[Erosennin900]

Thanks to Darkshadowlurker for the sticky!

Thanks to everyone else for your patience, support and Ideas

Notices:

This thread will no longer be updated. But that dosen't mean that YOU GUYS can't post.

Please keep this thread active by practicing and ask/answering each others questions.

Use these basics and go on to learn much more from others. Good luck.





Konnichiwa! Welcome to Japanese 101!

If most of you watch anime you'll know what that means, and you'll probably know some other stuff too, but this is your chance to learn some serious Japanese and hopefully help you understand the language.

Now, this isn't a simple phrasebook, oh no, these are real lessons from a real Japanese guy (me) I've spoken the language for 19 years so I hope I know what I'm doing

Before we start just some things to remember:

*Japanese is not insanely hard, but nor is it easy (try chinese for a challenge)
the grammer and words are completly different from any other English or European Language.

*Take your time, don't rush and forget things.

*Use this thread for discussion and practice, you can all help each other learn.

*Lessons will be update as and when I have time

Before we start

Now, If your not shaking with terror we'll get started. If you scroll down a bit you'll see a few spoilers with the lessons inside to save space because they will be quite long. I will also try to colour code things to help make you understand the structure of sentances

All the lessons except the first will be 100% phonetics, refer back to lesson 1 for the symbols.


Lesson one - Pronunciation

  Spoiler: pronouncing things 

Welcome to lesson one, I'll try not to bore you.

This is purely focused on Pronunciation and symbols used when writing.

There are three different ways of writing Japanese which together make up the entire language. and writing system. They are: Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji. For this lesson I'm going to going to introduce you to the Japanese alphabet. Romaji is a term used for the 'phonetic' Japanese, where everyword is written in English letters

There are 46 Hiragana and 46 Katakana, they sound they same but consist of different symbols when written. An important thing about speaking in Japanese is that every symbol is pronouced - there are no silent sounds - so make sure that if you do practice speaking, remember to phrase every sound every time. Look at the underlined parts in the English words to get an idea of the sound.

This is the Japanese alphabet in Hiragana and Katakana:

  Spoiler: The Japanese alphabet 

Right click on the image go click on 'view image' for a bigger view, you can then right click and 'save as' if you want or try this link
ImageShack - Image Hosting :: hkkw6.png

Its a long list but take your time with it, If you open the link in a different page you can flick back and forth, keep it open while you go through the other lessons and save it to your PC if you like and use it whenever you need to.

There isn't really any 'accent' to Japanese just speak the symbols as they sound and you'll be fine. As for speaking sentances, its the same as English, Sentences that are questions go up at the end, sentences that are statements go down a little bit at the end, sarcasm sounds pretty much like English (must be universal really )

Try using that list on words and names you already know such as Na - ru - to or Tsu - na - de and practice getting the right sound, Try some others while your here

Its magic see?

As far as writing goes, Hiragana and Katakana can also be written in Romaji. Hiragana is used for everyday writing, whereas Katakana is used for foreign words that are brought into Japanese (theres quite a few) Kanji is completly different as there are litterally tens of thousands, often one symbol in Kanji will translate to a whole word or a sentance in Romaji. I'll stay away from Kanji in these lessons, unless you really wanna try learning :P

Here are the 5 vowels in Romaji, Hiragana and Katakana:

Romaji: a i u e o
Hiragana: あ　い　う　え　お
Katakana: ア　イ　ウ　エ　オ　

As well as three writing Systems there are also multiple levels of politeness involved in speech which we will look at later.

Almost every thing Japanese is made up of those symbols in the picture above, take time to learn a few before moving on to lesson 2 (if your not too scared by now that is)

I will not cover writing in these lessons because as I said before writing uses a combination of Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji.

Kanji

Won't be teaching this, to give you an idea of how it is, lets take the kanji for love which as you know is on Gaara's forehead.

its written as 愛

But did you know that there are 3 more ways of writing love in kanji?
恋 慈 好

THATS why I'm not teaching kanji here

Lesson two - Basic Grammar

  Spoiler: My first Grammar 

Your still here? Well in that case welcome to lesson two!!

Because your on Tailedfox I'm going to assume your all anime nuts, so you probably know some Japanese, That won't stop me from covering basics though

Word order

Well this is where you'll start learning to write in Japanese and if you've learnt some sounds - speak it aswell. In English the sentance order is subject-verb-object, In Japanese this order changes to subject-object-verb Almost all teachers here will start with "This is a pen" but i'm not going to do that. Check out the first example:

"Kore wa katana desu" - "This is a sword"

See? No pens there!
In this sentence, "Kore" ("this") is the subject, "Katana" ("sword") is the object, and the verb, "desu", is at the end, its colour coded to help make things easier.

"Desu"
Desu is the general "to be" word in Japanese. In technical terms its not a true verb, buta word that functions as a verb. Its the generalreplacement for "is" "are" and "am" and many others in English - its one thats heard alot in anime.

And while I'm here I must correct myself, I said earlier there are no silent letters in Japanese - well this is the one exception to the rule, Its usually spoken as "des" but spelt as "Desu" - whichever way you speak it makes no real difference.

Congratulations you now know about Japanese Grammar than most of the world!

Particles
If your wondering what the "wa" is doing up there - its a particle.
Particles are little words with no meaning that are used to mark parts in a sentance and link words. The difficult bit is remembering that it is NOT a replacement for "a"

In the sentence "Kore wa katana desu.", we have "Kore", which we know is the subject not only because it is at the beginning of the sentence, but also more importantly because it is followed by "wa". Then comes the object, "katana", and finally the "is" verb, "desu".

I know I might be drifting off but its important to know particles and how they work, I'll stick with "wa" for now, but i'll bring in other particles as we go.

Wait, what about the "a" then?
In the sentance "Kore wa Katana desu." There is nothing that replaces the "a", Simply because there are no words like "a" "an" or "the" in Japanese. Its hard to explain but you'll get it as you go.

So as an example its normal for you to be looking at a shiny metal knife wondering what it is when someone you don't know says "Katana desu" (literally "is sword") which in english would mean "Its a sword"

I and Me
Lets assume this Katana is magic and suddenly says

"Watashi wa Katana desu" - "I am a sword"

In this case "watashi" is the subject instead of "kore" Because the Katana is talking about itself. "watashi" is the same as "I" and "me" in English. So because we now know how to say "I am" we can say something simple and Useful such as

"Watashi wa Makoto Desu."

You should be able to figure out that one easy

Recap

So if we simplify our basic sentance structure

"(Subject) wa (something) desu." - "(Subject) is (something)"

You can now introduce yourselves to each other.

"Ka"

The last part i'll add here is about one of the most useful particles you'll learn "ka"
Putting "ka" at the end of a sentance will change that sentance into a question
For instance

"Watashi wa baka desu" - I am an idiot"
"Watashi wa baka desu ka?" - "Am I an idiot?"

Its just more magic

More Sentances

Heres some more fun sentances with the same pattern

"Kore wa pen desu." - "This is a pen."
"Kore wa raito seibaa desu." - "This is a light saber."
"Kuruma desu." - "It's a car."
"Watashi wa Sakura desu." - "I am Sakura."
"Sakura desu ka?" - "Am I Sakura?"
"Watashi wa neko desu." - "I am a cat."
"Watashi wa Shinigami desu." - "I am the God of Death."
"Watashi wa baka desu." - "I am an idiot."

First one look familiar? The reason I didn't start with Pen is because in Japanese "Pen" is...well..."Pen"



See you all in lesson three!

[Erosennin900]

Lesson three - All about me.

  Spoiler: me me ME! 

Hello!! Welcome to Lesson three!

Recap lesson two, you now know the basic sentence structure - chant it 100 times: subject-object-verb...
Now let's be selfish and talk about ourselves.

In the last lesson you learnt to say "Watashi wa (object) desu" and how to turn it into a question, and most of you found it easy, Here i'm going to teach you to properly introduce yourself, to do this you really only need three words:

"Hajimemashite" is a sentance pattern which does not really translate into anything, but it means the same as "how do you do":

"Hajimemashite" - "how do you do"
"Doozo Yoroshiku" - Pleased to meet you"

Put them into sentances:

Hinata "Hajimemashite. Watashi wa Hinata desu. Doozo Yoroshiku" - "How do you do. I am Hinata. Pleased to meet you"

Makoto "Makoto desu. Yoroshiku." - "I'm Makoto. Nice to meet you."

Notice that the wandering Ninja Makoto is so cool he left off "Watashi" and "Doozo"
This is a slightly less formal way in introducing himself. He does that because its clear he is talking about himself, as Japanese speakers will tend to drop the subject if its clear what they are talking about. "Doozo" on its own means "very"

Me Myself and I
If you payed attention before you'll know that "Watashi" is the word for both "me" and "I". This is handy since every time you want to talk about yourself you just use "Watashi" although at this point I've only taught you how to use sentances that begin with "I" but at least you could have a simple conversation now

Hinata "Watashi wa bengoshi desu" - I am a lawyer
Makoto "Watashi wa Shinobi desu. Shine!" - "I am a Ninja. Die!"

I, I, I and I?

Try listening for "watashi" in anime, you won't find it very much because there are many different words for "I" in Japanese, there are ways that differ in gender, Social status and depending on how polite you want to be. Here are a few of the common ways of saying "I" but remember there are lots more

"Watashi" -male or female, polite way
"Atashi" - used only by women slightly less polite than watashi
"Boku" - used only by men, generally younger men or those not acting tough
"Ore" - men only, has a bit of a tough image
"Watakushi" - male or female; extremely polite

I'll keep using Watashi in the examples but keep those in mind.

Don't overuse it

I mentioned earlier about forgetting the subject after the first sentance; well after you've established the subject (in this case you) you can drop it. This is important if your talking because it sounds funny if you keep saying "Watashi" at the start of every sentance and can make you a bit look big-headed. Heres an example.

"Watashi wa Yamamoto Yohko desu. Pairotto desu." - "I am Yohko Yamamoto. I'm a pilot"

Again the speaker dropped the "watashi" after the first sentance once it was clear she is talking about herself

As a small side note, in case you didn't know, Japanese names are backwards. So if a person's name is Yamamoto Yohko, that means her first name is Yohko and her family name is Yamamoto. This only applies inside Japan though, in other countries the names are in normal order

Mine, mine, MINE!

Ok so let's try something a bit more useful than just "I am...". Let's own something. How do we say "my" in Japanese? "Watashi no". Example:

"Watashi no katana" - "My katana"

Lets try a full sentance

"Kore wa watashi no katana desu" - "This is my Katana"

That wasn't too painful was it? Heres another one:

"Kore wa watashi no desu" - "This is mine"

Oh No!!!


Lets have some fun now, "no" is another particle (like "wa" and "ka") that has no meaning.
What it does is mark the word before it as the owner of something else.

In the same way that "wa" marks the word before it as being something, and "ka" marks the sentance before it as a question

If you think of "no" being like like a " 's " then you'll be fine Heres some examples.

1. "Watashi no" - "Mine")
2. "Watashi no uchuusen" - "My space ship"
3. "Watashi no mono" - "My thing" or "Mine"
4. "Kenshiro no chi" - "Kenshiro's blood"
5. "Minmei no uta" - "Minmay's song"
6. "Shinobi no katana" - "Ninja's sword" or "The sword of a Ninja"
7. "Jiraiya no Konoha" - "Jiraiya of Konoha"

Check out number 3 - "mono" just means "thing" or "object" in Japanese, so "watashi no mono" means "my thing" or "my possession". This works in English, but you usually just say "mine"

Number 7 is a bit trickier. Number 6 should give you an idea of how "no" can also mean something like the English word "of". The only problem is, you reverse the order in English when you use "of" instead of " 's ", but "no" always follows the thing that does the owning in Japanese, so it's easier to just think of it like an " 's "

Hope I explained it ok, remember you can use the alternatives to "watashi" for any of these sentances, I'm just using "watashi" everytime to keep it simple for now

Need more help with particles? Just message me or ask here! I'll be sure to help, or maybe someone else will

Combining everything

Ways to use "watashi"

"Watashi wa (something) desu." - "I am (something)."
"Atashi wa (something) desu." - "I am (something)." - female only
"Boku wa (something) desu." - "I am (something)." - male only
"(something) wa (something)" - "(something) is (something)" - can be used for describing shape or colour and so on.

And ways to use "no"

"Watashi no" - "Mine"
"Watashi no (something)" - "My (something)"
"(Something) no (something)" - "(Something)'s (something)"
or "(Something) no (something)" - "(something) of (Something)" - pay attention to the order

Now lets combine the two:

"Watashi wa Hinata no Katana desu"

"Hinata" is a name so if you figure it out...Yep!! More talking swords! "I am Hinata's sword
I know its not the best example but whow cares? I'm being creative here.
So for fun lets switch the positons of "wa" and "no"

"Watashi no Hinata wa katana desu"

Its strange but if you figure it out you'll realise that someone has named the sword Hinata and is explaining that "Hinata" is a sword and not his girlfriend.
"My Hinata is a sword"
Just watch where you put the particles and you'll be fine.

Heres a better example:

"Watashi no namae Makoto desu"

Theres a new word there "Namae" it shouldn't be hard to figure out it means "name" - they are pretty similar - Just remember to pronouce is Na-mah-eh
So have you should be able to guess it means "My name is Makoto"

Heres the final example where the Subject and object use "no"

"Watashi no Katana wa minna no mono desu"

If you look at the new words in there "minna" means "everyone" and Mono means something like "thing" so "Minna no mono" means "everyones thing" or "belongs to everyone" so that sentance says:

"My sword belongs to everyone"

More examples
Heres a selection of other examples that use different versions of "watashi" and some new objects.

1. "Ore no namae wa Ryuu desu" - "My name is Ryuu"
2. "Kore wa atashi no kuruma desu" - "This is my car"
3. "Kore wa ore no okane desu" - "This is my money"
4. "Ore no okane wa ore no mono desu" - "My money is mine (my thing)"
5. "Anata no okane mo ore no mono desu" - "Your money is also mine"
6. "Anata wa watashi no tomodachi desu" - "You are my friend"

The new words here are "kuruma" which is "car" "okane" which is "money" and "tomodachi" which is "friend" and also "anata" which is one of the words for "you" which I'll go over in the next lesson

Theres also another particle in number 5 "mo" which is used the same way as "wa" but adds the meaning of "also" or "too" just remember that it replaces "wa" don't use them both together- I'll explain that more in a future lesson too.

Remember to practice, and lesson 4 will be out as soon as I can get it done

[Erosennin900]

Lesson four - This, This, This and This

  Spoiler: How many thises? 

Welcome to lesson four. This whole section is based on something which Juugo reminded me about, I hadn't covered this section yet - and its important too

This, That and That other thing

You already know how to say "this" - "kore", well depending on where the object being talked about is there are variants that follow this pattern. "sore" means the same as "that" and theres a third one I'll tell you about "are" which means "that over there". Heres how they work:

"kore" - something near the person talking
"sore" - something near the person being talked to
"are" - something that's not near anybody

Here are some rather deadly examples:

"Kore wa pisutoru desu." - "This is a pistol."
"Sore wa bakudan desu!" - "That is a bomb!"
"Are wa hikooki desu." - "That over there is a plane."

In the first sentence, the person is talking about something that they're holding. In the second one, the person they're talking to is either holding a bomb or standing near one. In the third sentence, the plane "Hikooki" isn't near either person in the conversation. In regular conversation, "sore" and "are" are a bit more flexible than that, but it's better to remember it correctly.

If your wondering about the word for "which" its "dore" which I'll cover more when we get to asking questions.

Ko-So-A-Do!

You might have noticed a bit of a pattern with these words - they all end in "re". This is very handy, because there are several other sets of words in Japanese that use the same pattern - they have a "ko-something", "so-something", "a-something", and "do-something". These are sometimes cleverly called "kosoado kotoba" ("kotoba" means "word").

For now, to keep your head from exploding, we'll only look at one more set. These will be your very first set of adjectives, which all end in "no":

"kono katana" - "this Sword"
"sono terebi" - "that TV"
"ano hito" - "that person over there"
"dono bakudan" - "which bomb"

They all work just like the same words in English - you just stick them before any noun, and then, instead of talking about just any old object, you can identify one in particular. Handy for pointing out something if there are many similar ones nearby. For example, compare these two sentences:

"Terebi desu." - "It's a TV."
"Kono terebi desu." - "This TV."

This is again, all building up to asking questions.

This and This?

You might be getting confused by the difference between "kono" and "kore", since they both seem to mean "this". They do - in English, "kore" and "kono" are both written "this", but even in English they're two different this-es.

The important thing to remember is that "kore" is a noun - you can use it for the subject of a sentence.
"This is something." - that "this" is "kore".

"Kono", however, is an adjective; you use it to modify a noun.
"This car is Red."- that "this" is "kono".

Put simply, "kono" is for describing. Get it? More confused now than before? If so, forget you ever read this - "kono" - paragraph.

Recap

Lets go over the useful ways to use This's and that's - "no"'s

"Kono (something)" - "This (something)"
"Sono (something)" - "That (something)"
"Ano (something)" - "That (something over there)"
"Dono (something)" - "Which (something)"

And combining it all...

Kono (something) wa (something) desu" - "This (something) is (something)"
(Name) wa (something) desu" - "(name) is (something)"

Example time!

1 "Sore wa boku no mono desu." - "That belongs to me."
2 "Are wa Oni desu." - "That over there is an Ogre."
3 "Ano Katana wa boku no mono desu." - "That sword over there belongs to me."
4 "Sono kami wa okane desu." - "That paper is money."
5 "Mastaz-Sama wa Shinjin desu." - "Mastaz is Godlike."

More useful words here "okane" means "money"
"Boku" is another way of saying "me"
"Shinjin" Means "godlike person" and "Oni" Means among other things, "Ogre"

The "Sama" after Mastaz has no translation into English, Its whats called a Honorific - A kind of title which I'll cover in the next lesson.

Number three is worth an extra look at, pay attention to where the particles are in the sentance. "wa" is being used to explain that the sword is the subject and "no" is linking the object to the owner. "desu" is functioning as the "s" on the end of "belong" If your unsure, go back to lesson 2 and read over the "Desu" part again.


Join me in lesson five if you haven't collapsed.
See you there!

Lesson five - The many you's

  Spoiler: Hey you! 

Welcome to lesson 5. This is the last easy lesson so get prepared because its about to get much tougher.

Since you have lots of thises in your head I'll move on to something simpler. This lesson covers how to address other people, and i'm splitting it into two parts.

The commonly taugh way of saying "you" is "anata" but just like with "I" there are many different you(s) heres a few more.

"Anata" - polite
"Anta" - a short version of "anata"; not polite at all
"Omae" - informal, can be used between close friends
"Temee" - rude, and generally insulting)
"Kisama" - rude, and even more insulting

Now be very careful which "you" you use. Stick with "anata" until you know what your doing. Reason? Well unlike in English where people use creative insults like "D**khead" or others, in Japanese there are only impolite words for you.

Infact the recent episodes of the Naruto anime have good examples, next time you hear Hidan say "Temee!" to Kakuzu, the subtitles may say "B*****d" even though he is only really saying "You!". Kisama is about the same as "W****r" and there are even worse versions...

But thats your first insult. Now go and use it against your non Japanese Speaking enemies!! Muahahahaha...

Hey Jim!!!

Now you know how to say you I'm going to tell you to avoid it when you can. Again Japanese speakers will often drop it since its just unnecessary, Just like with "I" words.

Try some examples, You should be beyond the need for colours for these words by now but I'll bring the colours back later for more difficult things.

"Kore wa anata no katana desu." - "That is your sword."
"Kore wa Jim no katana desu." - "This is your sword."
"Kore wa Jim no katana desu." - "This is jim's sword."

See how the last two of these sentences are exactly the same, but can have different English translations? In the middle one, you would be talking directly to Bob - think of it like saying "This is your sword Jim." In the bottom one, you would be talking to somebody other than Jim, explaining that the sword belongs to him. Confused? Good.

Just remember two rules and you'll be fine

#1: Unlike English, if you use a person's name in a sentence instead of "you", you can still be talking to them, and it won't sound like you're ignoring them. Go ahead and say "This is Jim's sword." to his face, it works.

#2: If you know a person's name, you should avoid saying "you" at all.

Summary

Let's combine several of the things from this and past lessons into one cool sentence:

"Kono bakudan wa anata no mono desu." - "This is your Bomb"

Remember that "bakudan" means "bomb" and "Kono" is "this" and "Anata no Mono" Meaning "belongs to you" or just "your"

One more for you, Think of it like your first test...

"Maito Gai wa kono gakkou no sensei desu"

The only Hint you get is that "Gakkou" Means "school" and obviously "Maito Gai" is a person. Send me your answers via messages OR Spoiler Tag them...But no cheating ok?

I'll reveal the answer next lesson.

Scroll down for part two of this lesson

[Erosennin900]

Lesson Five - Part Two!!

  Spoiler: Hey you! 

Now that we've covered saying you theres one more part I wanna do...

Ero-Sensei

Thats what you call me it seems
So just what is a Honorific? Well its like a title that comes with social class and can depend on the relationship you have with that person. Here are the common ones.

-Kun - used for collegues and usually Male friends and relatives. Example: Naruto-Kun

-Chan - Cute, Baby talk. Friends who grow up together keep the "chan" part later in life. Used for close friends and relatives, particulary female ones. Example: Noriko-chan

-San - Used for people you don't know well or people of equal social status. Example: Nagano-San

-Sama - High status, very high respect. Usually comes with a secondary title. Examples: Hokage-Sama or Jiraiya-Sama

-Dono - Quite rare but heard in anime. Usually when two very highly respected people talk about each other they will use "dono" Example: The Hokage says "Kazekage-Dono"

-Sensei - Easy...A teacher.

-Sempai and Kohai - Usually when two people of the same class are superior or inferior to each other. Examples: Kakashi would say "Yamato-Kohai" and Yamoto would say "Kakashi-Sempai"

Ramen-Chan??

You may remember a scene during the wind training arc where Naruto shows his love for Ramen in this way...The titles can be used for objects inorder to personify them. Such as Naruto did....that kid really loves his "Ramen"...

Thats the end of lesson 5!!!

Please rep me if you feel like it

Next time it gets alot harder so revise, practice and I'll see you there!

Bye!!!

[Erosennin900]

Lesson six - Questions and answers

  Spoiler:  

Before we start having fun with new verbs and other sentence patterns, let's learn how to ask questions, which is cool and highly useful.

Asking Questions

Let's get right to the point and check out the basic way to ask a question in Japanese. Compare these two sentences:

"Kore wa juu desu." ("This is a gun")
"Kore wa juu desu ka?" ("Is this a gun?")

I know I covered it before but its good to recap. Although there are ways to ask questions with more complicated answers (which we'll get to), and all of them are marked as questions by sticking a good ol' "ka" on the end, simple yes or no questions are so easy to make it's not even funny. As in the example above, just take any statement and stick "ka" on the end. Bingo! Question city! A couple more examples using statement patterns from previous lessons:

"Kore wa Katana desu ka?" ("Is this a sword?")
"Sore wa boku no tamashi desu ka?" ("Is that my soul?")
"Anata wa Oni desu ka?" ("Are you an Ogre?")
"Tiima wa ningen desu ka?" ("Is Tima human?")

Again, in every one of those cases, the only difference between the statement and question is the "ka" on the end. Note that, as we studied in this kind of sentence before, the subject and noun in the middle can be just about anything and the form doesn't change, even though the English sentence might use "a" "an" or "the".

Yes, No and everything in between

Ok, now for some answers. You probably already know how to say "yes" in Japanese ("hai"), and maybe even "no" ("iie"), but let's do a couple of full-sentence examples. Remember, by the way, that even though "iie" is spelled funny, it's pronounced with a long "eee" sound, and a short, clipped "eh" at the end: "ee-eh". Lotta vowels in there.

These conversations involve Hinata and Kiba, whom you'll be seeing more of in future examples. Hinata and Kiba are making hot dogs:

Hinata: "Kore wa masutaado desu ka?" - "Is this mustard?"
Kiba: "Hai. Masutaado desu." - "Yes. It's mustard."

Hinata: "Sore wa kechappu desu ka?" - "Is that ketchup?"
Kiba: "Iie, kore wa chi desu. Boku no chi desu." - "No, this is blood. My blood."

Hinata: "Daijoubu?!" - "Are you OK?!"
Kiba: "Un! Daijoubu!" - "Yep! I'm fine!"

It would be possible to just answer "Hai" or "Iie" in all three cases, but that would be a little blunt. In the first example, you can see that it's not necessary to repeat the subject when you answer, since it's clear what you're talking about.

It seems Kiba fell victim to a freak hot dog preparation accident and has something red on his shirt. The subject is repeated in the answer to show the difference between "kore" and "sore"; Hinata used "sore" because she's talking about something on Kiba; Kiba used "kore" when he answered, since it was on him. In the second answer sentence there is no subject though, and the subject could have been left off of both. - If you're wondering how to say "It's not ketchup.", you'll have to wait untill lesson (insert Number) for negatives.

In the third section, Hinata is making sure Kiba isn't bleeding to death. She uses "daijoubu", a very useful word meaning roughly "alright" or "OK". This illustrates the simplest and most abrupt (not polite, though) way to ask a question:

Leave off the subject and verb, and just blurt the important word in a way that sounds like a question.

The answer, similarly, omits the subject and verb, which is informal but OK in the case of "daijoubu". "Un" (sounds like a short "ooh-n") is an informal "yes", similar to the English "yep"or "yeah".

Here's a more polite version of that last section, using complete sentences.

Polite Hinata: "Daijoubu desu ka?" - "Are you alright?"
Polite Kiba: "Hai. Daijoubu desu!" - "Yes. I'm fine!"

Since "Daijoubu desu." alone means "I'm OK.", adding "ka" of course makes it into a question. By the way, it's worth noting that Japanese people usually match the politeness level of an answer to the question, so "Daijoubu!" would be a more natural answer in the first case, and "Daijoubu desu." is more natural in the second. Sense is making now?

LOL WUT?!

So now that we can turn any statement into a question, you're probably just itching to learn some questions that don't have a yes or no answer. We'll get into some good ones soon, but since we'll have the most fun if we learn some adjectives first (which will happen in the next lesson), let's stick to noun answers for the moment.

You already know how to say "Kore wa object desu.", and "Kore wa object desu ka?", so let's ask what something is:

"Kore wa nan desu ka?" ("What is this?")

Unless your colour blind, its pretty obvious that "nan" means "what". Just stick it in the place of a noun in our basic sentence, and Bingo! Instant question. "Nani" is a longer version of the same word and works in a similar way, but in this particular type of sentence "nan" sounds more natural. Here's an example:

Kiba: "Kore wa nan desu ka?" ("What is this?")
Hinata: "Sore wa bakudan desu. Tasukete!" ("That is a bomb. Help!")

Yet again, since Kiba says "kore", He's talking about something he's holding, and Hinata responds with "sore", since she's talking to him. "Tasukete" is another handy one-word-sentence, meaning "Help!" or "Help me!". It's the imperative form of the verb "to help", but we'll find out what that means in a future lesson.

Recap!!

Basic Question Forms:

"(Statement) ka?" -"Is (Statement?)"; "Is (statement) (true)?"

"Kore wa (thing) desu ka?" - "Is this a (thing)?"

"(Thing 1) wa (thing 2) desu ka?" - "Is (thing 1) a (thing 2)?"

Yes and no:

"Hai" - "Yes"
"Iie" - "No"

Person 1: "(Thing 1) wa (thing 2) desu ka?" - "Is (thing 1) a (thing 2)?"
Person 2: "Hai. (thing 2) desu." - "Yes. It's a (thing 2)."

Let's try a relatively complicated version:

"Boku no okane wa anata no mono desu ka?"

Litterally its "Is my money yours?" but a better translation is "does my money belong to you?"

Heres the reply:

"Hai. Ore no mono desu." - "Yes. Its mine."

As before, the subject is usually omitted in the answer, so our bully is saying "Yes. It's mine." There are hints in here as to who is speaking: since "boku" is used by men, but doesn't have a particularly masculine image, while "ore" does, you can sort of guess that the first guy is being intimidated by the more aggressive second.

More Examples

1. "Watashi wa baka desu ka?" - "Am I stupid?"
2. "Anata wa baka desu ka?" - "Are you stupid?"
3. "Anta, baka?" - "You stupid?"
4. "Omae wa Shinigami desu ka?" - "Are you the God of Death?"
5. "Anata wa atashi no tomodachi desu ka?" - "Are you my friend?"
6. "Sasuke wa boku no tomodachi desu ka?" - "Are you my friend, Sasuke?"
7. "Sasuke wa boku no tomodachi desu ka?" - "Is Sasuke my friend?"

The first 4 are simple, Just look at the "You" words being used to determine the speaker ("Boku" is male etc...)

The last 3 introduce a new word "tomodachi" meaning "friend" number 6 and 7 are the same, except in number 6 the speaker is talking directly to Sasuke, in number 7 the speaker is probably talking to someone other than Sasuke. I say probably because in Japanese you can talk to someone directly using their name.



Now...the moment you've all (probably not) been waiting for!

TEST RESULTS

In the last lesson I asked you a question to translate this sentance:

"Maito Gai wa kono gakkou no sensei desu."

Many of you did very well, and got it right. The two ways of putting it are:

"Maito Gai is this school's teacher" or more formally
"Maito Gai is a teacher at this school"

Well done to everyone who tried!!

See you next lesson!

[Erosennin900]

Lesson 7 - Adjectives!!

  Spoiler: Now the fun begins 

Oh yes the time has come, time we learned to describe things using words other than nouns!, the adjective!. Japanese adjectives aren't too tricky, but they're a bit different from English, so brace yourself. *evil laugh*

I also encourage you to practice on the thread, make up some crazy random sentances, and you'll get better by doing so!

Spot the difference

Japanese adjectives are easy, because basically, they work exactly the same as English adjectives - you stick them in front of the word you want them to modify.

But I lie, its not that simple after all, as there are two types of Japanese adjectives, "i" and "na" adjectives. Remember that "i" sounds like "eeee" not "eye"

Heres some examples:

"I" adjectives

ii (good)
karai (spicy)

"na" adjectives

hen (weird)
shizuka (quiet)

Just out of interest guess why they are called "i" adjectives....unfortunatly while in most cases it works, its not that simple, as Juugo and others will probably tell you...and "na" adjectives don't end in "na"...sadly... heres examples:

"Kore wa ii desu" - "This is good"
"kore wa ii katana desu" - "This is a good sword"

"Ano wa hen desu" - "That is weird"
"Ano wa hen na jutsu desu" - "That is a weird technique"

ok pretty straight forward, "i" adjectives are exactly like english, Just throw them in the middle of a sentance or infront of a noun.

"na" adjectives are more tricky, when you want to modify a noun (and only nouns) you need to stick a "na" inbetween the adjective and the noun. Thus the name. Simple? Good! HAHA!

What about Kono

Remember I said that kono, sono, ano ect. were adjectives, well I kind of lied....they are more like mutant half breeds, and don't fit into the "i" or "na" groups. Basically you can't do much with them but put them in front of a noun to say "This (something) is"
But use them with normal adjectives to describe something and you get something like this:

"Kono karee wa karai desu." - "This curry is spicy."
"Kono karai karee wa oishii desu." - "This spicy curry is tasty."
"Sono karai karee wa abunai desu." - "That spicy curry is dangerous."

I won't explain meanings yet as I'll be making a list of adjectives later on

KA?

Just as before, using an adjective with a question is easy. Just add ka.

"Kore wa karai desu." - "This is spicy."
"Kore wa karai desu ka?" - "Is this spicy?"

Easy? Have a look at this conversation:

Kiba: "Kono karee wa karai desu ka?" - "Is this curry spicy?"
Hinata: "Hai. Karai desu." - "Yes. It's spicy."
Kiba: "Soo desu ka? Oishii desu ka?" - "Is that so? Is it tasty?"
Hinata: "Oishii desu yo!" - "It's tasty!"
Kiba: "Karai desu ne. Karai. Karai! Kuchi no naka ga moeteru yo!" - "It is spicy, isn't it. Spicy. Spicy! My mouth is on fire!"

Other than learning that Hinata loves spicy food you will also notice Hinata did not use "Sono Karee" as the subject is obvious after the first sentance.

Simple? You wish!!
I won't go into detail here but its not that simple, sadly, adjectives do get conjugated - making an adjective negative, past tense etc.. - I'll give one example, how to make an "i" adjective negative...

The simple explanation is chop of the "i" and add "kunai"

"Kore wa oishii desu." - "This is tasty."
"Kore wa oishikunai desu." - "This is not tasty."

That is all for now!!!!

Your turn


Now I really want you to practice now,

Here is a list of adjectives, for you to play with.

Adjectives
aoi - Blue
akai - Red
kiiro - Yellow
midori - Green
shiro - white
juro - black

ookii - Big
chiisai - small

kerei - pretty
kawaii - cute
utsukushii - beautiful
minikui - ugly

warui - bad
ii - good

oishii - tasty

kowai - scary
abunai - dangerous
abunagenai - safe

atsui - hot
samui - cold

atarashii - new
furui - old

Objects

okane - money
kuruma - car
bakudan - bomb
kukki - cookie
jinka - house
karee - curry

kaji - fire
fuzei - air
kage - shadow
mizu - water


I'll leave this for now, I can't think of anything else

Suggest things and I will add!!

Until next time, sayonara!

[Erosennin900]

Lesson 8: Lets play with verbs!!

  Spoiler:  

BABY TALK!!!

So far I've mainly delt with just one verb, DESU which is the "to be" verb

Now i'm gonna introduce some more verbs and show how they all fit in.
I'm going to start with a list in Plain Form which is familiar or "baby talk" but its important to know them in this form because it makes the rest much easier.

Note that they ALL end in "u" or with another syllable such as "ru" which has a "u" in it (I hope that makes sense)

Here are some verbs with meanings: In order to shorten this, I've added the next form too the "Main Form" as I will call it here. Its also the "polite form"

kau: to buy -- kaimasu
aruku: to walk -- arukimasu
isogu: to hurry -- isogimasu
kasu: to lend -- kashimasu
matsu: to wait -- machimasu
shinu: to die -- shinimasu
asobu: to play -- asobimasu
yomu: to read -- yomimasu
kaeru: to return -- kaerimasu
taberu: to eat -- tabemasu
kimeru: to decide -- kimemasu
miru: to look, watch -- mirimasu
kariru: to borrow -- karimasu
oboeru: to remember -- oboemasu

Conjugate!!

The second form up there is the conjugated or "polite form"
Theres no real set of rules that I know of for learning them, you just have to practice. It is worth noting that in most cases, the last syllable is changed to "i" before "masu" is added, but in others like "taberu" the last "ru" is changed to "masu" others like "kaeru" just don't follow any rules at all =S
Also notice how "su" becomes "shi" and "tsu" becomes "chi"

Is it hard? I told you it would be, but If you master how to conjugate your half way there!!!! The rest is a peice of cake!

Practice

Heres some practice sentances with explanation If you don't get some words, you should be smart enough to figure them out by now
Remember the basic sentance structure - subject - object - verb-
if you can't remember go back to lesson 2.

"Mama wa mise de banana o kaimasu". - "Mom buys bananas at the store"
"jim wa manga o yomimasu." - "Jim will read a comic book"
"Ojii-san wa sugu kaerimasu". - "Grandpa will return soon"
"Watashi wa ashita kimemasu." - "I'll decide tomorrow."
"Jerry wa sugu heya kara demasu. " - "Jerry will come out of the room soon."
"Ayako wa mainichi terebi o mimasu." - "Ayako watches the TV every day."

Incase your wondering about desu, that has a plain form too. "Da"
I know that breaks what I said earlier about them all ending in "u" but this is one of very few exceptions.

Positive and Negative

Masu is the positive ending to these verbs. There is a negative aswell, its "Masen" and its really easy to use, just stick it on the verb instead of "masu" Examples

"tabemasu" - "tabemasen"
"mirimasu - "mirimasen"

"watashi wa ima tabemasen" - "i'm not going to eat now"
"watashi wa terebi mirimasen" - "I'm not going to watch TV"

Simple right?

Back to the previous future?

These verbs can be used in a past tense. Just use Mashita Using different examples:

Ikimasu - Ikimashita
Kaimasu - Kaimashita

"Izumi wa Sendai ni ikimashita." - "Izumi went to Sendai."
"Shizu wa manga o kaimashita" - "Shizu bought a comic book"

Again pretty simple =)

I'll introduce one more for today "masen deshita" which is past negative just use in the same way as the others. One example here since I'm almost out room:

"Izumi wa Sendai ni ikimasen deshita." - "Izumi didn't go to Sendai."

Easy =)

Recap

See why its nice to learn the plain form first? The following endings have the following effects:

Masu: polite positive
Masen: polite negative
Deshita: past polite positive
Masen Deshita: past polite negative

See you next time =)

[Erosennin900]

.....Post reserved for future use

that should be enough

you can post now guys

[Naruto Sama]

haha nice one, this is better than the other one for sure

Lesson 1 is awesome, but hard, so ill need to spend some time learning the sounds and symbols, cant wait for lesson 2 ! very good thread

[Filip The Great]

the symbols and the pronunciation
is so small...(the font is like 0.5 in size)
I'll have to go to the first post to read them...
Is it just me or everybody..?

note from CB:
Erosennin900: just always use katakana for sound effects, never hiragana or kanji