Lesson 31: Verbs -u present continous form

Vocabulary for lesson 31:

友達
ともだち
friend

話す
はなす
to talk

私
わたし
I; me

今
いま
now

何
なに
what

聞く
きく
to ask

ずっと
all the way

から
from

彼女
かのじょ
she, her

--------------------------

To change the -u ending verbs into the present continuous form change the past form with the -ta ending into -teiru

た　→　ている

話した　→　話している
はなした　→　はなしている

聞いた　→　聞いている
きいた　→　きいている

--------------------------

Examples:

今、友達と話している。
いま　ともだち　と　はなしている。
I'm talking to my friend now.

私に何を聞いているの？
わたし　に　なに　を　きいている　の？
What are you asking me?

６時からずっと彼女と話している。
ろく　じ　から　ずっと　かのじょ　と　はなしている。
I have been talking to her since 6 o'clock.

ずっとあなたの話を聞いているよ。
ずっと　あなた　の　はなし　を　きいている　よ。
I have been listening to you the whole time.

Lesson 30: Verbs -u past form (for -su and -ku)

Vocabulary for lesson 30:

と話す
と　はなす
to; to talk to someone

聞く
きく
to ask

もう
already

同じ
おなじ
same

事
こと
thing

さっき
a little while ago, just now

--------------------------

In lesson 29 we learned the verbs hanasu and kiku.

To change a -u ending verb into the past forms we have to look at the letter before the "u". For "su" ending verbs, the -su changes to -shita. For "ku" ending verbs, the -ku changes to -ita

話す　→　話した
はなす　→　はなした　

聞く　→　聞いた
きく　→　きいた　

--------------------------

Examples:

昨日、彼と話した。
きのう　かれ　と　はなした。
I talked to him yesterday.

私達はもう話した。
わたしたち　は　もう　はなした。
We already talked.
We've already talked.

昨日私に同じ事聞いたよ。
きのう　わたし　に　おなじ　こと　きいた　よ。
You asked me the same thing yesterday.

さっき、私に何を聞いた？
さっき　わたし　に　なに　を　きいたの？
What did you ask me just now?

Lesson 29: Verbs -u dictionary form

Vocabulary you will need for this lesson:

明日
あした
tomorrow

後で
あとで
later

彼
かれ
he; him

のが
の　が
used to connect two verbs to the world "like"

話
はなし
the things someone says

好き
すき
like

--------------------------

The next two verbs are very common verbs that end with "-u". Today you will learn the verbs for "talk" and "ask". The -u ending classification can be confirmed in Jim Breen's dictionary. The -u ending verb classification is denoted by the v5 symbol in that dictionary.

話す
はなす
to talk

聞く
きく
to listen
--------------------------

Examples:

明日、彼女と話す？
あした　かのじょ　と　はなす？
Are you going to talk to her tomorrow?

後でそれについて話す。
あと　で　それ　に　ついて　はなす。
I will talk about that later.

彼はいつも私の話を聞く。
かれ　は　いつも　わたし　の　はなし　を　きく。
He always listens to me.

彼は私の話を聞くのが好きです。
かれ　は　わたし　の　はなし　を　きく　の　が　すき　です。
He likes to listen to me.

Note: Notice how in the first two examples the dictionary form expresses the future tense. In the next two examples it is used to express the simple present tense.

Lesson 28: Let's (for -ru ending verbs)

Vocabulary needed for this lesson:

もう少し
もう　すこし
just a little bit more

急いで (this is the verb command form. Dictionary form is 急ぐ )
いそいで
hurry up!

--------------------------

In this lesson I will teach you how to say "Let's...." for -ru ending verbs.

So far we have learned these -ru ending verbs.

着替える
考える

-------------------------

So, if you want to say, "Let's change clothes!" you simple turn the -ru　into -you.

So, written in Japanese, it would look like this:

着替えよう
きがえよう
Let's change clothes

考えよう
かんがえよう
Let's think

着替える　→　着替えよう
きがえる　→　きがえよう

考える　→　考えよう
かんがえる　→　かんがえよう

--------------------------

Example:

もう少し考えよう
もう　すこし　かんがえよう
Let's think about it a little more

急いで！着替えよう！
いそいで！きがえよう！
Hurry up! Change your clothes!
(in this case mother is speaking to her child and literally translated it means "Let's change our clothes)

Lesson 27: Verbs -ru present continuous form

Vocabulary you will need for this lesson:

あなたのこと
あなた　の　こと
you (all of you, the entity of you)

今
いま
now

今日
きょう
today

について
に　ついて
about

ずっと
all (ie, all the way, all the time, all day, all month, all my life, etc)

--------------------------

In order to turn a dictionary form verb into the present continuous form we simply change "-ru" to "-teiru"

る　→　ている
In the examples below we use this form to express the present continuous tense.

--------------------------

To change the verbs into the present continous form we change "-ru" into "-teiru"

える　→　えている

-ru ending verbs present continuous form:

着替える　→　着替えている
きがえる　→　きがえている

考える　→　考えている
考える　→　かんがえている

--------------------------

Examples:

今、服を着替えているよ。
いま　ふく　を　きがている　よ
I am changing my clothes now.


今私はあなたのことについて考えている。
いま　わたし　は　あなた　の　こと　に　ついて　かんがえている
I am thinking about you now.

--------------------------

Examples of the present continuous form to express the present perfect continuous tense:

今日、あなたのことについてずっと考えている。
きょう　あなた　の　こと　に　ついて　ずっと　かんがえている
I have been thinking about you all day today

Lesson 26: Verbs -ru past form

Here is some vocabulary you will need in order to understand this lesson.

いつも
always

前
まえ
before

仕事
しごと
work

あなたのこと
あなた　の　こと
you (can roughly be translated to "all of you")

について
に　ついて
about

--------------------------

To change to the past form simply change the final "ru" to "ta".

-ru ending verbs past form:

着替える　→　着替えた
きがえる　→　きがえた

考える　→　考えた
考える　→　かんがえた

--------------------------

Examples:

いつも仕事に行く前服を着替える
いつも　しごと　に　いく　まえ　ふく　を　きがえる。
I always change my clothes before I go to work.

昨日、私はあなたのことについて考えた
きのう　わたし　は　あなた　の　こと　に　ついて　かんがえた
I thought about you yesterday.

Lesson 25: Verbs -ru dictionary form

Here is some vocabulary you will need in order to understand this lesson:

ちょっと：
a little

服
ふく
clothes

--------------------------

Today you will learn the verbs for "think" and "to change clothes". The words below are in the dictionary form. They are -ru ending verbs. To confirm this you can check Jim Breen's Dictionary. After you enter the verb and find it in that dictionary you will see a symbol that says v1. This indicates that it is a -ru verb.

Conjugation:

1. Dictionary form:

考える
かんがえる
think

着替える
きがえる
to change clothes

--------------------------

Examples:

ちょっと考える
ちょっと　かんがえる
I am going to think about it.

服を着替えるよ
ふく　を　きがえる　よ
I am going to change my clothes

Note: Notice how in these two sentences the dictionary form of the word is used to express future tense.

Japanese Lesson 24: Yo

The first year or so that you listen to Japanese you will basically be able to catch the first word in the sentence and the last word in the sentence and everything in between will probably be indecipherable. You will probably hear the word "yo" よ a lot. Yo is a tag at the end of a sentence that expresses friendliness, certainty or to emphasize what you are saying. The closest translation to English is: "I'm telling you", or "yeah"

A: 明日何をする？
あした　なに　を　する？
What are you going to do tomorrow?

B: 明日、仕事に行くよ
あした　しごと　に　いく　よ
I am going to go to work tomorrow.
(I'm telling you) I'm going to work tomorrow (same as always!).
(Yeah) I'm going to go to work tomorrow.

A: レストランまで歩く？
れすとらん　まで　あるく？
Are you going to walk to the restaurant?
B: うん、歩くよ
うん、あるく　よ
Yeah, I'm going to walk.
(I'm telling you!)I'm going to walk.

Other examples:

痛いよ！
いたい　よ
That hurts!
(I'm telling you!)that hurts!

A: 明日、一緒にビーチに行く？
あした　いっしょ　に　びーち　に　いく？
Shall we go to the beach together tomorrow?

B: 良いよ
いい　よ
okay!
(yeah)that (sounds) good!

B: 明日、天気が良いよ。行こう！
あした　てんき　が　よい　よ。　いこう
The weather is going to be nice tomorrow. Let's go!
The weather is going to be nice tomorrow (I'm telling you). Let's go!

Lesson 23: Let's (for -ku ending verbs)

In this lesson I will teach you how to say "Let's...." for -ku ending verbs. In a future lesson I will teach you how to use this with other verbs as well.

So far we have learned these -ku ending verbs:

行く
いく
go

歩く
あるく
walk

So, if you want to say, "Let's go!" you simple turn the -ku　into -kou.
So, written in Japanese, it would look like this:

行こう
いこう
Let's go!

歩こう
あるこう
Let's walk!

行く　→　行こう
いく　→　いこう　　

歩く　→　歩こう
あるく　→　あるこう

Lesson 22: Vocabulary

に　
preposition: to

痛い
いたい
pain

一緒に
いっしょ　に
together

ビーチ
びーち
beach

天気
てんき
weather

Lesson 21: Answering yes/no questions

Now we will answer the questions from lesson 15.

To reply yes, you simply put "un" うん and repeat the statement. It's also okay to just say うんwithout repeating the statement.

To reply no, you put "uun"　ううん and ad "nai" ない to the end of the statement. You can also just reply with ううん.

A: 彼は病気ですか？
かれ　は　びょうき　です　か？
B: うん、彼は病気です。
B: ううん、彼は病気ではない。

A: 私は嬉しいですか？
かのじょ　は　うれしい　です　か？
B: 　うん、彼女は嬉しいです。
B:　ううん、彼女は嬉しくない。


A: 彼女はぽっちゃりですか？
かのじょ　は　ぽっちゃり　です　か？
B: うん、彼女はぽっちゃりです。
B:　ううん、彼女はぽっちゃりではない。

A: 今日は暑いですか？
きょう　は　あつい　です　か？
B: うん、今日は暑いです。
B:　ううん、今日は暑くない

How to change adjectives to the negative form:

病気
びょうき→　びょうき　で　は　ない

嬉しい
うれしい→　うれしくない

ぽっちゃり→　ぽっちゃり　で　は　ない

暑い
あつい→　あつくない

Lesson 20: Verbs -- Dictionary Form

Here are some common verbs in Japanese. If you look up these words in an English to Japanese dictionary you will find them in this form.

する
do

行く
いく
go

食事　する
しょくじ　する
eat

歩く
あるく
walk

The most common way the dictionary form is used is to express future tense.

Here are some examples:

A: 明日何をする？
あした　なに　を　する？
What are you going to do tomorrow?

B: 明日は仕事に行くよ
あした　は　しごと　に　いく　よ
I am going to go to work tomorrow

B: その後レストランで食事する
その　あと　れすとらん　で　しょくじ　する
After that I am going to eat at a restaurant

A: レストランまで歩く？
れすとらん　まで　あるく？
Are you going to walk to the restaurant?

Note: Notice how in this conversation person A and person B never say the words "I" and "you". In Japanese you don't need to say these words in this situation because it is understood who you are talking about.

Lesson 19: Vocabulary

This is some basic vocabulary that you will need for the next lesson:

明日
あした
tomorrow

何
なに
what

仕事
しごと
work

よ
an expression tag used at the end of sentences to express certainty or emphasis.

その
that

後
あと
after

レストラン
れすとらん
restaurant

で
preposition used to express doing an action at a certain place

まで
up to a certain point or place, time, age, etc

Lesson 18: Verbs: Introduction

In Latin based languages we conjugate (change) the verb based on who or what the subject is and also depending on the tense. If you are learning English, for example, it is very difficult to remember all of the verb conjugations.

In Japanese, however, in terms of verb conjugation there are only 3 forms you need to remember. These are:

1. The dictionary form: the way you would search for a word in the dictionary
2. Present continuous form: Similar to [verb + ing] in English
3. The past form: Similar to the [verb + ed] form in English

All the tenses that you an express in English can be expressed in Japanese. However, unlike English which uses a unique verb conjugation for each tense, Japanese only uses the three above mentioned forms to express all of the tenses we use in English.

We will learn the dictionary form of verbs in the next lesson.

Lesson 17: is/are part II

One important thing to know about spoken Japanese is that Japanese people often leave out the subject when speaking. In English we always say: I am sad. We never say: Am sad

However, in Japanese it is quite common to say "Am sad" if it is inferred that the listener understands who you are talking about.

Examples:

私は悲しい
わたし　は　かなしい
becomes
悲しい
かなしい
meaning: I am sad


彼女はきれい
かのじょ　は　きれい
becomes
きれい
meaning: she is pretty


あなたは賢い
あなた　は　かしこい
becomes
賢い
かしこい
meaning: you are smart

Lesson 16: Vocabulary

Here is some vocabulary you will need for the upcoming lessons:

悲しい：sad
かなしい

綺麗：pretty
きれい

賢い：smart
かしこい

Note: きれい is usually written in hiragana since the kanji are complex, but once in a while you may see it written in kanji as 綺麗

Lesson 15: Yes/No Questions

Now that you've learned how to construct an is/are sentence it is simple to learn how to turn that statement into a question.

Note: You can see how to answer these questions in lesson 21

In lesson 14 we learned how to say "He is sick":

彼は病気です

To make this into the question "Is he sick?", we simple add "ka" to the end of this statement, as such:

彼は病気ですか？
かれ　は　びょうき　です　か？

More examples:

私は嬉しいです。
わたし　は　うれしい　です
I am happy

Am I happy?
私は嬉しいですか？


彼女はぽっちゃりです
かのじょ　は　ぽっちゃり　です
She is chubby

Is she chubby?
彼女はぽっちゃりですか？


今日は暑いです
きょう　は　あつい　です
Today it is hot
(It is hot today)

Is it hot today?
今日は暑いですか？

Lesson 14: is/are (examples)

Examples:

彼は病気です。
かれ　は　びょうき　です
He is sick

私は嬉しいです。
わたし　は　うれしい　です
I am happy

彼女はぽっちゃりです
かのじょ　は　ぽっちゃり　です
She is chubby

今日は暑いです
きょう　は　あつい　です
Today it is hot
(It is hot today)

Lesson 13: Vocabulary

Here is some basic vocabulary you will need to start making sentences:

私: I
わたし

彼：he
かれ

彼女：She
かのじょ

病気：sick
びょうき

嬉しい：happy
うれしい

ぽっちゃり：chubby

暑い：hot
あつい

Lesson 12: is/are

Step 1: When you describe something you simply use the word "wa". Wa is written as は in Japanese, and it is NOT written as わ.

  Note: If you need "ha" to spell a word, then you can use は. But if you need to say something "is" xxx, then you write "wa" as は.


Step 2: After "wa" you add the adjective you want to use.

Step 3: Add "desu" ですto make standard Japanese. "Desu" also has the meaning of  "is" or "are".

Lesson 11: ittekimasu

行ってきます
いって　きます：
See you later!

Situational: Say this when you are leaving the house, or leaving from someone or a group of people.

Lesson 10: Chotto matte

ちょっとまって
ちょっと　まって：
just a minute!

Example:

A: 行くよ
　いく　よ
　I'm going

B: ちょっとまって
　ちょっと　まって
　just a minute (wait for me)

Sentence Structure Breakdown:
いく：Go
よ： Hey

ちょっと：A little
まって： Wait

Direct translation:
A: Hey, go
B: A little, wait

Lesson 9: Onegai shimasu

お願いします
おねがい　します：
please

Example:

At a vegetable stand

Shopkeeper: りんご何個がよろしいですか？
　　　　　りんご　なん　こ　が　よろしい です か？
　　　　　How many apples would you like?

You: 三個お願いします　
　　さん　こ　おねがい します
        3 please　　　

Sentence Structure Breakdown:
りんご　なん　こ　が　よろしい　です　か？

りんご：apple
なん：how many
こ：quantifier for round objects
が：is/are
よろしい：good
ですか？：question tag. polite.

Direct translation: Apples, how many are good?



　　

Japanese Lesson 8: gochiso-sama deshita -- 英語のレッスン８：ごちそうさまでした

ごちそうさまでした
ごちそう　さま　でした：
1: I'm ready to pay now
2. thanks for the lovely meal


After eating you can say this word before you pay the check. This lets the waitress know that you are finished eating. She will go to the register and wait for you to pay.

You can also say it after you've payed for the meal and you want to say "thanks for the meal!"

Japanese Lesson 7: Itadakimasu

いただきます：
let's eat

It is a custom in Japan to clap your hands together in a praying position in front of your nose and say "itadakimasu" before you eat your food.

Japanese Lesson 6: Sorry -- 英語のレッスン ６：Sorry

Sorry:
ごめんなさい
ごめん　なさい

There are actually a range of words for expressing sorry depending on the degree to which you must repent, but this is the main word and will cover most ordinary situations.

Sorry (casual):
ごめんね
ごめん　ね

Sorry (formal):
申し訳ないです
もうしわけない　です

Japanese Lesson 5: Excuse me -- 英語のExcuse me

Excuse me:
すみません

Use this when you need to get someone's attention.

"Sumimasen" is also used as a casual way to say sorry. For example, if you were getting off the train and you bumped someone lightly you would say "sumimasen"

Japanese Lesson 4: Thank you -- 英語の Thank you

Thank you (polite and expressing appreciation):
どうも、ありがとうございます
どうも　ありがとう　ございます

Thank you (polite):
ありがとうございます
ありがとう　ございます

Thank you (casual):
ありがとう

Thank you (casual and natural):
どうも

"Domo" is similar to saying "thanks" in English. If all these words are too much to remember, focus on remembering "arigato gozaimasu".

Japanese Lesson 3: Greetings -- 英語の挨拶

Japanese is written without space between the words. I will write the Japanese way and I will show you were the words are divided by putting a space between them.

• Good morning:
おはようございます
おはよう　ございます

• Good afternoon:
こんにちは

• Good evening:
こんばんは

In Japan, most people are scared to talk to anyone who doesn't look Japanese. Looking at a Japanese person in a confident way and opening with "konichiwa", also said in a confident way, will help break the ice a little.

Japanese Lesson 2: Pronunciation Guide

Japanese pronunciation is easy compared to English. There are basically only 5 sounds in Japanese. These are how they are pronounced. I will reference the pronunciation with American English pronunciation.

あ　ah as in father
い　ee as in me
う　oo as in loop
え　e as in hey
お　o as in tone

The vowel sounds are pronounced with brevity, not drawn out.

For the other hiragana you are simply adding a consonant in front of these vowel sounds.

And that's it! Japanese pronunciation is very simple.

Japanese Lesson 1: Hiragana and Katakana Chart

First we have to memorize the hiragana alphabet. Once you understand the writing system of Japanese you will be able to pronounce the words the way Japanese people do. Not making the effort to learn hiragana and the Japanese pronunciation will result in Japanese people not understanding what you are trying to say. You will need to learn katakana in order to learn how to read Japanese loan words from other languages. For now though, as a beginner, it is most important to master hiragana.