日本語を学ぼう Learn Japanese

[Ithisa]

It is vaguely amusing to think of the authors of the Kojiki and Nihonshoki selecting an appropriate font and font size in which to print their documents (because the word font in this meaning is contemporaneous with the printing press and thus extremely anachronistic). But you're right in that the historical Japanese writing system is more complex than the modern one. If you were thinking of learning Old Japanese written in man'yōgana I would recommend simply giving up and finding something else to do unless you have already mastered modern Japanese writing.

Some Old Japanese texts do write the inflections smaller (maybe font is the wrong word) to make them clear that they are to be read phonetically, but most text do not.

I think I've mastered modern Japanese writing, I often casually read Japanese WIkipedia :P

[clawgrip]

Lesson 8: The copula and adjectives

First off, let’s take a look at the copula in the four forms we’ve learned so far:

Code: Select all

         AFF     NEG
         だ       ではない/じゃない
nonpast  da      dewa nai/ja nai

         だった    ではなかった/じゃなかった
past     datta   dewa nakatta/ja nakatta

Ja is a contraction of dewa and in speech is the more common of the two. You will find dewa used more in writing. Notice that the wa of dewa is spelled with は.

The copula can connect nouns:
この犬は チワワだ。
このいぬは チワワだ
Kono inù wa chìwawa da.
This dog is a chihuahua.

(この kono “this”)

As usual with Japanese, you do not need to state the subject explicitly:

本だ。
ほんだ。
Hòn da.
(It) is a book.

Adjectives
Japanese has two distinct classes of adjectives: noun-like and verb-like.

Nominal adjectives
Like English adjectives, Japanese nominal adjectives never change form and require a copula when used as a subject complement. Unlike English, however, they also require a form of the copula when serving as an attributive. Take a look at this nominal adjective:

静か (しずか) shìzuka “quiet”

We combine it with the copula to get a regular sentence. Here we will use it in a sentence with 池 いけ ikè “pond”:

池が 静かだ。
いけが しずかだ。
Ikè ga shìzuka da.
The pond is quiet.

池が 静かだった。
いけが しずかだった。
Ikè ga shìzuka datta.
The pond was quiet.

When we want to use it as an attributive adjective, however, we must replace the nonpast だ da with な na:

静かな 池
しずかな いけ
shìzuka na ikè
the quiet pond

However, it remains the same in all other forms:
静かだった 池
しずかだった いけ
shìzuka datta ikè
the pond that was quiet

You’ll notice that I have also just created a relative clauses here, and all I did was change the form of the adjective. There is in fact no distinction in Japanese between adjectives and relative clauses, since adjectives contain a verbal element, effectively making them verb phrases modifying nouns. We’ll get more into relative clauses later though.

You can of course add another copula to make a complete sentence.
静かな 池だ。
しずかな いけだ。
Shìzuka na ikè da.
(It) is a quiet pond.

Here is the adjective placed into the paradigm we have learned:

Code: Select all

         AFF            NEG
         静かだ/な        静かではない/じゃない
nonpast  shizuka da/na  shizuka dewa nai/ja nai

         静かだった        静かではなかった/じゃなかった
past     shizuka datta  shizuka dewa nakatta/ja nakatta

Verbal adjectives
verbal adjectives never require the copula to form a grammatically complete phrase (unlike nominal adjectives, which always require it), because they already basically verbs. Much like all standard verbs end in –u, all verbal adjectives end in –i, and just like with regular verbs, this ending is replaced in order to form conjugations. Let’s take a look at a verbal adjective:

大きい (おおきい) ōkìi “(be) big”

You may be surprised to know that you already know how to put verbal adjectives into the past tense (-katta). This is because the negative morpheme –nai that we learned previously is grammatically a verbal adjective. In order to put it into the negative, we simply change –i to –ku and add the appropriate form of nai. Here is the paradigm:

Code: Select all

         AFF         NEG
         大きい        大きくない
nonpast  ōkii        ōkiku nai
         大きかった     大きくなかった
past     ōkikatta    ōkiku nakatta

Note that there is no separate attributive form for verbal adjectives in modern Japanese:

池が 大きい。
いけが おおきい。
Ikè ga ōkìi.
The pond is big.

大きい 池だ。
おおきい いけだ。
Ōkìi ikè da.
It is a big pond.

As you can see, the word ōkìi has not changed form in the attributive and complement positions.

A note on referencing time frame
In English we tend to conjugate verbs with the present as our base point of reference, but Japanese has a much greater tendency to conjugate verbs in reference to the time in question. This means that you will often need to leave relative clauses in the nonpast, while placing just the main verb in the past:

静かな 人だった。
しずかな ひとだった。
Shìzuka na hito datta.
(He) was a quiet person.
Lit. (He) was a person who is quiet.

There is no need to say 静かだった shizuka datta here, because it would result in a redundant double past when combined with the main だった. If you’re confused, keep in mind that English tends to do something very similar with future time frames instead of past, e.g. we say, “I’ll call you when I finish,” not “I’ll call you when I’ll finish,” even though “finish” is a future action.

Vocabulary
Here are the words from this lesson plus several more:

新しい atarashìi - new
古い furùi - old
高い takài - tall; high
遠い tōi – far; distant
近い chikài – near; close
大きい ōkìi – big
小さい chiisài – small
きれい(な) kìrei (na) – clean (for objects, rooms, etc.); beautiful (for people, scenery, etc.)
静か(な) shìzuka (na) – quiet
池 ikè – pond
郵便局 yūbìnkyoku – post office
切手 kitte – stamp
女の子 onnà no ko - girl
コンビニ konbini – convenience store
手紙 tegami – letter
お母さん okāsan – mother
買う kau – to buy
出す dàsu – to put out; to submit; to mail (a letter)
書く kàku – to write
この kono – this
で de – at; by; with (locative or instrumental particle)

Exercise:
translate the following:
The boy wrote a letter.
(I) bought a stamp at the convenience store.
The girl didn't mail the letter.
(Her) mother (will) go to the post office.
(Her) mother (will) mail the letter.
The new book is small.
The old book was big.
This pond is beautiful.
The beautiful pond is close to (ni) the town.
The mountains are tall/high.
The mountains are far from the town.

[kanejam]

Well there go my hopes of the adjectives being anything like Chinese, and also that the kanji would be any sort of a coherent and sensible system. I think I'll just quietly give up and read the grammar points from here on in.

[clawgrip]

The nominal adjectives are at least somewhat like Chinese adjectives. They take な where Chinese uses 的, and they take だ where Chinese uses 很, etc. (though these mandatory in Japanese, since these adjectives are nominal, not verbal). だ also performs the function of Chinese 是.

If you're wondering how the system of kanji works, I suppose now is as good a time as any to explain. They are, of course, Chinese characters, and they were quite often used in Japan to write that language. As such, they retained a Japanified pronunciation of Chinese. Vocabulary sometimes came to Japan through Korea, and various words were borrowed over a span of centuries, meaning that sometimes the sound changes of Chinese are reflected in Japanese vocabulary. Chinese readings of kanji are called on-yomi (sound reading).

These characters were also used to write Japanese. Naturally this means that they acquired Japanese pronunciations as well. The problem is that Japanese and Chinese are not related languages, and they do not share a unified system of root words. This means that Japanese often uses various characters for the same root, for example, miru ("to see") can be written 見る (general), 看る (as in look after someone), 診る (as a doctor sees a patient), 観る (pictures, films, etc.), or one character stands in for multiple roots 行 can be 行く iku ("to go") or 行う okonau ("to carry out; to perform"). Japanese readings of characters are called kun-yomi (instructed reading).

This duality means that the majority of characters have two or more possible readings, though context generally makes it clear if it should be on-yomi or kun-yomi.

[Chagen]

Exercise:
translate the following:
The boy wrote a letter.
(I) bought a stamp at the convenience store.
The girl didn't mail the letter.
(Her) mother (will) go to the post office.
(Her) mother (will) mail the letter.
The new book is small.
The old book was big.
This pond is beautiful.
The beautiful pond is close to (ni) the town.
The mountains are tall/high.
The mountains are far from the town.

Here's my best shot...

Spoiler:

1. 男の子は手紙を書いた
2. 切手をコンビニで買った
3. 女の子は手紙を出さない
4. お母さんは郵便局に行く
5. お母さんは手紙を出す
6. 新しい本が小さい
7. 古い本が大きくない
8. この池がきれいだ
9. きれいな池が町に近い
10. 山が高い
11. 山が町に遠い

Wooh, done! Man, if I could WRITE Japanese on my computer that would've been faster. I hope I didn't mess anything up.

[xinda]

There are IMEs available for download for free from both Google and Microsoft.

Also #7 should be

Spoiler:

古い本が大きかった

[kanejam]

Just found this on the other board: 山上復有山 can spell /ide/. I officially give up no offence to your lessons though clawgrip, which are of course great.

[Chagen]

There are IMEs available for download for free from both Google and Microsoft.

Also #7 should be

Spoiler:

古い本が大きかった

Thanks.

Also I have no idea how I wrote ōkikunai instead of ōkikatta >_>

[Ithisa]

Just found this on the other board: 山上復有山 can spell /ide/. I officially give up no offence to your lessons though clawgrip, which are of course great.

I think that's just some obscure Old Japanese pun reading, since 山上復有山 means "mountain upon mountain" in Classical Chinese and thus can represent 出 (meaning mountain in Chinese), which had the archaic reading いで (ide).

[clawgrip]

Exercise:
translate the following:
The boy wrote a letter.
(I) bought a stamp at the convenience store.
The girl didn't mail the letter.
(Her) mother (will) go to the post office.
(Her) mother (will) mail the letter.
The new book is small.
The old book was big.
This pond is beautiful.
The beautiful pond is close to (ni) the town.
The mountains are tall/high.
The mountains are far from the town.

Here's my best shot...

Spoiler:

1. 男の子は手紙を書いた
2. 切手をコンビニで買った
3. 女の子は手紙を出さない 出さなかった "didn't mail"
4. お母さんは郵便局に行く
5. お母さんは手紙を出す
6. 新しい本が小さい
7. 古い本が大きくない 大きかった as was already mentioned
8. この池がきれいだ
9. きれいな池が町に近い
10. 山が高い
11. 山が町に遠い 町から "far from"

Wooh, done! Man, if I could WRITE Japanese on my computer that would've been faster. I hope I didn't mess anything up.

Not bad.

[Chagen]

Aaaah, that last one was me rushing since I had class soon after making that post >_>

But I'm glad I got most of it right.

[clawgrip]

Just found this on the other board: 山上復有山 can spell /ide/. I officially give up no offence to your lessons though clawgrip, which are of course great.

This is of course an incredibly weird exception to how Japanese normally works. Jukujikun (characters used for a specific word regardless of the normal pronunciation of those characters) do occur, but they are not nearly as common as normally read characters. Also, 山上復有山 seems to be a particularly extreme example of jukujikun, so I wouldn't give up based on this, just like I wouldn't hold up "hors d'oeuvres" being pronounced "orderves" as a reason to give up on reading English! Same for things like Worcester, forecastle (fo'c'sle), etc. That said, Japanese script is of course very difficult to learn, and if you don't have the time or energy or motivation then it's perfectly reasonable to give up.

[clawgrip]

Lesson 9: Polite conjugations
Well, I don't feel I can go any further through this guide without without introducing you to the polite forms of verbs. As you may know, politeness is a fully grammaticalized feature of Japanese verbs. This lesson will teach you how to form the basic polite form, and give you a little bit of information on when to use it.

Forming polite verbs

The copula
The copula conforms to the following paradigm

Code: Select all

         AFF       NEG
         です       では/じゃありません
nonpast  desu      dewa/ja arimasen
                   では/じゃないです
                   dewa/ja nai desu
         でした      ではありませんでした
past     deshita   dewa arimasen deshita
              　    では/じゃなかったです
                   dewa/ja nakatta desu

Standard verbs
As always, you must first remove the –ru from ru-dropping verbs, and the –u from u-dropping verbs to get the stem. Here, you will add the suffix –(i)màsu, the (i) of course being left out for ru-dropping verbs:

見る mìru: mi- + -(i)màsu = mimàsu 見ます
食べる tabèru: tabe- + -(i)màsu = tabemàsu 食べます

入る hàiru: hair- + -(i)màsu = hairimàsu 入ります
歩く arùku: aruk- + -(i)màsu = arukimàsu 歩きます

The two irregular verbs work as follows:
する suru: shimàsu します
来る kùru: kimàsu 来ます

the past is -mashita
the negative is either -masen or -nai desu
the past negative is either -masen deshita or -nakatta desu

Code: Select all

         AFF           NEG
nonpast  ～ます          ～ません
         -masu         -masen
                       ～ないです
                       -nai desu
past     ～ました        ～ませんでした
         -mashita      -masen deshita
                       ～なかったです
                       -nakatta desu

For those paying attention to the accent, you’ll notice that –màsu always takes the downstep, so polite forms are relatively easy, accent-wise. Unlike masu, desu has a flat pitch.

Nominal adjectives
Nominal adjectives simply replace the plain copula with its polite form.

静かだ shìzuka da → 静かです shìzuka desu "(it) is quiet"
簡単だった kantan datta → 簡単でした kantan deshita "(it was) simple/easy"

Verbal adjectives
Though verbal adjectives are really a type of verb and thus do not require a copula to be grammatically complete, they are heavily restricted in terms of compounding and so on, meaning that they have no way of becoming polite. As such, they employ their normal forms with desu simply tacked onto the end.

Code: Select all

         AFF           NEG
nonpast  ～いです        ～くないです
         -i desu       -ku nai desu
past     ～かったです     ～くなかったです
         -katta desu   –ku nakatta desu

This is simplest. Just add “desu” on the end of everything and it becomes polite. Remember that desu is not functioning as a copula here; it is only here to change the level of politeness. This means that no other form of the copula other than desu can appear in this position.

Notes on verbs
You likely noticed that the polite negative has two forms for standard verbs and the copula. One of them is directly conjugating –masu in the negative, while the other one is following the verbal adjective pattern (since nai is a verbal adjective) by simply adding desu on the end. The forms using –masen and –masen deshita are slightly more formal than –nai desu and –nakatta desu and the clearer the position of authority of the listener above the speaker, the more likely the -masen forms are to be used. It's not really important for a beginner though, so you should just take note that either form can occur.

Relative clauses
You saw before that you could place the copula or a verbal adjective in front of a noun in order to make a relative clause. The same is true for verbs. Unlike だ (which, as you know, changes to な for its attributive form), modern Japanese has no attributive form for verbs, so you can just place them in front of a noun.

歩く人 arùku hito people who walk
買った切手 katta kitte the stamp (I) bought

Relative clauses are always in the base form. You can never put them in polite form. Polite conjugations are generally only seen in the final verb of a sentence.

Vocabulary
いる and ある
I taught you ある àru already as a locative verb. The truth is that it is only used for inanimate subjects. For animate subjects, you use いる iru. いる is an entirely regular ru-dropping verb.

Notes on particles
Most of the time, に is used in place of へ. I taught へ since it is a basic one that appears from time to time, but you will mainly see に.

まで made This means “as far as” but it is used more frequently than its English counterpart, particularly whenever an endpoint could theoretically extend past wherever it is in reality.

で de We encountered this one in the previous lesson. As a particle, it has two distinct meanings: instrumental and locative.
However, the two locative verbs いる iru and ある àru cannot take で as a locative, and instead use に.

学校で読む。
Gakkō de yòmu.
(He) reads (it) at school.

学校に いる.
Gakkō ni iru.
(He) is at school.

Vocabulary for this lesson
先生 sensèi – teacher
学生 gakusei – student
教室 kyōshitsu – classroom
文章 bùnshō - sentence; writing; passage; essay
英語 eigo – English
数学 sūgaku - mathematics
教科書 kyōkàsho - textbook
事/こと kotò - subject; topic; matter; affair
隣 tonari - side; area next to (i.e. noun form of "beside")
習う naràu – to study; to practice; to learn
聞く kiku - to listen; to ask
教える oshieru - to teach
座る suwaru - to sit
いる iru - to be (somewhere); to exist (somewhere)
簡単 kantan - simple; easy
ちゃんと chanto - properly; as expected; as one ought to
～たち -tachi - plural animate suffix

Exercise:
make these verbs polite:
来る (くる)
切る (きる) (u)
言う (いう)
見る (みる)
する
話す (はなす)
並ぶ (ならぶ)

Translate the following:
学校で英語を習いました。
郵便局で聞きました。
学生たちが先生の言うことをちゃんと聞きます。
池の隣で英語を習います。

Translate the following, using the polite form:
The students entered the large classroom.
The students are in the classroom.
The textbooks are in the classroom.
The students sat down.
The teacher taught math to them in the classroom.
The students wrote sentences in their textbooks.
This small town is old.

[Chagen]

Oh hell yes, I got me an IME now for my comp. I can type in Japanese now~

...But, I'm having some trouble. I type in the hiragana for the required kanji and hit convert, but I can't seem to get the kanji I need. For instance, I typed in <く> for the first verb of your exercise, but even when I check the list of kanji for ku by hitting space twice, I can't find the kanji <来> even if I look. I checked to see if I was missing it because the fonts were different, but even when putting it in the same font as yours I couldn't find it. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I found the other kanji for ku but not the one I need...

Same goes for most of the other verbs. I can't find <話> with hana for instance (though I was able to find <見> with mi. I know I could copy and paste them and then write the hiragana for the polite form in, but I wanna get used to actually writing the kanji.

EDIT: I'm not quite sure what is going on. I tried typing out the sentences from the previous lesson out and it's going perfectly. I'm actually surprised at how well it guesses. I can type <ださない> and it'll automatically give me <出さない> when I hit space. Maybe I should write the whole verb out, including the polite affix.

EDIT2: Oh shit, that actually worked! Looks like I need to actually type the full verb out with the inflections and THEN hit space ^^; (I still can't find a few, but I'm glad I'm actually getting this to work)

[Ithisa]

You want to write a full word. For example, <hanasi> will give you 話し.

[clawgrip]

Yeah, as he says, you can't generally type out a verb stem unless there happens to be a corresponding noun form (or other form I haven't explained yet). You'll perhaps recall I mentioned somewhere early on that verb stems are theoretical constructs because they often violate the Japanese sound system. So you have to type out a fully conjugated verb and you'll get it.

[Chagen]

Exercise:
make these verbs polite:
来る (くる)
切る (きる) (u)
言う (いう)
見る (みる)
する
話す (はなす)
並ぶ (ならぶ)

Spoiler:

来ます
切ります
言います
見ます
します
話します
並びます

Translate the following:
学校で英語を習いました。
郵便局で聞きました。
学生たちが先生の言うことをちゃんと聞きます。
池の隣で英語を習います。

Spoiler:

１. (I) studied English at school.
2. (I) asked at the post office (REALLY unsure about this one, sounds weird)
3. The students properly listen to the teacher's speech/lecture[I can't figure this one out. I can get everything but the <の言うこと> part. The rest is "The students properly listen to the teacher's X", but the X is tripping me up. It seems to be "iu-koto"--"the subject that talks?" I'm guessing it means "speech/lecture" but hell if I know]
4. (I) study English next to the pond.

Translate with polite form:

The students entered the large classroom.
The students are in the classroom.
The textbooks are in the classroom.
The students sat down.
The teacher taught math to them in the classroom.
The students wrote sentences in their textbooks.
This small town is old.

Spoiler:

１．学生は大きい教室入りました
２．学生が教室にいます
３．教科書が教室にあります
４．学生たちが座ました
５．先生は学生たちにすうがくを教えました
６．学生たちは教科書に文書を書きました
７．この小さいが古いです

I have one question. How much does the order matter? For instance in the last exercise, sentence 6, I put "in their textbooks" before "sentences OBJ". This seems to be how Japanese does it (where English would prefer putting the object first before the prepositional phrase). I guess it's because of the head-finality in Japanese.

[clawgrip]

Exercise:
make these verbs polite:
来る (くる)
切る (きる) (u)
言う (いう)
見る (みる)
する
話す (はなす)
並ぶ (ならぶ)

Spoiler:

来ます
切ります
言います
見ます
します
話します
並びます

perfect

Translate the following:
学校で英語を習いました。
郵便局で聞きました。
学生たちが先生の言うことをちゃんと聞きます。
池の隣で英語を習います。

Spoiler:

１. (I) studied English at school.
2. (I) asked at the post office (REALLY unsure about this one, sounds weird) Could be asked or heard (it)
3. The students properly listen to the teacher's speech/lecture[I can't figure this one out. I can get everything but the <の言うこと> part. The rest is "The students properly listen to the teacher's X", but the X is tripping me up. It seems to be "iu-koto"--"the subject that talks?" I'm guessing it means "speech/lecture" but hell if I know] iu koto is deceptively simple I guess. It's a noun with a relative clause, and as I mentioned before, subjects need not be included on verbs. So it may appear to be "the thing that says" it's actually just left the subject out, "the thing that (someone) says" i.e. "The students listen properly/carefully to what the teacher says," (technically teacher is the subject, but we'll talk about that some other time). Blurring the line between subject and object is something that Japanese does that can be very hard for English speakers to wrap their heads around.
4. (I) study English next to the pond.

Translate with polite form:

The students entered the large classroom.
The students are in the classroom.
The textbooks are in the classroom.
The students sat down.
The teacher taught math to them in the classroom.
The students wrote sentences in their textbooks.
This small town is old.

Spoiler:

１．学生は大きい教室に入りました I guess I didn't explain that 入る requires に
２．学生が教室にいます
３．教科書が教室にあります
４．学生たちが座りました
５．先生は教室で学生たちにすうがくを教えました
６．学生たちは教科書に文書を書きました
７．この小さい町が古いです

Overall, good job!

I have one question. How much does the order matter? For instance in the last exercise, sentence 6, I put "in their textbooks" before "sentences OBJ". This seems to be how Japanese does it (where English would prefer putting the object first before the prepositional phrase). I guess it's because of the head-finality in Japanese.

Both English and Japanese tend to keep the direct object adjacent to the verb in neutral sentences. Placing "in their textbooks" in that position places focus no that, as though one might normally have expected them to write the sentences elsewhere.

[clawgrip]

I'll be updating this soon, but I've been busy both at home and at work recently so it's taking a bit of time.

[Chagen]

Yay, new lessons soon!

I'm supplementing this with another set of Japanese lessons--but I like how you have questions and quizzes unlike the other guy I'm learning from. Helps me understand the concept better sometimes.