Basic Japanese. Eriko Sato

adjectives. These words precede a noun and modify its meaning, much as a noun is modified by a phrase consisting of a noun followed by the particle no: kono gakkō ‘this school,’ watashi no gakkō ‘my school.’

この kono	this
その sono	that
あの ano	that over there
どの dono	which

2.3. Place words (relative location)

      Words such as ue ‘topside’ and naka ‘inside’ are used along with reference nouns as in tēburu no ue ‘on the top of the table.’ They are often used for situations we would express in English with prepositions like in, on, under, behind, above, and between.

前 mae	in front
後ろ ushiro	behind
右 migi	right
左 hidari	left
上 ue	up
下 shita	below
そば soba	beside, near
近く chikaku	near(by)
中 naka	inside
外 soto	outside
隣 tonari	next door, next position
間 aida	between (two places)

      Here are some example sentences.

      駅は銀行の後ろです。

       Eki wa ginkō no ushiro desu.

      The train station is behind the bank.

      充電器はテーブルの下にあります。

       Jūdenki wa tēburu no shita ni arimasu.

      The charger is under the table.

2.4. Adjectival nouns

      The word suki ‘likable’ is a special kind of noun called an adjectival noun (or copular noun, nominal adjective). It acts as an adjective describing a noun, but it patterns like a noun, being placed before some form of the copula da/desu ‘is (equals).’ Here are a few examples:

好き(だ) suki (da)	(is) likable, liked
嫌い(だ) kirai (da)	(is) dislikable, disliked
きれい(だ) kirei (da)	(is) neat, pretty, clean
シック(だ) shikku(da)	(is) chic, stylish
派手(だ) hade (da)	(is) showy
静か(だ) shizuka (da)	(is) quiet
まじめ(だ) majime (da)	(is) serious, studious
簡単(だ) kantan (da)	(is) easy
駄目(だ) dame (da)	(is) not good

      Notice that the literal translation of suki desu and kirai desu is ‘(something) is liked’ and ‘(something) is disliked,’ but we freely translate them ‘(somebody) likes (something)’ and ‘(somebody) dislikes (something).’

2.5. Untranslated English words

      In English we seldom say just ‘book.’ We say ‘a book,’ ‘the book,’ ‘some books,’ or ‘the books.’ In Japanese, the situation is just the other way around. Since the Japanese have another way of implying that they’ve been talking about the noun, by making it the topic with the particle wa, as in hon wa ‘the book, the books,’ they don’t need a word to translate ‘the.’ And they usually leave it up to the situation to make it clear whether there are several things in question or just one, unless they want to focus your attention on the number itself, in which case the number word indicates just how many you are talking about. The Japanese, like everyone else, do not always bother to express things they think you already know. This doesn’t mean they lack ways to say things we do; it just means they leave implied some of the things we are used to saying explicitly. Americans tend to use watashi and anata too much. Remember to omit pronouns when the reference is clear.

2.6. Particles

      In English, we usually show the relations between words in the way we string them together. The sentences ‘Jon loves May’ and ‘May loves Jon’ both contain the same three words, but the order in which we put the words determines the meaning. In Japanese, relations between words are often shown by little words called particles. This lesson will introduce you to several of these particles: wa, ga, ka, no, and ni.

2.7. は wa

      The particle wa sets off the TOPIC you are going to talk about. If you say Watashi wa gakusei desu ‘I am a student,’ the particle shows you are talking about watashi ‘I’—what you have to say about the topic then follows. A pidgin-English way of translating this particle wa is ‘as for’: Shinbun wa koko ni arimasu ‘As for the newspaper, it’s here.’ But it is better not to look for a direct translation for some of these particles—remember they just indicate the relationship between the preceding words and those that follow.

2.8. が ga

      The particle ga shows the subject. In Eiga ga suki desu ‘I like movies,’ the particle ga shows that eiga ‘movies’ is the subject of suki desu ‘are liked.’ The difference between the particles wa and ga is one of emphasis. In English we make a difference in emphasis by using a louder voice somewhere in the sentence. We say ‘I like MOVIES’ or ‘I LIKE movies,’ depending on which part of the sentence we want to bring out. In Japanese, the particle ga focuses our attention on the words preceding it, but the particle wa releases our attention to focus on some other part of the sentence. So, eiga ga suki desu means ‘I like MOVIES,’ but eiga wa suki desu means ‘I LIKE movies.’ When there is a question word in the sentence (like dare ‘who,’ dore ‘which one,’ dono ‘which,’ and doko ‘where’), the attention usually focuses on this part of the sentence, so the particle wa is not used: Dono tatemono ga eki desu ka ‘Which building is the train station?’ Since our attention is focused on ‘WHICH building,’ the answer is Ano tatemono ga eki desu ‘THAT building is the train station.’ If the question is Ano tatemono wa nan desu ka ‘What is that building?,’ our attention is released from ano tatemono ‘that building’ by the particle wa and concentrates on ‘WHAT,’ so the answer is Ano tatemono wa eki desu ‘That building is a TRAIN STATION,’ or just Eki desu ‘It’s a train station.’ Some sentences have both a topic—or several successive topics—and a subject:

      あなたは日本のアニメが好きですか。

       Anata wa Nihon no anime ga suki desu ka.

      Do you like Japanese anime?

      あなたは日本のアニメは好きですか。

       Anata wa Nihon no anime wa suki desu ka.

      Do you LIKE Japanese anime?

      Because the difference in meaning between wa and ga is largely one of emphasis, you can often