What is this?Basically it is a summary of my progress through learning the Japanese language. As I progress throughout my learning, this page will expand. It is probably possible to learn the language through this page(not that I would recommend it). However, the odds are high that there are many errors which have not been detected by me, as I am not a native speaker(or else I would not be learning the language, eh?). Possible errorsThere are many causes of errors in this document, the most important cause being between the screen and the chair. Also, one of either vim or the Japanese IME likes to eat the first character of whatever I type, so words such as がっこう end up like あっこう. Reading this documentReading this document requires the reader to have a browser able to read UTF-8(any recent browser should be able to read UTF-8). Also, you need a set of Japanese fonts. The easiest way to do this on Windows 2000 and XP is simply to go into the locale control panel and check the Japanese check box in the System language parameters. This will automatically install Japanese fonts. Learning from this documentI do not recommend learning from this document, as many infortunate errors probably have slipped in. If you still want to learn from this document, I recommend you get a japanese-english dictionary. For example, you could pick up a copy of edict on the net and look up words in it using some software(or even notepad). Hey, the vocabulary lists have no English words associated with them! What gives?Yes, this is intended. This forces you to learn the vocabulary lists by searching for each word manually. This also forces you to learn how your IME works if you are using an electronic dictionary or decrypting the kana to feed them to a dictionary program which takes its input in romaji. Maybe in a future version I will make hidden columns with romaji and english which could be togglable by using a button wired to a Java script. Corrections and feedbackIf you are skilled in Japanese, feel free to send corrections to this document. If you have read it or are using it to learn, I would like to hear from you. Written JapaneseJapanese is written using three "alphabets". Two of these alphabets are syllabic and are known as かな. The first one, ひらがな, is used to write native words and the other one, かたかな, is used in telegrams, to put emphasis(just like italics) and to write foreign words. The third one is called かんじ and is used to write native words, just like ひらがな. However, かな expresses sounds while かんじ carries images. There is also romaji, however it is not an alphabet per-se, seeing as it is only used to express Japanese text using latin letters. For example, I could write Japan using any of these alphabets.
I will not use romaji in the rest of this document to write Japanese words except where it is absolutely needed. Why not use romaji?You might have noticed that some Japanese have terrible English. This is because a large part of the teachers teach beginner english classes using かな. If you take a look at the sounds which you can pronounce using かな, you are going to see that not all sounds that exist in the English language can be represented. You might be thinking why use かな to teach English, since nobody writes English using かな. Well, nobody(except books like "Learn Japanese in 20 nanoseconds") uses romaji to write Japanese. And if you are going to learn Japanese, why not get it right from the start? ひらがな
RulesThere are some rules to remember when writing ひらがな.
かたかな
RulesThere are some rules to remember when writing かたかな.
かんじThere are thousands of かんじ, however about 2000 of them have been designated as じょうようかんじ(かんじ for daily use). Lesson 1A first sentence
I am a student. The copula です translates to 'to be'. Negation of the copula
I am not a student. The negative of です is ではありません. In conversation, じゃありません is used instead. VerbsThere are only two verb tenses in Japanese : past and present. Present is also used to express future actions. There are only two things that influence the conjugation of the normal form of verbs : the tense and whether the verb is affirmative or negative. The plain(dictionary) form of verbs will be discussed later. Present affirmativePresent affirmative verbs end in ます. For example :
I am eating.
I will go tomorrow. Present negativePresent negative verbs end in ません.
I am not coming. SuggestionSuggestions end in ましょう.
Let's go. Interrogative sentence particleQuestions in Japanese are formed by adding the particle か to the end of a sentence. The word order does not change.
Will you go tomorrow? Phrase particlesPhrase particles relate phrases and nouns inside sentences. Topic marker particle 'wa'The particle は indicates the topic of the sentence.
I am a student. In this sentence, I is the topic. Destination particle 'e'The particle へ indicates the destination. It can be translated as 'to'.
I am going to school. Possession/relation/location particle 'no'The particle の can indicate possession, relation or location.
That is her car.
This is my friend.
Let's go to a coffee shop in Ginza. Addition particle 'mo'The particle も indicates addition. It can be translated as 'too'.
Are you a student too? さんさん is used after the name of another person, except in certain cases. Its omission is considered impolite, except in certain cases. さん should not be used when referring to yourself. For example, one might refer to Mr. Yamada as やまださん. Grammatical differences with EnglishNounsNouns have no gender and number. There is no such thing as plural or singular. For example, くるま can be 'a car', 'the car' or 'the cars'. VerbsAs stated before, verbs are not conjugated with the subject. Rather, they are conjugated on whether they are affirmative or negative and their tense. There are two tenses in Japanese : past and present. Present in lieu of the future. Verbs can also be in one of two forms : normal and plain(dictionary). Word orderThe word order in Japanese is different from English. Simple sentences follow the pattern subject, object, verb/copula with particles used to link the parts of the sentence. PronounsUsing あなた, かれ and かのじょ is often inappropriate, such as when the person referred to is not close or is superior to the speaker. Instead, the person's name should be used.
*These are used less often. EllipsisUnlike English, most words can be removed from a sentence if the context makes it clear. For example, take a look at this small conversation.
Note that there is only one pronoun in this conversation. Japanese namesJapanese names are in the opposite order than western ones. The last(family) name is written before the first(given) name. However, some Japanese write their name in the reverse order, due to the western influence. Vocabulary
Reading
Lesson 2Affirmative past tense of normal verbsVerbs in the affirmative past tense end with ました. For example, たべます becomes たべました. More particlesObject particle 'o'The particle を is used to indicate the object of the action.
I ate noodles. Action location particle 'de'The particle で is used to indicate the location of an action. However, it is not used to describe the location of an object or a passive verb.
I saw a French person in Osaka. Noun connection particle 'to'The particle と connects two or more nouns together, like "and". It cannot be used to connect other types of words.
I will buy a watch, a book and an ashtray tomorrow. はい/ええはい and ええ both mean "yes". However, はい is more formal while ええ occurs in casual conversation. There are certain situation where はい should be in lieu of ええ.
Vocabulary
Reading
Lesson 3Basic numbers
CountersCounters are suffixes which are added to numbers to make a noun. Yen counterTo count yen(the currency unit of Japan), one must add the suffix えん to a number. The symbol for yen is ¥. There are no kana for the sound 'ye', which makes it impossible to write yen in Japanese.
Past affirmative of the copulaです becomes でした in the past affirmative. AdjectivesThere are two kinds of adjectives in Japanese : i-adjectives and na-adjectives. We are only going to see i-adjectives for now. I-adjectivesI-adjectives always end with い. However, not all words ending by い are i-adjectives. For example, とけい is not an adjective. The final い of an i-adjective is always preceded by one of the vowels あ, い, う and お but never え. The preceding vowel can be inside a syllable, for example わるい. I-adjectives change their form(just like verbs) depending of their tense and whether they are affirmative or negative. In the present affirmative, i-adjectives are followed by です. Sometimes ん stands between the i-adjective and です, which puts emphasis on the adjective. Question wordsWhat : なになにをのみますか。 What are you drinking? Where : どこきのうどこへいきましたか。 Where did you go yesterday? Which : どのどのかめらおかいましょうか。 Which camera should I buy? More particlesSentence emphasis particle よよ is a sentence particle(like か) which puts emphasis on the sentence. これ本はおおきいですよ。 That book is big. Clause opposition particle けどけど opposes two clauses in a sentence. The English equivalent would be "but". わたしのくるまはあおいですけどたなかさんのはあかいです。 My car is blue, but Tanaka's is red.(This is a bad example.) Opposition conjunction でもけど and でも both mean "but", however, でも is a conjunction so it has to be placed at the beginning of a sentence. わたしのふとんはおおきいです。でもたかいでした。 My futon is big. However, it was expensive. わたしのふとんはおおきいですけどでもたかいでした。 My futon is big, but it was expensive. Vocabulary
Lesson 4Past negative form of the verbThe past negative form of the verb is made by replacing ます by ませんでした. Na-adjectivesNa-adjectives are not conjugated like i-adjectives. A few adjectives that look like i-adjectives are na-adjectives. For example, きらい is a na-adjective. However, they are an exception. きれいです。 It's clean. きれいではありません。 It's not clean. Usage of adjective with nounsI-adjectivesWhen i-adjectives modify nouns, they precede the noun that they modify. たかい車です。 It's an expensive car. Na-adjectivesWhen na-adjectives modify nouns, they precede the noun, but な is placed between the noun and the na-adjective. きれいなへたです。 The room is clean. |
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