| English | Cantonese | Japanese | Spanish |
| Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday | láih baai yāt láih baai yih láih baai sāam láih baai sei láih baai ńgh láih baai luhk láih baai yaht | getsu-yoobi ka-yoobi sui-yoobi moku-yoobi kin-yoobi do-yoobi nichi-yoobi | lunes martes miércoles juevesviernes sábado domingo |
| English | Japanese | Cantonese | Spanish |
| Blue | あお (ao) | laam4 sik1 (藍色) | azul |
| Red | あか (aka) | hung4 sik1 (紅色) | rojo |
| White | しろ (shiro) | baak6 sik1 (白色) | blanco
|
New Japanese words I learned:
ちかてち pasokon (personal computer)
おてら otera (temple)
つまらない tsumaranai (boring)
なし nashi (pear)
まずい mazui (not tasty)
きたない kitanai (dirty)
じんざ jinja (shrine)
べんり benri (convenient)
ちかてち chikatetsu (subway)
The first thing to learn is how to ask what time is it?
いま なんじ ですか (ima nanji desu ka?) – what time is it? (Literally, “now, what hour is it?”)
Next, the twelve hours:
1 o‘clock – 1-じ (ichi-ji)
2 o‘clock – 2-じ (ni-ji)
3 o‘clock – 3-じ (san-ji)
4 o‘clock – 4-じ (shi-ji)
5 o‘clock – 5-じ (go-ji)
6 o‘clock – 6-じ (roku-ji)
7 o‘clock – 7-じ (shichi-ji)
8 o‘clock – 8-じ (hachi-ji)
9 o‘clock – 9-じ (ku-ji)
10 o‘clock – 10-じ (juu-ji)
11 o‘clock – 11-じ (juuichi-ji)
12 o‘clock – 12-じ (juuni-ji)
To say a.m., say ごぜん (gozen). To say “p.m.”, say ごご (gogo). But you must say them before the time. So, 8pm is ごご 8-じ (gogo hachi-ji).
Linguists tell us about different kinds of words: nouns, verbs, adjectives, and about the different parts of a sentence: subject, predicate, direct object, and how sentences are constructed.
But human languages are not just structures where you just fill in the slots with the appropriate kinds of words. Idioms and standard phrases abound. Unless you are familiar with these standard phrases, you would not sound like a native speaker, no matter how accurate your accent is. In fact, you would sound rather odd.
Suppose you knew all the English words, and all of English grammar, but not the standard way of saying things? How would you ask to be excused because you need to use the toilet? Dr Beverly Hofstadter (Leonard’s mother in ‘The Big Bang Theory’), excuses herself thusly: “I have to urinate.”
Perfectly correct grammar. Impeccable diction. Totally weird.
I found a nice little book called: “A Handbook of Common Japanese Phrases”, which
But there’s a few that seem common enough for every day use. I list a couple below, and will list those that I find useful as I use the book more.
おつかれさま (otsukare-sama) – good work.
Something co-workers say to another who is leaving for the day.
If I didn’t know about this phrase, I would only be able to say things like さようなら (sayoonara) ‘good-bye’, or また あした (mata ashita) ‘see you tomorrow’.
Another stock phrase is おさきに しつれい します (osakini shitsurei itashimasu) ‘Pardon me, but I’m off’. Although the itashimasu part is a bit too honorific. I suppose you can say shimasu.
According to Ann Tarumoto’s book, そうです(soo desu) can mean ‘so I hear’, or ‘I understand that…’, depending on how it’s used.
To say ‘I hear it’s hot’, we can use the plain form of the verb hot さむい (samui), and add そうで.
Recall that the plain form of a verb is the less formal form. The plain forms for the adjective さむい (samui) are:
So, to say ‘I understand he is busy’ = いそがしい そうです (isogashii so desu).
To change a adjective type sentence to a question, just add か (ka) at the end.
It’s new. あたらしい です (Atarashii desu).
Is it new? あたらしい です か? (Atarashii desu ka?)
For casual language, だ (da) replaces です (desu):
あたらしい だ Atarashii da.
But to change it to a question, you don’t change it to da ka. Instead, ka replaces da.
あたらしい か? (Atarashii ka?)
Women more often drop the ka:
あたらしい? (Atarashii?)
since apparently the ka sounds abrupt when speaking casually.
We can use more than one adjective to describe something, such as a big and tasty or interesting and fun.
To do this, we need to change the first adjective to its ‘-te’ form. Drop the final い (i) and replace it with くて (kute). We only need to change the first adjective.
Interesting and fun おもしろくて たのしい (omoshirokute tanoshii)
Cold and bad さむくて わるい (samukute warui)
New and beautiful あたらしくて きれい (atarashikute kirei)
Reference: The Complete Japanese Adjective Guide (Ann Tarumoto)
The verb shimasu します means ‘to do’. To say that someone made something fun, use the ‘ku form of the adjective and add します (shimasu).
Make it fun: たのしく します (tanoshiku shimasu).
Made it fun: たのしく しました (tanoshiku shimasita).
Make it easy: やさしく します (yasashiku shimasu).
Made it difficult: むずかしく しました (muzukashiku shimasita).
To use an ‘i’ adjective as an adverb, change the い (i) to く (ku):
interesting おもしろい (omoshiroi) becomes おもしろく (omoshiroku).
far とおい (tooi) becomes とおく (tooku).
bad わるい (warui) becomes わるく (waruku).
If you want to say that something was ‘not really’ or ‘I wouldn’t say it was…’ you can put a は (wa) between the –ku form of the verb and the negative words after it.
It wasn’t really expensive:たかくは なかった (takaku wa nakatta).
It isn’t really cold: つめたくは ありません (tsumetaku wa arimasen). Or, less formal: つめたくは (tsumetaku wa nai).
Here’s a review of the previous posts, using the adjective ふとい (futoi).
It is fat: ふとく です (futoi desu).
It’s not really fat: ふとくは ありません (futoku wa arimasen).
It isn’t fat (formal form): ふとく ありません(futoku arimasen).
It isn’t fat (plain form):ふとく ない (futoku nai).
It was fat: ふとかた です (futokatta desu).
It wasn’t really fat: ふとくは ありませんでした (futoku arimasendeshita).
It wasn’t fat (formal) :ふとく ありませんでした (futoku arimasendeshita).
It wasn’t fat (plain form): ふとく なかった (futoku nakatta).
It wasn’t really fat (plain form): ふとくは なかった (futoku nakatta).
The plain form is less formal than the formal form.
To recall, the formal form of the negative past of an ‘i’ adjective can be made by replacing the ‘i’ with く ありませっでした (ku arimasendeshita’).
Thus:
It was cold: さむかった (samukatta).
It wasn’t cold; さむく ありませっでした (samuku arimasendeshita).
It was difficult: むづかしかった(muzukashikatta).
It wasn’t difficult;むづかしく ありませっでした (muzukashiku arimasendeshita).
The less formal (plain) form of the past negative is made by using なかった (nakkata) instead of (arimasendeshita).
Thus:
It wasn’t cold; さむく なかった (samuku nakatta).
It wasn’t difficult;むづかしく なかった (muzukashiku nakatta).
It wasn’t delicious: おいしく なかった (oishiku nakatta).
It wasn’t far: とおく なかった (tooku nakatta).
It wasn’t good: よく なかった (yoku nakatta).
It wasn’t cool: すずしく なかった(suzushiku nakatta).
とても (totemo) means ‘very’.
とても さむい (totemo samui) very cold.
とても たかい (totemo takai) very expensive.
とても ふるかった (totemo furui) very old.
かなり (kanari) means ‘quite’ or ‘rather’.
かなり さあむかった (kanari samukatta) was quite cold.
かなり たのしかった (kanari tanoshikatta) was quite fun.
In English we can say that something is “very sweet” or “not very sweet”. The adverb “very” need not change. In Japanese, the adverb can change depending on whether you are saying something in the affirmative or in the negative.
ときどき (tokidoki) means ‘sometimes’. This adverb is only used in the affirmative.
ときどき おもしろい (tokidoki omoshiroi; sometimes interesting).
ときどき むずかしい (tokidoki muzukashii; sometimes difficult).
Apparently, one would not say ときどき むずかしく ありません (tokidoki muzukashiku arimasen; sometimes not difficult), because for a negative adjective, you would need to use an adverb that works for negative adjectives, and ときどき is not one of those.
Sometimes you need to say that something ‘was not’. For ‘i’ adjectives, you change the い (i) into く (ku) and add ありませんでした (arimasendeshita).
あまい (amai; sweet) becomes あまくありませんでした (amaku arimasendeshita; was not sweet).
とおい (tooi; far) becomes とおくありませんでした (tooku arimasendeshita; was not far)
いい (ii; good) is a ‘special’ case because it becomes よくありませんでした (yoku arimasendeshita; was not good). Note that this is not really a special case if you remember that いい is just an inflection of よい (yoi; good)
To change a non-negative ‘i’ adjective to its past tense, change the い (i)to かった (katta).
So if something ‘was fast’ then it was はやかった(hayakatta).
Was cold = さむかった (samukatta).
Was hot = あつかった (atsukatta).
Was busy = いそがしかった (isogashikatta)
Was good = よかった (yokatta)
Was expensive = たかかった (takakatta)
Was interesting = おもしろかった (omoshirokatta).
Was cold (person) = つめたかった (tsumetakatta).
About half of Japanese adjectives end with い (i). To form the negative of these adjectives, the same way we change ‘new’ to ‘not new’ or ‘big’ to ‘not big’, replace the い with く (ku) and add ありません (arimasen).
So あたらしい (atarashii; new) becomes あたらしく ありません (atarashiku arimasen).
Similarly, いそがしい isogashii (busy) becomes いそがしく ありません(isogashiku arimasen; not busy)
Using nai is a less formal way to form the negative.
Another way to form the negative of an ‘i’ adjective is to add ない (nai) rather than ありません. Thus あたらしい (atarashii) becomes あたらしく ない (atarashiku nai). This second method is less formal than the first one, so as they always advise, if in doubt, use the the more formal method, especially when talking to strangers.
Some basic Japanese adjectives:
さむい samui– cold. Kyoo was samui desu. It is very cold today.
ふるい furui– old (thing). Kore was furui desu. This (thing) is old.
ちいさい chiisai – small. Ano neko was chiisai desu. That cat is small.
やすい yasui – cheap, not dear. Sono hon was yasui desu. That book is inexpensive.
あつい atsui – hot (weather or things). Kinoo was atsui desu ne? Yesterday was hot wasn’t it?
やさしい yasashii – gentle, nice (people), easy (things like exams). Yasashii sensei. Nice teacher.
たかい takai – expensive. Takai kuruma. Expensive car.
あたらしい atarashii – new. Atarashii gakusei. New student.
Even as a young boy, perhaps no more than 10 or 11 years old, I had already wanted to learn Japanese. It was the first foreign language I found interesting enough to want to learn. My 2nd tongue is English, but since I grew up using it, I don’t think of it as a foreign language.
My Dad bought me a Japanese book when I was still in primary school. I no longer remember the book’s title, but for some reason the publisher’s name stuck in my head: Charles Tuttle Publishing. To this day, when I see ‘Tuttle’, I feel a little nostalgic (and not unhappy that this company’s still around).
I know the very first word I learned: nani (what) and the very first sentence I learned: Kore wa nani desu ka? (What is this?) Since I was self-teaching myself, from a book, I remember pronouncing this sentence like this: ko-reh wah nah-nee deh-soo ka? All the while confident I was saying it properly. This was before the Internet and YouTube, so it wasn’t that easy to check on the pronunciation. I should have said it as: koreh wa NAN des ka?
Though I was interested in learning, I can’t say I tried very hard. You might call it a pastime. I never did get past individual words and phrases, even though I accumulated many of them. At some point I was also able to read Katakana and Hiragana, but without understanding what I was reading.
Tonikaku (anyway), I am currently listening to Michel Thomas’s Foundation Japanese course, and plan to write down what I’ve learned.
Will learning Cantonese and Japanese (and maybe a little Mandarin) be confusing? Perhaps. I don’t know.
fàan ūk kéi - ‘go home’ (fàan means ‘to return to’, ūk kéi means ‘home)
màh mā – ‘mother’
tái yī sāng – ‘see the doctor’ (yī sāng is ‘doctor’)
tùhng – ‘with’ (apparently, this a short form of tùhng màaih)
yāt chàih - ‘together’
jyuh – ‘to live, dwell’
bàh bā – ‘father’
hàng dai – ‘brothers’
jí muih – ‘sisters’ (rhymes with…I can’t think of any English word… it rhymes with ‘mooy’)
yat chaih – ‘together’
gám, gám yéung – ‘and then’, or ‘so’, or ‘therefore’
gàan – classifier for houses and rooms
ūk – ‘house’ (rhymes with ‘book’ not with ‘suck’)
yāt dihng – ‘certainly’
daaih – ‘big’
lah, lak – statement particle. It terminates a lot of statements. I think it’s meant as a softener, so statements don’t sound so direct. I cannot recall any instance where I’ve heard anyone say lak. Everyone I know says lah.
dou gei – ‘quite’, ‘rather’ (dou gei daaih means ‘quite big’)
deui mh jyuh – ‘sorry’ (used for apologising)
jau – ‘to run away’, ‘leave’ (jau lah… ‘leave already’)
joi gin – ‘goodbye’
The really new words for me today are: hàng dai ,jí muih, gàan, yāt dihng, dou gei
(Bookmark, p27 of Baker & Ho)
