Learning Japenese

[Kami6669]

Where do you Come from?

あなたわどこからきたのですか？

Next one:

What is your favorite food?


btw:おはようございます this is Ohayou gosaimasu, Right?

[Zynm]

@Kami6669 : When using wa as a particle you write it with the hiragana は, so it'd be あなたはどこから来たのですか？

Question regarding this sentence, are the kanji 何処 / 何所　widely used or is it mostly written in hiragana?

おはようございます is ohayou gozaimasu yes

What is your favorite food?

あなたの一番好きな食べ物は何ですか？

あなたのいちばんすきなたべものはなんですか？

This is how I would say it but I'm wondering if there's another way of saying this, maybe a more casual, less roundabout way?

[Kami6669]

[quote=Zynm;2114266]@Kami6669 : When using wa as a particle you write it with the hiragana は, so it'd be あなたはどこから来たのですか？

Why was this 来 added? is it a word I missed?


Question regarding this sentence, are the kanji 何処 / 何所　widely used or is it mostly written in hiragana?


For my part all I can say is that I only write in hiragana because that's what I was told to do. And I like the fact that people are helping me starting to understand japanese as I know nothing about it...I think someone will answer your question soon. >.>

[Evockzi]

[quote=Kami6669;2114291]

@Kami6669 : When using wa as a particle you write it with the hiragana は, so it'd be あなたはどこから来たのですか？

Why was this 来 added? is it a word I missed?


Question regarding this sentence, are the kanji 何処 / 何所　widely used or is it mostly written in hiragana?


For my part all I can say is that I only write in hiragana because that's what I was told to do. And I like the fact that people are helping me starting to understand japanese as I know nothing about it...I think someone will answer your question soon. >.>

Not sure if anyone has told you yet, but go to nihongo.j-talk.com/parser/

Just put the Kanji or whatever in there and convert it to whatever you want. ^^ works great for me for Kanji I don't understand ( I know almost no Kanji )

[Ertai87]

@Zynm: You forgot to add a new sentence.

@Kami6669: 来 is the Kanji used for the verb くる. It's also used as らい for words like らいしゅう (next week) and らいねん (next year). If you're a FFX user, check out the extension Rikaichan. I use it myself and it's amazing. I wrote a bit about it in the "Internet Sites" sticky at the top of the forum.

[edit] Also @Kami6669: の at the end of a sentence is a question particle used similar to か (it's slightly different; I'd use か in this sentence...the difference is difficult to describe). If you're intending on using it that way, の is sufficient; you don't need のですか. If you use のですか, I think, it means you're using the nominal phrasing particle の, so your sentence wouldn't make any sense. If you want to make your sentence formal, you'd use きましたか instead of きたの.

[Kami6669]

Then if I use this の it means that I would have to end the sentence with it? If I continu it I need to use this か? Not quite sure what you meant..

[Ertai87]

lol particles in Japanese are quite confusing...there are 3 uses of the particle の:

1) The possessive particle の, used to say that something is possessed by something else (e.g. わたしのほん, "My book"). Also used for turning a noun into an adjective (e.g. カナダのだいがく, "Canadian university").

2) The nominal phrase particle の, used at the end of an informal sentence to use it as a noun (e.g. にほんごをはなすのはちょっとむずかしいですね, "Speaking Japanese is a bit tough, isn't it?"). Alternately, you can use こと here as well.

3) The question particle の, used at the end of an informal question sentence. It's different from か, which is also a question particle, but the difference is difficult to explain. Using の shows empathy or doesn't have as much of an accusing tone for sensitive questions as か. For example, you could say なにをしてるの？ ("What are you doing?"), which is roughly equivalent to the English "What's up?". On the other hand, if you say なにをしてるか？, it's more like the accusatory "What are you doing?" you'd hear from an authority figure.

I hope that was clear XD

Anyway, we still don't have a new sentence...

[Zynm]

Sorry for that ^^;

In three years I will go to study at Kansai University.

[Kami6669]

^Argh tough one, I wonder what it will look like in japanese letters...Ima pass on this one and learn from the masters. xD

[Ertai87]

三年間の後で、僕は関西大学に勉強しに行くつもりです。 (lit: In 3 years, I plan to go to study at Kansai University)

さんねんかんのあとで、ぼくはかんさいだいがくにべんきょうしにいくつもりです。

Next: I miss Japan! <- So true :'(

[Akihiko Yamamoto Hozagaki]

Damn, I was gonna answer that one XD!

日本が恋しい。 (You can use "寂しくなります" too, right?)
にほんがこいしい。

Next: I have been sick for a week.

[Ertai87]

I think 恋しい is more for people...I was looking for 懐かしい (なつかしい)...I think, or that's what I heard is used anyway...恋しい looks weird, just by the Kanji XD (for those not versed in Kanji, 恋 is a synonym of 愛, or あい, a word you've likely heard *a lot* in J-Pop, meaning "love")

Anyway, I've been way too active here, I'm gonna bow out for a bit.

[Kami6669]

^Why...? It's fun to have some active people here, it makes me learn a lot.

[Anyaaa]

Hm... I looked at some of the sample sentences on the WWWJDIC and the ones there use 恋しい to talk about missing home or Japanese food or whatnot, as well as people. But then... y'never know with that site...

Haha, this thread has taught me that I hardly know any practical Japanese at all. Whups 8D

[Akihiko Yamamoto Hozagaki]

I think 恋しい is more for people...I was looking for 懐かしい (なつかしい)...I think, or that's what I heard is used anyway...恋しい looks weird, just by the Kanji XD (for those not versed in Kanji, 恋 is a synonym of 愛, or あい, a word you've likely heard *a lot* in J-Pop, meaning "love")

Anyway, I've been way too active here, I'm gonna bow out for a bit.

Hm... well, I knew 恋 looked weird, but it's like... more emphasized than 懐かしい XD!

[suzumi]

Alright. I'm gonna do a quick sweep here...

駅へ行く方向を知らせてください。 (Is there an equivalent question-sentence, or is this the only way to do it?)

Subtitled in Hiragana (I refuse to do Romanji):
えきへいくほうこうをしらせてください

駅へ行く方向を教えてください。
えきへいくほうこうをおしえてください。

You can also say:

駅への道を教えてください。
えきへのみちをおしえてください。

or

駅への行き方を教えてください。
えきへのいきかたをおしえてください。

@Kami6669 : When using wa as a particle you write it with the hiragana は, so it'd be あなたはどこから来たのですか？

Question regarding this sentence, are the kanji 何処 / 何所　widely used or is it mostly written in hiragana?

何処　is used more then 何所. It's kind of 30% hiragana, 70% kanji.

三年間の後で、僕は関西大学に勉強しに行くつもりです。 (lit: In 3 years, I plan to go to study at Kansai University)

さんねんかんのあとで、ぼくはかんさいだいがくにべんきょうしにいくつもりです。

You can also say:

三年後に僕は関西大学の生徒になります。
さんねんごにぼくはかんさいだいがくのせいとになります。
(lit: In 3 years, I will become a student at Kansai University.)

Damn, I was gonna answer that one XD!

日本が恋しい。 (You can use "寂しくなります" too, right?)
にほんがこいしい。

Next: I have been sick for a week.

Not really. 寂しい is more for people (or pets). 恋しい is correct though. ^^

On to the question...

この一週間ずっと熱を出しています。
このいっしゅうかんずっとねつをだしています。

Next question:

How much does that cost?

[Anyaaa]

それはいくらですか？

When I am older, I would like to be a doctor. (Or something of a similar meaning ;D)

[Ertai87]

学校を卒業する後で、医者になりたいです。 (lit: After I graduate school, I want to become a doctor...I presume you mean "doctor" as in M.D., not doctor as in Ph.D. XD)

がっこうをそつぎょうするあとで、いしゃになりたいです。

Next: My major (University, not military, obv XD) is [subject of your choice].

[Zynm]

私の専攻は日本学です。

わたしのせんこうはにほんがくです。

Next: The [insert subject here] professor teaches really well, I can follow his explanations easily.

[Kami6669]

Seems like no one knows, ehh? I don't know myself, so I'm waiting on someone =P

[kitarimoon]

Can I make a suggestion? Just so we all can read-although I have a book on kanji-why don't you try asking everyone to write in romaji? Surely everyone would be able to write this before they could write it in kanji.

I also think it would be good if you started off with katakana and hiragana for your studies. It's the basic-I believe the word is syllabary/alphabet-whatever. Start with the hiragana though because I think the katakana is for translating foreign words.

[Ertai87]

Can I make a suggestion? Just so we all can read-although I have a book on kanji-why don't you try asking everyone to write in romaji? Surely everyone would be able to write this before they could write it in kanji.

I also think it would be good if you started off with katakana and hiragana for your studies. It's the basic-I believe the word is syllabary/alphabet-whatever. Start with the hiragana though because I think the katakana is for translating foreign words.

Romanji is for people too lazy to learn Hiragana and Katakana. We all subtitle in Kana (one or the other) so it's not hard to read if you put the time into learning it, and when you can easily practise, it's even easier to learn.

Anyway, I didn't want the game to turn into only 2 people playing, so I waited, but it looks like the thread is dying so...

日本語の先生は上手で教えて、よく分かります。 (lit: The Japanese teacher is skilled at teaching. I understand him well)

にほんごのせんせいはじょうずでおしえて、よくわかります。

Next: Can I borrow a pencil please?

[Akihiko Yamamoto Hozagaki]

鉛筆を貸してください。
えんぴつをかしてください。
Well, it literally means "lend me a pencil please", but I think that will work :3.

Next: Follow this street, and turn left on the next corner please.

[suzumi]

Next: The [insert subject here] professor teaches really well, I can follow his explanations easily.

Anyway, I didn't want the game to turn into only 2 people playing, so I waited, but it looks like the thread is dying so...

日本語の先生は上手で教えて、よく分かります。 (lit: The Japanese teacher is skilled at teaching. I understand him well)

にほんごのせんせいはじょうずでおしえて、よくわかります。

I was trying to think of a way to say that in Japanese without cutting the sentence in two or changing the meaning of it... The closest I got was:

～教授は日本語をとてもわかりやすく教えてくれます。

～きょうじゅはにほんごをとてもわかりやすくおしえてくれます。

lit: Professor ~'s way of teaching Japanese is very easy to understand/follow.

In Japanese, you don't really need the "skilled at teaching" part because you say that his/her lessons are easy to understand. Which basically means the same thing.

Ertai, you pretty much got it but, it should be something more like;

日本語の先生は上手に教えてくれて、分かりやすいです。

Next: Follow this street, and turn left on the next corner please.

この道をまっすぐ行って、次の角で左にまがって下さい。

このみちをまっすぐいって、つぎのかどでひだりにまがってください。

Next: If I don't catch the next train, I'll be late.

[Ertai87]

@suzumi: Why 〜てくれて? He's not teaching *you*, he's teaching a class you happen to be a part of. You happen to benefit from his teaching, but he's not doing it as a favor to you, which is how I understand 〜てくれる to work. Also, I knew the other grammar notes, I'm just not good at Japanese at like 2 am when I wrote that (heck, I'm barely coherent in English at 2am...interestingly enough, though, I seem to write the best code at about 2am...)

@the game:

次の電車に入られなければ、遅く着します (lit (it just occurred to me that people might not understand "lit". It's my shorthand for "literally translated"): If I can't get on the next train, I'll arrive late)

つぎのでんしゃにはいられなければ、おそくちゃくします。

Next: My friend brought me a souvenir from Japan.