Vowels are very important in Japanese Language. the vowels in Japanese Language is a, e, i, o, u, and these vowels should always be lengthened while pronouncing.

     Japanese Vowel                                      English Equivalent
_________________________________________________________________________________________
         a                                                            as in father, but lengthened
         e                                                            as in men       "
         i                                                             as in see        "
         o                                                            as in boat       "
         u                                                            as in food
_______________________________________________________________________________

Japanese writing,.................Traditionally,the writing is written from top to bottom and from right to left. But it is also written horizontally and from left to right, as in English.
Japanese use 3 kinds of characters
1) Kanji
2) Hiragana
3) Katakana

Hiragana and katakana is also called as Kana, all the three used together make Japanese writing. It is believed that in the fourth century, Japanese adopted written symbols and many vocabulary items from Chinese. These  symbols are called Kanji. They represent both meaning and sound, and often one Kanji has more than one pronunciation and meaning.
Japanese people learn about 2,000 kanji by the end of junior school. These are the common characters used in the Newspaper, Magazines and School Text Books. Most Japanese know several thousand of characters in addition to these characters. Kanji range from simple, with one or two strokes, to complex, with many strokes(lines) to make one character. Some look like pictures, or line drawings.
 Following is the Example using just 3 simple lines...............
 

           |||                Yama   means Mountain.

         |||             Kawa means River
 
 

Hiragana and Katakana symbols represent the sounds of syllables.

Following are some of the  common words in Japanese Language,
 
 

JAPANESE	ENGLISH	JAPANESE	ENGLISH
Okasan	Mother	Tenki	Weather
Otosan	Father	Fuyu	Winter
Okusan	Wife	Samui	Cold
Otto	Husband	Bata	Butter
Oji	Uncle	Supa	Super Market
Oba	Aunt	Wanpisu	Dress
Musuko	Son	Kudamono	Fruits
Musume	Daughter	Ki	Tree
Hon	Book	Niku	Meat
Kohi	Coffee	Kane	Money
Ocha	Tea	Kami	God
Hashi	Chop Sticks	Furo	Bath
Namae	Name	Gohan	Cooked Rice
Sakana	Fish	Kuruma	Car
Nihon	Japan	Yuki	Snow

 Now lets come to  Personal Pronouns, Singular and Plural
 

SINGULAR	PLURAL
Watakushi/I, Me	Watakushitachi/We,Us
Anata/You	Anatatachi/You
Kare/He,Him	Karera/They( all male)
Kanojo/She,Her	Kanojotachi/They( all female)

Now for Interrogative Pronouns,
 

Dare---------Who	Doshite-----------Why
Do-----------How	Itsu---------------When
Doko---------Where	Ikura-------------How much
Nani----------What	Ikutsu------------How many
Dore----------Which	Dochira---------Where(direction)

Lets see how to count in Japanese...........................Ready!
 

ENGLISH	JAPANESE	ENGLISH	JAPANESE
1	Ichi	100	Hyaku
2	Ni	200	Nikaku
3	San	300	Sanbyaku
4	Yon	400	Yonhyaku
5	Go	500	Gohyaku
6	Roku	600	Ropphyaku
7	Nana	700	Nanahyaku
8	Hachi	800	Happyaku
9	Kyu	900	Kyuhyaku
10	Ju	1000	Sen

 

Telling Time.................................
 
 

ENGLISH	JAPANESE
1 O Clock-Ichiji	7 O Clock-shichiji
2 O Clock-Niji	8 O Clock-Hachiji
3 O Clock-Sanji	9 O Clock-Kuji
4 O Clock-Yoji	10 O Clock-Juji
5 O Clock-Goji	11 O Clock-Juichiji
6 O ClockRokuji	12 O Clock-Juniji

Number of persons................
 
 

ENGLISH	JAPANESE
1                     Hitori	6                      Rokunin
2                     Futari	7                      Nananin
3                     Sannin	8                     Hachinin
4                     Yonin	9                        Kunin
5                     Gonin	10                       Junin

 Days of the Week
 
 

ENGLISH	JAPANESE
Monday	Getsuyobi
Tuesday	Kayobi
Wednesday	Suiyobi
Thursday	Mokuyobi
Friday	Kinyobi
Saturday	Doyobi
Sunday	Nichiyobi

Months of the Year

ENGLISH	JAPANESE	ENGLISH	JAPANESE
January	Ichigatsu	July	Shichigatsu
Febuary	Nigatsu	August	Hachigatsu
March	Sangatsu	September	Kugatsu
April	Shigatsu	October	Jugatsu
May	Gogatsu	November	Juichigatsu
June	Rokugatsu	December	Junigatsu

Home