Thursday, January 26, 2017

Where'd I Go?

I know I haven't posted much lately, which frankly makes me sad. But I've been painfully busy over the last three weeks, primarily because my mom is in the hospital and I have to visit daily to bring her meals and help her with various tasks. It's completely draining, so between that and work I've had little time to study with Genki. My goal is to begin Chapter 14 at the start of February and continue as usual from there. Here's hoping the next few weeks are a little easier.

Thursday, January 12, 2017

Expressions - Instruments and Adverbs

Different verbs are used in Japanese to express "playing" an instrument. For stringed and keyboard instruments, 弾く is used.

スバルはピアノを弾くのが上手だね。
Subaru's good at playing piano.

リーさんはギターを弾かないよ。
Lee-san doesn't play the guitar.

For wind instruments, 吹く is used. It can mean "to blow" or "to whistle", which makes sense here.

カナトはサックスを吹けるかな。
I wonder if Kanato can play the saxophone.

Finally, for percussion (like drums), たたく is used. This one's also easy to remember.

毎晩となりドラムをたたくのが嫌いですよ。
I hate that the neighbors play drums every night.

And now for a completely different topic (but not enough right now to warrant its own post) - adverbs. The way they're used in Japanese doesn't translate well to English at all, so it's more a matter of getting used to them. Here's a couple helpful Genki sentences.

ロバートさんは料理が上手です。
Robert is good at cooking.

ロバートさんは上手に料理ができます。
Robert cooks well.

日本語のクラスは楽しいです。
Japanese class is fun.

毎日日本語を楽しく勉強しています。
I enjoy studying Japanese every day.

Of course that doesn't literally read "I study Japanese funly every day", but it's their way of expressing enjoyment in that situation. I need more exposure to adverbs like that in general.

Frequency of Events

There's a certain format to use when describing how often an event takes place. In English we say something like "I go to school three times a week." In Japanese, the format is roughly (period) に (frequency).

アリスちゃんは一週間に三回学校に行くと思う。
I think Alice-chan goes to school three times a week.

The 一週間 there is the period (one week), and the 三回 is the frequency (three times).

私は一ヶ月に二回シュウとごはんを食べるよ。
I eat lunch with Shuu twice a month.

私は一年に一回友達と日本に行く。
I go to Japan with my friends once a year.

ジムは一週間に五回髪を洗う、けど又臭いよね。
Jim washes his hair five times a week, but it's still smelly.

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

The Conditional なら

Conditionals are a ton of fun in Japanese, because there's at least four different ways of saying "if...", depending on the rest of the sentence and context. No, I'm not putting off this lesson by complaining about painful grammar points.

なら is sometimes referred to as a "contextual conditional", describing something within a given context. The format of a sentence is often "Topic A なら predicate X", which states that the predicate only applies to A. It sounds something like "In the case of A, then X is true."

I'm going to write out Genki's examples, because I need a bit more research to construct my own.

ブラジルに行ったことがありますか?
Have you ever been to Brazil?

チリなら行ったことがありますが、ブラジルは行ったことがありません。
I've been to Chile, but never to Brazil.

日本語が分かりますか?
Do you understand Japanese?

ひらがななら分かります。
If it's (written) in hiragana, yes.

In the first example, なら is used to show that the "going" action only applies to Chile, not Brazil. In the second, it's providing a limitation, stating that comprehension is only true in the case of hiragana.

The に particle could have been used after チリ in the first example, but it can optionally be dropped. Particles like に, で, and から can be used with なら, while は, ご, and を cannot.

Saturday, January 7, 2017

Expressing "It looks like..."

In Japanese, the word そう can be used with adjectives to express that something is seemingly [adjective]. For example, if I say "That apple looks good!" I don't know if it's good yet, but I'm stating what I think to be true based on my visual impression.

To do this in Japanese, the following rules are used:

I-Adjectives:
  • Drop the い and add そう
  • 新しい -> 新しそう
Na-Adjectives:
  • Simply add そう
  • 簡単 -> 簡単そう
Exception:
  •  いい becomes よさ
  • Then そう is added
  • いい -> よさそう

その車は新しそうだね。
That car looks new.

田中先生のテストは簡単そうですよ。
Tanaka-sensei's test looks easy.

今夜交通はよさそうですね。
Traffic this evening looks fine.

The same can be done with negative adjectives. This time, the ない in the negative ending is replaced with なさ, then そう is added.

山登りは難しくなさそうね。
Mountain climbing doesn't look difficult.

ジムの息子と遊ぶことは楽しくなさそうだよね。
Playing with Jim's son does not look fun.

Of course, putting the negative on the そう (instead of the adjective itself) is also fine, though I'll have to see if there's any difference in nuance here.

その図書館は静かそうじゃないね。
That library does not look quiet.

最近リーさんは元気そうじゃない。
Lee-san doesn't look well lately.

Adjectives that use そう can also be used to qualify other nouns, just like a standard na-adjective.

にぎやかそうな都会に行った。
We went to a lively-looking city.

それはきつそうなドレスだね。
That is a tight-looking dress.

Finally, そう can also be used with verbs to have a similar "looks like" effect. そう is simply added to the verb stem.

カナトは泳げそうだね!
It looks like Kanato can swim!

アリスは友達の家に行きそう。
It looks like Alice is going to her friend's house.

It's important to note that while this usage of そう is often based on visual clues, it is not limited to that sense alone. It would be strange to say something like きれいそう about a painting in front of you, because if something is pretty, you're already aware of that fact due to its visual medium. As Genki says, "if it looks pretty, then we already have enough evidence to conclude that it is pretty."

Thursday, January 5, 2017

Listing Multiple Reasons

から is used in sentences to express something like (Reason から Situation). However, this structure is only used when a single reason is given. To list multiple reasons, し is used instead.

It's used in the exact same way as から, placed after each reason. This includes adding だ after nouns and na-adjectives as necessary. The short/plain form of verbs is generally used here.

リーさんは頭がいいし、よく勉強してるし、学校で秀でてる。
Lee-san's really smart, and he studies a lot, so he's doing well in school.

友達と一緒に買い物に行ったし、ドレスをたくさん買ったし、昨日はとても楽しかった。
Yesterday was a lot of fun - I went shopping together with my friend and we bought a bunch of dresses.

It's also alright to use a single し clause. Doing so implies that it is not the only reason for the situation.

ライトは髪が長いし、とってもかわいいよねぇ。
Laito's really cute - he has long hair, for one thing.

Sometimes the reasons will be given after the situation. It's a bit backwards from what I originally learned with から, but it's still easy enough to read.

このクラスは楽しいね。たけし先生は親切な人だし、宿題はかんたんだしよね。
This class is a lot of fun. Takeshi-sensei is a nice person, and the homework is easy.

Wednesday, January 4, 2017

Expressing "Trying Something"

To express "trying something", verbs use the て form + みる construct. Quoting Genki, this expresses that "you are not sure what the outcome of your action will be, but do it and see what effect it might have."

みる comes from the verb 見る, but in this instance it is always written in hiragana to distinguish its usage. みる is conjugated for tense and politeness.

家族について聞いてみたけど起こった。
I tried asking him about his family, but he got mad.

英語で話してみたけど難しかったんだよね。
I tried speaking in English, but it was difficult.

そのケーキを食べてみたいんだよ。
I want to try a piece of that cake.

犬に語ってみることがあるの?
Have you ever tried talking to your dog?

Tuesday, January 3, 2017

Potential Verb Forms

明けましておめでとう! We've reached the new year, and in 2017 I want to study Japanese harder than ever before. My goal for 2017 is to get through Genki II and Tobira at a minimum, which would put me at roughly N3 level of Japanese. I also really want to improve my speaking and listening skills, something I'm working on with Yuta's Japanese course.

That's a different matter though, and it's time to do my first lesson from Genki II, which involves the potential form of verbs. The potential form simply means the "can do" or "has the ability to do" form of the verb. Here are the rules for creating the potential form of verbs:

Ichidan Verbs
  • Drop the final る and add られる
  • 見る -> 見られる
  • 忘れる -> 忘れられる
Godan Verbs
  • Change the final う sound to the え equivalent and add
  •  行く -> 行ける
  • 待つ -> 待てる
Exceptions
  • 来る -> こられる
  • する -> できる

The conjugation for ichidan verbs is rather long with the られる added on to the end. For this reason, it's common to simply add れる instead, without the ら. I would imagine this is especially common in the spoken language, leaving られる reserved for more formal, written settings. So without the ら, the conjugations look like:

見る -> 見れる
分ける -> 分けれる
来る -> これる

Since both ichidan and godan verbs end in える here, they're conjugated as typical ichidan verbs. It's a nice luxury.

In the potential form, verbs that use the を particle can take either を or が in sentences. The verb できる is an exception, though. It almost always uses the が particle, and using を with it can sound wrong or substandard. Thankfully, verbs that use other particles (like に) require no change in the potential form.

病んでるから学校に行けないんだよ。
I couldn't go to school because I was sick.

彼は教科書を見つけれないんでしょ。
He probably can't find his textbook.

すみません、英語を話せますか。
Excuse me, can you speak English?

明日リーさんにこの映画を返せる。
I can return this movie to Lee-san tomorrow.

毎日家で仕事ができるよ。
I can do work at home every day.

今夜ライトはパーティーにこれるだよね!
Laito can come to the party tonight!