Vocabulary

• ‘den-wa’ (telephone) literally means ‘electric-talk’: its kanji is 電 for electricity, and 話 for talk; 話 is also the kanji used in ‘hanashi-masu’ (to talk).
• the ‘o-sugi-masu’ used in the recording is ‘sugi-masu’ with the ‘o-‘ honorific.

Sample sentences

Eng: I can buy sake.
        However, I can’t buy beer.

lit: Sake? I can buy it.
      However, beer? I cannot buy it.

• The potential form doesn’t take a direct object so the particle is not を but が, or は, when comparing.

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Eng: I’d like money.
        I’d like 10 dollars.

lit: Money! I’d like some.
      10 dollars! I’d like them.

• ‘hoshi-i’ is an adjective, not a verb, so the direct object, ‘o-kane’, is indicated with ‘ga’ instead of ‘wo’
• we omit the particle when the direct object is a specific quantity (i.e., 10 dollars)
• the ‘ga’ at the end of each of the two formal sentences means ‘but…’. However, instead of translating ‘hoshi-i desu ga’ as ‘I like some but… (only if it’s not a problem)’ we are translating as ‘I’d like some’, which gives a similar feeling of politeness when compared to ‘I like some’.

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stop, stop, that is enough.

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Comments

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

Particles

ga/kedo – が・けど

‘ga/kedo’ means ‘but… (only if it is not a problem)’. It’s interesting that ‘ga’ is more polite than ‘kedo’, in spite that ‘ga’ is shorter than ‘kedo’. For example:

Expressions

-n desu ga/kedo – んですが

We apply this expression to the i-adjective to make it more polite. A sentence can finish in an i-adjective because the final ‘i’ plays the role of ‘is’ of the ‘to be’ verb. We can add the decorator ‘desu’ to make it formal. Finally we can change the decorator from ‘desu’ to ‘-n desu ga/kedo’, or from ‘da’ to ‘da ga/kedo’, to make it even more polite:

Since ‘-n desu ga’ is simply a ‘decorator’ of the ‘verb-turned-i-adjective’, then we mark the object with ‘ga’ instead of ‘wo’.

Adjectives

juu-bun-na – じゅうぶんな, 十分な

enough, sufficient

The kanji for ‘ten’ is 十, and the kanji for ‘part’ is 分; thus, 十分, the kanji for juu-bun (enough), means ‘ten parts’. Since we count in parts of ten (in the decimal system), then ‘juu-bun’ means ’10 tenths’, i.e., ‘complete’ or ‘enough’.