Do any of these proverbs sound familar to you? I’ll provide a translation of these proverbs in the next post, but for now, try to decipher the meanings on your own.
猿も木から落ちる (saru mo ki kara ochiru)
井の中の蛙大海を知らず ( i no naka no kawazu taikai wo shirazu)
蛙の子は蛙 (kaeru no ko wa kaeru)
花よりだんご (hana yori dango)
出る杭は打たれる (deru kui wa utareru)
秋茄子は嫁に食わすな (akinasu wa yome ni kuwasuna)
悪妻は百年の不作 (akusai wa hyaku nen no fusaku)
Today’s post will deal with the particle: ne (ね).
When will you see ne (ね)? At the end of a sentence. Take a look at this sentence for an example, “いい てんきですね” (ii tenki desne). This sentence means, ‘the weather is nice, isn’t it?’ Ii (いい) means ‘good/nice’ and tenki (てんき) means ‘weather’ and in this case des (です) means ‘is.’ The ne (ね) at the end of the sentence can be translated as, ‘right?’ or ‘isn’t it?’ Ne (ね) is a particle used to ask for a listener’s confirmation. When someone sticks a ne (ね) at the end of the sentence, that person wants to hear your opinion. One other thing is that you don’t need the ka (か) particle to indicate that you’re asking a question. The ne (ね) just by itself already implies that you’re asking a question that needs confirmation.
Ne (ね) is also a type of softener used when you want to reject someone’s proposal. For example, if someone asks you ‘じかんが ありますか‘ or jikanga arimaska, which literally means, ‘Do you have some time’ but in context can mean ‘Are you free to spend some time with me’. You want to reject the person, but do it in a way that’s not mean so you could say, ‘ちょっとね…’ (chotto). Chotto (ちょっと) can be translated as ‘ummm…’ but it literally means ‘a little’. In this case, ne (ね) can have the meaning ‘well…’ or ‘you know…’ Unlike the example in the paragraph above, ne (ね) is not use to gain confirmation. It’s kind of used to say, ‘Well…it’s a bit inconvenient for me…you know?’
Ne (ね) can also be used to say a command in an indirect manner. For example, let’s say someone is waiting in line and says, ‘じかんが ありませんね‘ (jikanga arimasen ne). This literally means, ‘there’s no time’ but in the context of the situation, it could mean, ‘Please hurry up. There’s no time, you know’.
The difficult thing about the Japanese language is that there may be certain undertones or implications within a sentence that depend upon the context of a situation. The use of the ne (ね) particle is where it becomes useful to be socially aware of the implications involved in the meaning of every sentence.
With the last post, we looked at simple sentences and negated formal sentences that contained nouns. I’m going to add a little more to these sentences, but the basic structure will more or less stay the same.
Let’s say you want to say, “I am also a student” in Japanese. In Japanese, this would be, “わたしも がくせいです” (watashimo gakuseedes). Just like the sentences in the previous post, we have the subject watashi (わたし), meaning ‘I’, the noun gakusee (がくせい), meaning ’student’ and the verb ‘des’ (です), which in this case means ‘am’. The particle that I haven’t gone over is mo (も). Mo (も) can be translated as ‘also’ or ‘too’ in English. Just tack the mo (も) to the subject of the sentence.
Usually sentences with mo (も) are used when the person is responding to another person’s statement. For example, if I say, “わたしは がくせいです” (watashiwa gakuseedes) which means ’I am a student’, than I could respond by saying, “わたしも がくせいです” (watashimo gakuseedes) which means, ‘I too am a student’.
I’ll give you a couple of pointers here: Don’t worry about translating the ‘a’ in the sentence ‘I am a student.’ Nothing really changes between the two sentences displayed above. The only thing you have to do is replace the wa (は) particle with the mo (も) particle. Another thing you want to consider is that you can shorten your statement to “わたしも” (watashi mo) when it’s really obvious as to what you are talking about. If someone states his/her occupation as a student, and you answer “わたしも” you’re obviously stating that you are a student as well.
Now let’s say that someone says, “I am not a student” (わたしは がくせいじゃありません) ’watashiwa gakusee jaarimasen’. In that case you can also say, “I am also not a student” (わたしも がくせいじゃありません) ‘watashimo gakusee jaarimasen). Notice that the two sentences are nearly identical. The only thing that was changed between the two sentences is the wa (は) and the mo (も) particle.
If you want to say, “I am a Japanese person” in formal Japanese, you could say, “わたしは にほんじんです” (watashiwa nihonjindes). However, how do you say the opposite of that? How do you say, “I am not a Japanese person” in formal Japanese? You can say this in Japanese as, “わたしは にほんじんじゃありません” (watashiwa nihonjin ja arimasen).
As you see in this sentence, the ja arimasen (じゃありません) has replaced the des (です). In addition, the ja arimasen (じゃありません) comes right after the noun. You can form the negative form of any sentence that has a noun. I’ll talk about negating sentences with adjectives in another post.
Just so you know, jaa arimasen (じゃありません) is the contracted form of negating a sentence. The uncontracted form is dewa (でわ). Using the example above, I am not a Japanese person is, “わたしは にほんじんでわありません” (watashiwa nihonjin dewa arimasen).
Subjects can be dropped in Japanese. Therefore, the sentence, “I am a Japanese person” can have the “I” dropped if it’s obvious that you’re doing the talking. Simply saying, “にほんじんです” is adequate enough. This is especially true when you’re asking people questions in Japanese. You can ask, “Are you a Japanese person?” by asking, “にほんじんですか” (nihonjin deska). The Japanese word for “you” in Japanese is “anata” (あなた). You’re free to include anata (あなた) as the subject of the sentence when you’re asking someone a question, but it’s a bit redundant.
Des (です) is a flexible verb. You can use des (です) to say, “am”, “are”, and “is”. For example the sentence, “Misora is ten years old” in Japanese is “みそらは じゅっさいです“. The same goes for the negative form of des (です) which is jaarimasen (じゃありません). One last thing, before I go, des (です) and jaarimasen (じゃありません) is in the formal, present tense. I’ll write another post on the past tense as well.
One last note, the particle は in わたしは にほんじんでわありません and other sentences, is pronounced as wa, not ha. は is also a subject marking particle. However, since subjects can be dropped, this particle can also be dropped.
school - gakko (がっこう)
student – gakusee (がくせい)
teacher – sensee (せんせい)
class – kurasu (クラス)
class – jugyoo (じゅきょう)
blackboard – kokuban (こくばん)
book – hon (ほん)
dictionary – jisho (じしょ)
homework – shukudai (しゅくだい)
pencil – enpitsu (えんぴつ)
pen – pen (ペン)
question – shitsumon (しつもん)
answer – kotae (こたえ)
eraser – keshigomu (けしゴム)
desk – tsukue (つくえ)
chair – isu (いす)
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