Japanese Lesson #12

Mada o-hitori desu ka (Are you still single?)

Nan-sai desu ka./O-ikutsu desu ka. (How old are you?)

Kuni wa dochira desu ka. (What country are you from?)

Nihon o dō omoimasu ka. (What do you think of Japan?)

Itsu Nihon e kimashita ka. (When did you come to Japan?)

Itsu made Nihon ni imasu ka. (When are you in Japan until?)

Nihon no jōsei/dansei o dō omoimasu ka. (What do you think of Japanese women/men?)

O-hashi wa daijōbu desu ka. (Are you okay with chopsticks?)

Sashimi o taberu koto ga dekimasu ka. (Can you eat raw fish?)

Kekkon shite imasu ka./O-hitori desu ka.(Are you married?/Are you single?)

Describe how something looks, add -sō to the appropriate adj = it looks..., seems...

eg.

Hashi wa muzukashi-sō da kedo, jitsu wa muzukashiku arimasen. (Chopsticks look difficult, but in fact they are not difficult.)

Maiku san wa yakyū ga jōzu-sō desu ne! (Mike looks good at baseball, doesn't he?)

Kono kissaten wa yosa-sō desu yo. (This coffee shop looks good.)

Fumiko chan wa tomodachi ga takusan iru kedo, itsumo sabishi-sō desu ne. (Fumiko has lots of friends, but she always looks lonely, doesn't she?)

Ends in no desu/n'desu = speaker is explaining something, or asking for an explanation,emphasis

eg.

Iroiro-na mondai ga arimasu ne. Dō suru n'desu ka. (There are all sort 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.)

Superlatives - Ichiban = most

eg.

Nihon de ichiban takai yama wa Fuji-san desu. (The highest mountain in Japan is Mount Fuji.)

Tempura wa ichiban oishii to omoimasu. (I think tempura tastes the best.)

Kurasu no naka de, dare ga ichiban wakai desu ka. (Who's the youngest in the class?)

Plain form of past tense verbs

iku > itte > itta (went)

kuru > kite > kita (came)

suru > shite > shita (did)

tsukau > tsukatte > tsukatta (used)

aru > atte > atta > (there was/were)

iru > ite > ita (was/were)

omou > omotte > omotta (thought)

wakaru > wakatte > wakatta (understood)

au > atte > atta (met)

eg.

Dō shita n'deshō? (I wonder what happened?)

Sensei wa doko ni itta n'desu ka. (Where has the teacher gone?)

Kyō wa kinyōbi da to omotta kedo, chigaimasu ne! (I thought it was Friday today, but it isn't, is it!)

-negative past

iku > ikanai > ikanakatta (didn't go)

kuru > konai > konakatta (didn't come)

wakaru > wakaranai > wakaranakatta (didn't understand)

tsukau > tsukawanai > tsukawanakatta (didn't use)

suru > shinai > shinakatta (didn't do)

aru > nai > nakatta (there wasn't)

iru > inai > inakatta (wasn't in)

yomu > yomanai > yomanakatta (didn't read)

kaku > kakanai > kakanakatta (didn't write)

taberu > tabenai > tabenakatta (didn't eat)

eg.

Takahashi san wa dō shite kinō no ban konakatta n'deshō ka. (I wonder why Ms. Takahashi didn't come yesterday evening.)

Dō shite Shinkansen de ikanakatta n'desu ka. (Why didn't you go by Shinkansen (Bullet train)?)

desu > datta (was/were) > ja nakatta (wasn't/weren't)

Plain form + kara = because

(comes at the end of the first part if the sentence before the comma, first part giving the reason, second part giving the results)

eg.

Shinkansen de itta kara, jikan ga amari kakarimasen deshita. (We went by Shinkansen, so it didn't take very long.)

Kono purintā wa amari tsukawanakatta kara, mada atarashi-sō desu. (Because we didn't use the printer much, it still looks new.

Talking about period of time - te imasu form = has/have been -ing

eg.

Ni-nen-kan Nihongo o benkyō o shite imasu. (I've been studying Japanese for two years)

Chōdo ichi-nen-kan kono uchi ni sunde imasu. (I've been living in this house for just a year.)

Vocabulary

Amerika de mo : in the US too

ban : evening

boku : I (informal)

chōdo : exactly, precisely

Chūka ryōri : Chinese cuisine

dansei : males, men

dochira : where? (formal)

Fuji san : Mount Fuji

gārufurendo : girlfriend

go-enryo naku : without standing on ceremony

hansamu : handsome

ichiban suki : like the most

ichiban : the first, number one, most

iroiro : all kinds of, various

jitsu wa : in fact

jōsei : females, women

kara : because

kekkon shite ita : was married

kinō no ban : yesterday evening

kita : came

kodomotachi : children

mō ichido : once more

ni-nen mae ni : two years ago

ni-nen-kan : a two year period

no naka de : among, within

o-hitori : single, unmarried

o-ikutsu : how old?

ōi : many, abundant, a lot of

oishi-sō : looks tasty

rikon : divorce

sabishii : lonely

-sai : years old

san-jū-roku-sai : thirty-six years old

setsumei : explanation

Shinkansen : Bullet train

shita : did

shitsumon : question

tenpura : tempura

tsukaimasu : use

tsukau n'desu ka : do you use?

ureshii : happy

yoku aru : frequently occurring

Quoted from Berlitz Essential Japanese