Pimsleur Japanese I — Lesson 1
| English | Japanese | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| excuse me |
すみません
sumimasen
|
|
| English |
英語
えいご
eigo
|
|
| English… |
英語が
えいごが
eigo ga
|
が (ga) marks the subject of the sentence. |
| understand |
分かる
わかる
wakaru
|
informal / dictionary form [1] |
| understand |
分かります
わかります
wakarimasu
|
polite |
| Do [you] understand English? |
英語が分かりますか。
えいごがわかりますか。
eigo ga wakarimasu ka?
|
the final か makes the sentence a question |
| [I] understand English |
英語が分かります。
えいごがわかります。
eigo ga wakarimasu.
|
[2] |
| no |
否
いいえ
iie
|
[uk] Usually written in kana. |
| No, [I] don’t understand. |
いいえ分かりません。
いいえわかりません。
iie wakarimasen.
|
|
| Japanese language |
日本語
にほんご
nihongo
|
|
| [I]don’t understand Japanese. |
日本語が分かりませんが。
にほんごがわかりません。
nihongo ga wakarimasen.
|
|
| A little |
少し
すこし
sukoshi
|
|
| [I] understand Japanese a little. |
日本語が少し分かります。
にほんごがすこしわかります。
nihongo ga sukoshi wakarimasu.
|
|
| American (person) |
アメリカ人
アメリカじん
AMERIKA jin
|
Foreign loan word; written in katakana |
| Japanese person |
日本人
にほんじん
nihonjin
|
|
| Are [you] American? |
アメリカ人ですか。
アメリカじんですか。
AMERIKA jin desu ka?
|
|
| [I] am Japanese. |
日本人です。
にほんじんです。
nihonjin desu.
|
|
| I |
私
わたし
watashi
|
polite |
| you |
あなた
anata
|
polite |
| Are you American? |
あなたはアメリカ人ですか。
あなたはアメリカじんですか。
anata wa AMERIKA jin desu ka?
|
は (wa) marks the topic of the sentence. [3] |
| I am Japanese. |
私は日本人です。
わたしはにほんじんです。
watashi wa nihonjin desu.
|
|
| yes |
はい
hai
|
formal |
[uk] Usually written in kana.
[1] You need to know the “dictionary” form of a verb in order to look it up in a dictionary. Pimsleur usually gives only the “polite” form, which is appropriate for business usage. The dictionary form is used in “plain” speech, which is traditionally reserved for speaking to family, close friends, and children.
[2] How can eigo (English) be the subject of “eigo ga wakarimasu”? The answer is that wakarimasuis really a passive verb meaning “is understandable”. (Most linguists would call it a “stative” verb.) So the sentence could be translated as “[As for me] English is understandable.” We don’t normally translate it that way because such passive forms sound terrible in English. In Japanese they are fairly common.
[3] The topic particle wa is written with the character は (ha).
The best explanation of the difference between topic (wa) and subject (ga) can be found in the first chapter of Jay Rubin’s Making Sense of Japanese. The general rule is that the topic of a sentence “X wa” is equivlent to the English “As for X”.
The choice of whether the topic or the subject is explicitly stated changes the emphasis of the statement and can dramatically affect the meaning:
| AMERIKA jin desu. | Literally “[As for me], [I] am an American.” (A straight-forward statement, assuming that watashi wa can be inferred from context.) |
| watashi wa AMERIKA jin desu. | “As for me, [I] am an American.” (…as opposed to something else.) |
| watashi ga AMERIKA jin desu. | “I am an American.” (…and you are not, or these other people are not.) |