Vocabulary
English
slowly
fast; early
too fast
expensive; tall
too expensive
thing
shopping
For me?
In dollars?
want to do (casual)
want to do (formal)
would like to do
romaji
yukkuri
haya-i
haya-sugi-masu
taka-i
taka-sugi-masu
mono
kai-mono
watashi ni wa
doru de wa
shi-tai
shi-tai desu
shi-tai-n desu ga
kana
ゆっくり
はやい
はやすぎます
たかい
たかすぎます
もの
かいもの
わたしには
ドルでは
したい
したい です
したいん ですが
kanji
早い
早すぎます
高い
高すぎます
物
買い物
私には
ドルでは
- ‘shopping’ is ‘kai-mono’, i.e., ‘buy-thing’.
- ‘haya-i’ also means ‘early’ and it is the root of ‘o-hayou’, meaning ‘good morning’
Sample sentences
Eng: I’d like to shop.
lit: shop-thing? I’d like to do it.
formal
kai-mono ga shi-tai-n desu ga
かいものが したいん ですが。
買い物がしたいんですが。
casual
kai-mono ga shi-tai.
かいものが したい。
買い物がしたい。
Comments
The following comments explain some of the grammar in more detail.
mono – もの、物
In English, we use ‘-er’ to turn verbs into nouns, i.e., ‘-er’ means something like ‘do-er’:
verb
to walk
to stroll
to compute
to wash
to dry
noun
walker
stroller
computer
washer
dryer
In Japanese, we use ‘mono’ (thing) to also turn verbs into nouns, in a somewhat similar fashion:
verb
to buy
to drink
to eat
to board
to build
to wear
to gift
to forget
to read
romaji
kau
nomu
taberu
noru
tateru
kiru
okuru
wasureru
yomu
noun
shopping
beverage
food
vehicle
building
clothes
gift
lost item
reading material
romaji
kai-mono
nomi-mono
tabe-mono
nori-mono
tate-mono
ki-mono
okuru-mono
wasure-mono
yomi-mono
and to turn adjectives into nouns:
adjective
real
popular
cheap
bad
young
big
romaji
honto-na
ninki-na
yasu-i
waru-i
waka-i
ooki-i
noun
real thing
popular person
cheap thing
bad person
young person
important person
romaji
hon-mono
ninki-mono
yasu-mono
waru-mono
waka-mono
oo-mono
and we can append it to nouns to generalize them:
noun
treasure
romaji
takara
noun
treasured thing
romaji
takara-mono