VOCABULARY
おはよう
ohayô
good morning
こんにちは
konnichiwa
good afternoon, hello
こんばんは
konbanwa
good evening
おやすみ
oyasumi
good night
ありがとう
arigatô
thank you
すみません
sumimasen
excuse me
おねがいします
onegai shimasu
please
どういたしまして
dôitashimashite
you are welcome
またあいましょう
mata aimashô
let us meet again
じゃあ またね
jâ mata ne
see you soon
|
さわだ:
Sawada
|
こ |
ん |
に |
ち |
は、 |
は |
じ |
め |
ま |
し |
て |
|
ko |
n |
ni |
chi |
wa |
ha |
ji |
me |
ma |
shi |
te. |
|
Good day! How do you do? |
|
わ |
た |
し |
は、 |
さ |
わ |
だ |
で |
す。 |
|
wa |
ta |
shi |
wa |
Sa |
wa |
da |
de |
su. |
|
I’m Sawada. |
|
ど う |
ぞ |
よ |
ろ |
し |
く。 |
|
dô |
zo |
yo |
ro |
shi |
ku. |
|
Nice to meet you. |
リー :
Lee
|
こ |
ん |
に |
ち |
は、 |
は |
じ |
め |
ま |
し |
て。 |
|
ko |
n |
ni |
chi |
wa |
ha |
ji |
me |
ma |
shi |
te. |
|
Good day! How do you do? |
|
わ |
た |
し |
は、 |
リー |
で |
す。 |
|
wa |
ta |
shi |
wa |
Lee |
de |
su. |
|
I’m Lee. |
|
どう |
ぞ |
よ |
ろ |
し |
く。 |
|
dô |
zo |
yo |
ro |
shi |
ku. |
|
Nice to meet you. |
|
1) Particle は
The particle は indicates that the word before it is the topic of the sentence.
You select a noun you want to talk about, add は to show that it is the topic
and give a statement about the topic.
[Note] The particle は is read わ.
2)
です
Nouns used with
です work as predicates.
です indicates judgement or assertion.
です also conveys that the speaker is being polite
towards the listener.
② |
わたしは がくせいです。 |
I am a student. |
1) Particle か
The particle か is used to express the speaker’s doubt, question, uncertainty,
etc.
A question is formed by simply adding か to the end of a sentence. A question
ends with a rising intonation.
2) Questions asking whether a statement is correct or not
As mentioned above, a sentence becomes a question when か is added to the end.
The question thus made asks whether a statement is correct or not.
Depending on whether you agree with the statement or not, your answer to such
a question begins with はい or いいえ.
③ |
あなたは がくせいですか。 |
Are you a student? |
|
…はい、がくせいです。 |
…Yes, I am. |
④ |
リーさんは せんせいですか。 |
Is Mr. Lee a teacher? |
|
…いいえ、せんせいじゃ ありません。 |
…No, he is not. |
3) Questions with interrogatives
⑤ |
リーさんは がくせいですか。 |
Is Mr. Lee a student? |
も is added after a topic instead of は when the statement about the topic is the
same as the previous topic.
⑥ |
リーさんは がくせいです。 |
Mr. Lee is a student. |
|
マリアさんも がくせいです。 |
Maria is also a student. |
※Noun → N, Verb → V, Adjective → adj, Sentence
→ S
HIRAGANA, KATAKANA, ROMAJI |
The hiragana syllabary developed from Chinese characters. Hiragana was originally
called onnade or “women’s hand” as it was used mainly by women - men wrote in
kanji and katakana. By the 10th century, hiragana was used by everybody. The
word hiragana means “ordinary syllabic script”.
The hiragana syllabary consists of 46 characters and is mainly used to write
word endings, known as okurigana.
Hiragana is also widely used in materials for children, textbooks, animation
and comic books, to write Japanese words which are not normally written with
kanji, such as adverbs and some nouns and adjectives.
Katakana is used for foreign names and loan words.
Romaji is the system for writing Japanese using the latin alphabet so that both
non Japanese readers and computers understand this language.
[Note]
There are 2 different ways of writing り, さ, き and こ:
HIRAGANA & KATAKANA
Japanese syllabary