ganbare

Ganbaru means to do your best! SO DO IT! GANBARE!

Towards Better Japanese
Ganbatte ne!
Do Your Best!
Makurasuki

How to say Delicious in Japanese

Learn some different words for saying delicious in the Hakata dialect

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Japanetics - Dynamic Japanese Language Learning

Learn how to master a few linguistical concepts today so that you can start speaking Japanese tomorrow. For those desirous of accelerated learning. Start speaking Japanese faster.

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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

Early Beginning Japanese Words for Good Use

Here are some useful Japanese words from my personal collection:

1. baibai suru - deal; trade in
2. hatsuyuki - the first snow fall
3. beisaku - rice crop
4. tengen - a dotted line
5. inyo^ suru - to quote or to put in quotes
6. shu^ten - the last stop; final stop; the end of the line (train etc.)
7. kikoku - homecoming, (kikoku suru)
8. mizutama - a drop of water
9. cho^kan - morning paper
10. aseru - be in a hurry; be impatient

Today's Bunpo^ - P.F. + Tori ni -










Towards Better Japanese
Ganbatte ne!
Do Your Best!
Makurasuki

Useful Japanese Adverbs That Intesify Other Japanese Words or Phrases

These Japanese words (mostly adverbs) help intesify or heat up other Japanese words and phrases. Learn these useful Japanese intesifiers.

1.  本当に -
Honto ni - Really

2.  非常に -
Hijo^ ni - Extremely

3.  凄く -
Sugoku - greatly, awfully (very)

4.  とっても-
Tottemo - very

5.  大変-
Taihen - awful (rough, hard)

6. どんなに -
Donna ni... - how...

7.  必ず-
Kanarazu - absolutely

Let's for example say we saw a very pretty woman, and your friend asks you, "How pretty was she...?
In Japanese he would ask you by saying -

Ano onna no hito wa donna ni kirei desu ka? - How pretty is that woman?

To which you could answer:

honto ni kirei desu - really pretty
hijo^ ni kirei desu - extremely pretty or
sugoku kirei desu - awfully pretty etc.

3 types of Japanese verbs

There are 3 types of Japanese verbs

1. Irregular ( kuru, suru)
2. Ichidan (always end in eru or iru)
3. Yo^dan


As Always,
Ganbatte ne!
Do Your Best!
Makurasuki

Some useful Japanese words and phrases

Here are some useful Japanese words and phrases and their colloquial English equivalents.

1. とんでもない -
ton demo nai - It is nothing at all or, no big deal.

2. 大したもんじゃない -
taishita mon ja nai - It is no big thing or, nothing special at all.

3.  多分-
tabun - probably

4.  その通りです-
sono to^ri desu - That's it Watson!. That is it exactly, precisely.

5. たしかに -
tashika ni - For sure, surely, definately.

6. もちろん -
mochiron - Of course.

7. そんなことないよ ! -
sonna koto nai yo! - No way Jose! That isn't right! It isn't like that at all.

8.  成程 -
naruhodo - I see..., or now I get it.

9. やっぱり-
yappari - As you would think, or I thought so, or after all, naturally, obviously etc.

Basic Japanese Grammar - Verb Base II + Nasai

Basic Japanese Grammar Crash Course
Accelerated Japanese Mastery
Base II + NASAI なさい – Lesser command form

To boss people around, or tell people what to do, commanding them in Japanese you will need to know this Japanese Grammar construction:

Verb (base II) + NASAI なさい - Do verb! Command form.

Examples
1.Suwarinasai! 坐りなさい!
“Take your seat!”
a.Suwaru 座る - v. to sit down
b.Suwaru 座るin base II is suwari 坐り
c.Suwari坐り + nasai なさい = suwarinasai坐りなさい Sit!

2.Shukudai o shinasai! 宿題をしなさい
“Do your homework!”
a.suruする – v. to do
b.suru in base II = shiし
c.shiし + nasaiなさい = shinasaiしなさい “DO IT!”


3.Ikinasai!行きなさい
“Go!”
a.iku 行く– v . to go
b.iku 行く in base II is iki 行き
c.iki行き + nasaiなさい = ikinasai行きなさい “GO!”

Plug in your favorite Japanese verbs into this Japanese Grammar Construction and start making your own cool sentences then test them on your Japanese friends.

As always,
Ganbatte Ne! 頑張ってね
Do Your Best!
Makurasuki まくらすき

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?

2 Japanese ireggular verbs and their usage

Suru and Kuru are irregular Japanese verbs so I thought I would show the conjugations of them through the 5 bases and base TE and TA. Here goes

Japanese 1 2 3 4 5 TE TA
Verb Bases _______________________________________________________________________________

suru する shi(し) shi(し) suru(する) sure(すれ) shiyo^(しよう) shite(して ) shita(した)

_____________________________________________________________________________________

kuru 来る ko(こ) ki(き) kuru(くる) kure(くれ) koyo^(こよう) kite(きて) kita(きた)

How to count people in Japanese

How to count people in Japanese.
Hito 人 the Japanese counter for people.

When counting people in Japanese we use the counter for person or hito 人 (ひと). Hito also has the reading of nin or にん. The first two counters or words for 1 person and 2 persons are exceptions and are irregular. The word for 1 person is hitori, and the word for 2 people is futari.

When at a fine gourmet restaurant in Japan, the first thing the maitre d will ask is, “ how many people in your group,” to which you could reply any of the following. If two people then say futari. You will most likely hear the maitre d saying “ O- futari san desu ka?”, which means, “Table for two?” to which you could reply, “Hai so^ desu”, “Yes that is correct, 2.”

Nin 人 is the counter for people or persons so that we will have from 1-10 people the following:

hitori - 一人, 1 person
futari - 二人, 2 people
sannin - 三人, 3 people
yonnin - 四人, 4 people
gonin - 五人, 5 people
rokunin - 六人, 6 people
shichinin - 七人, 7 people
hachinin - 八人, 8 people
kyu^nin - 九人, 9 people
ju^nin - 十人, 10 people

If you can count to 100 in Japanese, then just add nin 人 to say how many people you are talking about. The same for any number up to infinity. The word for everyone or everybody is minna and depending on how polite you wish to address everyone by, you either add the polite san さん or sama 様 to minna 皆making it minnasan 皆さん or minnasama 皆様.

More advanced examples:
hachiju^hachinin - 八十八人, 88 people
sennin - 千人,1000 people etc.

Japanese Word to cry Naku

Japanese word of many colors

Naku 泣く is a verb of many colors. A chameleon of Japanese words so to speak. What naku can do in one word takes English 13 or more words for it is the word used for cats mewing, dogs barking, birds chirping, horses neighing, frogs croaking, crows crowing, cawing or cooing. It is also the word for yelping, mooing, warbling and quacking, The Japanese verb naku鳴く means to cry. The Japanese verb naku 泣くstanding water means to cry also, as when humans cry.

Let’s put naku泣くinto the 5 grammar bases of Japanese

Naku in Base I = Naka泣か
Naku in Base II = Naki 泣き
Naku in Base III = Naku 泣く
Naku in base IV = Nake 泣け
Naku in base V = Nako 泣こ

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!

Japanese grammar noun ga hoshii

Japanese noun fun with hoshii

noun ga hoshii = noun is wanted


so that

ringo ga hoshii = I want an apple

suteki na bo^shi ga hoshii = I want a cool hat

okii ie ga hoshii - I want a big house

okane ga hoshii - I want some money

to make these Japanese phrases polite, add desu to hoshii so that the entire construction becomes noun ga hoshii desu

itchi oku en ga hoshii desu etc.
etc. have a decent day

Japanese Grammar Verbs in Base II + Hajimeru

Japanese Grammar – Fusing verbs to make new ones.
Verb(Base II) + Hajimeru – To begin to verb


You can usually make new Japanese words, verbs, or phrases by fusing two verbs together; The first verb in base II and the last verb conjugated normally. Let’s take some verbs and put them into base II then see what kind of new words, verbs and different Japanese phrases we can come up with.

1.Hatasu 果たす – to accomplish
2.settoku suru 説得する – to persuade
3.hiyakeru 日焼ける– to get sun burnt
4.kau 買う– to buy
5.umareru 生まれる– to give birth

Proceeding we will put these Japanese verbs into base II to form the extensor. As explained in previous lessons, base II extensor form for yo^dan verbs is made with the 2nd Japanese vowel i, pronounced ee. A verb in Base II will always end in the i vowel unless it is an chidan verb. Below, 1,2 and 4 are yo^dan verbs while 3 and 5 are ichidan verbs:

1.hatasu in base II = hatashi 果たし
2.settoku suru説得する is suru する in base II = shiし
3.hiyakeru日焼ける in base II = hiyake日焼け(In ichidan verbs, just drop the final ru)
4.kau 買う in base II = kai 買い (replace u with i)
5.umareru生まれる in base II = umare生まれ (ichidan)

Now we can proceed to make new verbs in Japanese to test on our Japanese friends, just to make sure that this makes sense. So we use the above Japanese grammar plug and Play construction Verb (base II) + hajimeru – to begin to verb, to make new Japanese words, verbs and phrases.

1.hatashi果たし + hajimeru始める= hatashihajimeru果たし始める – to begin to accomplish
2.settoku shi 説得し+ hajimeru 始める= settoku shihajimeru 説得し始める – to begin to persuade
3.hiyake日焼け+ hajimeru 始める = hiyakehajimeru日焼け始める – to begin to get sunburnt
4.kai 買い+ hajimeru始める = kaihajimeru買い始める – to begin to buy
5.umare 生まれ + hajimeru 始める = umarehajimeru 生まれ始める – to begin to be born

There you have the Japanese grammar plug and play for making new phrases in Japanese. Continue by plugging in your own verbs and making your own new sentences. As always, Ganbatte Ne! Do Your Best! Makurasuki まくらすき.

Japanese grammar practice for "after verbing"

Japanese Grammar Plug and Play - Three Ways of Saying,
"After Verb-ing" in Japanese.

There are three ways to form sentences that you can use when you want to say, "after verb-ing" in Japanese.

Here are the constructs:

I. Verb (base TE) + KARA
II. Verb (base TA) + ATO DE
III. Verb (base TA) + NOCHI NI

By themselves KARA, ATO DE, NOCHI NI all mean, after. All are similar to each other and are the equivalent for expressions relating to the English terms following or later, thereafter etc...

The first way to say that you will do something after doing something else in Japanese, is by using the kara bunpo (grammar):

I. Verb (Base TE ) + KARA = after verb-ing

Take verbs and put them into base TE-て.

Verbs ending in KU くbecome ITE いて.
Verbs ending in GU ぐbecome IDE いで.
Verbs ending in Uう, TSUつ, or RUる become TTEって
Verbs ending in BUぶ, MUむ, or NUぬ become NDEんで.

The verb suruするor verbs ending in SUす become SHITE して
After putting verbs into base TE, add + KARA (after) to complete the construction

1. HANASU 話す(v. to speak)

In Base TE-て the Japanese verb HANASU話す = HANASHITE話して
HANASHITE + KARA 話してから = after speaking , or after talking

CHOTTO HANASHITE KARA IKIMASHO^ ちょっと話してから往きましょう
Let's go after we talk a little.

2. YOMU読む (v. to read) -

In Base TE-て the Japanese verb YOMU読むbecomes - YONDE読んで
YONDE KARA 読んでから= after reading

HON O YONDE KARA NERU TO OMOIMASU. 本を読んでから寝ると思います.
I think I'll sleep after reading a book.

3. TABERU 食べる (v. to eat)

TABERU 食べるin Base TE-て becomes – TABETE 食べて
TABETE KARA食べてから= after eating
TABETE KARA SHUKUDAI O SURU. 食べてから宿題をする
After I eat, I'm going to do homework.

4. UNDO^ SURU 運動する(v. to exercise)

SURU するin Base TE-て becomes - SHITEして
SHITE KARA してから= after exercising

UNDO^ SHITE KARA SHAWA WO ABIRU. 運動をしてから
I’ll take a shower after doing my exercise.

II. Verb (base TA) + ATO DE - after verb'ing

The second way to say "after verb-ing" in Japanese is by using the following construct.

Verb (base TA) + ATO DE - after verb'ing

Take verbs and put them into base TA. (Base TA is the past tense form of Japanese verbs.)



For verbs ending in BU (ぶ), MU (む) or NU (ぬ),
The TA た form = NDA んだ
1. NOMU飲む (v. to drink)
NOMU 飲む in base TA -た is NONDA 飲んだ (past tense of drink or drank)
NONDA ATO DE飲んだ後で = after drinking

SAKE O NONDA ATO DE NEMUKUNATTA 酒を飲んだ後で眠くなった
I got sleepy after drinking sake.


III. verb ( base TA) + NOCHI NI - after verb'ing

The third way of saying "after verb-ing" in Japanese, is to substitute the word+particle NOCHI NI のちに or 後に, , for ATO DE あとでor 後で. ATO 後 and NOCHI 後 actually use the same kanji as you can see. This being the case you can use them interchangeably and the meanings will stay the same. As a general rule, you can use NOCHI with NI (different particle) any time you would use ATO DE.

NOCHI NI and ATO DE are interchangeable thus: NOCHI NI = ATO DE

Verb (base TA) + NOCHI NI - after verb'ing

1. SAKE O NONDA NOCHI NI IE NI KAETTA 酒を飲んだ後に家に帰えた
I went home after drinking some sake.

2. SAKE O NONDA NOCHI NI INU O SAMPO SHI NI ITTA 酒を飲んだ後に犬を散歩しに行った
After I drank some sake, I took the dog for a walk.

As you can see from these examples, there are two sides to every sentence. On one side is verb 1 that comes before transforming it into its TE or TA base, and verb 2 which occurs after KARA, ATO DE, NOCHI NI

- Verb 1 in base TE + KARA and Verb 2

- Verb 2 can be past, present, negative or positive, but Verb 1 must be in base TE.

I hope that you too can start-up some cool and interesting conversations using these Japanese plug and play grammar constructions. Test your creations out on your Japanese friends to see if they fly. If not revise and do it again. Plug and play is drill and kill for Japanese language learners of the 21st century. Good luck in all your Japanese learning endeavors.

As Always,
Ganbatte Ne! 頑張ってね
Do Your Best!
Makurasuki まくらすき.

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