nihongo wo benkyou shitai

JLPT Exam Question #5

2007-12-30T09:25:00.000Z

A bit late with today's example question, but Christmas kind of got in the way...

This question is from the 2002 日本語能力試験 paper, specifically 文字語彙問題V question 5. Presented with a word, you must choose the correct usage of it.

あんぜん

この　まちは　よるも　あんぜんです。
にちようびは　いつも　いえで　あんぜんに　して　います。
この　きかいは　あんぜんてきに　つかって　ください。
わたしは　げんきですから、あんぜんして　ください。

[
The correct answer is option 1.

The ease with which you can answer this question depends on being able to know what the chosen word is. It may seem an obvious point to make, but unlike other types of question where you could take educated guesses, here you need actually need to know the word.

Hopefully, you'll recognise あんぜん (安全) as a 三級 required vocabulary word meaning 'safe'. If so, it's simply a case of translating each of the four options and seeing which makes the most sense. In Jenglish:

[this][town][night][too][safe][is]
[Sunday][always][house][at][safe][change into + present progressive]
[this][chance][safe + suffix meaning typical][use + please]
[I][healthy][but][safe + to do + please]

Once translated, option 1 makes the most sense. Options 2 and 3, whilst grammatically permissible, don't really make sense. Option 4, as far as I know, is grammatically incorrect in that you can't follow an adjective with the する verb.
]

JLPT Exam Question #4

2007-12-22T12:34:00.000Z

Today's example question appeared as question 5 in the 2006 三級の読解文法 paper. In essence, this question is a particle test, a subject that constantly confuses me.

いろいろさがした_______見つからないんです。

のに
ので
のを
のが

[
According to the answer booklet, the answer is option 1.

My first thought is to translate this into English to see if that gives any clues. The Jenglish transliteration is [various] [to look for (past)] [_____] [to not be found] and already I have a vague idea of what the answer is. However, pride comes before a fall, so let's check all the options first.

Option 1 is のに, which has a few meanings including despite, in spite of and because. Option 2 is ので which as far as I know simply means because. Option 3 is のを which is the normalizer の followed by the direct object marker. Finally, option 4 is のが - the normalizer followed by the subject marker.

Option 1 is quite promising. Using のに, my translation in English would be Despite [the fact that] I looked a number of times, it isn't to be found.

Substituting option 2 doesn't work nearly as well: Because I looked a number of times, it isn't to be found.

Given that 見つからない in option 3 is the negative form of the intransitive verb 見つかる, I think we can rule out のを (see point 1 of my description of を and you'll see that it's used with direct objects and intransitive verbs don't have direct objects).

Option 4 could be a possibility. Intransitive verbs use the particle が and it's possible that the normalizer would work here. However the sentence doesn't seem to make much sense when translated.
]

またね・・・

エディンバラ旅行

2007-12-21T13:17:00.000Z

僕はエディンバラ旅行の写真をインターネットの写真帳でやっとアップロードしたところだ。

JLPT Exam Question #3

2007-12-20T12:29:00.000Z

Another 三級 question today, this time it's question 40 of the 2005 読解文法. This question, rather than test your ability to conjugate correctly, is a test of your ability to read and understand the question and then answer, As such, it is one of the more difficult styles of question in the exam.

「このテストは、ひらがなで書いてもいいですか。」
「ええ、＿＿＿＿＿。」

1. だめですよ
2. かまいませんよ
3. 書きますよ
4. 書きませんよ

[
According the the answer booklet, the correct answer is option 2.

Let’s start by translating the question:

“For this test, is it OK to write in hiragana?”
“Yes,___________.”

It would be tempting to immediately ignore options (2) and (4) as they are both negative conjugations, and the response in the example text begins with ‘yes’. However, be careful when doing this. It’s best to translate all the options first.

Option (1) translates as “It’s no good”; option (2) as “I don’t mind”; (3) as “write” and option (4) as “don’t write”. Option (2) is the sneaky one here as, despite, being a negative verb, it is the negative of かまう, a 三級 vocabulary that means “to mind” or “to care about”.

Slotting each of these possible answers into the example we get:

1. “Yes, it’s no good.”
2. “Yes, I don’t mind.”
3. “Yes, write.”
4. “Yes, don’t write.”

Clearly, options (1) and (4) make no logical sense. Option (3) conveys a logically correct meaning, but comes across as a command, not appropriate in this context. So option (2) is the correct answer.

Could this one be guessed? That’s a tough one to answer. I think that you could eliminate options (3) and (4) on the basis that they are too abrupt. Option (1) can be ignored if you know what だめ means. It’s touch-and-go, but you could get this right by precluding the other three answer... maybe.
]

JLPT Exam Question #2

2007-12-17T11:32:00.000Z

Today’s example comes from the 2004 三級 paper (question 28 in the 読解文法 section) and is, in essence, a conjugation test. Hopefully none of the vocabulary presents a challenge; other than the use of hiragana for words that would be easily recognizable if in kanji.

図書館でこの町のれきしを＿＿＿＿ことができます

1. しらべた
2. しらべられる
3. しらべる
4. しらべて

Have a go and once you're happy you can see the answer and my reasoning below by clicking and dragging you mouse between the brackets.

[
The answer is option 3.

Each of the 4 possible answers have the same root verb and so this is simply a case of knowing the verb form that goes before ことができる.

Option (1) is the plain past, option (2) could be either the potential or the passive (depending on context), option (3) the plain non-past and option (4) is the て form. I think it’s pretty safe to rule out option (4) immediately as I can’t think of any て conjugation where て is followed by a nominalizer. Nominalizers are used to convert a verb clause into nouns, whereas て conjugations are used to modify the way in which the verb’s result is performed or perceived.

Option (2) is a safe one to rule out as well, in either of it’s meanings. If we take られる to be the potential form, then we have a tautological sentence, effectively mentioning the ability to do something twice. If we take られる to be the passive, then we have a sentence that does not make sense. In passive sentences, the subject is an unwilling recipient of some action, which doesn’t really fit with the use of できる.

That leaves options (1) and (3), both of which are plausible. If I did not know that ことができる comes after the plain non-past (or base 3) form of a verb, I’d have to make a guess based on the English translation. With option (1) we get “You could study this town’s history at the library” which doesn’t seem right. Option (3) would give us “You can study this town’s history at the library”, which just feels better.

So, even if you do not know the correct verb form to use with ことができる, it would be possible to correctly guess this one by looking at the English translation.

つまり、（３）は正しい答えです。
]

JLPT Exam Question #1

2007-12-08T11:27:00.001Z

Today we see the first of a new feature in the blog and one I want to do once a week at least, maybe more depending on time. The idea is to go through real JLPT questions and analyze them. As I found out during revision, knowing the grammar is one thing, but to answer questions on it's usage is quite another. Hopefully, a weekly question or two will get my mind into the 'JLPT zone'...

Today's example is from 2006, question 34 of the ３級読解文法 to be precise. I picked this question as I got it wrong during my revision, so let's see if I can analyze it. First, the question:

先生がなかなか来ないので、学生がさわぎ＿＿＿＿。

つづいた
はじまった
おわった
だした

To see the answer and my reasoning, click and drag your mouse over the area between the brackets!

[
The answer is option 4.

On the face of it, the grammatical point is quite straight-forward. I've covered the use of はじめる, おわる, だす and つづける after a verb in base 2 and seen that they mean to start, finish, continue and suddenly start some action respectively.

The question itself also seems pretty straight-forward: in Jenglish we get [teacher] [by no means] [come] [because], [students] [make noise/kick up a fuss], or more naturally, Because the teacher hadn't come, the students _____ kicked up a fuss.

My first reaction, now I've read up on the grammar, is to ignore (1) and (2). All my research suggests that, in compound verbs, you use はじめる and not はじまる. Likewise it's つづける and not つづく. (3) also seems wrong, if not grammatically then semantically. So, by process of elimination, the answer is 4.
]

またね・・・

JLPT3: と思う

2007-12-06T12:55:00.001Z

日本語：	[verb (short)] と思う
日本語：	[ adjective] と思う
日本語：	[ adjective] だと思う
日本語：	[noun] だと思う
日本語：	[verb (base 3,7)] とは思わない。
English:	I think...

Back to basics for today's post, but as it does feature in the JLPT on a regular basis, it's worth a quick look. As we learn in first year Japanese, と思う is the functional equivalent of 'to think', although, there are restrictions on when you can use it:

You can only use it to indicate your own thoughts on some topic. You can't use it to indicate your intentions. So, "I think it's tasty" will use と思う, but "I think I will go to the cinema." will not. For the latter you need to use と思う after the volitional form.
When referring to someone else's thoughts, you can only use と思う in the question form. To indicate that someone else (appears to be) thinking something, you should use たがっている.
Not so much a restriction, but it is usual to conjugate the quoted thought and not と思う. However, I have seen the English concept of 'I don't think' written as とは思いません. Note that it's とは and not と.

Let's try some examples:

English:	I think that the book I borrowed from the library was interesting.
Jenglish:	[library][from][borrowed][book][was interesting][think]
日本語：	図書館から借りた本は面白かったと思う。

English:	I think that the vase was broken by the burglar.
Jenglish:	[burglar][vase][broke+passive][I think]
日本語：	泥棒に花瓶を壊されたと思う。

The second example sentence uses the passive form; another grammatical point that is essential for the JLPT - and very common in everyday Japanese speech. It will be covered soon.

今は、インターネットを探そう！

例一番目：

最初の例文はこのサイトが見つかる。ちょっと面白いと思う！

日本語：	彼氏が浮気したのではと思う態度ランキング
Jenglish:	[boyfriend] [GA] [unfaithful] [NODE] [WA] [think] [behaviour] [ranking]

The first thing that I noticed is that と思う is directly followed by a noun which is our old friend the subordinate clause. In other words, the final part of the sentence is being described by the first part. The final part is, in fact, two nouns without the possessive particle の, but I guess this has been omitted due to the casual nature of the site. So, this final part comes out as ranking of behaviour.

The first part starts with 彼氏が浮気した, which given the use of the particle が make s me think this is in intransitive form. So, with that we have boyfriend was unfaithful. Where I am confused is the use of のでは. Is that ので + は or の + では? I think ので + は makes more sense, which makes the first part of the sentence because [your] boyfriend was unfaithful.So, ignoring the use of は and adding と思う, my translation is:

A ranking of behaviour that makes you think your boyfriend was unfaithful.

例二番目：

この例はここが見つかました。

日本語：	デザインってスゴイんだってことをもっと本気で言わなきゃダメだと思う
Jenglish:	[design] [TTE] [wonderful] [or something][KOTO] [WO] [more] [seriousness] [DE] [say + if one does not] [no good] [I think]

A real tough one this time. Lots of particles and a sentence structure not suited for the western brain. But let's make a start.

Scanning left-to-right, let's identify the bits I don't know. First, we have って, which is a casual way of quoting. Next there's だって which is a colloquial form of ても. The final bit I didn't know was 言わなきゃ, which is a conjugation which adds a meaning similar to 'if one does not...'.

Let's examine the first part of the sentence: デザインってスゴイんだってことを. First it ends in を which likely means that this is an object that some verb will act upon. There's also a こと in there which could be a nominalizer. I think the use of って here is to bring emphasis to the fact that we're talking about the concept of design. So, at this stage, we have Design is wonderful or something [like that].

Scanning ahead in the sentence to find a verb, we get 言わなきゃダメだ. Literally translated, we get 'if one does not say' and 'is no good'. Combining this and the previous translated sections, we get no good that if one does not say design is wonderful or something [like that]

The next bit is もっと本気で. Literally 'more seriousness', the final で is a little confusing. Looking at my blog entry on で, I'm tempted to go with meaning two and translates its use here as 'with'. So, adding this in to our translation gives no good that if one does not say design is wonderful or something [like that] with more seriousness.

It's an awful mess and my only hope is that much of my confusion has arisen as a result of this being pretty casual Japanese. But, with a little bit of smoothing into natural English, I'm guessing the translation is: I think it's useless to say things like 'design is wonderful' if one does not say with more seriousness.

またね・・・

2007-12-02T20:54:00.000Z

The Gates unto Hell.

Taken before the JLPT level 3 exam today before all hope was ripped from me. It was not a pleasant experience. Sections 1 (vocabulary) and 3 (grammar) were pretty reasonable to be honest and I'm confident I have passed each one. However, section 2 (the listening comprehension) was a joke.... I honestly guessed each one. No, honestly.

Guess I'm taking 三級 again next year!

Quick update...

2007-11-25T22:01:00.000Z

Yes, the blog has been somewhat ignored recently, but what with being on holiday 3 times (photos here and here) and revision for this year's 日本語能力試験３級 I have been a busy, busy boy.

The good news is that after having gone through the past papers I have lots of blog entries lined up covering essential grammar points. I'm planning to post them after the exam when I have more time...

みんな、今年の試験に備えて本当に一生懸命に頑張ってください！

JLPT3: ばかり

2007-11-20T12:57:00.000Z

日本語：	[verb (base 6)] ばかりいる
日本語：	[noun]
English:	Nothing but..., all [it] ever does is...

Today's grammar point is one that I've come across many times over the years and I was pretty happy that I understood. However, whilst revising for the JLPT (in under two weeks time!) I realised that I have some confusion about exactly how it is used. After doing some digging, my investigations reveal that ばかり can be used in two ways and that's the source of my confusion. Today we'll look at one usage; indicating that some activity is performed to the exclusion of everything else.

In this context, the use of ばかり is pretty simple. With verbs, first conjugate to the て-form, then add ばかり. Note that because we're talking about a state of being, we have to add いる. With する verbs, ばかり is placed before the する; for example, 運転ばかりしている.

It can also be used after nouns, and in this situation the inference is that there is nothing but that noun.

手作り例文を見よう！

English:	All he ever does is complain about global warming.
Jenglish:	[he] [global warming] [about] [complain + nothing but]
日本語：	彼は地球温暖化について不平と言ってばかりいる。

English:	Because of the JLPT, recently I've done nothing by study.
Jenglish:	[JLPT] [because] [recently] [study + nothing but]
日本語：	日本語能力試験で、最近勉強ばかりいる。

相変わらず、インタネットを探す・・・

例文第一：

最初の例文はこのウェブサイトを見つかった。

日本語：	おもいでを歌い続けてばかりいた
Jenglish:	[memories] [WO] [sing + continue + nothing but]

The odd thing for this small example is that I know what the English is - I just can't easily see the translation. In essence, I believe the use of the verb 歌う here is analogous to the English phrase "to sing it's praises". There's also an element of continuation provided by 続く so whatever we're talking about, we're still very pleased with it. The only problem is the use of おもいで. The direct translation is along the lines of memories or recollections, but I feel that it would be better to here translate it as 'experience'.

だから、この日本語を英語に翻訳するときは：I'm still have nothing but praise for the experience.

例文第に：

このブログに次の例文を見つかった。

日本語：	ゴロゴロ寝てばかりいる猫と楽しく遊ぶ方法
Jenglish:	[purring] [sleep + nothing but] [cat] [TO] [enjoyably] [have fun + how to]

Sounds like a normal cat to me! Again, nothing too complex here. I've translated the と particle as 'with' and ゴロゴロ as the sound of purring.

翻訳は朝飯前じゃないけど、割合に簡単だと思う：Ways to enjoyably have fun with a cat that does nothing but sleep.

またね・・・

JLPT3: ～くる

2007-10-20T10:30:00.000+01:00

日本語：	[verb (base 6)] くる
English:	Come to (a point)..., Continue...

Today's grammar point is a nice simple one, at least grammatically. As we know, the verb 来る means to come and is something we've been using since our first year studies. However, it can also act as an auxiliary verb and in such instances it can take on the following meanings:

To go and do something, and then return
To reach a point where some state is achieved
To continue some action that has been ongoing
If the attached verb is a motion verb, the motion is towards the speaker
The appearance of an object or the occurrence of some action

I took the above list off JapanesePod101, but in a general Google search, a lot of these meanings don't show up. Looking in my JLPT study guide, it only lists two of these meanings and so, whilst it's worthwhile remembering all five exist, points 2 and 3 are the ones listed in the JLPT specification.

The second point above uses くる in it's more abstract form to indicate that some point in a state or action has been reached; in other words, you've come to some point in that action. For example, after years of study you feel you have arrived at the point where you can confidently take the exam. The JLPT study guide describes this use as a change that takes place over time and the inference is that the point where the change is complete has been reached.

The third point is to indicate that the described action is an ongoing state. Quite how this is different to ている I do not know and my JLPT grammar book even uses ている in the example sentence for this point, so I have no idea what's going on.

The good news is that in terms of the usage I keep seeing, てくる normally takes on the meaning of either go and come back or reached the point where, both of which are nice and simple.

手作りの例文を見ましょう・・・

English:	He's reached the point where he can take the exam.
Jenglish:	[he] [exam] [take + come to the point]
日本語：	彼は試験を受けてきます。

English:	After the meeting I understood their concerns.
Jenglish:	[meeting] [after] [concerns] [understood + come to the point]
日本語：	会議の後で関心事をわかってきました。

English:	I'm going to take pictures of the sunset (but I'll be back).
Jenglish:	[sunset] [of] [pictures] [take]
日本語：	日を入りの写真を撮ってきます。

じゃぁ・・・インタネットで調べましょう！

１番目の例文：

この例文はこのサイトを見つかる。

日本語：	上司に連れられてキャバクラ行ってきた
Jenglish:	[boss] [take a person (potential/passive] [cabaret club] [went (and came back)]

On the whole, the vocabulary wasn't much of an issue here. The only area where confusion may crop up is whether we have a potential or passive verb. The clue is the use of に which indicates 'who made someone do something' in passive sentences. My guess here is that the subject is missing from the sentence and is the speaker. So, my translation is My boss took me to a cabaret club with a hint that the speaker wasn't too happy about it.

２番目の例文：

この例文はここで見つかる。

日本語：	そこでiPhoneパーティーでもおなじみ、キャスタリアの山脇さんにiPhoneをお借りして、New Yorkで10日間使ってきた。
Jenglish:	[so] [iPhone] [party] [but, however, still] [well-known, familiar], [??] [Mr. Yamawaki] [NI] [iPhone] [borrowing/use] [New York] [DE] [10 hours] [use + continue]

Lots of vocabulary I didn't know here,and the grammar is confusing, but let's make a start with what we can understand. I'm assuming that "New Yorkで" is where whatever is being talked about is happening as で can indicate the location of an action. That gives us "iPhoneをお借りして、10日間使ってきた" which raises the question as to what お借りして means. 借り is the noun form of 'to borrow' or 'to use temporarily' and the お at the start would indicate some kind of honourific/humble statement, so I am guessing お借りする is an humble form 'to borrow' or 'to use', which is conjugated to show some following action, in this case 10日間使ってきた. Given the context, I think the use here of today's grammar point indicates continued action. So far, then, we have used an iPhone in New York and continued to use it for 10 hours. Now we're getting somewhere.

Next up is キャスタリアの山脇さんに. I've no idea what キャスタリア is, but it is followed by the possessive particle and a name, so it's Mr. Yamawaki's something. This is all followed by に. に can mean many things, including passive and causative actions, but from the verb conjugation, there is no indication of either passive or causative. So に may be indicating the recipient of an action or the location of an action.

Next, we have 'そこでiPhoneパーティーでもおなじみ'. そこで means 'accordingly' and given that this sentence is a lead-on from a previous paragraph in the article, I'm happy with that. iPhoneパーティー should be obvious, but I'm guessing we don't mean a real party, but instead something like 'story' or 'hype'. It's followed by でも. We covered this grammar point before and saw that after a noun it can mean even if or even. The final word, おなじみ, means 'familiar' or 'well-known'.

Well, overall, I'm not very confident on this, but my translation is: Accordingly, even if the iPhone hype is well-known, I used an iPhone in New York at Mr Yamawaki's ??? and continued to use for 10 hours.

またね・・・

The Lowdown

2007-10-02T23:54:00.000+01:00

先生がなかなか来ないので、学生がさわぎ＿＿＿＿。

つづいた
はじまった
おわった
だした

The answer is option 4.

On the face of it, the grammatical point is quite straight-forward. I've covered the use of はじめる, おわる, だす and つづける after a verb in base 2 and seen that they mean to start, finish, continue and suddenly start some action respectively.

The question itself also seems pretty straight-forward: in Jenglish we get [teacher] [by no means] [come] [because], [students] [make noise/kick up a fuss], or more naturally, Because the teacher hadn't come, the students _____ kicked up a fuss.

My first reaction, now I've read up on the grammar, is to ignore (1) and (2). All my research suggests that, in compound verbs, you use はじめる and not はじまる. Likewise it's つづける and not つづく. (3) also seems wrong, if not grammatically then semantically. So, by process of elimination, the answer is 4.

またね・・・

エジプトの写真はやっとオンライン！

2007-09-15T10:03:00.000+01:00

最近、とても忙しかっただ。エジプト旅行の後で、オンライン写真帳のために写真を選んでいった。写真を５６０枚を撮った！運良く、オンライン捨身帳は百以下がある。僕の写真を楽しんでください。

Egypt 2007.

またね・・・

JLPT3: はず

2007-09-14T22:24:00.000+01:00

日本語：	[verb (b3/b7)] はず
日本語：	[adjective] はず
日本語：	[noun] のはず
English:	Should..., ought..., expect

How annoying! After spending 2 hours on this post, I've just realised I covered it here! Ah well... Still, I think this post is better and more accurate.

Today is a nice easy conjugation that allows us to express our belief about something. As such, it falls into the grammatical classification of presumption, along with several other constructs we've seen, for example でしょう and かもしれない, but whereas these constructs are used to indicate something may be, はず is used to express the expectation that something is the case.

はず follows the three grammatical structures of verbs, adjectives and nouns. With verbs, it follows the plain past (base 7) and plain non-past (base 3) forms. If you want to express the negative, はずがない is used instead of はずです (in other words, the coupla is negated instead of the verb). With い adjectives, simply add はず and with な adjective, drop the な. With nouns, add の then はず.

じゃぁ、例文を見ましょう！

English:	I expect he'll be hungover after last night's party.
Jenglish:	[last night] [party] [after] [he] [hungover + expect]
日本語：	昨夜のパーティーの後で、彼は二日酔いはずだ。

English:	Because she's the newspaper's ace reporter, I expected her to get the scoop.
Jenglish:	[newspaper] [ace reporter] [because] [scoop + expect]
日本語：	彼女は新聞のエース新聞記者ですから、スクープするはずだ。

今、インターネットで調べよう！

例文１：

最初の例文はこのサイトを見つかった。

日本語：	インターネット「使い放題」のはずが、使いすぎで接続切断
Jenglish:	[internet] "[use] [as much as you like]" [expect] [but], [use + too much] [connection] [disconnection]

This one uses a lot of grammar we've looked at, so other than the vocabulary, it shouldn't be too difficult. I'm guessing here that the writer is using the 「」 in the same way we would quote a word in English; namely to indicate that the concept within the quotes may not be as it seems (that is, saying something whilst making quote marks with our hands). 放題 is a suffix that means 'as much as you want', so here I'm translating this as 'use as much as you want', or more naturally as 'unlimited use'. As 放題 is a noun, we have のはず, followed by the conjunction 'but'.

The last half of the example makes use of two conjugations we should know; the use of すぎる to indicate too much of something and the て form to act as the conjunction 'and'. So, my translation is: You expect unlimited internet access, but use it too much and you get disconnected.

例文２：

日本語：	「1年以上かかるはずだった計算も数週間」--Folding@homeにPS3ユーザー25万人以上が登録
Jenglish:	"[1 year] [over] [take] [expected] [calculation] [MO] [several weeks]" - [Folding@home] [NI] [PS3] [user] [250,000] [over] [are registered]

OK, so a little trickier, but let's break it down and look at the part in the 「」. My immediate thought is that we have a verb in past tense (だった) followed by a noun, so I am assuming this is a subordinate clause meaning everything before the noun simply describes it. Already we have The calculation that... Adding the first part to our noun, we then get The calculation that was expected to take over a year.

The problems start we I get to the も数週間 bit. Ages ago, I had a look at the kanji 数 and discovered that if it goes before a word, it can be translated as several and if it goes after a word, it can be translated as number of. So here we probably have 'several weeks'. The real problem is the particle も. My only knowledge of it use is to mean 'also', 'as well' or 'too', none of which make sense here. So I will guess it's use as a shorthand way of 'copying' the verb from the previous part of the sentence. So, now I have The calculation that was expected to take over a year, took several weeks.

The next section should be easier. It's starts with 'Folding@home' (a massively distributed home PC client that makes use of your idle PC time to perform some scientific calculations, like cancer research), followed by the particle に. As Folding@home is also a website I'll translate this as 'on'. The rest should be easy.

So, my translation is The calculation that was expected to take over a year took several weeks - over 250,000 PS3 users register on Folding@home.

またね・・・

エジプト旅行：エドフでホルス神殿

2007-09-07T10:43:00.000+01:00

じゃぁ、エジプト旅行は本当に凄かった！毎日、気温は以上摂氏４２度だった。たくさんの写真を撮った・・・５６０枚だ！この写真はエドフにホルス神殿だ。高いなぁ！

JLPT3: と思う

2007-08-17T18:45:00.000+01:00

日本語：	[verb (volitional)] と思う
English:	I think I will...

Way back in my first year of studying I came across と思う as a means of expressing my thoughts. So I was a little confused when I started looking into today's grammar point, as it seemed to overlap with this simpler と思う form, however there is a difference.

Whilst the previous use of と思う came after verbs in the plain form (as well as adjectives and nouns), today's usage is after the volitional form of verbs. In this context, it takes on a meaning similar to 'I think I will...' which added to my confusion as I now had two ways to express the same idea. For example: to say "I think I'll eat the sushi" could now be translated as either of the following:

寿司を食べると思う。
寿司と食べようと思う。

Luckily, this ambiguity is a(nother) case of my lack of understanding: the simpler と思う conjugation is used to express one's thoughts and views, but to express one's intentions we have to use the volitional form if the verb followed by と思う. As such, the first example sentence above is not grammatically correct.

Things do get a little cloudy, however, as there seem to be two common uses of the volitional form; と思う and と思っている. Usually this would be a simple (if time consuming) job for Google, but I have been getting conflicting answers on the differences. One source (my 元気 textbook) suggests that if the intention to do something has just been reached, then use と思う, otherwise use と思っている however, a source on the web suggests the opposite. However, given that ーている expresses a state, I am inclined to think that と思っている expresses an intention already reached と思う expresses an intention that has just been made.

例文を見ましょう！

English:	I think I'll order the pizza at the restaurant tonight.
Jenglish:	[tonight][restaurant][at][pizza][order + I think I will]
日本語：	今晩レストランでピザを注文しようと思ってる。

English:	Actually, I think I will buy two batteries after all.
Jenglish:	[battery][2][buy + I think I will]
日本語：	電池を２本買おうと思う。

次は、インターネットでし調べよう！

例文１

最初の例文はこのサイトを見つかった。

日本語：	携帯を買い替えようとおもってます。
Jenglish:	[mobile phone] [replace + I think I will]

OK. An easy example to start off and the opening question on a web site asking about what people could recommend and why. As there seem little of real difficulty here, I'll go straight for the translation: I'm thinking of replacing my mobile.

例文２
このサイトから、この例文はもっと難しいと思う。

日本語：	株の勉強をしようとおもっているのですが、初心者でもよくわかるサイトありませんか？
Jenglish:	[shares] [study + I think I will] [NO] [is] [but], [beginner] [DEMO] [often] [to understand] [site] [there is] [KA]?

Well, where to start? I've left a couple of particles in as they require special discussion. The first part seems relatively straightforward. Then we have the particle NO, used here to normalise the preceding statement into a noun. After that we have です which most will recognise as the verb to be. Here though, there is no English equivalent and so it will get dropped from the translation. Next we have the conjunction but, thereby creating a natural break in the sentence. So , at the halfway point we have I'm thinking of studying shares but... which, although not natural sounding , is understandable.

The next part of the sentence slightly more complex. We have a verb in there (わかる) followed by a noun, so it's my favourite subordinate clause again. Since everything before the noun is describing it, I shall ignore that for a moment and look at the remainder of the sentence, which is straightforward. This should give us: Is there a site that....

The final part looks at the subordinate clause. The first difficulty I had here was the translation of でも. I covered this a while ago here and here and as both can follow a noun, it's difficult to choose. I have decided to translate でも in this case as or something... on the grounds that it seems a slightly better option. The last part (よくわかる) seems a little odd to me. The literal translation is often understand which really feels awkward in this context. I have therefore decided to change the translation to a more natural-sounding easily understand because if something can be understood frequently, it must be easy to understand. Right?

Anyway, my final translation is: I'm thinking of following stocks and shares but is there a site that is easily understandable for beginners and such?

またね・・・

JLPT3: ところだ

2007-08-11T09:49:00.000+01:00

日本語：	[verb (base 3, 7)] ところだ
日本語：	[verb (base 6)] いる + ところだ
日本語：	[verb (base 6)] いた + ところだ
English:	To be about to..., to have just..., to be in the middle of..., to have been in the middle of...

I covered this grammar point back in May 2006, but have come back to visit it for two reasons: first I didn't cover what has to be a very useful meaning of it and second, I like the new blog format. According to JapanesePod101, ところ can also be used after adjectives and nouns, but this does not seem to be a requirement for the 日本語能力試験三級 so I'm not going to look into such usage here.

As covered in the original blog entry, ところ can follow verbs in base 3 and 7. Here the meaning is that some action is just about to be performed (base 3) or has just been performed (base 7). What I did not cover then is the usage of ところ after the present & past progressive verbal forms. After such forms, ところ can be used to indicate that the subject of the sentence is in the middle of, or was in the middle of performing some action.

じゃぁ、例文を作ろう！

English:	He is just about to leave the office.
Jenglish:	[he][office][leave + just about to]
日本語：	彼はオフィスを出るところだ。

English:	I have just bought the HiS Crossfire PCIe X1950 graphics card.
Jenglish:	[HiS Crossfire PCIe X1950] [called] [graphics card] [bought + just]
日本語：	ヒースコロスフィアピシアイX１９５０というグラフィクスカードを買ったところだ。

English:	I am in the middle of preparing dinner so can I call you later?
Jenglish:	[dinner] [prepare + in the middle of] [because] [later] [call + can]
日本語：	食事を料理しているつもりからあとで電話できますか。

今、インタネットから例文を調べよう！

例文１

この例文はこのウェブサイトが見つかりました。サイトのアイデアはとても面白いと思います。

日本語：	「カメラマンが写真を撮っているところ」を撮った写真いろいろ
Jenglish:	"[cameramen] [pictures] [taking + middle of]" [took] [pictures] [various]

What a great idea for a web site and probably as interesting as the pictures they were taking! Anyway, perhaps nothing too complex here. The adjective is stuck right at the end of the sentence, which is a little odd I think (but my failing memory seems to remember this is possible). Also, another sentence with a subordinate clause. So my translation is: A variety of pictures taken of cameramen in the middle of taking pictures.

例文２

同じサイトに他の例文を見つかりました。

日本語：	女性が自分の体型で気にしているところは？
Jenglish:	[women] [GA] [myself] [NO] [figure] [DE] [worry about + middle of] [WA]

Now this is much more tricky. In the Jenglish, I've included the particles as well since they're going to play a big part in this translation. First, I'm going to translate で as becuase in this case as it comes directly after a noun. A quick check on Jim Breen's online dictionary suggests that 気にする can be translated as to worry about. However, it didn't feel right when I tried to fit the words 'in the middle of' into this sentence and so I haven't. Instead I have decided that, because the verb is in the て form, we are looking at an ongoing state and adding adding ところ simply reinforces that fact. So, my initial translation would be Women worrying about their figures, however because of the 自分 and the question mark at the end I'm going for Are you a woman worrying about your figure?.

Interesting result from the study too!

またね・・・

ブログは死なない・・・

2007-08-08T14:09:00.000+01:00

じゃあ、久しぶりだなぁ・・・

この写真はニューブリの運河だ。今日はちょっとつまらなくて写真と撮ることにした。そして、正直と言えば他の理由だ。今月末、旅行に行く！！！！！２７日にエジプトに行く予定だ。今は用意がたくさんあるから、超忙しいだよ！

でも、ニューブリの写真はなぜ？じゃぁ、カメラを使うのを連絡しなければなれない。

JLPT3: だろう and でしょう

2007-06-23T12:41:00.000+01:00

日本語：	[verb (plain)] でしょう
日本語：	[adjective] でしょう
日本語：	[noun] でしょう
English:	Probably..., Isn't that so?, Isn't that right?

It's always embarrassing to have to admit my lack of understanding of rudimentary Japanese, but here's another basic point that I've only really just comes to terms with. Today, we'll look at でしょう and it's casual equivalent だろう.

To be fair, I've known since my first year of study that でしょう is a sentence-ending conjugation that adds an element of uncertainty to the statement that comes before. I covered the concept of conjecture last year when looking at かもしれません, and from that we discovered there are different degrees of uncertainty. でしょう is used when the the likelihood of the statement coming to pass is high. It can be seen as being the equivalent of the phrase most likely.

What I didn't really understand is that it can also be used as a tag question. In sentences where we want to seek confirmation from someone as to the statement we've just made, we can add でしょう to the end and instantly we have the Japanese equivalent of isn't that right? or right?. Not a big thing, but one that makes for a much more natural sentence.

The conjugation is pretty straightforward: it follows the plain form of verbs (so bases 1, 3 and 7), adjectives and nouns. To use as a tag question, both でしょう and だろう are spoken with a rising edge.

English:	After last night, Matt will surely have a hangover.
Jenglish:	[last night][after],[Matt][hangover][have + surely]
日本語：	昨夜の後でマットくんは二日酔いがあるだろう。

English:	Because it's new, you probably can't download it.
Jenglish:	[it][new][because][download][can + negative + probably]
日本語：	これは新しいからダウンロード出来ないでしょう。

English:	If I go to confront him, you'll come too, right?
Jenglish:	[him][confront + go + if],[you][also][come + right?]
日本語：	彼に直面しに行ったら、あなたも行くだろう。

今はインターネットで、例を探そう！

一番目の例：

この例はこのサイトで見つかった。

日本語：	皆さんもよく経験があることだろう。
Jenglish:	[everyone] [too] [often] [experience] [have] [thing] [probably]

じゃぁ、この例は簡単なようだね・・・On the face of it, this sentence may seem a little unusual, but it is taken from an ongoing conversation on the site. Other than some mild confusion about the use of こと (which I believe is preceded by my favourite grammar - the subordinate clause), nothing really seems too challenging. So my translation is: A thing that probably everyone often experiences.

二番目の例：

二番目の例はこのサイトで見つかった。面白そうだ。

日本語：	終電に逃げられた人は、毎夜一杯いるだろう。
Jenglish:	[last train] [on] [escape] [people] [TM] [every evening] [a lot] [are] [probably].

Again, other than a new verb (逃げる) nothing really challenged me too much. Yet another subordinate clause (honestly, I don't go looking for them). My translation is: There are probably a lot of people who, every evening, escape [home] on the last train.

じゃぁ。。。またね！

悪いニュース！

2007-06-15T20:23:00.001+01:00

罪を犯される！最近TESCOと言うスーパーは「Finest」ブランドからレーズンとナッツのチョコレートを作り終わった。最悪よ！！一番のレーズンとナッツのチョコレートだ！

東京で新しいTESCOはまだ売れてるかも。

JLPT3: でも (II) & ても

2007-06-13T19:42:00.000+01:00

日本語：	[verb (base 6)] も
日本語：	[い adjective] くても
日本語：	[な adjective] でも
日本語：	[noun] でも
English:	Even if...

Recently we had a look at the use of でも after nouns where it could be used to say things like even such-and-such or so-and-so or whatever. Today we'll look at another use of でも after nouns as well as it's use after adjectives and verbs. In such circumstances, it's English translation is even if...

There's not an awful lot to discuss on this point, other than to look at the conjugation. After verbs in base 6 (ーて form) add も. With adjectives, we also move them into ーて form, so we drop the い in い-adjectives and add くても whilst the な in な-adjectives becomes で followed by も. With nouns, the です becomes で followed by も.

Let's look at some examples!

English:	Even if I study everyday, my Japanese doesn't improve.
Jenglish:	[everyday][study][even if],[Japanese][doesn't improve]
日本語：	毎日勉強しても、日本語を上達しないでしまう。

NOTE: 23/06/2007 - Actually, after re-reading my post on しまう and the comments, I think that it's use here may not be correct...

English:	Even if you take care when drinking, you always have a hangover next day.
Jenglish:	[drinking][when][take care][even if],[next day][always][hangover][have]
日本語：	飲むの時は注意しても、翌日にいつも二日酔いがある。

It's also worth noting that ても/でも can be used with interrogatives. In this case it's takes on the meaning akin to no matter.... The below example is taken from Jim Breen's web site:

運転する時はいくら注意しても注意しすぎることはない。

If we break this down literally, we get:

[when driving] [how much] [take care + even if] [take care + too much] [is not]

The combination of the interrogative (in this case how much) and ても can be translated as no matter how much. So the best translation I have is No matter how much you take car when driving, it not too much.

じゃあ、インタネットで例文を探そう！

一番目例文：

Here's an example from this web site.

日本語：	「ただ乗り」されてもグーグルのトラフィックは必要？--ジレンマに悩む新聞業界
Jenglish:	[free ride] [to do + passive + even if] [Google traffic] [TP] [necessary?] [dilemma] [DP] [to be worried] [newspaper industry] [world]

Well, a bit demoralising to be honest. I had a nice start on this, but the first bit totally threw me. ただ乗り means 'free ride' but then we get される. The obvious translation to 'to do free rides' but that doesn't really make sense. 30 minutes later, I'm still no clearer so I'm leaving my translation as Even if it's free access, is Google's traffic necessary? The dilemma that the world of the newspaper industry worries about. Please help!!!

二番目例文：

Well, taken from this web site this example looks like the title of a drama.

日本語：	日が暮れても彼女と歩いてた
Jenglish:	[day] [SM] [to get dark + even if] [her] [with] [to walk (past progressive)]

Let's take a risk and not think about this one too much: My first thought is I walked with her, even if the day got dark. I'm guessing that 日が暮れる is idiomatic and translates to something like 'things got tough'. Come to think of it 彼女と歩いていた is probably also idiomatic and means 'I stayed with her' or something. Any ideas?

またね・・・

JLPT３：でも (I)

2007-06-12T19:57:00.000+01:00

日本語：	[noun] でも
English:	even..., or something...

It's been a while since I dared have a look at the bane of my life - particles. So here's one that cropped up recently and caught my eye.

I'm sure that anyone who's studied Japanese will have come across でも very early on as one of the (many) ways to say but. However it has a much broader range and here we shall concentrate on it's use directly after nouns. In such instances, it can be used in a couple of ways:

As a means of emphasising the noun. For example:
When he came home, even the dog was quiet.
To highlight that the noun it follows is just one of a list of possible items. For example:
After the film, would you like a coffee or something?

So, it seems to be a useful bit of grammar and certainly allows more natural-sounding sentences to be constructed. でも can also be used after nouns to mean even if, but that's a separate blog entry!

Let's see it in use; first in some of my Japanese and then in real Japanese!

English:	When he came home, even the dog was quiet.
Jenglish:	[he][home][came],[dog][even][quiet]
日本語：	彼は家に帰った時、犬でも静かだった。

English:	After the film, would you like a coffee or something?
Jenglish:	[film][after][coffee][or something][drink + ?]
日本語：	映画の後で、コーヒーでも飲みませんか。

次、インターネットで調べよう・・・

一番目例文：

この例文はこのウエブサイトに見つけました。

日本語：	猫でもわかるプログラミング
Jenglish:	[cats][even][understand][programming]

Well, I think this is a nice one to start with. A quick scan shows a verb in base 3 (plain) form followed by a noun, so we have a subjunctive clause here. So my guess is: Programming even cats understand.

２番目例文：

もう一つ例文は・・・今回このサイトからです。

日本語：	絵日記でもかいてみようか
Jenglish:	[Illustrated diary][or something][write + try + let's]

A bit of a verb conjugation going on here. I did struggle over which meaning of でも　to use. I've guessed or something in this case. As for the verb, it's the volitional form of write in it's ーてみる form. So I think it says: Let's try and keep an illustrated diary (or something like that).

またね・・・

JLPT3: にする (II)

2007-06-05T15:23:00.000+01:00

日本語：	[い adjective] くする
日本語：	[な adjective] にする
日本語：	[noun] にする
English:	Change into..., make...

Recently we covered one use of にする and found that it could be used to mean to decide upon or choose some object. Today we'll look at another meaning: to change something into or to make something . In essence it is similar to になる, but whereas になる indicates a natural change in state, にする indicates that the change is brought about by some external entity.

Usage is pretty straight-forward: with い adjectives, drop the い; with な adjectives, drop な. With nouns, simply add にする to the noun.

English:	His mood was pretty bad so I told some jokes. In short, that made him happy.
Jenglish:	[his][mood][pretty][bad][because][jokes][told]. [In short] [that] [happy + made]
日本語：	彼の機嫌はかなり悪いですので、冗談を言ったんだ。つまり、そのは嬉しくした。

English:	The film plot was not very good, but because Koyuki starred, somehow it made it interesting :-)
Jenglish:	[film plot][good + not very][but][koyuki][starred][somehow][interesting + made]
日本語：	映画の筋はあまり良くないけど、小雪さんを主演したから、なんとなく面白くした(^o^)

インタネットで調べよう！

Example 1:

Here's a book title found here.

日本語：	シカクいアタマをマルくする。
Jenglish:	[square] [head] [round + make]

Well, on the face of it, all seems easy enough, however I suspect that this is some kind of idiomatic expression. My translation is Make square heads round, but I can only guess a to the meaning. Any ideas?

Example 2:

Here's another more translatable (can I say that??) from a technology blog.

日本語：	注射針を不要にする新技術(下)
Jenglish:	[needle] [unnecessary + make] [new technology]

Nice and simple one here and even the subjunctive clause didn't cause much confusion. My translation is New technology that makes needles unnecessary.

Example 3:

もう一つ例文・・・今回このサイトから取りました。

日本語：	Webアプリケーションのオフライン動作を可能にする「Google Gears」
Jenglish:	[web application] [PM] [offline] [action] [OM] [possible + make]

OK, so slightly more tricky due to the lack of particles, subject, topic etc... but I'm guessing Offline web application actions made possible: Google Gears.

またね・・・

JLPT3: がっている

2007-06-03T13:47:00.000+01:00

日本語：	[verb (base 2)] たがっている
日本語：	[adjective] がっている
English:	Shows signs of...

Here's another little surprise; I had never heard of this grammar point before last Thursday and now that I've looked into it a bit, it seems (a) to be very common and (b) very useful. In fact, it's so closely related to the ーたい conjugation that we learn in first year Japanese that I am surprised that I haven't come across it before.

I haven't written a blog entry on the たい conjugation yet, simply because I was pretty sure that I understood it. Not so, it appears; at least not fully. たい is a verb conjugation that adds a want to... aspect to sentences. For example ビールを飲みたい. What I did not realise is that たい can only be used when the subject of the sentence is either the first person (I/we), or the second person (you) in question form. If the subject is the third-person you have to use がっている. When used, it adds a wants to... or seems to... aspect to the sentence.

The conjugation is pretty easy; with verbs you move the verb to base 2 and add た (as in たい), then add がっている. With い and な adjectives, drop the い and な respectively.

English:	He wants to move to Japan this year.
Jenglish:	[this year][he][Japan][move + want]
日本語：	今年、彼は日本に引っ越したがっている。

English:	She looks like she wants to leave.
Jenglish:	[she][leave + looks like]
日本語：	彼女は帰りたがっている。

English:	Despite the warm breeze, they seem to be cold.
Jenglish:	[warm][breeze][despite][they][cold + seem]
日本語：	暖かいそれ風のに、彼らは寒がっている。

インタネットで調べよう！

Example 1:

The first example is the title of a very business-like example about some problems with Japanese Airlines.

日本語：	JAL経営陣との決別！パート２世界の投資家はJAL筆頭株主の座を欲しがっている
Jenglish:	[JAL] [management ranks] [of] [separation/farewell]! [part 2] [world] [of] [investor] [SM] [JAL] [first on list] [shareholder] [of] [seat] [OM] [shows signs of wanting]

Ummmm, a simple-looking sentence, but one with lots of kanji jammed together like sardines. The first problem was the use of との in the first part. Couldn't find a reference to it's meaning and so I've translated it as of. After that we have the subject ('the world of investors') who want something (欲しがっている). I was getting a little confused here so I simply 'ignored' a couple of words. So my translation is: JAL management farewell! The world of investors want JAL shareholders top of the list.

Example 2:

The Japanese are going green like the rest of us. Here's a quick example.

日本語：	企業はごみを欲しがっている！
Jenglish:	[enterprise] [SM] [rubbish] [OM] [wants]

I'm going to be bold here and just translate it - I'm THAT confident! I get Enterprises want rubbish!. It's so easy - it just has to be wrong. Anyway interesting article on eco towns sponsored by the ministy of economy, trade & industry (METI) and the ministry of the environment.

またね・・・

JLPT3: にする (I)

2007-04-20T10:55:00.000+01:00

日本語：	[noun] にする
English:	Decide on...

Back in August we covered ことにする which, following a verb in bases 1 or 3, means to decide upon some action. Today we'll look at it's counterpart for nouns. A word of caution though; にする also has another meaning which is entirely different, so when you see にする used you'll have to rely on the context to determine whether it means decide on or change into.

English:	It was difficult to choose but I've decided on the steak.
Jenglish:	[choose][difficult][but][steak][decided]
日本語：	比べるのは難しいですがステーキにしました。

English:	Despite the fact that it was expensive, she decided on the Prada handbag.
Jenglish:	[fact][expensive][despite][she][Prada handbag][decided]
日本語：	事実は高いのに、彼女はプラダのかばんにしました。

じゃあ、今日の点はインタネットに調べよう！

例文１：

This example comes from a somewhat girly site - the kind I don't frequent... honest!!

日本語：	間接照明だけだと暗い感じになるかなぁと思ってシャンデリアにしました。
Jenglish:	[indirect lighting] [only] [if] [gloomy] [feeling/impression] [become] [I wonder] [I think] [and] [chandelier] [decided on]

Umm... well on the face of it, it seems pretty straight-forward, the only thing that confuses me is the use of かなぁ and と思う together. That's like saying 'I think I wonder...' which doesn't really work. However, my Japanese friend pointed out that it is OK to use かなぁと思う as another way of saying I wonder. So, my translation is: If there were only indirect lighting, I wondered that it would be gloomy and so I decided on a chandelier.

例文２：

Here's another from some geeky site.

日本語：	コロンブスの卵「思い切ってシリコンHDDという名前にしました」
Jenglish:	[Columbus' Egg] [bravely] [silicon] [HDD] [called] [name] [decided on]

Well, this one turned out to be educational - in both English history and Japanese! The first bit was a show-stopper in terms of understanding. A Google search revealed the history behind the great explorer's egg story, but I couldn't see how it was related to the next bit. The second, less difficult, issue was the use of 思い切って. According to Jim Breen, 思い切って is translated as resolutely, which really didn't make much sense. So I trawled through a couple of paper dictionaries and discovered a translation of bravely. Both of these issues were cleared up by a Japanese friend who confirmed that in this case bravely was correct and also helped me understand why Columbus' Egg was relevant here. Apparently it can be used as a means of saying 'to think outside the box'. Ahhh.....

So, after much education, I'm translating this as Thinking outside the box: bravely decided on the name Silicon HDD and it refers to Buffalo's decision to re-brand USB pen drives as 'Silicon HDDs'. Why is this brave? If you can guess, leave a comment!!

またね・・・

JLPT3: Conditional と

2007-04-08T09:46:00.000+01:00

日本語：	[clause A (base 1/3)] と [clause B]
日本語：	[clause A (adjective)] と [clause B]
日本語：	[clause A (noun)] と [clause B]
English:	If/Whenever [clause A], [clause B]...

Today, we'll look at another conditional in common usage. If like me you have the memory of a goldfish and have forgotten the previous blog entries on conditionals, you may want to check out the overview and the discussion on ば.

I've seen the と conditional described as the natural consequence conditional indicating that the events in clause B will definitely happen or there is a high expectation that they will happen, when the scenario described in clause A comes about. As such, the English whenever could be seen as a more descriptive definition of this conditional.

Clause A should be in non-past, so for verbs we're looking at base 1 (simple negative) or base 3 (simple non-past). Clause B can be either past or non-past. Here is a good example of it's use that came up recently on this very blog:

写真をクリックすると大きくなります。

What we are saying here is that the natural consequence of clicking on the picture is that it will become bigger. Of course, the Internet link could die just at that moment, but the expectation is that a big picture will appear. The ばconditional we looked at the other day really doesn't feel right here; there we suggested that the use of ば implied that (1) there is no indication that the event in clause A will occur, (2) the focus is on the condition, not the outcome and (3) the speaker is considering the opposite scenario. In the example sentence above, the focus is more on the outcome (a bigger picture appearing) and also, it seems unnatural to be thinking but if you don't click on it....

Here's another example I got off my Japanese teacher a while ago (her examples were always very strange!):

でも、遠くはなれていると二人の気持ちもはなれると思う。

Again, the ば conditional would seem odd here; there is no indication that that we will be far apart (although this sentence would probably have been uttered as part of a larger conversation), however the focus is more on the consequence of being separated by a great distance. Also, the speaker is unlikely to be thinking but if we're not separated by a great distance....

OK, an example from the Internet. It was really tough to find it, considering just how many things とcan mean! Therefore only one example.

Example 1:

This one is taken from here.

日本語：	蜂に刺されると痛いだけでなく、体質によってはアレルギー反応によるショック症状を起こす人がいます。
Jenglish:	[bee] [be stabbed] [when] [painful] [not just, but also] [constitution] [according to] [allergy] [reaction] [due to/by means of] [shock] [symptoms] [P] [cause] [people] [there are]

On the face of it, this seems pretty straight-forward to translate. At the end of the sentence we have 人がいます following a verb phrase in base 3, so I'm guessing that we have a subjunctive clause here (that's posh for a sentence that describes a noun). We also have によって, which I remember as another form of によると. Other than that it was an exercise in vocabulary. So, it think this translates as There are people that when stung by a bee, it's not only painful but also, depending upon their constitution they may have shock symptoms due to an allergic reaction.

またね・・・

ジョニー・ディップを見られる？

2007-04-05T15:49:00.000+01:00

ええと、私の船はどこに出し放したかな・・・パイレーツオブカリビアンを見たことがある？じゃあ・・・幽霊を見たかったといいんですが惜しくも見ない。

写真をクリックすると大きくなります。（邦訳にはfreeasacat、ありがとう）

ロンドンの見所

2007-03-26T15:50:00.000+01:00

今日はロンドンで会議があった。会議は早く終わったから、橋に歩いて写真を撮った。運良く、今朝は曇りのに写真を撮った時、明るいです！

じゃあ・・・この有名な所、なんですか

美味しい！！

2007-03-22T12:02:00.000Z

今朝、起きた時私の機嫌はあまり良くない。もう一度貧乏だ！でも、友達が送ってくれた小荷物を来た。中身は？日本から色々な食べ物だ！まだ貧乏けどうれしいだよ！

JLPT3: ーてよかった

2007-03-18T12:44:00.001Z

日本語：	[verb (base 6)] よかった。
English:	It is good that..., I'm glad that...

A nice a simple grammar point today and one I think is part of the JLPT3 specification. I say that because my usual JLPT specification book doesn't list it, but I found a web site that suggests it is 3級. Nonetheless, I can see myself using this one a lot since I'm so 前向き！

Simply, by adding よかった to the ーて form of a verb, either positive or negative, we can say that it is good that, or you are happy that something has either occurred or is occurring.

English:	It was good to go to the theatre again.
Jenglish:	[theatre][again][go + good]
日本語：	劇場にまた行ってよかった。

English:	I'm glad I left the party early last night.
Jenglish:	[last night][party][early][left + glad]
日本語：	昨夜パーティーに出てよかった。

Here are some real-world examples!

Example 1:

This is taken from here.

日本語：	転職してよかった！は、メルマガ【転職ＨｏｗＴｏ便】にて配信中
Jenglish:	[to change occupation + good] [??] [email magazine] ['how to change occupation mail'] [in] [distribution]

Well, most of the words are easy enough, although the standalone use of は is a puzzle. My best guess is that it is an interjection of some kind - maybe like us saying 'well then...' in English. I've also made the assumption that 配信中 is the 'currently doing' form of 配信 - in this case meaning 'currently in distribution'. So, my translation is: It's good to change your career! Well, the electronic magazine 'How to change your career' is currently in distribution.

Example 2:

Here's one from a Wikipedia entry about some TV drama.

日本語：	愛しすぎなくてよかった
Jenglish:	[to love + too much + negative + good]

Well, I have to say I don't think this one is too difficult; it's simply a verb with a dozen conjugations stuck on it! My guess is It's good to not love too much.

Example 3:

A final example taken from here.

日本語：	「サイト（またはブログ等）を閉鎖してよかったと思いますか？」とサファリ問題
Jenglish:	"[site] [or] [blog] [[etc] [closing + good] [think?]" [and] [safari] [question]

OK, I had to cheat here a little. To be honest, it was straight-forward but the one bit that completely threw me was the とサファリ問題 bit. Because the first part was in 「」 followed by と I automatically assumed that I was looking at a quote. In the end I gave up on that and asked a friend. It appears that there were actually two separate statements here and the と was acting as and. So, with a little help I translate this as "Do you think it's good for the site (or blog etc) to close?" and safari questions.

またね・・・

想像しているにちがいない・・・

2007-03-16T09:59:00.000Z

たいてい通勤は退屈ですが今日は違いです！車ですか。居間ですか。何ですか！

写真はあまり良くない　－　僕は運転していったよ！しかし、草木と時計を見られますか。

写真を選ぶと大きさ写真を現れます。 (Actually, how do you say "click on the picture to enlarge"?

またね・・・

JLPT3: Conditional ば

2007-03-13T20:00:00.000Z

日本語：	[A verb (base 4)] ば [B]
日本語：	[adjective] ければ / なら [B]
日本語：	[noun] なら [B]
English:	If only [A] then [B]

For the JLPT3 we need to know four conditionals: たら, なら, ーえば and と. There are others but it will only complicate matters to think about them now, especially as the four mentioned have pretty specific usage restrictions. But before you read any further, you really should read this first!

The えば conditional most closely resembles what we English would consider if to mean. In English, we would see the basic construct as:

if [clause A] then [clause B]

However, it should be noted that えば is used when there is no indication as to whether the event in clause A is likely to occur or not. As such it is frequently seen when talking about hypothetical situations and in effect, can be thought of as saying 'if the event in clause A were to come about then situation in clause B is possible'. For example:

If I won the lottery, it would be cool
If it isn't cloudy tonight, we may see the stars

Also, as discussed in the overview of conditionals, えば places the focus on the condition, not the outcome. Finally, with えば there is a likelihood that the speaker is considering the opposite statement, even if this is not vocalised. So, we could view the second example sentence above as:

If it isn't cloudy tonight, we may see the stars [but if it is, we won't]

In terms of conjugation, ば is fairly easy to use. Verbs should be in base 4. With い-adjectives, drop the い and add ければ; な-adjectives and nouns add なら. As usual, verbs in the negative are treated as い-adjectives.

NOTE: I should mention here that I have read that there are restrictions on what kind of verb conjugation can occur in the main clause (that is clause B). Originally I wrote that: in most cases, clause B cannot be statement indicating a command, suggestion, prohibition or permission. The exception to this is where clause A is an い adjective, ends in the verbs ある or いる or is a verb in plain negative form. In these cases, suggestions can be used. . However, I can find no reference to this in any of my text books. Can anyone tell me if such restrictions exist?

English:	If it isn't cloudy tonight, we may see the stars.
Jenglish:	[tonight][cloudy + not + if], [stars][see + ability + maybe]
日本語：	今夜曇っていれば星を見られるかもしれない。

English:	It would be good if it stops raining.
Jenglish:	[rain][stop + if][good]
日本語：	雨がやめばいいです。

Lets see how this is used with some examples from the Internet!

Example 1:

This one is taken from a particularly geeky-looking site. Right up my street!

日本語：	もしかして洗えば直るっていう話は僕が知らなかっただけで、その筋では結構一般的なのか。
Jenglish:	[possibly] [wash + if] [fix] [quote] [to say] [conversation] [TM] [I] [SM] [didn't know] [only], [that] [plan] [well then] [tolerably] [typical] [casual male question]

Uh? Totally lost on this from the beginning. For a start, っていう話 isn't very clear. I know that っていう is a colloquial form of という which I know as meaning called. Also, the use of だけ seems odd. Then, we have words that simply don't seem to fit, for example: 結構.

So, embarrassing as it is, this is my translation: As for the conversation regarding how you might fix your computer if you wash it, is the plan typical?

Example 2:

Hopefully this example taken from here will be simpler.

日本語：	小沢さんは小泉さんをほめればいい。
Jenglish:	[Mr Kosawa] [TM] [Mr Koizumi] [OM] [to speak well + if] [good]

Well, I think this may be a reasonably simple one. The hardest part was translating the names. I kinda guess Koizumi from the 'zumi' part; 'Kosawa' is a guess also. So, I think this means It would be good if Mr Kosawa spoke well of Mr Koizumi..

Example 3:

Well, as depressing as trying to translate the first example was, let's try another geeky web site.

日本語：	XMLの基礎を理解しよう～これだけ知っていれば大丈夫～。
Jenglish:	[XML] [PM] [foundation] [OM] [understanding + do + lets] [so little] [to know + if] [OK]

Looks pretty uncomplicated, but I've chosen a couple of different translations to make it sound more natural: Let's understand the basics of XML - it's OK if you know nothing.

またね・・・

Conditional Statements

2007-03-08T17:06:00.000Z

First, a defintion:

condition [noun]: an assumption on which rests the validity or effect of something else

Japanese conditionals are the bane of my life. Never really understood which conditional to use and when, so time to take the bull by the horns... But before we do, I had to think about English first!

Let's consider some English conditionals:

If I eat ice-cream too quickly, I get a headache.

Here, we are talking about cause and effect. I get a headache because I ate too quickly and it is always the case. Getting a headache is a natural predictable consequence of eating ice-cream too quickly. This sentence could be written Whenever I eat ice-cream too quickly, I get a headache.

If I go to Japan, I want to eat okonomiyaki.

In this sentence the nuance is that I must first go to Japan, whereupon I can go about the task of eating okonomiyaki. I can't eat it before I have gone to Japan. It's important to note three things here: (1) Eating okonomiyaki is not a natural, predictable consequence of going to Japan, that is I could go to Japan and not eat it. (2) The important point is not that I go to Japan, but what I do when I get there. In other words the emphasis is on the result, not the condition. (3) The speaker is unlikely to being thinking about the opposite condition, namely if he doesn't go to Japan, he wont eat okonomiyaki. This sentence could be written When I go to Japan, I want to eat okonomiyaki.

If I finish watching Full Metal Panic tonight, I will be surprised.

Here the emphasis is on the condition itself. The important thing is what conditions need to be met to make me surprised. There is no guarantee that I will finish watching FMP - indeed, there is no guarantee that I will even watch it. However, if and only if I watch FMP and finish it I will be surprised. In other words the speaker is talking hypothetically. It's also important to note that we can easily form the opposite conditional here; namely that if I don't finish FMP, I won't be surprised. So, we could rewrite this sentence as If I were to finish watching Full Metal Panic tonight, I will be surprised (but if I don't, I wont).

So, there is a distinction in how conditional statements are put together and although it may not be 100% accurate, the following guidelines may help. Note, however, that appear to be additional constraints on their use, but the individual blog entries will look at those.

If the main statement is a direct, natural or predictable result of the condition, use the Japanese と conditional.
If the main statement is not a predictable outcome of the condition, but requires the condition to occur first and you want to emphasize the main statement, use the Japanese conditional たら.
If speaking hypothetically, with more emphasis on the condition, or if there is a natural opposite condition use the ば conditional.

'Few' vs. 'A few'

2007-03-01T20:47:00.000Z

Yeah, I know I haven't finished the giving & receiving concept, but I was going through this last night and decided it would be worth blogging. I'm not even sure which JLPT level it is, but I'll deal with that later on. Today we'll look at the differences between saying 'few' and 'a few'

The inference here is that 'few' implies a negative connotation; for example:

There are few places to see in Basingstoke.
He has few friends in Japan.

Compare that to 'a few' which doesn't carry the negative connotation:

There are a few places to visit in Basingsoke.
He has a few friends in Japan.

Let's look at each usage in turn.

A Few

The format of this is pretty easy. Simply take 何, follow it with the relevant counter and then add か. The hardest bit is getting the counter right! Maybe an example will help.

English:	I have seen a few films recently.
Jenglish:	[recently][films][a few][seen]
日本語：	最近映画を何本か観た。

English:	He has a few friends in Japan.
Jenglish:	[Japan][in][he][friends][a few][has]
日本語：	日本に彼は友達が何人かいる。

Few

Here, we can we a combination of 少し (meaning few) and しか which used with a verb in negative form means 'just'.

English:	I have seen few films recently.
Jenglish:	[recently][films][few][seen]
日本語：	最近映画を少ししか観ない。

English:	He has few friends in Japan
Jenglish:	[Japan][in][he][friends][few][has]
日本語：	日本に彼は友達が少ししかない。

Let's check out the Internet and see some other examples. However, from my Googling, I get the impression that the use of 少ししか is not quite as straight-forward as I would have thought.

Example 1:

This example comes from here.

日本語：	時折、愛が地球に十分にないように思えたり、少ししかないような不安を感じることもあります。
Jenglish:	[sometimes], [love] [SP] [the Earth] [in] [enough] [not] [looks like] [seems], [few] [anxiety][feel][also]

Well, this is a tough one. I feel like I know what the translation is, but I just can't get put together the English equivalent. So, despite it probably being wrong, this is my translation: Sometimes it seems as if there is not enough love in the World and I also feel anxious.

Example 2:

Here's another example taken from here.

日本語：	いつもラーメンを少ししか食べずに帰ってしまうお客がいて、気になったラーメン屋が後をつけると……という話。
Jenglish:	[always] [ramen] [few] [not eat] [return + regret] [customer] [are], [worry] [ramen shop owner] [to tag along, to follow] [] [called] [story]

OK, I had to admit defeat in translating this one. The first part seemed reasonably straight-forward, but the second part completely threw me. I'm translating ラーメン屋 as 'ramen shop owner' as it makes more sense. 後をつける doesn't make much sense and the following と also seems odd. So, regrettably I admit defeat and can only come up with There are regrettably always customers that return and eat little ramen and worried ramen shop owners ????

Example 3:

Here's a hopefully simple example taken from here.

日本語：	少ししか登場しないのに妙に印象に残ってるキャラ。
Jenglish:	[few] [appearances (on screen)] [to do][despite][unusual] [impression] [remain] [characters (from anime)]

To be honest, I thought this one was pretty easy - hopefully I got it right. My translation is Characters that have left a lasting impression despite few appearances.

またね・・・

Counters

2007-02-28T16:31:00.000Z

If I had to pick one thing that is always causing me problems then it would be knowing which counter to use for a given item. This post will be an ongoing attempt to list which counters are used for which item. I'll add it as a sticky post and populate it as time goes on.

It is possible to use both naturalised Japanese numbers (一つ、二つ、三つ etc.) or the imported Chinese numbering system.

The Japanese numbering system is nice and easy; the syntax being:

[noun][particle][number][verb]

The particle used is dictated by the verbal component. Note, however, the use of naturalised numbers is limited to counting up to 10 items. After that you will need to use the imported system. Also, from talking to Japanese friends, even for counting less than 10 of something it is usual to use the imported system.

Using the imported numbering system is more complex in that you need to specify a counter along with the quantity, although the syntax is pretty straight-forward:

[noun][particle][number][item counter][verb]

Again, the particle is dictated by the verbal component, whilst the item counter is dependent on the item (see below).

漢字	カナ	Item
頭	とう	animal, large
匹	ひき	animals, small
袋	ふくろ	bags of things (crisps, sweets, etc)
床	しょう	beds
羽	わ	birds
冊	さつ	books
本	ほん	bottles
箱	はこ	boxes, boxfuls
束	たば	bunches of something
台	だい	cars
脚	きゃく	chairs
課	か	chapters of a book
字	じ	characters (letters)
枚	まい	clothing (articles of)
ヶ国	かこく	countries
品	しな	courses (of a meal)
杯	はい	cups (containing a liquid)
脚	きゃく	desks
通	つう	documents
通	つう	emails
話	わ	episodes of TV series
本	ほん	films (movies)
匹	ひき	fish
階	かい	floors (of a building)
輪	りん	flowers, individual (also see bunches counter)
杯	はい	glasses (containing a liquid)
丁	ちょう	guns
台	だい	household appliances
匹	ひき	insects
字	じ	kana
字	じ	kanji
丁	ちょう	leaves
課	か	lessons
通	つう	letters (as in something you write to someone)
丁	ちょう	levers
台	だい	machines
冊	さつ	magazines
台	だい	mechanical devices
泊	はく	nights of a stay (somewhere)
回	かい	occurances (number of times)
枚	まい	paper (sheets of)
人	にん	people
名	めい	people (more formal than 人)
枚	まい	photographs
問	もん	questions
丁	ちょう	servings in a restaurant
段	だん	steps (in a staircase)
話	わ	stories
本	ほん	telephone calls
枚	まい	thin, flat objects
枚	まい	tickets
丁	ちょう	tools
本	ほん	trees
輪	りん	wheels

JLPT3: People doing things for you ーてくれる

2007-02-22T18:37:00.000Z

日本語：	[subject] は [recipient] に [verb (base 6)] くれる
English:	Someone does something for you...

First off, the title to this entry isn't particularly accurate, but as I can't think of a better one, it'll have to do. The reason that it isn't accurate has already been mentioned when talking about くれる as well as ーてあげる and あげる and stems from the fact that くれる is used to indicate that something is being given in your direction. Whilst this obviously means given to you, it can also mean that something is given to someone close to you. Likewise with ーてくれる in that this means that some action is performed for you or someone close to you.

Now, I've recently been talking to Matt about this and we've had a bit of a problem understanding when you actually use this conjugation. However, thanks to a Japanese friend, it appears that there are some guidelines. Maybe an example will help.

マットくんがビールを買った。

How would you translate this into English? Odds-on you came up with Matt bought [me] some beer. A nice, straightforward statement of fact. But if we do this:

マットくんがビールを買ってくれた。

Then we would translate this as Matt bought [me] some beer and I appreciate it. I've seen some textbooks translate this as "as a favour", but I think my Japanese friend's explanation is better ('cos it sounds nicer!) Yes, it would seem that てくれる can be used to add a positive emotional context into a statement of fact showing that you somehow benefited from the action.

English:	My boss lent me his Aston Martin DBS
Jenglish:	[boss][Aston Martin DBS][lent + appreciation]
日本語：	上司がアストンマティーンデーベーエスを貸してくれた。

English:	I was sent a signed photo of Manami Honjou.
Jenglish:	[Honjou][Manami][signed][photo][sent + appreciation]
日本語：	本上まなみのサインの写真を送ってくれた。

The theory seems sound. インターネットに調べよう！

Example 1:

Well, most people know I'm a geek so let's not disappoint. Taken from this web site it appears to be about an interview with Bill Gates.

日本語：	ゲイツ氏はXboxやWindows Liveを含む、マイクロソフトが他社を追い上げようとしているいくつかの分野について語ってくれた
Jenglish:	[Gates][Mr] [SM] [Xbox] [Windows Live] [OM] [include] [Microsoft] [TM] [other company] [OM] [put pressure on (volitional - be about to)] [a few] [PM] [fields] [about] [spoke + favour]

Well, there were a lot of guesses here. For example 分野 can be translated as 'division' or 'branch' as well as 'field' or 'sphere'. Originally I went for division as it seemed to make sense when talking about a large company, but I swapped over to 'field' in the end as it seemed a better fit. Also the 追い上げようとして threw me for about 20 minutes. The よう indicated it's a volitional (covered soon!) which translated 追い上げよう as 'let's put pressure on' - it just didn't make sense. Quite by accident I found that you can use volitional form with とする to mean 'about to...'. The マイクロソフトが confused me as I couldn't find a convenient place to put this in my translation. In despair I read my blog entry on が and wondered if I could be looking at a relative clause here.

やっと、僕の訳文は「Mr. Gates kindly spoke about a few of the fields that Microsoft are about to put pressure on other companies to include in Xbox and Windows Live.」

Example 2:

Well, I've never thought about the idea of Japanese cheerleaders (honest!), but I found an example (of the grammar point and the cheerleaders) here.

日本語：	セレモニーでのパフォーマンス、そしてジュニアクリニックを2回おこない、クリニックにはたくさんの子供達が参加してくりました！
Jenglish:	[ceremony][LP][PP][performance][and then][junior][clinic][IM][2 times][conduct][clinic][DP][TM][lot][PM][children][SM][particiption][did]

This was easier than I thought, though that doesn't mean that I got it right! I've had to play with it a bit to make it more natural. There was a performance at the ceremony followed by two junior clinics. A lot of children participated in the clinics.

またね・・・

JLPT3: Receiving with くれる and くださる

2007-02-20T09:00:00.000Z

日本語：	[giver] は [receiver] に [noun clause] をくれる
日本語：	[giver] は [receiver] に [noun clause] をくださる
English:	[giver] gave [noun clause] to [receiver]

We recently looked at how the verbs あげる, さしあげる and やる can be used to express the concept of giving an item to someone or, with the ーて conjugation, the concept of doing something for someone. We made the point that these are only used when the act is preformed away from the speaker. Today we will look at what is effectively the opposite of this, くれる and it's honourific counterpart くださる.

Although the grammatical structure is the same as あげる, くれる is used when the act of giving is performed toward the speaker and as such, the sentence is from the receiver's point of view. With くれる sentences, the receiver can be I or we.

It is worth emphasising that くれる in this context means to give. If you want to say that someone receives something then you should use もらう. I don't know which one is used more frequently - my guess is that as the Japanese are big fans of passive grammar, maybe もらう, but I don't know. If/when I find out, I'll update this entry.

English:	My friends gave me a book on DIY.
Jenglish:	[friends][me][diy][about][book][gave]
日本語：	友達は私に日曜大工について本をくれた。
日本語：	友達は日曜大樹について本をくれた。

I wrote the Japanese twice as the second sentence seems more common - dropping the receiver if it is clear from the context of the sentence.

English:	Because I am taking an exam soon, my work colleagues gave me a card.
Jenglish:	[exam][soon][take][because][work colleagues][good luck card][gave]
日本語：	試験をすぐに受けるから同僚はグッドラックカードをくれた。

Times to scour the Internet! Actually this was a difficult search: Google came up with ーてくれる more frequently than plain old くれる sentences. Maybe that means something...

Example 1:

Taken from here this appears to be an interesting interview for all you anime fans.

日本語：	素敵な出会いをくれた映画　倍賞千恵子さんに聞く
Jenglish:	[fantastic][meeting][receive][film][Baisyou][Chieko][to][listen]

Well, my best guess is The film that received a great reception - listen to Chieko Baisyou.

Example 2:

Here's another one from a blog's title here.

日本語：	考える時間をくれた初めての大きなケガ
Jenglish:	[think][time][give (to me)][for the first time][big][hurt]

I've spent a bit of time pondering this one, mainly due to the fact that the literal translation just doesn't make sense. Also, the subject and indirect object have been left out which added to my confusion. So, I've come up with It hurt a lot the first time I got time to think

またね・・・

バレンタインデーです

2007-02-14T13:55:00.000Z

今日は今年の一番のロマンチックな日です。職場で同僚は彼氏にこのプレゼントをもらた。

またね・・・

JLPT3: Doing things for others with ーてあげる

2007-02-11T07:42:00.000Z

日本語：	[subject] は [recipient] に [verb (base 6)] あげる
English:	To do something for someone...

Last time we looked at the use of あげる to convey the act of giving an item to someone. We also made the point that あげる is used when the giving is performed by the subject of the sentence and the sentence is written from the subject point-of-view. Essentially, the direction of giving was away from the subject. Well, today we'll look at how the ーて form can be used to convey the act performing some action for someone else. In other words, today is all about doing a favour for someone!

If you've read the blog entry for あげる, there isn't really much to add here, other than あげる follows the action verb conjugated to base 6. The polite version is ーてさしあげる and as with さしあげる it's used when talking about superiors.

English:	I wanted to buy some chocolate for my friend.
Jenglish:	[friend][for][chocolate][buy + want + favour]
日本語：	友達にはチョコレートを買いたくてあげた。

English:	I explained to the customer how to upgrade the software.
Jenglish:	[customer][to][software][upgrade + how to][explain + favour]
日本語：	取引先にソフトウェアをアップグレードし方のを説明してあげた。

OK. Let's scour the net for real-world examples!

Example 1:

This first example is taken from http://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail.php?qid=1210310692

日本語：	とりあえず相手を見て、返ってこない覚悟で1,000円貸してあげるかな。
Jenglish:	[first of all][other party][see],[not return][resolution][because][1000 yen][lend + favour][I wonder]

This looked such a simple sentence before I tried to translate it, but the 返ってこない覚悟で completely threw me. So after a couple of hours (honestly!) I'm translating it as First of all I would look at the other person and wonder should I lend them 1000 yen, will the favour not be returned.

Example 2:

This example was taken from http://japan.alibaba.com/manufacture/5048345.html

日本語：	必要なパソコン言語でソフトウェアを開発してあげます。
Jenglish:	[necessary][PC][language][because][software][to develop + favour]

Well, I would translate this as Because of essential PC terminology, we have developed this software.

またね・・・

面白い天気・・・やっと雪が降ってる

2007-02-08T09:54:00.000Z

はい！イギリスでやっと雪が降ってる。職場へ運転はたいていあまり霊感を与えないけど今日は・・・今日は運転するのは楽しかった。

世界は白くなりました。職場へ運転してる時、下の写真を撮った。

この木は綺麗だと思う。　

JLPT3: Giving with やる、あげる and さしあげる

2007-02-03T10:38:00.000Z

日本語：	[giver]は[receiver]に[noun clause]をやる
日本語：	[giver]は[receiver]に[noun clause]をあげる
日本語：	[giver]は[receiver]に[noun clause]をさしあげる
English:	[giver] gave [noun clause] to [receiver]

Today's blog is the first of a series about the surprisingly complex art of giving and receiving in Japanese. From reading around a fair bit on the topic, the reason I have such big problems understanding this is that giving and receiving is such a fundamental part of Japanese culture and psychology, that without understanding the latter, I'm not going to truly understand the former.

Giving can fundamentally be in two directions: toward me (the speaker) or away from me. The whole notion of 'away from the speaker' becomes more complex when the speaker is not the giver, but conventional wisdom suggests that in such circumstances, the act of giving is being performed away from the giver's point of view and that the speaker associates more strongly with the giver. Anyway, here are the three verbs you'll come across:

やる

やる is the verb meaning to do, but in this context it is used to signify the act of giving down to someone or something. Since the Japanese culture frowns upon the idea of looking down on someone, even if you are doing that person a favour, this use of the verb is usually reserved for when talking about giving to animals.
あげる

あげる is probably the most frequently seen verb when talking about giving away from the speaker. あげる means to raise up and here implies that the speaker is humbling themselves with respect to the receiver. Generally あげる is used when both giver and receiver are close in social status.
さしあげる

さしあげる is the honourific form and is used when the receiver is of higher social status than the giver.

There is another verb in common usage meaning to give, although it is not part of the JLPT3 specification. The verb 渡す is functionally equivalent to あげる and can be translated as to hand over or to pass over. When to use each is unclear, but I think that 渡す can be used when simply stating that something was given, without any implication of emotion.

NOTE: When using やる、あげる and さしあげる the receiver cannot be either of the personal pronouns I or we. If you want to say that you received something, then you need to use the verb くれる which is discussed in the next blog entry.

English:	I gave the book to the librarian.
Jenglish:	[I][librarian][book][gave]
日本語：	私は図書館員に本をあげた。

English:	My friend gave his girlfriend a ring.
Jenglish:	[my friend][girlfriend][ring][gave]
日本語：	私の友人は彼女に指輪をあげました。

English:	My friend said she'll give her boyfriend chocolates on Valentine's Day.
Jenglish:	[my friend][boyfriend][Valentine's Day][chocolates][give][said]
日本語：	僕の友人は彼氏にバレンタインデーにチョコをあげると言っていた。

And here are some examples of actual usage, courtesy of Google...

Example 1:

This first example was found on http://ikimono.ciao.jp/otama/otamanikki1.html

日本語：	今日はおたまじゃくしにえさとして、キュウリをあげました。
Jenglish:	[today][SM][tadpole][to][feed][as for][cucumber][gave]

Well, my best guess would be In feeding the tadpoles today, I gave them cucumber

Example 2:

Here's one from http://scrapbook.ameba.jp/xmaspresent_book/

日本語：	クリスマスプレゼントなにを貰った？なにをあげた？
Jenglish:	[Christmas][present][what][received]?[what][gave]?

OK, again pretty straightforward, and it shows that you don't have to stick to the format given at the top of this blog entry. I reckon it translates to What Christmas presents did you receive? What did you give?

またね・・・

JLPT3: ーてはいけない

2007-01-24T13:21:00.000Z

日本語：	[verb (base 6)] はいけない
English:	Must not... May not...

Today's entry is a grammar point the probably won't be used much by people like myself, primarily because unless you are on really good terms with the recipient, it's going to be seen as rude. However, if you watch Japanese TV, you're going to hear it so it is worth knowing.

To be honest, there really isn't much to say about it; added to the base 6 form of a verb, it allows the construction of sentences that indicate actions that are forbidden.

English:	Don't eat my chocolate
Jenglish:	[my chocolate][eat + forbidden]
日本語：	私のチョコレートを食べてはいけない！

English:	Don't talk to strange women
Jenglish:	[strange][women][to][talk + forbidden]
日本語：	おかしい女を話してはいけない。

English:	Don't take things from my room without asking.
Jenglish:	[asking][without][my room][from][things][take + forbidden]
日本語：	求めないずに僕の部屋から物を持ち去ってはいけない。

Now, lets see what real-world examples we can find.

Example 1:

I'm not sure what they're doing, but the first example is from http://gigazine.net/index.php?/news/comments/20070116_microwave_me/

日本語：	これは電子レンジに入れてはいけないんじゃないか、というものをあえてチンしてみるムービーです。
Jenglish:	[these][subject marker][microwave oven][in][put in + forbidden][so... but why],[something like][challenge/dare][??][movie][is].

This took AGES! For a start, じゃないか completely lost me. After about an hour of searching I dug up JapanesePod101 Beginner Lesson 118, which suggests it can be used as a tag question, to question something you are unsure of. I was struggling to think of an English equivalent so I've translated it as 'so... but why'. The next bit is really just a guess, especially as I could find nothing for チン, so the best translation I can come up with is:

So, it's forbidden to put these in a microwave, but why?: A movie where ?? dares to do it.

Example 2:

This one sounds pretty interesting, if you can look beyond the title: http://business.nikkeibp.co.jp/article/life/20070112/116840/

日本語：	「ぼくは痴漢じゃない!」と言ってはいけない？！
Jenglish:	["][I][molester][not]["][say + forbidden]

I've translated this as Don't say "I'm not a pervert". It appears to be a book by some guy who used to work for the Tokyo Stock Exchange, but was one day accused of being a molester. Seems the book is about how his life changed after the trial.

Example 3:

An interesting article on women you shouldn't marry can be found at http://allabout.co.jp/relationship/divorce/closeup/CU20060427A/

日本語：	こんな女と結婚してはいけない！
Jenglish:	[like this][women][with][marriage][to do + forbidden]

The only issue I had here was the use of the particle と which I would translate literally as 'with'. However, I've decided drop it in this case. My translation is Don't marry women like this.

またね・・・

JLPT3: かどうか

2007-01-21T11:23:00.000Z

日本語：	[verb (short)] かどうか
日本語：	[adjective] かどうか
日本語：	[noun] かどうか
English:	Whether (or not), if...

In the last blog entry, we had a look at questions within larger sentences, in which a sentence contained an interrogative, yet wasn't a direct question. Today we'll look at a companion grammatical construct that allows us to phrase 'whether or not' statements and questions. Welcome to かどうか.

Actually, かどうか covers two common English constructs: 'whether or not' and certain 'if' statements. Consider the examples:

Do you know if the new Koyuki film has started?
I haven't decided whether I will to go to the party tomorrow.
Can you check if the new Hana Yori Dango series is on the Internet?

Get the idea? In these contexts the if isn't really a direct conditional and could be substituted with whether.

The process of translating these into Japanese is also very similar to the one we use for question words:

Do you know if the new Koyuki film has started?
[new Koyuki film has started][do you know?]

I haven't decided whether I will to go to the party tomorrow.
[I will go to the party tomorrow][haven't decided]

Can you check if the new Hana Yori Dango series is on the Internet?
[the new hana yori dango series is on the Internet][can you check?]

Simply translate each statement and add かどうか. Nice.

English:	Do you know if the new Koyuki film has started?
Jenglish:	[koyuki][starring][new][film][started][know?]
日本語：	小雪が主演してる新しい映画を始まるかどうか知ってるか。

English:	I haven't decided whether I will to go to the party tomorrow.
Jenglish:	[tomorrow][party][go][decide + past + negative]
日本語：	明日のパーティーに行くかどうか決めなかった。

English:	Can you check if the new Hana Yori Dango series is on the Internet?
Jenglish:	[internet][on][new][Hana Yori Dango][series][is][check? + potential]
日本語：	インタネットに新しい「花よりダンゴ」のシリーズがあるかどうか確認できるか。

Right, let's get some real-world examples from the Internet!

Example 1:

I found the first example on http://itpro.nikkeibp.co.jp/article/USNEWS/20060925/248839/

日本語：	映画館に行くかどうか，インターネットの情報が大きく影響
Jenglish:	[cinema][go][whether][internet][of][gossip][big][effect]

So, I would translate this as Internet gossip has a big effect on whether people go to the cinema.

Example 2:

Here's an example from someone's blog: http://blog.livedoor.jp/michaelsan/archives/50524635.html

日本語：	オタクかどうか一瞬で見分ける方法
Jenglish:	[geek][if][instant][in][recognise][way]

It's tough to accurately translate this as the subject is missing, but my translation is Ways to instantly recognise a geek.

Example 3:

Here's one from our friends over at Microsoft (http://www.microsoft.com/japan/athome/security/email/phishingemail.mspx)

日本語：	電子メールが詐欺メールかどうか見分ける方法
Jenglish:	[electronic][mail][as for][fraud][mail][whether][recognise/tell][way]

I'd suggest Ways to recognise whether an email is fraudulent.

またね・・・

JLPT3: か

2007-01-19T19:14:00.000Z

日本語：	[verb (base 1,3,7)] か
日本語：	[adjective] か
日本語：	[noun] か
English:	Marks an question within a sentence.

I've tried getting my head around this one for a while, which is odd as it should be pretty straightforward. Anyway, here's another go, but before we begin, it's probably also worthwhile mentioning the closely related counterpart かどうか.

I think most people are happy with the concept of interrogatives, if not by the posh name, then certainly by the words themselves. Simply, interrogatives are question words such as when, why, how, what, etc. This is first-year stuff in most language courses and Japanese is no exception; I'll be shocked if there is a langauge student that didn't learn how to say What is your name? or Where do you live?.

However these interrogatives crop up in other, more complex forms on a regular basis. Consider:

Do you know where he lives?
I do not know what she ate, but she looks sick.
Are you happy with when will finish the meeting?

Not such a simple, direct question anymore and so working out how to translate this becomes more difficult. Luckily, Japanese has a construction to cater for this, which in retrospect is obvious (as things often are in retrospect!) The Japanses approach is to construct the core question and then add the remainder of the sentence:

Do you know where he lives?
[where does he live?][do you know?]

I do not know what she ate, but she looks sick.
[what did she eat?][I don't know], [but she looks sick]

Are you happy with when we will finish the meeting?
[when will we finish the meeting?][are you happy?]

Now things look a bit easier, so lets try the translations. Notice how the topic marker は has been replaced with が within the embedded question: One of my text books suggested this.

English:	Do you know where he lives?
Jenglish:	[he][where][lives][Q][know][Q]
日本語：	彼がどこに住んでいるか知っていますか。

English:	I do not know what she ate, but she looks sick.
Jenglish:	[she][what][ate][Q][don't know][but][sick][looks]
日本語：	彼女が何を食べたか知りませんが、病気そうです。

English:	Are you happy with when we will finish the meeting?
Jenglish:	[meeting][when][finish][Q][happy][Q]
日本語：	会議が何時を終えるか大丈夫ですか。

NOTE: When used after ーな adjectives, drop the ーな. With nouns, it comes directly after the noun.

English:	I don't know if it is a dog.
Jenglish:	[dog][Q][don't know]
日本語：	これが犬か知りません。

Example 1:

I found a simple example on http://oshiete1.goo.ne.jp/qa2661156.html.

日本語：	だれか知りませんか？
Jenglish:	[who][Q][don't know][Q]

I translated this as Don't you know who?

Example 2:

Another example from http://knowledge.livedoor.com/3697

日本語：	滝廉太郎の歌碑の場所をどなたか知りませんか？
Jenglish:	[たきれんたろう][of][tanka inscription][of][place][who][Q][don't know][Q]

I had a tough time time with this and credit really should go to Google :-) The first group of kanji were a complete loss - nothing in Jim Breen's dictionary. A Google search revealed a Wikipedia entry for some guy, so happy that this is a name, The second group of kanji needed to be looked up as well. Together they mean 'tanka inscription' which apparently is some kind of poetic writing. Then we have the kanji for 'place' or 'location', followed by who (どなた). After this we have the question particle and doesn't know. So, with NO CONFIDENCE whatsoever, I translate this as Who doesn't know the location of Rendarou Taki's poetic writings?

またね・・・

JLPT4: ーてから

2007-01-18T13:51:00.000Z

日本語：	[verb (base 6)] から
English:	After doing...

Quite how I've got to my fourth year of Japanese without knowing this I don't know, especially as it is a JLPT4 requirement. But, here we are.

Unless you've been living under a grammatical rock, から will be a familiar construct meaning 'because'. I covered this way back here. When used as such it implies and cause and effect relationship between two clauses.

However, when used after the ーて form of a verb, から does not convey such a strict relationship between what comes before から and what comes after. Instead ーてから simply implies an order of action; essentially 'after doing X, I did Y'. Compare the following:

English:	After seeing a film starring koyuki, I sent an email to my friend.
Jenglish:	[koyuki][starred][film][saw][after][friend][to][mail][sent]
日本語	小雪が主演した映画を見てから、友人にメールを送った。

English:	Because I saw a film starring koyuki, I sent an email to my friend.
Jenglish:	[koyuki][starred][film][saw][because][friend][to][mail][sent]
日本語	小雪が主演した映画を見たから友人にメールを送った。

In the first example, we stating a sequence of actions, with no relationship implied. In the second example, the inference is that we sent the email because we saw the film.

The tense of the overall sentence is controlled by the verb tense of the second action. Compare:

English:	After sending an email to koyuki, I cleaned the house.
Jenglish:	[koyuki][to][email][send][after][house][cleaned]
日本語：	小雪にメールを送ってから家を掃除しました。

English:	After sending an email to koyuki, I will clean the house.
Jenglish:	[koyuki][to][email][send][after][house][clean]
日本語	小雪にメールを送ってから家を掃除します。

Note: Maybe the second example here could use a 予定です or つもりです on the end to mean 'plan to' or 'intend to'. Any ideas?

So, that's the easy part. Now to take some examples from the web...

Example 1:

I found this one as a blog title (http://hamchu.exblog.jp). It all seems pretty straight-forward so let's deconstruct it into Jenglish.

日本語：	見てから読む？映画の原作
Jenglish:	[watch][after][read?][film][of][original work]

It's casual Japanese which isn't one of my strong suits, but I think this translates to Reading after watching the film? The film's original work

Example 2:

Here's another example from a website (http://homepage3.nifty.com/kinsan)

日本語：	２００６年４月で二回目の脳出血で倒れてから１２年が経過しました。
Jenglish:	[2006][April][で?][twice][ordinal counter][cerebral hemorrhage][to collapse][after][12 years][passage/progress][to do]

A slightly more difficult one. The hardest bit for me was the で particle at the beginning; I couldn't work out why you'd use it after a date. The only thing I can think of is that is the ーて conjugation of です。 So my translation is It's April 2006 and after collapsing twice because of cerebral hemorrhage, 12 years have passed.

Example 3:

The final example comes from a corporate web site (http://www.trendmicro.co.jp/hcall/index.asp).

日本語：	メールボックスを検索するときは、添付ファイルをハードディスクに保存してから検索してください。
Jenglish:	[mail box][to retrieve][when],[attachment][file][hard disk][on][to store][after][search + please]

Umm. Not sure about this, but I translate it as When retrieving the mailbox, after storing file attachments on the the hard disk, please search for them.

またね・・・

Update

2007-01-13T12:48:00.000Z

I've just converted the blog to the new Google setup, which has corrupted some of the Japanese. Will sort it out over the next few days.

May even be a new post soon :-)

Update...

2006-10-14T13:52:00.000+01:00

No updates on the blog for a while... work is really busy right now and as it pays the bills, it kinda takes priority. Also, I am way behind on my email.

Anyway, I'm trying something new for the blog. Matt (he of 2-kanji-a-day fame) and I were talking about learning Japanese and both agree that one of the toughest aspects is translating Japanese into English. Yeah, it's easy to understand a given conjugation means so-and-so, but when you actually see it being used in Japanese it can be extremely difficult to translate.

So, starting today, I am not only creating example sentences of my own, but taking a couple from the Internet. All I'll do is Google the grammar point and see what comes up. I think you will really get a benefit from this if you try and translate the Japanese into English.

Updates to the blog will be slower now - today's entry has taken about 2 hours to write!

Enjoy!

JLPT3: ことになる

2006-10-14T13:40:00.000+01:00

日本語：	[verb (base 1/3)] ことになる
English:	It has been decided, it will come about, it will be...

Way back in August, we had a look at ことにする which allowed us to create sentences indicating some action was taken after a decision. The inference then was that the decision was reached voluntarily. Today, we'll look at ことにする which indicates the decision was made by someone else.

As with ことにする, ことになる goes after a verb in base 1 or base 3.

English:	It has been decided that I will work in London from next month.
Jenglish:	[next month][from][in London][work + decided]
日本語：	来月からロンドンに働くことになりました。

English:	Our teacher has decided that everyone will take the exam.
Jenglish:	[teacher][everyone][exam][take + decided]
日本語：	先生はみんなが試験を受けることになります

Well, those are my examples. Let's look at some random samples from a Google search.

インターネットから例文：

日本語：	アルコールと薬を一緒に飲むと大変なことになることがあるみたいです。
Jenglish:	[Alcohol][and][medicine][together][drink][if][serious][decided][there are times when][I hear]
English:	I hear that here are times when it will be serious if you drink alcohol together with medicine.

So, how did I translate this? Well let's start at the end: みたいです. Covered here it carries the meaning of 'it appears to be', or 'I hear'. Before that we have ことがある which we covered here and has the meaning of 'there are times when' when coming after a verb in base 3. Then we have ことになる. At this point we have 3 possibilities:

I hear there are times when it has been decided...
I hear there are times when it will come about...
I hear there are times when it will be...

In order to work out which one was correct, I had to then translate the first bit of the sentence, which was a simple exercise in vocabulary. The only confusion was the second と in the sentence - luckily I remembered that と can be used as a conditional to mean 'if'.

Let's try another:

日本語：	できるだけみんなが幸福になれる方法を考える、という言及リンク文化圏の発想は、リンクなしトラックバックを「アクセス乞食かspam」と切り捨てることになる。
Jenglish:	[as much as possible][everyone][happiness][can become][means][think about][called][reference][links][cultural reference][conceptualisation][links][without][trackback][access begging][spam][discard]
English:	It has been decided to discard links that reference thinking about the means by which everyone can become as happy as possible, conceptualisation of cultural sphere and links without trackback together with "access begging or spam".

Ok, this is my translation after about an hour of thinking about it. There was just too much I didn't understand. Any help on this one will be very welcome.

またね。。。

JLPT3: そうです

2006-09-22T09:24:00.000+01:00

日本語：	[verb (base 2)] そうです
日本語：	[adjective] そうです
English:	Looks like...

Today we'll look at a grammar point that is very similar to one we've looked at previously. Similar in both it's English meaning and Japanese conjugation. Today we'll look at そうです. Don't confuse it with it's other usage.

When used after the correct verb conjugation そうです allows us to say that looks like something will (or will not) occur. After the correct adjective conjugations it allows us to say something looks like it has some attribute.

To modify verbs, simply move them into base 2. With い and な adjectives, drop the final い and な respectively.

例文

English:	It looks like it'll rain soon.
Jenglish:	[soon][rain][fall + looks like]
日本語：	すぐ雨が降りそうです。

English:	That cake looks tasty
Jenglish:	[kono][cake][tasty + looks]
日本語：	そのケーキは美味しそうです。

English:	Her face looks kind.
Jenglish:	[her][face][kind + looks]
日本語：	彼女の顔が親切そうです。

Although not part of the requirements for JLPT3, it's worth knowing that そうです can also be used after negative-form verbs and adjectives. In this case, the ーない becomes ーなさ.

またね。。。

JLPT3: はずです

2006-09-20T07:55:00.000+01:00

日本語：	[verb (short)] はずです
日本語：	[adjective] はずです
日本語：	[noun] のはずです
English:	Supposed to be, ought to be...

Today we shall look at another useful conjugation that allows us not to be definite when stating some fact. Very, very handy. It's a pretty straightforward conjugation too, so let's take a look at はず!

In essence, はず covers a number of English equivalents: supposed to be, ought to be, should, ought, expected to and so on. We can refer to past events and events that should/ought not to occur. So when used after base 7 verbs we get 'were supposed to', after base 1 we get 'not supposed to'. はず can even be used after nouns and adjectives: After nouns, use のはず and after な adjectives keep the な.

例文

English:	It's supposed to rain tomorrow.
Jenglish:	[tomorrow][rain][fall + supposed]
日本語:	明日雨が降るはずです。

English:	I was supposed to go to London tomorrow, but the meeting was cancelled.
Jenglish:	[tomorrow][I][London][go + supposed][but][meeting][cancelled]
日本語:	明日私はロンドンに行くはずでしたが会議は取り消しました。

English:	She is supposed to be very pretty.
Jenglish:	[she][pretty + supposed to be]
日本語:	彼女はきれいなはずです。

One thing I have found it that some Japanese translations seem to conjugate the です rather than the verb or adjective, so instead of 昨日雨が降ったはずです, we would get 昨日雨が降るはずでした. To be honest, I don't know if both are equally allowed.

The Japanese also use わけ to indicate that some action is supposed to happen or is likely. I think it's JLPT2 grammar so I'm not going to cover it yet, but in essence わけ is used when you want to show more certainty that some event is likely to happen.

まてね。。。

JLPT3: まま

2006-09-16T08:12:00.000+01:00

日本語：	[verb (base 7)] まま
日本語：	[adjective] まま
日本語：	[noun] のまま
English:	Leave as is, Some state remains unchanged...

Today's grammar point has surprised me in that it is a deceptively handy one to know. Previously I didn't think it would be something used very often, but after some research, it seems to crop up a lot. Today's grammar point is まま and it is used to indicate that some state has not changed.

The JLPT3 specification requires us to only know of まま when used after verbs in base 7, but as I found out, when used after adjectives and nouns it can be very useful, so we'll cover them too.

Essentially, there are two components to a sentence containing まま - the clause that comes before and the clause that comes after. The clause that comes before is used to indicate that state that has not changed. For example:

English: I left the lights on when I left the room.

Much better if we put this into Jenglish:

Jenglish: [lights][on][unchanged state][room][left]

The unchanged state is that the lights were on before I left and they were still on after I left. Examples I've found in text books and on the web all follow this basic theme; another common example being "I slept with the window open".

Now, while it is not part of the JLPT3 specification, it is worth looking at まま when used with adjectives and nouns. Just as when following a verb, まま after an adjective or noun indicates that the state has not changed. For example:

English: As cold as it is, I'll wear a T-shirt.

or in Jenglish:

Jenglish: [cold][unchanged state][t-shirt][wear]

A example with nouns:

English: I left the car as it was and went to phone the police.

Or again in Jenglish:

[car][unchanged state][police][phone + went]

A couple of things worth noting. まま acts as a noun and as such follows the same grammatical rules. If used with nouns, you need the possessive particle の and with な adjectives, keep the な.

例文

English:	I left the lights on when I left the room.
Jenglish:	[lights][on][unchanged state][room][left]
日本語：	明かりをつけたまま部屋を出ました。

English:	As cold as it is, I'll wear a T-shirt.
Jenglish:	[cold][unchanged state][t-shirt][wear]
日本語：	寒いままTシャツを着ます。

English:	I left the car as it was and went to phone the police.
Jenglish:	[car][unchanged state][police][phone + went]
日本語：	車のまま警察を電話しに行きました。

One final point, まま is frequently used directly after この and その. In such cases the meaning is 'just like this' or 'as it is'. For example:

English:	As it is, I'm not going to London.
日本語：	このままロンドンに行きません。

またね。。。

JLTP3: ーておく

2006-09-15T09:10:00.000+01:00

日本語：	[verb (base 6)] おく
English:	Leave [A] where it is, leave [A] in it's present state
English:	To do [A] in advance of

Today's grammar point is one I've avoided for ages, despite being something I learnt back in my second year of study. The reason? The reason is I'm not sure I actually understand it's use. However, it is on the JLPT3 grammar list so here goes...

The ーておく conjugation of a verb has a dual meaning. The meaning I have come across in the past is to indicate some action performed in advance of, or in preparation for some event. Of course, just using 前に could indicate this as well, but ーておく shows a definite connection between the two.

The other use of ーておく is to indicate that something is left as it is, or in other words, it's state does not change. As such, ーておくcan be seen alongside まま, a grammatical construction used to indicate that some state of existence has not changed.

例文

English:	Before I cook dinner, I will go to the supermarket.
Jenglish:	[dinner][cook][before][supermarket][go + in advance of]
日本語：	夕飯を料理する前にスーポーに行っておきます。

English:	When the plane has lands, please stay seated.
Jenglish:	[plane][lands][when][seated + leave as is + please]
日本語：	飛行機を着陸させる時、座っておいてください。

English:	As I am getting up at 5AM tomorrow and driving to York, I will go to bed early.
Jenglish:	[tomorrow][5AM][get up][to York][driving][as][early][sleep + in preparation for]
日本語：	明日５時に起きてヨロクに運転するので、早く寝ておきます。

またね。。。

JLPT3: らしい

2006-09-11T10:04:00.000+01:00

日本語：	[verb (short)] らしい
日本語：	[adjective] らしい
日本語：	[noun] らしい
English:	It seems, It appears, I heard...

Today we'll check out the final of our JLPT 3 options for communicating presumed information. らしい is a more casual equivalent of そうです and therefore is used when conveying information gained from a third party. It can be used after verbs in bases 1, 3 and 7, adjectives and nouns. If after な adjectives, drop the な. With nouns, it is used directly after the noun with です omitted.

例文

English:	It appears that it is becoming cooler in Japan.
Jenglish:	[in Japan][cool][become + appear]
日本語：	日本に涼しくになるらしい。

English:	It looks as if this film is popular.
Jenglish:	[this film][popular + looks as if]
日本語：	この映画は人気らしい。

English:	I hear that he didn't resign. He was sacked.
Jenglish:	[he][resign + not + hear that].[he][sacked]
日本語：	彼を辞めなかったらしい。彼は首になりました。

We have now looked at three closely related conjugations: らしい, そうです and ようです. Each of the three allow us to construct 'I hear that' sentences, but they differ in politeness and the veracity of the information being communicated. To convey presumed information gained from an external source, use either そうです or らしい. らしい is a more casual way of communicating this and as such frequently used without です. To convey presumed information derived from your own senses or reasoning, use ようです.

またね。。。

JLPT3: ようです

2006-09-10T15:45:00.000+01:00

日本語：	[verb (short)]ようです
日本語：	[い adjective]ようです
日本語：	[な adjective]なようです
日本語：	[noun]のようです
English:	It seems...

Since we've just looked at the use of そうです, it seems sensible to look at a closely related conjugation. ようです allows us to construct sentences that convey some presumed infomation. However, where そうです communicated information gained from some third party, ようです allows us to communicate a presumption based on our own observations and evidence.

ようです can be used with verbs in bases 1,3 and 7, nouns and adjectives. Note that with な adjectives, you do not drop the な. Nouns should be followed by　の.

例文

English:	It looks like it will start raining soon.
Jenglish:	[soon][rain][fall + start + looks like]
日本語：	もう雨が降り始めるようです。

English:	From the trailer, the film doesn't look very good.
Jenglish:	[trailer][from][film][not very][good + look]
日本語：	予告編から映画はあまり良くないようです。

English:	After tasting his cooking, he seems to be a good cook.
Jenglish:	[his][cooking][tasting][after][he][good][cook + seems]
日本語：	彼の料理のあじを見た後に彼はいい料理が上手なようです。

There are two closely related conjugations:そうです and らしい. Each of the three allow us to construct 'I hear that' sentences, but they differ in politeness and the veracity of the information being communicated. To convey presumed information gained from an external source, use either そうです or らしい. らしい is a more casual way of communicating this and as such frequently used without です. To convey presumed information derived from your own senses or reasoning, use ようです.

またね。。。

JLPT3: そうです

2006-09-10T15:32:00.000+01:00

日本語：	[verb (short)] そうです
日本語：	[adjective (short)] そうです
日本語：	[noun] そうです
English:	I hear that

Today's post is essentially a rewrite of a post I did a while ago. Looking back, that post isn't really complete and didn't cater for what the JLPT requires. So, if some of today's post seems familiar, now you know...

Simply put, そうです allows us to communicate secondhand information, such as information gleaned from the TV or newspaper or from a friend. The veracity of the information communicated by そうです is more than a simple guess, but is not as high as something you have determined yourself.

そうです can be applied to verbs in bases 1, 3 and 7, adjectives and nouns. With ーな adjectives, the ーな becomes だ. With nouns, the です becomes だ.

例文

English:	I hear that it will rain tomorrow
Jenglish:	[tomorrow][rain][fall + hear]
日本語：	明日雨が降るそうです。

English:	I heard he failed the exam.
Jenglish:	[he][exam][failed + hear]
日本語：	彼は試験に落ちたそうです。

English:	According to a magazine I read, eBay is very popular in Europe.
Jenglish:	[read][magazine][according to][eBay][Europe][in][very][popular + hear]
日本語：	私が読んだ雑誌によるとeBayはヨーロッパにとても人気だそうです。

There are two closely related conjugations:ようです and らしい. Between them, the three allow us to construct 'I hear that' sentences, but they differ in politeness and the veracity of the information being communicated. To convey presumed information gained from an external source, use either そうです or らしい. らしい is a more casual way of communicating this and as such frequently used without です. To convey presumed information derived from your own senses or reasoning, use ようです.

A final note: It is pretty important to note that this use of そうです should not be confused with another, similar use. Here, そうです means 'I hear that'. However, in a slightly different conjugation, it can mean 'It seems'. They sound VERY similar, but they are not!

またね。。。

JLPT3: もかまわない

2006-09-09T12:35:00.000+01:00

日本語：	[verb (base 6)] もかまわない。
English:	It doesn't matter if...

Today's grammar point is one I've never heard of before and even a search on the Internet didn't reveal anything so I don't really know if it is used that much. However, it is part of the JLPT3 specification, you just never know when it'll come up in the exam.

例文

English:	It doesn't matter if you sit here.
Jenglish:	[here][sit + doesn't matter]
日本語：	ここで座ってもかまわない。

English:	It doesn't matter if rains tomorrow.
Jenglish:	[tomorrow][rain][fall + doesn't matter]
日本語：	明日雨が降ってもかまわない。

The following is not guaranteed to be correct. Actually none of my examples are guarnateed to be correct, but this one almost certainly isn't. I'm hoping someone will take pity on me and correct it :-)

English:	It doesn't matter if you run to the station, you will still be late.
Jenglish:	[you][station][run + doesn't matter][still][late]
日本語：	あなたは駅に走ってもかまわない、まだ遅いですよ。

またね。。。

JLPT3: ようになる

2006-09-08T12:05:00.000+01:00

日本語：	[verb (base 3)] ようになる。
English:	Come to..., reached the point where, learnt to...

Today we'll have a look at a useful construction that allows us to create sentences in which an action is in a state of change. Often used with ability verbs, it has the meaning of 'become able to do something', although in English it may sound more natural to say 'learnt to do something' or 'reached the point where...'.

This construction is used with verbs. For nouns and adjectives, we use a slightly different construction. We'll cover that tomorrow!

例文

English:	Recently, he has learnt how to play the piano.
Jenglish:	[recently][he][piano][play + can + come to]
日本語：	最近、彼はピアノを弾けるようになりました。

English:	I've reached the point where I can read a newspaper without a dictionary.
Jenglish:	[dictionary][using][without][newspaper][read + reached the point]
日本語：	辞書を使わずに新聞を読めるようになりました。

またね。。。

JLPT3: ずに

2006-09-05T07:40:00.000+01:00

日本語：	[verb (base 1)] ずに
English:	without doing...

Another nice and easy one today. Back back in March I looked at a handy conjugation we learnt in class that allowed us to say that something is done without doing something else. At the time we used the ないで conjugation, but trawling through the comments for that post show that there is another option that means the same thing: ずに. Well, it appears that ないで is not part of the JLPT specification and ずに is, so guess which one I'm going to remember from now on.

例文

English:	I went to bed without watching the end of film on TV.
Jenglish:	[TV film][end][watching][without][I][went to bed]
日本語：	テレビの映画を最後まで見ずに寝ました。

English:	I read a newspaper without using a dictionary.
Jenglish:	[dictionary][using][without][I][newspaper][read]
日本語：	辞書を使わずに新聞を読みました。

English:	I went to Japan during the summer without dying.
Jenglish:	[dying][without][summer][during][Japan][went]
日本語：	死なずに夏中日本に行きました。

またね。。。

JLPT3: Comparitves using どちらが

2006-09-04T13:20:00.000+01:00

日本語：	[A] と [B] と、どちらが [question]
English:	Which is some attribute, A or B?

The past two blog entries have looked at comparison statements allowing us to describe which of two entities have more or less of some quality. Today we'll turn the tables and see how we can put this into question form.

As you can see from the above, most of the Japanese structure is pretty easy.

例文

English:	Which is cheaper: the German beer or the Belgian?
Jenglish:	[German beer][Belgian][which][cheaper]?
日本語：	ドイツのビールとベルギーのビールとどちらが安いですか。

English:	Which is more expensive: sushi or sashimi?
Jenglish:	[sushi][sashimi][which][more expensive]?
日本語：	寿司と刺身とどちらが高いですか。

It's worth noting that you can also simply say どちらがいいですか which means 'which is better?'

またね。。。

JLPT3: Comparitives using ほど

2006-09-03T19:25:00.000+01:00

日本語：	[A] は [B] ほど [adjective (negative tense)]。
English:	A is not as adjective as B

After yesterday's look at comparitives, we're staying on that theme tonight and looking at how to say that something does not have as much of some attribute as something else.　As you can see above, the construct is pretty straightforward, but remember that the adjective used is in it negative form, so make sure you stick a ません or ない on there!

例文

English:	This mustard is not a hot as that wasabi.
Jenglish:	[this mustard][that wasabi][hot + not]
日本語：	このマスタードはその山葵ほど辛くないです。

English:	The American version of The Ring is not a scary as the Japanese version.
Jenglish:	[American][version][The Ring][Japanese][version][scary + not]
日本語：	アメリカン版の「リング」は日本版ほど怖くないです。

またね。。。

JLPT3: Comparitives using より and の方が

2006-09-02T10:09:00.000+01:00

日本語：	[X] は [Y] より [adjective] です。
日本語：	[X] の方が [Y] より [adjective] です。
English:	X is more adjective than Y.

Again, I have looked at comparisons before, but I've since learnt a new construction and so I thought now would be a good time to cover them again.

One useful construct is to be able to say item A is more something than item B. The basic construct for this is [X] は [Y] より {adjective} です. Here, より can be translated as 'than' and it follows the item which is the lesser of the two being compared.

例文

English:	Japanese summers are more humid than English summers.
Jenglish:	[Japanese summer][English summer][than][humid]
日本語：	日本の夏はイギリスの夏より蒸し暑いです。

English:	London is bigger than Basingstoke.
Jenglish:	[London][Basingstoke][than][big]
日本語：	ロンドンはベージングストークより大きいです。

Things can get a little confusing due to the ability of the Japanese language to move things around. For example the sentences:

ロンドンはベージングストークより大きいです。
ベージングストークよりロンドンは大きいです。

are the same.

Just as in English, you can shorten comparitive statements if the two things being compared are already understood.

日本の夏もイギリスの夏も好きです。でも、日本の夏はイギリスの夏より蒸し暑いです。
"I like both Japanese summers and English summers. But Japanese summers are more humid than English summers."

This is a perfectly acceptable sentence, but it feels a little 'odd'. We already know what Japanese summers are more humid than, so why state it? Just as English allows us simply to say "Japanese summers are more humid", Japanese have an equivalent.

日本の夏の方が蒸し暑いです。
"Japanese summers are more humid."

We've omitted the より part of the sentence and used の方が to mark the primary attribute, however you don't have to. 方が sentences can still contain より components. Also, in the examples above, I've been comparing nouns, but these could equally have been adjectives or verb clauses. Use the following conjugation chart.

[verb (short)] 方が [verb (base 1/3)] より [adjective] です。

English:	Giving is better than receiving.
Jenglish:	[giving][receiving][than][better]
日本語：	あげる方がくれるよりいいです。

[adjective (short)] 方が [adjective (non-past)] より [adjective] です。

English:	Being clean is better than being messy.
Jenglish:	[being clean][being messy][than][better]
日本語：	きれいな方が目茶目茶なよりいいです。

See JapanesePod101's Beginner's Lesson 75 for more examples and information!

またね。。。

JLPT3: なければなりません

2006-09-02T08:55:00.000+01:00

日本語：	[verb (base 1)] なければなりません。
日本語：	[verb (base 1)] なければいけません。
English:	Must do, have to do...

OK, so I covered this grammatical point way back here, but I wanted to do it again for two simple reasons: (1) it's good practice for me and (2) I prefer the new blog format :-)

If you want to convey the fact that some action must be taken, there are a couple of options at the JLPT3 level: なければなりません and なければいけません.

Whilst I can't seem to find any documented information on this, I believe that なければなりません is used when the action is performed due to some outside instruction, such as being told by a person or a sign. If you are instructing yourself to act, use なければいけません.

例文

English:	I must clean my car this weekend.
Jenglish:	[this weekend][car][clean + must]
日本語：	私は車をきれいにしなければいけません。

English:	Before next week's lesson, you must read chapter 6
Jenglish:	[next week][lesson][before][chapter 6][read + must]
日本語：	来週の授業の前に第６章を読まなければなりません。

English:	I have to call my boss.
Jenglish:	[boss][call + must]
日本語：	経営者を電話しなければなけません。

またね。。。

JLPT3: しまう

2006-08-31T21:03:00.000+01:00

日本語：	[verb (base 6)] しまう
English:	To finish doing, to do something completely
English:	To regret some action taking place

Tonight, we'll have a look at a verb conjugation I've seeing cropping up a few times and it's definitely in the JLPT. However, it can have two uses and so we'll discuss these separately.

The first and, I believe, most frequently used is to express regret at some action. It allows you to add an emotional context to the occurrance of an event. However, it can only be used to show regret at some action taking place, not that some action did not take place.

The second use is a little more complex. しまう is used to indicate the fact that event has come to a termination point. It's ended. The plate broke. I finished the exam. She quit her job. This is different to the conjugation
[verb (base 2)] 終わる that we looked at the other day in that しまう implies a certain amount of emotion on behalf of the speaker. So a sentence like "I have finished all my exams" using しまう implies an amount of relief at finishing whereas 終わる is simply stating a fact. This actually ties in with the first use above as the use of しまう could imply a sense of regret at finishing something, as in "I fininshed spending the last of my bonus".

例文

English:	Because I am poor, I can't go to Japan this year.
Jenglish:	[I][poor][am][because][this year][Japan][go + can't + regret]
日本語：	貧乏ですから、今年日本に行くことができてしまいます。

English:	I am sorry but I have forgotten your name.
Jenglish:	[sorry][but][your name][forgotten + regret]
日本語：	本当にごめんなさい。あなたの名前を忘れてしまいました。

またね。。。

JLPT3: すぎる

2006-08-30T08:58:00.000+01:00

日本語：	[verb (base 2)] すぎる
日本語：	[adjective] すぎる
English:	Too...

This is a simple, yet useful conjugation to have to hand; how to say that there is too much of something or some action is performed too much? Use すぎる of course. With verb, you use the base 2 form. With adjectives you have to drop the final い or な.

例文

English:	The rainy season's level of humidity is too high.
Jenglish:	[rainy season][level of humidity][high + too]
日本語：	梅雨の湿度は高すぎます。

English:	Because the food looked so tasty, I ate too much.
Jenglish:	[food][tasty + looked][because][ate + too much]
日本語：	料理は美味しそうだったから、食べすぎました。

またな。。。

JLPT3: のに

2006-08-30T08:24:00.000+01:00

日本語：	[verb (short)] のに
日本語：	[い adjective] のに
日本語：	[noun/ な adjective] なのに
English:	Despite, in spite of, even though...

Well, I actually covered this one a while ago, but it was mixed up with other, non-JLPT3/4 grammar points. Also, given that that article only really looked at verbs, I thought I'd cover it again. More chance of it sticking in the old noggin then :-)

There is no single English equivalent of のに. It carries a meaning similar to 'despite', 'inspite of', and 'even though'. It can be used to create sentences in which two clauses are at odds with each other. For example, the sentence

"Even though the restaurant was expensive, the food was excellent."

doesn't really make sense. You would expect the food to be good if the restaurant were expensive. However, the sentence

"Even though the restaurant was expensive, the food was awful."

feels more natural. In essence, clause B (food was awful) is not what was expected given the statement in clause A (restaurant was expensive).

例文

English:	Despite yesterday's rain, he cut the grass
Jenglish:	[Yesterday's][rain][despite][he][grass][cut]
日本語：	昨日は雨なのに彼は草を刈りました。

English:	Today is hot even although the weather girl said it would be cloudy.
Jenglish:	[today][host][even although][weather girl][cloudy][said]
日本語：	今日は暑いのにお天気お姉さんは曇りと言っていました。

English:	Even though she ate the whole cake, she was still hungry.
Jenglish:	[whole][cake][ate][even though][she][still][hungry]
日本語：	丸ごとのケーキを食べたのに彼女はまだお腹がすいていました。

There are a couple of points to remember. This shouldn't be confused with the use of のに to mean 'in order to'. They look very similar in sentences so, you'll need to look at the context. Also, with な adjectives, keep the な.

またね。。。

JLPT3: なさい

2006-08-29T20:25:00.000+01:00

日本語：	[verb (base 2)] なさい。
English:	Simple command

Again, another short but sweet one here. But not one you should bandy about in general conversation as it is not particularly polite. Likely uses include a teacher to a student, parent to a child or between friends. Just don't go using it when asking your boss for a pay rise.

The construct is dead easy; simply follow a verb in base 2 form with なさい.

例文

English:	Eat the basashi!
Jenglish:	[basashi][eat + command]
日本語：	馬刺しを食べなさい。

English:	My dad told me to do my homework.
Jenglish:	[my dad][homework][do + command][told]
日本語：	父は宿題をしなさいと言っていました。

English:	Stop playing stupid computer games and get a job.
Jenglish:	[stupid][computer games][play][stop][job][find + command]
日本語：	下らないコンピュータゲームをするのをやめて、仕事を見つけなさい！

またね。。。

JLPT3: ことがある

2006-08-28T11:28:00.000+01:00

日本語：	[verb (base 3)] ことがある。
English:	There are times when...

日本語：	[verb (base 7)] ことがある。
English:	Have experienced...

Today we'll have a look at another simple, but useful, construct. I'm actually surprised that this isn't JLPT4, but then again there doesn't seem to be much in level 4 :-)

The ことがある conjugation can be used after the verb in either base 3 or base 7. There is a subtle change in meaning, but nothing too complex. If placed after a base 3 verb, it can be used to indicate an action that you perform with some kind of regularity, and in essence means 'there are times when such-and-such'. If placed after a base 7 verb, the meaning shifts to the past tense and presents the notion of having experienced something.

例文

English:	Despite being busy, there are times when I read the newspaper.
Jenglish:	[busy][depite][newspaper][read + there are times when]
日本語：	忙しいのに、新聞を読むことがあります。

English:	There are times when I go to work by bike.
Jenglish:	[to work][by bike][go + there are times when]
日本語：	会社に自転車で行くことがあります。

Actually, I think you could use the verb 'to ride' in the sentence.

English:	I have been to London.
Jenglish:	[London][went + have experienced]
日本語：	ロンドンに行ったことがあります。

English:	I have eaten Italian food.
Jenglish:	[Italian food][eaten + have experienced]
日本語：	イタリアン料理を食べたことがあります。

またね。。。

JLPT3: もいい

2006-08-27T20:05:00.000+01:00

日本語：	[verb (base 6)] もいい
English:	It is alright to...

Another quick one tonight and this time we'll look at a conjugation that allows us to say that some action is permissable. All you have to do is stick もいい on the end of a verb in base 6. Usually, you'll find です in there to make it nice and polite. Something else worth noting is that you can turn this into a question simply by adding か to the end.

例文

English:	It is alright to finish drinking your coffee before we depart.
Jenglish:	[depart][before][coffee][drinking + finish + alright]
日本語：	出発する前にコーヒーを飲み終わってもいいです。

English:	Is it alright to phone my sister?
Jenglish:	[sister][phone + alright][?]
日本語：	姉を電話してもいいですか。

またね。。。

JLPT3: [verb] + 続ける

2006-08-26T13:51:00.000+01:00

日本語：	[verb (base 2)] 続ける。
日本語：	[verb (base 2)] 続く。
English:	To continue doing...

We've now looked at how to say 'start something', 'suddenly start something' and 'stop something'. To complete this section, let's see how to say 'continue doing something'.

The verb 'to continue' is 続く or 続ける for intransitive and transitive sentences respectively and just like start and stop, we simple add this to base 2 of the action verb.

例文

English:	Despite the weather forcast, the rain continued to fall.
Jenglish:	[weather forecast][despite][rain][fall + continue]
日本語：	天気予報にもかかわらず、雨が降り続きました。

English:	I continued to study after the exam.
Jenglish:	[exam][after][study + continue]
日本語：	試験の後で、勉強し続けました。

またね。。。

JLPT3: [verb] + だす

2006-08-26T13:02:00.000+01:00

日本語：	[verb (base 2)] だす
English:	To suddenly start...

A recent blog entry looked at how we can add 始める to a verb to say 'start an action'. Here we will look at a slight twist on this and see how to say suddenly start an action. It's a subtle difference, but well worth knowing on your path to becoming native. Good examples of this are 'It suddenly started raining' or 'she suddenly remembered'

例文

English:	The girl suddenly started screaming.
Jenglish:	[girl][scream + suddenly started]
日本語：	女の人が悲鳴を上げだしました。

English:	The temperature suddenly dropped.
Jenglish:	[temperature][drop + suddenly]
日本語：	気温は低くなり出しました。

Is this the right verb for temperature dropping?

またね。。。

JLPT3: [verb] + 終わる

2006-08-26T11:45:00.000+01:00

日本語：	[verb (base 2)] 終わる。
English:	To finish something...

Hot on the heels of the previous blog which looked at how to say something has started, here we will look the the opposite. Again this is a pretty straightforward conjugation as we simply add the verb 'to finish' (終わる) to the base 2 form of the action verb.

例文

English:	I will finish painting the walls in my kitchen this weekend.
Jenglish:	[this weekend][in my kitchen][walls][painting + finish]
日本語：	今週末台所に壁を塗り終わります。

English:	The file has finished copying onto the file server.
Jenglish:	[file server][onto][file][copy + finished]
日本語：	ファイルサーバーにファイを写し終わりました。

Actually, I'm not sure if the verb 写す can be used to mean 'copy a file'. Anyone know different?

またね。。。

JLPT3: [verb] + 始める

2006-08-26T11:10:00.000+01:00

日本語：	[verb (base 2)] 始める。
English:	To begin/start something.

After a week away on a business trip, it's time for some serious blog action. After all, the JLPT exams are not that far away.

Today, we'll have at a very quick one. It's a base 2 conjugation that allows you to say that something has started or begun. All you do is take the action verb and add the verb 'to start' to it's base 2 form.

例文

English:	I began reading this book last week.
Jenglish	[last week][this book][read + begun]
日本語：	先週この本を読み始めました。

English:	He will start studying for the JLPT tomorrow.
Jenglish	[tomorrow][he][JLPT][for][study + start]
日本語：	明日彼は日本語能力試験に備えて勉強し始めます。

English:	At the end of August, Japan's weather will start to become cooler.
Jenglish	[at the end of August][Japan's weather][cooler][become + start]
日本語：	８月の終わりに、日本の天気は涼しくなり始めます。

See? I said it was easy!

またね。。。

JLPT3: ことができる

2006-08-20T20:13:00.000+01:00

日本語：	[verb (base 3)/noun] ことができる。
English:	Can do...

OK. A quick grammar point from JLPT3 tonight, but nonetheless, it's an essential one to know. I covered potential verbs back in April, and thought that we had pretty much wrapped the subject up, but it seems that we have another way in which we can express the ability, or inability, to do something.

Back in April, we ended up conjugating the verb and found that despite being an easy conjugation to remember, the resulting verb could become a bit of a mouthful to pronounce. You may be happy to know that tonight's alternative is simple to remember and simple to pronounce. All you do is leave the verb in base 3 and add ことができる.

Now, it is interesting to note that できる is the potential form of する and this can lead to a odd looking situation when using ことができる on する verbs. For example 'I can drive' translates into 私は運転することができます。 Perfectly correct, but pretty long winded. Well, given that できる is just another form of する, we can shorten this to 私は運転ができます. The する has been dropped along with the こと.

Simply put, する verbs are just nouns with the する slapped on the end to make them verbs. 運転する (to drive), 電話する (to phone) etc. The こと is used to turn a verb into a noun. Ergo, if we drop the する, the verb reverts back to being a noun and so こと is not needed. You could even shorten this to 私は運転できます, dropping the particle altogether, but that way too informal. OK, I'm off on a tangent here, but to finalise, the sentence 私は運転することができます could culled down to 運転できる at the extreme end. That's a serious amount of information compression.

The final question that came to mind was given that we now have two ways to express potentials - verb conjugation and ことができる, when do we use each? Here, it again simply comes down to politeness. ことができる is seen as more formal than the verb conjugation method.

例文

English:	I can eat spicy curries.
Jenglish:	[I][spicy][curries][eat][can]
日本語：	私は辛いカレーを食べることができます。

またね。。。

JLPT3: ように言う

2006-08-18T08:43:00.000+01:00

日本語：	[verb (base 1/3)] ように言う。
English:	Tell someone (not) to do something.

Today's grammar point allows us to construct a sentence in which entity A is telling person B to do, or not to do, something. Entity A need not be a person; it could be a sign or other instruction. Person B can either be a third person, or yourself. For example:

"My teacher told me to do the homework".
"Mr. Smith told his colleagues not to gossip"

In essence, what we are really doing is reporting a form of indirect speech, which is something I covered here. However, ように言う is specific to reporting an order or instruction being given.

例文

English:	My teacher told me to do the homework.
Jenglish:	[teacher][me][homework][do]
日本語：	先生は私に宿題をするように言った。

English:	Mr. Smith told his colleagues not to gossip.
Jenglish:	[Mr Smith][colleagues][gossip][not].
日本語：	スミスさんは同僚に陰口しないように言った。

またね。。。

JLPT3: といい

2006-08-15T10:30:00.000+01:00

日本語：	[verb (base 1/3)] といいですね。
日本語：	[verb (base 1/3)] といいんですが。
English:	I hope...

Today we'll have a look at such a handy phrase, I don't really know why I haven't covered it before. How do you express that you hope something good happens? The conjugation is pretty easy, but as you can see there are essentially two ways and each has a particular use.

If you want to say that you hope something good happens to someone else, use といいですね. If you are hoping that the good thing will happen to you, use といいんですが. In the latter case you are speaking in a more humble fashion and as such saying 'I hope something good happens, but...'.

Interestingly, I have seen this used by native speakers as といいんだけど when saying they want a positive outcome for themselves, and I guess this is simply a more colloquial form.

One final point: only use the above conjugation form if you have no control over the situation being discussed. So, you couldn't use it in sentences like 'I hope to clean the house today'. For sentences where you do have control, first convert the verb to it's potential form.

例文

English:	I hope the weather will be nice tomorrow for your BBQ.
Jenglish:	[tomorrow][your][BBQ][for][weather][nice][hope]
日本語：	明日、あなたのバーベキューのために天気は良いといいですね。

English:	I hope I pass the exam.
Jenglish:	[exam][pass][hope]
日本語：	試験を合格するといいんですが。

English:	I hope to clean the house today.
Jenglish:	[today][house][(can) clean][hope]
日本語：	今日、家を掃除できるといいんですが。

English:	I hope his flight isn't delayed.
Jenglish:	[his][flight][delayed][hope]
日本語：	彼のフライトを遅れないといいんですが。

またね。。。

JLPT3: 方がいい

2006-08-13T12:55:00.000+01:00

日本語：	[verb (base 1/7)] 方がいい。
English:	Would be better (not) to...

Here's another handy little one to have up your sleeve. It allows you to structure a statement as a bit of advice, where the overall feel of the statement can be positive (base 7) or negative (base 1).

Not much else to say about 方がいい so let's give it a go!

例文

English:	It would be better to drive more slowly.
Jenglish:	[more][slowly][drive][better]
日本語:	もっと早く運転した方がいいですよ。

English:	It would be better not to eat the cake before dinner.
Jenglish:	[dinner][before][cake][eat][better not]
日本語:	食事の前にケーキを食べない方がいい。

The grammar books usually stick です on the end, but when speaking, the Japanese seem to omit this more often than not.

またね。。。

Verb Bases

2006-08-10T12:31:00.000+01:00

Since I keep referring to verb bases when talking about conjugation, I thought it may be handy to actually provide a list of what they are. It's worth noting that the conjugation group indicates the predominant use of the base, not necessarily the sole use...

Base	Conjugation Group	Common Name(s)
1	Negative Base
2	Noun Forming Base
3	Dictionary	Plain Non-Past
4	Conditional
5	Conjectural
6	て-form
7	た-form	Plain Past

You'll also see the term 'short form'. This refers to a verb in bases 1,3 or 7.

JLPT3: なくてもいい

2006-08-10T10:15:00.000+01:00

日本語：	[verb (base 1)] なくてもいい。
English:	Do not need to...

This is a very simple conjugation: simply convert the verb to base 1 (plain negative) and add なくてもいい. To make it more polite add です。Yeah, it's that easy!

例文：

English:	John does not have to study Japanese on Saturday.
Jenglish:	[On Saturday][John][Japanese][study + don't have to]
日本語：	土曜日にジョンさんは日本語を勉強しなくてもいいです。
English:	Akiko does not have to go to work tomorrow.
Jenglish:	[Tomorrow][Akiko][work][go + don't have to]
日本語:	明日あきこさんは会社に行かなくてもいいです。
English:	I don't have to write the report this weekend.
Jenglish:	[This weekend][report][write + don't have to]
日本語：	今週末にはレポートを書かなくてもいいです。

It's also worth mentioning how to ask someone if they have to do something, although we have already covered this a while back. Usually with the question form you simply slap か on the end, but not here. If you did you would end up saying "Do you not have to..." which sounds odd. Instead you would say "Do you have to..." which uses the なければなりません and なければいけません conjugations. If you want to be a bit more casual, you can use なくちゃいけません. All three of these follow the verb conjugated to base 1.

例文：

English:	Peter, do you have to be so positve about everything?
Jenglish:	[Peter][everything][about][positive][be + have to]
日本語：	ペータさんは何でものために前向きにならなければなりませんか。

I think this sentence is correct.

JLPT3: ことにする

2006-08-06T09:32:00.000+01:00

日本語：	[verb (base 1/3)] ことにする。
English:	Decide to do...

Yes, I'm going for the 日本語能力試験３ in December. So I guess it's time to start cramming up on the grammar I'll need to know. This one is a bit confusing as it also appears to be on the level 2 list of grammar, but hey, it's a handy one so we'll cover it anyway.

ことにする is used when you want to say that someone decided to do something and, as such, it's usually found in past tense conjugation. The emphasis here is that the person you are talking about did the deciding - it was decision they came to themselves. If you want to say that the decision was made for them, I think you would use ことになる which is JLPT2 stuff.

One final point, if saying 'decided not to', then the base 1 ない ending becomes なさ.

例文：

English:	I have decided to study for the JPLT3 in December.
Jenglish:	[December][in][JLPT3][study][decided]
日本語：	１２月に日本語能力試験３を勉強することにしました。

English:	The teacher decided to quit because the job became too stressful.
Jenglish:	[job][stressful+too][became][because][teacher][quit][decided]
日本語：	仕事がストレスになったから、先生は辞めることにしました。

Actually, how do you say 'stressful' in Japanese.

またね。。。

Silence is golden. Alas, it's not going to last...

2006-07-30T22:10:00.000+01:00

久しぶりですね。。。。

Yeah, been on a bit of a hiatus recently. Boring stuff like work and some DIY got in the way of the fun stuff.

But.... Japanese classes started again this week. We're now getting ready of the 日本語能力試験 - only level 3 as I don't have a rat's ass chance of getting level 2 this year.

What this means is the blog will start up agian. I've got to think of how it will look - can't go copying anyone else now (as it would be pointless). I really suggest you head over to Matt's 2 kanji-a-day blog to learn the required kanji.

Oh yeah, please please please vote for japanesepod101.com at podcastawards.com. These guys deserve a medal for their hard work!

2006-06-20T16:49:00.000+01:00

There I was, quietly enjoying my first day back in the office in ages and then this appears outside my window. You have no idea how much noise a class of kids in canoes can make.

I'm getting old...

2006-06-18T20:08:00.000+01:00

Yeah, I've just realised I did causatives back in April too.

Told you I have trouble with them :-)

Causative Sentences: Make (oh, and 'let' too)

2006-06-18T19:11:00.000+01:00

Here's one that I always have trouble with: Causative sentences. This is a rather posh way of describing sentences in which one person makes another person do something. A classic text book example would be something like:

The teacher made the students read the book in English.

The grammatical subject of the sentence is the person doing the making, in this case the teacher. Had the sentence been:

The students were made to read the book in English by the teacher.

Then we have a Causative Passive sentence, in which the subject of the sentence is the person being made. Such devilry shall be the subject of the next blog entry, so ignore it for now.

Where were we? Oh yeah. Causative sentences describe situations where someone makes another person do something. Unfortunately, the this is far too simple, so the Japanese decided to 'spice things up a bit' and give causatives a dual meaning. Causatives can also describe situations where someone lets another person do something! The only way to tell whether the Japanese sentence is a 'make' or a 'let' is to read the context of the surrounding sentences. Great.

The Japanese structure of causative sentences is pretty straigthforward:

[who made/let] は [who was made/let] に [verb clause]

There is also a verb conjugation to deal with.

ーる verbs, drop る and add させる
ーう verbs, drop う and add あせる
する --> させる
くる --> こさせる

So, let's give it a go!

English: The teacher made the students read the book in English.
Jenglish: [teacher][students][English][in][book][read]
日本語：先生は生徒達に英語に本を読ませました。

English: I will let Matt buy me a beer.
Jenglish: [I][Matt][beer][buy]
日本語：私はマットにビールを買わせます。

Notice that 買う simply ends in う? う verbs like this add a 'w' during conjugation, so we get 買わせる and not 買あせる.

またね。。。

What do you think of...

2006-06-14T22:55:00.000+01:00

OK, as a break from particles, let's have a look at something short and sweet. I can't remember where I picked this tip up from, but just found it in my notebook. How do you ask someone what they think about something... Well, it's easy!

[noun phrase] についてと思いますか。

Simple as that! Let's give it a go...

English: What do you think of the new Mission Impossible film?
Jenglish: [Mission Impossible][new][film][about][think]
日本語：ミッションインポッシブル３という新しい映画についてと思いますか。

またね。。。

He's alive... and oh so grateful!

2006-06-12T23:49:00.000+01:00

Just to let you know that posts are coming 'real soon now'. It's just that emailing my Japanese friends is the top priority (before blogging, eating, having a life etc...). After all it's you guys who made the difference in the exams!

Next goal: Passing JLPT3 in December 2006!

Filler :-)

2006-06-08T00:38:00.000+01:00

Guys!

After tomorrow expect more inane rubbish from me...

Until then, has anyone seen "moto kare"? A Japanese drama I started watching tonight.

Particles: は and が

2006-05-27T11:53:00.000+01:00

WARNING: Today’s entry has taken ages to research and compile. That said, it is not 100% complete. The aim today is to give guidelines as to when は and が should be used and why. Follow this and you will be right, most of the time. Oh yeah, there are other uses of the particle が, but here I am only concerned with when there is confusion with は.

Let me introduce…

When talking to someone (the listener) about something, it’s pretty important to first make sure that the listener understands who or what you are talking about. This is a pretty obvious statement to make, but it is important nonetheless. If the listener isn’t aware of the entity being discussed, then any actions performed by that entity lose context. For example, consider:

ロンドンに行った。

In isolation, this is a largely value-free statement. Many things and people go to London everyday. Let’s add some information:

ディブがロンドンに行った。

I’ve underlined the key bit of information in this sentence. The focus here is on who we are talking about. Now the listener knows that it is Dave that went to London. From here on in, the listener is aware of who we are talking about and so is more concerned about what that person did. So let’s find out:

ディブはレストランで昼ごはんを食ベた。

Again, I’ve underlined the key bit of information in the above sentence. The focus has now shifted onto what Dave was doing.

Notice the particle used to identify Dave changed between the two sentences? In the first we used が and in the second we used は. This highlights one difference between the two particles – a difference of emphasis. が is used to emphasize an entity, は is used to emphasize what the entity did. When we first introduce an entity into a conversation, the important bit is the identity of the entity (it was DAVE that…). After that, what Dave did is the important bit.

Questions, questions…

In fact, this attention to emphasis can be seen elsewhere. Consider the act of asking a question, specifically why you ask a question in the first place. It’s probably because you don’t know the answer. So, whatever the answer is, it is likely to be new information to you. Unsurprisingly, answers to questions use が. However, the question itself may either は or が, depending on how it is phrased. (How to structure a question sentence is a subject for another day, but if the particle comes before a question word, use は, if it comes after, use が.)

English: What kind of food did you eat?
Jenglish: [what kind of][food][eat]
日本語：どんな食べ物が食べましたか。

English: What film did you watch last night.
Jenglish: [last night][film][what][watch]
日本語：昨夜、映画は何を見ましたか。

Topics and subjects

Of course it’s entirely possible to have は and が in the same sentence. When you see this kind of sentence, it is safe to assume that, whilst a sentence is talking about a particular issue or thing, it is discussing a specific part of. For example consider the sentence:

日本は人口が多いです。

The sentence is about Japan, but specifically about the fact that Japan has a large population. Grammatically speaking, は indicates the topic of the sentence and が marks the subject. This is a tough concept for us poor foreigners as English doesn’t really distinguish between topic and subject – often they are the same and that is just plain confusing. Maybe the following will help clear this up:

日本は人口が多いです。
日本の人口は多いです。

The first sentence states ‘As for Japan, it’s population is large’, whereas the second sentence states ‘As for Japan’s population, it’s large’. It is a subtle difference and frankly I don’t think it matters too much.

An English Sentence

Whilst talking about using both は and が in the same sentence, we should have a quick discussion about subordinate clauses. The structure of a sentence in English is pretty straightforward and consists to just two parts: a subject and a predicate. The subject is the thing being discussed and the predicate is, well, everything else. Together, a subject and a predicate form a clause. In all but the simplest of sentences, you’ll find that clauses contain sub-clauses. There are far too many types to mention, but a key one is the subordinate clause. A subordinate clause exists to add information to the main clause, but has no meaning without the main clause. Consider:

The book that Jack bought last week is very interesting.

The subordinate clause here, is ‘that Jack bought last week’. If we remove this from the main clause, the main clause still makes sense (‘The book is very interesting’). This is an example of a specific type of subordinate clause and is in fact a relative clause. In the 元気２textbook I use, it’s called “Using sentences to qualify nouns”, but “relative clause” sounds much more intelligent.

Subordinate clauses are like mini-sentences in that they can have their own verb and everything. So it’s quite possible to have multiple verbs in a single sentence. When this happens, it’s pretty important to ensure that we know exactly which verb applies to the relative clause’s subject – in our example above, this is Jack. So, what we can do is mark the relative clause’s subject with が which tells the listener that the next verb they hear relates to the subject of the relative clause. If we turn this sentence into Jenglish, we get:

English: The book that Jack bought last week is very interesting.
Jenglish: [last week][Jack][bought][book][interesting][is]
日本語：先週ジャークさんが買った本はとても面白いです。

This blog entry could go on forever. The confusion over は and が has existed, like, forever. And even after writing this, I’m still not 100% sure of all situations. But, that’s cool as that was never the aim of this article. The aim was to get me to be about 75% right. Below is a ‘cut-out-and-keep’ summary of how to decide between these two particles. It’s taken from the fantastic “All About Particles” book by Naoko Chino. Buy it. Love it. Her list of uses seem to match my research on the web, so it probably a good list to keep.

When to use は

to mark information already introduced to the listener.
in question sentences, before the question word.
to mark the topic of a sentence.
to emphasize a topic in negative sentences.

When to use が

to mark newly introduced information.
to mark the subject of a relative clause.
to mark he subject of a sentence.
to mark the subject of an intransitive verb.
in question sentences, after the question word.
with verbs of existence (ある, いる etc).
with verbs of ability (can, understand etc).
with verbs of sensation (hear, see, taste, feel, smell etc).
with verbs in potential form.
in sentences conveying necessity (need…).
in sentences conveying desire (want…).
to mark the object of a verb or adjective of emotion.

またね。。。

Particle: を

2006-05-17T23:42:00.000+01:00

Today we'll examine another particle, good old humble を.

It marks the direct object of the sentence. In other words, it comes after the thing being acted upon by the verb.

　　　　English: Tomorrow she intends to buy some new shoes in Harajuku.
Jenglish: [tomorrow][Harajuku][in][she][new shoes][buy + intend]
日本語：明日はらじゅくに彼女は新しい靴を買うつもりです。

Used in causative sentences to mark the person made to do.

This is a tricky one and essentially you can ignore it. If you want to know why, read on! Japanese grammar enforces the ‘double-o constraint. This means that a sentence cannot have more than one をparticle in it. This can cause problems in causative sentences as を is used to mark the person or thing made to do something. If you the have a verb that also takes the を particle, you have a problem. In such cases the person who is made to do in causative sentences takes the に particle.

English: I made him open the window.
Jenglish: [I][him][window][open]
日本語：私は彼に窓を開かせました。

Marks the location where movement begins.

The particle から has a similar function, but usually implies a point-of-departure and a direction. から can be better translated as ‘from’.

English: I’ve left the station.
Jenglish: [I][station][left]
日本語：私は駅を出ました。

Indicates a space on, in, across, through or along something or someone moves. It is NOT used to indicate to.

English: 　　When I go to work, I usually walk along the canal.
Jenglish: [I][work][go][when][usually][canal][walk].
日本語：私は仕事場に行った時、よく運河を散歩します。

Indicates movement from a smaller to larger place. This can mean either physically or conceptually. For example, consider the sentence

English: I’ll get off the train at Basingstoke.
Jenglish: [Basingstoke][at][train][get off + plan]
日本語：ベージングストークで電車を降りる予定です。

またね。。。

Particle: で

2006-05-13T10:00:00.000+01:00

OK. You can't avoid particles in Japanese, so let's have a look at their use. Today, we'll look at で.

Indicates a place where an action occurs. (at, in)

English: I ate dinner at the restaurant.

Jenglish: [I][restaurant][at][dinner][ate]

日本語：私はレストランで晩ご飯を食べました。

Indicates a means by which an action is achieved (by, with)

English: I go to London by train.

Jenglish: [London][to][train][by][go]

日本語：ロンドンに電車で行きます。

Comes after items used in the making/construction of something (made of, with)

から has a similar function, but is used if the items used are not distinguishable in the finished item. For example:

English: This house is made with bricks.

Jenglish: [this house][bricks][with][made]

日本語：この家は煉瓦で作りました。

English: The cake was made with fruit and nuts.

Jenglish: [cake][fruit and nuts][with][made]

日本語：ケーキは果物とナッツから作りました。

Indicates the reason for something (because)

And so do から and ので. However, で is used after nouns.

English: Because of the rain, I didn’t go out.

Jenglish: [rain][because][didn’t go out]

日本語：雨で出ません。

Indicates the location of something being described by a superlative (in).

English: Tokyo is the most expensive city in the world.

Jenglish: [Tokyo][world][most][expensive city][is]

日本語：東京は世界で一番高い市です。

Indicates an amount (money, time etc.) (in, for)

English: He bought the guidebook for 900 yen.

Jenglish: [he][guidebook][900 Yen][for][bought]

日本語：彼は旅行案内書を900円で買いました。

English: I can drive to work in an hour.

Jenglish: [I][work][hour][drive + can]

日本語：私は会社に1時間で運転できます。

Adjectives & Nouns in a state of change

2006-05-09T18:32:00.000+01:00

むしのしらせにもかかわらず、今日のブログは簡単です。

This is a good thing as it is something you will probably make a lot of use of. Today we are going to look at how to describe something changing state. First, some examples:

1. The weather has become warm.
2. She has become very pretty.
3. When she gave him a compliment, he turned red.
4. My friend has become a doctor.
5. I want to make her happy.

The thing to note is that despite the use of the word become in the examples, in English we have several ways to indicate change. However, in Japanese, there are only two. Moreover, Japanese is very clear on which one to use in which circumstance: If the change is brought about by someone (in other words the change is volitional) use する. If the change you are describing is a either a natural event or a non-volitional change, use なる. 簡単ですね.

Both of these have the same conjugation pattern:

いーadjectives, replace the い with く and add なる or する.
なーadjectives, replace な with に and add なる or する.
With nouns, add に and then either なる or する.

That's it!

English: The weather has become warm.
Jenglish: [weather][warm][become]
日本語：　天気が温かくなります。

English: She has become very pretty.
Jenglish: [she][pretty][become]
日本語：彼女がきれいになる。

English: When she gave him a compliment, he turned red.
Jenglish: [she][him][compliment][gave][when], [red][became]
日本語：彼女は彼にお世辞をくれた時、赤くなる。

English: My friend has become a doctor.
Jenglish: [my friend][doctor][become]
日本語：友達が医者になります。

English: I want to make her happy.
Jenglish: [I][her][happy][make + want]
日本語：私は彼女をうれしくしたい。

Hmmm. Any corrections on the Japanese gratefully accepted!

またね。。。

Have just done... & about to...

2006-05-07T19:39:00.000+01:00

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。。。

For...

2006-05-03T23:18:00.000+01:00

I think I have discovered a new rule-of-thumb for Japanese study: the shorter the English word, the harder it is to translate. For a long time now, I have been struggling to understand how to translate a very simple word. The reson I’ve been having trouble is that Japanese seems to have about 9 billion different translations. It’s a real pain as this word is used all the time in English – you simply cannot avoid it. The word? The word is for.

My misunderstanding of the word for stems from the fact that when used in English it often lacks context. For example, take a look at the following English:

1. This week I am studying for the exam.
2. He bought the guidebook for only 900 Yen.
3. She gave me a copy of her course notes for a beer.
4. I drove for 400 miles.
5. He has left for London.

Each of the above sentences uses for in a different context. In (1), we are preparing for something, (2) paying for something, (3) in exchange for something (4) in reference to time or distance and (5) in heading for somewhere.

Now we have added context, we can begin to see why the Japanese have so many different ways of saying for – they aren’t actually translating for, but rather the contextual meaning.

Let’s take the first example sentence above. "This week I am studying for the exam." implies that the action you are performing is in preparation for some event. One of the verbs for 'to prepare' is 備える. The translation of for in preparation sentences is ーに備えて, so this kind of makes sense. Alternatively, consider "He bought the guidebook for only 900 Yen." Here, the use of for indicates an amount, of money. One of the functions of the particle で is indicate amount or quantity, so here, for is translated as で. And so on. Let's have a look at the common uses of 'for'. One thing to note is that the Japanese equivalent of for comes after the noun that the for applies to.

When preparing FOR something (like an exam)

Here we use ーの備えて, a conjugation of the verb for 'to prepare', 備える.

English: This week I am studying for the exam.
Jenglish: [this week][exam][for][studying]
日本語：今週、試験の備えて勉強している。

As payment FOR something

We can simply use the particle で as this is one of it's functions.

English: He bought the guidebook for only 900 Yen.
Jenglish: [guidebook][900 yen][only][bought]
日本語：旅行案内書を900円でだけ買って。

When in exchange FOR something

Here, we use a conjugation of the verb 換える which means 'to exchange' (and yes, so does 替える). The conjugation is: ーと引き換えに

English: She gave me a copy of her course notes for a beer.
Jenglish: [she][me][beer][for][copy of course notes][gave]
日本語：彼女は私にビールと引き換えに写しのコースのノートをくれました。

When FOR a time period or distance

The Japanese language has no translation for the word for here, so they don't bother!

English: I drove for 400 miles.
Jenglish: [400 miles][drove]
日本語： 400マイルを運転した。

When suitable FOR a purpose

OK, so you're probably seeing the pattern from above, so guess what the verb for 'to suit' is. Yep, it's 適する. We conjugate this to get ーに適して.

English: The park is a good place for eating lunch with friends.
Jenglish: [friends][with][lunch][for][park][good place]
日本語：友達を昼食に適して公園はいい所です。

When FOR a purpose, FOR a reason, FOR the benefit of

Here we can use ―のために, ―のための, ―に or ―ので, depending on context.　I do wonder what the difference is between 'preparing for', 'suitable for' and this group, so I this as a catchall for those sentences not in the former two groups. This is, of course, probably wrong. Any help gratefully accepted.

And that's it for today! As you can imagine, there are many other uses, but it has taken several hours to research this and I think that the above pretty much covers everyday usage. I'm dead pleased that I've finally managed to have a look at this. No longer with sentences with for in them scare me. Bring It On!!

またね。。。

Learning to speak English...

2006-05-02T14:13:00.000+01:00

Have you ever heard the expression"Hey, I'll give you a call on the dog and bone" before? Chances are you won't unless you have English friends or an English English teacher. It's probable that Americans won't understand this either. It is quintessentially English. Welcome to Cockney Rhyming Slang.

First used by the working class in London's East End (aka Cockney's), it was developed so that the East Ender's could have conversations without the rich upper classes understanding them. All you do is substitute the word you want to say for a word or phrase that rhymes. For example:

Phone = dog & bone
Plates of meat = feet
Apples & pears = stairs

To make life harder, Cockneys occasionally shorten the slang, so instead of saying 'apples & pears', they'll say 'apples'.

Now, what surprised me is that some of the expressions I use actually come from Cockney Rhyming Slang. For example, "Wow, take a butcher's at that!". "Butcher's" = "butcher's hook" = "look". Get it?

So next time you want to impress your English friends, trying something like:

"I couldn't Adam & Eve it!"
"You should have seen the butcher's on his Chevvy Chase!"
"You've got lovely mine pies"

Honesty, hours of mirth can be had! For more rhyming slang, check out the following link:

www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A649.

Christian... (Christian Slater = Later)

Drama update...

2006-04-30T09:52:00.000+01:00

Well, Gokusen 2 is slowly but surely being released by those nice folks over at SARS fansubs. In the meantime, I've been watching 'Kisaraze Cats Eyes' - a bizarre drama. Simply put, it's about a guy who finds out he's dying of cancer and has 6 months to live. Determined to make his last days count, he does what any well-adjusted person would do and, along with his hapless friends, he steals his baseball coach's Cadillac! One thing leads to another before they know it the Kisaraze Cats Eyes gang is born and soon they are planning ever more elaborate scams. After all, just how much can you steal in only 6 months?

Yes, it a comedy, Japanese-style.

Check out www.sars-fansubs.com for more drama.

Before...

2006-04-30T08:12:00.000+01:00

The great thing about revision is that I occasionally come across a grammatical point that I actually remember! Today we will cover one of those rare beasts!

In English, the structure of a 'before' sentence is very straightforward. Here's an example:

1. Before I go to work I shall go to the post office.
2. I shall go to the post office before going to work.

Two ways to phrase the same sentence? Oh yes, for once English is more complex than Japanese where there is only one way to structure a 'before' sentence. And that is:

Before [clause A], [clause B]

This implies that the statement in clause B occurred before clause A.
As long as you can re-write your sentence into this format, then you can express it in Japanese.
So, in our two examples above, sentence 1 is already in the right format. Let's 訳す!

English: Before I go to work I shall go to the post office.
Jenglish: [work][go][before][post office][go]
日本語：　　会社に行く前に郵便局に行くつもりです。

Notice how I craftily snuck a つもりです in there. Why? Well, because I am expressing an intent to do something. Dead impressed with myself on that one!

English: Before dinner wash your hands!
Jenglish: [dinner][before][hands][wash+polite request]
日本語：　　晩ご飯の前に手を洗ってなさい。

This is a good example sentence. Notice how the 'before' action is simply a noun? In this case, I've used の前に instead of just 前に. Also, as this sentence carries an implication of being told to do something, I've used ーてなさい.

English: Before the exam I must learn 200 new kanji.
Jenglish: [exam][before][new kanji][200][learn+must]
日本語：　　試験の前に新しい漢字を２００字を習わなければいけません。

I'm happy with that. I actually know some Japanese!

またね。。。

Quoting Speech

2006-04-28T21:09:00.000+01:00

Just as I started today's update, I said "Just how hard can quoting speech be?". As it turns out, it carries a PPT rating (Potentially Pete Tong - see below) of 5/10 - so not too bad. However, it is more complex than I thought and does require a bit of care before you go slapping a sentence together.

As we know, the Japanese verb for 'talk' is 言う. However, in order to ensure that there is no confusion as to the fact that you are quoting someone, we put the quoting particle と in front of this. Also, if you quote someone, what they said actually occurred in the past, so the whole thing becomes ーと言った. If only that were it...

However it's not. A lot more common is the use of ーと言っている and ーと言っていった. So I guess the big question is when do you use each of the three options?

ーと言った - This nice, simple form is used when conveying a fact that has no direct impact on the listener. Also, this simple form is usually used when quoting somethin g you yourself have previously said. If used to quote someone else, it can soound a little childish.
ーと言っていった - can be used to convey one of three bits of information: whatever is being quoted (1) has a direct impact on the listener (2), was said (a number of times) of a period of time and (3) was said by a third person. It can be translated literally as "has been saying" and as such impies that whatever is being quoted doesn't necessarily have strong links to the present.
ーと言っている - can be used to convey one of three bits of information: whatever is being quoted (1) has a direct impact on the listener (2), was said (a number of times) of a period of time and (3) was said by a third person. It can be translated literally as "is saying" and as such implies the quote has some strong connection to the present.

Things do get a bit tricky as there are two ways in which you can quote someone: directly and indirectly. In direct quotation you convey what was said word-for-word. In indirect quotation, you paraphrase the speaker's words.

A direct quote will look something like this:

[person being quoted] は「quote」と言っている。

While an indirect 'quoting sentence' will look something like this:

[person being quoted] は [quote (short form)] と言っている。

One thing to note is that in indirect quotes the quoted part should be in short form, so either base 1 (for negative tense), base 3 (for present) and base 7 (for past). Let's try it out...

English: She said that the film she saw last week was interesting.
Jenglish: [she][last week][saw][film][intersting][said]
日本語：　　　彼女は先週見た映画が面白かったと言っていました。

English: He says I will not pass the exam.
Jenglish: [he][I][exam][not pass][said]
日本語：彼は私が試験を合格しないと言っています。

English: When I was a child, my mother told me not to speak to strangers.
Jenglish: [child][when][mother][strangers][not speak][told]
日本語：子供の時に母は知らない人を話しないと言っていました。

English: Now, she says "Don't speak to strange women".
Jenglish: [now][she][strange][women][don't speak][says]
日本語：今、彼女は「知らない女の人を話しません」と言っています。

またね。。。

Oh yeah... for non-English readers, the Potentially Pete Tong Rating is named after one of the world's great DJ's Pete Tong. Pete Tong is also Cockney Rhyming slang for 'wrong' and you often here the phrase "It's all gone a bit Pete Tong" meaning that something has not gone to plan.

Probably & maybe...

2006-04-26T16:49:00.000+01:00

A nice simple one today, but since we've just covered presumptive auxiliaries, this seems to be a good choice to wrap it up. Today, we'll unlock the mysteries of how to say 'probably' and 'maybe', 'perhaps' and 'might' in Japanese.

Actually, there are just two conjugations we're going to look at, so let's get them out of the way before going any further.

Probably

To say something probably is or probably was, simply take the base 3 (for present) or base 1 (for past) of the verb and stick でしょう on the end. That's it.

Maybe, Perhaps & Might

Just as easy as 'probably', but we take the short form of the verb and add かもしれません or かもしれない, depending on whether you want to be polite or casual.

(added 2006-08-26) かもしれない can also be added to nouns and adjectives too. To do this simply take the plain form of the noun or adjective; in the case of な adjectives, simply drop the な.

The difference between the two is relatively straight-forward: both are used to indicate uncertainty about some fact, but with でしょう you think that whatever you are suggesting is likely to be the case. With かもしれません you don't know either way. Whatever you are saying may be right, or it may be wrong.

Come one, let's give it a go!

English: I will probably fall asleep soon because I am tired.
Jenglish: [tired][because][soon][fall asleep][probably]
日本語：　　疲れているから、すぎに寝入るでしょう。

寝入る　＝　ね・い・る　＝　to fall asleep

English: If she studies hard, she may pass the exam.
Jenglish: [she][studies][if][exam][pass+may]
日本語：　　彼女は勉強したら、試験を合格するかもしれない。

合格する　＝　ごう・かく・する　＝　to pass an exam, test, etc...

またね。。。

Looks like, seems, appears to be & more....

2006-04-25T09:30:00.000+01:00

Rule #1 - Always make sure your laptop battery is plugged in when you unplug from the mains. I had already written 90% of this update when I had a blonde moment...

Today's update looks at the wonderful world of presumptive auxiliaries - the grammatical class that conveys hearsay and opinions. So, this covers 'looks like', 'seems', 'I hear' and so on. Over the past couple of years, I been taught a number of ways to convey this is Japanese and frankly, I really didn't understand how and when each should be used. So I decided to sit down and sort it out.

There are four ways in Japanese I have come across that can be used to convey information that is presumed:

みたい (です)
ようです
らしい (です)
そうです

You can actually divide when to use these into 3 classes: (1) When you've learnt the information from some external source - say a newspaper, TV, friend etc., (2) when you have come to the presumption based on your own senses or reasoning and (3) when you don't really care about where the presumed information came from, you just want to get the information out. Naturally, some of these are more polite than others.

To convey presumed information gained from an external source, use either そうです or らしい. らしい is a more casual way of communicating this and as such frequently used without です. Both of these follow the short form of a verb, so bases 1 (negative), 3 (dictionary) and 7 (past) can be used.

To convey presumed information derived from your own senses or reasoning, use ようです. Again, this follows the short form of a verb.

And that leaves みたい. This can follow the short form of a verb and indicates that the information is presumed, but does not indicate whether you have come to the presumption yourself, or gained the information from others. Again, this is frequently used without です as it is seen as pretty casual. みたい can also follow a noun and essentially means that noun 'looks like' something. If you watch Japanese drama, you'll hear ばかみたい！an awful lot.

Let's nihongo...

English: It looks like it will rain
Jenglish: [rain][fall][looks]
日本語1: 雨が降るそうです
日本語2：雨が降るらしい
日本語3：雨が降るようです
日本語4：雨が降るみたい

We can translate these better as:

1. I hear that it will rain. (formal)
2. I hear that it will rain. (more casual)
3. It looks like it will rain.
4. It looks like/seems it will rain.

And that's it. Simpler than cracking the DaVinci code and more useful.

またね。。。

Can...

2006-04-23T19:55:00.000+01:00

Well, a nice simple one for today. I say simple, but it's oh-so-handy and I'm forever using it. Today we'll revise how turn verbs into their potential form, or in other words, how to say "I can...".

A few examples to kick off:

1. I can read kana, but I can't read kanji.
2. I think I can pass the exam.
3. I can't eat bananas.

Now the nice thing is that this is a pretty simple conjugation, as follows:

ーる verbs, drop ーる and add ーられる
ーう verbs, drop ーう and add ーえる
する becomes できる
くる becomes こられる

And that is pretty much it. Two things are worth pointing out. First, after conjugating the verb, it acts just like a ーる verb and will conjugate as such (see the examples below). Second, a lot of Japanese will conjugate ーる verbs to ーれる instead of ーられる. If you're doing exams, don't try and go native on this - the examiners only want to see ーられる!

例えば：

English: I can read kana, but I can't read kanji.
Jenglish: [I][kana][read+can][but][kanji][read+can't]
日本語:　　　私は仮名を読めますが漢字を読めません。

仮名 = か・な

English: I think I can pass the exam.
Jenglish: [I][exam][pass][think]
日本語:　　　私は試験を合格できると思う。

English: When I went to the restaurant, I couldn't eat the fish.
Jenglish: [restaurant][went][when][fish][eat+couldn't]
日本語：　　　レストランに行った時魚を食べられませんでした。

Simple. Useful. Sorted.

またね。。。

Despite, In Spite Of & Regardless

2006-04-22T12:15:00.000+01:00

A while ago we looked at the use of 'but' to link two statements that had opposite meanings. We discovered that there were several words that could be used, depending on politeness and whether they either started a sentence or came between two clauses.

Today, we're going to expand on that by adding the concepts of 'despite', 'regardless of' and 'in spite of'. As if life weren't complicated enough, Japanese offers a few ways to convey these concepts, but here we'll look at three methods, all JLPT2 (oooo, aren't we getting a bit advanced :-)). They are:

のに
にもかかわらず
にかかわらず

Are we sitting comfortably?

Despite & In Spite Of

First, an example of this could be useful:

1. The restaurant was expensive but the food was good.
2. The restaurant was cheap but the food was good.

These two sentences actually convey separate meanings. In the first sentence we get the impression of 'in line with expectations' whereas in the second sentence we get the impression of 'contrary to expectations'. Let's rewrite them adding a bit...

1. The restaurant was expensive but, in it's defense, the food was good.
2. The restaurant was cheap but, despite this, the food was good.

See the difference?

As far as I can tell, both のに and にもかかわらず have essentially the same meaning. They link two factual clauses and grammatically state "Despite [clause A], [clause B]. Think of our second 'restaurant' sentence above - "Despite [the fact that the restaurant was cheap], [the food was good].

Regardless Of

The third method is にかかわらず. This is probably best translated as 'regardless of'. Maybe an example?

1. Tokyo is always busy, despite which day it is.
2. Tokyo is always busy, regardless of which day it is.

The first sentence really doesn't feel right, does it?

So, just how do you use these in a real Japanese sentence?

のに

[verb clause (b1, b3, b7)] のに [clause B]
[adjective clause (ーい)] のに [clause B]
[adjective clause (ーな)] のに [clause B]
[noun clause] のに [clause B]

Here, with ーな adjectives, do NOT drop the ーな. Also, if cluase A ends in です, change this to ーな.

にもかかわらず & にかかわらず

[verb clause (b1, b3, b7)] にもかかわらず [clause B]
[adjective clause (ーい)] にもかかわらず [clause B]
[adjective clause (ーな)] にもかかわらず [clause B]
[noun clause] にもかかわらず [clause B]

Remember, with ーな adjectives, drop the ーな.

例えば：

English: The restaurant was cheap but, despite this, the food was good.
Jenglish: [restaurant][cheap][despite][food][good]
日本語：　　レストランは安価なのに、料理は美味しかったです。
日本語：　　レストランは安価にもかかわらす、料理は美味しかったです。

English: Tokyo is always busy, despite which day it is.
Jenglish: [day of week][despite][Tokyo][always busy]
日本語：　　曜日にかかわらず、東京はいつもにぎやくです。

またね。。。