Japanese Word Thread

[Josiah]

Asking Someone to Do Something
There are many different ways to ask or request someone to do something for you, but the simplest way to do so is as follows. (Note that this is more or less equivalent to the "Please do x" structure in English.)

To ask someone to perform an action for you use use the -te　て form of the verb plus kudasai　ください Note that the first two letters can be replaced with kanji　下さい but it's often written out entirely in hiragana instead.

kono hon o kaite kudasai.　この本を書いてください。 "Please read this book." (Note that, as is common in Japanese, the subject (you, anata wa) is left out of the sentence as it's implied that it's the person being spoken to.)

sutoa ni ikte kudasai.　ストアに行ってください。 "Please go to the store."

[Josiah]

A Different Type of Please
In English please isn't only used for requests, it's used to give someone permission. For example, "Please take this." or "Please make yourself at home." In Japanese, this form of please is douzo どうぞ It can be used on its own in response to a question or request such as "Can I come in?" or can be worked into sentences (often at the end, though the exact location varies depending on the content of the sentence.

[Josiah]

Making a Suggestion
If you want to suggest or invite that another person or persons do something use one of the following methods.

1. Use the -masu for of the verb but replace masu with mashou. "hirugohan o tabemashou."　「昼ごはんを食べましょう。」 "Let's eat lunch."

2. use the -masen form of the verb plus ka. "hirugohan o tabemasen ka."　「昼ごはんを食べませんか。」 "Won't you each lunch [with me]?"

Note that form 1 is more decisive and doesn't take the hearer's preferences into account so, unless the speaker knows that the hearer is already willing to do the thing, it can be rather pushy and rude.

Also note that while both of these structures imply that the speaker and listener are going to do the thing together, you can make clear by adding issho ni (together) to the beginning of the sentence (regardless of which structure you're using). "issho ni hirugohan o tabemasenn ka.　「一緒に昼ごはんを食べませんか。」 "Won't you eat lunch together [with me]?"

[Josiah]

Numbers and Counting
Counting in Japanese can be rather complicated so I'll be breaking this up across several posts. To start with, here's your basic 0 - 9 in Japanese.

0 zero　ゼロ or rei　零
1 ichi　一
2 ni　二
3 san　三
4 shi or yon　四 (both are written using the same kanji but yon is the more common pronunciation because shi sounds like the word for death)
5 go　五
6 roku　六
7 shichi or nana　七 (just like shi and yon, shichi and nana are written using the same kanji but nana is the more common pronunciation for the same reason)
8 hachi　八
9 ku or kyuu　九

[Josiah]

Numbers and Counting Part 2

10 jyuu　十
100 hyaku　百
1000 sen　千
10,000 ichiman　一万

Now there's a lot of numbers between 10 and 100 and 100 and 1000, so here's how to say them. Let's say you want to say 3576 In Japanese you'd write it out like this 三千五百七十六 Get it? If you want to say 3,000　三千 you say 3　三 and then add 1000　千 to it. You want to say 700　七百 you say 7　七 than add 100　百. You want to say 40　四十 you say 4　四 than add 10　百. Simple enough, right? As a note, when saying the 10,000's man　万 is what you add to other numbers, not ichiman. So 20,000 is niman　二万, 30,000 is sanman　三万, etc. There's a higher denomination or two but these are enough to get you into the millions (Japanese doesn't have a seperate word for million, instead you say 100 10,000's 百万) so that should be plenty for now. As a note, Japanese people often (but not always) write numbers using standard arabic numerals like we do but they still use Japanese numbers when speaking.

As a final note, a few combinations have a slightly moddified pronunciation. 300 is sanbyaku　三百, 600 is roppyaku　六百, 800 is happyaku　八百, and 3000 is sanzen　三千.

[Josiah]

Numbers and Counting Part 3
And now, just to confuse you, here's a different way to say the numbers 1 - 10 (if there's a way to count higher than 10 using this system, I've never heard of it). This set can be used when counting specific things in general, which can be good if you forget how to count the specific thing you want to count (more on that in my next post).

1 hitotsu 一つ
2 futatsu　二つ
3 mittsu　三つ
4 yottsu　四つ
5 itsutsu　五つ
6 muttsu　六つ
7 nanatsu　七つ
8 yattsu　八つ
9 kokonotsu　九つ
10 too　十

[Josiah]

Now that I have a bit more time on my hands and the site doesn't seem to be going down anymore, it's time to get back to this.

Numbers and Counting Part 4
When you're counting a specific type of thing (be it people, books, stars, or whatever) you're supposed to add a counter suffix to the end of the number. There's an enormous amount of counter suffixs and most Japanese people don't even know them all. And, just to make things even more difficult, some suffixes slightly change the pronunciation of the number itself. Long story short, properly counting things in Japanese is a huge pain in the neck. Here's a list of some of the more common counter suffixes and what they're used for.

人　nin people (Note: When counting people one person is hitori and two is futari, above that you use the regular numbers with nin.)
ヶ月　kagetsu number of months
台　dai heavy machinery, vehicles, office equipment, etc
番　ban number order (No. 1, No 2, First Place, Second Place, etc)
度　do number of times something happened or degrees (temperature)
時間　jikan numbers of hours
分　fun number of minutes
枚　mai thin flat items (paper, slices of break, etc)
個　ko round or square items (apples, boxes, balls, etc)
本　hon long thin items (pens, roads, pipes, etc)
着　chaku clothes
歳　sai age
冊　satsu books of all types
頭　tou large animals
匹　hiki small animals
軒　ken buildings
階　kai floors of a building

[Josiah]

Months
Since they're kinda counting related, here's the names of the month's in Japanese. As a note, the word for month is getsu or gatsu.

一月　ichigatsu January
二月　nigatsu February
三月　sangatsu March
四月　yongatsu April
五月　gogatsu May
六月　rokugatsu June
七月　nanagatsu July
八月　hachigatsu August
九月　kyugatsu September
十月　jyuugatsu October
十一月　jyuuichigatsu November
十二月　jyuunigatsu December

If you've been paying attention to past posts, you should see that the Japanese names of the months literally translate to first month, second month, third month, etc, which makes them pretty easy.

[Josiah]

Days of the week
The days of the week are as follows.

日曜日　nichiyoubi Sunday (literally sun day)
月曜日　getsuyoubi Monday (literally moon day)
火曜日　kayoubi Tuesday (literally fire day)
水曜日　suiyoubi Wednesday (literally water day)
木曜日　mokuyoubi Thursday (literally wood or tree day)
金曜日　kinyoubi Friday (literally gold day)
土曜日　doyoubi Saturday (literally earth day)

週　shuu week
平日　heijitsu /　週日 shuujitsu weekday
週末　shuumatsu weekend

[Josiah]

Dates
Before you can say the date, you need to know how to say the days of the month. Which is a bit more difficult than you'd think.

1st　一日 tsuitachi
2nd　二日 futsuka
3rd　三日 mikka
4th　四日 yokka
5th　五日 itsuka
6th　六日 muika
7th　七日 nanoka
8th　八日 youka
9th　九日 kokonoka
10th　十日 tooka
14th　十四日 jyuuyokka
20th　二十日 hatsuka
24th　二十四日 nijyuuyokka
All the rest use the regular number + nichi　日 For example 11th　十一日 jyuuichinichi, 23rd　二十三日 nijyuusannichi, 30th　三十日 sanjyuunichi, etc.

[Josiah]

Dates
To say dates in Japanese use the following structure. Year month date, day of the week. The counter suffix for years, which I seem to have forgotten to list earlier, is　年 nen.

So today is Thursday the 2nd of December, 2010. In Japanese it's　二千十年十二月二日、木曜日 nisenjyuunen jyuunigatsu futsuka, mokuyoubi If you're using the date as a sentence, you end it with です　desu.

It's worth noting that while Japanese people use and understand normal dates they have a seperate system for counting years. In a nutshell, history is broken up into a seperate period for the reign of each emperor, all of which have different names (the emperor gets to choose the name of his "era"). For example, this year is　平成二十二 heisei 22 because it's the 22nd year of the rein of the heisei emperor. Unfortuantely, that's the form you often need to use in official documents in Japan.

[Josiah]

Telling Time
Now that you know numbers, telling time is pretty easy. First off, some useful words.

時　toki time
午前　gozen AM / morning
午後　gogo PM / afternoon
時　ji the counter suffix for hours
分　fun the counter suffix for minutes
半　han half (as in half past the hour)

So you says the hours by simply saying the number followd by ji so 5 o'clock would be　五時 goji. For minutes, you say the number followed by fun...mostly. There's some exceptions to make pronunciation smoother. :01 is　一分 ippun, :03　三分 sanpun, :06　六分 roppun, :08　八分 happun, and :10 is　十分 jyuppun Any minute that ends in one of those numbers is the same (so :28 is　二十八分 nijyuhappun). For a half hour, instead of saying 6:30 as　六時三分 rokuji sannpun, you could say　六時半 rokuji han instead, either one is fine.

If you want to specify AM or PM you say that before saying the time and, if you're using the time as a sentence you end it with desu. So "It's 7:45 AM." would be　午前七時四十五分でそ。 gozen nanaji yonjyuugofun desu.

[Josiah]

Asking the Time
Here's a couple of useful phrases when you need to ask the time.

"What time is it?" 何時ですか。nanji desu ka.
"What time is it now?" 今は何時ですか。ima wa nanji desu ka.

Note: If you want to be polite (maybe you're stopping a stranger to ask the time), add　すみません sumimasen (excuse me) to the beginning of either sentence.

And, just to clarify the new words in that sentence.

今　ima now
何　nan / nani what

[Josiah]

Ok, time to get this going again.

The -te aru Structure
If you want to say that you did something you can always just use the past tense of the verb. For example "I ate." watashi ha ******.　私は食べました。 However, there's a different construction for when you want to say that you tried something before (often just once for the experience), or want to ask someone if they've ever done something before. To give an English example... "I ate octopus." implies that you ate octopus recently, probably at your last meal. That's the equivalent of just using the -****** verb form in Japanese. However if you were to say, "I've eaten octopus." or "I've tried octopus." it implies that, while you did it before, it wasn't necessarily recent and probably isn't a common event (perhaps you just did it once to try it out). That's what the -te aru structure is for.

To make a -te aru sentence simply use the te form of the verb and add aru (or arimasu if you've being polite). It litterally translates to something like "the experience of having done x (x being the verb) exists". Here's a couple of sample sentences.

"I've tried octopus."　私はたこを食べてあります。 watashi ha taco wo tabete arimasu. (Note that watashi ha can be dropped since it's implied that the speaker is the subject.)
"I've been to Japan."　日本に行ってあります。 nihon ni itte arimasu. (As I said before, the subject is optional when it's clear from the context.)

If you want to ask someone if they've tried something, just add ka to the end to form a question.

"Have you played Pokemon?" _____さんはポケモンがしてありますか。 ____san ha pokemon ga shi-te arimasu ka. (For reasons previous explained, anata (you) is rarely used in normal speech. Instead it's more common to use the person's name or drop the subject entirely if it's obvious from the context (e.g. you're only speaking to one person).)

[Josiah]

The -te iru Structure
-te iru can be considered somewhat similar to the -ing verb form in English. Created by using the -te form of a verb plus iru　いる (or imasu　います) it indicates that the action is currently in progress, has been in progress for some time, and will likely remain in progress for the forseeable future.

Here's a couple example sentences.

"I'm studying Japanese."　日本語が勉強しています。 nihongo ga ****** imasu. (As I mentioned in the last post, the subject is often dropped if it's obvious from the context.)

"Mr. Smith is writing a book."　スミスさんは本を書いています。 sumisusan wa hon wo kaite imasu.