Japanese Language Questions? Ask Here.

You should be asking this question in one of the existing threads... :sweat:

No, that's not quite right. "anata" is actually quite formal. See http://japanese.about.com/library/weekly/aa100700.htm

If you were being polite and referring to the other person by name, it would probably be something like "Nodame-san wa nihongo hanashimasu ka?" - although if you were referring to the person as "Nodame", which was a nickname, you probably wouldn't be speaking in polite Japanese anyway.

BTW there's a few other threads in this area you could have asked this question :) It'll probably be merged with one shortly.

confuse.. confuse...

what is the different between "wa" and "ga"?
when do we use which one?

for example, should i say...

nihongo wa muzukashidesu

or

nihongo ga muzukashidesu


so under which situation do we use which one????????


thank you!!!! :bow:

The old "wa" and "ga" confusion. Here's a post that kokuou made back on page 30 of this thread:

O (or wo) acts as a direct object marker for most situations. For example, "ANATA wo ai suru" = "i love YOU" with the wo being attached to ANATA signifying that YOU is the object of the action TO LOVE. HA and GA are harder to explain, but a very broad explanation would to be that they both mark subjects (sometimes objects). "watashi WA anata GA suki" = "i like you". WA is marking WATASHI (I) as the subject and GA is marking the direct object ANATA. Note that GA and WO can perform similar actions. It'd be easier just to remember when to use which by mimicking what you hear. That's how I did it.

[/list:u] If you're still confused, (and you probably are, when to use "wa" or "ga" is one of the most difficult parts of learning Japanese) then I would recommend just reading back thru this thread. I'm sure kokuou and aho have both tried to explain it.

gaijinmark wrote:The old "wa" and "ga" confusion. Here's a post that kokuou made back on page 30 of this thread:

O (or wo) acts as a direct object marker for most situations. For example, "ANATA wo ai suru" = "i love YOU" with the wo being attached to ANATA signifying that YOU is the object of the action TO LOVE. HA and GA are harder to explain, but a very broad explanation would to be that they both mark subjects (sometimes objects). "watashi WA anata GA suki" = "i like you". WA is marking WATASHI (I) as the subject and GA is marking the direct object ANATA. Note that GA and WO can perform similar actions. It'd be easier just to remember when to use which by mimicking what you hear. That's how I did it.

[/list:u] If you're still confused, (and you probably are, when to use "wa" or "ga" is one of the most difficult parts of learning Japanese) then I would recommend just reading back thru this thread. I'm sure kokuou and aho have both tried to explain it.

Wow, I had totally forgotten about that post! :beaten:
Now that I read it again, it is quite confusing. Sorry about that.

To the OP, just remember that the WA/GA discrimination problem is probably one of the hardest things you will come across when learning Japanese. Even now, I still make the occasional mistake with them. So, it's not something that you're going to get right when you first start learning Japanese, and that's okay; in fact, it may be one of the last things you get right.
I'll echo what I said above, though. Just mimic what you hear and how it's used by other speakers. Eventually, you'll just know when to use which.
I could go into a whole syntactic and semantic breakdown, but it'd probably just confuse you more, so I'll leave it at that.

Good luck, and remember that you're always welcome to ask us again if you have any more (specific) questions! :mrgreen:

HTH,
š‘‰¤

Anime Dad wrote:No, that's not quite right. "anata" is actually quite formal. See http://japanese.about.com/library/weekly/aa100700.htm

If you were being polite and referring to the other person by name, it would probably be something like "Nodame-san wa nihongo hanashimasu ka?" - although if you were referring to the person as "Nodame", which was a nickname, you probably wouldn't be speaking in polite Japanese anyway.

BTW there's a few other threads in this area you could have asked this question :) It'll probably be merged with one shortly.

O HAI. I IS IN UR JDORAMAZ MURJING UR THREDZ. KTHXBAI.

On a serious note, you don't usually say "anata" to the person you're speaking to you. It can actually come off rude. If you're asking a question, it's assumed in Japanese that you're asking it to the person you're talking to, because if you were asking it about, say, Nodame-san, then you would specify that person as the subject.
So, in general, you don't really need to say "anata" in a sentence, and, in fact, it's more natural most of the time not to.

HTH,
š‘‰¤

kokuou wrote:
So, in general, you don't really need to say "anata" in a sentence, and, in fact, it's more natural most of the time not to.

HTH,
š‘‰¤

So in a one on one convo....you can just say the question and that person will assume it's being directed at him or her???

And in a group....if you want to ask a certain person, you can say name + san/kun/chan and then ask the question?


Oh btw last question *sorry for so many*
for a boy, would it be kind of feminine if he says "ne" at the end of a sentence?

What is the meaning of, "Bakerou hazu da ne." ?

Thank you gaijinmark and kokuou for the explanation... on "wa" and "ga". I have spent a great deal of time reading the old posts yesterday... increase my understanding a little...

Now I have a few more questions...

I often heard people saying:
xxxxxxx desukedo, xxxxxxxxxxx
A friend of mine said it means like saying xxxxxxx BUT, xxxxxxxx.
However, I thought we can also use:
xxxxxxx desu ga, xxxxxxxxxxx
or
xxxxxxx desu, demo xxxxxxxx

So I presume they all mean the same thing, right?



Another thing, how do I make a sentence with a Noun, an Adjective and a Verb? For example, I want to say " I think Japanese Language is difficult." with 'it being difficult' as the focus, how should the sentence be made?

Also how I can make a sentence with a Noun and 2 Verbs? For example, I want to say "I am going to eat dinner now." How do I fit ”ÓŒä”с@A@H‚ׁ@As‚­@A¡@into one sentence?
And what if I want to say " I think I am going to eat dinner now." In this case, how should I fit Žv‚¢@A@s‚­@AH‚ׁ@A”ÓŒä”с@A@¡?


And can I double check if I get the following sentence right:
ŽŽŒ±‚ª‡Ši‚·‚é‚ð‹F‚é‚ñ‚Å‚·B (I pray to pass the exam.)


THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :bow:

morsh wrote:What is the meaning of, "Bakerou hazu da ne." ?

I think you mean "Bakayaro" which can mean "fool" "idiot" "stupid bastard" you get the idea. "Hazu" means "should" or "expect" in this case I would interpret it as "no wonder". Someone does something stupid and you say "Bakayaro hazu da ne" - "No wonder he's an idiot" [/list:u]

Thx pal, I've been did some ridiculous thing back then. And there's people said that in japanese, luckily I can heard what he just said, cause he thought that only he and his friend whom can understand japanese in that time and thought that I don't, well thx anyway.

K.T.Tran wrote:


So in a one on one convo....you can just say the question and that person will assume it's being directed at him or her???

And in a group....if you want to ask a certain person, you can say name + san/kun/chan and then ask the question?


Oh btw last question *sorry for so many*
for a boy, would it be kind of feminine if he says "ne" at the end of a sentence?

Yup, for the most part.
There are times when you should address the other person in a one-on-one conversation (even then, though, you should user their last name, not 'anata', unless you're dating, married, etc.), but for the most part, you can just ask your question without a 2nd-person pronoun.

E.g.: "Are you going shopping tomorrow?" becomes u–¾“úA‚¨”ƒ‚¢•¨‚ɍs‚­‚ñ‚Å‚·‚©Hv.

As for the 'ne' in the sentence-final position, it's not overly feminine. In fact, a lot of guys in the Kanto region use 'ne'. It's more the intonation that makes it sound masculine or feminine. And, as I can't explain intonation with words alone, see if you can listen for guys saying 'ne' in dramas and compare it to the girls. You'll notice a difference, albeit somewhat subtle.

HTH,
š‘‰¤

chokakoi wrote:Thank you gaijinmark and kokuou for the explanation... on "wa" and "ga". I have spent a great deal of time reading the old posts yesterday... increase my understanding a little...

No problem! :mrgreen:

chokakoi wrote:
Now I have a few more questions...

I often heard people saying:
xxxxxxx desukedo, xxxxxxxxxxx
A friend of mine said it means like saying xxxxxxx BUT, xxxxxxxx.
However, I thought we can also use:
xxxxxxx desu ga, xxxxxxxxxxx
or
xxxxxxx desu, demo xxxxxxxx

So I presume they all mean the same thing, right?

Yeah, they do. It's just like we have 'but', 'however', 'although', and 'while', among several others, in English.
Careful with 'demo' though. If you're going to use the combination of 'desu + demo', then you actually end up with two sentences, unlike the other two examples you wrote, which only require one sentence.

E.g.:
"Ikitai desukedo, isogashikute ikemasen."
"Ikitai desuga, isogashikute ikemasen."
(These both mean, "I'd like to go, but I'm busy [so I can't go].")

"Ikitai desu. Demo, isogashikute ikemasen."
(This HAS to be two sentences; "I'd like to go. However, I'm busy [so I can't go].")

chokakoi wrote:
Another thing, how do I make a sentence with a Noun, an Adjective and a Verb? For example, I want to say " I think Japanese Language is difficult." with 'it being difficult' as the focus, how should the sentence be made?

I'm not sure what you're getting at here. Any sentence that begins with "I think THAT...", "I feel THAT...", "I hope THAT..." actually deals with what's called an embedded sentence (technically, it's a complement clause).
So, with your sentence, we actually have two sentences:

1. "I think (THAT) [something]." (Note: THAT is often omitted in English.)
2. "The Japanese language is difficult." = [something]

Anytime you have this "I [verb] THAT" structure in your sentence, you'll usually end up with a "[something] ‚Æ [verb + ‚Ü‚·form]." structure in Japanese. So, let's do yours. (Remember, Japanese does this backwards, but it works the same way.)

1. "[something] ‚Æ Žv‚¢‚Ü‚·B" {[something] to omoimasu.}
2. "“ú–{Œê‚͓‚¢‚Å‚·B" {Nihongo wa muzukashii desu.}

So, putting them together, you end up with this:

"“ú–{Œê‚͓‚¢‚ÆŽv‚¢‚Ü‚·B" {Nihongo wa muzukashii to omoimasu.}
(The 'desu' gets deleted before 'to' in this form.)

I hope that explains what you wanted.
(Note for everyone: This u`‚ÆŽv‚¢‚Ü‚·Bv is a VERY useful structure in Japanese.)

chokakoi wrote:
Also how I can make a sentence with a Noun and 2 Verbs? For example, I want to say "I am going to eat dinner now." How do I fit ”ÓŒä”с@A@H‚ׁ@As‚­@A¡@into one sentence?
And what if I want to say " I think I am going to eat dinner now." In this case, how should I fit Žv‚¢@A@s‚­@AH‚ׁ@A”ÓŒä”с@A@¡?

Any "going to [verb (+noun)]" strucutre (and I'm only talking about the actually physical action of 'going', not the so-called 'future tense' such as in "I'm going to call him tomorrow.") is done like this:

"[(noun) ‚ð {verb -‚Ü‚·}] ‚ɍs‚«‚Ü‚·B" ([(noun) wo {verb -masu}] ni ikimasu.)

Time words can, for the most part, just come at the beginning. So, using that structure, you end up with this:

¡A”Ó‚²”Ñ‚ðH‚ׂɍs‚«‚Ü‚·B(Ima, bangohan wo tabe ni ikimasu.)

Now, If you want to add "I think" to that, you got it, you just gotta use the last form and tack it onto the end:

¡A”Ó‚²”Ñ‚ðH‚ׂɍs‚­‚ÆŽv‚¢‚Ü‚·B(Ima, bangohan wo tabe ni iku to omoimasu.)
Note that any verb coming before 'to omoimasu' must go back to its dictionary form, which is essentially what eliminating the 'desu' after a noun does.
Also note, though, that the above sentence sounds strange if the subject is yourself. It's okay if you're talking about someone else, but it feels odd in Japanese because it's like, "so, you don't know what your OWN plans are right now?" You will, however, be understood by a Japanese speaker if you accidentally use 'to omoimasu' wrong, though.

chokakoi wrote:
And can I double check if I get the following sentence right:
ŽŽŒ±‚ª‡Ši‚·‚é‚ð‹F‚é‚ñ‚Å‚·B (I pray to pass the exam.)

Almost! :dancing:
In this case ŽŽŒ± can't take ‚ª because that implies that the test is the one doing the passing. There is a human being behind the action, and what you would say in English is "(I/you/he/she) hopes to pass the test." In Japanese you have to say "pass ON the test", so it should be ŽŽŒ±‚ɍ‡Ši‚·‚é.
That by itself, however, can't take ‚ð because ‚ð requires a NOUN. To change the verb phrase ŽŽŒ±‚ɍ‡Ši‚·‚é into a noun, simply add ‚±‚Æ. So, now we have ŽŽŒ±‚ɍ‡Ši‚·‚邱‚Æ.
The last problem is with ‹F‚é, which by itself implies that you'll do it in the future. The action is, up until you find out your mark, an ongoing process, so you need the [verb + ‚Äform + ‚¢‚é] here instead.
So, we finally end up with:

ŽŽŒ±‚ɍ‡Ši‚·‚邱‚Æ‚ð‹F‚Á‚Ä‚¢‚é‚ñ‚Å‚·B

chokakoi wrote:
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :bow:

You're very welcome! :mrgreen:

HTH,
š‘‰¤

‚ ‚肪‚Æ‚¤@æ”y!!! I was trying to figure out how to answer chokakoi's questions and getting a major headache. I have huge holes in my Nihongo skills. Some big enough to drive a truck thru. :beaten: Thanks again.

kokuou æ”yI@‚ ‚肪‚Æ‚¤@‚²‚´‚¢‚Ü‚·I
WOW!! You really enlightened me alot!!!! :bow:
Thanks you taking your time to answer my ultra long questions.


gaijinmark, thanks for thinking of helping, and sorry about the headache.. haha... hope it is better now...


Thank you everyone!!! :applaud:

K.T.Tran wrote:


So in a one on one convo....you can just say the question and that person will assume it's being directed at him or her???

And in a group....if you want to ask a certain person, you can say name + san/kun/chan and then ask the question?

Yeah, that's what I would do too. I actually wasn't aware that it could be considered rude, and i've not actually used "anata" in conversation before - only when studying :D

Hi, I have some questions to ask... hopefully someone can help me here.

How do I say...

> I like this food (a particular food, say hamburger), but you don't like it.
> You don't like the food (in general) which I like.

I also like to clarify something...
if I say, ŽõŽi‚⃉ƒƒ“‚ðH‚ׂ܂·B@the particle ‚â means "etc." right? Such as the sentence above will mean: I eat sushi, ramen, etc.

by the way, can I ask if the dictionary form for K‚¤‚ñ‚Å‚· is it K‚¤, belonging to Group 1 verbs?

–{“–‚ ‚肪‚Æ‚¤‚²‚´‚¢‚Ü‚·B

> I like this food (a particular food, say hamburger), but you don't like it.

Ž„‚Í‚±‚̃nƒ“ƒo[ƒK[‚ªD‚«‚Å‚·‚ªA‚ ‚È‚½‚ÍŒ™‚¢‚Å‚·B

But maybe you should say

Ž„‚Í‚±‚̃nƒ“ƒo[ƒK[‚ªD‚«‚Å‚·‚ªA‚ ‚È‚½‚ÍŒ™‚¢‚Ý‚½‚¢‚Å‚·‚ˁB

because, Japanese people often avoid assertion when they're talking about the other person,
and besides, '‚ ‚È‚½‚ÍŒ™‚¢‚Å‚·' might cause misunderstanding since it does also have the meaning 'I hate you'.

> You don't like the food (in general) which I like.

‚ ‚È‚½‚ÍŽ„‚ªD‚«‚ȐH‚ו¨‚ªD‚«‚Å‚Í‚È‚¢B

> I also like to clarify something...
> if I say, ŽõŽi‚⃉ƒƒ“‚ðH‚ׂ܂·B@the particle ‚â means "etc." right? Such as the sentence above will mean: I eat sushi, ramen, etc.

You're right.
but one thing. It's 'ƒ‰[ƒƒ“'.

> by the way, can I ask if the dictionary form for K‚¤‚ñ‚Å‚· is it K‚¤, belonging to Group 1 verbs?

I'm sorry. I can't answer this because I don't know what 'Group 1 verb' is.

Shoy wrote:> I like this food (a particular food, say hamburger), but you don't like it.

Ž„‚Í‚±‚̃nƒ“ƒo[ƒK[‚ªD‚«‚Å‚·‚ªA‚ ‚È‚½‚ÍŒ™‚¢‚Å‚·B

But maybe you should say

Ž„‚Í‚±‚̃nƒ“ƒo[ƒK[‚ªD‚«‚Å‚·‚ªA‚ ‚È‚½‚ÍŒ™‚¢‚Ý‚½‚¢‚Å‚·‚ˁB

because, Japanese people often avoid assertion when they're talking about the other person,
and besides, '‚ ‚È‚½‚ÍŒ™‚¢‚Å‚·' might cause misunderstanding since it does also have the meaning 'I hate you'.

> You don't like the food (in general) which I like.

‚ ‚È‚½‚ÍŽ„‚ªD‚«‚ȐH‚ו¨‚ªD‚«‚Å‚Í‚È‚¢B

> I also like to clarify something...
> if I say, ŽõŽi‚⃉ƒƒ“‚ðH‚ׂ܂·B@the particle ‚â means "etc." right? Such as the sentence above will mean: I eat sushi, ramen, etc.

You're right.
but one thing. It's 'ƒ‰[ƒƒ“'.

> by the way, can I ask if the dictionary form for K‚¤‚ñ‚Å‚· is it K‚¤, belonging to Group 1 verbs?

I'm sorry. I can't answer this because I don't know what 'Group 1 verb' is.

Shoy‚³‚ñA–{“–@‚ ‚肪‚Æ‚¤@‚²‚´‚¢‚Ü‚µ‚½B@ :applaud:

In addition, I would like to ask: Œ™‚¢‚Ý‚½‚¢‚Å‚·, what does it mean? As in which form of the root word Œ™‚¢ does it belongs to? In what situations do we add the ‚Ý‚½‚¢ to the root word?

By the way, I already found out the answer to the K‚¤ question. Thanks alot! :)

chokakoi wrote:
In addition, I would like to ask: Œ™‚¢‚Ý‚½‚¢‚Å‚·, what does it mean? As in which form of the root word Œ™‚¢ does it belongs to? In what situations do we add the ‚Ý‚½‚¢ to the root word?

Hmmm, dunno why you would use ‚Ý‚½‚¢ with Œ™‚¢. ‚Ý‚½‚¢ means "like" as in Žq‹Ÿ@‚́@“VŽg@‚Ý‚½‚¢@‚Å‚· (Kodomo wa tenshi mitai desu) The child is like an angel. But Œ™‚¢ means dislike so I don't know how you would use those two together. [/list:u]