Useful Japanese Adjectives

Below are some common Japanese adjectives that I have found most useful.

可愛 kawai かわい - cute
恐い kowai こわい - scary
近い chikai ちかい - close
鋭い surudoi するどい sharp
賢い kashikoi かしこい - smart

堅い katai かたい - hard
短い mijikai みじかい - short
細い hosoi ほそい - narrow
長い nagai ながい - long
明るい akarui あかるい - bright

太い futoi ふとい - fat
厚い atsui あつい - thick
熱い atsui あつい - hot
寒い samui さむい – cold
涼しい suzushii すずしい – cool

激しい hageshii はげしい - violent
難し muzukashii むつ"かしい - difficult
簡単 kantan かんたん – easy
眠い nemui ねむい - sleepy
眠たい nemutai ねむたい - sleepy

低い hikui ひくい - low
高い takai たかい - tall
珍しい mezurashii めずらしい - rare
大きい ookii おおきいい - big
小さい chiisai ちいさい – small

古い furui ふるい - old
若い wakai わかい - young
広い hiroi ひろい - wide
安い yasui やすい - cheap, easy
目覚しい mezamashii めざましい - alert

凄い tsumetai つめたい - chilly
強い tsuyoi つよい - strong
弱い yowai よわい - weak
柔らかい yawarakai  やわらかい - soft
早い hayai  はやい - fast

遅いosoi - slow
重い omoi - heavy
暗い kurai くらい - dark
重たい omotai おもたい - heavy
軽い karui かるい - light (opposite of heavy)

恥ずかしい hazukashii はずかしい - embarassing
喧しいyakamashii やかましい – loud, obnoxious
静か shizuka しずか - quiet
素晴らしい subarashii すばらしい - wonderful
美味しい oishii おいしい – delicious

酸っぱいsuppai すっぱい - sour
甘い amai あまい - sweet
狭い semai せまい – narrow
悔しい kuyashii くやしい - vexing, mortifying
怪しいayashii あやしい - doubtful, suspicious

辛い tsurai つらい – hard, difficult
美しい utsukushi うつくし - beautiful
面白い omoshiroi おもしろい - interesting
力強い chikarazuyoi ちからずよい - powerful
かっこいい kakkoii – stylish, handsome

惜しい oshii おしい – regretful*

*Oshii is a neat little word - We can say oshii in situations where we might say darnit in English. For example, I would hear oshii a lot at the bowling alley when my bowling friends would miss a pin. They would say,"oshii", or "Darn I missed".

Ppoi - The Japanese 'ish

Todays Tip:
ppoi = ish

Add ppoi to nouns and adjectives to easily turn any them into other words. For example. In America when we want to say something has style we might say it is stylish, (all we do there is add the ish)
or technically that it bears strong resemblance of the noun style. Or that it pertains or bears an air of the noun.

In Japanese we use
noun+ ppoi, or
adjective + ppoi

You could think of it this way, pretend you are in Hawaii dipping your words in poi and your word will come out looking like the thing you dipped it in.
Its similiar to the -ly of adverbs.

 If we want to say the car is sluggish add ppoi to the end of the word osoi - or slow making it osoppoi. Just like in English where we can stick ish on the tail end of just about any word, we can do the same in Japanese by adding ppoi.





Towards Better Japanese Ganbatte ne! Do Your Best! Makurasuki

Japanese Grammar - Putting Verbs in Base TA

Japanese grammar Lesson:
Japanese Verbs in Base TA

The shortest distance between you and you speaking in Japanese isn't very far. The fastest way to learn and start conversing in the Japanese is to memorize words and then understand how to put verbs into bases.

Japanese Verbs : Verb bases – Putting Japanese verbs into the TA –form (た-form)

The ability to put Japanese verbs into the various bases quickly without pause is a qualitysought out for in fluency and acquisition. Becoming a competent and capable Japanese conversationalist takes time and commitment.

Of all the Japanese verb Bases (I, II, III, IV , V, TA-た, and TE-て) the TA - た form ranks high in usage as one of the top three most used bases for verbs only after TE-てand Base III or root form. I am focusing on it now in order to prepare you for the quick, powerful grammar secrets that employ Base TA - た verbs. Knowing these secrets will catapult your Japanese speaking ability through the roof. I’ll be discussing Japanese grammar rules that use Japanese verbs in Base TA - た.

One of the main things you should know about the TA - た form of a verb is that it is used to put verbs into past tense plain form. A verb in base TA - た form is equivalent to English’s have done or past tense perfect. The TA - た form of a verb has evolved from the classical form tari.

**** How to put a Japanese verb into Base TA ****

1. Vowel Stemmed verbs (i.e. ichidan verbs IRU, or ERU ending verbs -える.)
        a. to put a verb into the TA-た form when the verb has a vowel stem simply add TA - た

We start with the Base III of verbs or the dictionary form of five Japanese verbs

1. kanjiru - 感じる
2. oboeru - 覚える
3. kangaeru - 考える
4. deru - 出る
5. iru - 居る

In Base II or stem form (or extensor form) for these five Japanese verbs will be -

1. kanji - 感じ
2. oboe - 覚え
3. kangae - 考え
4. de - 出
5. i - 居

Base TA for five Japanese verbs

TA - た ending verbs are past tense.

1. kanjita - 感じた - felt
2. oboeta - 覚えた - remebered
3. kangaeta - 考えた thought of
4. deta - 出た left
5. ita- 居た was

Meaning transformation of five Japanese Verbs:

1. To feel becomes to have felt.
kanjiru 感じる becomes kanjita 感じた

2. To remember becomes to have remembered.
oboeru 覚える becomes oboeta 覚えた

3. To think becomes to have thought.
kangaeru 考える becomes kangaeta 考えた

4. To leave becomes to have left.
deru 出るbecomes deta 出た

5. To be becomes to have been. (was, were)
iru 居る becomes ita 居た

Try putting your favorite verb ending in iru or eru into the TA form today and get your Nihongo study going!

If you want more information on how you can use memory and the laws of attraction to master any language the please see
Master Memory

As Always,
Ganbatte ne!
Do your best!
Makurasuki

Looking for more ways to be successful in all that you do including mastering a language?
QMPOWER

more on honorifics in Japanese

Forming honorific adjectives
Honorific adjective Constructions

Ai
II
UI
EI - irregular
OI

AI  OU + GOZARU

II  UU + GOZARU

UI  UU + GOZARU

EI – DE GOZARU

OI  OU + GOZARU

Examples:

1.akai  akou + gozaru = akou gozaimasu
2.atarashii  atarashuu + gozaru = atarashuu gozaimasu
3.boroi  borou + gozaru = borou gozaimasu
4.furui  furuu + gozaru = furuu gozaimasu

that is to say any ai ending adjective will turn to long o - o^ ou

The best example of this is hayai. Hayai ends in ai therefore changing the ai into long o we have hayou gozaimasu just like the phrase "good morning" o-hayou gozaimasu
hope this helps.



Towards Better Japanese
Ganbatte ne!
Do Your Best!
Makurasuki

The Useful Japanese Word Ki

Ki or, 気,  is a very useful Japanese word. It has many meanings, but since there are many situations where this word is used, it would be beneficial for any Japanese language learner to get acquainted with it.

Ki 気 is the Japanese word for air; atmosphere; flavor; heart; mind; spirit; feelings; humor; an intention; mind; will. When used in conjunction with other verbs, this little word really starts becoming useful. I recommend studying this little word by looking it up in your Japanese dictionary, and noting some of its' uses. The following examples should get you started.

1. ki ni iru 気に入る- to take a liking to something
2. ki ga kawaru 気が変わる - to change your mind
3. ki ga sumu 気が済む - feel settled with something
4. ki ga nakunaru 気が無くなる - don't feel like it anymore
5. ki ni kakeru 気にかける- worried about something
6. ki ni naru 気になる- to be anxious about something
7. ki o tsukeru 気を付ける - to be careful with something

Basic Japanese Grammar Donoyona

Basic Japanese Grammar to construct basic Japanese phrases that relay
“What kind of…”, “This kind of…”, and “It is sort of like…”
Japanese lesson on words that relate similitude or likeness.

To say, “How do you verb…?” use the following construction:

DO^NOYO^NI + verb + ka

In question form –

To form questions, add + the question participle ka to
DO^NOYO^NI and DO^NOYO^NA so that you have

どうのように and どうのような + ka?

Here we have either do^ no yo^ ni followed by a verb or
Do^no yo^ na followed by an adjective.

NI – Verb
NA - Adjective

Do^ no yo^ ni kanjimasu ka?
どうのように感じますか?
How do you feel? (about it)

Basic Japanese Grammar

1. A wa B no yo^ na {noun} desu.
A is a {noun}like B.
a. Tanaka san wa Ita san no yo na sensei desu.
田中さんは井田さんのような先生です.
Mr. Tanaka is a teacher like Mr. Ita.

Karl Malone wa Michael Jordan no yo^ na senshu^ desu.
マーイケルジョルダンは ローバルトパッリシュのような選手です
Karl malone is a athlete like Michael Jordan.

Bill Gates wa do no yo^ na bijinesu man desu ka?
ビール- ゲーツはどうのようなビジネスマンですか
What kind of business man is Bill Gates.

Bill Gates wa do no yo^ ni bijinesu o yarimasu ka ?
ビール- ゲーツはどうのようにビジネスをやりますか
How does Bill Gates conduct business?

Japanese Grammar - Ka do ka - iffy statements

P.F. + Ka do^ ka - Whether or not...
Basic Japanese grammar plug and play for "Whether or not...p.f."

In Japan, I always would hear Do^ ka na when I questioned someone about something for which they were uncertain of... Like I might ask, "Do you think the Hanshin Tigers will win? A simple not too complicated question to which may be replied, "I'm not sure really", or "Heck if I know, I wonder who will win too." etc. So that we would have

Hanshin ga katsu to omou? - Do you think Hanshin will win?
Do^ ka na. - "Heck if I know" or "I wonder...who..." or "Ummm, thats a tough one."

So in our Japanese grammar construction for today we have P.F. + ka do^ ka Whether or not A, B. Where A and B could be verbs or adjectives in plain form. It is in plain form because it is actually two questions nested nearby one another. Do^ ka is a question in itself meaning, "How is it?" In Japan you will hear Do^ by itself when someone wants to know the state or condition of somebody or something. If I say do^ with a certain inquisitive inflection you would be saying, "How are you" etc.

P.F. + ka do^ ka - Whether or not

Plain form verbs -

iku ka do^ ka shirimasen - I don't know whether he is coming or not.

Whether or not you know something or do something ka do^ ka is the question doubled Japanese grammar. This Japanese grammar

A secret for Learning Japanese + Japanese adjectives fun

Easy Japanese – Japanese lesson on “I know what’s good for me!”
Japanese Grammar Plug & Play

How to say, “I know how to verb”
NAN NAN SHITARA YOI KA何何したら良いか

Verb (Base TA) + RA + Yoi - I know what is good if I did it.

Yoi良い is the word for good and for all intents and purposes is equivalent to iiいいso that *yoi = ii in any case (Yokaよか – can be hear much in Fukuoka to mean – “Nah,” or “I’m good”)

TASHIKA たしかis not an adjective like AKAI 赤い, UTSUKUSHII 美しい, AKARUI 明るい, TOMEIとめい, OR SURUDOI 鋭い.

A Secret So Easy, It will turn the tedious and sometimes daunting task of learning another language fun to making language learning easy.

As is true in the pursuit of any language mastery, you must have an understanding of what is meant by the phrase, “milk before meat.” You can’t expect to learn something hard or complicated, or expect to eat meat with fully grown canines and flesh piercing teeth before you are able to ingest the milk from a tender mother breast. Therefore, it is wise for any language learner to begin at the beginning, and spend some time there… and hang out…even they should try singing songs about the alphabet. Alphabets being the small parts of a language that when strung together form words, and make languages, living organisms. Learning the alphabet or syllabary for the language you are learning right now will make your progress and improvement in that language easier later by doing so.

Herein lays a key to language mastery. If an alphabet is available for the language, by all means start studying it! The best way for you to get close to a language is by studying, and saying in your mouth the little parts of the language, saying them time and time again as we all do at one point or another in civilized society. Through a careful study of the smallest and simplest parts of a language you can get to know it as intimately as you would get to know you own native language and fluency is its byproduct.

As a child, who does not remember singing an alphabet song, reading a book for the first time, looking up a word in the dictionary for the first time, or simply reciting the alphabet. Language is something that must be learned, and it is true in English and Japanese. Get yourself some hiragana 平仮名, and katakana 片仮名flash cards and memorize the look, feel and shape of each one being able to correctly identify each one, just as you do with the English letters. Learning the alphabet in another language is the first step towards understanding.

Please take a moment to reflect on the first times you sang The Alphabet Song, or recited you’re A,B,C’s. Now reflect upon how you came to know that 5 X 5 is = 25. I know that if you gain a solid grasp of the Japanese Syllabary, the 46 syllables that make up all the sounds of the Japanese language, then learning Japanese will become a lot easier. It will be easy to learn the Japanese language. That’s it!

The trick to learning a foreign language starts with learning the alphabet of that language. In the case of the Japanese language, their alphabet, isn’t an alphabet because it is not made up of just letters, it is made up of syllables. There are 46 syllables in Japanese, and although that is more than the number of letters in the English language, (English letters in the alphabet = 26) it really isn’t that many more once you see how the Japanese alphabet is set up.

The Japanese syllabary is made up of 46 syllables and represents all sounds necessary to form any Japanese word. It is simiilar to the English Alphabet in a few respects and is called the gojuon 五十音, or chart of the 50 sounds. It is grouped into roughly 10 colums and 5 rows. The rows are of particular interest because from these we can transform verbs into other forms varying the meaning of verbs and this makes the learning of Japanese a lot easier.

Set up in groups that follow the first 5 syllables or the Japanese vowels:

a - あ,
i - い,
u - う,
e - え , and
o - お.

By the time we are 12 we usually forget that we had ever even learned the English language and are so familiar with the Alphabet that we have forgotten that it was due to its recitation that we would know what we know. Reading and Writing are two sides of a coin that are wholly influenced by its contributing language’s Alphabet as are Speaking and Listening to a lesser extent. The alphabet is so ingrained into our language that we forget to take it for what it was when we try to apply new learning techniquesto our already stubborn hard formed study habits.

For the purposes of learning how to read, write, speak and listen in English it was necessary to study the core of the language at first, and that was the Alphabet. A good way to get at the core, or the heart of a language is by studying it’s Alphabet. We can do that in a similar or even the same way you would learn your times tables. How much did you get for memorizing your times tables? Offer yourself a cookie and say to yourself, “If I start my Japanese study (or any language study) by learning the syllables that make up their words then I will be ahead of the learning game later on when it really gets complicated.

Like I said...milk before meat. A house is built on a solid foundation. In other words, boiling it down to what I am trying to relate to those desirous of the ability to speak in another language and communicate, down the line Don’t want to cheat myself out of learning Japanese and retaining it, but good! Your parents, masters, or mentors may have promised you $5 if you memorized the times tables up to 12, but you can also do it for free…on your own… and you can reward yourself with a big surprise.

Be consistently insistent on diligent Japanese study and you will be able to communicate. And the ability to communicate with others of another country can open up whole truck loads of cool stuff. Catch the fever, learn Japanese. Tell everyone at the PTA meetings that Japanese is really not that bad. Also I ask all of those who may harrow in their souls hatred against the Japanese people to end it now so that we can live peaceably amongst each others, and learn from one another.

Japanese Adjectives The adjectives follow the syllabic structure found in the vowel row of the Gojuon, or indeci showing the 46 symbols of the Japanese syllabary in this order: A, I, U, E , and O. that represent of all sounds necessary for Japanese word formation.
vowel combos

AI - あい
II - いい
UI - うい
EI - えい and
OI - おい

Here are a few Japanese adjectives for example:

KAWAI - 可愛
ATARASHII - 新しい
FURUI - 古い
KIREI - きれい
BOROI - ぼろい

TASHIKA 確itself is the adjective for our English term, “certain”. It is highly likely that the ka of TASHIKA確 has been artificially transplanted into adjectives in the Fukuoka region. TASHIKA 確にmeans for certain in English and TASHIKA NI 確にmeans certainly. As is the case with the irregular Japanese class of adjectives ending in eiえい, TASHIKA 確can be followed by the particle NI にso that the NIに can be roughly translated in sentences involving adjectives as –ly.

Odds and Ends thoughts on Learning Japanese

Why would anyone think that Japanese is harder than any other language to learn?

Why the learning of the Japanese language has been unfairly labeled as a difficult language, I'll never know. I feel that if you want to learn a language you should try the Japanese language. There are plenty of reasons why but let me first tell you a few of the reasons why I think that Japanese is in fact one of the easier languages to learn.

One reason why Japanese might be an easier language to learn is because there are only four tenses in which a verb can take. A lot less than English which has a multitude of various irregularities to deal with. Another big reason why Japanese might be easier to learn than other languages is because, there are so many common words that are exactly the same in Japanese as they are in English. It only takes a little bit of time before one can start getting use to Japanese pronunciation, but when one does then a plethora of vocabulary words will be at your command.

The Japanese language is a fascinating language to learn. They use different letters and script for writing their words. Their system for writing words and communicating through ideographs is very old. The kanji (symbols-ideographs-ideas represented by pictures or even pictographs) has been used in Japan for quite a long time. is a very ancient tradition and the language has evolved Let me tell you something: You can do anything you put your mind to! Now having said that, I would like to give a couple of reasons why I feel that Japanese is in fact an easier language to learn than English.

The symbol shown above is the Kanji, or Chinese character, which represents the word ai, or love in Japanese. Start today to recognize parts of the kanji as you would a constellation. The ai kanji itself is made up of various components (the heart kanji among other ones) that will become easier to recognize the more times you see it. Who said a little drill and kill will hurt you?

There are a lot of reasons why people might think that the Japanese language is a hard language to learn. People seem to think that learning Japanese is too big a task. A mountain can be moved with a little persistence and some good goals, so get to setting them up!
A couple of more Ideas on how to overcome the fear of learning Japanese
How to study Japanese for the first week and why kanji is so cool.
There is spoken language and the written language. Kanji has deep meanings contained within each one. This is much different from what we are expecting, because we have become through continuous use of our own native language, stifled by the alphabet. We can see the meaning of things inside the kanji. Therefore from the get go, we should try to wean ourselves from the temptation to look up words in Romaji to decipher meaning. We should use a dictionary like Sanseido's daily concise wa-ei jiten.

Week 1

Verbs - Drink, Sleep, Eat, Go, Work (nomu, neru, taberu, hataraku).
- Be able to put learned verbs in all their bases. Bases I - V
- create sentences using all base forms from I - V
- Test your created sentences on an actual Nihonjin to make sure they really work.

Nouns: coffee, tea, milk, water, coca cola, sake, Aquarius, beer, juice (KO-hi, o-cha, gyu^nyu^, mizu, koka kora, sake, akuariusu, bi-ru, ju-su

Adjectives - oishii, suteki na, benri na, okii, nagai, samui, atsui, chisai, mijikai. (Delicious, cool, convenient, big, long, cold, hot, small, short etc.)
- Adjectives- are fun to play with. Practice putting the adjectives in front of nouns etc

Grammar - Know the masu, masen, mashita, masen deshita etc (polite formations of verbs)
- Become acquainted with the various levels of politeness; humble, honorific, plain form

Example Grammar Construction -

Verb (Base II) + Tai desu = I want to verb - polite form. - Without desu, its plain form or P.F.

Verb (Base II) + masho^ = Shall we +verb or let's +verb

Pronunciation - (distinguish between long and short vowel sounds) =

Be careful when studying Japanese for the first couple of times to make sure and pay attention to detail. The Romanization methods employed by the various types of Romanization of the Japanese Syllabary should be duly noted. For example in Japanese vowels can extend themselves into their double impressions where two vowels are connected into one yet the true pronunciation will be an elongated double vowel sound.
Amazon Spotlight on Sanseido English Japanese Dictionary
Wa Ei or Ei Wa, Either way, you are covered!
The mother load when it comes to Japanese to English or English to Japanese Dictionaries. Essential for any serious Japanese language student.

Sanseido's New Concise Japanese English Dictionary
The biggest and most worthy of Dictionaries available to you. The mother load is in Blue. Sanseido has always been my reliable back pocket friend. I love my sanseido. Mua!

Alphabets are Important - Tidbits of Japanese Grammar Sprinkled with Hakata Ben and Adjectives

A Secret So Easy, it will turn the tedious and sometimes daunting task of learning another language into a fun and exciting adventure.

I know what is good for me!
JPPGG© #91
How to say, “I know what to verb so that it would be good.”
NAN NAN SHITARA YOI KA SHITTE IRU
Verb (Base TA) + RA + YOI

YOI is the word for good and for all intents and purposes is equivalent to ii so that
*YOI = ii in any case (pronounced ee)

YOKA – can be heard often in the Fukuoka region. It is a part of the hakata-ben dialect. It means essentially– “Nah...”, or “I’m good!”

TASHIKA is not an adjective like AKAI, UTSUKUSHII, AKARUI, OR SURUDOI. It is irregular like TOMEI therefore it uses the connective particle NA

As is true in the pursuit of any language mastery, you must have an understanding of what is meant by the phrase, “milk before meat”. You cannot expect to learn something hard or complicated, or expect to eat meat with fully-grown canines and flesh piercing teeth before you are able to ingest the milk from a tender mother breast. Therefore, it is wise for any language learner to begin at the beginning, and spend some time there… and hang out…even they should try singing songs about the alphabet. Alphabets being the small parts of a language that when strung together form words, and make languages, living organisms. Learning the alphabet or syllabary for the language you are learning right now will make your progress and improvement in that language easier later by doing so.

Herein lies a key to language mastery. If an alphabet is available for the language, start studying it! The best way for you to get close to a language is by studying, and saying in your mouth the little parts of the language, saying them repeatedly as we all do at one point or another in civilized society. Only through a careful study of the smallest and simplest parts of a language can you get to know it as intimately as you would get to know your native language.

As a child, who does not remember singing an alphabet song, reading a book for the first time, looking up a word in the dictionary for the first time, or simply reciting the alphabet? Language is something that must be learned, and it is true in English and Japanese. Get yourself some Hiragana and katakana flash cards and memorize the look, feel and shape of each one being able to correctly identify each one, just as you do with the English letters. Learning the alphabet in another language is the first step towards understanding. Please take a moment to reflect on the first times you sang ‘The Alphabet Song', or recited your A,B,C’s. Now reflect upon how you came to know that 5 X 5 is = 25.

I know that if you gain a solid grasp of the Japanese Syllabary, the 46 syllables that make up all the sounds of Japanese then learning Japanese will be as a piece of cake for you. It will be easy to learn the Japanese language. That’s it! The trick to learning a foreign language is starts with learning the alphabet. In the case of the Japanese language, their alphabet, is not an alphabet because it is not made up of just letters, it is made up of syllables. There are 46 syllables in Japanese, and even though it is more than the number of letters in the English language (English letters in the alphabet = 26) it really is not that many once you see how it is set up.

The Japanese syllabary consists of 46 syllables and represents all sounds necessary for the formation of any Japanese word. It is just like the English’s Alphabet but it is called the GOJUON, or chart of the 50 sounds. The GOJUON is grouped in a way that facilitates learning of Japanese, especially the adjectives. Endings of adjectives follow the first 5 syllables or the Japanese vowels; a, i, u, e , o. I admonish any aspiring Japanese language learner to earnestly study the 46 syllables of the GOJUON or Japanese alphabet.

By the time we are 12 years of age, we usually forget how we came to be able to speak and utilize the English language and are so familiar with the Alphabet that we have forgotten that it was due to its recitation that we would know what we know. Reading and Writing are two sides of a coin that are wholly influenced by its contributing language’s Alphabet as are Speaking and Listening to a lesser extent. The alphabet itself is so ingrained into our language, it is often hard to remember that in order to be a successful learner of any language, that we must study first the primary components and basic building that we forget to take it for what it was when we try to apply these learning techniques to the way we would learn Japanese.

 For the purposes of learning how to read, write, speak and listen in English, it was necessary to study the core of the language at first, and that was the Alphabet. A good way to get at the core, or the heart of a language is by studying its Alphabet. We can do that in a similar or even the same way you would learn your times tables. How much did you get for memorizing your times tables? Offer yourself a cookie and say to yourself, “If I start my Japanese study (or any language study) by learning the syllables that make up their words then I will be ahead of the learning game later on when it really gets complicated.

Like I said...milk before meat. A house is built on a solid foundation. In other words, boiling it down to what I am trying to relate to those desirous of the ability to speak in another language and communicate, down the line Don’t want to cheat myself out of learning Japanese and retaining it, but good! Your parents, masters, or mentors may have promised you $5 if you memorized the times tables up to 12, but you can also do it for free…on your own… and you can reward yourself with a big surprise.

Be consistently insistent on diligent Japanese study and you will be able to communicate. And the ability to communicate with others of another country can open up whole truck loads of cool stuff. Catch the fever… learn Japanese. Tell everyone at the PTA meetings that Japanese is not a hard language to learn. In my opinion it is much easier than English to learn.

Japanese Adjectives The adjectives follow the syllabic structure found in the vowel row of the Gojuon, or indeci showing the 46 symbols of the Japanese syllabary in this order: A, I, U, E , and O. that represent of all sounds necessary for Japanese word formation.
The first five syllables in the GOJU ON -

あ A
い  I
う  U
え  E*
お O

The first five adjectivial endings + the irregular EI

あい AI
いい II
うい UI
えい EI
おい OI

Example adjectives showing the various endings:

あらい ARAI
あたらしい ATARASHII
ふるい FURUI
きれい KIREI*
おそい OSOI

* EI endings are for the most
TASHIKA itself is the adjective for our English term, “certain”. It is highly likely that the ka of TASHIKA has been artificially transplanted into adjectives in the Fukuoka region. TASHIKA means for certain in English and TASHIKA NI means certainly. As is the case with the irregular Japanese class of adjectives ending in EI, TASHIKA can be followed by the particle NI so that the NI can be roughly translated in sentences involving adjectives as –ly.

Below are some common Japanese adjectives that I have found most useful.

可愛 kawai かわい - cute
恐い kowai こわい - scary
近い chikai ちかい - close
鋭い surudoi するどい sharp
賢い kashikoi かしこい - smart

堅い katai かたい - hard
短い mijikai みじかい - short
細い hosoi ほそい - narrow
長い nagai ながい - long
明るい akarui あかるい - bright

太い futoi ふとい - fat
厚い atsui あつい - thick
熱い atsui あつい - hot
寒い samui さむい – cold
涼しい suzushii すずしい – cool

激しい hageshii はげしい - violent
難し muzukashii むつ"かしい - difficult
簡単 kantan かんたん – easy
眠い nemui ねむい - sleepy
眠たい nemutai ねむたい - sleepy

低い hikui ひくい - low
高い takai たかい - tall
珍しい mezurashii めずらしい - rare
大きい ookii おおきいい - big
小さい chiisai ちいさい – small

古い furui ふるい - old
若い wakai わかい - young
広い hiroi ひろい - wide
安い yasui やすい - cheap, easy
目覚しい mezamashii めざましい - alert

凄い tsumetai つめたい - chilly
強い tsuyoi つよい - strong
弱い yowai よわい - weak
柔らかい yawarakai やわらかい- soft
早い hayai - fast

遅いosoi - slow
重い omoi - heavy
暗い kurai くらい - dark
重たい omotai おもたい - heavy
軽い karui かるい - light

恥ずかしい hazukashii はずかしい - embarassing
喧しいyakamashii やかましい – loud, obnoxious
静か shizuka しずか - quiet
素晴らしい subarashii すばらしい - wonderful
美味しい oishii おいしい – delicious

酸っぱいsuppai すっぱい - sour
甘い  amai あまい - sweet
狭い semai せまい – narrow
悔しい kuyashii くやしい - vexing, mortifying
怪しいayashii あやしい - doubtful, suspicious

辛い tsurai つらい – hard, difficult
美しい utsukushi うつくし - beautiful
面白い omoshiroi おもしろい - interesting
力強い chikarazuyoi ちからずよい - powerful
かっこいい kakkoii – stylish, handsome
惜しい oshii おしい – regretful

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Making Wishes in Japanese

Japanese Grammar Lesson #98
How to Make Wishes in Japanese
or How to say , "If I could only verb" in Japanese.

Base IV + ba ii no ni or
A verb in its conditional state + ii no ni + ば いい の に
To wish (something), (I wish I could verb, despite it being cool)

To make sentences that will express your wishes or longing for something put a Japanese verb into its conditional state and add ii noni. The noni part I always took as meaning in spite of or despite something. Ii is the word for good, so that yoi could be used or even other adjectives of different shapes and sizes.

For this construction, any Japanese verb in its condtional form conditional will suffice for this lesson’s construction. The use of nara is also acceptable. So that you could have
-noun nara ii noni etc.

The Japanese conditional being either a verb in base IV as in iku -->? ik(e) (baseIV) + ba = ikeba or if (I) go or verb in base TA + RA, so that iku --> itta + ra or ittara

The verb iku 行く in base IV is 行け
- add the conditional extendor ば to the base so that 行け + ば = 行けば

ikeba ii no ni 行けば いい のに -
It would have been cool if I could have went, or I wish I could have gone.
literally this phrase means something more like Despite it being good, if I go.

In the same way you may say it this way, iku in base TA is itta
- add ra to form the conditional. So that
itta + ra = ittara
- than add ii no ni to complete the phrase that you wish would happen.
行った + ら = 行ったら

I have always Below are some examples to get you going. Make your own interesting sentences. Make questions out of them. Use them in Japan on real Japanese people to test them out and make sure they work. You never know what you might be able to say with your new grammar construction for making wishes in Japanese.

Examples

1. Yasukattara ii noni 安かったら いいのに
- I sure hope it is cheap, (lit. if it were cheap it would be good despite the fact that its probably not.)

2. Ittara ii noni or ikeba ii noni 行ったらいいのに or 行けば いい のに
- I wish I could go

3. Kirei dattara or kirei nara ii noni きれい だったら いいのに or きれいなら
- If she were cute that would be cool, or I hope she is pretty. (lit. Despite it being good if (she) is pretty.)

4. Shicchan ga ittara ii noni しっちゃん が いったら いい のに
- it would be cool if shi chan (a girl whose name starts with Shi)

5. Mite mireba ii noni. 見て 見れば
- I wish you would go check it out. or It would be cool if you could go look at it.

6. okane mochi nara ii noni – I wish I were rich, or if only I had a lot of money how cool would that be…etc.

As always,
Ganbatte ne!
Do Your Best!
Makurasuki

japanese adjectives

Ghetto Grammar #70 Japanandjafunmagic
Japanese Adjective Fun

all adjectives end in a dipthong created from the 5 vowels of the Japanese syllabary.

The endings are these adjectives are thus:

a + i = ai; hayai, arai, asai, mijikai, nagai, akai, nemutai, chiisai, suppai, amai, takai, aoi

i + i = ii; utsukushii, mezurashii, subarashii, itashii, shitashii, muzukashii, atarashii, mezamashii, okii

u + i = ui; usui, minikui, zurui, furui, nemui,

e + i = ei; kirei, teinei, burei,

and

o + i = oi; shitsukoi, hidoi, kuroi, osoi, noroi, boroi, hiroi, kashikoi, shiroi,

Base Ta mono desu Japanese Grammar

This is JPPGG bunpo principle #87.
Japanese Plug and Play Ghetto Grammar

To say in Japanese that you used to ~ verb, (at fairly regular intervals and at some point in the past) use the following construction:

used to ~ (~ is any verb)
yoku verb(base TA) mono desu.

The following examples will help you grasp today's JPPGG construction. After you get a feel for how this grammar is made, just keep plugging new verbs into the verb area in Base TA and then continue playing by making your own unique and interesting sentences. Don't forget to practice by saying all your newly created sentences out-loud. Drilling and killing, or plugging and playing your way to building a solid base from which your Japanese conversational skills will surely improve. Each new grammar principle you learn is like adding another weapon to your formidable Japanese language arsenal, which you will be able to use whenever the need arises. Keep plugging and playing until your friends tell you they can't stand how much you practice your Japanese or until they say stop. But even if you start bugging people because you practice too much, just keep telling yourself its all for my own good. Just keep practicing the grammar constructions and saying to yourself new sentences of your own creation. If you want to improve your Japanese, don’t fret too much on annoying the slackers that don’t want to master another language as badly as you do. The following are example sentences to show you how the construction is typically used so you too can take it and make it your own. Once again the construction for #87 Japanese Plug and Play Ghetto Grammar is as follows:

English - used to ~ (where ~ is any verb)

Japanese - yoku verb(base TA) mono desu.

1. When I was younger, I used to go to school by bicycle.
Watakushi ga motto wakai koro, jitensha de yoku gakko ni itta mono desu.
{As for I, in the more young time, by bike often school went thing is.}[1]
a. The main verb in 1. is iku - v. to go.
b. Putting the verb into its past tense -TA form ending gives you itta.
c. Insert iku, verb(base TA) or in this case itta into the construction and
d. you have your new sentence.
yoku itta mono da or I used to go.

2. He used to cheat, but the teacher busted him, and now he is a good boy.
Kare wa mae yoku kanningu[2] shita mono desu keredomo sensei ni barete shimatte ima orikosan desu.

3. I used to play there a lot.
Watakushi wa soko de yoku asonda mono da. [3]

G.A.B. or the Ghetto After Blast - One point advice -
The Japanese verb nareru means, "To get used to" which is similar to the used to that you have been getting used to in this bunpo. Nareru is a really cool word, and you will hear it a lot in Japanese conversation.

Ex.1 He is used to that job.
Kare wa sono shigoto ni narete imasu.[4]

As Always, Do your Best!
Ganbatte Ne!
Makurasuki Sensei.

[1] Given here in its' literal translation; its easy to see why not to translate literally as can be seen from the corruption madness of its form and sound.
[2] From the English adjective cunning.
[3] Non-polite plain form of the copula desu = da.
[4] See JPPGG Ghetto Grammar #88: 'Verbing' -verb (base TE) + iru or the Japanese Gerund.

Enthusiasm for Japanese langauge learning How to do it!

Deal the Zeal : Enthusiasm and its effects on second language Acquisition
Goals for Japanese Fluency
By Makurasuki, Brett McCluskey

This article was created to help those that need a boost to start or re-continue there quest for the acquisition and mastery of Japanese unto fluency.

You can improve your Japanese by following a few techniques I will show you and briefly outline here. In no time, your Japanese speaking skills will be better than you ever thought possible. Your success in second language acquisition should you accept the challenge, will be dependant upon the commitments you make to yourself to memorizing words part1, understanding, learning, memorizing then applying the basic Japanese grammar principlespart3+4 and finally your total amount of zeal you put into your efforts.

The amount of success or failure you have in second language acquisition starts with you. The power is within you; now let us try to unlock it. I want to share with you my zeal for learning another language and perhaps you might catch a little part of it and it might burn like the California fires of 2007 until you too have inspired others through your zeal and mastery of a foreign language.

My roommates hated me when I was studying, because not only would I ask them to help me by quizzing me from my vocabulary list from which I studied without fail daily, but I would wake up very early in the morning to practice speaking Japanese. I would repeat sentences I learned like mantras until I got the chance to use what I learned in real life to see which ones actually worked.

My roommates hated me. I had zeal for learning Japanese. It takes a great bit of it to be a successful language learner. You MUST HAVE ZEAL for learning the language or you will become complacent and lazy.

Determine within yourself now that you will find a way to harness zeal and enthusiasm towards the improvement of your Japanese unto acquisition. You must also have a purpose for your zeal. My purpose was to be able to speak with the Japanese people themselves, to communicate with them with no impediments of speech. ‘Like they say Quitters Never Win and Winners Never Quit’, so get going now and find your purpose and zeal it up.

The following is just one way and one example of what kind of language goals a person could set and realistically achieve, while at the same time making it challenging enough to maintain their interest. You might emulate these goals if you were learning Japanese; they are modeled after my own goals. They are in no way the only way to go, but they are, as I said, just one set of possible goals that you can use to help you attain fluency.

They helped me acquire that ever-elusive second language (Japanese) and if they are couple with enough zeal, it will be very possible that they will help you get fluency too. Remember though, the amount of zeal you put into your work is exactly how much success you will achieve out of it. With the right amount of zeal, you are bound to be speaking native like a Japanese senator in no time flat. May your Nihongo wa jozu ni naru.

It has been said to be fluent a person must know a minimum 4000 words

Vocabulary –n. a list of words, and often phrases, abbreviations, inflectional forms, etc., usually arranged in alphabetical order and defined or otherwise identified as in a dictionary, or glossary.

It goes on to say that vocabulary is also all the words recognized and understood by a particular person although not necessarily used by him, these may be an interrelated group of nonverbal symbols, signs, gestures, etc. used for communication or expression.

Now let us do some math to see how long it will take us to learn 4000 words, or, what some have called, the minimum amount of vocabulary one must know and be able to use and still be considered fluent.

7 days a week
52 weeks per annum
4 weeks per month
12 months per annum

How long will it take to obtain a 4000 word vocabulary?

Well if we learned 4000 words in one day, it would only take us one day, but is it reasonable to assume that we will retain those words? Unless you have a photographic memory, we should consider something else. How about 4000 words in 1 month? Is that a reasonable goal? I do not think either of those goals are within a typical realizable amount attainable possible.

We need a reasonable goal that is attainable that leaves us some breathing room to assimilate the vocabulary into our own speech system. I feel 6-8 words a day might be stretching us thin a little bit but it is the one I will recommend. Actually, the way I did it was to learn 15 words every two days but for sake of clarity, let us stick with words/day.

We do not want to memorize too many words because we will end up worse than learning only one word a week. At one word a week, it would take us 4000 days, or almost 11 years to have such a vocabulary. That is too long if you figure that for an accelerated college degree program you will be spending 4-6 years to obtain your B.A. and still would not be fluent either way, 11 years is too long.

These goals will be set for you to learn 4000 vocabulary terms in 1 year and 1 month from your starting date. This is still a very lofty goal. In order to learn 4000 vocabulary in 1 year and 1 month you will need to learn 10-11 words / day
That is the goal, 10-11 words / day, sunawachi everyday with no rest.

Day 1 goal – memorize 10 words today, tomorrow and 10 new words everyday for the next 9 months. Do not get discouraged after 9 months if you stick with your goals you will not be pera pera (fluent), but you will be enabled to handle almost any conversation that comes your way.


Day 2 goal -
Day 3 goal –
Weekly goal
Monthly goal
3-month goal
6-month goal

Beginning

So what exactly is fluency?

How do we measure fluency? There are indubitably quite a few ways to measure fluency. I am not aware of any fluency machine that can instantly measure your fluency like we can measure blood pressure, or body temperature.

I have heard it said at least once that fluency is dependent upon total vocabulary memorized. In addition, they put a number on it of 4000 different words. I cannot say I totally agree with that statement. No doubt, other requirements for language fluency certainly exist, other than just knowledge of the vocabulary.

Although many other complex processes are involved in fluency, we will start with how to set goals in memorizing words to increase our vocabulary power. Setting goals to memorizing vocabulary is a good place to start. So how much vocabulary power do you have under your belt?

The amount of words that you know and are able to translate those words into and out of your native tongue and into and out of your target language. Know the meaning of words so thoroughly that you can interchange them instantly. I suggest the use of mnemonics as helpful way to memorize Japanese words.

Just as one can word or phrase or apply any manipulation to the language so that its suits our purpose and the main purpose and reason is to get our meaning across. Sharing a As long as the method we use suffices to get our message across it does not even matter if we can speak Japanese or not.

In any language, if you look like you have to go ‘pee’ you do not have to say a word people will understand you. If you look tired or motion your hands as if you are sleeping, our knowledge of Nihongo lets body language assume the role.
What is the shortest distance between you and getting what you want? You are allowed to use any and all means necessary to get your meaning across.

Please see my article on circumlocution for sure fire ways to get your meaning across even if you do not know the Japanese words for it. http://ezinearticles.com/?Japanese-Pronunciation-Tips-13&id=472520

About our own Native tongue -
Just in mannerisms and the exact vocabulary and grammatical structure employed by the speaker, can there be vast amounts of missed meanings to occur.

Japanese could be spoken in any number of differing ways; intelligently, suave, brave, naive, sophisticated, charming, honorifically, stately, manly cunning, feminine, drunk, legendary all sorts of ways to speak like and just as we have the ish to make something in Nihongo the word becomes -ppoi.

Noun + ppoi = noun ‘ish’

Beautifully, wonderfully or bold or any other way you can think of, it becomes like it and takes on its characteristic traits.

The levels Keigo and the cultural implications of Kokugo^ must know how to manipulate verbs, while memorizing and strengthening your store of Japanese words to put into your goal oriented language arsenal. With that arsenal and using all of your faculties to summon together the ability to speak inside of another tongue, and also to be able to open your ears to such an extent that they become even more sensitive to different words, consonants, vowels phonemes.

Along with your noun memorization oath. (See appendix) noun (do not take for granted any place names that are presented to you on your quest for complete Japanese mastery. You have to commit yourself to a reasonable yet challenging goal.

Rocket Japanese

Some thoughts on Japanese language self training

There is spoken language and the written language. Kanji has deep meanings contained within each one. This is much different from what we are expecting, because we have become through continuous use of our own native language, stifled by the alphabet. We can see the meaning of things inside the kanji. Therefore from the get go, we should try to wean ourselves from the temptation to look up words in Romaji to decipher meaning. We should use a dictionary like Sanseido's daily concise wa-ei jiten.

Week 1

Verbs - Drink, Sleep, Eat, Go, Work (nomu, neru, taberu, hataraku).
- Be able to put learned verbs in all their bases. Bases I - V.

Create sentences using all base forms from I - V
- Test your created sentences on an actual Nihonjin to make sure they really work.

Nouns - coffee, tea, milk, water, coca cola, sake, Aquarius, beer, juice (KO-hi, o-cha, gyu^nyu^, mizu, koka kora, sake, akuariusu, bi-ru, ju-su

Adjectives - oishii, suteki na, benri na, okii, nagai, samui, atsui, chisai, mijikai. (Delicious, cool, convenient, big, long, cold, hot, small, short etc.)

- adjectives are fun to play with. Practice putting the adjectives in front of nouns etc.

Grammar - Know the masu, masen, mashita, masen deshita etc (polite formations of verbs)
- Become acquainted with the various levels of politeness; humble, honorific, plain form

Example Grammar Construction:

- Verb (Base II) + Tai desu = I want to verb - polite form. - Without desu, its plain form or

- P.F.Verb (Base II) + masho^ = Shall we +verb or let's +verb

Pronunciation - (distinguish between long and short vowel sounds)

Be careful when studying Japanese for the first couple of times to make sure and pay attention to detail. The Romanization methods employed by the various types of Romanization of the Japanese Syllabary should be duly noted. For example in Japanese vowels can extend themselves into their double impressions where two vowels are connected into one yet the true pronunciation will be an elongated double vowel sound.

Japanese skills

A Secret So Easy, It will turn the tedious and sometimes daunting task of learning another language funto making language learning Easy
Japanese Easy
I know what’s good for me!
JPPGG© #91
How to say, “I know how to verb
NAN NAN SHITARA YOI KA
Verb(Base TA) + RA +

Yoi is the word for good and for all intents and purposes is equivalent to ii so that
*yoi = ii in any case

yoka – can be hear much in Fukuoka to mean – “Nah”, or “I’m good”

TASHIKA is not an adjective like AKAI, UTSUKUSHII, AKARUI, TOMEI, OR SURUDOI.

As is true in the pursuit of any language mastery, you must have an understanding of what is meant by the phrase, “milk before meat”. You can’t expect to learn something hard or complicated, or expect to eat meat with fully grown canines and flesh piercing teeth before you are able to ingest the milk from a tender mother breast. Therefore, it is wise for any language learner to begin at the beginning, and spend some time there… and hang out…even they should try singing songs about the alphabet. Alphabets being the small parts of a language that when strung together form words, and make languages, living organisms. Learning the alphabet or syllabary for the language you are learning right now will make your progress and improvement in that language easier later by doing so.
Herein lies a key to a language mastery. If an alphabet is available for the language, by all means start studying it! The best way for you to get close to a language is by studying, and saying in your mouth the little parts of the language, saying them time and time again as we all do at one point or another in civilized society. Through a careful study of the smallest and simplest parts of a language can you get to know it as intimately as you would get to know you native language.
As a child, who does not remember singing an alphabet song, reading a book for the first time, looking up a word in the dictionary for the first time, or simply reciting the alphabet. Language is something that must be learned, and its true in English and Japanese. Get yourself some hiragana, and katakana flash cards and memorize the look, feel and shape of each one being able to correctly identify each one, just as you do with the English letters. Learning the alphabet in another language is the first step towards understanding.
Please take a moment to reflect on the first times you sang The Alphabet Song, or recited you’re A,B,C’s. Now reflect upon how you came to know that 5 X 5 is = 25. I know that if you gain a solid grasp of the Japanese Syllabary, the 46 syllables that make up all the sounds of Japanese then learning Japanese will be as a piece of cake for you. It will be easy to learn the Japanese language. That’s it! The trick to learning a foreign language is starts with learning the alphabet. In the case of the Japanese language, their alphabet, isn’t an alphabet because it is not made up of just letters, it is made up of syllables. There are 46 syllables in Japanese, and even though it is more than the number of letters in the English language (English letters in the alphabet = 26) it really isn’t that many once you see how it is set up.
The Japanese syllabary is made up of 46 syllables and represents all sounds necessary for the formation of any Japanese word. It is just like the English’s Alphabet but its called the gojuon or chart of the 50 sounds. It is grouped to make the learning of it very easy. Set up in groups that follow the first 5 syllables or the Japanese vowels; a, i, u, e , o
By the time we are 12 we usually forget that we had ever even learned the English language and are so familiar with the Alphabet that we have forgotten that it was due to its recitation that we would know what we know. Reading and Writing are two sides of a coin that are wholly influenced by its contributing language’s Alphabet as are Speaking and Listening to a lesser extent. The alphabet I so ingrained into our language that we forget to take it for what it was when we try to apply these learning techniques to the way we would learn Japanese. For the purposes of learning how to read, write, speak and listen in English it was necessary to study the core of the language at first, and that was the Alphabet. A good way to get at the core, or the heart of a language is by studying it’s Alphabet. We can do that in a similar or even the same way you would learn your times tables. How much did you get for memorizing your times tables? Offer yourself a cookie and say to yourself, “If I start my Japanese study (or any language study) by learning the syllables that make up their words then I will be ahead of the learning game later on when it really gets complicated. Like I said...milk before meat. A house is built on a solid foundation. In other words, boiling it down to what I am trying to relate to those desirous of the ability to speak in another language and communicate, down the line Don’t want to cheat myself out of learning Japanese and retaining it, but good! Your parents, masters, or mentors may have promised you $5 if you memorized the times tables up to 12, but you can also do it for free…on your own… and you can reward yourself with a big surprise.
Be consistently insistent on diligent Japanese study and you will be able to communicate. And the ability to communicate with others of another country can open up whole truck loads of cool stuff. Catch the fever, learn Japanese. Tell everyone at the PTA meetings that Japanese is really not that bad. Also I ask all of those who may harrow in their souls hatred against the Japanese people to end it now so that we can live peaceably amongst each others, and learn from one another.


Japanese Adjectives The adjectives follow the syllabic structure found in the vowel row of the Gojuon, or indeci showing the 46 symbols of the Japanese syllabary in this order: A, I, U, E , and O. that represent of all sounds necessary for Japanese word formation.

KAWAI ATARASHII FURUI KIREI BOROI

TASHIKA itself is the adjective for our English term, “certain”. It is highly likely that the ka of TASHIKA has been artificially transplanted into adjectives in the Fukuoka region. TASHIKA means for certain in English and TASHIKA NI means certainly. As is the case with the irregular Japanese class of adjectives ending in ei, TASHIKA can be followed by the particle NI so that the NI can be roughly translated in sentences involving adjectives as –ly.

Japanese grammar - Base II + sugiru

In Excess – too much
When enough, is ENOUGH!
Verb (base II) + sugiru (過ぎる)

Do you overeat? Are there things which you indulge upon which others consider to be excessive. Gambling, money, sex, watching too much T.V.?

To say that you verb too much in Japanese, use the following construct:

Verb (base II) + SUGIRU 過ぎる

Any verb put into Base II can be added unto, with sugiru.

Example 1. yarisugi da ne やりすぎだね– you over do it man!

Example .2. oso^sugi 遅すぎ– used with adjectives becoming – “its too late”, hayasugi (too)
early), nagasugi 長過ぎ( too long), okiisugi 大き過ぎる(too big).

Example.3. ~tai of base II forming to want to endings becomes

Verb(Base II) + tasugi - even tai which is a form of the verb tagaru acts as adjectivial end meaning to desire the verb excessively

chigai nai in Japanese grammar

Why Certainly!
Japanese Plug and Play Ghetto Grammar #112

How to say something is for sure in Japanese
Noun + CHIGAI NAI

I. Noun + NI CHIGAI NAI – Noun for sure!
To be (noun phrase) without fail !

The Japanese bunpo^ NOUN+ NI CHIGAI NAI grammar construction is used quite regularly, and in expressions where you want to impart an unwavering definiteness as to the outcome. CHIGAI itself is a noun meaning difference. It is in base II in similitude to other verbs that change into nouns by putting them into base II. See my article on verb bases for more information. comes from the verb CHIGAU –v. to be different, to vary, to disagree, to be unlike.

Ex. 1 ZETTAI KARE NO SAIFU NI CHIGAI NAI. –
Its definitely his wallet . . .for sure! Or
It’s his wallet for sure definitely

Ex. 2 NATSU GA KURU NI CHIGAI NAI –
Summer will be here without fail.

Ex. 3 MAI HARU WASHI GA CANADA NI KAETTE KURU NI CHIGAI NAI –
Every spring the eagles return back to Canada without fail.

Ex. 4 SO^ NI CHIGAI NAI! そうに違いない –
That’s the way it is man! FOR SHIZZLE!
It’s my way..., my way or the highway!

II. A [TO (と)] B NO CHIGAI GA WAKARU (WAKARANAI) –
Can (can’t) tell the difference between A and B.

Ex.1. HONMONO TO NISEMONO NO CHIGAI GA WAKARANAI. –
I can’t tell the difference between the fake and the real thing.

See my other Japanese Plug and Play Ghetto Grammar articles by visiting the index. Beef up your current stock of word power with my Japanese Vocabulary Blasters also found on the index. Finally, take your skills and head over to the Japanese Conversational Practice Palace to solidify your Japanese language training and to help fortify your Japanese language skills.

http://squidoo.com/jppgg

As always,
Do Your Best!
Ganbatte Ne!
Makurasuki Sensei








Ghetto After Blast G.A.B. - one point advice – when you want to refute a point made by another soften your phrase up by saying CHIGAU TO OMOU or I think it’s a little different. Unless you want to make it clear that the other person is wrong then you would say CHIGAU! – You are definitely wrong! In English CHIGAU can simply mean nope! or NO ITS NOT! Or even NO you are WRONG! Or Not even! That is why this is the GAB, the ghetto after blast because the effects could ripple through the time space continuum. JA NE! LATES!

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Brett McCluskey 2008

JPPGG 91 Secret Japanese Language Learning Secret

A Secret So Easy, it will turn the tedious and sometimes daunting task of learning another language into a fun and exciting adventure.

I know what is good for me!
JPPGG© #91
How to say, “I know what to verb so that it would be good.”
NAN NAN SHITARA YOI KA SHITTE IRU
Verb (Base TA) + RA + YOI

YOI is the word for good and for all intents and purposes is equivalent to ii so that
*YOI = ii in any case (pronounced ee)

YOKA – can be heard often in the Fukuoka region. It is a part of the hakata-ben dialect. It means essentially– “Nah...”, or “I’m good!”

TASHIKA is not an adjective like AKAI, UTSUKUSHII, AKARUI, OR SURUDOI. It is irregular like TOMEI therefore it uses the connective particle NA

As is true in the pursuit of any language mastery, you must have an understanding of what is meant by the phrase, “milk before meat”. You cannot expect to learn something hard or complicated, or expect to eat meat with fully-grown canines and flesh piercing teeth before you are able to ingest the milk from a tender mother breast. Therefore, it is wise for any language learner to begin at the beginning, and spend some time there… and hang out…even they should try singing songs about the alphabet. Alphabets being the small parts of a language that when strung together form words, and make languages, living organisms. Learning the alphabet or syllabary for the language you are learning right now will make your progress and improvement in that language easier later by doing so.
Herein lies a key to language mastery. If an alphabet is available for the language, start studying it! The best way for you to get close to a language is by studying, and saying in your mouth the little parts of the language, saying them repeatedly as we all do at one point or another in civilized society. Only through a careful study of the smallest and simplest parts of a language can you get to know it as intimately as you would get to know your native language.
As a child, who does not remember singing an alphabet song, reading a book for the first time, looking up a word in the dictionary for the first time, or simply reciting the alphabet? Language is something that must be learned, and it is true in English and Japanese. Get yourself some Hiragana and katakana flash cards and memorize the look, feel and shape of each one being able to correctly identify each one, just as you do with the English letters. Learning the alphabet in another language is the first step towards understanding.
Please take a moment to reflect on the first times you sang ‘The Alphabet Song', or recited your A,B,C’s. Now reflect upon how you came to know that 5 X 5 is = 25. I know that if you gain a solid grasp of the Japanese Syllabary, the 46 syllables that make up all the sounds of Japanese then learning Japanese will be as a piece of cake for you. It will be easy to learn the Japanese language. That’s it! The trick to learning a foreign language is starts with learning the alphabet. In the case of the Japanese language, their alphabet, is not an alphabet because it is not made up of just letters, it is made up of syllables. There are 46 syllables in Japanese, and even though it is more than the number of letters in the English language (English letters in the alphabet = 26) it really is not that many once you see how it is set up.
The Japanese syllabary consists of 46 syllables and represents all sounds necessary for the formation of any Japanese word. It is just like the English’s Alphabet but it is called the GOJUON, or chart of the 50 sounds. The GOJUON is grouped in a way that facilitates learning of Japanese, especially the adjectives. Endings of adjectives follow the first 5 syllables or the Japanese vowels; a, i, u, e , o. I admonish any aspiring Japanese language learner to earnestly study the 46 syllables of the GOJUON or Japanese alphabet.
By the time we are 12 years of age, we usually forget how we came to be able to speak and utilize the English language and are so familiar with the Alphabet that we have forgotten that it was due to its recitation that we would know what we know. Reading and Writing are two sides of a coin that are wholly influenced by its contributing language’s Alphabet as are Speaking and Listening to a lesser extent. The alphabet itself is so ingrained into our language, it is often hard to remember that in order to be a successful learner of any language, that we must study first the primary components and basic building that we forget to take it for what it was when we try to apply these learning techniques to the way we would learn Japanese. For the purposes of learning how to read, write, speak and listen in English, it was necessary to study the core of the language at first, and that was the Alphabet. A good way to get at the core, or the heart of a language is by studying its Alphabet. We can do that in a similar or even the same way you would learn your times tables. How much did you get for memorizing your times tables? Offer yourself a cookie and say to yourself, “If I start my Japanese study (or any language study) by learning the syllables that make up their words then I will be ahead of the learning game later on when it really gets complicated.
Like I said...milk before meat. A house is built on a solid foundation. In other words, boiling it down to what I am trying to relate to those desirous of the ability to speak in another language and communicate, down the line Don’t want to cheat myself out of learning Japanese and retaining it, but good! Your parents, masters, or mentors may have promised you $5 if you memorized the times tables up to 12, but you can also do it for free…on your own… and you can reward yourself with a big surprise.
Be consistently insistent on diligent Japanese study and you will be able to communicate. And the ability to communicate with others of another country can open up whole truck loads of cool stuff. Catch the fever… learn Japanese. Tell everyone at the PTA meetings that Japanese is not a hard language to learn. In my opinion it is much easier than English to learn.

Japanese Adjectives The adjectives follow the syllabic structure found in the vowel row of the Gojuon, or indeci showing the 46 symbols of the Japanese syllabary in this order: A, I, U, E , and O. that represent of all sounds necessary for Japanese word formation.
The first five syllables in
the GOJU ON A
あ I
い U
う E*
え O
お
The first five adjectivial endings + the irregular EI AI
あい II
いい UI
うい EI
,えい OI
おい
Example adjectives showing the various endings ARAI
あらい ATARASHII
あたらしい FURUI
ふるい KIREI*
きれい OSOI
おそい

* EI endings are for the most
TASHIKA itself is the adjective for our English term, “certain”. It is highly likely that the ka of TASHIKA has been artificially transplanted into adjectives in the Fukuoka region. TASHIKA means for certain in English and TASHIKA NI means certainly. As is the case with the irregular Japanese class of adjectives ending in EI, TASHIKA can be followed by the particle NI so that the NI can be roughly translated in sentences involving adjectives as –ly.

Below are some common Japanese adjectives that I have found most useful.

可愛 kawai かわい - cute
恐い kowai こわい - scary
近い chikai ちかい - close
鋭い surudoi するどい sharp
賢い kashikoi かしこい - smart
堅い katai かたい - hard

短い mijikai みじかい - short
細い hosoi ほそい - narrow
長い nagai ながい - long
明るい akarui あかるい - bright

太い futoi ふとい - fat
厚いatsui あつい - thick
暑いatsui あつい - thick
熱いatsui あつい - hot
寒いsamui さむい – cold

涼しいsuzushii すずしい – cool
激しいhageshii はげしい - violent
難しmuzukashii むつ"かしい - difficult
簡単kantan かんたん – easy
眠いnemui ねむい - sleepy

眠たいnemutai ねむたい - sleepy
低いhikui ひくい - low
高いtakai たかい - tall
珍しいmezurashii めずらしい - rare
大きいookii おおきいい - big

小さいchiisai ちいさい – small
古いfurui ふるい - old
若いwakai わかい - young
広いhiroi ひろい - wide
安いyasui やすい - cheap, easy

目覚しい mezamashii めざましい - alert
凄いtsumetai つめたい - chilly
強いtsuyoi つよい - strong
弱いyowai よわい - weak
柔らかい yawarakai - soft

早い hayai - fast
遅いosoi - slow
重い omoi - heavy
暗い kurai くらい - dark
重たい omotai おもたい - heavy
軽い karui かるい - light

恥ずかしい hazukashii はずかしい - embarassing
喧しいyakamashii やかましい – loud, obnoxious
静か shizuka しずか - quiet
素晴らしい subarashii すばらしい - wonderful
美味しい oishii おいしい – delicious

酸っぱいsuppai すっぱい - sour
甘い あまい amai あまい - sweet
狭い せまいsemai せまい – narrow
悔しい kuyashii くやしいvexing, mortifying
怪しいayashii – doubtful, suspicious


辛いtsurai つらい – hard, difficult
美しいutsukushi うつくし - beautiful
面白いomoshiroi おもしろい - interesting
chikarazuyoiちからずよい - powerful
かこいkakoi – stylish, handsome
惜しいoshii – regretful

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A Japanese adjective thought

ADJECTIVES ALWAYS END IN A DIPTHONG OR TWO VOWEL SOUNDS TOGETHER. they can end in -
 ai, ei, oi, ii, ui,

The adjectives ending in ei somehow came to be irregular and don't follow the nice pattern set up for us by the other vowel comination endings.

akai, kirei, aoi, utsukushii, atsui
akai ending in ai
kirei ending in ei
aoi ending in oi
utsukushii ending in the double ii
and lastly
atsui ending in ui
These are in the order of the syllables a i u e o

In like manner  when we add + ku + naru to the stems of adjectives we have a grammar that becomes the adjective. They are set up to become verb bumpo like
akakunaru, even kirekunaru, atsukunaru, aokunaru - its turning red, pretty, hot or its turning blue,
okikunaru- its growing larger or getting bigger"