[Ar0x]

Please Pardon DupeReply #'s: 598 & 599--SystemBrainFreeze from some wierd source or another. OK, no more said about it... .


ar0x

[PizazzPizza88]

TAMAGO! (egg?!) lol.

i don't get it

for example if i want to say "my homework was not very easy."
"watashi no shukudai totemo yasasku arimasen deshi.ta."

does that make sense? but i thought you can't put 'desu/deshi.ta' after 'arimasen'..then how do i use negative tense and past tense in the same sentence? i don't know how to add 'katta' in that unless i don't put 'ku arimasen'

[akiaki]

はい。紹介します！JENです。いま、１７歳なんですけど５月に１８になります。SAN　JOSEにすんでいます。４年以前に日本語を始め習いました。去年、１２月にLEVEL２の能力試験をうけました。（もうPASSをしていません。まー。。。今年頑張ります！）趣味がなしですよね。。。じゃ、しつもんがあれば聞いてください！以上です。どうぞよろしくお願いいたします！

TAMAGO! (egg?!) lol.

i don't get it

for example if i want to say "my homework was not very easy."
"watashi no shukudai totemo yasasku arimasen deshi.ta."

does that make sense? but i thought you can't put 'desu/deshi.ta' after 'arimasen'..then how do i use negative tense and past tense in the same sentence? i don't know how to add 'katta' in that unless i don't put 'ku arimasen'

sherry へ、
you wouldn't but やさしいfor easy. You would most likely use the word kantan. Yasashii is more like "gentle". usually when you speak or write you wouldn't use "watashi" either, because they would already know that you are referring to yourself.


the sentence for "my homework was not very easy" would be
shukudai ha amari kantan janakatta.
宿題はあまり簡単じゃなかった。

in regular form it would be:
shukudai ha amari kantan jaarimasen deshi.ta.
しゅくだいはあまり簡単じゃありませんでした。

[Tamago86]

^Not exactly, yasashii actually has two meanings that are completely different. One is gentle, like you said, which in kanji is 優しい
The other yasashii means 'easy' and in kanji is 易しい, so one could use it and most people would be able to distinguish which yasashii it is by context. So in this context it sounds better to say "not easy" (易しくない) than "not simple" (簡単じゃない)

And welcome to the thread So you're going to try for the level 2 again this year? By the time December rolls around it might be worth it to just try and take level 1, as you only need like a 60% or somewhere around there to get a passing grade.

TAMAGO! (egg?!) lol.

i don't get it

for example if i want to say "my homework was not very easy."
"watashi no shukudai totemo yasasku arimasen deshi.ta."

does that make sense? but i thought you can't put 'desu/deshi.ta' after 'arimasen'..then how do i use negative tense and past tense in the same sentence? i don't know how to add 'katta' in that unless i don't put 'ku arimasen'

Yes, Mr. Egg at your service

First as for your sentence, to say 'not very' or 'not that much' you should use あまり instead of とても, as とても means 'very' but doesn't really work in this context. You can't put desu after arimasen, but you can put desita, because that turns the sentence into past negative. So with the sentence you created you already have put the negative tense and past tense in the same sentence, as yasashiku arimasen desita means "my homework wasn't easy".

I should have explained better, katta is only used for the past affirmitive tense, as in you cannot use it for the negative or past negative. If you wanted to say "it was easy" you can't say yasasku arimasita or anything like that, you have to say "yasasikatta desu". So your final sentence would be

1. (watashi no) shukudai wa amari yasashiku arimasen desita"

or if you wanted to say it informally

2. "shukudai wa anmari yasashiku nakatta"

In informal sentences and spoken speech 'amari' changes to 'anmari' or even 'anma' because people get lazy with the pronunciation =P

Note that most people wouldn't actually use number 1, they'd probably switch it out for "shukudai wa amari yasashiku nakatta desu" because it's still formal but not as stiff. You can put 'desu' after basically anything to make it more formal and it's done quite often.

Oh well, perhaps this time my piece will sneak through somehow. So here goes (again):

To: Lynn: SacredBlue/ EternityOfRain86 or Tamago86, I discovered your very Extensive Blog/Journal/Diary of your time spent in a Japanese High School (2005-2006).

oh BTW, I have a friend: Young, Tall, Blond n' Blue Eyed; an elegant (if also down-to-Earth) H.S. student-Actress -- who will go "mad" with envy when I forward an example of your Project to her. ...Since she is a self-described (Japanese Girl-In-Another-Life] type person. She and I are part of a--H.S. Pan-American Culture Society here in New York City: [[Anime/DDR & A/V]] Club!]] We all have the very Best of Fun; especially when Canal & Mott Street comes into play. Ha!

My last comment is you are very talented, and will most definately succeed - in whichever profession you choose.

Hey and thanks Has your friend ever thought of doing a study abroad in Japan for awhile? I hope she's also taking Japanese classes, haha If she ever has questions or anything she can just come here or drop a comment on my blog. And NYC, nice..I was studying up at Cornell in Ithaca for awhile, it was really beautiful up there with rolling fields and open spaces..Unfortunately when you mention New York to most Japanese people they automatically picture a huge city with towering skyscrapers.

[nitewind12]

I have been following this thread for a bit and Tamago86, you have been very helpful. Your explanations are very clear and descriptive and the way you word them makes it much easier to read and understand.

I'm currently taking Japanese in university and for the most part it has been pretty easy. But lately it has been difficult because we are getting deeper into all the grammar and stuff
I just read over your explanation to the ku arimasen/jaa nai/katta last page and it made things clearer.

We are currently studying about no da which changes to ndesu or something like that. Do you think you could further explain this concept?
Adding ndesu to an already confusing katta and na katta makes me dizzy lol. Thanks a lot!!!

[Lelaye]

Group I　(～る Ending):
食べる＞食べた
教える＞教えた
見る＞見た
揚げる＞揚げた
Replace る with た

Group II (~う sound ending):
思う＞思った
持つ＞持った
塗る＞塗った
Replace う sound syllable with った

飲む＞飲んだ
死ぬ＞死んだ
飛ぶ＞飛んだ
Replace う sound syllable with んだ

聞く＞聞いた
Replace く with いた

泳ぐ＞泳いだ
Replace ぐ with いだ

話す＞話した
Replace す with した

Generally, for the group II verbs, replace all う、つ、る ending verbs with った. For any む、ぬ、ぶ verbs, replace the ending syllable with んだ. Replace く、ぐ with いた and いだ respectively. Replace す with した.

Group III (来る、いる）
いる＞いた
来る＞来た（きた）
行く＞行った

Group III is for exceptions.

Thanks a bunch. So basically it's exactly like te form except you use da? Now how about plain form negative and positive? There's so much rules for these, I'm having trouble remembering all of them. It's just a big ball of mess, can anyone name all the plain forms, past tense forms, polite form to plain forms, etc. I have such a horrible grade for Japanese, my report card came in today. Worst grade I've even gotten. I guess I'm trying to make up for it now and catch up to everyone on their benchmarks.

[Tamago86]

I have been following this thread for a bit and Tamago86, you have been very helpful. Your explanations are very clear and descriptive and the way you word them makes it much easier to read and understand.

I'm currently taking Japanese in university and for the most part it has been pretty easy. But lately it has been difficult because we are getting deeper into all the grammar and stuff
I just read over your explanation to the ku arimasen/jaa nai/katta last page and it made things clearer.

We are currently studying about no da which changes to ndesu or something like that. Do you think you could further explain this concept?
Adding ndesu to an already confusing katta and na katta makes me dizzy lol. Thanks a lot!!!

Hello and thanks Yea ndesu / nda can be pretty confusing, because ndesu indicates something that we only signal with our intonation of voice in English, but in Japanese they have actual grammar for it...But there are ways that you can think of it which will really help you understand it better.

Basically ん / の is seeking an explanation for the action that someone is doing, when used as a question. But when not used as a question then ん / の is seeking to explain the reason for why X happened or whatever.

どこに行く? (doko ni iku no?)　Where are you going?

compare with

どこに行くの / どこに行くんですか? (doko ni iku no? doko ni iku n desu ka?) Where is it you're going? OR Where do you think you're going?

なんで学校に行かなかったんですか?　(nande gakkou ni ikanakatta n desu ka?)
Why is it you didn't go to school?
風邪を引いたんですよ (kaze o hiita n desu yo)
It's that I caught a cold..

Obviously the translation into English is a bit poor, but the purpose is for you to better grasp the grammar and not how to translate it yet. Above you can see ん / の asking for and explaining reasons, and the way "It's that" / "Is it" works to explain and seek reason in the English translation. Note that the way ん is used in 風邪を引いたんです is very close to から or ので in meaning, as if you said 風邪を引いたから (kaze o hiita kara) "Because I caught a cold", because when ん isn't used in asking a question then it's used to explain a reason why something happened or the cause for X, much like から.　But as a rule, when one is asked a question with んです, one should respond with an answer using んです。Such as :

どうして遅れたのか? dousite okureta no ka?
"Why is it you were late?" OR "Why the hell were you late?" (how it translates into English depends on context)
バスが来なかったんです basu ga konakatta n desu
"It's that the bus didn't come on time.."

どうして日本語を勉強しているんですか。 dousite nihongo o benkyou siteru n desu ka?
"Why is it you're studying Japanese?"
日本の生活を経験したいんです nihon no seikatsu o keiken sitai n desu
"It's that I want to experience the Japanese lifestyle"

ん / の is also used to soften a statement, for example if someone asked you to come over to their house tomorrow, but you couldn't, then you might say " 行きたいんですが" "Well, I'd like to go, but.. (I can't)."
In the same way it also makes the sentence more polite, for example if you wanted to ask a stranger on the street a question you might start with:
ちょっと聞きたいんですが (chotto kikitai n desu ga) "Excuse me, I'd like to ask you something (but is that ok?)"

But remember with nouns that ん・の has な added onto it. (な is だ / です but in a changed form). So say you saw someone running around in circles screaming on campus..and you asked your friend why..he might say

ああ、馬鹿なんですね (aa, baka nan desu ne) "Aa..it's that he's an idiot..yup"

Do you understand it so far?

[Tamago86]

Thanks a bunch. So basically it's exactly like te form except you use da? Now how about plain form negative and positive? There's so much rules for these, I'm having trouble remembering all of them. It's just a big ball of mess, can anyone name all the plain forms, past tense forms, polite form to plain forms, etc. I have such a horrible grade for Japanese, my report card came in today. Worst grade I've even gotten. I guess I'm trying to make up for it now and catch up to everyone on their benchmarks.

What putasmileon posted deals with the plain form, plain form positive, and past tense, so refer to that for those. As for plain negative form:

For verbs ending in -ru: To conjugate ru-verbs to their negative, drop the last 「る」 and attach 「ない」 to the result.
見る → 見ない (miru - minai)
出る → 出ない (deru - denai)

For verbs ending in -u: To conjugate u-verbs to their negative, first replace the last / u / character with the / a / sound equivalent and attach 「ない」 to the result.
飲む → 飲ま → 飲まない (nomu -> noma -> nomanai)
待つ → 待た → 待たない (matu -> mata -> matanai)

One important exception is verbs that end in 「う」. For these, you must replace 「う」 with 「わ」 (not 「あ」) and attach 「ない」 to the result.
拾う → 拾わ → 拾わない (hirou -> hirowa -> hirowanai)
思う → 思わ → 思わない (omou -> omowa -> omowanai)

Exceptions:
ある -> ない (aru -> nai)
いる -> いない (iru -> inai)
する -> しない (suru -> shinai)
来る -> 来ない (kuru -> konai)

As for polite forms and stuff, most people don't do polite to plain, it's usually done the other way around. Which to form you take the stem of the verb and add ます

食べる → 食べ → 食べます (taberu -> tabe -> tabemasu)
遊ぶ → 遊び → 遊びます (asobu -> asobi -> asobimasu)
飲む → 飲み → 飲みます (nomu -> nomi -> nomimasu)

And adjectives are made polite by just adding です

かわいい -> かわいいです (kawaii -> kawaii desu)
かわいくない -> かわいくないです -> (kawaikunai -> kawaikunai desu)
かわいかった -> かわいかったです -> (kawaikatta -> kawaikatta desu)

静か -> 静かです (shizuka -> shizuka desu)
静かじゃない -> 静かじゃないです (shizuka ja nai -> shizuka ja nai desu)
静かだった -> 静かでした (Remember this is a -na adjective so it conjugates like a noun). (shizuka datta -> shizuka desita).

[PizazzPizza88]

thanks tamago !!! you're soo cool!

[little mixed girl]

春休みだ！！

皆 olympics　見たの？
was arakawa's medal japan's only medal?

自分に本当にがっかりする。
５年間　日本語　せっかく勉強したが、簡単に日本人と会話できない。
もし、日本に行って　渋江（しぶえ）譲二（じょうじ）と結婚して　レベルアップできると思う。

[orangecake]

春休みだ！！

皆 olympics　見たの？
was arakawa's medal japan's only medal?

自分に本当にがっかりする。
５年間　日本語　せっかく勉強したが、簡単に日本人と会話できない。
もし、日本に行って　渋江（しぶえ）譲二（じょうじ）と結婚して　レベルアップできると思う。

いいな～。春休み～。ってか、春休みってあるんだ・・・・。
日本は、新学期が4月からだから、学年の区切りとして春休みがあるよ。
でもって、長期の休み（夏休み、冬休み、春休み）で唯一、宿題のないお休みなのさ。

そう。日本のメダルは一つだけだよ～。
はっきり言って、残念って感じより、一つでもあってよかったよかった、って感じ。
私は、あまりオリンピックに興味がなくて、一番興奮したのは、開会式。
閉会式はまだ見てないけど、今夜の再放送を楽しみにしてる！

外国語の勉強はムツカシイよね・・・特に会話！
でも、これだけ書けるんだもの！日本人とたくさん話をするようになれば、うんと話せるようになるよ、きっと！
がんばれ～！！！

ところで。
渋江くんのブログって見たことある？
「矛盾の男」っていうので、検索してみて！

[Tamago86]

ホストのパパは韓国の方が金メダルを得ることにがっかりしちゃったってw　韓国からの選手も日本より少なかったのにな..でもOrangecakeが言ったように一つのメダルはゼロより良い

[nitewind12]

Thank you, yeah it is now a little clearer although it still is a little tricky.
ndesu and nodesu are the same or something right? If not, when do you know to use them? Same with no de, that is similar to ndesu/kara too, bascially explaning why you did something?

A problem with ndesu I have is knowing how to change certain words to fit the context. For example a question in my book asks:

Respond to the following questions, using explanotry sentences with NDESU.
Q: Sono apaato wa urusai n desu ka?
(I'm thinking it means Because that apartment was noisy?)

And I want to reply Yes, because it was noisy, I couldn't study. Would I say:
Ee, urusai n desu kara, benkyou o suru n desu. (?) Or maybe suru n masen deshi.ta? lol but that doesn't sound correct.
And in case I got it messed up, suru = dictionary form of shimasu .

[Tamago86]

^
Yes ん and の have the same meaning in this sense. ので is more formal than から, but they both mean "Because X" in English, whereas ん means "It's that X", you should never translate ん as "because" or you won't grasp the real meaning of it, and your translations will turn out wrong.

Let's say you were talking to your friend and you tell him you can't study at your apartment...He would then ask "sono apaato wa urusai n desu ka?" "is (it that) the apartment is noisy?"
And you would say "ee, urusai n desu" "yea, it's (that it's) noisy!" Because like I said before all questions asked with ん must be answered with ん
As you can see in the English translation ん is first seeking reason, as in the reason the person can't study, and then it's explaining reason, as in yes it's noisy so he can't study etc.

The only thing that can ever come after ん / の is だ or です
Another very important note is that ん and から should never be used in the same sentence, (as in you can't say urusai n desu kara) at least for now. Later on you'll learn a special grammar pattern that uses both in the same sentence but for now just use one or the other.

[little mixed girl]

いいな～。春休み～。ってか、春休みってあるんだ・・・・。
日本は、新学期が4月からだから、学年の区切りとして春休みがあるよ。
でもって、長期の休み（夏休み、冬休み、春休み）で唯一、宿題のないお休みなのさ。

そう。日本のメダルは一つだけだよ～。
はっきり言って、残念って感じより、一つでもあってよかったよかった、って感じ。
私は、あまりオリンピックに興味がなくて、一番興奮したのは、開会式。
閉会式はまだ見てないけど、今夜の再放送を楽しみにしてる！

外国語の勉強はムツカシイよね・・・特に会話！
でも、これだけ書けるんだもの！日本人とたくさん話をするようになれば、うんと話せるようになるよ、きっと！
がんばれ～！！！

ところで。
渋江くんのブログって見たことある？
「矛盾の男」っていうので、検索してみて！

yeah...actually our school has spring break pretty early. many schools have it in march or april lol~

i guess 1 is better than none. watching her i thought..."all of japan is pressuring her".
of course, if i had cable then i wouldn't have watched the games at all

i saw his blog~
but i need more pics of HIM! why doesn't he post his pics?
and his "i love little mixed girl" letters...

[kim_rin1]

���A"soompi" �ɂ����ŐV�����B
minna, nihonjin nano?



hei
can i ask sumthng?
how do u add japanese & korean characters on ur computer
i've been trying lot of stuffs
but it doesnt work

lmao~

[suahSEEyu]

TAMAGO. how long did it take you to learn japanese... youre so good.. T_T

[bsu]

Can someone translate this for me? I had to romanize it and I'm not sure I even typed it out right (typed by hear).

Zuibu gwanaita. Kawai boi aitedayo.
Kimitei, kuruwa.

- Thanks

[Tamago86]

Can someone translate this for me? I had to romanize it and I'm not sure I even typed it out right (typed by hear).

Zuibu gwanaita. Kawai boi aitedayo.
Kimitei, kuruwa.

- Thanks

No idea, it doesn't really make sense at all If you gave the context it might be easier, like where did the conversation take place, who did it take place with, what did it seem like it was about, etc..

It kind of looks like zuibun naita. kawaii boi aite da yo
kimete, kuru wa

Which means 'I cried alot..my partner is a cute boy...Decide! I'm going to come' ??

TAMAGO. how long did it take you to learn japanese... youre so good.. T_T

Studied for 2 years before I came to Japan, 1 on my own and also with a tutor, and then 1 while at Cornell enrolled in an intensive language program called FALCON. I would credit most of what I know to my time at FALCON, the 1 year studying on my own was kind of a waste, besides that I had to start over all again when I entered the program anyways (didn't take long to catch up though). I've been in Japan around 7 months now still studying hard so I guess in total 2.7 years, though in reality I would say one year of intense training with alittle over half a year in Japan

[bsu]

No idea, it doesn't really make sense at all If you gave the context it might be easier, like where did the conversation take place, who did it take place with, what did it seem like it was about, etc..

It kind of looks like zuibun naita. kawaii boi aite da yo
kimete, kuru wa

Which means 'I cried alot..my partner is a cute boy...Decide! I'm going to come' ??

LOL.

I just recorded it. There is a boy involved but I didn't bother to try his dialouge because I didn't give a horse raddish about him. Sorry, there is alot of background noise in the beginning. It's between a woman and a boy. (They fight)
Sound file (300... something KB)

Thanks Tamago~