Posts tagged with "Japanese grammar"

~ませんか

Posted by Ginny No Comments
Nov 18 2009

For today’s post we’ll take a look at the ませんか construction. Let’s take a look at this sample sentence, “にほんご　を　べんきょうしませんか“. (にほんご = Japanese language. を = wo. べんきょうしませんか = won’t you study.) In English this sentence would mean “Won’t you study Japanese [with me]?”. To form the “Won’t you” construction, take the present polite negative ません ending and add the interrogative particle か to it. In this case the present polite negative of “to study” is べんきょうしません then add か the question marking particle and you get べんきょうしませんか.

For added emphasis you could add the phrase “with me”, but it’s already implied that you are extending an invitation to someone to do something with you, so you don’t absolutely need to say “with me”. For example, you could have said, “わたし　と　のみませんか“. (わたし = me.　と = with.　のみませんか = won’t you drink.) In English this would mean “Won’t you drink with me?” You can also change the pronoun わたしlike in this sentence, “わたしたち　と　おさか　に　いきませんか“, which means, “Won’t you go to Osaka with us?” (わたしたち = us.　と = with.　おさか = Osaka.　に = ni particle.　いきませんか = won’t you go.)

The English translations for ませんか all vary depending on the author. Some translate ませんか as “Will you…”, others as “Why don’t we…”, still others as “What do you say to…”. Technically there is no set phrase for ませんか in English. As long as the English translation expresses an invitation to someone, it’ll do. One other thing I want to point out is the difference between a question like “えいが　を　みますか” versus “えいが　を　みませんか versus “えいが　を　みましょうか“. (えいが = movie. を = wo particle. みる = to see.) At some point we’ve talked about all three of these types of sentences, but let’s review.

In the very beginning we talked about asking questions using the か particle. So a question like “えいが　を　みますか” will be “Do you watch movies?” This type of question is different from “えいが　を　みませんか” (Won’t you watch a movie with me?) because the latter question was a question inviting someone to do something, while the former question was simply just a question. The last question, “えいが　を　みましょうか” means “Shall we watch a movie?” is different in that this question is a question offering someone a suggestion to do something rather than inviting someone to do something.

Ok, that’s it for today, またね! (later!)

Let’s/Shall

Posted by Ginny 1 Comment
Nov 15 2009

For today’s grammar point, let’s look at a sentence like this, “レストラン　に　いきましょう“. (レストラン = restaurant. に = ni particle. いきましょう = let’s go.) This sentence means, “Let’s go to [a/the] restaurant”. To form the “let’s” construction, just add ましょう to the stem of the verb. In this case the verb we used was いく, which means “to go”. When you conjugate this verb in the present polite affirmative you get いきます. When you leave off the ます you get the stem いき. Take the stem and attach it to ましょう. So let’s take a verb like たべる following the same steps we used for いく.

In the present polite affirmative たべる becomes たべます. Leave off the ます and attach ましょう. You get たべましょう as the final product. The interesting thing about using the “let’s” construction is that sometimes the “let’s” construction can be a veiled form of a wish or command. For example my housemate had this tendency to sleep late into the afternoon. My host mother would often say in an irritated voice, “いま　おきましょう“. (いま = now. おきましょう = get up.) Literally this would mean “Let’s wake up”. Now normally sentences with the “let’s” form is used when you want to suggest a plan of action.

However in this situation, it’s more of a command. Since the host mother is not my housemate’s real mother, she can’t really “command” the housemate to wake up. Also, in an effort to be polite, she is using a gentle method to get the housemate to do something. Sometimes Japanese people are careful so as not to  seem overbearing or commanding. That’s why normally verbs with the ましょう ending literally mean “let’s” but it all depends on context. Like in all languages, the tone of the person’s voice (whether the person sounds happy, annoyed etc) can also help you better figure out the context of the situation.

Now let’s look at a sentence like this, “てつたいましょうか“. Here in addition to the ましょう, you have か added to ましょう. In English, the addition of this か turns this sentence in the “shall” form. So in English this phrase would mean, “Shall [I] help?” Now depending on the context, this same phrase may not be a question, but a offer of help. In other words, “てつたいましょうか” could mean “I’ll help”. In turn “あけましょうか” could mean “Shall [I] open [it]?” or it could mean “I’ll open [it]“. If the person is already walking across the room to open a window, this phrase may make more sense to mean “I’ll open [it/window]” but if the person is hesitating and waiting for your response, this phrase may mean “Shall [I] open [it/window]?”. Again, it all depends upon the context.

The Ne Particle

Posted by Ginny 1 Comment
Jul 25 2009

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.

Simple Japanese Sentences

Posted by Ginny 10 Comments
Feb 11 2009

This is going to be a great post for beginners of Japanese.  Today I’m going to show you how to construct simple sentences.  Let’s start with a simple sentece such as, “I am Takeshi”.  To say “I” you would use the word “watashi” (わたし).  For the verb “am” you would use “des” (です).  In Japanese the entire sentence would be, “Watashi wa Takeshi des” (わたしは たけしです).  The “wa” is a particle marking the topic of a sentence.  In this case “watashi” is the topic of the sentence and “wa” is attached indicate this.  So if we were to mimic this grammatical structure in English, it would be: “I-topic marking particle-Takeshi-des”.  Notice how the verb comes last in Japanese.  This contrasts with the English sentence “I am Takeshi” where the noun comes last.

One thing to note is that certain subjects can be dropped in Japanese.  In English, you wouldn’t be able to say “Am Takeshi”.  That would not be a good sentence in English, while in Japanese it’s perfectly fine to just say “Takeshi des” (たけしです).  One more thing to note is that the particle  は is pronounced as “wa” instead of “ha”.  Normally  は is pronounced as “ha” but for our sentences for today, it’ll be pronounced as “wa”.

Let’s construct a different senctence.  This is a useful phrase to know: “Namae wa nan des ka” (なまえは なん ですか).  It means, “What is your name” in Japanese.  Namae (なまえ) means name.  Nan (なん) = the word “what” and ka (か) is a particle indicating that a sentence is a question.  In Japanese, it’s not customary to write a question mark.  It’s actually kind of redundant to put a question mark, because the ka (か) particle already indicates that the sentence is a question.  One thing I’d like you to note is the placement of the interrogative word “nan” (なん).

In English the interrogative word comes in front, at the beginning of a sentence.  For example the question “What is your name” clearly demonstrates that the word “what” is at the beginning of a sentence.  In Japanese, this is not so.  The grammatical construction “What is your name” would be: name-wa particle-interrogative word-is-ka particle.  In the last sentence above with “I am Takeshi”, the des (です) meant “am”.  In the case of “what is your name” the des (です) takes on the meaning of “is”.  The des (です) verb is very flexible in Japanese.  In English you wouldn’t be able to use the verb “to be” in such a flexible way.  The sentence “I am” changes to “She/He is” depending on the subject.

Ok, I’m going to wrap this up.  Grammar is always an unpleasant, complicated matter in learning a language, but it’s absolutely necessary. Thank you everyone, for sitting through this post.

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