Vocabulary
English
Yes (I agree)
No (I disagree)
a little, a few
I, me (formal)
I, me (casual)
you (formal)
you (casual)
Sun
origin
Japan (Sun’s origin)
America
Britain, British
Canada
France
person
Japanese person
American person
Canadian person
language
Japanese language
English language
French
to understand
masu (formal)
dict (casual)
to feel at ease
masu (formal)
dict (casual)
romaji
hai
iie
sukoshi
watashi
boku
anata
kimi
ni
hon
ni-hon
amerika
ei
kanada
furensu
jin
ni-hon-jin
amerika-jin
kanada-jin
go
ni-hon-go
ei-go
furensu-go
wakari-masu
wakaru
sumi-masu
sumu
kana
はい
いいえ
すこし
わたし
ぼく
あなた
きみ
に
ほん
にほん
アメリカ
えい
カナダ
フレンス
じん
にほんじん
アメリカじん
カナダじん
ご
にほんご
えいご
フレンスご
わかります
わかる
すみます
すむ
kanji
少し
私
僕
君
日
本
日本
人
日本人
アメリカ人
カナダ人
語
日本語
英語
フレンス語
分かります
分かる
- We will focus on the kanjis in the Kentei lv. 10.
- Sometimes a word does not have a kanji, e.g., ‘hai’ is always written in hiragana, as はい.
- Kanjis in red are correct but usually the word is written in kana.
- We can reply ‘iie’ to someone that is thanking us for something, to mean ‘no (problem)’.
- We will often split the romaji according to the Kanjis in the word, e.g., 日本人 would be ni-hon-jin, meaning sun-origin-person, i.e., a Japanese person.
Sample sentences
Eng: I understand a little Japanese.
Lit: Me? Japanese! I understand it a little.
This sentence illustrates the main differences between formal and casual speech:
verbs
pronouns
adjectives
particles
Formal speech
-masu form
formal pronouns
formal adjectives
particles are explicit
casual speech
dictionary form
casual pronouns
casual adjectives
particles are implied
formal vs. casual
wakarimasu/wakaru
watashi vs. boku
sukoshi vs. chotto
wa/ga vs. nothing
Comments
The following comments explain some of the grammar in more detail.
Pronouns
I/you – watashi/anata
In Japanese, we can say ‘I’ and ‘you’ in many ways. ‘watashi’ is fairly safe to use for ‘I’. However, the respectful way to address someone else is not using ‘you’, directly, but addressing him or her indirectly, using the person’s last name and an honorific, e.g., ‘Tanaka san’; even ‘anata’, which is fairly formal, can be insulting in some cases. ‘anata’ is an example of how indirect the Japanese try to be; ‘anata’ literally means ‘that person over there’ even though we are using it to address the person right in front of us.
In pop culture, where casual speech reigns, ‘boku’ and ‘kimi’ are common and relatively polite, so we will use them here. The kanjis of ‘watashi’, ‘boku’ and ‘kimi’ are not in the kentei lv. 10 list, but we use these words so often that it is worth learning them:
I, me
watashi
わたし
私
formal
boku
ぼく
僕
casual, male only
you
anata (you)
あなた
formal
kimi (you)
きみ
君
casual
We can say ‘I’ and ‘you’ in many other ways; we comment about some of these in the clips.
Particles
Japanese ‘particles’ play the role of prepositions and conjunctions in English; they are words like ‘to’, ‘for’, ‘at’, ‘with’, ‘but’, or ‘in’. In Japanese, these particles usually follow the noun, e.g.,
English prepositions
to Tokyo
on Monday
by bus
at school
with you
until tomorrow
Japanese particles (postpositions)
toukyou he
getsu-youbi ni
basu de
gakkou ni
anata to
ashita made
ka/no – か・の
In lesson 1, ‘ka’ (か) performs its most common function: literally, it’s the question mark ‘?’.
English
English! Do you understand it?
You? Are you American?
romaji
ei-go ga wakari-masu ka
anata wa amerika-jin desu ka
When writing in Japanese, with kanjis or kanas, we often omit the question mark ‘?’ if the question ends in ‘ka’ because ‘ka’ is already the question mark, so writing ‘か?’ is like writing ‘??’. However, we often write the question mark ‘?’ when the question doesn’t end in ‘ka’, e.g., when it ends in は, の, な, ね, or something else.
English
Do you understand?
What about you?
Mr. Tanaka?
romaji
wakari-masu ka?
kimi wa?
tanaka san?
kana
わかりますか。
きみは?
たあなかさん?
kanji
分かりますか。
君は?
田中さん?
When we are being formal (e.g., talking to our boss) we use long sentences, and use the ‘-masu’ form of verbs (e.g., ‘wakari-masu’); when we are being casual (e.g., talking to a young sibling) we use short sentences, often drop (omit) particles, and use the short ‘dictionary’ form of verbs (e.g., ‘wakaru’):
Do you understand English?
English
formal
casual
more casual
romaji
ei-go ga wakari-masu ka?
ei-go ga wakaru ka?
ei-go wakaru ?
kana
えいごが わかりますか。
えいごが わかるか。
えいご わかる?
Sometimes the question mark ‘?’ is denoted with ‘no’ (の) instead of ‘ka’ (か), specially by women and children. For example, the formal title of the Japanese version of Eric Carle’s
“Brown Bear Brown Bear What do you see?”
would be
“kuma san kuma san nani wo mite imasu ka?”,
but since it is a children’s book the actual title is
“kuma san kuma san nani miteru no?”,
i.e., the casual version drops the ‘wo’ particle; it uses ‘miteru’, an abbreviation of the casual form ‘mite iru’, instead of the formal ‘masu’ form ‘mite imasu’; and – what we actually are interested in – it uses ‘no’ instead of ‘ka’ to represent the question mark ‘?’.
It is also common, particularly in casual conversation, to replace the spoken question mark, either the ‘ka’ or the ‘no’, with a ‘ne?’ or a ‘na?’, which would mean ‘right?’, or to even remove it completely and make clear that it is a question with the intonation:
English
Are you ok?
Are you ok?
You are ok… right?
You are ok… right?
Are you ok?
romaji
dai-jou-bu ka
dai-jou-bu no
dai-jou-bu ne?
dai-jou-bu na?
dai-jou-bu ?
kana
だいじょうぶか?
だいじょうぶの?
だいじょうぶね?
だいじょうぶな?
だいじょうぶ?
wa – は
A long time ago, the particle ‘wa’ used to be pronounced ‘ha’ (は); later the pronunciation changed to ‘wa’ (わ), but the writing of the particle remained ‘は’. We will write this particle in romaji as it sounds, i.e., ‘wa’.
は is the ‘topic marker’; we use it to mark what comes before は as the topic of the conversation, and to emphasize what comes after は as the important part of the sentence, e.g.,
watashi wa amerika-jin desu.
Me? I’m American.
Above we have used ‘wa’ to mark ‘watashi’ as the topic of the sentence, and to say that what is important is that ‘watashi’ is American. The part that precedes は, i.e., the topic, is often known from the context and it is secondary to the point that we can often omit it:
watashi wa amerika-jin desu.
Me? I’m American.
The possibility of omitting the topic leads to different ways of saying the same thing:
topic
explicit (formal)
implicit (formal)
explicit (casual)
explicit, at the end (casual)
English
Me? I am american
I am american
Me… I am american
I am american… me
romaji
watashi wa amerika-jin desu
america-jin desu
watashi… amerika-jin desu
america-jin desu… watashi
‘wa’ is often translated as ‘Speaking of…’ or ‘As for…’, but we are going to translate it just as a question mark [Rubin], e.g.,
watashi wa amerika-jin desu.
Me? I’m American.
(instead of “Speaking of me, I’m American.”)
Translating は as ‘?’ feels natural and fits well even in cases where the sentence consists only of the topic:
amerika-jin desu. anata wa?
I’m American. You?
ga – が
‘ga’ (が) has multiple functions. In lesson 1, we use it as the ‘subject’ marker, i.e., we mark what comes before が as the subject of the sentence and emphasize it, i.e., it’s the important part of the sentence. In the same way we can translate the topic marker ‘wa’ (は) as ‘?’, we can translate the subject marker ‘ga’ (が) as ‘!’ [Rubin]. For example, we might use either of these translations:
ei-go ga wakari-masu.
English! That I understand. (I understand English)
English! I understand it.
We cannot use context to identify the ‘subject’ that が marks because it is unknown, so we cannot remove it. Actually, Tae Kim goes as far as calling ‘ga’ the ‘identifier particle’ instead of the ‘subject marker’.
When using は, what is important follows the marker; when using が, what is important precedes the marker. In the following sentences, we mark ‘ei-go’ as both the topic of the first sentence, and the subject of the second one; we have underlined the part of the sentence that is important according to the particle used:
topic marker は
subject marker が
ei-go wa wakaru.
ei-go ga wakaru.
English ? I understand it.
English ! I understand it.
To highlight the difference further, check out the following questions. Google translate translates them both as ‘Does Mr. Mori understand/know English?’, which is correct, but the nuance is lost:
eigo wa mori san ga wakaru ka?
mori san wa eigo ga wakaru ka?
English? Does Mr. Mori understand it?
Mr. Mori? Does he understand English?
Another example: from behind, we cover the eyes of a friend that we are trying to surprise. How do we reveal ourselves saying ‘Its me!’? Do we use ‘watashi wa’, or ‘watashi ga’? Well… we would say the same thing we would say in English: ‘watashi wa’ translates to ‘(Is it) me?’ (a stupid thing to ask to someone we are trying to surprise), while ‘watashi ga’ translates to ‘(It is) me!’ (surprise!), which is the correct response. So the important lesson here is that we don’t go around surprising people and revealing ourselves with ‘watashi wa’ because that does not make any sense.
Verbs
desu/da – です・だ
Usually, we pronounce ‘desu’ as ‘des’, i.e., the ‘u’ is very faint, or omitted completely.
‘desu’ is the verb ‘to be’; it is often called the ‘copula’, which means that it ‘links two things’. For example, in English, we link ‘John’ and ‘American’ with the verb ‘to be’ – “John is American”, while is Japanese we link them with the verb ‘desu’: “John wa america-jin desu”.
Japanese verbs don’t have singulars and plurals, so ‘desu’ is any of the conjugations of the verb ‘to be’:
watashi wa amerika-jin desu.
anata wa amerika-jin desu.
sumisu san wa amerika-jin desu.
tomu to jerii wa amerika-jin desu.
Me? I am American.
You? You are American.
Mr. Smith? He is American.
Tom and Jerry? They are American.
‘desu’ is used in formal speech; the casual version of ‘desu’ is ‘da’:
boku wa amerika-jin da.
kimi wa amerika-jin da.
sumisu san wa amerika-jin da.
tomu to jerii wa amerika-jin da.
Me? I am American.
You? You are American.
Mr. Smith? He is American.
Tom and Jerry? They are American.
Although ‘desu’ is formal, it is actually the abbreviation of even more polite forms, all of which mean ‘to be’:
to be
formal
formal+
formal++
formal+++
formal++++
de su
de aru
de gozaru
de ar-imasu
de goza-imasu
Some of these forms are archaic, so they often appear in samurai movies. Service personnel still use the last form to show extreme politeness to their patrons. Hence, it would not be unusual that a receptionist at a hotel or restaurant would introduce their place in the phone using it, e.g., instead of saying ‘toukyou hoteru desu’, they would say ‘touyou hoteru de goza-imasu’.
masu form
The ‘masu’ form is a formal verb form. Usually, we pronounce ‘masu’ as ‘mas’, not ‘masu’. In the ‘masu’ form, we attach the particle ‘-masu’ – or a variation of it – to the end of the verb; we attach ‘-masu’ for the positive conjugation, and ‘-masen’ for the negative one:
non-past
positive
–masu (ます)
negative
-masen (ません)
non-past
present tense
future
tabe-masu
I eat
I (will/am going to) eat
tabe-masen
I don’t eat
I (won’t/am not going to) eat
The ‘masu’ form is always formal. In the following examples, we modify the verbs ‘wakaru’ (to understand) and ‘sumu’ (to feel at ease) to use the ‘masu’ form.
English
I understand
I don’t understand
I feel at ease
I don’t feel at ease
romaji
wakari-masu
wakari-masen
sumi-masu
sumi-masen
kana
わかります
わかりません
すみます
すみません
dictionary form
The ‘dictionary’ form of a verb is the form in which the verb appears in a dictionary. This is the most used form in pop culture and casual conversations. In the same way that all non-past endings of the ‘masu’ form end in ‘-masu’ and ‘-masen’, all non-past endings of the dictionary form end in ‘-u’ and ‘-nai’:
non-past
positive
-u (-う)
negative
-nai (-ない)
English
I understand
I don’t understand
I feel at ease
I don’t feel at ease
romaji
wakaru
wakara-nai
sumu
suma-nai
kana
わかる
わからない
すむ
すまない
Both る (ru) and む (mu) are syllables that end in ‘u’ so we are not breaking the rule that all dictionary verbs end in ‘-u’.
Expressions
sumi-masen – すみません
The negative ‘masu’ form of ‘sumu’ (to feel at ease) is ‘sumi-masen’, which means ‘to not feel at ease’; we use it as a light formal apology, similar to ‘excuse me’; ‘sumi-masen’ is usually pronounced ‘sui-masen’, without the ‘m’. To make the apology more formal, we follow it with ‘desu’. The negative dictionary form of ‘sumu’ is ‘suma-nai’, which is the corresponding light casual apology; to make it more casual we shorten it to ‘suman’. If we want to apologize for something that is completely in the past, as opposed to some ongoing process, we can conjugate the verb in the past.
English
I’m very sorry (more formal)
I’m sorry (formal)
sorry (casual)
oops (more casual)
I’m very sorry for what happened (formal)
sorry for what happened (very casual)
romaji
sumi-masen desu
sumi-masen
suma-nai
suman
sumi-masen deshita
suma-nakatta
In the direction of being even more casual than ‘suman’, the adjective ‘warui’ (bad) is also used as a very casual apology; it means ‘my bad’.
We can use ‘sumi-masen’ as an apology, or to replace ‘thank you’. Less formal than ‘sumi-masen’ is ‘gomen nasai’, which can only be used as an apology, though:
English
pardon, please (formal)
pardon me (casual)
romaji
gomen nasai
gomen (ne/na)
More formal than ‘sumimasen’, and used to apologize to a superior, we have
English
formal apology for an ongoing process
formal apology for something in the past
romaji
moushiwake ari-masen
moushiwake ari-masen deshita