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LEARN JAPANESE IN 5 MINUTES
Thursday, 6 August 2009
Forming Sentences in Japanese
Welcome to Japanese! To practice the language, work with your family, your close friends, or even your pets until you get the chance to talk with a Japanese person. The more you apply a language in your daily life, the better you grasp its essence. With this article, you can start forming a Japanese sentence in just five minutes — no joke!
When you begin speaking in Japanese, don't be afraid of making mistakes and be sure to keep smiling. If you speak even a little bit of their language, Japanese people will open their hearts to you right away and appreciate your effort. Simply making the effort to communicate in another person's language is one of the best ways to act as an ambassador and contribute to international.
Welcome to Japanese! To practice the language, work with your family, your close friends, or even your pets until you get the chance to talk with a Japanese person. The more you apply a language in your daily life, the better you grasp its essence. With this article, you can start forming a Japanese sentence in just five minutes — no joke!
When you begin speaking in Japanese, don't be afraid of making mistakes and be sure to keep smiling. If you speak even a little bit of their language, Japanese people will open their hearts to you right away and appreciate your effort. Simply making the effort to communicate in another person's language is one of the best ways to act as an ambassador and contribute to international.
*Presenting the basic construction*
The basic word order in English is subject-verb-object, but the order in Japanese is subject-object-verb. Instead of saying I watched TV, you say I TV watched. Instead of saying I ate sushi, say I sushi ate. Now you know the pattern. So repeat after me: Put the verb at the end! Verb end! Verb end! Go ahead and try it! I sake drank, I karaoke did, and I money lost! Good, you the basic word order in Japanese have.
The basic word order in English is subject-verb-object, but the order in Japanese is subject-object-verb. Instead of saying I watched TV, you say I TV watched. Instead of saying I ate sushi, say I sushi ate. Now you know the pattern. So repeat after me: Put the verb at the end! Verb end! Verb end! Go ahead and try it! I sake drank, I karaoke did, and I money lost! Good, you the basic word order in Japanese have.
*Introducing particles*
Subject-object-verb is the basic word order in Japanese, but object-subject-verb is also okay. As long as the verb is at the end of the sentence, Japanese grammar teachers are happy. For example, if Mary invited John, you can say either Mary John invited or John Mary invited in Japanese. Like I said, as long as the verb is at the end, the order of other phrases doesn't matter.
Although it sounds great, a smart person like you may be saying, "Wait a minute! How do you know who invited whom?" The secret is that Japanese use a little tag called a particle right after each noun phrase. The particle for the action performer is ga (gah), and the particle for the action receiver is o (oh). So, both of the following sentences mean Mary invited John:
Marî ga Jon o sasotta. (mah-reee gah john oh sah-soht-tah)
Jon o Marî ga sasotta. (john oh mah-reee gah sah-soht-tah)
Actually, ga is the subject-marking particle, and o is the direct object-marking particle. They can't be translated into English. Sorry, it's just Japanese.
Other Japanese particles include kara (kah-rah), made (mah-deh), ni (nee), de (deh), to (toh), and ka (kah). Luckily, they can be translated into English words like from, until, to, with, by, at, in, on, and, and or. But each particle is translated differently depending on the context. For example, the particle de corresponds to in, by, or with in English:
Bosuton de benkyôsuru. (boh-soo-tohndeh behn-kyohh-soo-roo; I'll study in Boston.)
Takushî de iku. (tah-koo-sheee deh ee-koo; I'll go by taxi.)
Fôku de taberu. (fohh-koo deh tah-beh-roo; I eat with a fork.)
Translation is not always the best way to figure out a foreign language, so remember the particles in terms of their general functions, not their exact English translations.
Subject-object-verb is the basic word order in Japanese, but object-subject-verb is also okay. As long as the verb is at the end of the sentence, Japanese grammar teachers are happy. For example, if Mary invited John, you can say either Mary John invited or John Mary invited in Japanese. Like I said, as long as the verb is at the end, the order of other phrases doesn't matter.
Although it sounds great, a smart person like you may be saying, "Wait a minute! How do you know who invited whom?" The secret is that Japanese use a little tag called a particle right after each noun phrase. The particle for the action performer is ga (gah), and the particle for the action receiver is o (oh). So, both of the following sentences mean Mary invited John:
Marî ga Jon o sasotta. (mah-reee gah john oh sah-soht-tah)
Jon o Marî ga sasotta. (john oh mah-reee gah sah-soht-tah)
Actually, ga is the subject-marking particle, and o is the direct object-marking particle. They can't be translated into English. Sorry, it's just Japanese.
Other Japanese particles include kara (kah-rah), made (mah-deh), ni (nee), de (deh), to (toh), and ka (kah). Luckily, they can be translated into English words like from, until, to, with, by, at, in, on, and, and or. But each particle is translated differently depending on the context. For example, the particle de corresponds to in, by, or with in English:
Bosuton de benkyôsuru. (boh-soo-tohndeh behn-kyohh-soo-roo; I'll study in Boston.)
Takushî de iku. (tah-koo-sheee deh ee-koo; I'll go by taxi.)
Fôku de taberu. (fohh-koo deh tah-beh-roo; I eat with a fork.)
Translation is not always the best way to figure out a foreign language, so remember the particles in terms of their general functions, not their exact English translations.
- Table 1 presents Japanese particles and their various meanings.
CLICK TO ENLARGE
Labels: LEARN JAPANESE