Vocabulary
English
child
companion
child/ren
your child/ren
man
woman
boy (man-child)
girl (woman-child)
big
little
person counter
how many people?
three persons
four persons
together
together with
oh, is that so?
romaji
ko
tomo
ko-domo
ko-domo san
otoko
onna
otoko-no-ko
onna-no-ko
ooki-i
chiisa-i
nin
nan-nin
san-nin
yo-nin
issho
to issho
aa, sou desu ka?
kana
こ
とも
こども
こども さん
おとこ
おんな
おとこの こ
おんなの こ
おおきい
ちいさい
にん
なんにん
さんにん
よにん
いっしょ
といっしょ
ああ、そう ですか
kanji
子
供
子供
子供さん
男
女
男の子
女の子
大きい
小さい
人
何人
三人
四人
Sample sentences
Eng: How many children do you have?
lit: how many person-children! Do they exist?
formal
nan nin ko-domo san ga imasu ka?
なん にん こども さんが いますか。
何人子供さんがいますか。
casual
nan nin ko-domo san ga iru?
なん にん こども さんが いる？
何人子供さんがいる？
English
I don’t have any boys (or girls).
I don’t have any boys (but I have girls).
I have boys.
I have 3 boys.
I have 3.
romaji
otoko-no-ko ga imasen.
otoko-no-ko wa imasen.
otoko-no-ko ga imasu.
san nin otoko-no-ko ga imasu.
san nin imasu. (specific number → no ‘ga’)
Comments
The following comments explain some of the grammar in more detail.
ko, ko-domo – こ・こども
Both ‘ko’ and ‘kodomo’ mean ‘child’ and ‘children’ but ‘ko-domo’ is used by itself, while ‘ko’ forms part of a compound word:
English
child/children
children
my child/children
boy/s
girl/s
puppy
kitten
calf
piglet
colt
romaji
ko-domo
ko-domo-tachi
boku no ko-domo
otoko-no-ko
onna-no-ko
ko-inu
ko-neko
ko-uchi
ko-buta
ko-uma
kana
こども
こどもたち
ぼくの こども
おとこのこ
おんなのこ
こいぬ
こねこ
こうし
こぶた
こうま
kanji
子供
子供たち
僕の子供
男の子, 男子
女の子, 女子
子犬
子猫
子牛
子豚
子馬
Although ’ko-domo’ can be used as ‘children’, ‘ko-domo-tachi’ makes clear that we are referring to more than one child.
Particles
no – の
One of the common roles of の is to function as the possessive apostrophe of English (‘s) (see page 6). Here we discuss a second role of の: we use it to indicate from what ‘set’ something is. For example, a green car is “a car from the green set”, while a boy is “a child from the male set”. Let’s see these and other examples:
English
green car
woman
girl
man
boy
American beer
Japanese car
my friend
my friend Hana
my wife Hana
Mr. Mori from SONY
a university in Kobe
literal Japanese
a car from the green set
a person from the female set
a child from the female set
a person from the male set
a child from the male set
a beer from the American set
a car from the Japanese set
a friend from the ‘mine’ set
Hana from the friends set
Hana from the wives set
Ms. Mori from the SONY set
a university from the Kobe set
Japanese
みどりの車
女の人
女の子
男の人
男の子
アメリカのビール
日本の車
わたしのともだち
ともだちの花
つまの花
SONYの森さん
こうべの大学
The combination of the from-set and possessive use of の can lead of long chains that function as units inside a sentence, i.e., we have to move the whole chain together.
English
(Ms. Mori from SONY)
(Ms. Mori from SONY)’s car
(Ms. Mori from SONY)’s (car from America)
My daughter Hana
Hana’s friend
Hana’s friend Mia
My daughter Hana’s friend
My daughter Hana’s friend Mia
日本語
(SONYの森さん)
(SONYの森さん) の車
(SONYの森さん) の (アメリカの車)
(むすめの花)
(花のともだち)
((花のともだち)のミア)
((むすめの花)のもだち)
(((むすめの花)のともだち)のミア)
The Japanese name of ‘Attack on Titan’ is 進撃の巨人 (shingeki no kyojin). This の is the ‘from-set’-の we just went over. 進撃 (shingeki) means ‘charge’ or ‘attack’, while 巨人 (kyojin) means ‘giant’ but, for the series, it was translated as ‘titan’. Thus, the Japanese title, 進撃の巨人, is ‘the titan from the attack set’, or ‘the attack titan’, i.e., the show’s title is the name of Eren’s first titan.