Japanese I-21

Vocabulary


English
New York

reality, truth
real, true
really, truly
it’s true

hand/s
hand-washing
lavatory
toilet

we/us
our

one person
two persons

my family
your family

to wash
masu (formal)
dict (casual)
-te (imperative)


romaji
niuu-yooku

hon-tou-na
hon-tou
hon-tou ni
hon-tou desu

te
te-arai
o-te-arai
toire

watashi-tachi
watashi-tachi-no

hitori
futari

ka-zoku
go-ka-zoku

 
arau
araimasu
aratte


kana
ニューヨーク

ほんとうな
ほんとう
ほんとうに
ほんとう です


てあらい
おてあらい
トイレ

わたしたち
わたしたちの

ひとり
ふたり

かぞく
ごかぞく

 
あらう
あらいます
あらって


kanji
 

本当な
本当
本当に
本当です


手あらい
お手あらい
トイレ

私たち
私たちの

一人
二人

 
 

 
 
 
 


Sample sentences


where are your children?
the boy is here.
the boy is not here.

where is your wife?
my wife is here.
my wife is not here.


koーdomo san wa doko ni i-masu ka?
otoko-no-ko wa koko ni i-masu.
otoko-no-ko wa koko ni i-masen.

ka-nai wa doko desu ka?
ka-nai wa koko desu.
ka-nai wa koko ja ari-masen.


Comments

The following comments explain some of the grammar in more detail.

Nouns

otearai – おてあらい, お手あらい

There are many ways to say ‘bathroom’ in English: lavatory, bath-room, rest-room, powder-room, toilet. Japanese is no different; ‘o-te-arai’ (lavatory) and ‘toire’ (toilet) are only two of them.

‘o-te-arai’ means ‘to wash hands’ plus the ‘o-‘ honorific.

hitori, futari – ひとり, ふたり

We saw ‘san-nin’ (three persons) and ‘yo-nin’ (four persons) in lesson 20. These use ‘nin’, the counter for persons. In this lesson we see ‘hitori'(one person) and ‘futari'(two persons), which do not use ‘nin’. As far as person counting, these three words – hitori, futari, and yo-nin (instead of ‘yon-nin’) – are the only exceptions to the rule of attaching the counter to the number of persons:


# persons
how many people?
one
two
three
four
five
six
seven
eight
nine
ten


romaji
nan-nin?
hitori
futari
san-nin
yo-nin
go-nin
roku-nin
shichi-nin
hachi-nin
kyuu-nin
juu-nin


kana
なんにん
ひとり
ふたり
さんにん
よにん
ごにん
ろくにん
しちにん
はちにん
きゅうにん
じゅうにん


kanji
何人
一人
二人
三人
四人
五人
六人
七人
八人
九人
十人


In spite of the unusual pronunciation of ‘hitori’ and ‘futari’, which do not use the ‘nin’ suffix, their kanjis do use it.