Let's learn Japanese ~ Lesson 3: Grammar (1)

Hi everyone, I hope you all managed to learn the Kana by now, because you'll need them for this lesson. Today we're gonna start to learn some real grammar, so at the end of this lesson, you'll be able to introduce yourself and ask simple questions.

First, a little more theory.
The Japanese language is compromised of verbs, adjectives, nouns, adverbs, conjugations and particles.Particles are used to show the grammatical relation between words, to show the speaker's intention or to connect sentences.
Also, the Japanese language differentiate between impolite speech, known as くだけた and polite speech, known as　敬語　（けいご）. Even in polite languages there are different degrees, namely 丁寧（ていねい）、尊敬（そんけい） and　謙譲（けんじょう）. All these degrees of 敬語（けいご） are pretty confusing, I won't go into details right now. I'm merely giving this information to inform you I'll be teaching you 丁寧（ていねい） to start with, a neutral polite way to speak. As the lessons continue we'll also pay attention to the other 敬語（けいご） degrees and of course くだけた, the plain form.

For those who didn't notice yet. For example, if I write 敬語（けいご）, than 敬語 is the word in Kanji and the bit between the brackets is the reading of that word I just wrote in Kanji. So 敬語 is read as けいご. Got that?
If you read Japanese texts, you'll often find little Kana written above or besides the Kanji to aid in reading. These are called 振り仮名（ふりがな）.

Now, let's get started!

N1　は　N2　です

1) は is a particle. It indicates that the word before it is the topic of the sentence.When used as a particle, you read it as わ.
2) Nouns used with です work as predicates. It indicates a judgment or assertion, but also conveys politeness towards the listener. です inflects when the sentence is negative or in the past tense. More about that later.

Let's take a look at some example sentences!

①わたし　は　マリア　です。
①I am Maria.

②わたし　は　がくせい　です。
②I am a student.

N1 は N2  じゃありますん

じゃありません is the negative form of です. It is the form used in daily conversation. Actually, じゃ is a shortened version of では. But, では is only used for formal speech or writing. De は in では is also read as わ.

More example sentcens!

わたし　は　ロビンさん　じゃありません。
I am not Mr. Robin.

ロビン　は　がくせい　じゃありません。
Mr. Robin isn't a student.

Sか

By adding か at the end of the sentence, it'll turn into a question. (A question ends with a rising intonation) The word order of the sentence doesn't change.

Let's see some examples!

ロビンさん　は　せんせい　ですか。
．．．はい、ロビンさんは　せんせい　です。
Is Mr. Robin a teacher?
... Yes, Mr. Robin is a teacher.

ロビンさん　は　にほんじん　ですか。
．．．いいえ、ロビン　は　アメリカじん　です。
Is Mr. Robin Japanese?
...No, Mr. Robin is an American.

おまえ　は　だれ　ですか。
．．．わたし　は　たなか　です。
Who are you?
....I am Tanaka.

～さん

さん is added to the name of the listener or a third person. Never use it with your own name. さん is more or less equal to adding Mr. or Ms. in English before a name.
When referring to the listener, the word あなた or きみ (both meaning you) are not commonly used if you know the listeners name.

Homework

Because I can, here's some homework again. Except studying the grammar, I'd like all of you to learn the vocabulary list. Note that's not necessary to know how you write the words in Kanji, but it would be nice if you'd be able to recognize them and know their reading and meaning. I'll start using more and more Kanji (especially the easy ones) as the lessons move on, so better start memorizing them right from the start.
There's also a few example sentences. Please try to translate the Japanese sentence to English, and the English sentences to Japanese. If you'd like me to check them, please post them in a comment.

Vocabulary

私                               わたし                       I

                                    わたしたち              We

                                   あなた                       You

君                               きみ                           You

あの人                       あのひと                   That person, he, she

皆さん                       みなさん                   Ladies and gentlemen, everyone

誰                               だれ                           Who

～さん                       suffix meaning Mr. or Ms.

～ちゃん                   suffix often added to child’s name

～くん                       suffix often added to boy’s name

～じん                       suffix meaning “a national of”

先生                            せんせい                   teacher, instructor (not used when referring to

one’s own job)

教師                           きょうし                   teacher, instructor

学生                           がくせい                   student

会社                           かいしゃ                   company

会社員                       かいしゃいん           company employee   

医者                           いしゃ                       medical doctor

研究者                       けんきゅうしゃ       researcher, scholar

～歳                           ～さい                       ~ years old

何歳                           なんさい                   How old

                                   はい                           Yes

                                   いいえ                       No

名前                           なまえ                       name

アメリカ                               USA

イギリス                               UK

インド                                   India

インドネシア                       Indonesia

韓国　（かんこく）           South Korea

タイ                                       Thailand

中国　（ちゅうごく）       China

ドイツ                                   Germany

日本　（にほん）               Japan

フランス                               France

ブラジル                               Brazil

スペイン                               Spain

Sentences

English to Japanese
I am [your name].
I am [your age] years old.
I am a national of [choose country] .
Mr. Robin isn't a student.
Robin isn't Japanese.

Is Mr. Tanaka a company employee?
No, Mr. Tanaka is a doctor.

Japanese to English
たなかさん　は　 ３６歳　です。
わたし　は　オランダじん　です。
ロビンさん　は　がくせい　じゃありません。
わたし　は　せんせい　じゃありません。
 ロビンさん　は　誰　ですか。
あの人　は　ロビンさん　です。


Good luck! More grammar next time!

Lesson 2: Kana & Kanji (2)

Lesson 2: Kana & Kanji (2)

In lesson 1, I mainly talked about the Kana. Kana are phonetic symbols that each represent the sound of one syllable. They are divided into two groups: Hiragana & Katakana. Hiragana are used to write native words, like the inflectional endings of words, particles, etc. Katakana are chiefly used to write foreign words.

In this lesson I want to talk about Kanji a bit more. Kanji are the Chinese letters. They are used to write conceptual words (substantives, verbs, adjectives) and indigenous names. In 1981 the government decided on 1945 kanji to be permitted for use in official publications. Of these, 1006 kanji were later selected to be taught in the first six years of schooling.

According to origin and structure, kanji can be divided in three categories: pictographs, ideographs and complex characters. Let's get into details.

Pictographs:

These kanji are named pictographs, because they even in the simplified form use today, you can often still recognize the object.

Examples:

木          ki                            tree

山          yama                    mountain

川          kawa                   river

Ideographs:

These kanji indicate the meaning of abstract concepts in just a few strokes.

Examples:

一          ichi                         one

二          ni                            two

上          ue                          above

下          shita                     below

Complex characters:

These kanji are made by combining the characters of the above two categories. We can differentiate between two types of complex characters.

1) Multiple pictographs with the same or a similar meaning are combined to create a new character.

Examples:

木 (tree) + 木 (tree)                      =             林          hayashi               woods　

木(tree) + 木 (tree) + 木 (tree)               =             森　     mori                      forest

日 (sun) +月 (moon)                    =             明　     akarui                  light

2) One part of the kanji is the sounds indicating part, whereas the other part indicates meaning.

Examples:

口(mouth) + 門 (mon) =             問          mon      ask

金 (metal)  +同(dou)    =             銅          dou        copper

There are basically 16 kanji structures that appear frequently. (see below) There are also some non-frequent appearing structures.

When trying to look up a kanji in a dictionary, it's useful if you can differentiate between the different structures. If you don't know the reading of a kanji, you often need to look them up using the radical index. A radical is one of the component of the kanji. It's often, but not always, the meaning-bearing part of the kanji. The radicals are often positioned at the top or the left of a kanji, but can also appear at the right, the bottom or around. But also other possibilities exist.

(The filled part is where the radical is positioned)

Readings

If you think that's all there is to be said about kanji, you're wrong. But, I'll stick to the important stuff. (or at least, I'll try) So, let's talk a bit about the readings of the kanji. When the Japanese started to use kanji, they didn't only adopt the characters, but also the readings. As such, almost all characters have at least two readings, an On (Chinese) and a Kun (Japanese) reading. To determine what reading you need to use isn't always easy, but there are some basic rules that can help you in your decision.

1) One-character words are always read with their Kun (Japanese) reading. (Unless a character doesn't have a Kun reading, then the On reading is used instead.)

Examples:

人          hito        person

口          kuchi      mouth

日          hi            sun; day

2) Words that incorporate kana are pronounced with Kun (Japanese) readings.

Examples:

一つ                     hitotsu                 one

明かり                 akari                    light

大きい                 ooki                      big

3) Kanji sequences without kana are usually read with On (Chinese) readings.

Examples:

見物     kenbutsu            sight-seeing

人口     jinkou                population

4) Personal names are usually read with Kun (Japanese) readings.

Examples

田中     Tanaka

山田     Yamada

Some combinations have two or three different readings that may be associated with the same or similar meanings. Also note that kanji are either used to a) convey the meaning of a word, disregarding the usual reading of a word, or b) exclusively as phonetic symbol, disregarding the meaning of a kanji.

Stroke order

Learning the stroke order of a complex kanji sometimes really seems like a big hassle, but it'll become much easier when you know the stroke order of the compounds the kanji is made of. To really learn the stroke order of kanji, you probably have to write it down multiple times. Of course, there are again a few basic rules you can keep in mind.

Stroke direction

1) Horizontal strokes are written from left to right.

2) Vertical or slanting strokes are written from top to bottom. (Exception is a short slanting down-stroke followed by a short slanting up-stroke.  In that case the slanting up-stroke will be written from bottom to top. )

3) A stroke may change direction several times. It's not always a straight line.

I guess I could write down a more detailed list with stroke order rules, but I doubt anyone is going to read and use it. In the end it's just something you'll have to learn through practice.

That being said I'll end this lesson here. It ended up a bit longer than I expected, so no grammar today. We'll start with that next time. Please remember to do your homework.

Homework:

Make sure to properly learn to read (& write) all Hiragana and Katakana. You'll really need it from the next lesson on. It's probably time-consuming, but it'll be worth it!

Questions and comments are welcome.