Using "Looks Like"

In this lesson we will learn how to say something looks like or seems to be so by using (sou　そう). This is very useful and you will use it often.

NOTE: It is important that you learn this correctly because (sou そう) is used in a similar way with a meaning that you heard information form somewhere.

First I teach how to use (sou そう) with (i い) Adjectives.

To say some food looks delicious using the word (oishii おいしい). What you do is take of the last (i い) and add (sou desu そう です). The important part is that you take of the final (i い) and add (sou そう).
Like this:
This Sushi look good!
Kono osushi wa oishisou desu.この おすし は おいしそう です。

That looks heavy
sore wa omosou desu.  (omoi おもいheavy Sou そう form is Omosou おもそう).
そ れは おもそう です。

Exception：
 ii desu い い ですbecomes yosasou desu よさそう です and Nai ない becomes nasasou desu なさそう です．

So practice this with other (i い) adjectives.
Now I will explain it for (na な) Adjectives.
For these kind of adjectives you just add sou desu そう です。

Masa looks Kind.
Masa san wa shinsetsu sou desu。まささんは しんせつ そうです。
Looks pretty．
kirei sou desu。きれい そう です。


Now for Verbs:
For verbs you make the (masu ます) form then take (masu ます) away and add (sou そう).

It looks like it will rain.
Ame ga furisou desu.
あめ が ふりそう です。　
( So here the (masu ます) form of (furu ふ る) becomes (furimasu ふります) so take (masu ます) away and you get (furi ふり) and then you add (sou desu そう です)。

Body Vocabulary

This will be an easy vocabulary lesson. We will learn names of the parts of the body! I have aslo added the kanji for each.

• Body- Karada  からだ　体
• Hair- Kami　かみ　髪
• Face- Kao　かお　顔
• Eye- Me　め　目
• Nose- Hana　はな　鼻
• Mouth- Kuchi　くち　口
• Ears- Mimi　みみ　耳
• Throught- Nodo　の ど 喉
• Neck-Kubi　くび　首
• Head- Atama　あたま　頭
• Shoulder-Kata 　かた 肩
• Arm- Te　て　手
• Leg- Ashi　あし 足
• Upper back-Senaka　せなか 背中
• Lowerback- Koshi　こし 腰
• Belly- Onaka 　おなか
• Belly Button- Heso　へそ
• Wrist- Te kubi　て くび 手首

Weather Phrases

This lesson will be fairly easy and will teach some ways to talk about the weather.

Today the weather is good. kyou wa ii tenki desu.きょう　は　いい　てんき　です。
kyou (today), wa (topic marker), ii (good), tenki (weather), desu (is).

Today the weather is bad. kyou wa warui tenki desu.きょう　は　わるい　てんき　です。

Yesterday the weather was bad. kinou wa warui tenki deshita.きのう　は 　わるい　てんき　でした。

It's raining.
Ame ga futte imasu.あめ　が　ふって　います。
Ame (rain), ga (subject marker), futte imasu (is raining).

Yesterday it rained. kinou wa ame ga furimashita.きのう　は　あめ　は　ふりまし た。

It's snowing yuki ga futte imasu.ゆ き　は　ふって　います。

It's windy.
kaze ga fuite imasu.
かぜ　が　ふいて　います。

It was windy. kaze ga fukimashita.かぜ　が　ふきました。

Tomorrow the weather will probably be good.
ashita wa tabun ii tenki deshou.あ した　は　たぶん　いい　てんき　でしょう。
ashita (tomorrow), wa (subject marker), tabun (probably), ii (good), tenki (weather), deshou (will be).

Tomorrow it may rain. ashita wa ame ga furu deshou.あした　は　あめ　が　ふる 　でしょう。

How to "Tell Time"

This lesson will cover how to tell time. It will be a short and easy lesson. The next lesson will be an expansion on this lesson.

Here are the hours starting from 1:00 to 12:00.
ichi ji, ni ji, san ji, yo ji, go ji, roku ji, shichi ji, hacji ji, ku ji, jyuu ji, jyuuichi ji, jyuuni ji.

Here are the minutes.
ippun, nifun, sanpun (pronounced sampun), yonfun or yonpun (pronounced yompun), gofun, roppun, nanafun, happun, kyuufun, jippun or juppun.
 
To ask what time it is you say:
 
What time is it now?
ima nanji desu ka?

ima (now), nanji (what time), desu (is), ka (question marker).

Then to answer:
It is 3:00.
ima sanji desu.
 
To ask what time it is you say: (question marker). Then to answer:To say half past an hour you put "han" after the time.

For example:
3:30
san ji han.
 
  To say 10 after 3 you say:
sanji jippun sugi.

sanji (3 o'clock), jippun (10 minutes), sugi (after).
To say 10 after 3 you say:.To say 10 to 3.
san ji jippun mae.

san ji  (3 o'clock ), jippun (10 minites), mae (before).

"To Want" something...

In the previous lesson we learned how to say that we wanted to do an action, in this lesson we will learn how to say we want something.  This is very easy to do. So let's start!


To say I want something you use the word hoshii ほしい. 
I want a TV.
Watashi wa terebi ga hoshii desu.わ たしは　テレビ　が　ほしい　です。
 
Do you want a friend?
Anata wa tomodachi ga hoshii desu ka.あなたは　ともだち　が　ほしい　です　か。 
I want money.
Watashi wa okane ga hosii desu.わたしは　おかね　が　ほしい　です。


As you see this is very easy!

Now to say you don't want something:


The word hoshii ほしい works like an i い adjective, so you say hoshikunai desu　ほしくない です or hoshiku arimasen　ほ しく ありません.

I don't want a camera.
Watashi wa kamera ga hoshiku nai desu.わたしは　カメラ が ほしく ない　です。


Now like the previous lesson when talking about a 3rd person wants, you have to use gatte imasu がって います.

Keiko wants a car.
Keiko san wa kuruma o hoshigatte imasu.
けいこさん は　くるま　を ほしがって います。

Negative sentence

Hiromi does not want a pencil.
Hiromi san wa enpitsu o hoshigatte imasen.ひろみさんは　えんぴつ　を　ほしがって いません。

Written by: Aaron, from japaneselearning.com

"Want" to do something...

In this lesson we will learn how to say that we want to do something. This is very easy and a very useful thing to learn. You will use it all the time.  Basically what you do is add tai desu たい です to a verb sentence.

I want to go to Japan
Watashi wa nihon e ikitai desu.わたしは　にほん へ いきたい　です。
Here tai desu た い です is added to the verb ikimasu いきます. All you do is take off the masu ます and put in tai desu たい です.

*NOTE:  you can not use this for third person.

Also verbs that use the particle o を like in ocha o nomimasu お ちゃ をのみます(to drink Japanese tea) change to ga が  like ocha ga nomitai desu おちゃ が のみたい です (I want to drink Japanese tea).

Here are some more examples:
I want to eat sushi.
Watashi wa osushi ga tabetai desu.わたしは おすし がたべたい です。

Now to make the negative of this like you don't want to do something you change tai desu たい です to takunai desu たくない です.

I don't want to swim.watashi wa oyogitaku nai desu.わたしは およぎたくない です。

I don't want to go to Japan.
Watashi wa nihon e ikitakunai desu.わたしは にほん へ いきたくないです。

Now for a third person instead of tai desu た い です you use tagatte imasu たがっています. It is very important that you use third person this way as it will be tested often when you study Japanese in school.

Keiko wants to go to Japan.
Keiko san wa Nihon e ikitagatte imasu.けいこさんは　にほん へ　いきたがっています。

Masahiro wants to eat sushi.
Masahiro san wa osushi o tabetagatte imasu.まさひろさんは おすし　を たべたがっています、

*NOTE Notice how in third person o を does not change to ga が.

Now to say someone does not want to do something you add tagatte imasen　たがっていません.
Mika does not want to swim in the ocean.
Mika san wa umi de oyogitagatte imasen.みかさんは うみ で およぎたがっていません。

Written by: Aaron, from japaneselearning.com

Using "When..."

This lesson will teach how to say when something happened.

For this we used the word toki とき.
To say "When I was in Japan i did/went to..) You take the sentence:
nihon ni imashita and turn it to plain form nihon ni ita にほん に いた now to make it "when" you just put toki とき after:
Nihon ni ita toki.にほ ん に いた とき。

So now to make a full sentence like:
When I was in Japan I went to a Hot spring.
Nihon ni itta toki, onsen e ikimashita.にほん に いった とき、 おんせん へ いきました。

To say when something happened  in different situations you use plain verb past tense or plain form depending on the situation.

For example:

When I go to Japan I will buy luggage
Nihon e iku toki, nimotsu o kaimasu.にほん へ いく とき、 にもつ を かいます。
To make it more polite add niwa には after toki 　とき.
Gohan o tabeowatta toki ni wa gochisosama to iimasu ( After Eating you say gochisosama).
ごはん　を たべおわった とき　には ごちそうさま と  います。

Quizzes on Japanese Words - Part 1

About the Quizzes

• There is one quiz for each kanji that is used in more than 5 words marked as "priority words" in EDICT.
• First-time visitors should probably read the explanation about these quizzes. 

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• 一 one
• 二 two
• 三 three
• 四 four
• 五 five
• 六 six
• 七 seven
• 八 eight
• 九 nine
• 十 ten
• 百 hundred
• 千 thousand

Office Visit Conversation

Vocabulary

Shikyuu - As soon as possible Ousetsushitsu - Reception room Aite gawa - Other side party Dairinin - Representative Joken - Condition Annai suru - Show ( someone) to Settai - Entertain Daitai - More or less

Expression

Nani ka goyo desu ka? - May I help you? Raikyaku ga aru - Have an office visitor Youken o tazuneru - Ask about the purpose of the visit Meishi o koukan suru - Exchange business cards Ocha o dasu - Serve tea Raikyaku o miokuru - See off a visitor

Model  Conversation

Mary: Uketsuke desu ga , tada ima gaijin times no Castro-san ga omieninattemasu Sato: Souka.. jaa ousetsu-shitsu ni annai shite Mary: kashikomarimashita. Sato: Castro-san wa Nihon-go ga dekiru no kane? Mary: iie. Spain-go dake desu. Sato: nani? souka..komatta na.. Mary: dewa watashi ga otetsudai shimashou ka? Sato: souka! tasukaru yo!

Model  Conversation

Mary : Hai, nihon shinbun desu Suzuki : itsu mo osewa ni natte orimasu. Tokyo TV no Suzuki desu ga Brown-san wa irasshai msau ka? Mary : taihen moushiwake arimasen ga Brown wa ima gaishutsuchu de gozaimasu. Suzuki : sou desu ka. wakarimashita. dengon onegai dekimasu ka? Mary : hai, douzo Suzuki : Ashita no kaigi wa 3ji ni henkou shita to otsutae kudasai. Mary : kashikomarimashita Suzuki : dewa shitsurei shimsau

This article was used with permission from:

e-Japanese.jp