nihongo wo benkyou shitai

Well, this is a fairly simple one tonight. I say simple, but as you know this is Japanese we're talking about. Let's just say it's easier than most.


Have just done...

It's often pretty handy to tell someone that something has just been done. Check out these examples:

1. I've just been to the supermarket.
2. She's just been in a hot air balloon.
3. He's just spent all weekend revising.

You get the idea. The inference is that whatever is being talked about has just occurred. What is perhaps less obvious is what we mean by 'just'... Just can mean one of two things: (1) the topic of the sentence has just occurred or (2) the topic has just occurred in relative terms. In Japanese these can be translated as ところ and ばかり respectively.

English: I've just been to the supermarket
Jenglish: [supermarket][went][just]
日本語：　　スーパーに行ったところ。

English: She's just been in a hot air balloon
Jenglish: [She][hot air balloon][ridden][just]
日本語：　　　彼女は熱気球に乗ったばかり。

English:　　　He's just spent all weekend revising.
Jenglish: [He][all weekend][revising][just]
日本語：　　　彼は全ての週末復習したところ。

In the first and third sentences above, the events had just taken place, whereas in the second sentence, the event had occurred recently, though not necessarily just then. So, the main difference between ところ and ばかり is that with ところ, there is a suggestion that whatever was being discussed really was done 'just now'. With ばかり we are suggesting that whatever was being discussed was done in the near past, relatively speaking. Compare these two sentences:

English: I just returned from holiday
Jenglish: [holiday][returned][just]
日本語：　　休みから帰ったところ。
日本語：　　休みから帰ったばかり。

In the first translation, the implication is that you literally just got back. You've probably unpacked, but that's about it. In the second sentence, you may have been back a week or so - relatively speaking compared to the rest of the year, you've just returned.

Notice how I didn't use です once in the examples? Boy, I'm getting a bit informal here, but rest assured, you can use です after ところ and ばかり if you want to be polite.


About to do...

Easy one this. Just put ところ after the plain present (base 3) form of the verb. If you like, you can stick です on the end to make it more polite.

English: I am about to drink a cold beer.
Jenglish: [cold beer][drink][about to]
日本語：　　冷たいビールを飲むところ。

Which is exactly what I'm about to do!

またね。。。