Wednesday, November 28, 2007.

This, That, and (That) Over there - Part 2

In her earlier post, Jas-さん covered the basics of "this" and "that".

I thought I'd just add a few notes to it.



Notice that for the first 3 items is always followed by は but the last one is always by が?

Also, when using the unspecific question words, there is no need to mention the item in question. However, when using the specific question words, you would need to include the noun.

Compare this:

(1) これはなんですか。

kore wa nan desu ka?

What is this?

これはねこです。

kore wa neko desu.

This is a cat.

(2) このねこはですか。

kono neko desu ka?

What cat is this?

And finally, there is another 2 question words which I came across are だれ (dare) and だれの (dare no).

だれ (dare) - who

だれの (dare no) - whose

Eg: これはだれのねこですか。

kore wa dare no neko desu ka?

Whose cat is this?

~ Rene ~

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Online Japanese Dictionary

Jas-さん no need to buy Japanese dictionary anymore. I just stumbled upon this website which I found quite useful. You can either search in English or Japanese. It gives lots of examples too!

Denshi Jisho

~ Rene ~

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Tuesday, November 20, 2007.

A Note to Jas-さん

こんにちわ！

きょうはbanana cakeをもってきました。でもあなたわきませんでした。だから、わたしはたくさんbanana cakeたべました。それじゃあ、またあした。

~ Rene ~

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VOCABULARY
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きょう (kyou) - today

もってきました (mottekimashita) - brought

もってくる (mottekuru) - to bring

だから (dakara) - so

たくさん (takusan) - many

それじゃあ (sore jaa) - well then

Monday, November 19, 2007.

Japanese Mochi


I tried these mochi from Sagachiku at PS B2. My preference is the one with red bean filling which are the 2 whole ones in the pic. The green one has a slight herbal taste in it. The stall sells another flavour with potato filling but it was unavailable & thus I didnt get to try it.

Mochi (sticky rice cake) is a traditional food in Japanese food culture. It is made of glutinous rice, pounded into paste and then molded into its shape.

Posted By : Jasvale

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Other Nihongo Blogs

http://nihongo.anthonet.com/

I like this site for its easy word reference. Just roll your mouse over to the words you want to check out and the meaning will pop out. Cool!

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~kanji/

Wanna learn how to write Kanji? This site teaches you the proper strokes to it.

http://uvajapanese102.blogspot.com/2007/10/visit-other-university-students-blogs.html

I haven't quite figured out this blog yet, cos its self intro is in Jap. But interesting nonetheless.

~ Rene ~

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Saturday, November 17, 2007.

うどんなべ - Udon Nabe


Something that I have noticed while flipping Jap food magazines is that the focus has shifted to warm comfort food for winter. And earthern pot dishes seems to be one of them.

なべもの(鍋物) Nabemono - A class of dishes cooked at the table and served from the pot direct. (From A Dictionary of Japanese Food by Richard Hosking)

Well, I didn't cook my nabe at the table but instead on the stove and then we eat at the table out of the pot. The food keeps warm until we were almost three quarter way.

おいしいですよ！

*This post is from Dainty Bites.*

~ Rene ~

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Friday, November 16, 2007.

Jap Blogs

If you know Japanese or if you know a little tad of it but is "adventurous" enough, you can explore the Jap blogs below & try your best to understand & grasp as much as you can.
I think that should be fun or maybe disheartening haha depending on how you look at it.
Here you go ...

http://makorin.blog1.fc2.com/blog-date-200711.html
There are so many food pictures in the blog, it makes me drool.

http://naorilakkuma.blog106.fc2.com/blog-entry-23.html

Posted By : Jasvale

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Verbs Conjugation (Part 2)

If you still haven't gone to the dictionary and check what is the meaning of "Conjugation", I am not any better.

Let's forge ahead!

If you were really reading everything I wrote in the Part 1 (am I asking too much??), you would have noticed that かえる or 帰る in Kanji belongs to the "U"-verbs even though it ended with a "ru". Well, there is a class of exceptions that you might need to note. Apply the same rules as you would with the "u"-verbs.


かえる - kaeru (to go back; to return)

はいる - hairu (to enter)


はしる - hashiru (to run)

いる - iru (to need)

かぎる - kagiru (to limit)

きる - kiru (to cut)

しゃべる - shaberu (to chatter)

しる - shiru (to know)

And then there are the Irregular Verbs to contend with. But worry not, there are just 2 of them.

する - suru (to do)

くる - kuru (to come)

With this post, I would think we have covered the basic rules for now.

~ Rene ~

(Post edit: The dictionary form of the Japanese verbs are informal, present affirmative form used among close friends and family in informal situations.)

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Verbs Conjugation

Verbs what??!!

Well, frankly I also don't know what that word means and I am not going to find out now. (-.-) Cos since I started threading in this unknown section of my Genki I book, I felt that I have lost in la-la land.

Anyway, I just crossed referenced Jasさん earlier entry about Verbs and I thought that I might as well add a little to it. She listed quite a handful of words there, so I have work cut out for me. (Jasさん, you are still a slave driver!)

When it comes to verbs, there are 2 major classes which they fall into.

(1) "ru"-verbs

(2) "u" - verbs

At this point, I can't tell which word listed by her falls into which class (no, not yet, but I will prevail!), so I will only identify those that I know now and KIV the rest.

(1) "ru"-verbs

たべる - taberu (to eat)

おきる -okiru (to get up)

ねる - neru (to sleep; go to sleep)

みる - miru (to see)

(2) "u" - verbs

いく - iku (to go)

かえる - kaeru (to go back; to return)

きく - kiku (to listen)

のむ- nomu (to drink)

はなす- hanasu (to speak; to talk)

よむ - yomu (to read)

It is essential to know which class the verbs fall into cos there are rules that apply when we convert them into tenses.

For the "ru"-verbs:



For the "ru"-verbs, we simply strip the "ru" and then add either "masu" or "mashita" or "masen" or "masen deshita" to it.

For the "u"-verbs:

For the "u"-verbs, it is slightly more tricky as it requires you to change the "u" into "i" before adding the corresponding parts to it.

That's all for now, I'm sure that committing 10 verbs into memory is a good start!

~ Rene ~

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Tuesday, November 13, 2007.

Some & Any Expressions

Hmm, I always tend to mix up the following expressions below. Thus, I think I'll list them all down for easy reference.

(a)
Who - Dare 　だれ
Which one - Dore　どれ
When - Itsu 　いつ
Where - Doko 　どこ
What - Nan/Nani 　なん

(b)
Somebody - Dareka 　だれか
Someday - Itsuka 　いつか
Somewhere - Dokoka 　どこか
Something - Nanika 　なにか

From the above, one easy way to remember is just to add a ka for (a) & it'll mean some.... as seen in (b).

Here's another one :

Anyone/Everyone - Dare demo 　だれでも
Anything - Dore demo 　どれでも
Anytime - Itsu demo 　いつでも
Anywhere/Everywhere - Doko demo 　どこでも
Anything/Everything - Nan demo 　なんでも

Ok, now's the last one :

(Not) anyone - Dare mo 　だれも
(Not) any of them - Dore mo 　どれも
(Not) anytime - Itsu mo 　いつも
(Not) anywhere - Doko mo 　どこも
(Not) anything - Nani mo 　なにも


Some examples :

I read something / Watashi wa nanika yomimasu わたしはなにかよみます

I read anything / Watashi wa nan demo yomimasu わたしはなんでもよみます

I do not read anything / Watashi wa nani mo yomimasen

わたしはなにもよみません

I will go somewhere / Watashi wa dokoka e ikimasu

わたしはどこかへいきます

I will go anywhere / Watashi wa doko e demo ikimasu

わたしはどこへでもいきます

I will not go anywhere / Watashi wa doko e mo ikimasen

わたしはどこへもいきません


Posted By : Jasvale

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NHK online

You can check out this NHK site to explore further.
"Basic Japanese For You" is all in Romaji and "Brush Up Your Japanese" uses a combination of Hiragana, Katakana & Kanji.

Audio files included too, just great :)

Posted By : Jasvale

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Monday, November 12, 2007.

Particles

In addition to my previous post on particles, below are another two more.

The particle mo means also/too & placed after the word to which it refers.
If mo refers to a subject, it replaces wa or ga.
I read a book
Watashi wa hon o yomimasu わたしはほんをよみます

Mother also reads a book
Okaasan mo hon o yomimasu　おかあさんもほんをよみます

If mo refers to a direct object, it replaces o.
I read newspapers　
Watashi wa shinbun o yomimasu　わたしはしんぶんをよみます

I read a magazine also
Watashi wa zasshi mo yomimasu　わたしはざつしもよみます

Another one is kara & made. Kara means from & made means until.
From 9 o'clock till 10 o'clock
ku-ji kara juu-ji made　くじからじゅうじまで

From Monday to Friday
Getsu-youbi kara kin-youbi made　げつようびからきんようびまで

Note : In the example above for the word magazine ~ zasshi is a double consonant & thus written as ざつし. つ should be written as a small character about a quarter of the size of the other characters.

Posted By :　Jasvale

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Saturday, November 3, 2007.

Days Of The Week and Months

Learning the days of the week is easy! Just add the suffix -youbi.

Monday - げつようび （getsu-youbi)

Tuesday - かようび (ka-youbi)

Wednesday - すいようび (sui-youbi)

Thursday - もくようび (moku-youbi)

Friday - きんようび (kin-youbi)

Saturday - どようび (do-youbi)

Sunday - にちようび (nichi-youbi)

How about months? Its easy too, just add the suffix -gatsu.

January - いちがつ (ichi-gatsu)

February - にがつ (ni-gatsu)

March - さんがつ (san-gatsu)

April - しがつ (shi-gatsu)

May - ごがつ (go-gatsu)

June - ろくがつ (roku-gatsu)

July - しちがつ (shichi-gatsu)

August - はちがつ (hachi-gatsu)

September - くがつ (ku-gatsu)

October - じゅうがつ (juu-gatsu)

November - じゅういちがつ (juuichi-gatsu)

December - じゅうにがつ (juuni-gatsu)

Note : よん(yon, 4), なな(nana, 7) & きゅう(kyuu, 9) are not used to indicate the months.

Summary :
-youbi (ようび) denotes the day of the week
-gatsu (がつ) is put after a number to tell the month

Posted By : Jasvale

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Thursday, November 1, 2007.

じかん (jikan) - How to ask for time

A typical conversation asking for time goes like this ...

A: "すみません。いまなんじですか。"
(sumimasen, ima nan ji desu ka.)
Excuse me, what time is it now?

B: "いまさんじにじゅうはっぷんです。"
(ima sanji nijuuhappun desu.)
It is 3:28.

A: "ありがとうございます。"
(arigatoo gozaimasu)
Thank you very much.

B: "いいえ。"
(iie)
Not at all.

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VOCABULARY
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いま (ima) - now

なん or なに (nan / nani) - what

~ Rene ~

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