Sunday, October 9, 2016

Expressing Like/Dislike With Verbs

One of the earliest taught phrases in Japanese is 好きです, in which someone can express that they like a noun, such as 犬が好きです to say "I like dogs." There's also a way to say that I like or dislike performing certain activities. This uses verb phrases, plus the の particle to nominalize them so we essentially end up with a sentence resembling the previous example.

スバルと運動するのが好きです。
I like working out with Subaru.

学校に子供を手伝うのが好きです。
I like helping the children at my school.

毎晩アヤトとゲームをやるのが大好きです。
I love playing games every night with Ayato.

洗濯するのがきらいです。
I don't like doing laundry.

午前六時半に起きるのがきらいです。
I don't like getting up at 6:30 in the morning.

週末に郵便局に行くのが大きらいです。
I hate going to the post office on weekends.

The exact same sentence structure can be used to say that someone is good or bad at something. The only thing changing is the adjectives used.

ライトはケーキを焼くのが上手です。
Laito is good at baking cakes.

アリスはかくれんぼをするのが下手です。
Alice is bad at playing hide and seek.

Genki states that there's another common way to describe a person's skills (or lack thereof), and it uses the words とくい for good at/comfortable with, and 苦手 for bad at/uncomfortable with.

シュウは日本語を教えるのがとくいです。
Shuu is good at teaching Japanese.

リーさんは トラックを運転するのが苦手です。
Lee-san is bad at driving trucks. 

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