AirDemon said: Watashi wa ima Nihongo o hanashite imasu. - is it correct? >.< and how's 'You are listening to me.' in Japanese? my dictionary won't help me. that's okay... but what do you mean by "you are listening to me" ? That's such a weird thing to say in Japanese! Believe me, some sentences simply sounds completely awkwards when translated into Japanese. This is because Japanese is a subtle language that does not state such obvious things explicitly.... you can ask "ima kiite imasu ka" or "ima kiite iru?" as a QUESTION. But it makes NO sense to tell the other person "you are listening to me". At limit you can still say something on the line of "anata wa kiite iru", "you are listening"... But if you really want to say that (suppose there are instances that you must say it) you can try "(anata wa) watachi no hanashi wo kiite imasu" Just as you can see, Japanese is a CONTEXTUAL language. Depending on the situation, you can use either of the following: anata wa watachi no hanashi wo kiite imasu watashi no hanashi wo kiite imasu (implicitly refers to "you" as I usually don't listen to my own words....) kiite imasu (I am listening) ---> notice the sudden shift of subject!!! |
bla bla bla The endless debate between fans and haters. At one point, after spending a lot of time on MAL, you just realize it's totally pointless.Niko-kun said: On MAL, everyone who has used the lame rating system becomes a critic and an intellectual by default, haven't you heard? |
| Thank you very much!! :) |
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wakka9ca said: aznHoopsfan said: Um...I've got a new question on Japanese. It's more or less grammar related... How do you know when to use て-verbs? And how do you change verbs into て-form? It seems really random...for instance, たべます becomes たべて but のみます becomes よんで. Also, します becomes して. How is this determined? verbs are divided into 2 groups: the godan and the ichidan ichidan all end with 'ru' such as taberu, miru, etc. -te form of ichidan verbs are easy, replace 'ru' by 'te'. tabete, mite, etc. godan are the remaining verbs -ru ending (not to mix with ichidan, in fact you have to memorize which ru verb is ichidan, which isn't. Once you get the hang of it, you can naturally guess even for verbs you have never seen before based on "which one sounds better") i.e. naru, kiru, kaeru ru --> -tte natte, kitte, kaette.... ku (naku, kaku) ---> ite naite, kaite u (kau, utau) ---> -tte katte, utatte nu, mu, bu (shinu, yomu, manabu) ---> -nde shinde, yonde, manande tsu (katsu, matsu) --> -tte katte, matte Exception: suru --> shite te-form is useful in many cases, here are few examples: 1) Verb-te + kudasai = please (verb) (for me) 2) -te....-te....= enumeration of actions 3) -te+iru (te+imasu) = sorta like present continuous in English but not quite 4) -te + "key-verbs" = ALL kinds of meanings (te+oku, te+aru, etc...) wow thanks for the very detailed answer! |
wakka9caSep 22, 2008 8:51 PM
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| heh heh I'm back with more grammatical issues...this time were learning about verbs that have to do with traveling, such as のります, つきます, のりかえます, etc. So we have to do a project where we are trying to advertise a trip to a place in Japan, and I chose to do the general area of Nara... I have chosen to have the "tourists" take a plane to Tokyo, then taking an overnight bus to Nara...and I have two problems: 1. I don't really know how to say overnight bus, so I'm just going with bus... 2. I need help to see if the grammar is okay for this sentence: とうきょう から なら まで バス でいきます。 Uh...I don't know if this makes complete sense, but it's just saying that the group will take a bus from Tokyo to Nara...I'm leaving Tokyo and Nara as hiragana because...well, we don't know that level of kanji yet (but I would use it if I could). Help would be greatly appreciated! EDIT: Um...haha it looks like I have another problem...since I'm making this a package deal, I've decided to make a price reduction, but...I haven't gotten that far in Japanese yet, so does any one know how to say 10% off of the regular price? |
aznHoopsfanOct 19, 2008 5:55 PM
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| 1) night bus: 夜行バス / yagyou basu / やぎょう バス 2) the sentence looks right to me....hopefully the context is right too... use the verb 引く / hiku/ ひく as reduction/minus. example source site to see how Japanese travel agencies put their fares: http://www.bushikaku.net/ You can learn a lot of things just from reading this! example taken from that site: 携帯からご予約すると100円引き！ けいたい から ごよやく する と ひゃくえん ひき！ (keitai kara go-yoyaku suru to hyaku'en hiki!) When you book from your cellphone you get 100 yen off! notice here they use hiki instead of hiku. since you haven't covered that form yet (probably) just use hikimasu instead.... unit of TEN percent: 割 / wari / わり ex: 一割引き いちわり ひき ichiwari hiki = minus ten percent 三割 / sanwari = thirty percent sorry for the late reply...I didn't notice your post.... |
bla bla bla The endless debate between fans and haters. At one point, after spending a lot of time on MAL, you just realize it's totally pointless.Niko-kun said: On MAL, everyone who has used the lame rating system becomes a critic and an intellectual by default, haven't you heard? |
| as always, thanks for the amazing reply! so when using hikimasu, i would not need to use a particle like wo? EDIT: Eh...I looked into the whole logic of the way I was carrying out the first day of my trip...and I realized it was kind of bad for the tourists...so I've decided to stay in Tokyo overnight and take the Shinkansen and a train to Nara the following morning...so would anyone happen to know how to say staying overnight in a hotel? Thanks...again...(it seems like I'm asking all the questions...) EDIT AGAIN: Looked into the 10 percent off thing a little further and I found a site that says that 10% off is not ichiwari hikimasu but ichiwaribiki...so which one is right? |
aznHoopsfanOct 21, 2008 9:31 AM
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aznHoopsfan said: as always, thanks for the amazing reply! so when using hikimasu, i would not need to use a particle like wo? EDIT: Eh...I looked into the whole logic of the way I was carrying out the first day of my trip...and I realized it was kind of bad for the tourists...so I've decided to stay in Tokyo overnight and take the Shinkansen and a train to Nara the following morning...so would anyone happen to know how to say staying overnight in a hotel? Thanks...again...(it seems like I'm asking all the questions...) EDIT AGAIN: Looked into the 10 percent off thing a little further and I found a site that says that 10% off is not ichiwari hikimasu but ichiwaribiki...so which one is right? In fact, ichiwaribiki is the right expression. ichiwaribiki = ichiwari + hiki (with h --> b) sorry I forgot that hi ---> bi in this case....my bad...because the kanji are the same....I guess I just learned to be more careful next time... look at this! wakka9ca said: ex: 一割引き いちわりひき just assume that you saw いちわりびき.... (kusukusu) ichiwaribiki is the "compact" expression used in sales and slogans. Of course it's a shorthand for ichiwari wo hikimasu. But then, it sounds very awkward so just use ichiwaribiki instead.... 泊まる tomaru (to stay at hotel) 一晩 hitoban (one night) ホテルに一晩泊まる hoteru ni hitoban tomaru I think you can also use 泊り込む tomarikomu too, but just use tomaru instead.... |
wakka9caOct 21, 2008 3:49 PM
bla bla bla The endless debate between fans and haters. At one point, after spending a lot of time on MAL, you just realize it's totally pointless.Niko-kun said: On MAL, everyone who has used the lame rating system becomes a critic and an intellectual by default, haven't you heard? |
wakka9ca said: In fact, ichiwaribiki is the right expression. ichiwaribiki = ichiwari + hiki (with h --> b) sorry I forgot that hi ---> bi in this case....my bad...because the kanji are the same....I guess I just learned to be more careful next time... just assume that you saw いちわりびき.... (kusukusu) ichiwaribiki is the "compact" expression used in sales and slogans. Of course it's a shorthand for ichiwari wo hikimasu. But then, it sounds very awkward so just use ichiwaribiki instead.... lol thanks again...and just in the nick of time. I was about to submit it when your reply came in, so many thanks! haha wakka9ca said: 泊まる tomaru (to stay at hotel) 一晩 hitoban (one night) ホテルに一晩泊まる hoteru ni hitoban tomaru I think you can also use 泊り込む tomarikomu too, but just use tomaru instead.... well, again thanks! I changed it at first to tomarimasu (our class learns almost purely formal Japanese), so thanks for telling me what "one night" was! |
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| Wow it's been a long time since I've asked a question here... Okay. I have my Japanese final tomorrow, but I'm not worrying too much (I have an A+). However, I still want to understand a few more concepts a little better. Our class is finally transitioning into informal Japanese. First, there is the concept of putting a particle in front of の. For instance, here is a sample sentence: 日本での生活は楽しいですか。 Wouldn't it be okay to take out the で? Why is the particle added on? Second, I'm not sure I completely understand how to use 時. Here's an example of what I'm talking about (I'm just pulling these out of my book =P): 講義がよくわからない時は、友達に聞きます。 When using 時, is it only to be used in the context of the exact moment, or is it when for talking about any time? =/ I know this is kind of hard to follow, because I'm having a hard time putting this question into words...So I'll just ask when and how do you use 時? Thanks! |
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aznHoopsfan said: First, there is the concept of putting a particle in front of の. For instance, here is a sample sentence: 日本での生活は楽しいですか。 Wouldn't it be okay to take out the で? Why is the particle added on? The de indicates "in"/location so you need it to say the lifestyle in Japan. If you take it away, the meaning becomes the lifestlye of Japan, which doesn't make sense, since a country doesn't have a lifestyle. You should break it down into nihonde+no ..."in Japan"+possessive attribute. aznHoopsfan said: Second, I'm not sure I completely understand how to use 時. Here's an example of what I'm talking about (I'm just pulling these out of my book =P): 講義がよくわからない時は、友達に聞きます。 When using 時, is it only to be used in the context of the exact moment, or is it when for talking about any time? =/ I know this is kind of hard to follow, because I'm having a hard time putting this question into words...So I'll just ask when and how do you use 時? The toki here pretty much just means a time when an event happens. Here it's used in the context of "when x happens I do y." |
kasumisamaJan 16, 2010 1:06 AM
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