nandemo ii desu. - Anything is fine.

何と

nan to how...! 何とすばらしい日。 nan to subarashii hi. - What a wonderful day!

何のた め

nan no tame what for ここに来たのは、何のためですか？ koko ni kita no wa nan no tame desu ka? - Why did you come here?

何となく

nantonaku somehow, in some way 何となく分かる。 nantonaku wakaru. - I somehow understand.

Easy to... ～やすい It's easy to add "easy to" to verbs!

Consider the following verbs in

the masu form:

たべ ます tabe masu [to eat] い tabe yasui [easy to eat]

たべ やす

Did you see that? If you know the -masu form of the verb, you can easily drop the -masu and add a yasui.

わかり ます wakari masu [to understand] い wakari yasui [easy to understand]

わかり やす

Hard to... ～にくい If "easy to" is easy to use (see above) then you would think that "hard to" would be hard to use. Well, they had to go and make it easy as well. Usage is the same as -yasui (easy to)

たべ ます tabe masu [to eat] い tabe nikui [hard to eat]

たべ にく

If you know the -masu form of the verb, you can easily drop the -masu and add a nikui.

わかり ます wakari masu [to understand] い wakari nikui [hard to understand]

わかり にく

Chapter 5 51.

"looks like" - 〜みたい

52.

"I've heard" - 〜そう

53.

"like, as..." - 〜ように

54.

"like, as if" - らしい

55.

"let's..." - しましょう

56.

"won't you...?" - 〜ませんか

57.

Power ender "ね"

58.

"when, that time" - とき

59.

Using こと・もの

60.

"situation, case" - 場合

61.

"etc... and..." - など、とか

62.

"about" - くらい・ぐらい

Looks like ～みたい Looks like we made it - as Barry Manilow would say - at least we made it half way! 台風が 来る みたい。taifuu ga kuru mitai. It looks like a hurricane. [This could mean you are looking at storm clouds, OR someone told you a hurricane is coming and you are reporting that possibility] And just stick it after a noun この 景色は 夢 みたい。 kono keshiki wa yume mitai. This scenery looks like a dream. [Useful if visiting Mt. Fuji - or, alternatively, if you have bad dreams, a garbage heap...] あの 人は 日本人 みたい。

ano hito WA nihonjin mitai. That person looks like he's [or she's] Japanese. There is another usage of -mitai where it can mean 'try and see' when added to the て form of a verb: やってみたい yatte mitai - I'll give it a shot. 食べてみたい tabete mitai - I'll taste and see. That is a bit different from the above, but it is also very useful!

I've heard ～そう While みたい can convey info you have heard as well as what you see, ～そう is mainly used for info that originated elsewhere. - I heard... Construction: 1) simple verb + ~sou + desu/da

ゆきちゃんは

肉を

食べない そう

だ。

yuki chan WA niku o tabenai sou DA I heard Yuki doesn't eat meat. 2) -i adjective + ~sou + desu/DA

田中さんの新しいパソコンは

とても

高い そう

です。

tanaka san no atarashii pasokon wa totemo takai sou desu. I heard Tanaka's new computer is very expensive. [This info could have come from Tanaka himself, or someone else]

Like, as... ～ように

Here is a useful tag which means 'just as...' or 'like this...' Construction: 1) simple verb + ~you ni

私が言う

ように

して。

watashi ga iu you ni shite. Do as I say. 2) noun + ~ no you ni

あなた

は

熊のプーさん

のように

かわいい

です。

anata wa kuma no pu-san no you ni kawaii desu. You are as cute as Winnie the Pooh

like, as if, apparently らしい This is similar to ~sou where the speaker is repeating info heard from another source. The only difference may be ~rashii may be based on more reliable information. Construction: 1) simple verb + ~rashii

山田さん

は

帰った

らしい

です。

yamada san wa kaetta rashii desu. It sounds like Mr. Yamada has come home. 2) noun + ~rashii There are a few nouns with rashii that you can remember as a word in itself. This meaning is slighly different from the above verb construction. Instead of meaning info heard elsewhere, when added to a noun it means the speaker thinks something looks like something. Here are a few: 男らしい otokorashii - manly (like a man) 女らしい onnarashii - girly (but perhaps 女っぽい onnappoi is used more) 犬らしい inurashii - like a dog (substitute any animal here. This is useful when you see an animal at night and are not sure what it is, but it looks like...) アメリカらしい amerikarashii - American-ish (substitute any country)

Another similar construction with nouns is ~ppoi - as seen above with onnappoi. When added to nouns to mean 'looks like...' ~ppoi is the same as ~rashii

Let's... ～しましょう Maybe this should be bumped up since it is so useful. Let`s start... Construction: 1) ~masu verb - masu + mashou Here are a few quick and useful examples:

行きましょう。 ikimashou. Let's go.

遊びましょう。 asobimashou. Let's play.

先生と話しましょう。 sensei to hanashimashou. Let's talk to the teacher.

日本語を勉強しましょう。 nihongo o benkyou shimashou. Let's study Japanese. This example uses suru. Another example would be:

スカイダイビングしましょう。 sukai daibingu shimashou. Let's go sky diving. This construction is very easy if you know the masu (formal) form of the verb. If you are a beginner, you probably want to stick with the ~masu form anyway.

Won't you...? ～ませんか？ Why don't we study Japanese grammar?

ok. Since we have the above construction (using a negative to suggest doing something) in English, this grammar point isn't too difficult to grasp. Construction: 1) ~masu verb - masu + masen ka

どこか行きませんか。 dokoka ikimasen ka. Why don't we go already? [notice I have the English as 'we.' It could be 'you' if you are angry at the person and wish him to leave...]

映画を見ませんか。 eiga o mimasen ka . Why don't we see a movie.

何か飲みませんか。 nanika nomimasen ka. Wouldn't you like to drink something? [In this case you are asking someone individually if they would like something to drink. ]

Power ender "ね" This is used at the end of a sentence and contains a variety of meanings. We will look at it as a question tag. As a question tag: don't you... isn't it...

あなたはにんじんが嫌いですね。 anata wa ninjin ga kirai desu ne. You don't like carrots, don't you?

その映画はとてもいい映画だったね。 sono eiga wa totemo ii eiga datta ne. Don't you think that was a good movie?

今日は暑いですね。 kyou wa atsui desu ne. Today is very hot, isn't it? If you want to use ne as a question tag, it helps to nod your head, or change the inflection to let the listener know you would like a response. It is usually used when the speaker feels fairly certain his listeners agree with what was said. A very useful phrase for whenever something good happens is:

いいね。 ii ne. Isn't that great! When, that time とき If you don't know when to say something, you will never say it! Using とき toki - at the time when... With a noun add a の [Looking at a photo]

私は 学生 の ときには とても 若かったね。 watashi wa gakusei no toki ni wa totemo wakakatta ne. [looking at a photo] When I was a student, I was very young, wasn't I?

And with verbs... simple past

フロリダに 行った ときに これを 買いました 。 furorida ni itta toki ni kore wo kaimashita. When I went to Florida, I bought this. non-past

フロリダに 行く ときは おみやげを 買います 。 furorida ni iku toki wa omiyage wo kaimasu. When I go to Florida, I will buy souvenirs. continuing

寝る とき いつも 布団で 寝ます。 neru toki itsumo futon de nemasu. When I sleep, I always sleep on a futon.

For more information on time related words, click here

Using こと、もの This is how you say 'thing' Koto - intangible things

いい事はありません。 ii koto wa arimasen. There isn't anything good.

大事な事を教えます。 daiji na koto o oshiemasu. I will tell you an important thing.

昨日の事はすみませんでした。 kinou no koto wa sumimasen deshita. I am sorry about what happened yesterday. (yesterday's thing) Mono - tangible things

その黒いものは猫かなあ。 sono kuroi mono wa neko kanaa. I wonder if that black thing is a cat?

おいしいものが食べたい。 oishii mono ga tabetai. I want to eat something good.

One useful phrase using koto is: どういうこと？ dou iu koto? What is the meaning of this? This phrase is used whenever the listener isn't sure of the motive of the speaker.

situation, case 場合 This is one that should be learned by useful examples

非常の場合はボタンを押してください。 hijou no ba ai wa botan o oshite kudasai. In case of emergency push the button.

その場合はどうすればいい？ sono ba ai wa dou sureba ii? In that situation, what should I do?

テストがあった場合、私は病気になります。 tesuto ga atta ba ai, watashi wa byouki ni narimasu. Should a test be given , I will get sick.

Etc... and... など、とか Sometimes you have to say more than one thing. Whoever invented 'etc.' was a genius. Let's see how to do this in Japanese... First a few ways to list multiple items: や ya - and, and so forth

ピーマンやほうれん草が嫌いです。 pi-man ya hourensou ga kirai desu. I don't like green peppers, spinach and the like.

とか toka - or, and, and so forth

熊のプーさんとかドラえもんとかキティちゃんが好きです 。 kuma no pu-san toka doraemon toka kiti chan ga suki desu. I like things like Winnie the Pooh and Doraemon and Hello Kitty.

And now for nado to wrap things up.

食べ物の中ではピザとかフライドポテトなどが好きです。 tabemono no naka dewa piza toka furaido poteto nado ga suki desu. As for foods, I like things like pizza or french fries.

About くらい or ぐらい About how much? About how many? Sometimes the く turns into a ぐ probably after harder consonants.

お客様はどのくらい来ましたか？ okyakusama wa dono kurai kimashita ka? About how many customers came?

ええと、１００人くらい来ました。 eeto, hyaku nin kurai kimashita. Let me see, About 100 people. You can use this with time: ８時ぐらい hachi ji gurai about 8 O'clock Or counting anything: ２匹くらい ni hiki kurai - about 2 (animals) １０冊ぐらい juu satsu gurai - about 10 books

Chapter 6

63.

"how about ...?" - どう

64. 65.

しまった・ちゃった "please do..." - 〜てください

66.

"please give me..." - をください

67.

on, in, above, behind...

68.

"why don't we...?" - 〜ませんか

69.

Closer look at を

70.

Closer look at に

71.

Closer look at で

72.

Closer look at が

73.

"if" II - たら

74.

"soft ender" II - ちょっと

75.

The power ender "よ"

How about ...? どう To ask the state of something (how something is doing) use the useful dou (desu ka). You can used it with or without the final 'desu ka' in conversation.

最近はどうですか？ saikin wa dou desu ka? How's it going recently?

コーヒーはどう？ ko-hi- wa dou? How's the coffee? or it could mean How about some coffee?

天気予報はどう？ tenki yohou wa dou? How's the weather forecast looking? Of course when the context is understood you can simply say, 'dou' (Like returning from a doctor's appointment, or after your friend gets off an important phone call)

しまった、ちゃった This literally means 'to complete, finish' but can (and usually does) involve a regret over having done something. Also it can be used sarcastically to mean the speaker really wanted to do something, but gives a halfhearted apology. For example, 最後のクーキーを食べてしまった。 I unfortunately ate the last cookie. Of course there really wasn't anything unfortunate about it. The construction is usually after the ~te form of any verb

全部のお金を使ってしまいました。 zenbu no okane o tsukatte shimaimashita. Unfortunately, I spent all my money.

私は完全に日本語を忘れてしまった。 watashi wa kanzen ni nihongo o wasurete shimatta. Unfortunately, I have completely forgotten Japanese. Another very useful variation is ~chatta. This is informal and is used by both male and female speakers. chau is made by combining te shimau -> chau

試験に落ちちゃった。 shiken ni ochichatta. I flunked the test unfortunately. or in the present tense

ケーキを全部食べちゃう。 ke-ki o zenbu tabechau. I will eat all the cake.

An important point by Mukade in the forums: In the Kansai area, the use of ちゃった is limited to female speakers. I learned both in the classroom, of course, since they are standard dialect. But when I moved here to Osaka, people started asking me if I was gay, since I kept using ちゃった all the time. If I could help prevent someone else from having to go through the same "hard knocks" learning process that I did, it would make me very happy.

So be careful if you are in the Kansai area! But in most areas it should be fine.

Please do... ～てください Here's how you boss people around. Well, in a nice way... add kudasai (please) after the ~te form of any verb

ゆっくり話してください。 yukkuri hanashite kudasai. Please speak slowly.

もっと大人らしくしてください。 motto otona rashiku shite kudasai. Please act more grown-up.

ここで右に曲がってください。 koko de migi ni magatte kudasai. Please turn right here.

Please give me... ～をください Another use for kudasai is "please give me..." その本をください。 sono hon o kudasai. Please give me that book.

５００円をください。 go hyaku en o kudasai. Please give me 500 yen. In spoken Japanese, the 'o' is usually dropped.

On, In, Above, Behind

A good knowledge of position particles will help glue everything together. にni on

机に本があります。 tsukue ni hon ga arimasu. There is a book on the desk. のうえに no ue ni - on top of

机のうえに本があります。 tsukue no ue ni hon ga arimasu. There is a book on (top of) the desk. のしたに no shita ni - under...

机のしたに本があります。 tsukue no shita ni hon ga arimasu. There is a book under the desk. の後ろに no ushiro ni - behind...

机の後ろに本があります。 tsukue no ushiro ni hon ga arimasu. There is a book behind the desk.

Why don't we...? ～ませんか？ Why don't we study a little more? どこかで食べませんか？ dokoka de tabemasen ka? Why don't we eat somewhere.

何か飲みませんか？ nanika nomimasen ka? Would you like something to drink. or Why don't we have a drink. The context decides if the meaning should be 'why don't WE' or 'Would YOU.'

A Closer look at を Pronounced o but written in Japanese as wo. Simply put, を is the 'direct object marker or particle' which indicates the previous word is the direct object. There

are cases when the English would not consider it a direct object, though. Learn some examples and give it a try. This particle is one of the easier ones...

私はりんごを食べました。 watashi wa ringo o tabemashita. I ate an apple. (apple is the を)

音楽を聞きたいです。 ongaku o kikitai desu. I want to listen to music. (music is the を)

テレビを買うつもりです。 terebi o kau tsumori desu . I intend to buy a TV. (tsumori means'intend to'; TV is the を)

A Closer look at に In most cases the particle へ can be used interchangeably with に. But に has a wider application so for now just stick with に Showing movement toward... Like 'to'

日本に行きたい。 nihon ni ikitai. I want to go to Japan. (direction TO Japan)

どこに行きたいですか。 doko ni ikitai desu ka. Where do you want to go? Meaning 'on' or 'in'

紙に絵を描きました。 kami ni e o kakimashita. I drew a picture on a piece of paper. In time - 'at'

六時に会いましょう。 roku ji ni aimashou. Let's meet at 6.

A Closer look at で This is used mainly for location. Used for location of where something happens

デパートで帽子を買いました。 depa-to de boushi o kaimashita. I bought a hat at the Department store.

日本で何をしましたか？ nihon de nani o shimashita ka. In Japan, what did you do? Observe the difference between に and で:

マクドナルドに行きたい。 makudonarudo ni ikitai. I want to go to McDonalds.

マクドナルドで食べたい。 makudonarudo de tabetai. I want to eat at McDonalds.

A Closer look at が This is the 'subject marker / particle'. 雨が降っています。 ame ga futteimasu. It's raining.

There is a subtile difference between WA and GA and I don't pretend to try to completely explain it. Years from now, you will still make WA/GA mistakes. Still, in general you can say WA is the main TOPIC and GA is the more specific SUBJECT at hand. In the above example we say it is raining. The topic isn't about rain. We are simply stating the circumstances at the moment and the subject of that particular sentence is rain. If we were to talk all about rain, we would probably start with WA as in:

雨は空から降ってくる水です。 ame wa sora kara futte kuru mizu desu. As for rain, it is water that falls from the sky. (You may go on to say more about the overall topic of rain.) Used with SUKI

わたしは猫が好き。 watashi wa neko ga suki. I like cats. Question words always use GA

何がおいしい？ nani ga oishii? What tastes good?

誰が来ました？ dare ga kimashita? Who came?

どこが一番いいところですか？ doko ga ichi ban ii tokoro desu ka? Where is the best place?

If II たら A while back we found もし as the word that means 'if'. たら is added to the end of verbs to give the meaning of 'if this is done, then this will happen' It is formed by finding the simple past form and adding a ら

あなたが来たら、彼は帰る。 anata ga kitara kare wa kaeru If you are coming, he will go home. The simple past form of 来る is 来た.The 2nd phrase is conditional on the たら phrase.

ゴジラに会ったら、どうしよう？ gojira ni attara doushiyou. What should I do if I meet Godzilla? You can also use it with nouns by using the simple past form of desu: だった

お金持ちだったら、大きな家が買えるのに。 okanemochi da tara ookina ie ga kaeru noni. If only I were rich, I could buy a large house.

Softener ちょっと Many years ago I found an example in a book of how Japanese can be direct or politely indirect. For example you can say: 1) こい！ koi or 2) あのう、すみません、たいへん恐れいれますが、ちょっとこちらへいらっし ゃってくださいませんでしょうか？ both mean 'come here' but #2 is much more polite being cushioned by many soft, indirect words. One of these words is ちょっと. ちょっと means 'little' or 'small amount' but it is often used to soften an otherwise painful 'no' or 'your request is impossible; live with it'

ちょっと難しいですが。 chotto muzukashi desu ga. That's a little difficult. (this may be said when the request is impossible)

ちょっと出来ないです。 chotto dekinai desu. It can't be done.

ちょっと分からないです。 chotto wakaranai desu. I'm not really sure. I have been told the sound 'chotto' is a bad word in Korean. If that is the case, chotto may not be that soft of a word...

The power ender "よ" When you want to impress upon your listener the importance or truth of what you are saying stick a よ at the end of the sentence.

本当ですよ。

hontou desu yo. It's the truth, I tell ya! (Perhaps the speaker suspects the listener doesn't believe what he just said)

フロリダの１２月は暑いですか？

fururida no 12

gatsu wa atsui desu ka? Is December in Florida is pretty hot?

結構 寒いですよ。

kekkou samui desu yo. Actually, it is pretty

cold.

It is very useful for rumors or explaining a truth you know someone may not swallow at first:

鈴木さんは宇宙人ですよ。 desu yo. Suzuki is an alien, you know.

suzuki san wa uchuujin

Chapter 7 76.

The non-but "even if" - でも・ても

77.

"the best, ~est" - いちばん

78.

"about..." - について

79.

"can't, not allowed" - いけません

80.

Easy kanji prefixes

81.

Easy counters

82.

The Explanatory んです

83.

の as a pronoun

84.

"how to..." - 〜かた

85.

"please don't" - 〜ないでください

86.

"have done..." - ことがあります

87.

"to decide to have..." - にします

The non-but でも/ても Even if、although We have studied

も which means 'also'. When added after the て form of a verb or adjective it brings on the meaning of 'even if'. Let's investigate:

冗談を言っても、彼は笑いません。 joudan wo ittemo, kare wa waraimasen. Even if you tell a joke, he won't laugh. And an adjective:

冷たくても、食べられます。 tsumetakutemo taberaremasu. Even if it is cold, I can eat it. And just stick it after a noun

スーパマンでも、そんなことはできないよ。 su-paman demo sonna koto wa dekinai yo. Even Superman can't do that!

The best, -est いちばん While it means #1, it is also used as a superlative- most or -est 食べ物の中で何が一番好きですか？ tabemono no naka wa nani ga ichiban suki desu ka? Out of all foods, what do you like the best?

富士山は、世界で一番高い山じゃない。 fujisan wa sekai de ichiban takai yama ja nai. Mt. Fuji isn't the tallest mountain in the world.

About... ～について This is added to mean 'this sentence is ABOUT the previous word'. Simply stick it after the noun you want to talk about.

番組についてのお知らせです。 bangumi ni tsuite no oshirase desu. This is an annoucement about the program (TV for example).

あの映画についてどう思う？ ano eiga ni tsuite dou omou? What do you think about that movie?

Can't, not allowed いけません/いけない This is how to say something is forbidden to do. Perhaps easiest way to us this is to stick it after the て form of a verb and は (wa - topic particle).

知らない人と話してはいけません。 shiranai hito to hanashite wa ikemasen. Don't speak to strangers. Often in casual speech, the ては becomes ちゃ (or じゃ) as in:

その映画を見ちゃいけませんよ。 sono eiga o micha ikemasen yo. You are not allowed to watch this movie - or You shouldn't watch this movie. You can also use だめ for a similar effect: 私の本を読んじゃだめ。watashi no hon o yonja dame. You can't read my book!

Easy kanji prefixes There are a number of fairly easy kanji that will help dramatically increase your vocabulary. These kanji have specific meanings that when added to other kanji or words, it changes the whole meaning in a logical way.

大 - dai, oo - big 大嫌い

好き

大好き

嫌い

suki to like

dai suki to really like, love

kirai to dislike

daikirai to really dislike, hate

地震

大地震

雨

大雨

ji shin earthquake

dai jishin a huge earthquake

ame rain

oo ame heavy rain

Another similar word is: 小 (small)

毎- mai - every (attached to time words) 朝

毎朝

年

毎年

asa morning

mai asa every morning

toshi year

mai toshi every year

晩

毎晩

ban evening

mai ban every evening

会- kai - to meet (a suffix) 音楽

音楽会

運動

運動会

ongaku music

ongaku kai concert/recital

un dou exercise, sports

undou kai athletic meet

Easy Counters In English, we just take a number (1,2,3...) add a noun and an "s" to count items. But in Japanese different types of objects have different counters. Plus some numbers change pronunciation slightly when added with their counter. Don't worry too much about the pronunciation changes since you will be understood. And even if you mess up and count with the wrong counter, you should be understood, but just a tip... don't count people with "pikki" (used with animals!) First, there are 2 ways to count numbers - the 'native' and the 'Chinese' way. Actually the 'native' counting system only goes up to 10 and is pretty much only used for counting up to two people and for counting general things. If you are feeling lazy, just learn the "Chinese" numbers for now. If you haven't studied numbers yet, go to this page to learn all about them before proceeding: How to Count Here is a quick review:: Native 一つ 二つ 三つ 四つ

Chinese ひとつ ふたつ みっつ よっつ

一 二 三 四

いち に さん し、よん

五つ いつつ 六つ むっつ 七つ ななつ 八つ やっつ 九つ ここのつ 十 と

五 六 七 八 九 十

ご ろく しち、なな はち きゅう、く じゅう

Note the two red alternate readings on the "Chinese" side. These are pronunciations based on the "native" readings but are often used in conjunction when counting other "Chinese" numbers. Ok, now for counters. Let's go through some common counters one by one and then I will give a list of many other counters: Counter: nin | Usage: people [pay attention to the red lines.] 一人 （ひとり） 1 person [irregular] 二人 （ふたり） 2 people [irregular] 三人 （さん にん） 3 people [now we simply add the Chinese numbers to に ん] 四人 （よ にん） [し にん is NOT used. Probably because し means death... Also notice the dropped ん from よん; hihlordjp from the discussion forums on this site brought up an interesting but obscure (I think) pronunciation - よったり or よたり. It is in the dictionaries although I had never heard it. ] 五人 （ご にん） 六人 （ろく にん） 七人 （しち にん OR なな にん） [It seems しちにん is used more often, but ななにん is also used] 八人 （はち にん） 九人 （きゅう にん or く にん) 十人 （じゅう にん） 十一人 （じゅう いち にん） etc... Counter: hiki | Usage: most animals 一匹 （いっぴき） [notice the H changes to a P] 二匹 （にひき）

三匹 四匹 五匹 六匹

（さん びき） [notice the H changes to a B this time.] （よんひき） （ごひき） （ろっぴき） [notice the H changes to a P AND the く becomes a small

っ] 七匹 （なな ひき or しち ひき） [probably ななひき is most used] 八匹 （はっぴき or はち ひき） 九匹 （きゅう ひき） 十匹 （じゅっぴき） [notice the small っ - this occurs when there is a soft sound after like H] Counter: hon | Usage: long, slender objects like pencils, bottles, arms... 一本 （いっぽん） 二本 （に ほん） 三本 （さん ぼん） 四本 （よん ほん） 五本 （ご ほん） 六本 （ろっぽん） 七本 （なな ほん） 八本 （はっぽん or はち ほん） 九本 （きゅう ほん） 十本 （じゅっぽん） Other Counters: satsu books and magazines 一冊 （いっさつ） one book 二冊 （に さつ） 三冊 （さん さつ ） 四冊 （よん さつ ） 五冊 （ご さつ） 六冊 （ろく さつ ） 七冊 （なな さつ or しち さつ） 八冊 （はち さつ

fun minutes 一分 （いっぷん） one minute 二分 （に ふん） 三分 （さん ぷん ） 四分 （よん ぷん ） 五分 （ご ふん） 六分 （ろっぷん） 七分 （なな ふん ） 八分 （はち ふん ）

hai cups of liquids, drinks

mai sheets of paper; flat objects

一杯 （いっぱい） one cup 二杯 （に はい） 三杯 （さん ばい ） 四杯 （よん はい ） 五杯 （ご はい） 六杯 （ろっぱい） 七杯 （なな はい ） 八杯 （はっぱい） 九杯 （きゅう は

一枚 （いち まい ） one piece 二枚 （に まい） 三枚 （さん まい ） 四枚 （よん まい ） 五枚 （ご まい） 六枚 （ろく まい ） 七枚 （なな まい ） 八枚 （はち まい

or はっさつ） 九冊 （きゅう さ つ） 十冊 （じゅっさつ or じっさつ*）

九分 （きゅう ふ ん） 十分 （じゅっぷん or じっぷん*）

い） 十杯 （じゅっぱい or じっぱい*）

） 九枚 い） 十枚 い）

（きゅう

ま

（じゅう

ま

* notice this can be pronounced as じっ instead of じゅっ. This is to make it clearer and is often used in broadcasting. You may also encounter this with hon and hiki. For now, you can just say, じゅっ...

The Explanatory "んです" You may have heard this quite a lot and wondered what it's all about! It is most often used, informally, when: 1) To explain something 2) To show emphasis んです is short for のです; Informal usage; plain form verb + んです

何をしているんですか。 nani o shite iru n desu ka . Whatcha doing?

テレビを見ているんです。 terebi o mite iru n desu. Watching TV. -i Adjective + んです

この映画は面白いんです。 kono eiga wa omoshiroi n desu. This movie was great! And it can be used as a way to stress a point

パーティに行かないでしょう。 pa-ti ni ikanai deshou You won't be able to make it to the party, right?

いいえ、僕は行くんです。 iie, boku wa iku n desu. No, I'm going!

いったい、どうしたんですか？ ittai, doushita n desu ka. Just what exactly happened (to you)!!!?

の as a Pronoun の can be used in place of a noun (indefinite pronoun) to mean "one" or "some." Construction: Use in place of noun

青いの。 aoi no. The blue one.

安いのがほしい。 yasui no ga hoshii. I want the cheap one. (computer, car, book, anything)

How to... ～かた Attach かた to the stem of verbs to change it into a noun to mean: Way or Manner of doing or how to do...

Construction: Take the ~ます form of a verb minus the ます and then add かた.

漢字の読み方 kanji no yomi kata How/Way to read (a) kanji

漢字の書き方 kanji no kaki kata How/Way to write (a) kanji NOTE: Since it becomes a noun phrase, you should use の as above. Let's ask, "Please teach me how to use chopsticks correctly."

はしの正しい使い方を教えてください。 hashi no tadashii tsukai kata o oshiete kudasai. Please teach me how to use chopsticks correctly

Please don't しないでください Sometimes you have to tell/ask people to not do something. Construction: Take the ます form of a verb and drop the ます Add ないで ください

ケーキを食べないでください。 ke-ki o tabe naide kudasai. Please don't eat the cake.

スカイダイビングをしないでください。 sukaidaibingu o shinaide kudasai. Please don't go skydiving.

Have Done ことがあります This is a very useful construction. Simply add it after a simple past form of a verb: Construction: Take the simple past form of a verb Add ことがあります

アメリカに行ったことがありますか？ amerika ni itta koto ga arimasu ka? Have you been to America?

納豆を食べたことがあります。 nattou o tabeta koto ga arimasu. (I) have eaten natto before.

I'll Have... にします To decide to have... にします Very often this phrase is used to say, "I'll have (some food or drink)." Next time you go to a Japanese restaurant, give this a try.

なににしますか？ nani ni shimasu ka? What will you have?

私はてんぷらにします。 watashi wa tenpura ni shimasu I'll have tempura.

Chapter 8 88.

"about" - ~ほど

89.

"even if" - たとえ、～ても

90.

"and, and, etc" - ～たり

91.

"while" - ながら

92.

"may I...?" - ～でもいいですか？

93.

"not much" - あまり

94.

The power そう

95.

Polite Japanese - 敬語

96.

Polite II - お～ください、お～になります

97.

Giving/receiving - あげる、くれる、もらう

98.

Level/degree of something - ～さ

99.

"just did..." - ばかり

100.

"can" II - たべられます、よめます

About ~ほど To say 'about' as in "about a week" or to show an approximate degree of something, use ~ほど

１週間ほど isshuu kan hodo About a week

駅は１０キロほどさきです。 eki wa jukkiro hodo saki desu. The train station is about 10 kilometers ahead.

これは５，０００円ほどで買えます。 kore wa go sen en hodo de kaemasu. This can be bought for about 5000 yen.

Even if たとえ

～ても

Sometimes you need to sound poetic. This construction fits perfectly into that mood. Construction: VERBS たとえ + Take the て form of a verb Add ても

たとえ世界が終わっても・・・ tatoe sekai ga owattemo Even if the world ends...

たとえ失敗してもまた頑張りましょう。 tatoe shippai shitemo mata ganbarimashou.. Even if we fail, let's keep at it. Make the negative form of the verb with ても:

たとえ二度と会えなくても忘れません。 tatoe nido to aenaku temo wasuremasen. Even if we shall never meet again, I won't forget.

And and ～たり Doing this; Doing that Construction: Take the た form of a verb (simple past) Add たり

立ったり座ったり。 tattari suwatari Standing and sitting

ドルが上がったり下がったり。 doru ga agattari sagattari The dollar is rising and falling.

きょうは買い物をしたりレストランで食べた りしてたくさんのお金を使った。 kyou wa kaimono o shitari resutoran de tabetari shite takusan no okane o tsukatta. Today I went shopping and at at a restaurant, etc; I used a lot of money.

While ながら While doing this I also did this... Construction: Take the ます form of a verb and drop the ます (the stem) Add ながら

音楽を聴きながら勉強をしました。 ongaku o kiki nagara benkyou o shimashita. While studying, I listened to music.

本を読みながらご飯を食べます。 hon o yomi nagara gohan o tabemasu. While eating a meal, I read a book. One useful set phrase is 残念ながら zan nen nagara and means, "That's too bad" or "I regreat (to say)" or "Unfortunately"

May I? ～てもいいですか？ Asking permission and Being polite go hand in hand. Here is how you do both in Japanese. Construction: Take the て form of a verb Add もいいですか？

電話を使ってもいいですか？ denwa o tsukattemo ii desu ka? May I use the phone?

休んでもいいですか？ yasundemo ii desu ka? May I take a break? (from work, from studying, etc)

ちょっと話してもいいですか？ chotto hanashitemo ii desu ka? May I say something? (I'd like to speak a little)

Not much あまり Not much; not really--Followed by a negative verb Construction: Used in a negative sentence

日本語があまり上手じゃない。 nihongo ga amari jouzu ja nai I'm not really good at Japanese.

あまりよくない。 amari yokunai (That's) not really good.

踊りはあまりうまくない。 odori wa amari umaku nai I'm not really good dancing.

お金はあまりない。 okane wa amari nai I don't have much money.

The power "そう" そう, for our purposes today, means, "That's right" or "That's so" (the latter being an easy way to remember)

Construction: This useful word is used in various idiomatic ways. It is best to learn each as an example by heart.

そうです。 sou desu Yes, that is right.

そうですか？ sou desu ka? Is that so?; Really?; You don't say?

そういえば・・・ sou ieba Now that you mention it; Speaking of that...

そう考えると sou kangaeru to Seen from that light; Thinking like that; From that point of view

そうしたら sou shitara If you do it that way...; if done that way...

そうしないと sou shinai to If you don't do it that way... And there are many more you will come across! Listen to how そう is used in conversation.

Polite Japanese 敬語 There are three basic types of honorifics for verbs. It depends on your social rank as to which form to use. A) Humble (謙譲語 kenjougo) - This is when referring to oneself or one's family members and (usually) speaking to someone higher up in social rank, position or

some other criteria for determining status. However even some people with high positions may choose to use the humble form with those under him/her. B) ~masu - As mentioned above ~masu / desu is actually 丁寧語 teineigo or polite language, but I'm using the familiar ~masu form for an easy comparison to the the kenjougo and sonkeigoforms. C) Respectful (尊敬語 sonkeigo) - This is what you say to your boss or those higher up when speaking to them. If you are speaking about yourself, you will use the humble form. Humble (speaking to your boss about yourself)

Normal (speaking to your friends)

Respectful (speaking to your boss about your boss)

拝見します

見ます

ご覧になります

haiken shimasu

mimasu to see

申します moushimasu You know this from "name to moushimasu"

言います iimasu to say

goran ni narimasu

おっしゃいます osshaimasu

頂きます

食べます

召し上がります

itadakimasu

tabemasu to eat

meshi agarimasu

参ります

来ます

mairimasu

kimasu to come

This is the humble form for both to come and go!

行きます

いらっしゃいます irasshaimasu This is the respectful form for both to come and go!

ikimasu to go 致します itashimasu

します shimasu to do

なさいます nasaimasu

For a more detailed explanation and many more examples see here.

Polite Part II

お + stem + になる This makes a 'normal' verb honorific (exalted) [You are speaking to or about someone with a higher status than you (your boss)] 社長と話しましたか？

shachou to hanashimashita ka? Company president - with - talk - ? Did you speak with the boss? (normal) 何か飲みませんか？

nanika nomimasen ka? something - won't drink - question Won't you drink something? (normal)

社長とお話になりましたか？

shachou to o hanashi ni narimashita ka? Did you speak with the boss? (polite) 何かお飲みになりませんか？

nanika o nomi ni narimasen ka? Won't you drink something? (polite)

お + stem + ください This also makes a 'normal' verb exalted; it is used when asking things - 'please give me' 売ってください。

お売りください。

utte kudasai. Please sell (me this). (normal)

o uri kudasai. Please sell (me this) (honorific)

食べてください。

お食べください

tabete kudasai, Please eat. (normal)

o tabe kudasai. Please eat. (polite)

For a more detailed explanation and many more examples see here.

Giving and Receiving あげる、くれる、もら う あげる、くれる、もらう These three verbs are easy to mix up, but they aren't too difficult if you spend some time learning each word's function. It is of course more complex than this page allows, but this should give you a fairly good understanding.

The Word:

あげる When you, the speaker, give something to someone, use あげる

これをあなたにあげます。 kore o anata ni agemasu. I will give you this. NOTE: The receiver is the one with the に particle (あなたに to you).

The Word:

くれる This is also usually translated as 'give' but it is from the receiver's point of view.

田中さんがこれを私にくれました。 tanaka san ga kore o watashi ni kuremashita. Tanaka gave this to me. NOTE: Again, the receiver is the one with the に particle. (私に to me)

The Word:

もらう もらう is used from the perspective of the receiver.

私が友達からケーキをもらいました。 watashi ga tomodachi kara ke-ki o moraimashita. I received a cake from a friend. (My, the receiver, point of view) NOTE: If から is used, the meaning should be pretty clear (友達から from a freind), but you can also use に to show who is doing the action as in:

私が友達にケーキをもらいました。 watashi ga tomodachi ni ke-ki o moraimashita. I received a cake from a friend. NOTE: The use of に with もらう can seem confusing considering に is used to mean the receiver in the other two cases

Level / degree of something ～さ Add さ to adjectives to express a degree or amount

Construction:

-i adjectives: Remove the trailing い and add さ

ぞうさんの高さは何ですか？ zou san no takasa wa nan desu ka? What is the height of an elephant NOTE: The さ shows a degree; this can be a higher, lower, wider, thinner, etc amount. (we could be asking the height of an ant)

Construction:

-na adjectives: Just add the さ without the な

この車の静かさは驚くべきです。 kono kuruma no shizukasa wa odoroku beki desu. This car's quietness is amazing. NOTE: The finished product (adjective + さ) becomes a noun phrase and is treated as a noun grammatically.

Just Did... ばかり Showing a completed action: just...

Construction: Add ばかり after the simple past of a verb

食べたばかりです。 tabeta bakari desu. I just ate.

たてたばかりの家。 tateta bakari no ie. A newly built house.

今来たばかりです。 ima kita bakari desu. I just arrived.

Can II たべられます、よめます

Can II たべられます、よめます Potential form of Verbs. Before starting this lesson, you may want to review the groups of the verbs.

Construction:

The ~u Group (group 1 verbs)

Verb Root + eru 書く kaku to write

kak (verb root)

kakeru able to write

漢字が書けますか？ kanji ga kakemasu ka? Can you write kanji? [NOTE: use が with the potential form]

Construction:

The ~ru Group (group 2 verbs) Verb Root + rareru

食べる taberu to eat

tabe (verb root)

taberareru able to eat

ピーマンが食べられますか？ pi-man ga taberaremasu ka? Can you eat green peppers?

Construction:

The irregular Group (group 3 verbs) The two irregular verbs should be memorized:

くる する

こられる できる

パーティにこられますか？ pa-ti ni koraremasu ka?. Can you come to the party? NOTE: You can also easy do this with any Simple Past Verb + ことができ る More...

Basic Japanese Phrases

Hai. Yes. はい。 Iie. No. いいえ。 O-negai shimasu. Please. おねがいします。 Arigatō. Thank you. ありがとう。 Dōitashimashite. You're welcome. どういたしまして。 Sumimasen. Excuse me. すみません。 Gomennasai. I am sorry. ごめんなさい。 Ohayō gozaimasu. Good morning. おはようございます。 Konbanwa. Good evening. こんばんは。 O-yasumi nasai. Good night. おやすみなさい。

Japanese Phrases for Meeting and Greeting Eigo o hanasemasu ka. Do you speak English? えいごをはなせますか。 Koko ni eigo o hanaseru hito wa imasu ka. Does anyone here speak English? ここに えいごおはなせるひとはいますか。 Watashi wa nihongo ga sukoshi shika hanasemasen. I only speak a little Japanese. わたしは にほんごがすこししか はなせません。 O-namae wa nan desu ka. What is your name? おなまえはなんですか。 Watashi no namae wa Kaori desu. My name is Kaorii. わたしのなまえは かおりです。 O-genki desu ka. How are you?

おげんきですか。 Genki desu. I'm fine. Thank you. げんきです。 Oaidekite ureshī desu. I am very glad to meet you. おあいできて うれしいです。 Wakarimasen. I don't understand. わかりません。 Nante iimashita ka. What did you say? なんていいましたか。 Motto yukkuri hanashite kudasai. Can you speak more slowly? もっと ゆっくりはなしてください。 Yoku wakarimasu. I understand you perfectly. よくわかります。

Japanese Dialog Sumisusan:

Ten-in:

Sumisusan: Ten-in:

Oha yō gozaimasu. Good morning. おはようございます。 Eigo o hanasemasu ka. Do you speak English? えいごをはなせますか。 Sumimasen. I'm sorry. すみません。 Eigo wa hanasemasen. I do not speak English. えいごは はなせません。 Watashi wa nihongo ga sukoshi shika hanasemasen. Unfortunately, I speak only a little Japanese. わたしは にほんごがすこししかはなせません。 Dai jōbu desu. That's all right. だいじょうぶです。 Wakarimasu. I understand you. わかります。

Basic Japanese Phrases

English

Japanese

Hello

Konnichi wa

How are You?

Ogenki desu ka?

I'm fine

Genki desu

Thank-you very much

Arigatou Gozaimasu

You are welcome

Do itashimashite

Japanese Phrases for Greetings

English

Japanese

Good Morning

Ohayo Gozaimasu

Hello

Konnichi wa

Good Evening

Konban wa

Good Night

Oyasumi Nasai

Japanese Phrases for Eating

English

Japanese

Let's Eat

Itadakimasu

That Looks Delicious

Oishii sou

Taste's Great

Oishii

What is this?

Kore wa nan desu ka?

Cheers

Kampai

I'm full

Onaka ippai

Thanks for the meal

Gochisousama deshita

Japanese Phrases for Shopping

English

Japanese

What’s this?

Kore wa nan desu ka?

How much?

Ikura desu ka?”

Just looking!

Miteru dake desu!

Anything else?

Nanika hokani arimasu ka?

That’s all!

Sore de zenbu desu!

Anything Smaller?

Motto chiisai no wa?

Anything Bigger?

Motto ookii no wa?

Too expensive

Taka sugimasu

Japanese Phrases for Introductions

English

Japanese

How do you do?

Hajimemashite

My name is

Watashi no namae wa

I am a student

Watashi wa gakusei desu

I came from America

Amerika kara kimashita

It was nice to meet you. Dozo yoroshiku onegaishimasu

Japanese Phrases for Weather

English

Japanese

It's sunny today

Kyo wa hare desu

It's raining today

Kyo wa ame desu

It's hot isn't it?

Atsui desu ne

It's cold isn't it?

Samui desu ne

It's nice weather isn't it

Ii tenki desu ne

What's the weather tomorrow?

Ashita no tenki wa

Japanese Phrases for Directions

English

Japanese

Straight

Masugu

Left

Hidari

Right

Migi

Here

Koko

North

Kita

Japanese Phrases for Love

English

Japanese

I Really Like You

Dai Suki Dayo

May I kiss You?

Kisu shite mo ii?

I Love You

Ai shiteru

Will You Marry Me?

Kekkon shite kureru

Text in italic font style are in japanese phrases translations.

[A]

All of these are my personal belongings. Subete watashi no mochimono desu. All right! Wakarimashita Anybody home! Gomen kudasai! Any problem? Nani ka mondai ga arimasu ka? Anything will do. Nan demo ii desu Are there any letters for me? Watashi ni Tegami ga kite imasen ka? Are these yours? Kore wa anata no mono deshou ka? Are you a Japanese? Anata wa Nihonjin desu ka? Are you an American? Anata wa Americajin desu ka? Are you busy now? Ima isogashii desu ka? Are you free now? Ima ohima desu ka? Are you free this evening? Konya wa ohima desu ka? Are you going to inspect my baggages? Watashi no nimotsu o oshirabe ni narimasu ka? Are you happy? Ureshii desu ka?

Are you hungry? Onaka ga sukimashitaka? Are you married? Kekkon shite irasshaimasu ka? Are you Miss Tanaka? Tanakasan desu ka? Are you okay? Daijoubu desu ka? Are you ready? Youi wa ii desu ka? Are you serious? Honki desu ka? Are you sleepy? Nemui desu ka? Are you still single? Mada dokushin desu ka? Are you tired? Tsukaremashita ka? A thousand thanks. Hontou ni arigatou. Attention! Ki o tsukete! Attention, please. Ki o tsukete kudasai.

[B] Be careful. Ki o tsuke nasai. Best wishes! Go koufuku o inorimasu! / Go takou o inorimasu! Beware of pickpockets! Oseifu youjin! Beware of dogs! Inu chuui! Try your best. Gambatte Bottoms up! Kampai! Bravo! Umaizo! / Dekashita! / Burabou! / Appare! Breakfast is ready. Choushoku ga dekite orimasu. / Shokuji ga dekite orimasu. By all means. Kanarazu. By and by. Sono uchi ni

[C]

Can I have my bill? Okanjou o onegaishimasu? Can we go there by bus? Basu de ikemasu ka? Can you drive? Kuruma no unten ga dekimasu ka? Can you drive for me? Watashi wo kuruma ni nosete kuremasen ka? Can you eat Japanese food? Nihon no tabemono ga taberaremasu ka? Can you eat Korean food? Kankoku ryouri o taberaremasu ka? Can you fix it? Kore wa naosemasu ka? Can you speak English? Eigo ga dekimasu ka? Can you speak Japanese? Nihongo ga dekimasu ka? Can you speak Spanish? Supeingo ga dekimasu ka? Care of (c/o) ...Kata Certainly. ( Answering questions) Kashikomari mashita. Certainly not. Ton demo nai. / Dame desu. Check your things. Mochimono wo kakunin shite kudasai. Cheers! Kampai! Cheer up! Genki o dase! / Genki o dashite kudasai!/ Shikkari shiro! Closed to traffic. Tsuukou dome. Close your eyes. Me o toji nasai. Come and join us. Anata mo isshoni douzo. Come here, please. Kochira e kite kudasai. Come in. Ohairi nasai. / Douzo haitte kudasai. / Douzo agatte kudasai. Come on! Saa koi! Come this way, please. Kochira e, douzo. Come what may. Nani ga attemo. Condolence! Okuyami! Congratulations! Omedetou gozaimasu!

Congratulations on your marriage! Gokekkon omedetou gozaimasu! Congratulations on your success! Seikou omedetou! Cordially yours, Keigu, Could you translate this for me? Kore o honyaku shite kudasai.

[D] Did you bring your camera? Kamera o motte kimashita ka? Did you feel the earthquake? Jishin o kanjimashita ka? Did you watch the show last night? Yuube wa shibai o mimashita ka? Do as you please. Go jiyuu ni. Don't be ashamed. Hazukashii garanaide kudasai. Don't be in a hurry. Asera nai. / Awate nai de. Don't bother me! Urusai! Don't bother yourself. Okamai naku. Don't come here. Konaide kudasai. Don't disturb. Jama shinaide kudasai. Don't forget. Wasure nai de kudasai. Don't get mad. Okoranaide kudasai. Don't give up. Ganbatte kudasai. Don't hesitate to call me. Enryo naku watashi o yobi nasai. / Enryo naku watashi ni denwa nasai. Don't mention it. Dou itashimashite. (also used when saying "you are welcome", a reply when a person says "thank you") Don't mind it. Kinishi nai de kudasai. Don't worry. Kuyokuyo suru na. / Shinpai nai yo. Don't you agree with me? Watashi ni sansei dewa nai no desu ka? Do you drink liquor? Sake o nomimasu ka? Do you eat vegetables? Yasai wa tabete imasu ka?

Do you enjoy your vacation? Yasumi wo tanoshinde imasu ka? Do you feel homesick? Houmushikku desu ka? Do you feel okay? Daijoubu desu ka? Do you go to the office every day? Mainichi kaisha e ikimasu ka? Do you have an ID? Mibun shoumeisho wo omochi desu ka? Do you have a pencil? Empitsu o motte imasu ka? Do you have another color? Hoka no iro wa arimasen ka? Do you know? Shitte imasu ka? Do you know her? Kanojo o shitte imasu ka? Do you know him? Kare o shitte imasu ka? Do you know Tanaka's telephone number? Tanakasan no denwa bango o shitte imasu ka? Do you know how to swim? Oyogemasu ka? Do you know when is his birthday? Kare no tanjoubi wa itsu ka shitte imasu ka? Do you like it? Suki desu ka? Do you miss your family? Kazoku ni aitai desu ka? Do you play golf? Gorufu o shimasu ka? Do you remember me? Watashi no koto o oboete imasu ka? Do you smoke? Tabako o suimasu ka? Do you understand? Wakarimasu ka? Do you want to eat now? Ima oshokuji nasai masu ka? Drive carefully. Chuui shite hashitte kudasai.

[E] Either will do. Dochira demo yoroshii. / Dochira demo ii desu. Enjoy your meal. Douzo, go yukkuri. Enjoy yourself. Tanoshinde kudasai.

Even though. Demo. Excellent! Subarashii. Excuse me. Sumimasen. Excuse me, this my seat. Shitsurei desu ga, koko wa watashi no seki desu. Excuse me, what place is this? Sumimasen ga, koko wa doko desu ka? Excuse me, you're stepping on my foot. Ashi o fumanaide kudasai.

[F]

Faithfully yours, keigu, Finished. Sumimashita. Fire! Kaji! For a while, please. Shibaraku jikan o kudasai. Forget it. Sonna koto wa wasure nasai. Fragile, handle with care. Koware mono, chuui. Funny! Omoshiroi ne.

[G]

Get out of my way! Doite kudasai! Get up! Oki nasai! Give me something cold to drink. Nani ka tsumetai nomimono o kudasai. Give me two hamburgers, please. Hanbaagaa o futatsu kudasai. Give me your address, please. Juusho o oshiete kudasai. Go ahead! Zen shin! Go easy. Aseru na. Good! Sore wa ii! Good afternoon! Konnichiwa! Goodbye! Sayounara! Good day! Konnichiwa! Good evening! Kombanwa!

Good for you! Dekashita! / Umaizo! Good luck! Kooun o inorimasu! Good morning! Ohayou gozaimasu! Goodnight! Oyasumi nasai! ( for bed time only) Go straight. Massugu ni iki nasai.

[H]

Handle with care. Tori atsukai chuui. Hands off. Te o hanashi nasai. Happy Anniversary! Omedetou gozaimasu! Happy Birthday! Otanjoubi omedetou gozaimasu! Happy New Year! Shinnen omedetou gozaimasu! / Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu! Happy trip! Yoi otabi! Have a good time. Tanoshinde rasshai. Have a nice day. Gokigen you. Have you even been to Japan? Nihon ni itta koto ga arimasu ka? He doesn't eat meat. Kare wa niku o tabemasen. He is my friend. Kare wa watashi no tomodachi desu. He is my older brother. Kare wa watashi no oniisan desu. He is my younger brother. Kare wa watashi no otouto desu. Hello! Konnichiwa! Hello! (on the telephone) Moshi! Moshi! Help! Help! Tasukete Tasukete! Help me! Tasukete! Here it is! A, arimashita! Here it is. Koko ni arimasu. He rested for a while. Kare wa shibaraku yasunda.

Here's your change. Otsuri desu. Hi! I'm home. Tadaima! Hold it! Ugoku na! / Sono mama! Hold on! Matta! Hold the line, please (on the telephone) Denwa o kirazu ni omachi kudasai. Hold this, please. Motte kudasai. Hope to see you again. Mata aimashou. Hope to visit your country soon. Okuni o hayaku tazunetai. Hope you don't mind. Kamaimasen ka? Hope you like it. Oki ni iru to iin desu ga. How? Dou? How about you? Tokoronde anata wa? How are you? Ogenki desu ka? / Gokigen ikaga desu ka? How are you these days? Kono goro dou desu ka? How cold is the weather? Samusa wa dono gurai desu ka? How do you do? Hajimemashite? How do you find Japan? Nihon wa dou desu ka? How do you like it? Sore wa ikaga desu ka? How do you say it in English? Sore wa Eigo de nanto iimasu ka? How do you say it in Japanese? Sore wa Nihongo de nanto iimasu ka? How do you say it in Filipino? Sore wa Firipingo de nanto iimasu ka? How do you use the chopsticks? Hashi wa donoyou ni tsukaimasu ka? How far is the station? Eki wa dono gurai tooi desu ka? How is it? Dou desu ka? How is he? Kare wa ikaga desu ka? How is she? Kanojo wa ikaga desu ka? / Kanojo wa genki desu ka?

How is that? Sore wa dou desu ka? How is the weather? Otenki wa dou desu ka? How is this? Kore wa dou desu ka? How is your baby? Akachan wa genki desu ka? / Akachan wa dou desu ka? How is your family? Kazoku no minasan wa ikaga desu ka? How is your father? Otousan wa genki desu ka? / Otousan wa dou desu ka? How is your mother? Okaasan wa genki desu ka? / Okaasan wa dou dese ka? How long have you been in Japan? Nihon ni kite dono kurai ni narimasu ka? How long have you been in the Philippines? Firipin ni kite dono kurai ni narimasu ka? How long must I wait? Dorehodo mattara ii deshou ka? How long will you stay here? Itsu made kochira ni irasshaimasu ka? How many? Ikutsu? How many children do you have? Okosan wa nan nin desu ka? / Kodomo wa nan nin desu ka? How many do you want? Ikutsu onozomi desu ka? How many kilos is that? Nan kiro desu ka? How much? Ikura desu ka? How much does it weigh? Sore wa dono kurai no omosa desu ka? How much do I have to pay? O ikura desu ka? How much do i owe you? O ikura desu ka? How much is it? Sore wa ikura desu ka? How much is it to go there? Asoko made iku noni ikura gurai kakarimasu ka? How much is my salary? Watashi no kyuuryou wa ikura desu ka? How much is that? Are wa ikura desu ka? How much is the admission fee? Nyuujouken wa ikura desu ka? How much is the fare? Ryoukin wa ikura desu ka? How much is the ticket? Kippu wa ikura desu ka?

How much is this? Kore wa ikura desu ka? How much is this in dollars? Doru dewa ikura desu ka? How old are you? Nan sai desu ka? How's your work going? Oshigoto wa ikaga desu ka? How was your trip? Goryokou wa ikaga deshita ka? How young you are! Nanto kimi wa wakai no daro! Hurry up! Isoide kudasai! / Isoge!

[I] I agree. Doukan desu. I am a factory worker. Watashi wa roudousha desu. I am a Japanese. Watashi wa Nihonjin desu. I am a Filipino. Watashi wa Firipinjin desu. I am busy. Isogashii desu. I am deeply grateful for your kindness to me. Goshinsetsu o fukaku kansha shimasu. I am full. Onaka ga ippai. I am going to the airport. Watashi wa hikoujou e ikimasu. I am going to the post office. Watashi wa youbinkyoku e ikimasu. I am happy to meet you. Ome ni kakarete ureshii. I am hungry. Onaka ga sukimashita. I am in a hurry. Watashi wa isoide imasu. I am lost. Michi ni mayotte imasu. I am Koichi. Watashi wa Koichi desu. I am Iwata. Watashi wa Iwata desu. I am married. Watashi wa kekkon shite imasu. I am Mr. Takishima Watashi wa Takishima desu.

I am not a Japanese. Watashi wa Nihonjin dewa arimasen. I am not a Filipino. Watashi wa Firipinjin dewa arimasen. I am not busy. Isogashiku arimasen. / Hima desu. I am not hungry. Onaka wa suite imasen. I am sick. Watashi wa byouki desu. I am single. Watashi wa dokushin desu. I am so happy. Totemo ureshii da. I am sorry. Gomen nasai. / Shitsurei shimashita. I am sorry for you. Okino doku desu. I am sorry that I can't come. Zannen desu ga mairemasen. I am sorry to disturb you. Goshinpai okake shimashita. I am so tired. Taihen tsukarete imasu. / Sukkari tsukare mashita. I am still single. Mada dokushin desu. I am surprised to see it. Sore o mite bikkurishita. I am thirsty. Nodo ga kawaita. I am tired. Tsukareta. I am twenty-seven years old. Ni juu nana sai desu. I am thirty years old. San juu sai desu. I am very happy to see you. Oaishite taihen ureshii desu. / Oaidekite taihen ureshii desu. I am worried. Watashi wa shimpai desu. I am your friend. Watashi wa anata no tomodachi desu. I beg your pardon. Mou ichido itte kudasai. I bet you. Kitto. I can drive. Watashi wa kuruma no unten ga dekimasu. I cannot wait. Matemasen. I can speak Japanese. Watashi wa Nihongo ga hanasemasu.

I can speak English. Watashi wa Eigo ga hanasemasu. I can speak Filipino. Watashiwa Firipingo ga hanasemasu. I can speak Japanese a little. Sukoshi dake Nihongo ga hanasemasu. I can't believe it. Shinjirare nai. I can't forget it. Watashi wa wasurenai. I can wait. Mattemasu. I caught a cold. Watashi wa kaze wo hikimashita. I didn't order this. Kore wa chuumon shite imasen. I do not dye my hair. Kami wa somemasen. I do not understand what you say. Anata no ossharu koto ga wakarimasen. I don't care. Dou demo yoi desu. I don't eat dessert. Dezaato wa kekkou desu. I don't expect something in return. Okaeshi wa kitai shite imasen. I don't feel well. Kibun ga warui. I don't have an ID. Mibun shoumeisho wa motte imasen. I don't know. Wakarimasen. / Shirimasen. I don't know Japanese. Watashi wa Nihongo ga dekimasen. I don't know her. Kanojo o zonjimasen. I don't know him. Kare o zonjimasen. I don't know English. Watashi wa Eigo ga dekimasen. I don't know Filipino. Watashi wa Firipingo ga dekimasen. I don't know when I'll be back. Itsu kaette kuru ka wakarimasen. I don't know why. Doushite nanoka wakarimasen. I don't know yet. Mada Wakarimasen. I don't like. Kirai desu. I don't like it. Sore wa kirai desu.

I don't think so. Watashi wa sou omoimasen. I don't understand. Wakarimasen. I don't wear pants. Zubon wa hakimasen. I exercise every day. Mainichi undo shite imasu. I feel blue. Yuutsu desu. I feel cold. Karada ga hiete imasu. I feel dizzy. Watashi wa memai ga shimasu. I feel ill. Kibun ga warui. I feel lazy today. Kyou wa nanimo shitaku arimasen. I feel sleepy. Nemui desu. / Nemutai desu. I feel warm. Atatakai desu. I forgot. Wasuremashita. I gained one kilo. Taijuu ga ichi kiro fuemashita. I got used to hard work. Watashiwa tsurai shigoto ni nareta. I guess so. Sou omoimasu. I have a driver's license. Unten menkyosshou wa motte imasu. I have a fever. Watashi wa netsu ga arimasu. I have a headache. Atama ga itai desu. I have a stomachache. Onaka ga itai desu. I have a toothache. Ha ga itai desu. I have enjoyed it. Omoshirokatta. I have a good neigbors here. Kinjo no hito wa mina ii hito bakari desu. I have just arrived. Ima kita bakari desu. I have never been to Japan. Watashi wa Nihon e itta koto ga arimasen. I have no money. Okane ga arimasen. I have to prepare my things. Jumbi wo shinakereba narimasen.

I hope for your good health always. Itsumo ogenki wo inotte imasu. I hope for your prompt recovery. Hakaku naotte kudasai. I know. Shitte imasu. I know Mr. Tanaka. Tanakasan wo zonjite orimasu. I like all of them. Zembu ga suki desu. I like basketball very much. Basuketto bouru ga dai suki desu. I like it. Suki desu. I like it, too. Watashi wa sore mo suki desu. I like this place. Koko ga ki ni irimashita. I like to eat salad. Sarada wo itadakitai. I live in Tokyo. Watashi wa Tokyo ni sunde imasu. I live near the school. Watashi wa gakkou no chikaku ni sunde imasu. I'll be leaving next month. Raigetsu shuppatsu shimasu. I'll be leaving next week. Raishuu shuppatsu shimasu. I'll be leaving tomorrow. Ashita shuppatsu shimasu. I lost my key. Kagi wo nakushi mashita. I lost my passport. Pasupooto wo nakushi mashita. I love sports. Watashi wa supootsu ga suki desu. I'm coming. Kimasu. I'm coming home. Watashi wa uchi ni kaerimasu. I'm coming right now. Ima sugu mairimasu. I'm doing nothing. Watashi wa nani mo yara nai. / Nani mo shite imasen. I'm fine. Genki desu. I'm here. Koko desu. / Koko ni imasu. I missed the train. Densha ni noriokure mashita. / Kisha ni noriokure mashita. I miss my family. Kazoku ni aitai desu.

I miss you. Anata ga inai to sabishii. I miss you very much. Watashi wa anata ga inai node taihen sabishii. I'm not in the mood. Sonna ki ni naremasen. I'm ready. (willingness) Watashi wa yorokonde. I must go now. Watashi wa ikaneba narimasen. I'm very glad to hear it. Sore o kiite taihen ureshii. I'm very sorry, I can't. Zannen desu ga, dekimasen. I'm very sorry to hear that. Okinodoku desu. I need a blanket. Moufu ga irimasu. I need an interpreter. Tsuuyaku ga hoshii desu. I see. Wakarimashita. Is everything ready? Jumbi shuuryou desu ka? I shall be pleased to go with you. Yoronkonde go issho shimashou. Is he a Japanese? Kare wa NihonJin desu ka? Is he a Filipino? Kare wa Firipinjin desu ka? Is he present? Kare wa irasshaimasu ka? Is he your relative? Kare wa anata no shinseki desu ka? Is it correct? Kore wa tadashii desu ka? Is it finished? Sumimashita ka? Is it important? Taisetsu na koto desu ka? Is it near? Sore wa chikaku desu ka? Is it true? Hontou desu ka? I slept well last night. Watashi wa sakuya juubun ni nemutta. Isn't it? Desu ne? Is she absent? Kanojo wa rusu desu ka? Is ten thousand yen enough? Juuman en de juubun desu ka?

Is that all? Sore de zembu deshou ka? Is that so? Sou desu ka? Is that yours? Are wa anata no desu ka? Is there a bank near here? Kono fukin ni ginkou ga arimasu ka? Is there any discount? Waribiki ga arimasu ka? Is this okay? Kore de ii desu ka? Is this seat vacant? Kono seki aite imasu ka? Is this yours? Kore wa anata no desu ka? It depends. Sore wa baai ni yorimasu. It doesn't fit you. Ni awa nai. / Ni ai masen. It fits you. Ni au. / Ni aimasu. I think so. Sou Omoimasu. It is beautiful. Kirei desu ne. It is cheap. Yasui desu. It is cold, isn't it? Samui, desu ne? It is difficult. Muzukashii desu. It is easy. Kantan desu. It is expensive. Takai desu. It is five thousand yen. Gosen en desu. It is important. Kore wa daiji na koto desu. It is interesting. Omoshiroi desu. It is 9:30. Kuji han desu. It is not beautiful. Kirei ja arimasen. It is not important. Sore wa daiji na koto de wa arimasen. It is one hundred pesos. Sore wa hyaku peso desu. It is right. Tadashii desu.

It is quarter past seven. Shichiji juugo fun desu. It is ten o'clock. Juuji desu. It is three o'clock. Sanji desu. It is wrong. Sore wa chigaimasu. It's a good idea. Sore ga ii. It's bad. Warui desu. It's big. OOkii desu. It's clean. Kirei desu. It's cold. (thing) Tsumetai desu. It's cold. (weather) Samui desu. It's correct. Tadashii desu. It's delicious. Oishii desu. It's dirty. Kitanai desu. It seems delicious. Oishisou desu. It's enough. Juubun desu. It's far. Toui desu. It's forbidden. Kore wa dame desu. It's good. Ii desu. It's heavy. Omoi desu. It's here. Koko desu. It's hot. Atsui desu. It's impossible. Fukanou desu. / Sore wa dekimasen. It's late. Osoi desu. It's mine. Sore wa watashi no mono desu. It's more than enough. Kore wa oui desu. / Mou takusan desu. It's my first time here in Japan. Nippon ni kitano wa hajimete desu.

It's near. Chikai desu. It's nice. Yoi desu. It's none of your business! yokei na osewa da! It's not me. Watashi ja arimasen. It's not nice. Yoku nai. It's not painful. Itaku nai. It's not raining anymore. Ame ga fura nai. / Mou ame wa futte inai. It's not you. Anata ja nai! It's okay. / It's all right. Daijoubu desu. It's painful. Itai desu. It's possible. Dekimasu. It's raining. Ame ga futte imasu. It's snowing. Yuki desu. It's still early. Mada hayai desu. It's still raining. Mada ame ga futte imasu. It's there. Soko desu. It's too high. Amari takai. It's too low. Amari hikui. It's ugly. Minikui desu. It's unbelievable. Shinji rare masen. It's unfair. Fukouhei desu. It's up to you. Omakase shimasu. It's very cold today. Kyou wa kanari samui desu. It's very nice of you. Goshinsetsu arigatou gozaimasu. It's warm. Atatakai desu. It's wet. Nureta.

It's yours. Sore wa anata no desu. It tastes good! Aa, oishii! It was very hot yesterday. Kinou wa kanari atsukatta desu. I understand. Wakarimasu. I want a book. Hon ga hoshii desu. I want this letter registered. Watashi wa kono tegami o kakitome ni shite morai tai. I want to buy a TV set. Terebi wo kaitai to omotte imasu. I want to close my account. Kouza wo torikeshitai no desu ga. I want to deposit money. Yokin onegai shimasu. I want to develop these pictures. Genzou onegai shimasu. I want to eat an apple. Ringo wo tabetai. I want to go to Disneyland. Dizuniirando ni ikitai desu. I want to open an account. Kouza wo hirakitai no desu ga. I want to make a withdrawal. Okane o hikidashitai no desu ga. I want to work abroad. Gaikou de hataraki tai. I was born in 1990 Watashi ga umareta no wa senkyuuhyaku kyuujuunen desu. I was born on Septermber 7, 1998. Watashi wa sen kyuu hyaku kyuuju hachi nen kugatsu nanoka ni umare mashita. I was impressed. Kandou shimashita. I will accompany you there. Achira made otomo shimasu. I will always remember you. Kesshite anata no koto wo wasuremasen. I will be back. Kitto kaette kimasu. I will be back soon. Sugu ni modori masu. I will be there for three months. Kochira ni sankagetsu taizai shimasu. I will call you up. Denwa shimasu. I will come later. Watashi wa ato kara mairimasu.

I will come tomorrow. Asu mairimasu. I will do whatever I can do. Dekiru koto wa nandemo shimasu. I will go to the bank tomorrow. Ashita ginkou e ikimasu. I will go to the market. Ichiba ni itte kimasu. I will go with you. Goissho shimasu. I will introduce you to Mr. Hirai. Hiraisan o goshoukai shimasu. I will leave. Watashi wa shuppatsu shimasu. I will leave early tomorrow morning. Asu no asa hayaku shuppatsu shimasu. I will leave today. Watashi wa kyou shuppatsu shimasu. I will meet you on Sunday. Nichiyoubi ni oai shimashou. I will pay cash. Kyasshu de oharai shimasu. I will pay for the excess. Choukabun wa haraimasu. I will pay weekly. Watashi wa isshuukan barai ni shimasu. I will rest for a while. Sukoshi yasumimasu. I will send you some pictures. Shashin o oukuri shimasu. I will see what I can do about it. Nani ga dekiru ka kangaemasu. I will start working tomorrow. Ashita kara shigoto desu. I will take this room. Kono heya ni shimasu. I will think about it. Kangaete mimasu. I will try. Yatte mimashou. I will wait. Omachi shimashou.

Here are a few links to other best-of-breed japanese sites. Mail me if you think your site should be added, and let me know in which section. (without the spaces of course) dc3 @ pikkle.com Grammar

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Tae Kim's nicely produced grammar guide. Beginner to early intermediate level Ed Jacob's grammar page. One of the few grammar resources on the net... useful info for all levels. Jim Breen's list of grammar points. Clearly laid out and easy to digest, Beginner to Intermediate level. Keith Smillie's list of grammar points. Beginner to intermediate level, mostly in romaji. Includes those useful lists like counters and calendar.

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Adjectives introduction to japanese adjectives Tools

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Rikai I use this site almost everyday to read japanese text. popJisyo Similar to Rikai, with more features, maybe a little too much on one page. Coolest.com These guys produce JQuickTrans, my favorite EJ dictionary and an app that stays open on my machine most of the day. JWPCE Japanese open source word processor. Nice to use as the dictionary lookups etc. are built into one keystroke in the app. But it's a little funky! Kanji

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kanjistudyguide A well put together kanji site. Amazing amount of work has gone into this... Also includes the Heisig mnemonics and stories to remember kanji. kanjisite Nice large details of kanji and printable lists Dictionary

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JDIC Jim Breen's massive japanese dictionary project ALC Good dictionary with example sentences. And more!

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http://www.manythings.org/japanese/ Charles Kelly's site: a lot of quizzes and other info Contact Mail me here if you have a site you would like added to the list, or any comments for improvement! dc3 @ pikkle.com

Comments: dc dc

dc dc

A good page on counting systems I've started using this tool recently, Babylon. Its got access to other good paid for dictionaries, and pretty hassle free to use within any app for looking up words with a ctrl-click... babylon 5 http://www.Japaneselearning.com :: comprehensive learning site. A blog by any other name... www.kenkyuukai.com We are a new site and are trying to focus on student interaction and building a community.

ljfurlong

dc

Mike / Kenkyuukai.com JLPT Kanji Project, http://www.jlpt-kanji.com/ is much more complete and up-to-date when compared with Kanjisite, which seems to have been abandoned. It is similar in a lot of ways, but includes the ubiquitous EDICT, which breaks down the kanji in a handy sidebar. Have a look. Looks like a decent Kanji site... http://www.jlpt-kanji.com/ btw does anyone know where to find a site with all the mnemonics from the Henshall "guide to remebering..." book?

Billy anon

anon halx anon

nanini

giseigo words

bamboo4

Japanese Lessons at theforeigner-japan.com interesting monthly column from the japan times with stories and other ways to help remember Kanji... http://www.kanjiclinic.com kanji-a-day mailing list from yookoso. nice to have a good mailing to remind you to study! I signed up at work and on my phone... the ALC link in the Dictionary section should probably mention that it is a web interface to the well-known 英辞郎 check here for the Henshall mnemonics http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/henshall_mnem.html I found very interesting dictionary on www.wakan.manga.cz This is a project for people who wants to learn Japanese and Chinese. This dictionary has more than 6000 kanjis and a very good dictionary. It has many function. Enjoy learning Japanese. CAN anyone find good lists of giseigo or gitaigo words... those sound words and what not... please email [email protected] if you can Here is a site with lots of Japanese onomatopoeia with English translations: http://home.alc.co.jp/db/owa/s_kaydic?ctg_in=4&char_in=s This site is in Japanese, but all onomatopoeic words are listed in katakana.

sabrae

I do not vouch for the accuracy or competency of the English translations given, but they are fair. Don't forget http://www.kantango.com for vocabulary building. This is a grammar compilation done in Japanese that I recently found. Unfortunately, it's difficult to copy and paste (in order to look up words) because clicking transfers you to the next grammar point, but it seems pretty thorough. To the person who wanted a list of onomatopoeia:

adamstudio

There is a book called 日英擬音・擬態語活用辞典(A Practical Guide to Japanese-English Onomatopoeia & Mimesis) that is like a dictionary with extensive examples and good explanations (in both Japanese and English). www.apricotweb.com

PaulO sabrae

Steve Ryner

dc

chat program for japanese-english learners Hey guys, great site. Just wanted to drop a line to my kanji dictionary, http://www.nuthatch.com/kanji It's more of a browsing adventure (based on Nelson's classic) without any searching functions yet. hi steve - couldnt find the browsing, but sounds interesting. I often use the rikai kanji map when i have a few minutes:

ceruleanjen

CW

dc sarumitai Molly Moriss Rachel han-na_bae

http://www.rikai.com/kanjimap/ [http://dict.regex.info/cgi-bin/j-e/jis/dict] - Jeffrey's Japanese English Dictionary. I swear by it. Make sure to visit the customization page to turn on kanji in search returns. Found a great spreadsheet for learning Kanji up to JLPT level 2 here: http://www.chuobunkyo.jp/japanese.php?lang=en Hope others find it as useful as I have :) this is a pretty deep grammar dictionary, but just in japanese. http://ws.31rsm.ne.jp/~toolware/dictionary/dictionary.html The site http://www.musuu.com has something like 1,000 links to Japanese links. It's like a mini google or something. Hi does any one like the show Naruto? I LOVE THE SHOW NARUTO!!!!!!!!! http://www.thejapanesepage.com/ This is a great Learn Japanese site with culture included and nearly all main aspects of studying a language. http://kantango.com/ This is a great place that helps you study your vocanbulary with included audio files on each vocabulary word you're studying!

dude

Viola Intervall-audio

kadoka66

Ah, I love Naruto, yet the manga is way better! Please visit: http://mahou@org/ "mahou" stands for "magic" in Japanese and it is full of kanji with up to 200 example sentences (!) per kanji with romaji reading and English translations provided. www.joepark.org/joesjlptpage JUST VISIT [http://www.intervall-audio.com/links/learn_japanese.html] List of links to resources on the Internet for learning Japanese: online dictionaries, software, stuff to read, etc. http://rnnnews.jp/ For those of us conducting business in Japanese, this site has a searchable database with terms and vocabulary for a variety of situations divided into categories like 'Environment' 'Society'. Their word of the day is also pretty kneat.

shenyea

LemonyFreshSmurf

日本語能力試験の受験生のために作ったフォーラム： http://jlpt.info 1991-2005 online examinations of Japanese Language Proficiency Test

I'm having issues on installing the Japanese word-processor on my computer. I've tried messing with Control Panel>Regional/Language Settings, but nothing seems to happen, and I'm unable to read any kana at all. Is there another way to go about it? uma_japan2006@yahoo. where can i get the complete set of joyo kanji list is there any web site for that orochi http://naruhodojapan.blogspot.com/

adamstudio

Naruhodo! is a blog I started up recently. It covers a variety of topics about learning Japanese with an emphasis on studying with the Nintendo DS. Lots of articles about kanji, grammar, and keigo. http://japanese.meetup.com/501/about Maryland Japanese + English Language Club -No costs, volunteer-based, a fun way to learn and make friends at the same time. Language and culure are very intertwined, so direct experience matters.

adamstudio

http://japanese.meetup.com/27/about

burakkuneko

Boston Japanese + English Language Club -similar as above, based in Boston, with over 550 members at the last count. http://www.nihonmura.net This site is for practicing your japanese ... Hope it work on you guys ^-^v I have created a simple site you can use to search for JLPT related grammar and vocabulary. It works well on AU keitai phones, but I'm not sure about other providers.

ziaz

mylz seifip

haibuihoang

http://jlptsearch.richardfremmerlid.com hi jgram... ok ka huh... I just finished my new Japanese educational game and reviewing tool Nihongoup. It can improve one’s kana typing speed as well as help one review the kanji, vocab and particles. Feel free to try it out at http://nihongoup.com/ and if you have any ideas or find any bugs please post them here or drop me a mail ^^ I'd like to introduce a new English Japanese dictionary at http://www.romajidesu.com. Any comments and suggestions are welcome.

Charles Kelly's Online Japanese Language Study Materials オンラインで使える日本語教材 These are free-to-use online materials that I have developed to help people learn Japanese. I am a long-term resident of Japan. I came to Japan when I was four years old.

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Japanese-English Quizzes in Romaji o

You can use these even if your computer doesn't support Japanese characters.

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Matching Quizzes and Multiple-choice Quizzes Using Only Romaji

Japanese Kana Quizzes o

Hiragana

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Katakana

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Multiple-choice Vocabulary Quizzes Using Only Kana

New April 2013: Japanese Sentences with English Translations o

I'm developing this at aitstudy.com/je, and will eventually move this project over to this website.

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Sentences with both が and を in that order

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Sentences with が, に and を in that order

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etc.

Kanji Study o

Multiple-choice Vocabulary Quizzes on Words Using Kanji

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Quizzes on 516 High Frequency Japanese Family Names (Surnames).

Words from Japanese Newspapers in Order of Frequency o

Multiple-choice Vocabulary Quizzes Sorted by Frequency of Word Use.

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CGI Flashcards: Randomly Chosen Japanese Words for Reading Practice o

Each time you load the page you will get a random selection of words from the 17,155 words using kanji that were marked as commonly-used (P) in EDICT.

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Reading Japanese Signs o

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Practice reading Japanese signs.

Japanese Language Proficiency Test Vocabulary Lists o

Vocabulary Multiple-choice Quizzes, Matching Quizzes, and Flashcards.

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Also, Vocabulary Study Lists Linked to Online Dictionaries

Daily Startup (Home) Page for Students of Japanese o

Get 36 kanji characters a day.

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Choose your own level or as many levels as you would like to cover each day.

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You'll be able to see all the 1,908 selected kanji characters several times a year.

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Also included are 3 major English search engines, 3 major Japanese search engines and some Japanese reading tools, so it will make a useful "home" page for you.

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Japanese Reading and Translation Practice Read Japanese sentences with kanji introduced in the order of frequency of use.

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Quiz on Words Usually Written in Kana A fun challenge even for Japanese native speakers.

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Help with Searches for J-Pop on YouTube.com o

Easily search musicians' names with [G]oogle or with [Y]ouTube.

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Japanese Word Frequency Lists

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A Select List of Japanese Language Study Sites o

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I tried to make a list of links limited to just the "very best" sites.

四字熟語 - For Advanced Students o

Yoji Jukugo 1 (402) The Most Commonly-used Ones

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Yoji Jukugo 2 (301) Less Common - (n, vs)

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Yoji Jukugo 3 (1756) Less Common - (n)

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Yoji Jukugo 4 (552) Less Common - Not (n, vs) or (n)

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Yoji Jukugo 5 (234) Less Common - 2 ways to say or write

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If you use the menu at the top of the page, you can find other things, too.

Related Things I Have Created for Other Websites •

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How to Speak Nagoya-Ben o

A Lesson in Speaking the Nagoya Dialect of Japanese

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A friend and I wrote this for the 名古屋味噌煮込みマガジン.

English-Japanese Vocabulary Quizzes (iteslj.org/v/j)

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I wrote the JavaScript code for this website.

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On this site, you can find some more of my vocabulary quizzes as well as quizzes written by others.

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毎日の英単語クイズ (Daily English Vocabulary Quizzes) o

These are quizzes I put online for Japanese who are studying English.

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Be aware that these are designed for studying English, not Japanese. However, you might find these interesting.

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Matching Quiz: Words You Should Know (362 Dozen) o

This is a matching quiz I wrote for Japanese who are studying English.

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There are 362 dozens of matches in the main quiz. Perhaps too many to do at one time, so each time you return to the page, the words are reshuffled generating different matching quizzes.

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Here are the some of the same words, sorted by level. 

Words Studied in Junior High School (74 Dozen)

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Words Studied in High School (81 Dozen)

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Words Studied in College (111 Dozen)

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Words for AIT Freshmen (55 Dozen)

300 Crossword Puzzles o

I made these for Japanese who are studying English, so they are not really designed for studying Japanese. However, I thought some visitors might enjoy these, so I've put a link to them from this page.

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基本英単語クロスワードパズル High Frequency English Words with English-Japanese Example Sentences I created this for Japanese who are studying English, but you might find it interesting, too.

And More ...

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Japanse-English Sentences Browse over 149,000 Japanese-English sentence pairs, sorted by how the Japanese sentence ends

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Japanese Study on an iPad I'm adding PDF files of the above project, so you can put them on your iPad for offline reading.

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Anki Decks for Japanese-English Study

MP3 Did you ask Tom? (CK) トムに尋ねましたか。 (bunbuku) MP3 Did you miss me? (CK) わたしがいなくて淋しいと思った？ (mookeee) MP3 Dinner is ready. (CK) 夕飯の支度が出来ました。 (bunbuku) 夕食の用意が出来ました。 (bunbuku) 夕食ができたよ。 (bunbuku) 夕御飯ができました。 (bunbuku) ディナーの用意ができました。 (bunbuku) MP3 Do you know her? (CK) 彼女を知っていますか。 (bunbuku) MP3 Do you know him? (CK) 彼のお知り合いですか。 (bunbuku) MP3 Do you like rap? (CK) ラップは好き？ (bunbuku) MP3 Do you love Tom? (CK) トムのこと愛してるの？ (tommy_san) MP3 Don't be absurd. (CK) ばかげたことを言うな。 (mookeee) MP3 Don't follow me. (CK) 着いて来ないでよ。 (tommy_san) MP3 Don't get angry. (CK) 腹を立てるな。 (bunbuku) 腹を立てないで。 (bunbuku) 怒るなよ。 (bunbuku) かっかしないで。 (bunbuku) かっかするなよ。 (tommy_san)

MP3 Don't lie to me. (enwilson) 私に嘘を言わないで。 (Blanka_Meduzo) 私にうそは言わないで。 (Blanka_Meduzo) 私に嘘をつかないで。 (bunbuku) MP3 Don't tell lies. (CK) うそを言うな。 (mookeee) MP3 Drive carefully. (CK) 注意深く運転してください。 (mookeee) 慎重に運転してください。 (bunbuku) MP3 Emi looks happy. (CK) エミは幸せそうに見えます。 (mookeee) MP3 Enjoy your trip. (CK) 旅行、楽しんできてね。 (bunbuku) MP3 Follow that car. (CK) あの車を追ってくれ。 (bunbuku) Give me a break! (freddy1) いいかげんにして。 (bunbuku) MP3 Give me a break. (CK) 勘弁してくれ。 (bunbuku) いいかげんにして。 (bunbuku) MP3 Go back to work. (CK) 仕事に戻りなさい。 (bunbuku) MP3 Go home quickly. (CK) 早く家に帰りなさい。 (tommy_san) MP3 Great, isn't it? (CK) すごいじゃない！ (bunbuku) MP3 Has he come yet? (CK) 彼はもう来たかい。 (bunbuku) 彼はもう来たか。 (bunbuku) 彼はもう来ましたか。 (bunbuku)

MP3 H ave a nice day. (CK )

良い一日を。 (arihato) MP3 He acts quickl y. (CM) 彼は動作がはやい。 (bunbuku) MP 3H e beg an to cry. (CK)

彼は泣き出した。 (bunbuku) M P3 H e be ga n to ru n. (CK )

彼は走り出した。 (mookee MP3 We believe in God. (CK) 私たちは神を信じています。 (bunbuku) MP3 We go there often. (CK) 私たちはよくそこに行きます。 (bunbuku) MP3 We got up at dawn. (CK) 私たちは夜明けに起きた。 (bunbuku) MP3 We have a big dog. (CK)

私たちは大きな犬を飼っている。 (bunbuku) MP3 We must keep calm. (CK) 落ち着きが肝心です。 (mookeee) MP3 We must pay taxes. (CK) 私たちは税金を納めなければならない。 (mookeee) MP3 We saw them leave. (Samghost) 私たちは彼らが外出するのを見た。 (mookeee) MP3 We were all tired. (CK) 私たちは全員疲れていた。 (bunbuku) MP3 We won the battle. (Swift) 私たちは戦いに勝った。 (mookeee) MP3 We've lost 3 to 0. (Shoyren) 我々は3対0で負けた。 (thyc244) MP3 Welcome to Boston. (CK) ボストンへようこそ。 (tommy_san) What a fool he is! (CM) 彼は本当にばかだねえ。 (mookeee) MP3 What did Tom know? (CK) トムは何を知っていたのですか。 (bunbuku) MP3 What did Tom want? (CK) トムは何が欲しかったのですか。 (bunbuku) MP3 What do I do next? (CK) 私は次に何をするのですか。 (bunbuku) MP3 What do you think? (Jane_Austen) どう思う？ (mookeee) あなたはどう思いますか。 (mookeee) どう思われますか？ (tommy_san) MP3 What does Tony do? (CK) トニー君の職業はなんですか。 (mookeee) MP3 What does it mean? (CK) どういうことを意味しているのですか。 (mookeee) それどういう意味？ (TomoyukiTanaka) どういう意味？ (tommy_san) MP3 What is happiness? (telsfbay)

幸せって何だ？ (mookeee) 幸せって何なんだろう？ (bunbuku) 幸福って何？ (bunbuku) 幸せって何だろう？ (bunbuku) 幸せって何だっけ？ (mookeee) MP3 What is the story? (CK) それは何の話ですか。 (bunbuku) MP3 What is your name? (sac redceltic)

お名前は何ですか。 (bunbuku) お名前を教えて戴けますか。 (arihato) MP3 W hat should I say? (CK )

何と言ったらいいか・・・。 (bunbuku) MP3 What' re you doing ? (CK) 何やってんの？ (tommy_san) MP 3W hat' s eati ng her? (Ner o)

彼女は何をいらいらしているの。 (bunbuku) M P3 W

ha t's ea tin g yo u? (C M)

何をくよくよしているのだ。 (bunbuku) W h a t' s f o r d i n n e r ? ( l u k a s z p p )

晩ご飯は何？ (tommy_san) W h a t ' s

f o r s u p p e r ? ( S H a m p )

晩ご飯は何？ (tommy_san) M P 3 W h a t ' s t h a t s o u n d ?

( b l a y _ p a u l )

あの音は何ですか。 (qahwa) M P 3 W h a t ' s t h e m a t t e r ? ( D o r e n d a )

どうしたの。 (bunbuku) 機嫌悪いの？ (tommy_san)

M P 3 W h a t ' s y o u r m a j o r ? ( C K )

専攻は何ですか。 (tommy_san)

A Select List of Japanese Language Study Sites These may not be all the very best sites, but these are definitely some of the best. Recent Addition •

RomajiDesu.com/dictionary (Hai Bui Hoang)

Hiragana and Katakana Beginners may want to jump to the Kana Links that are near the bottom of the page.

Based on Jim Breen's EDICT and KANJIDIC. Includes advertising. Added 2012-09-13

Tools to Help Read Japanese Web Pages •

Plugins for Firefox or Chrome o

Rikaichan (Jonathan Zarate) *** Highly Recommended *** Free ***

A Firefox plugin that has similar features to Rikai.com (see below). You can put your cursor over any word on the resulting page to get the reading and the English meaning. If you haven't yet upgraded to Firefox (It's free), then this is a very good reason to do so. ADVANTAGES: This even works offline. There is also a word lookup (dictionary) function that makes many of the other EDICT dictionary lookup programs obsolete. For example, you can enter "飼っている" and it will find "飼う" for you. This means you can copy and paste things "as is" to get meanings. o

Rikaikun - For Chrome and does about the same thing as "Rikaichan"

does for Firefox. o

Furigana Injector

An extension for Firefox or Chrome. It's cool because you can include a list of kanji that you want it to ignore. •

Jim Breen's WWWJDIC Server - Text Word Translation

Input Japanese in the form (or enter a URL) and get a page generated with all the words looked up for you already. One important advantage this one has over the next one is that you can print the results to paper, then read the text away from a computer (while commuting, etc.).

•

www.rikai.com (Todd Rudick)

Enter a URL, then put your cursor over any kanji on the resulting page to get the reading and English. (This didn't work with some browsers I tested it with.) •

www.popjisyo.com (Alex Schonfeld)

This is similar to www.rikai.com. However, it has the advantage of working with more browsers. •

WordChamp's Web Reader

You don't need to register, so just ignore that part. This doesn't recognize various verb conjugations like Rikai.com and PopJisyo.com do. Try Charles Kelly's Bilingual English-Japanese Random Sentence Generator via WordCamp

(The direct link is Bilingual English-Japanese Random Sentence Generator - 英日文 章自動生成プログラム). •

The rest are for reading help (hiragana or romaji) only, no English definitions.

•

www.furiganizer.com

Copy and paste in Japanese text, click the button, then see the same text with Furigana. •

www.hiragana.jp

Adds hiragana after the kanji. (This can be used without logging in.) •

Adaptive Technologies' Furigana Web Page Converter

You don't need to register or have a password, so just skip to the bottom of the page to enter a URL. FEATURE: You can even get Romaji furigana, if you want. This makes it very easy to see what was not on the original page. •

Kakashi Web Front End: Read Japanese Websites in Romaji (Joel Yliluoma)

Converts web pages from Japanese characters to Romaji.

Tools to Help Read Japanese Text These also help read a web page. You just have to copy and paste the text into the form. •

Reading Tutor Toolbox (Yoshiko Kawamura)

Input some Japanese text into the form and get a page with clickable words that show readings and English in another frame. •

ふりがな（学年別配当漢字使い分け） (Kotoba no Mori)

Input some text, and get color-coded kanji by (Kokugo) grade level and also get furigana. •

J-Talk Kanji to Hiragana/Romaji Parser (Gary Ross)

Input some Japanese text and have it converted to Kana or Romaji.

iGoogle Widgets - Japanese Language Proficiency Test Level 1 •

Random JLPT Vocabulary Level 1 - Any Browser Version o

•

(Words written in Kanji)

For any browser

Random JLPT Vocabulary Level 1 - Firefox with Rikaichan o

(Words written in Kanji)

For the Firefox browser with the Rikaichan add-on installed. If you are using this combination, then this is the better choice. Not only do you get more words each time, but finding the reading and meaning of unknown words is much faster.

Kanji Search •

Search Kanji in CK's Kanji Dictionary

RSS Feeds •

www.yookoso.com - Daily Elementary School Grade 1 Kanji

•

JapanesePod101's RSS Feed

Quizzes to Help You Study Kanji •

Learn the Japanese Kanji (Roger Meyer)

Java applet for browsing, quizzing, etc. Uses Jim Breen's materials. 1 to 60, 61 to 120, 121 to 180, 181 to 240, 241 to 300, 301 to 360, 361 to 420, 421 to 480, 481 to 540, 541 to 600, 601 to 660, 661 to 720, 721 to 780, 781 to 840, 841 to 900, 901 to 960,961 to 1020, 1021 to 1080 •

Jesse Lake's Kanji Game

Requires a newer browser, 67 levels, randomly generated multiple-choice quizzes with 8 choices.The color scheme makes it a little difficult to see the choices. •

Words with Kanji from Japanese Newspapers - Flash Quizzes & Flashcards

There are 560 quizzes each with 50 words. The words were chosen in the order of the frequency in which they appeared in 4-years of Mainichi Newspaper. •

Quizzes on Commonly-used Japanese Words (Sorted by Kanji) (Charles Kelly)

Multiple-choice Flash quizzes using all commonly-used words for each kanji. •

WebJapanese.Com's Kanji Challenge

Uses the Suntac CGI to give you human-made multiple-choice questions. Entering a fake email address is OK. There are also Kanji Worksheets on this website. •

Web-based Kanji Exercises (Tomoko Marshall - University of Virginia)

JavaScript quizzes on kanji, vocabulary, comprehension etc.

Quizzes to Help You Study Vocabulary & Grammar •

Minna no Nihongo 1 and 2 Vocabulary Quizzes (Larry Battle)

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English-Japanese Vocabulary Quizzes

Randomly generated multiple-choice JavaScript quizzes •

GCSE Japanese Class (Quia)

Animal Vocabulary, Place Names, Weather/Seasons, Kanji Matching, ... •

Grammar Quizzes (Kumiko Kaneniwa)

12 five-question quizzes •

Chez Schei's CGI Flashcards using EDICT Data

OFFLINE when check in April of 2010. - A little slow because of the CGI interface. •

Okayama University's Study Materials Offline when checked in April of 2010 Minna no Nihongo - Practice (Requires Flash)

•

Yookoso! Media Edition

Matching quizzes. •

www.kahome.co.uk's Flashcards

The JavaScript didn't work on Apple's Safari Browser. •

日本語教育能力検定試験 試験I対策：スペースアルク

quiz - 1 question per page •

フ ナハシ学習塾ゲーム

外来語言い換え¨ Game (Funahashi)

See a katakana word and choose it's (kanji) meaning. Vocabulary Flashcards •

http://www.proprofs.com/flashcards/search.php?tag=true&search=Japanese o

Visitor submitted flashcards (You may find mistakes on these.)

o

The Japanese did not display properly for me when I tried it in April of 2010. However, many of the flascards are Romaji, so that may not be a problem that matters to you.

Some Japanese Quizzes Found on quizlet.com/subject/japanese •

http://quizlet.com/set/6401/ Ultimate Japanese Bk 1: Chap. 20 Vocab.

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http://quizlet.com/set/4121/ Lesson 1 Japanese 1

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http://quizlet.com/set/3021/ Japanese for Busy People I: Lesson 1

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http://quizlet.com/set/1454/ Japanese Compound Verbs

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http://quizlet.com/set/1404/ Accountancy Glossary

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http://quizlet.com/set/1059/ JLPT4 Kanji

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Useful for those using the textbook, "Adventures in Japanese 2"

•

o

[http://quizlet.com/user/msjapanese/]

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http://quizlet.com/set/45260/

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http://quizlet.com/set/45256/

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http://quizlet.com/set/45254/

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http://quizlet.com/set/45046/

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http://quizlet.com/set/45043/

o

http://quizlet.com/set/45038/

To find more, try these searches: o

http://quizlet.com/search/japanese/

o

http://quizlet.com/search/jlpt/

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http://quizlet.com/search/kanji

o

etc.

Romaji Quizzes •

http://www.digitaldialects.com/Japanese.htm o

Phrase & Greetings, Colors, Animals, Numbers, Days and Months, ...

Games •

Crossword Puzzles (for advanced JSL students) o

http://check.0ch.cx/ then look on the left side of the page, after

scrolling a bit. o

This may still be the direct link: http://check.0ch.cx/x_hira1/. I had to reset the "encoding" to read the menu page.

Browse and Study Lists of Kanji •

2011 GSF Jouyou Kanji (by Con Kolivas) - English meanings and example

words with English meanings, based on Jim Breen's work. o

2011 GSF Jouyou Kanji - All on one big page - Good for loading into your

mobile device before disconnecting from the Internet. •

JLPT Level 2 Kanji Dictionary (Paul Dixon)

•

Mayumi Ishida's Kanji Practice (Dartmouth College)

Kanji data cards with (MIT) QuickTime movies and sound files reading the sample sentences. •

Kinki's Kanji Dictionary

Jim Breen's materials put together in an interlinking, easy-to-browse way for study. •

Whiteknightlogic's KanjiDB

Jim Breen's materials .... (Very similar to Kinki's Kanji Dictionary) •

www.Mahou.org's Kanji Dictionary

Jim Breen's materials. Interfaced with the English-Japanese sentence examples, too. (Radical Select) •

Japanese Kanji Dictionary with Pronunciation (Kunihiro Tanaka)

You can listen to the words for the first 400 or so kanji. •

Gahoh (By Masayoshi Kanai) Includes QuickTime movies showing stroke order. These sites have

apparently licensed his material. Gahoh.MarineBat.com http://www.tufs.ac.jp/st/personal/99/kawatsu/gahoh/English.html •

Usagi-Chan's Kanji Stroke Order (Andrea Shea)

Looks like Gahoh's QuickTime Movies. I got "moji-bake" on my computer and the wrong kanji were sometimes displayed. •

Griffin University's Kanji Study

Approx. 400 basic kanji are introduced with their readings and examples of usage. •

Kanji Alive (Harumi Hibino Lory & Team)

Requires QuickTime v6.5. Japanese fonts aren't required. If you have read the documentation already, save time by jumping directly to the 60_QTcheck.mov and click the fan. •

www.KanjiSite.com (Chris Jennings)

Study for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test. Kanji lists and quizzes. •

Yookoso Books (Univeristy of Colorado)

Uses MIT's Kanji Project materials. (You may need to mess with your "encoding" preferences.) •

Fujiko's Nihongo Page

Browse kanji lists and test yourself with multiple-choice JavaScript quizzes. •

Meguro Language Center's Japanese Study Files

PDF files of word, verb, grammar list for JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) and free materials and quizzes for Japanese Language. •

www.thbz.org's JLPT vocabulary (Unicode) (Thierry Bézecourtt)

Vocabulary used on the 4 levels of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test •

Japanese Language Proficiency Test Kanji Linked to Online Dictionaries (Charles

Kelly) Browse the lists and click on the ones you don't know to jump to an online dictionary.

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jlpt.renshuu.org (Michael Hominick)

Browse lists of kanji and vocabulary. •

Kanji Writing Tutor (Blake Edward Sterzinger)

Some cards (basic kanji only) that include animated GIF files showing the writing. •

www.theJapanesePage2.com's Kanji Study

JLPT Kanji lists and a "randomizer." PDF files of Kanji, too. The advertising is a bit much. •

Nihongo Shoho's Kanji List by Frequency

No readings or definitions, but you can create a sheet for practicing your writing. •

AJALT's 漢字で学ぶ日本語 (Kanji De Manabu Nihongo) (Kiyotaka Yasui)

It's all images, so you can use it even without Japanese fonts. The writing is a bit fuzzy, thus slow to read. •

A Door to the World of Kanji

See a picture of everyday objects, click and read. •

Henshall Kanji Mnmonics (Kenneth Henshal)

Elementary school kanji - no definitions or readings •

筆順教室 (ひつじゅん きょうしつ)

Requires Flash. See stroke order, readings and a few words using each kanji. •

Semuel's "Remembering the Kanji" Helper Site

Based on the book by James W. Heisig. See the "Practice Pages Auto Generator." •

www.kanjinetworks.com (Lawrence J. Howell and Hikaru Morimoto)

Etymological Dictionary of Chinese Characters •

森の学校 - 楽しい学習ページ

For Japanese elementary school children, but good for kanji review for non-native speakers, too.

•

www.kanji-trainer.org (Ulrich Neymeyr)

Flashcard-like training for kanji, with vocabulary, too. •

uPal: Associative Kanji Learning

There are quizzes and sentence examples, too.

Kanji Lookup •

uPal: Japanese-English Dictionary Search Using Hand Writing Recognition

You can write the kanji with your mouse to find it.

Vocabulary Lists •

Michael Kluemper's Quia Activities in Romaji

•

Usagi Chan's Genki Vocabulary Lists (Shea and Masuyama)

sorted by lessons used in the Genki textbook. •

A Japanese Dictionary for Beginners 入門日本語辞典』（第２版） 2004年10月

A free, downloadable 5,000 Japanese word list with English definitions, by the ³¤³°¤ËÆüËܸ춵ºà¤òÁ÷¤ë²ñ •

Glenn Rosenthal's Vocabulary Lists

Various lists for students at UCLA. •

Jim Breen's EDICT

An extensive, downloadable file. Each line = [Japanese - Reading - Part(s) of Speech - English] Many web-based dictionaries use this. •

Nihongo Shoho's Vocabulary Lists

Done with images, so you do not need a Japanese font. Elementary vocabulary •

www.kahome.co.uk's Vocabulary Lists

Word lists for the books Japanese for Busy People, Japanese for College Students, Nihongo Shoho and SL Japanese ab initio. •

Nihongo o Narau - Romaji Vocabulary Lists (Domini Lyman)

Adjectives, Animals, ...

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www.kantango.com (Raymond Fix)

Requires registering. However, when registering, a fake email address works, so you can avoid the potential of receiving spam. Choose words from Jim Breen's EDICT, then do flashcards. •

www.e-japanese.jp (Yoshimichi Iwata)

Of special interest are the JLPT word lists in Excel format: Pre-2010 Lists: Book4.xls, Book3.xls, Book2.xls, Book1.xls Hiragana - Romaji - Kanji - English (You do not need to register to download these.) •

Vocabulary Flashcards for studying for the JLPT (Markus Dreyer)

Formatted PDF files for printing. •

WordChamp's Food Vocabulary and other lists.

Many of the words have audio files, so you can practice your pronunciation, too. •

WAKEwakaru: French-Japanese Glossary (Alain Cote)

Not a traditional vocabulary list, but you can browse 5 words at a time. Start. •

David Hallgren's Nihongo Website - Vocabulary Lists for Genki

Try the "printer friendly" links. (Note on July 5, 2006, it seemed that there are some character set problems on some of his pages.) •

www.LanguageGuide.org/nihongo/ (Thomas Blackmon)

It is recommended to use Netscape or FireFox browser for this site. Other browsers may not work •

jpf.org.uk's vocabulary lists

Vocabulary lists in PDF and EXCEL formats •

mit.edu/seantek (Sean Leonard)

PDF file vocabulary lists. •

Nihongo de Care

Aimed at nursing and caretaking, but some parts, such as Basic Expressions 500, are good all of us.

Things to Listen To Audio That Is Good For Pronunciation Practice and Intonation Practice •

http://japanese-phrases.sakura.ne.jp - Japanese Phrases for Travelers (Yuu

Gotoh) Videos •

Tokyo Gaidai's Japanese Study - English Menu

Other •

www.languageguide.org/nihongo

Beginning level vocabulary with audio. •

Dest Nalsas Readers (Click Japanese on the lower left.)

Can be appreciated even by lower level students. By the Australian government. •

NHK's Weekly Japanese Lessons

Streaming RealAudio. (From shortwave Radio Japan) •

MP3 Japan

You can download NHK's Radio Japan's Japanese lessons archived as MP3 files. •

NZAJLT's Photo Essays

Try these online versions with MP3 files: Momoko, Junko and Kayo. •

ECIS Internet Broadcast (Richard Harrison & Yoshimi Iwasaki)

Weekly RealAudio with the text. (Nagoya University) •

KISC Nihongo Channel (Richard Harrison)

Perhaps this is just a mirror site of the Nagoya University site above. I haven't had time to look through this site. (Kobe University)

•

MangaRama - Digital Comic Learning System

Comics shown and read using QuickTime. English translations and explanations on the page. •

Nihongo o Manabou

Beginning dialogs done with Flash. •

31 Basic Sentences with Speech (Jouji Miwa)

These could be used for "listen & repeat" practice. •

AJALT's ちまたの日本語 (Real World Japanese)

Click the word "GENERAL" or "BUSINESS" •

AJALT's Survival Japanese

In Romaji. Apparently RealAudio files, but they didn't play on my computer. •

AJALT's Learning Supplements for Japanese for Busy People

Learn to say numbers, some verbs and some adjectives. •

WordTheQue - Texts and MP3 Files

Mukashi-banashi (old tales) •

Australian Government Department of Education, Science and Training

Requires Flash, for beginners. Click the "Japanese" link on the lower left.

Podcasts A Few Favorites - Not Aimed at JSL Students These are not aimed at JSL students, but if you understand Japanese fairly well, they are good. •

Blog 表現よみ作品集 - Stories (Audio Book Style)

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http://www.njuku.com/ - RSS = http://feeds.feedburner.com/Nihongo-juku

•

http://www.eigonikki.com/ - It's really designed for Japanese studying

English. However, there is more Japanese speaking than English speaking and a complete transcript is available on the web site. RSS = http://feeds.feedburner.jp/eigonikki

JSL Podcasts • For Beginners •

www.JapanesePod101.com - Daily

Perhaps a bit too much time-wasting laughing and joking around and nonstudy related chatting between presenters, but still very good. (See hints) If you can't easily locate the podcast feed on their website, just grab it here. NEW RSS - http://www.japanesepod101.com/wp-feed-audio.php OLD RSS = http://www.japanesepod101.com/feed/rss/ •

learn-japanese.podomatic.com - Some are video, so won't work on all MP3

players. RSS = http://learn-japanese.podomatic.com/rss2.xml •

Yuriko Sakamoto's "I Hear Japanese" - This series, developed by Yuriko

Sakamoto and David Boxer for eighth grade students at the Windward School, provides instruction in grammar, vocabulary, and bilingual texts. RSS = http://homepage.mac.com/yurikosakamoto/rss.xml •

www.jedutainment.com/jedu/ (Ed Rooth)

Words spoken with a male voice (English) and a female voice (Japanese), along with background music. •

Japanese.libsyn.com

For beginners. He uses native Japanese speakers for the sample dialogues, etc. •

Nakama Vocabulary Video Podcast (Satoru Shinagawa)

See the English, then hear the Japanese. Even for those without a "pod" capable of playing video .mp4 files, these are useful if viewed online •

Talk Sushi - Learn Japanese

(Nick Kemp)

He has a native Japanese speaker on each show. Somewhat commercial, promoting services he sells. RSS = http://talksushi.libsyn.com/rss

• For Intermediate to Advanced Students •

voiceblog.jp/amane あまね☆ごえ

Female Voice: Not aimed at JSL students, but she has a beautiful voice and these are high quality short recordings. Good for repeated listenings. •

Nippon VoiceBlog

Apparently aimed at non-Japanese. Tanscriptions of the show are on the web site. (Not recently updated.) •

voiceblog.jp/reiki 櫻

怜祈（サクラ レイキ）

Female Voice: Not aimed at JSL students, but high quality recordings without background music, so good for language study. Sort of an audio diary. (Last updated on December 14, 2006) •

voiceblog.jp/taa 題名未定キャスト

Male Voice: Not aimed at JSL students, but includes a transcription. (Last updated: July 16, 2006, 7:00 pm) •

Japanese Classical Literature at Bedtime

RSS = http://jclab.wordpress.com/feed/ A list of directories with podcasts in Japanese Perhaps good to find conversational listening practice. •

www.voiceblog.jp

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blog.seesaa.jp/contents/genre/0271/0001.html

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pod.ladio.livedoor.com

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dedio.jp

Things to Listen to with Scripts These could be considered part of the above section as well. Streaming RealVideo News with the exact script of what the announcer says. •

Focus Tokushima

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www.fnn-news.com

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www.tv-tokyo.co.jp/biz

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news.tbs.co.jp/

Video news with the scripts paraphrased. (Not exact transcriptions.) •

headlines.yahoo.co.jp/videonews/

A collection of links to current news stories.

Things to Read with "Help" •

www.gonihongo.com (Mayumi Ishida)

Some reading material with some vocabulary help. •

Hiragana Times - Daily Lesson (In Hiragana)

It's also available in Romaji. •

チュウ太の読解教材 バンク (Kawamura, Kitamura & Hobara)

Things to read pre-made with "Reading Tutor." •

E-Kanji

Reading in a 3-part frame with clickable kanji that show the reading and English in another frame •

Kongetsu no Nihongo

24 Lessons with furigana as PDF files or Word files. •

Petit Kanji (Patrick Benny)

Song lyrics with furigana and clickable kanji to get meanings and other words with the same kanji. •

news.kids.yahoo.co.jp

News with furigana for all kanji. •

NOW OFFLINE: Mainichi Shimbun - ニュースの言葉 Part of "Mainichi Kids" so all kanji has furigana.

Things to Read

You could use some of the Tools to Help Read Japanese Web Pages listed above to help you read some of these pages. •

Aozora Bunko (青空文庫)

インターネットの電子図書館 / Free Electronic Texts •

e-bungeikan

•

Japanese Text Initiative

For example: Kappa (河童) •

Tiju's Notebook (H. Shinozaki)

Text archives •

Shiritsu PDD Toshokan (私立ＰＤＤ図書館)

The Private Public Domain Data Library •

電子化された日本語テキスト (M.Shibata)

Text archives •

Mini-collection of Modern Japanese Literature

Maintained for the programme of modern Japanese literature at the University of Calgary •

Bible in HTML

•

www.japanpen.or.jp - Novels, short stories, etc. PDF or HTML.

... •

Nihon Bunka Keyword Dictionary (Yoichi Sugiura and John K. Gillespie)

Parallel English and Japanese readings. (I had to pop the Japanese pages out of the frameset and manually set the encoding in order to read the Japanese.) •

な つかしい童謡・唱歌・わらべ歌・寮歌・民謡・歌謡

Songs that many Japanese know, along with MIDI files, so you can also learn the melodies. •

NewsManga.com

One disadvantage for lower-level students would be that they can't use tools like Rikaichan to help read the kanji, since the writing is all in images,

which also means they can't copy and paste unknown words into an online dictionary.

Video •

Video News from Japan o

ANN TV News via YouTube - Not quite "live," but they upload stories

several times an hour.

•

o

Asahi Shinbun via YouTube - Several videos a day.

o

Yomiuri Shimbun via YouTube - Several videos a day.

Japanese Study Videos

This is my blog of videos that I find on YouTube. Try it first, if you haven't been there yet. •

Basic Colors Video

See the kanji, listen to the pronunciation, see the colors, all to background music. •

One-minute Japanese: Animals

More English talking than Japanese, but ... •

The Planet Names in Japanese

QuickTime Movie: How to memorize the planet names in order. •

www.WeLoveJapanese.com

A few video clips of dialogs

Grammar Reference & Lessons •

Some Notes on Japanese Grammar (Keith Smillie) HTML Version with Kana and Kanji JapaneseGrammar.pdf (25 pages, in Romaji only)

•

Particles (Tamae K. Prindle)

Explanations. Sentence samples also have AIFF sound files.

•

Griffin University's Grammar Lessons

Basic Japanese grammar explained in English •

A Logical Japanese Grammar (Masahiko Satou) [Mirror Site]

Lessons on grammar. Also check out the Japanese Conjugation Builder (in Romaji). •

Nihongo Guide (Tae Kim)

Basic Grammar, Essential Grammar, Special Expressions, ... •

Nihongo o Narau - Grammar Lessons in Romaji (Domini Lyman)

Basic lessons up to things like: aka - akaku nai - akaku nakatta •

日本語教材の日本語駆け込み寺 (100% in Japanese)

.../dictionary/dictionary.html Check out the sentence examples. •

Visualizing Japanese Grammar (Shoko Hamano)

Click the image to watch and listen to a Flash movie. http://www.jgram.org/

Parts of the website require registering.

Lessons •

study.U-biq.org

Quite a few lessons in Hiragana and Romaji, for beginners (or review for others). •

www.japanese-nihongo.com - ËÌÅèÀéÄá»Ò¤ÎÆüËܸ춵¼¼

In HTML, Word Doc or PDF (RealAudio sound files, too.) •

AJALT's Survival Japanese

In Romaji. •

Fundamential Japanese Lessons (Charlotte Meyer)

There are 12 lessons which will take approximately 5 hours each.

•

Cornell University's Japanese Learning Materials (Yuka Kawasaki)

Hiragana, Katakana, Kanji (Gahoh Data), Listening, Reading, ... •

Nihongo Center - One Point Lessons (www.alc.co.jp)

Conversational skills, etc. Bilingual pages. •

Nihongo Shoho (Elementary Japanese Language) (Bernhard Garz)

34 lessons with MP3 files and vocabulary training. •

Sakura - Japanese On-line - Monash University

Exercises, Web Tasks & Links •

Pera-pera Penguin's 5-Minutes Japanese Class (Hitomi Hirayama)

Downloadable PDF files. (from the Daily Yomiuri). •

Maktos: Japanese is Possible (Jimmy Seal)

32 lessons in Romaji (2001) Also hosted on James Dunn's learnjapanese.elanguageschool.net •

Module 1: Japanese Home Stay (University of Alabama)

A "free" sample lesson •

Kana Quick and Dirty Guide to Japanese

By Tad Perry (1992), HTML by (John Teehan (1998), Kana by Andy Searls (2000) •

www.Japanese-online.com's Lessons

Introductory level. Sound files included. •

Info-Japan.com's Lessons

Introductory level. Grammar, proverbs, ... •

JinJapan.org's KidsWeb Language Lab

Basic; Hiragana Chart, Katakana Chart, Quick Kanji, 8 Lessons, Flash movies •

Japanese123 - Intermediate Japanese

There is other stuff on this website, too, but perhaps this is the best entry point for the website. •

www.speakrealjapanese.com

http://jplang.tufs.ac.jp/account/login

Dialogs can be listened to without logging in. (Tokyo University of Foreign Studies)

Study Kana (Hiragana & Katakana) •

Learn Those Kana (Larry Battle)

With audio. •

Wai Wai Nihongo (Ryutaro Toyoda)

HIragana games in Flash, plus more. (Voice recordings by Kaori Mizumoto) •

Moshi Moshi Student Activities - Requires the Shockwave plugin The Hiragana Song Hiragana Puzzle

•

Another Hiragana Song (nekopy.com)

•

The Fox's Ear: One character at a time explained to help you remember them all. Katakana Hiragana

•

Japanese Kana Quizzes (Charles Kelly) Multiple-choice quizzes & flashcards: Hiragana and Katakana. Requires Flash 6.

•

Zompist's Hiragana Flashcards

•

www.kanacards.com (Jonathan Stiles)

Flashcards and multiple-choice quizzes using the Flash plugin. •

KanaFlash (Tobias Gärder)

See the character, type in the Romaji (Hepburn?), then see if you got it right. •

Writing Hiragana & Katakana (a-chi.jp)

Flash movies of stroke order.

•

ChipChat Japanese Training (Marty Cawthon) Hiragana Drill and Katakana Drill. Requires Java.

•

Benjamin Barrett's Japanese Lesson Pages

Step by step through hiragana with appropriate vocabulary and a little kanji thrown in along the way. •

Okayama University - Hiragana and Katakana Practice

Some are multiple-choice with sound files, some are fill-in-the-blanks. •

Hiragana Challenge [Instructions] (Kazumi Hatasa)

Requires Shockwave. Remove all the Hiragana letters from the screen by clicking them in gojuuon order. •

Katakana Challenge [Instructions] (Kazumi Hatasa)

Requires Shockwave. Remove all the Katakana letters from the screen by clicking them in gojuuon order. •

Simple Hiragana (Taiji Hotta, Reiko Sato and Tomoko Watanabe)

Hiragana chart with WAV files, exercises on hiragana and vocabulary. Works even without a Japanese font installed. •

Hiragana Chart (with a man's voice) (www.tokyowithkids.com)

Click the hiragana to hear the pronunciation. Works even without a Japanese font installed. •

Normal Table of Japanese Hiragana with Speech (Rhonda Christensen)

man's voice using .au files. There is also a Katakana page, too. •

Hiragana Practice (with a woman's voice) (Kimi Furuta)

Click the hiragana to hear the pronunciation. Works even without a Japanese font installed. Includes non-repeating animated GIFs of stroke order. •

AIUEO Aoi (Yuko Horii Takekawa)

Hiragana practice with kids' voices. Looks similar to the "hiragana blocks" I had as a kid. •

Hiragana & Katakana Stroke Order (Satoru Shinagawa)

Uses Gahoh's QuickTime movies

•

Hiragana & Katakana Project (Yasuhiro Omoto)

Click to see stroke order. •

Teach Yourself Japanese (Shinji Takasugi)

Writing kana, also grammar and more. Try the Java Hiragana Flashcards. •

Java Game of Hiragana and Katakana (Shinji Takasugi)

Click the pair of hiragana and katakana which share pronunciation •

Image Version for Japanese Hiragana Characters with Speech (Jouji Miwa)

Click the character and hear a man's voice reading it to you. •

Kana Flashcards

Randomly shows hiragana images. Works even without a Japanese font installed. •

Hiragana & Katakana Concentration Games (Shunko Muroya)

This uses Dennie Hoopingarner's JavaScript code. •

Kana Helper (jeffmk [at] myrealbox.com)

A random character is chosen, then you click its reading on the kana chart. (Also reverse mode is available.) •

www.KanaChart.com (Casey Giles)

You can see images of katakana and hiragana. •

genki.japantimes.co.jp

Self study materials for the "Genki" textbook. •

Kana Game (Cathy DeMillion)

Requires Flash. See the English, click the kana for the word. (dangerous, red, bright, sweet, ...) •

Hiragana Barabara Game

See a hiragana character broken into pieces and try to guess which one it is. This is more difficult than you might expect.

Help with Writing Japanese

•

Learner's Conversion Dictionaries for Japanese Input Methods (Hatasa & Chung)

Helps write by catching common mistakes when inputting. (Mac or Windows)

Free Software - Various Platforms (Windows, Mac, ...) •

http://ichi2.net/anki/

•

Flashcards: Windows, Mac, Linux, FreeBSD

•

http://www.mnemosyne-proj.org/

•

Flashcard System+ Windows, Mac, Linux

•

http://www.tagaini.net/

•

Tagaini Jisho is a free, open-source Japanese dictionary and kanji lookup tool that is available for Windows, MacOS X and Linux

•

KDrill (Java, etc.)

•

Mayjay: Japanese-English Dictionary (Zig Zichterman)

Uses Java so works on Mac or Windows. (Freeware - GNU License) EDICT data.

Free Software - Windows •

http://zkanji.sourceforge.net/ (Sólyom Zoltán)

•

Windows Learning Tool and Kanji Lookup

•

Kanji Gold Flashcards (Denton Hewgill)

•

JFC - Japanese Flash Cards (Glenn Rosenthal)

•

Kanji Trainer Penpen (Alex Schonfeld)

A Tetris like (ie. things move and you can't stop them) matching game.

Basically, you have to match: kanji character + phonetic reading + English meaning. •

Vashon's Kana Study Aide (Kirkman Vashon)

A flashcard and multiple-choice quiz program. Requires Windows 95/98/2000/NT. •

DreamKana (James Brown)

Hiragana and katakana flash card application that does not require any special fonts or language packs. •

Free Software - Macintosh •

Kanji Invader for Nakama 1 & Nakama 2

Includes the complete kanji vocabulary sets for NAKAMA 1 &NAKAMA 2 (Makino, Hatasa &Hatasa, Houghton Mifflin) •

JFC - Japanese Flash Cards (Glenn Rosenthal & Da Woon Jung)

Things for Teachers •

Japanese Mosaic (uoregon.edu)

A collection of content-based curricular materials •

Minna no Kyouzai

Members only, but membership was free when I tried it. (Use a fake email address to avoid the possibility of spam.) •

ftp://ftp.cc.monash.edu.au/pub/nihongo/00INDEX.html

EDICT and many other files. •

MIT's Kanji Project

Build your own kanji study web pages using their materials. (For example: MIT Kanji Cards) Kanji data cards with QuickTime movies showing how to write them.

•

常用漢字確認ツール

This will show each non-Jouyou Kanji in red. •

The Royalty-free Photo Gallery for Japanese language Instruction (Hatasa)

•

幕末明治期日本語学関連電子テキスト (H. Kaneko)

会話書, 辞書

Online Tools •

Online KWIC Concordancers for Japanese Text o

•

Experimental; By Yasumasa Someya

Tanaka Corpus o

Be careful when using this. I've personally found many errors that I've reported and I would assume there are many other existing errors. Read this warning.

Online Dictionaries •

EDICT (Jim Breen's Japanese-English Dictionary) o

Jim Breen's WWWJDIC Server -Word Lookup

Search EDICT and various other dictionaries. Fast and clutter-free output. o

RomajiDesu.com/dictionary (Hai Bui Hoang)

You may type the word in Japanese, Hiragana, Romaji or English. Includes advertising. o

Japanese-English Dictionary Interface (JEDI) (Greg Peterson)

Fast, clutter-free output. o

JapaNod.com's Dictionary (Richard Moore)

o

Jeffrey's Japanese English Dictionary (Jeffrey Friedl) (If your computer doesn't use S-JIS, then back up the the main page.)



http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/jwb/je/tty/nocolor/sjis/dict



http://www.solon.org/cgi-bin/j-e/tty/nocolor/sjis/dict



http://rut.org/cgi-bin/j-e/tty/nocolor/sjis/dict



http://dict.regex.info/cgi-bin/j-e/tty/nocolor/sjis/dict



jLex

Uses Jim Breen's EDICT data, etc. and data from the old Tanaka Corpus apparently and not the updated Tatoeba.org version. (At least, when checked in 2011, Tatoeba.org wasn't being credited.) o

www.NihongoResources.com's "clutter-free" version

Also allows searching only within word types and substring searches. o

www.online-dictionary.biz/japanese/english/ www.online-dictionary.biz/english/japanese/

o

www.j-prep.net/reference/ - Free section of a commercial website.

o

www.Mahou.org/Dict

Does Romaji, too, though not always accurately, so be careful. o

www.freedict.com

Apparently uses a 2001 version of EDICT o

Kanjidict 1.7.1 (Joel Yliluoma)

It's a JE dictionary -- not (just?) a kanji dictionary. Uses EDICT (1994-2001) old data?

•

o

http://jisho.org/ (Website is named "Denshi Jisho") by Kim Ahlström

o

http://tangorin.com/ (G.Bober)

o

Bab.la Dictionaries: Japanese-English or English-Japanese

GigaDict.com's Japanese to Romaji Convertor 日本語よみかた大辞典です。(１

６０万項目) This does actual word lookups, so should be accurate.

•

www.KanjiNetworks.com (Lawrence J. Howell and Hikaru Morimoto)

It contains etymologies for the 1,945 joyo characters. Can be searched or browsed. •

http://japanese-dict.com/ o

This one has about 9,000 words, so it perhaps a good dictionary for browsing commonly-used vocabulary.

•

o

There is also a hangman game.

o

It includes Romaji as well.

Sanseido's EXCEED Dictionary o

Goo's Search Engine & Dictionary

Enter a word once, then you can either search for it in a dictionary (EiWa, WaEi or Kokugo) or on the Web. o •

•

InfoSeek's EXCEED Interface

Sanseido's Daily Concise Dictionary, Etc. o

www.sanseido.net

o

BigLobe's Interface

o

dic.yahoo.co.jp/bin/dsearch

Shogakukan's Dictionaries o

dic.yahoo.co.jp

Same search form for: プログレッシブ和�冀�辞典 | ニューセンチ ュリー和英辞典 | プログレッシブ�冢唾�辞典 | 新グローバル英和 辞典 o

dic.livedoor.com (Japan Knowledge)

Same search for for E=>J and J=>E. •

Kenkyusha's Dictionary o

dion.excite.co.jp

o

www.excite.co.jp

Requires an extra wait and another click. (The search only gives a list of words, so you need to click again.)

•

Nova's Dictionary

Must enter something into the EMAIL address space. A fake email address is OK. •

Babylon's English-Japanese

•

www.pi-ppa.com's J-E [E-J]

Cell-phone output. Romaji input or hiragana input. •

These are primarily English-Japanese Dictionaries o

http://www.alc.co.jp/

•

trans.glova.jp

•

Romanized Japanese-English Dictionary (Geo Hara)

All contents are in images, so you can't use "find" on a page to jump to words. •

英語表現事典

擬音 語・擬態語集：スペースアルク - Onomatopoeia Words

Japanese-Japanese •

gogen-allguide.com

Read about the backgrounds of words and where they came from (in Japanese).

Pages about Japanese •

Guide to the Japanese Writing System (Jack Halpern)

Outline of the Japanese writing system, morphology, kana and Romanization, ...

Things to Read for Motivation & Hints •

Kanji Clinic Articles (Mary Sisk Noguchi)

Previous Japan Times "Kanji Clinic" columns.

Online Translation Please remember that machine translation is not very accurate. •

•

•

Powered by Amikai o

alice-group.amikai.com

o

Excite's Online (Computer) Translation

o

www.nifty.com/globalgate/

o

www.ocn.ne.jp/translation/

o

www.so-net.ne.jp/translation/

o

www.infoseek.co.jp/Honyaku/

Powered by Systran o

world.altavista.com

o

www.systranbox.com/systran/box

Other o

www.j-server.com (Offline Nov. 1, 2003 when checked)

Get direct links to Japanese newspapers via j-server. o

www.brother.co.jp/jp/honyaku/demo/

o

www.worldlingo.com

Reference •

Counting Dictionary

Refer to this when you can't remember what "counter" to use in Japanese.

About Japan Not really language study, but studying culture is related. •

At Home in Japan

10 modules aimed at people doing homestays.

JLPT Study •

Yoshida Institute's Kanji Dictionary

This has Kanji listed for the (new) JLPT 5 Levels. •

www.speedanki.com

o •

•

http://www.speedanki.com/login.php

JLPT N3 at Mund-Tandem.com o

http://www.mund-tandem.com/study/japanese/jlpt/n3/vocabulary/

o

http://www.mund-tandem.com/study/japanese/jlpt/n3/kanji/

www.tanos.co.uk (Jonathan Waller) o

JLPT vocabulary radio

o

More "vocabulary list" Internet radio

o

http://www.tanos.co.uk/jlpt/skills/grammar/sentences/

Text-to-Speech (TTS) - Voice Synthesizers •

VDS Radio

You can see the Japanese text as you listen to the voice synthesizer read current news from an RSS feed. •

http://text-to-speech.imtranslator.net/ is an online Text-to-Speech generator

that does Japanese fairly accurately. It reads kanji, too. •

http://www.sp.nitech.ac.jp/demo/open_jtalk/index.php

Require Registration http://kanji.koohii.com/account/create (Remember the Kanji)

??

http://www.japanese-flashcards.com/ - fairly easy to use once you get used to all the popping up stuff.

More... •

http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/jpage2.html#links_education

The following are commercial websites http://www.kanjijourney.com/

Previously Featured Links •

For fun, see the bottom of this page: Text-to-Speech (TTS) - Voice Synthesizers

Names in Katanaka (name.reader.bz) Learn how to write your name and your friends' names in Japanese. Enter a "Gaijin" First Name (ファーストネーム)：

検索 (Search)

Previously featured •

Furigana Injector An extension for Firefox or Chrome. It's cool because you can include a list of kanji that you want it to ignore.

•

www.furiganizer.com Copy and paste in Japanese text, click the button, then see the same text with Furigana. (Furigana is Hiragana showing you how the Kanji is pronounced.)

•

Yoshida Institute's Kanji Dictionary This has Kanji listed for the (new) JLPT 5 Levels.

•

uPal: Associative Kanji Learning There are quizzes and sentence examples, too.

Visit These First

•

Rikaichan - A Firefox plugin. You can put your cursor over any Japanese

word on a webpage to get the reading and the English meaning. •

Learn the Japanese Kanji - A Java applet for browsing, quizzing, etc.

•

Free English-Japanese MP3 Files from www.goethe-verlag.com

•

WWWJDICT - Online Dictionary

Previous on "What's New" Perhaps these are also listed elsewhere on the page above. (2012-09-13) v2p.jp - Watch Japanese TV or Listen to Radio in Real Time

The framerate is a bit slow, but watchable. After downloading and installing the software (free, Mac, Windows, Linux), you'll see a selection of stations. テレビ朝日 / テレビ東京 / NHK / bayfm78 / etc. •

Basic Japanese Lessons (by Koh Kia Leng of Singapore)

I haven't really checked this site out yet. •

I noticed on June 30, 2011 that coscom.co.jp now has slowly spoken news with text.

•

o

日本の出来事

o

コラム

o

天気予報

Tagini Jisho (a free, open-source Japanese dictionary and kanji lookup tool

that is available for Windows, MacOS X and Linux) It's been around a while, but I noticed it wasn't listed here, so I added it June 30, 2011. •

MightyVerse's Japanese Sentences

Videos of People Saying (1,856) Japanese Sentences - Requires Flash •

cueflash.com/tags/japanese

You have to register to "study," but you can browse the lists without registering. (User submitted data.)

•

quizlet.com/subject/japanese

User submitted flashcard data, so possibly not proofread by a native speaker. o

TRY THIS: Go to one of the sets of Tatoeba.org Sentences, click the speaker icon and listen to how good the text-to-speech voices are.

•

AIJ FlashCard Program (Free) Mac or Windows

It's been around since 2007, but it's newly-listed here. •

Douglas P Perkins's Free Printable Kanji Flashcards

Kanji on one side, reading, and high frequency words on the other. •

japanese.nciku.com A dictionary, vocabulary lists, flashcards, etc. You don't need to become a member to use the site. japanese.nciku.com's Popular Vocabulary Lists

You can try the dictionary from here. 教育

Be patient, it may be a bit slow. •

Minna no Nihongo 1 and 2 Vocabulary Quizzes (Larry Battle)

•

KanjiDamage.com (Henri Servomaa)

Jump to Kanji Facts. Or jump to Start with the First Kanji.

はじめての方にも安心のマンツーマン英会話

•

•

•

•

•

•

• 産経オンライン英会話トップ > カリキュラム・教材 - 日常英会話 > 日常英会話 初級（CEFR A1）

カリキュラム・教材 •

体験レッスン

•

日常英会話

•

ビジネス英会話

•

TOEIC

•

フリートーク

常英会話 初級（CEFR A1）

【目的】 ・自己紹介や簡単なやりとり、依頼をするための表現を身につけ、 海外旅行先で一人で行動できるようになる。

【こんな方におすすめ】 ・旅行先では友人に頼りきり、なんとかしたい！ ・とにかく最初からやり直したい！ ・学生の時から英語が苦手 ・英語を話すことがほぼ初めて ・英語で答えようとしているのに、なぜかカタコトの日本語になる 【対象レベル】 ・初心者～英検3級、TOEIC(R）350点未満程度 【レッスン数、標準学習期間】 ・100レッスン 標準学習期間1年（1回25分、週2回受講の場合） 産経オンライン英会話では、月額プランを受講中のお客様向けにネイティブスピーカーによる、カリキュラムテキストの 音声ファイルをダウンロードできるサービスをご提供しております。 詳しくはこちら。

キストダウンロード レッスン No. Lesson1

このレッスンで学ぶこと あいさつ

今日のフレーズ/今日のトピック おはようございます。

Lesson2

元気です。

Lesson3

初めまして。

Lesson4 Lesson5

自分のことを話す、相手に 私は教師です。 尋ねる 私はイギリス出身です。

Lesson6

私の誕生日は5月17日です。

Lesson7

私には二人の姉（妹）がいます。

Lesson8

私はジャズが大好きです。

Lesson9

私はコーヒーを飲みません。

Lesson10

あなたはスポーツが好きですか。

Lesson11

私は映画を見るのが好きです。

Lesson12

私は運転できません。

Lesson13

遅れてすみません。

Lesson14

今日は暑いですね。

Lesson15

私は恥ずかしいです。

Lesson16

牛乳が欲しいです。

Lesson17

私は紅茶のほうが好きです。

Lesson18

私は皿洗いをしなければなりません。

Lesson19

他人について話す、尋ねる こちらは私の上司のブラウン氏です。

Lesson20

彼女は眼鏡をかけています。

Lesson21

彼はテレビを見ています。

Lesson22

彼は誰ですか？

Lesson23

彼女はどんな見た目ですか？

Lesson24

彼女はどんな人ですか？

Lesson25

彼女は黒い革のスカートと黄色のカーディガン を着ています。

GCAT受 験

Level1：自己紹介をし、簡単な質疑応答をする。

Lesson26

物について話す、尋ねる

私はあのシャツが欲しいです。

Lesson27

バスの中には3人います。

Lesson28

これはあなたのペンですか？

Lesson29

そのクリスマスツリーはとてもきれいです。

Lesson30

私の携帯電話はどこですか。

Lesson31

郵便局はどこですか。

Lesson32

そのCDはおいくらですか。

Lesson33 Lesson34

時間や日課について話す、 お店は何時に開きますか？ 尋ねる 私は6時半に起きます。

Lesson35

私は電車で仕事に行きます。

Lesson36

私はたいてい夜に英語を勉強します。

Lesson37

どれくらいの頻度で外食しますか？

Lesson38

何をしているんですか。

Lesson39

許可を求める

サラさんはいらっしゃいますか？

Lesson40

伝言を残してもいいですか？

Lesson41

煙草を吸ってもいいですか？

Lesson42

人に推し進める、行動を促 そこに座ってはいけません！

Lesson43

す

最初に行き先ボタンを押してください。

Lesson44

新しい電話を買うべきだよ。

Lesson45

彼女に指輪を買ってあげたら？

Lesson46

お皿を洗ってもらえますか？

Lesson47

あの箱をとっていただけますか？

Lesson48

もう一度言っていただけますか？

Lesson49

お水はいかがですか？

Lesson50

手伝ってほしいですか？

Lesson51

映画に行きませんか。

GCAT受 験

Level2：簡単な依頼や提案や忠告をする。

Lesson53

未来のことがらについて話 今日の午後はひまですか？ す、尋ねる 明日テニスをしますか？

Lesson54

明日は雨かもしれません。

Lesson55

過去のことがらについて話 彼女は昨日遅刻しました。 す、尋ねる 蛇が道にいました！

Lesson52

Lesson56 Lesson57

友達とフットサルをしました。

Lesson58

日曜日に泳ぎにいきました。

Lesson59

私は寝ていました。

Lesson60

彼が電話してきたとき私はテレビを観ていまし た。

Lesson61

私は東京で生まれました。

Lesson62

私は一人でオーストラリアに行きました。

Lesson63

私の友達が急に叫びました。

Lesson64

ボブは何でそのお店に行ったの？

Lesson65

彼女は月曜日から大阪にいます。

Lesson66

カナダに行ったことはありますか？

Lesson67

お皿洗いは終わりましたか？

Lesson68

物事を比較して話す

彼は私より背が低い。

Lesson69

移動遊園地（Fair）はテーマパークよりわくわ くする。

Lesson70

バチカンは一番小さい国です。

GCAT受 験

Level3：過去や未来のことを話す。比較する。

Lesson71

ホテルでの会話

チェックインしたいのですが。

Lesson72

グリルチキンディナーとコーヒーをいただきた いです。

Lesson73

部屋の水がでません。

Lesson74

鍵をなくしてしまいました。

Lesson75

荷物を取りに来てもらえますか？

Lesson76

チェックアウトをお願いします。

Lesson77

マッサージを予約したいです。

Lesson78

街中での会話

私は日本円をUSドルに両替したいです。

Lesson79

3時のツアーに参加されたいですか？

Lesson80

王宮にはどうすれば行けますか？

Lesson81

レンタカーをお借りしたいです。

Lesson82

ガソリンを満タンにして頂けますか？

Lesson83

これを日本に送るのにいくらかかりますか？

Lesson84

ライオンキングのチケットを2枚予約できます か？

Lesson85

このバスは駅に行きますか？

Lesson86

次の次の駅で降りてください。

Lesson87

レストランでの会話

禁煙席をお願いします。

Lesson88

シーザーサラダをお願いします。

Lesson89

コーヒーとツナサンドイッチをいただけますか ？

Lesson90

お勧めは何ですか？

Lesson91

チップをあげる必要がありますか？

Lesson92

ファーストフードでの会話

こちらで食べますかそれともお持ち帰りします か？

ショッピング、免税店での 私はスカーフを探しています。 会話 このジャケットを試着してもいいですか？

Lesson93 Lesson94 Lesson95

それは私には高すぎます。

Lesson96

パスポートを見せていただけますか？

Lesson97

トラベラーズチェックで支払ってもいいですか ？ 旅先での体調不良に対応す どうしたんですか？ る 頭痛薬が欲しいです。

Lesson98 Lesson99

Lesson100 旅の思い出について話す GCAT受 験

旅行はいかがでしたか？

Level4：海外旅行で簡単な会話をする。

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• • • • • • • Copyright (C) 2014 Sankei Human Learning Co.,Ltd.

Jim's Japanese Grammar Summary Introduction This summary of some basic Japanese grammar has been derived from the Japanese grammar text books that were used at Swinburne University when I was studying Japanese there in the 1980s. I copied these points into a small notebook to use as revision while travelling, etc.. I have decided to key them in and make them available as a WWW page which can supplement Keith Smillie's introduction to Japanese grammar. The summary starts with the assumption that the reader knows the basic sentence structure, etc. Each grammatical point is briefly outlined, then followed by one or more examples. There is quite a lot of kanji in the examples, so I have added furigana to the ones a beginner might not recognize. The Swinburne course never used romaji. (The astute reader will note a certain Australian bias in the examples.) Note that the nomenclature of the Swinburne course is retained, so you need to be aware that "adjectival nouns" are 形容動詞, i.e. what some people call "quasiadjectives", "na-adjectives" or "prenominal adjectives". Verbs are sometimes referred to as "Type I", i.e. 五段動詞 and "Type II", i.e. 一段動詞. Most of the nomenclature is self-evident. There is an appendix of the main verb inflections. Jim Breen, February 2001. DIFFER A differs from B A は／が B と違う （ちがう） example: 東京はメルボルンと違います。

LOCATION OF ACTION Location で verb example: 駅で田中さんを見ました。 example: どこで昼ご飯を食べましたか。 （ひるごはん） INSTRUMENT OF ACTION で also example: 毎日車で会社に行きます。 Note: You can add は or も to で in both of the above.) LET'S (DO SOMETHING) Verb in ましょう form example: テレビを見ましょう。 SHALL WE? Verb in ましょう form plus か example: ピクニクに行きましょうか。 SUPPOSE/MIGHT ~ でしょう （か） example: あの人はだれでしょうか。田中さんでしょう。 (Who might it be? I think it's Tanaka.) [Implies not 100% sure.] ADJECTIVE INFLECTION Here "R" means the unchanging portion of the adjective, i.e. the part before the "い". Present Affirmative

Rい

e.g. 白い

Past Affirmative

R かった

e.g. 難しかった （むずかしかった）

Present Negative

R くない

e.g. 面白くない （おもしろくない）

Past Negative

R なかった

よくなかった

ADVERB FORMATION (FROM ADJECTIVES) True adjectives:

R plus く

e.g. 早く

Adjectival nouns:

add に

e.g. 静かに （しずかに）

SOME CLASSIFIERS (OR COUNTERS)

Small animals

ひき （ぴき, びき）

匹

Cylindrical Objects

ほん （ぽん, ぼん）

本

Volumes (books, etc.)

さつ

冊

Footwear (pairs)

そく

足

Buildings (old)

けん （げん）

軒

Clothes, suits, etc.

ちゃく

着

Floors, levels

かい

階

Times (occurrences)

かい

回

People (*)

にん

人

Mechanical objects (cars, etc.)

だい

台

Flat objects (e.g. stamps)

まい

枚

Times, degrees

ど

度

(*) NB: 一人 and 二人 are said ひとり and ふたり respectively. SOME PRONOUN USAGE (also known as interrogative nouns) なにか something だれか someone どこか somewhere なにも nothing (*) だれも no-one (*) どこも nowhere (*) when used with negative verbs. (*) に, へ and で are retained before も, e.g. きのうどこへも行きませんでした。 USAGE OF ~て FORM •

connecting clauses, sentences, etc. 昨日、勉強してテレビを見ました。 （きのう, べんきょう）

•

implied reason, cause. 先生の声は小さくて、聞こえません。

•

emphasize order (with から) 勉強してから、テレビを見ます。

•

polite request. 窓を開けてください。 （まど）

•

progressive action.

今、何をしていますか。 •

state or condition

本を書いています。 PERMISSION Verb-て-form with もいいです（か） example: この本を読んでもいいですか。はい、読んでもいいです。 PROHIBITION Verb-て-form with はいけません example: 宿題をえんぴつで書いてはいけません。（しゅくだい） ATTEMPT AN ACTION Verb-て-form with みる example: スーパーでミルクを買ってみます。 ACTION TOWARDS/AWAY FROM SPEAKER Verb-て-form with くる／いく （来る／行く） example: 友達が訪ねてきました。 example: 電車に乗っていきました。 PURPOSE WITH MOTION Noun (Place) へ／に (N を) Verb (ます-stem) に Verb (motion). example: 大学の本屋へ、辞書を買いにいきます。 example: また遊びにきてください。 ANY~ WILL DO Anything will do - なんでもいいです。 Anytime will do - いつでもいいです。 Anywhere will do - どこでもいいです。 BUT & BECAUSE BETWEEN SENTENCES Use が & から

example: この辞書は安いですから、買いましょうか。 example: 来年日本に行きますから、今日本語を勉強しています。 example: この辞書はとても高いですが、買いました。 ALREADY & STILL/NOT YET もう (implies change) まだ (implies no change) example: 田中さんはもう帰りましたか。 • •

はい、もう帰りました。 いいえ、まだ帰りません。

NB: まだ should not be used with a past-tense copula/adjective/verb. In fact it can on occasions, e.g. "まだ中学校に通ったころ....", but learners need be careful. IT LOOKS TO ME.../I AM OF THE IMPRESSION Verb-stem/Adjective-stem/Adj-noun with そう example: 雨が降りそうです。 example: あそこは静かそうですね。 example: このケーキは美味しそうですね。（おいしい） ~NESS (largeness, blueness, etc.) Adj-stem/Adj-noun with さ example: 高さ example: 静かさ WAY/MANNER OF DOING VERB-ます-stem with かた example: この漢字の読みかたは何でしょうか。 DIRECT QUOTATION Quoted-person は／が／も quote と Reporting verb

example: 田中さんは「行きましょう」といいます。 Suitable verbs: 言う、聞く、書く、答える、頼む、呼ぶ INDIRECT QUOTATION/REPORTING Quote in plain sentences example: 田中さんは今朝八時ごろ起きたと言いました。 FEELINGS/OPINIONS Plain with と思う example: 本田さんはあした来ると思います。 HEARSAY Plain with そうです。 example: あの車は高いそうです。 ACCORDING TO ... Noun によると ..... example: 新聞によると ..... NEGATIVE て FORM ~ない becomes ~なくて Reason/Cause Permission MUST (STRONG) Negative て with はいけません。 example: 薬を飲まなくてはいけません。（くすり） PLEASE DON'T Verb (plain, neg) でください

example: 窓を開ないでください。 example: クラスを休まないでください。 IF/WHEN .... ~たら, i.e. verb (plain, past) or adjective with ら example: 漢字の辞書が安かったら、日本で買います。 WHEN ... OCCURRED 家へ帰ったら、子供がもう寝ていました。 HOW ABOUT ..../WOULD YOU LIKE ~たらいかが... or ~たらどう... example: あしたゴルフをしたらどうですか。 example: このワインをすこし飲んだらいかがでしょうか。 SUCH THINGS AS .... ~たり ~たりする example: 来週は本を読んだりテレビを見たりします。 example: メルボルンの夏は暑かったり寒かったりします。 RELATIVE CLAUSES Clause (plain) & noun example: 一百年前小さかった町は、今大きくなりました。 DURING/BEFORE/AFTER During: ~の時 Before: ~の前 After: ~の後 （あと） example: 大学の時ピアノを止めました。 example: ヨーロッパに行く前、フランス語を習いました。 example: 大学を卒業した後何をしますか。 MORE ~ / ~ER (i.e. comparative) - adjectives

Implicit : もっと example: もっと大きい人参がありますか。（にんじん） example: でも、トニーさんはもっと高い車を買ったそうです。 Explicit (question): ... どちらのほうが ... (also どっち、どれ、だれ、etc.) example: 東京とメルボルンとどちらのほうが大きいですか。 Explicit (statement): Noun-1 より Noun-2 のほうが adjective example: メルボルンより東京のほうが大きいです。 (The より means "than" in this situation.) MOST ~ / ~EST (i.e. superlative) generally いちばん plus adj or adv example: いちばん大きいパイナップルをください。 example: Q: 東京とメルボルンとロンドンとどこがいちばん大きいですか 。A:ロンドンがいちばん大きいと思います。 AMONGST 中では example: Q: ヨーロッパの国の中では、どこがいちばん大きいですか。A: ロシアがいちばん大きいでしょう。 MORE~ / ~ER (adverbs Qualitative: もっと example: あしたもっと早く帰ります。 Quantitative: もう example: もうすこし食べてください。 Explicit comparison: より or のほう

example: Q: スミスさんと田中さんとどちらのほうが早く帰りますか。 A: 田中さんのほうが早く帰ります。 (However it is 田中さんはスミスさんよ り早く帰ります。) ~ING (i.e. nominalization of verbs) add の to the plain form, giving 行くの、食べるの、etc. example: はしで食べるのはもっとむずかしいと思います。 (NB: the の is sometimes dropped, e.g. in answers to questions.) example: Q: 本を読むのと映画（えいが）を見るのとどちらのほうが面白 い（おもしろい）ですか。 A: ［本を読む（の）より］映画を見るほうが 面白いです。 YOU'D BETTER .../HE'D BETTER ... Verb (plain, past) ほうがいい .... example: フォークで食べたほうがいいですよ。 ... BETTER NOT Verb (plain, pres., neg.) ほうがいい .... example: 今日は外へ出ないほうがいいでしょう。 example: はしで食べな いほうがいいですよ。 WANT TO ... Verb (masu-stem) plus たい or がほしい／がほしくない example: 日本へ行きたいです。 example: 車が買いたいです。 example: 新しい車がほしいです。 example: アメリカへ行きたくなかったですよ。 NB: for a 3rd person, add ~がる (i.e. making たがる, ほしがる, etc.) Note that this forms a transitive verb.

example: 娘（むすめ）は新しい車をほしがっています。 example: 息子（むすこ）は本を買いたがっています。 ~ MATTER Verb or adj. plus こと NB: こと is more abstract than もの （者、物） example: おもしろいこと。 ABLE TO DO SOMETHING Verb (plain) ことができる。 example: 漢字を読むことができません。 MIGHT Verb (plain) かもしれない／かもしれません example: 山田さんは明日来るかもしれません。 example: ブラウンさんは日本へ行かなかったかもしれません。 EXPLANATION/EMPHASIS/CORRECTION (a) for a verb, use verb のです or んです (b) for a noun, use noun なんです example: あしたテストがあるんですよ。 (explanation) example: 本当に（ほんとう）分からないんです。 (emphasis) example: 道の真中（まんなか）で遊ばないんですよ。 (admonition) BECAUSE ので, or often から when spoken example: 山口さんは真面目（まじめ）なので、よく勉強します。 (note the "なので") example: 雨が降っているので寒いです。 WHILE (simultaneous action [by subject]) Verb (masu-stem) ながら

example: 歩きながら歌ってください。 example: テレビを見ながら勉強しました。 INTENTION (I intend ..., I am thinking of ...) ... verb-おう form or よう plus と思う example: 新しい車を買おうと思っています。 ABOUT TO .... ... verb-おう form or よう plus とする example: 映画は始まろうとしています。 WHEN I WAS ABOUT TO .... ... verb-おう form or よう plus とする時 example: 帰ろうとした時、国際（こくさい）電話がかかってきました。 (FIRM) INTENTION Verb (plain) つもりです。 example: その小説（しょうせつ）を読むつもりです。 EXPECTED ../DUE TO ../OUGHT TO ... Verb (plain) はずです。 example: 田中さんはあした来るはずです。 example: このケーキは美味しいはずです。 example: あれは山口さんの車のはずです。 IF .../PROVIDED THAT ... Use the ~ば form (adj: ければ, neg. verb: なければ added to the plain negative stem) MUST DO ../HAS TO DO Use the negative ば form above with ならない／なりません, or with いけ ない/いけません.

example: あした銀行へ行かなければなりません。 example: 毎日漢字を勉強しなければなりません。 Although virtually interchangeable, いけない/いけません carries a stronger sense of obligation than なりません. DO YOU EVER ...?/I OCCASIONALLY ... Verb (pres. aff.) ことがある example: オペラを聞くことがありますか。 example: 田中さんはレストランで食べることがあるかもしれません。 HAVE YOU EVER ...?/I HAVE OCCASIONALLY (NEVER) .. Verb (past. aff.)ことがある example: 日本へ行ったことがありますか。 example: 日本へ行ったことがありません。 example: 刺身（さしみ）を食べたことがあります。 ABLE TO DO SOMETHING Verb in ~える form - Gr I: ~う to ~える, ~く to ~ける, ~す to ~せる, etc. - GR II: ~る to ~られる (e.g. 食べる to 食べられる) - する to できる, 来る to 来られる（こられる） NB: these all for intransitive verbs. example: 新しい車が買えません。 example: パーティーに行けません。 SEEMS ../LIKE .../AS IF よう／ように／ような example: この問題はちょっと難しい（むずかしい）ようですね。 example: トニーさんはスーパーマンのような人です。 example: トニーさんはカステラさんのように走ります。（はしる）

SO THAT ../IN ORDER TO... Verb (plain) ように example: 雨が入らないように窓を閉めてください。（まど） example: 漢字を覚えるように毎日勉強しなければなりません。（おぼえる ） WARN .../TELL HER(HIM)../I ASKED HIM TO ... i.e. reported requests ~ように plus a reporting verb example: 五分ぐらい待つようにあの人に言ってください。 example: お菓子（おかし）を買うように主人に頼みました。（たのむ） TRY .../MAKE AN EFFORT TO ... ~ようにする example: これからはもっと早く来るようにしてください。 example: タバコは一日１０本以上は吸わないようにしています。（すう） NOW ABLE TO ../FINALLY .. Verb ようになる (implies change of state over a period of time) example: 三年ぐらい勉強してから日本語が話せるようになります。 example: 隣（となり）の赤ちゃんは、歩けるようになります。 (PASSIVE) WAS .../IS .... Verb (neg. base) plus •

れる (Grp I)

•

られる (Grp II)

される、こられる (Grp III) example: (active) 子供が水を飲みました。 example: (passive) 水が子供に飲まれました。

example: この本は外国人によく読まれているそうです。 example: 赤ワインより白いワインのほうがよく飲まれています。 NB: often implies adverse situation (uses を) example: 泥棒に財布を盗まれたんです。 example: 隣の赤ちゃんに泣かれて、ぜんぜん眠れませんでした。 WAS MADE TO.../IS ALLOWED TO ... (causative passive) Verb (caus. base) られる (~せられる) e.g.: • • •

食べさせられる。 飲ませられる。 させられる

Usage: Made が (maker に) object を Verb (causative passive) example: 小さい時母によく買い物に行かせられました。 HONORIFIC & HUMBLE VERBS -

HONORIFIC

HUMBLE

To go

いらっしゃる

まいる

To come

いらっしゃる

まいる

To be

いらっしゃる

おる

To eat

めしあがる

-

To drink (smoke?)

めしあがる

-

To say

おっしゃる

もうす

To do

なさる

いたす

To see, look

ごらんになる

-

To know

ごぞんじ（です）

ぞんじる

Others

おVerb(masu stem)にな る

おVerb(masu stem)をする (only for someone)

Honorific examples: • • • • • •

どうぞこちらへいらっしゃってください。 もう少しめしあがってください。 今、何とおっしゃいましたか。 心配なさらないでください。 よくごらんになってください。 いつお帰りになりますか。

Humble examples: • • • • • • •

何時にまいりましょうか。 ちょっと困っております。（こまる） ご紹介いたします。（しょうかい） そのことはぞんじていますが.... ブリーンと申します。（もうす） お荷物をお持ちしましょうか。 この洋服は八千円でございます。

GIVING Donor が recipient に object を あげる／さしあげる／やる Verb depends on the recipient's status with respect to the donor: •

Higher: さしあげる

•

Equal or neutral: あげる

•

Lower: やる (usage now obsolete)

example: 私は先生に本をさしあげました。 example: 私は犬に肉をやりました。 example: 私はトムに本をあげました。 RECEIVING Recipient が donor に／から object を もらう／いただく •

Higher status donor: いただく

•

Equal or lower status donor: もらう

example: 私は先生に本をいただきました。 example: トムさんがメリーに本をもらいました。 GIVING TO EGO (self, family, in-group) Donor が recipient に object を くれる／くださる (higher status donor: くださる, equal: くれる) example: トムさんが私にペンをくれました。 example: 先生が私に本をくださいました。 GIVING/RECEIVING ACTIONS Action-verb(te-form) plus giving/receiving verb implies a favour example: 私は先生に本を買ってさしあげます。 example: 私は先生に本を買っていただきました。 example: トムはメリーに本を買ってもらいました。 example: 荷物を持ってくださいませんか。 example: それを先生が教えくださいましたか。 example: 山下さんにお金を払ってもらいました。 POLITE REQUEST Verb(te-form) plus: •

ほしい (expected)

•

もらいたい (favour from equal)

•

いただきたい (favour from superior)

example: この作文を直していただきたいんですが....（さくぶん、なおす ） example: 明日までに宿題を出してほしいです。 example: アンさんに本屋へ行く道を教えてもらいたいです。 EVEN POLITER REQUEST (WON'T YOU BE ABLE TO ....?) Use potential form: もらえる／いただける

example: それを英語で書いてもらえませんか。 example: 来週の宿題を手伝っていただけませんか。 VERY POLITE PERMISSION Causative-te form with いただく／もらう example: 明日は休ませていただきますか。 example: この手紙を読ませてもらってもいいですか。 ONLY/MERELY/SIMPLY (emphasizes the smallness of amount/quantity) Noun/numeral しか verb(negative) example: 日本語を勉強する学生は五人しかいません。 example: レコードを一枚しか買いませんでした。 ONLY (EXACTLY AND NO MORE) Noun/numeral だけ verb(affirmative) NB: しか and だけ together combines smallness and exactness example: 会話のクラスにアンさんだけしか来ませんでした。 EXTENT/ABOUT~ ほど (more exact than ぐらい) example: 十分ほど待ちました。 (i.e. up to 10 min) NOT AS LARGE/NOT AS SMALL/ETC. Noun-1 は noun-2 ほど negative adjective/adverb/copula example: メルボルンの人口は東京ほど多くありません。 UNCHANGED CONDITION まま (treat as noun, usually omit following particle) example: 車は買いましたが使わないので新しいままです。 example: 電気ストーブをつけたまま（で）寝てしまいました。

EVEN THOUGH/EVEN IF Adj./Verb/Copula -ても in contrastive sentences example: この辞書は高くても買わなければなりません。 HOWEVER MUCH/HOWEVER OFTEN なんど／いくら／etc. plus expression-ても example: この漢字いくら勉強しても覚えられません。（おぼえる） example: お金がないから、この辞書はいくら安くても買えません。 IN SPITE OF../ALTHOUGH.. Sentence のに example: ミーティングが始まるのに、まだだれも来ていません。 example: 明日はテストなのに、まだ準備ができていません。（じゅんび） ACTION IN ADVANCE OF NEED Verb-て-form plus おく example: 来週テストがありますから、よく勉強しておいてください。 example: 何か食べておいたほうがいいですよ。 example: ヒーターを点けておきました。（つける） COMPLETE ACTION Verb-て-form plus しまう example: ビールは飲んでしまいました。 example: バスは行ってしまいました。 example: 田中さんは三時に帰えってしまいました。 (Can have a nuance of apology.) REASON/IT IS NOT THAT.../I DON'T MEAN TO SAY THAT... Subject plus わけではありません。 example: 嫌いなわけではないけれど、お米をあまり食べません。（きらい ）

IT IS NOT POSSIBLE/I CANNOT POSSIBLY.. Verb(plain, pres. aff.) わけに（は）いません。 example: お金をもらうわけには行きません。 まだ子供達が学校に行っていますから、仕事を止めるわけにいません。 HAVING TO DO .. Verb(pres. neg.) わけにはいきません。 (Softer than ~なければなりません。) example: この辞書は高いですけれども、買わないわけにいきません。 COMPLETED ACTION Transitive-verb-て-form plus ある Intransitive-verb-て-form plus いる (Transitive-verb-て-form plus いる implies continuous action) example: 窓が開いています。 example: 窓が開けてあります。 PERFORM ACTION AND RETURN Verb-て-form plus くる example: 行ってきます。 キャベツを一つ買ってください。 example: 時間がありますから、その公園をちょっと歩いてきます 。 PROGRESSIVE CHANGE Verb-て-form plus いく／くる (In the past: くる, in the future いく) example: あの人はだんだん変わってきました。 example: これからも変わっていくかもしれません。 example: この町も大部賑やかになってきましたね。 example: これからますます賑やかになっていくと思います。 INTERROGATIVE CLAUSES Subject plus か (or interrogative verb plus か)

example: 椅子がいくつあるか知っていますか。（いす） example: 誰が来るかきいてみましょう。 example: 日本語のテストはどこで買えるか教えてください。 example: 主人はいつ帰えってくるか知りませんか。 WHETHER ... WHETHER/ WHETHER OR NOT Subject-1 か subject-2 か (with negative verb) example: スーさんはパーティーにくるかこないか知りません。 example: 田中さんが背が高いか低いかわかりません。（せがたかい、ひく い） example: かれは学生か先生かわかりません。 Also Subject-1 かどうか (with negative verb) example: 田中さんが背が高いかどうかわかりません。 example: 日本語は難しいかどうか（は）わかりません。 EXCESS IN ACTION OR STATE Verb-masu-stem/Adjective-base/Adj-noun plus すぎる example: ちょっと食べすぎましたから、お腹が痛くなりました。（おなか 、いたい） example: この家は狭すぎるので、引っ越したいと思っているんです。（せ まい、ひっこす） BEGINNING/END OF ACTION Verb-masu-stem plus はじめる／おわる example: 田中さんは新聞を読みはじました。 example: 山田さんはコーヒーを飲みおわりました。 example: もうそその論文を書きおわりましたか。 PERSONAL DECISION Verb(plain) plus ことにする DECISION BY OTHERS

Verb(plain) plus ことになる example: 毎日漢字を十ぐらい覚えることにしました。 example: 夏休みにシドニーへ行くことにしました。 example: 本店は、来年の二月から大阪に移ることになりました。（うつる ） AND/WHAT'S MORE/IN ADDITION Clause plus し example: この窓から海も見えるし山も見えます。 example: 田中さんは頭もいいし、運動もよくできます。 example: この辺は静かだし、交通も便利です。（しずか、こうつう、べん り） WHEN/WHENEVER Action/state sentence plus と plus logical consequence statement example: 日本は冬になると寒くなります。 example: トニーさんは、お昼になると、いつも新聞を買いに行きます。 example: 犬の声を聞くと、泥坊が逃げました。（どろぼう、にげる） ACTION JUST ABOUT TO START OR JUST FINISHED Start: Verb(plain, present) ところ Finish: Verb(plain, past) ところ example: 今手紙を書くところです。 example: 今店を閉めたところです。 example: 今仕事が終わったところです。 BASIS FOR SUBJECTIVE EVALUATION OF SITUATION ...ところをみると.... example: 田中さんが何も言わないところをみると、英語がわからない（の ）かもしれません。

NUANCE OF LARGER THAN USUAL QUANTITY (IMPLY SURPRISE) Quantity も example: 家が三げんも焼けてしまいました。 example: 一軒の家に車が三台もあります。 MANY/EXAGGERATION Interrogative noun plus も example: あの人は何度も同じことを言うんです。 example: 漢字を一年に何百字も覚えなければなりません。 example: ウイスキーを何杯も飲んだそうです。 TO RANGE OR EXTEND OVER/TO COVER ~わたる （わたる means to cross over） example: 月曜日から金曜日までにわたって、会議が行われた。 CONCERNING/CONNECTED WITH ~に関する （かんする） example: その本にオーストラリアの憲法に関する記事がのっている。（け んぽう、きじ） USE OF ~ながら a. while: テレビを見ながら勉強するのはよくない。 b. from birth: 彼は生まれながらの科学者だ。 （かがくしゃ） c. although: 残念ながら、コンサートの切符はもう売り切れた。（ざん ねん、きっぷ） d. as always: いつもながら忙しい。 USE OF ~によって a. depending on: そのレストランのメニュー日によって違う。 b. in accordance with: 天皇の仕事は内閣の助言によって行われる。（ ないかく、じょげん）

c. by means of: 国民の代表者は選挙によって選ばれる。（だいひょう しゃ、せんきょ）

APPENDIX: VERB TABLE (NB: the Group 1, 2, 3 labels are what was used at Swinburne. Many texts use other grouping and labels.) GROUP_O MASU PRES_N NE----EG-

TE-- BA-- OU/O ----O--

PASSIV E---

CAUSAT IMPE IVE R.

~う e.g. 思 思いま う 思わない 思った す （おもう）

思っ 思え 思お て ば う

思われ る

思わせる

思え

~く e.g. 開 く （あく）

開きま 開かない 開いた す

開い 開け 開こ て ば う

開かれ る*

開かせる *

開け

~ぐ - 泳ぐ 泳ぎま 泳がない 泳いだ （およぐ） す

泳い 泳げ 泳ご で ば う

泳がれ る

泳がせる

泳げ

~す e.g. 話 話しま す 話さない 話した す （はなす）

話し 話せ 話そ て ば う

話され る

話させる

話せ

~つ e.g. 持 つ （もつ）

持ちま 持たない 持った す

持っ 持て 持と て ば う

持たれ る

持たせる

持て

~ぬ e.g. 死 ぬ （しぬ）

死にま 死なない 死んだ す

死ん 死ね 死の で ば う

死なれ る

死なせる

死ね

~ぶ e.g. 遊 遊びま ぶ 遊ばない 遊んだ す （あそぶ）

遊ん 遊べ 遊ぼ で ば う

遊ばれ る

遊ばせる

遊べ

~む e.g. 読 む （よむ）

読みま 読みない 読んだ す

読ん 読め 読も で ば う

読まれ る

読ませる

読め

~る e.g. 降 る （ふる）

降りま 降らない 降った す

降っ 降れ 降ろ て ば う

降られ る

降らせる

降れ

GROUP

-

-

-

-

-

-

PAST_ PL.

-

-

-

TWO ~eる e.g. 開 開けま 開けない 開けた ける す （あける）

開け 開け 開け て れば よう

開けら れる

開けさせ る

開け ろ

GROUP THREE

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

する

します しない

した

して

すれ しよ ば う

される

させる

しろ

くる （来る）

きます こない

きた

きて

くれ こよ ば う

こられ る

こさせる

こい

-

-

September 2000 Some Notes on Japanese Grammar Keith Smillie Deartment of Computing Science University of Alberta Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2H1 [email protected]

No claim is made for either originality or completeness in these notes. Most of the examples have been taken from, or have been suggested by, the references given at the end. The topics chosen are those which may benefit a person who is beginning to study Japanese and who would like a quick reference to supplement more complete and authoritative sources. Table of Contents Word Order

Giving and receiving

Nouns

Starting an action

Pronouns

Nominalization

Demonstratives and Interrogatives

Adjectives

Particles

Describing nouns

Verbs

Adverbs

Introduction

Comparisons

Present and past polite forms

Numbers

Expressing "to be"

Specific Time

Uses of desh�

Relative Time

Present and past plain forms

Counters

The gerund or -te form

Calendar

Progressive tense

Family

Desiderative form

Acknowledgements

Passive form

References

Causative form

Appendix. A few verbs

Conditional form

Word Order Japanese is a Subject-Object-Verb language as compared with English which is a Subject-Verb-Object language. Torako wa neko desu. Torako is a cat. (Literally, "Torako as for cat is.") Torako ga nezumi o mimashita. Torako saw a mouse (Literally, "Torako [subject] mouse [object] saw.") A sentence is made into a question by placing the particle ka at the end. Torako ga nezumi o mimashita ka. Did Torako see a mouse?

Nouns Japanese nouns do not have gender, they may not be modified by definite or indefinite articles because none exist in Japanese, and the singular and plural forms are usually the same. In romaji the names of persons and places are capitalized as are the names of languages except English (eigo). hon book, books, a book, the book, the books

For nouns referring to people, the suffix -tachi may be used to indicate the plural. kodomo child, children kodomotachi children Tanaka san tachi Mr. Tanaka and his family or others Japanese give the family name first followed by the given name. Tanaka Hiromi Hiromi Tanaka The suffix -ya means the store where the objects are sold or the person who sells them. The suffix -ka means a person who is is an expert or specialist in the designated subject. hana flower hanaya flower shop, florist niku meat nikuya butcher shop, butcher shisetsu novel shisetsuka novelist When referring to a clerk or shopkeeper, the honorific san is used. honya san bookstore clerk, bookseller Two nouns used together as a compound noun are joined by the particle no. nihongo no kurasu Japanese language class apato no biru apartment building

Pronouns watashi I, me

watashitachi we, us

anata you

anatatachi you

kare he, him

karera they, them

kanojo she, her

kanojotachi they, them

ano hito that person

ano hitotachi those persons

Avoid using anata whenever possible, and use the person's name with san instead. Similarly, when referring to a third person, use the person's name. Sumisu san wa eigo o mimashita ka. Did you (Mr. Smith) see the movie? Tanaka san wa nani o kaimashita ka. What did she (Mrs. Tanaka) buy? The indefinite pronouns are the following: dareka someone daremo no one doreka something doremo nothing dokaka somewhere dokomo nowhere nanika something nanimo nothing ikuraka some, a little ikuramo not much nandemo anything nannimoVnothing The negative indefinite pronouns take a negative verb. Dareka kimashita. Someone came. Daremo kimasen deshita. No one came. The one reflexive pronoun is jibun (myself, yourself, etc.). Jibun de hatarakimasu. I am working by myself. There are no relative pronouns in Japanese, and the relative clause precedes the word it modifies. Asoko ni suwatte iru wakai josei wa musume desu. That young lady sitting over there is my daughter.

Demonstratives and Interrogatives The demonstrative and iterrogative words, which are either pronouns, adjectives or adverbs, may be divided into four groups depending on the prefix: ko- Something near the speaker. so- Something nearer the listener than the speaker. a- Something at a distance from both speaker and listener. do- Question kore this one sore that one are that one dore which one kono this sono that ano that dono which konna this kind of sonna that kind of anna that kind of donna what kind of k� in this manner s� in that manner � in that manner d� in which way koko here soko there asoko over there doko where kochira this way sochira that way achira that way dochira which way Other interrogative pronouns are the following: dare who nan, nani what nannin how many people ikura how much ikutsu how many itsu when d�shite why

Particles wa Topic

Y�ko san wa daigakuin no gakusei desu. Y�ko is a graduate student. (Literally, "As for Y�ko, she is a graduate student.") ga Subject Watashi wa sushi ga suki desu. I like sushi. (Literally, As for me, sushi is likeable.") o Direct object Torako wa kasasagi o mite imasu. Torako is looking at the magpie. no Possession, noun modification, apposition Simon wa musume no neko desu. Simon is my daughter's cat. Nihon no tabemono wa oishii desu. Japanese food is delicious. Tomodachi no Tanaka san wa sensei desu. My friend Mr. Tanaka is a teacher. ni object, location, direction, specific time Watashi wa Tanaka san ni hon o kasimashita. I loaned Mr. Tanaka a book. Hiromi san wa T�ky� ni imasu. Hiromi is in Tokyo. Kin� watashi wa hayaku uchi ni kaerimashita. Yesterday I went home early. gogo j�ji at 10 p.m. ninichiy�bi ni on Sunday

shichigatsu ni in July 1998 nen ni in 1998 de Place of action, means, total, material Watashi wa honya de hon o sansatsu kaimashita. I bought three books at the bookstore. Tanaka san wa basu de kaisha ni ikimasu. Mr. Tanaka goes to the office by bus. Ashita eiga ni futari de ikimasu. Tomorrow the two of us are going to a movie. T�buru wa ki de dekite imasu. The table is made of wood. e Direction Nihon e ikimasu ka. Are you going to Japan? kara Origin, starting time Ano hito wa Nihon kara kimashita. He is from Japan. Dep�to wa j�ji kara desu. The department store opens at 10:00 o'clock. made Target time Dep�to wa rokuji made desu.? The department store closes at 6:00 o'clock. Dep�to wa j�ji kara rokuji made desu. The department store is open from 10:00 o'clock until 6:00 o'clock.

mo Also, both ... and, neither ... nor Watashi wa ocha ga suki desu. Kohii mo suki desu. I like tea. I also like coffee. Ocha mo kohii mo nomimasu. I drink both tea and coffee. Ocha mo kohii mo nomimasen. I drink neither tea nor coffee. to Complete listing (and), involvement Sono gakusei wa pen to enpitsu o motte imasu. That student has a pen and a pencil. Watashi wa yoku tomodachi to hirugohan o tabemasu. I often have lunch with my friends. ya Partial listing (and) Watashitachi wa Ky�to ya �saka (nado) e ikimashita. We went to Kyoto, Osaka, etc. ga but Tanaka san wa kimasu ga, Watanabe san wa kimasen. Mr. Tanaka is coming, but Mr. Watanabe isn't. ka Enumeration (or) Ocha ka k�h� ikaga desu ka. How about tea or coffee? kara Reason Isogashii kara, eiga ni ikimasen deshita. Because I was busy, I didn't go to the movie. nagara Simultaneous action Aruki nagara, mondai ni tsuite kangaemashita. While walking, I thought about the problem. ka Question marker Gakusei desu ka. Are you a student?

ne Confirmation Gakusei desu ne. You are a student, aren't you? yo Emphasis Gakusei desu yo. So you're a student!

Verbs Introduction Japanese verbs do not have different forms for person, number or gender. Verbs are listed in what is known as the "dictionary" or "plain" form. All Japanese verbs, except for two irregular verbs, can be divided into two groups or conjugations which differ only in the way in which they form their stems and infinitives. The stem may change or have a suffix added to show tense, mood and politeness. Type I or Group 1 verbs are all verbs whose dictionary form does not end in eru or -iru, together with a few which have these endings. The stem is formed by dropping the final -u; the infinitive is formed by adding -i to the stem. Type I verbs are also called consonant or c-stem verbs or u-stem or u-dropping verbs.

Dictionary Stem Infinitive Meaning kaku kak- kaki- to write iku ik- iki- to go yomu yom- yomi- to read matsu mat- machi- to wait hanasu hanas- hanashi- to speak omou omo- omoi- to believe Verbs ending in -au, -iu and -ou are considered to be c-stem verbs as they formerly ended in -awa, -iwa and -owa, respectively.

Type II or Group 2 verbs, a much smaller group than the first, are most of the verbs which end in -eru or -iru in the dictionary form. The stem is formed by dropping the final -ru; the infinitive is the same as the stem. Type II verbs are also called vowel or v-stem verbs or ru-dropping verbs.

Dictionary Stem Infinitive Meaning hajimeru hajime- hajime- to begin miru mi- mi-

to see, to look at

taberu tabe- tabe- to eat The two irregular verbs, sometimes known as Type III or Group 3 verbs, are kuru and suru.

Dictionary Stem Infinitive Meaning kuru ki- ki- to come suru shi- shi- to do

Present and past polite forms To form the present polite form add -masu to the infinitive for the positive and masen for the negative. For the past polite form add -mashita to the infinitive for the positive and -masen deshita for the negative. Tokidoki eiga o mimasu. I sometimes watch movies. Takahashi san wa sakana o tabemasen. Ms. Takahashi doesn't eat fish. Mainichi kanji no benky� o shimashita ga, sugu wasuremashita. I studied kanji every day, but I soon forgot them.

Ichi-jikan machimashita ga, tomodachi wa kimasen deshita. I waited an hour, but my friend didn't come. Expressing "to be" The meaning "is" or "are" may be expressed by the copula desu, and by the verbs arimasu and imasu. The copula desu is used when one thing is, or equals, another; arimasu refers to the existence of inanimate objects (including plants, which don't move about); and imasu refers to the existence of animate objects. The negative of desu is dewa arimasen or ja arimasen or dewa nai desu or ja nai desu. When describing the location of something, ni arimasu can often be replaced by desu. The verb arimasu can often be translated as "there is", "are" or "have". Koko wa Yokahama eki desu. This is Yokahama station. Kissaten wa gink� to �binkyoku no aida ni arimasu. The coffee shop is between the bank and the post office. Watanabe san wa doko ni imasu ka. Where's Mr. Watanabe? Gink� wa doko ni arimasu ka. Where's the bank? Amerikajin dewa arimasen. Igirisujin desu. I'm not American. I'm English. In situations demanding a high degree of courtesy, e.g., a sales clerk in a department store talking to a customer, the speaker is likely to use the formal and humble gozaimasu instead ofarimasu and irasshaimasu instead of iru. Kono hoteru ni wa, fakkusu ga arimasu ka. Hai, gozaimasu. Do you have a fax in this hotel? Yes, we do.

Sumimasen, kono s�t� wa ikura desu ka. Sore wa ky�-sen en de gozaimasu. Excuse me, how much is this sweater? It's �9,000. Moshi, moshi. Tanaka san wa irasshaimasu ka. Hello. Is Mr. Tanaka there? Uses of desh� The word desh�, which comes from desu, when used in a question followed by ka, is the equivalent of "I wonder...". When used with a rising intonation, it is asking for agreement so it is similar to ne but softer and less direct. Used with a falling intonation, the sentence is often translated using "probably", "must be" or "almost certainly". Also desh� may be used in place of desu for extra politeness. Kore wa nan desu ka. Kore wa nan desh� ka. What's this? I wonder what this is? Are wa Watanabe san no uchi desh�. [Rising intonation] That's Mr. Watanabe's house, right? Hokkaid� wa ima samui desh�. [Falling intonation] It's probably cold in Hokkaido now. Sumimasen ga, Tanaka san desh� ka. Excuse me, but would you be Mr. Tanaka? Present and past plain forms The plain form of verbs are used with immediate family and close friends and associates. The polite forms are more appropriate for general use. However, the plain forms function in various ways in a sentence other than as the main verb and so must be learned. The plain form of the present tense is the dictionary form. For the negative add nai to the stem for v-stem verbs, and -anai for c-stem verbs except for those verbs ending in -au, -iuand -ou where -wanai is added. The plain negatives

of kuru and suru are konai and shinai, respectively. Also the plain negative of aru is nai. Tokidoki eiga o miru. I sometimes watch movies. Takahashi san wa sakana o tabenai. Ms. Takahashi doesn't eat fish. Kotae wa nai desh�. There isn't an answer, is there? To form the plain past tense for v-stem verbs add -ta to the stem. For c-stem verbs use the appropriate change in the following list: -su => -shita hanasu hanashita talked -ku => -ita kiku kiita asked -gu => -ida oyogu oyoida swam -ru=> -tta nuru nutta painted -tsu => -tta motsu motta held -u => -tta omou omotta thought -bu => -nda tobu tonda flew -mu => -nda nomu nonda drank -nu => -nda shinu shinda died The plain past tense of kuru and suru are kita and shita, respectively. To form the negative of the plain past tense, add -nakatta to the stem of v-stem verbs and -anakatta to the stem of c-stem verbs. taberu tabenakatta didn't eat yomu yomanakatta didn't read As long as the verb at the end of a sentence is in the polite form, any verbs in the middle can be in the plain form without affecting the overall tone. This

means that the plain form can be used when sentences are joined with kedo, for example, or when they finish with desh�. Taiiku no sensei wa ii hito da kedo, chotto hen desu ne. The physical education teacher is nice, but he's a bit strange, isn't he! Takahashi san wa eigo ga wakaru desh� ka. I wonder if Ms. Takahashi understands English? Ani wa ikanai kedo, watashi wa ikimasu. My older brother is not coming, but I am. Ky� wa kiny�bi da to omotta kedo, chigaimasu ne. I thought it was Friday today, but it isn't, is it! To give a reason for something, use either kara after the plain form of the verb or an -i adjective. Shinkansen de itta kara, jikan ga amari kakarimasen deshita. We went by Shinkansen, so it didn't take very long. Shitsumon ga mada �i kara, m� ichido setsumei shimash�. There are still a lot of questions, so let me explain again. To express an opinion, use the phrase to omoimasu at the end of a sentence and put all verbs in the plain form. To express what someone else is thinking, use omotte imasu. The verbkangaeru also means "to think" but implies "to consider" whereas omou implies opinion or feeling. Takahashi san wa kimasen. Takahashi san wa konai to omoimasu. Ms. Takahashi is not coming. I don't think Ms. Takahashi is coming. Maiku san wa, Nihon wa ii kuni da to omotte imasu. Mike thinks that Japan is a great country.

Chiimu no koto o kangaete imashita. I was thinking about the team. The noun tsumori means "intention", so the sentence ending tsumori desu after the plain form of the verb can usually be translated as "intend to" or "mean to do". Sore wa mondai desu ne. D� suru tsumori desu ka. That's a problem, isn't it? What do you intend to do? Donna kuruma o kau tsumori desu ka. What kind of car do you intend to buy? To express being able to do something, add koto ga dekimasu to the plain form of the verb. The plain past tense followed by koto ga arimasu ka is equivalent to "Have you ever ...". Maiku san wa kanji o kaku koto ga dekimasu ka. (Maiku san wa kanji o kakemasu ka.) Mike, can you write kanji characters? Nihongo o hanasu koto ga dekimasu ka. (Nihongo ga hanasemasu ka.) Can you speak Japanese? Sashimi o tabeta koto ga arimasu ka. Have you ever eaten raw fish? A sentence in the plain form ending in no desu or n' desu indicates that the speaker is explaining something, asking for an explanation, or giving empahasis. Iroirona mondai ga arimasu ne. D� suru n' desu ka. There are all sorts of problems, aren't there? What are you going to do? Nani o shite iru n' desu ka. What are you doing?

Totemo takai n' desu yo. Dakara kawanai n' desu. It's really expensive! That's why I'm not buying it To quote someone, follow the quotation by to iimasu (or whatever tense and form is appropriate). To say what someone has said without making a quotation, use to iimasu but put what was said into the plain form. It's common to omit da when reporting on questions. The verb iimasu may be used to ask how to say something in English or Japanese. Maiku san wa, "Hayaku hashiru koto ga dekimasen," to iimashita. Mike said, "I can't run fast". Maiku san wa, "Ashita yaky� o shimasu," to iimashita. Mike said, "I'm playing baseball tomorrow". Maiku san wa, ashita yaky� o suru to iimashita. Mike said he's playing baseball tomorrow. Watashi wa Amerikajin ka to kikimashita. He asked if I was American. "Autumn" wa Nihongo de nan to iimasu ka. "Aki" to iimasu. How do you say "autumn" in Japanese? It's "aki". The gerund or -te form The -te form of a verb which does not have a tense or mood combines with other verb forms. It may be formed from the plain past tense by changing the ending ta to -te. When the -te form is used to link two sentences where it may be translated as "and", the verb at the end of the sentence shows the overall tense of the sentence.

Doy�bi no asa ni T�ky� e ikimahita. Atarashii s�tsu o kaimashita. On Saturday morning I went to Tokyo. I bought a new suit. Doy�bi no asa ni T�ky� e itte, atarashii s�tsu o kaimashita. On Saturday morning I went to Tokyo, and bought a new suit. To ask permission to do something, add mo ii desu ka to the -te form. To ask if it's alright not to do something, change the negative -nai form to -nakute and then add mo ii desu ka. Sumimasen ga, koko ni suwatte mo ii desu ka. Ii desu. D�zo. Excuse me, but is it alright if I sit here? Yes, please go ahead. Kore o zenbu tabenakute mo ii desu ka. Hai, (tabenakute mo) ii desu yo. Is it alright if I don't eat all of this? Yes, it's alright (if you don't eat it). The same form may be used to give permission. Namae to j�sho o kakanakute mo ii desu. It's alright not to write your name and address. To refuse permission, use the -te form of the verb followed by wa ikemasen. Sono heya ni haitte wa ikemasen. You musn't go into that room. Progressive tense To describe an event that is presently happening or not happening, use the appropriate form of the verb iru or imasu after the -te form. Tomoko san wa ima nani o shite imasu ka. What is Tomoko doing at the moment? Sono kaisha de m� hataraite imasen. Ima gink� de hataraite imasu. I don't work at that company any more. Now I am working at a bank.

Ima eigo o benky� shite imasen. I am not studying English now. The past progressive is formed by using the -te formed followed by the past or the past negative. Torako ga isu no ue de nete imashita. Torako was sleeping on the chair. Kin� no ban watashi wa terebi o mite imasen deshita. I wasn't watching television last night. Desiderative form To express one's own wish to do something, add -tai to the infinitive followed by desu. Verbs ending in -tai are like -i adjectives, and so have a negative form ending in -taku arimasenand a past form ending in -takatta desu. To express a desire for a thing, use the -i adjective hoshii. Ocha ga nomitai. I would like some tea. Kin� yasumi o toritakatta kedo, taihen isogashikute, toru koto ga dekimasen deshita. I wanted to take yesterday off, but I couldn't because I was extremely busy. Kanojo wa, b�ifurendo ga hoshii to iimashita. She said she wants a boyfriend. Passive form To form the passive, add -rareru, raremasu to the stems of v-stem verbs, and areru, -aremasu to the stems of c-stem verbs. For the negative, add -rarenai, raremasen to the stems of v-stem verbs, and -arenai, -aremasen to the stems of c-stem verbs.

Torako wa nezumi o tabemashita. Torako ate the mouse. Nezumi wa Torako ni taberaremashita. The mouse was eaten by Torako. Nezumi wa Torako ni taberaremasen deshita. The mouse was not eaten by Torako. Torako wa nezumi to asobimashita. Torako played with the mouse. Nezumi wa Torako ni asobaremashita. The mouse was played with by Torako. Causative form Add -saseru, -sasemasu to the stem of v-stem verbs (-sasenai, -sasemasen for the negative), and add -aseru, -asemasu to the stem of c-stem verbs (-asenai, asemasen for the negative). Torako o daidokoro no t�beru kara orisasemashita. I made Torako get off the kitchen table. Conditional form Drop the final -u from the plain form of the verb and add -eba. To form the negative, drop the -i from the negative plain form and add -kereba. With i adjectives, drop the final -i and add -kereba; with negatives, drop the final i from nai and add -kereba. Moshi dekireba, kotoshi gaikoku e ikitai n' desu. If I can, I want to go abroad this year. Jisho o tsukawanakereba, kono Nihongo no shukudai ga dekimasen. If I don't use a dictionary, I can't do this Japanese homework.

Ashita tenki ga yokereba, dokoka e ikimash� ka. If the weather's nice tomorrow, shall we go somewhere? Takaku nakereba, kaimasu. If it's not too expensive, I'll buy it. The expression -nakereba narimasen, where naru is the verb "to become", means literally "if you don't..., it's no good" or in other words "you must" or "you have to". The negative "don't have to ..." is expressed with -nakute mo ii desu. Jiko sh�kai wa Nihongo de nakereba narimasen. Your self-introduction must be in Japanese. Ky� owaranakute mo ii desu. You don't have to finish it today. Giving and receiving There are several verbs to expressing giving and receiving depending on the relative status of the giver and receiver and the diection of the action: ageru Give sashiageru Give to superiors yaru Give (informal) kureru Give to speaker kudasaru Give to speaker from superior morau Receive itadaku Receive from superiors Watashi wa H�-san ni hon o agemashita. I gave Hugh a book. Watashi wa sensei ni hon o sashiagemashita. I gave the teacher a book.

Watashi wa Torako ni omocha o yarimashita. I gave Torako the toy. H�-san wa watashi ni hon o kuremashita. Hugh gave me the book. Sensei wa watashi ni hon o kudasaimashita. The teacher gave me a book. Watashi wa H�-san ni hon o moraimashita. I received the book from Hugh. Watashi wa sensei ni hon o itadakimashita. I received a book from the teacher. Starting an action To express starting an action, use the stem of the verb expressing the action followed by the appropriate form of the verb hajimeru: Sensh� hon o yomihajimemashita. I started reading the book last week. Nominalization Verbs may be made into nouns, or gerunds to use the English expression, by following the plain form with no or koto, although no cannot be used in the predicate. Watashi wa yomu no ga suki desu. I like reading. Miru koto wa shinjiru koto desu. Seeing is believing.

Adjectives Japanese adjectives are either verbal adjectives or adjectival nouns. Those in the first group, in their dictionary form, end only in -ai, -ii, -oi, or -ui, and are therefore sometimes called -iadjectives. Those in the second group have nounlike characteristics and when they modify nouns have the suffix -na and are sometimes called -na adjectives. An -i adjective can modify a following noun. Watashi wa chiisai neko o katte imasu. I have a small cat. The stem of an -i adjective is formed by dropping the final -i, so that, for example, the stem of chisaii is chisai-. An -i adjective may be conjugated to give different tenses: Present: [stem] + -i Past: [stem] + -katta Negative: [stem] + -kunai Negative past: [stem] + -kunakatta Gerund: [stem] + -kute The associated verb is in the present tense. Kono hon wa omoshiroi desu. This book is interesting. Ano hon mo omoshirokatta desu. That book was interesting too. Ky� wa samukunai desu. Today it's not cold.

Kin� mo samukunakatta desu. Yesterday it wasn't cold either. Kono hon wa omoshirokute tanoshii desu. This book is interesting and enjoyable. The -na adjectives can be used as predicates or as noun modifiers. Ano hito wa y�mei desu. He is famous. K�en wa shizuka dewa arimasen deshita. The park wasn't quiet. Shizukana heya ga hoshii desu. I want a quiet room. The following colour words may be used alone as adjectives: akai red aoi blue, green chairoi brown kiiroi yellow kuroi black shiroi white When these words are used as nouns, the final i is dropped: Kuruma wa akai desu. The car is red. Aka was ii iro desu. Red is a nice colour. The following colour words are nouns and must be followed with no:

chairo no brown giniro no silver haiiro no gray kiiro no yellow kiniro no gold midoriiro no green murasaki no purple nezumiiro no gray orenji no orange

Describing Nouns Nouns may be modified in various ways. However as there are no relative pronouns for constructing relative clauses, the relative clause ending with the plain form of the verb comes before the word it modifies. Haruko wa me ga kirei desu. Haruko has beautiful eyes. Haruko wa goshujin ga isha desu. Haruko's husband is a medical doctor. Haruko wa onaka ga sukimashita. Haruko was hungry. Haruko wa eigo ga dekimasu. Haruko knows English. (Haruko is good at English.) Watashi wa me ga kireina Haruko o mimasu. I am looking at Haruko with the beautiful eyes. Ano hito wa goshujin ga isha no Haruko desu.

That person over there is Haruko whose husband is a medical doctor. Ano hito wa onaka ga suita Haruko desu. That person over there is Haruko who is hungry. Ano hito wa eigo ga dekiru no Haruko desu. That person over there is Haruko who can speak English.

Adverbs To form an adverb from an -i adjective, add -ku to the stem. yasui cheap yasuku cheaply hayai quick hayaku quickly ii good yoku well [Irregular] Kin� no ban Torako wa yoku nemashita. Torako slept well last night. To form an adverb from a -na adjective, use ni after the adjective. shizuka quiet shizuka ni quietly kantan simple kantan nisimply Torako wa shizuka ni arukimasu. Torako walks quietly. Of course, there are many adverbs which are not derived from verbs. kin� yesterday amari not much sukoshi a little ky� today bakkari only tabun perhaps ashita tomorrow chotto a little taihen very mainichi every day ikaga how takusan a lot maiasa every morning itsumo always tokidoki sometimes

ima now mata again totemo very yagate soon m� more yukkuri slowly sugu immediately motto more zenzen at all (with neg. verbs) mada yet, still nakanaka completely

Comparisons Kanada wa Nihon yori �kii desu. Canada is larger than Japan. Nihon yori Kanada wa �kii desu. Canada is larger than Japan. Nihon yori Kanada no h� ga �kii desu. Canada is larger than Japan. Nihon wa Kanada hodo �kikunai desu. Japan is not as large as Canada. Kanada to Nihon to dewa dochira ga �kii desu ka. Which is larger, Canada or Japan? Torako wa neko no naka de ichiban kawaii desu. Torako is the most beautiful of all cats. Torako wa Edomonton de ichiban kawaii desu. Torako is the most beautiful (cat) in Edmonton. Nezumi to inu to dewa dochira ga kawaii desu ka. Which are the more attractive, mice or dogs?

Mae no rei wa baka deshita ne. The last example was silly, wasn't it?

Numbers 0 rei (zero) 1 ichi 2 ni 3 san 4 shi/yon 5 go 6 roku 7 shichi/nana 8 hachi 9 ku/ky�

10 j� 20 nij� 30 sanj� 40 yonj� 50 goj� 60 rokuj� 70 nanaj� 80 hachij� 90 ky�j�

100 hyaku 200 nihyaku 300 sanbyaku 400 yonhyaku 500 gohyaku 600 roppyaku 700 nanahyaku 800 happyaku 900 ky�hyaku

1000 sen 2000 nisen 3000 sanzen 4000 yonsen 5000 gosen 6000 rokusen 7000 nanasen 8000 hassen 9000 ky�sen

10,000 man/ichiman 100,000 j�man 1,000,000 hyakuman 10,000,000 senman/issenman 100,000,000 oku/ichioku 1,000,000,000 j�oku The ordinal numbers are formed by adding banme to the cardinal numbers. ichibanme first nibanme second

Specific Time 1 o'clock 2 o'clock 3 o'clock 4 o'clock 5 o'clock 6 o'clock 7 o'clock 8 o'clock

ichiji niji sanji yoji goji rokuji shichiji hachiji

1 minute ippun 2 minutes nifun 3 minutes sanpun 4 minutes yonpun 5 minutes gofun 6 minutes roppun 7 minutes nanafun 8 minutes happun

9 o'clock kuji 10 o'clock j�ji 11 o'clock j�ichiji 12 o'clock j�niji

9 minutes ky�fun 10 minutes juppun

han half Goji han desu. It's 5:30. sugi after J�ji j�gofun sugi desu. It's 10:15. mae before J�ji j�gofun mae desu. It's a quarter to ten. gozen a.m. Gozen hachiji desu. It's 8 a.m. gogo p.m. Gogo j�ji desu. It's 10 p.m.

Relative Time ototo day before yesterday kin� yesterday ky� today ashita tomorrow asatte day after tomorrow asa morning hiru noon gogo afternoon y�gata evening

sensensh� week before last sensh� last week konsh� this week raish� next week saraish� week after next sensengetsu month before last sengetsu last month kongetsu this month raigetsu next month sariagetsu month after next

ototoshi year before last kyonen last year kotoshi this year rainen next year sarainen year after next

Counters 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

General hitotsu futatsu mittsu yottsu itsutsu muttsu nanatsu

People hitori futari sannin yonnin gonin rokunin nananin

Stamps ichimai nimai sanmai yomai gomai rokumai nanamai

Pencils Books Cats Floors ippon issatsu ippiki ikkai nikai nihon nisatsu nihiki sanbon sansatsu sanbiki sangai yonhon yonsatsu yonhiki yonkai gohon gosatsu gohiki gokai roppon rokusatsu roppiki rokai nanahon nanasatsu nanahiki nanakai

8 yattsu hachinin hachimai happon 9 kokonotsu ky�nin ky�mai ky�hon 10 t� j�nin j�mai juppon ? ikutsu nannin nanmai nanbon

hassatsu ky�satsu jusatsu nansatsu

happiki ky�hiki jupiki nanbiki

Calendar 1st tsuitachi 2nd futsuka 3rd mikka 4th yokka 5th itsuka 6th muika 7th nanoka 8th y�ka 9th kokonoka 10th t�ka

11th j�ichinichi 12th j�ninichi 13th j�sannichi 14th j�yokka 15th j�gonichi 16th j�rokunichi 17th j�shichinichi 18th j�hachinichi 19th j�kunichi 20th hatsuka

Monday getsuy�bi Tuesday kay�bi Wednesday suiy�bi Thursday mokuy�bi Friday kiny�bi Saturday doy�bi Sunday nichiy�bi

21st nij�ichinichi 22nd nij�ninichi 23rd nij�sannichi 24th nij�yokka 25th nij�gonichi 26th nij�rokunichi 27th nij�shichinichi 28th nij�hachinichi 29th nij�kunichi 30th sanj�nichi 31st sanj�ichinichi

January ichigatsu February nigatsu March sangatsu April shigatsu May gogatsu June rokugatsu July shichigatsu August hachigatsu September kugatsu October j�gatsu November j�ichigatsu December j�nigatsu

haru spring natsu summer aki autumn fuyu winter

Family

hakkai ky�kai jukkai nankai

Japanese use different words for members of their own family and for members of someone else's family: Relation grandmother grandfather mother father wife husband daughter son older sister younger sister older brother younger brother aunt uncle niece nephew cousin child grandchild family sibling

My / Your family sobo ob�san sofu oj�san haha ok�san chichi ot�san kanai okusan shujin goshujin musume musumesan musuko musukosan ane on�san im�to im�tosan ani oniisan ot�to ot�tosan oba obasan oji ojisan mei meigosan oi oigosan itoko itoko kodomo kodomosan mago omagosan kazokugokazoku ky�dai goky�dai

The adjective giri no means related by marriage: giri no musuko son-in-law

Acknowledgements I would like to thank Kenji Yoshimi, David Young and Hugh Woods for their helpful comments on a first draft of these notes.

References Akiyama, Nobuo and Carol Akiyama, 1995. Master the Basics. Japanese. Barron's Educational Series, Inc., Hauppauge, N. Y.

Association for Japanese Language Teaching, 1984. Japanese for Busy People

I. Kodansha International, Tokyo. The Hir� Japanese Center, 1989. The Complete Japanese Verb Guide. Charles E. Tuttle Company, Rutland, Vermont. Nakao, Seigo, 1995. Random House Japanese-English English-Japanese

Dictionary. Ballantine Books, New York. Strugnell, Lynne, 1994. Essential Japanese. Berlitz Publishing Company, Inc., Princeton, N. J. Yoshimi, Kenji, 1999. Class Notes.

Appendix. A few verbs The first column gives the dictionairy, -masu and -te forms. ageru agemasu agete akeru akemasu akete aru arimasu atte asobu asobimasu asonde au aimasu atte chigau chigaimasu chigatte da desu de dekakeru dekakemasu dekakete dekiru dekimasu dekite deru demasu dete furu furimasu futte gozaru gozaimasu gozatte hairu hairimasu haitte hajimaru hajimarimasu hajimatte hanasu hanashimasu hanashite hashiru hashirimasu hashitte hataraku hatarakimasu hataraite iku ikimasu itte ikiru ikimasu ikite irassharu irasshaimasu irasshatte ireru iremasu irete iru imasu ite itadaku itadakimasu itadaite

give, raise open be, exist, have play meet differ, be mistaken be (copula) go out can, be able, made of go out, appear fall (rain, snow) be, exist, have (formal) go in, enter begin speak, talk run work go live, become alive go, come, be (formal) put in be, exist receive (polite)

iu iimasu itte kaeru kareimasu kaette kakaru kakarimasu kakatte kakeru kakemasu kakete kakukakimasu kaite kangaeru kangaemasu kangaete kariru karimasu karite kasu kashimasu kashite kau kaimasu katte kayou kayoimasu kayotte kiku kikimasu kiite kimeru kimemasu kimete kudasaru kudasaimasu kudasatte kudaru kudarimasu kudatte kuraberu kurabemasu kurabete kureru kuremasu kurete kuru kimasu kite magaru magarimasu magatte matsu machimasu matte miru mimasu mite morau moraimasu moratte motsu mochimasu motte mukeru mukemasu mukete naru narimasu natte neru nemasu nete noboru noborimasu nobotte nomu nomimasu nonde nuru nurimasu nutte okiru okimasu okite omou omoimasu omotte oriru orimasu orite oshieru oshiemasu oshiete owaru owarimasu owatte oyogu oyogimasu oyoide sagasu sagashimasu sagashite saku sakimasu saite sashiageru sashiagemasu sashiagete shimeru shimemasu shimete shinjiru shinjimasu shinjite shinu shinimasu shinde sumu sumimasu sunde suru shimasu shite suwaru suwarimasu suwatte taberu tabemasu tabete tobu tobimasu tonde tomaru tomarimasu tomatte toru torimasu totte tsukareru tsukaremasu tsukarete tsukau tsukaimasu tsukatte tsukuru tsukurimasu tsukutte tsutomeru tsutomemasu tsutomete ugoku ugokimasu ugoite

say, relate return take (time) telephone write think about, consider borrow, rent lend buy, possess (animals) commute hear, ask decide, fix, choose give to speaker (polite) descend, go down compare give to speaker come turn wait see, watch receive have, hold turn become, get go to bed, sleep rise, go up, climb drink paint get up, wake up think get off teach, tell end, finish swim look for bloom give (polite) close believe die live do sit down eat fly, jump stay overnight, stop, halt get, win become tired use make be employed move, change

umu umimasu unde uru urimasu utte wakaru wakarimasu wakatte wasureru wasuremasu wasurete yaru yarimasu yatte yasumu yasumimasu yasunde yobu yobimasu yonde yomu yomimasu yonde

give birth, produce sell understand forget give (informal) rest call read