Japanese

[Sunako_Nakahara_Girl]

Re: Japanese

Ooh... this thread is pretty cool. I need to try and speed-learn some basic Japanese before summer and I think this will be quite helpful. One of the best threads I've seen this week imo.

thanks.

[Edit] I addedome more words/phrases and some kanjis

[nestlekwik]

Re: Japanese

thanks.

[Edit] I addedome more words/phrases and some kanjis

A few other things I noted (please excuse the romanization as I am in a hurry here):

I would clarify that your "Nihon-go" is Japanese language and not just the adjective Japanese. I can say "Nihon no ongaku" for Japanese music (note I did not use "-go").

I've been using yasumi as more of a break or vacation instead of "absence." "Natsu-yasumi wa itsu kara desu ka." When does your summer vacation begin? In the same vien, "hiru-yasumi," while literally meaning "noon break," is usually used as saying "lunch break." Someone who knows more about the word might be able to chime in on it though.

In your hiragana table under "Wa," I would indicate both wa and o are for particle usage. As it was pointed out earlier, there are many cases where you will use the hiragana "Ha" for wa in a word. Also, in some cases, the hiragana "n" can also be used as an "m."

I might have more to add later, but I've run out of time. Keep at it. I've been having a lot of fun learning Japanese so far and it's good to see so many people are enthusiastic about the language.

[SethSquall]

Re: Japanese

I thought cherry was さくらんぼ. The "bo" on the end is for like the fruit but without it, it means the cherry blossom?

Instead of I am Jordan. I think it'd be better if I say "My name is Jordan."

So like, would 私のナマエジョーダンです

Is that right and is namae Katakana lol?

私わさくらんぼといちごがすきです。私のたんじょうびは四月二十八日があります。私は十二さいです。

?

[jimerax]

Re: Japanese

"Ga" is used to introduce a noun. "Wa" is used when the noun has already been brought up. If you were introducing your umbrella to a conversation, you might say, like,　私のかさがきのうてきだ。 My umbrella is functional. But if, like, someone asked you if your umbrella worked, you'd use "wa" because your umbrella has already been introduced as a noun.　私のかさはきのうてきだ。 sounds more like "As for my umbrella, it's functional."

Actually the sentense "私の傘が機能的だ" contains the meaning of "some other things (like other umbrellas or other possessions of mine) aren't functional". If you just want to say "My umbrella is functional", using "は" is a lot more natural in almost all cases.

In another case, if you want to say "My right leg hurts.", you should use "が" like "(私の)右足が痛い". "は" is awkward in this case.

[Chrissi]

Re: Japanese

I thought my japanese was very rudimentary, but it appears to be better than most, since a lot of this thread is what I'd consider "silly mistakes".

Also, time is dead simple. いちじ。　にじ。　じゅうにじ。 Etc. Now, it's counters that give me the trouble. Of course you can just use ひとつ、ふたつ, etc, if you like, for everything but people. You don't count people like that. So you have to know at least minimum three types of number systems to get by in japanese.

But in reality there are about 20 ways to count things, depending on what type of thing you're counting.

It's the most frustratng part of japanese, to me, since these counters are a) somewhat essential, 2) large in number, 3) no real way to memorize them, 4) not frequently used due to there being so many.

For example, if you are to say "two beers", it would be にほんビール (nihon biiru). Yes, that's the same word for Japan. As far as I know it's just a co-incidence but I know nothing about kanji (I know 3 kanji in total) so don't trust me on that ne.

And then if you are to say "two cats" it would be にひきねこ (nihiki neko).

And if you are to say "two people" it is ふたりひと (futari hito).


Arrjlghwlerjlejrlea it frustrates me so much.

[SethSquall]

Re: Japanese

I'm sure you didn't mean to sound big headed.

Counting things always seemed to make us laugh in class. We'd count something wrong and the teacher would say "Oh lol yea there's a different way to counting those things" and we'd be like lol omg more ways of counting.

[Silvuh]

Re: Japanese

correct stuff

Oh, that's interesting. I didn't look too deep in to all the meanings before posting, my bad.

So like, would 私のナマエジョーダンです

Despite how similar "namae" sounds to "name", it's a Japanese word. Heh, I thought "kuruma" was katakana for some reason back when.
私の名前はジョ一ダンです。
Don't forget your particle は. And 名前 is the Kanji for　なまえ.

In your hiragana table under "Wa," I would indicate both wa and o are for particle usage. As it was pointed out earlier, there are many cases where you will use the hiragana "Ha" for wa in a word.

And as for the whole は being pronounced as "wa" for a particle... That's only when it's used as a particle. Otherwise, わ is always used for "wa". This is just like how the particle へ (he) is pronounced "e".

[Afrobean]

Re: Japanese

In your hiragana table under "Wa," I would indicate both wa and o are for particle usage. As it was pointed out earlier, there are many cases where you will use the hiragana "Ha" for wa in a word. Also, in some cases, the hiragana "n" can also be used as an "m."

Actually, when pronounced absolutely correctly, " ん / ン " automatically take on the M sound you're looking for in the correct instances (which, the only one I can think of would be ん　followed by a kana of the B line). The reason is that the N sound used in Japanese is more nasalated or something like that. I'm not 100% on it, try looking it up in a pronunciation guide. I believe the same can be said of the H series of kana taking on the P phonetic sound under certain circumstances (first thing that comes to my mind is 八百, which is read as happyaku instead of "hachi hyaku" or "hahyaku"... same can be said for 六百, which is roppyaku I believe).

And if you are to say "two people" it is ふたりひと (futari hito).

Actually, if I'm right, simply saying "futari" is enough to indicate that you're talking about a person. In fact, punch "futari" in and convert to kana, you get this from the first try: 二人. If you were to say futari hito, it would be 二人人, which is pretty clearly redundant.

[gausmaster]

Re: Japanese

i used katakana for the main reason that i like the way it looks more.
i'll x-fer 100 to everyone that got it.

edit*
my name is josh ginoza.

[Nyokou]

Re: Japanese

I love this thread. Been reading all the posts. I encourage you to make more, Sunako Nakahara. <3 Hopefully, when I'm less busy with school work and the such, I will reflect on this thread and other threads (you might make) when I decide to take up Japanese on my own.

[Brilliant Dynamite Neon]

Re: Japanese

This was pretty helpful. I want to learn japanese, and I think this would be good to get me started. I don't see why everyone's arguing and stuff.

By the way, is there any specific rule for pronouncing a single u at the end/middle of a word?

[Nyokou]

Re: Japanese

No one is arguing in a bad way. They're just improving each other's grammatical errors and the such. Maybe you should actually read.

[Maid]

Re: Japanese

i used katakana for the main reason that i like the way it looks more.
i'll x-fer 100 to everyone that got it.

edit*
my name is josh ginoza.

well, I got it right away since I can read kana. I figured it was your name since, katakana is used for foreign words and names mostly. I dont really need 100 creds tho.

[Dimitri13]

Re: Japanese

This was pretty helpful. I want to learn japanese, and I think this would be good to get me started. I don't see why everyone's arguing and stuff.

By the way, is there any specific rule for pronouncing a single u at the end/middle of a word?

You extend the 'oh' sound if there's an extra u at the end.

[DDRcrazy5]

Re: Japanese

i just love japan and everything with it. Mangas,language,girls,sushi, and cool haircuts