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漢字: Japan in Japanese Script

How to write Japan in Japanese Script.

Japan in Japanese kanji characters is written as follows:


showing the stroke order,


it is pronounced as "ni - hon".

文法: Grammar a Day - Level 4 [ 〜が (ga-2) ]

〜が (ga-2) - but


--- Examples ---
突然ですがボードゲーム告知をてっきり忘れてました。[totsuzen
desu gabo-doge-mukokuchi wo tekkiri wasuretemashita.]
This is out of nowhere  but I completely forgot about the BoardGame notice.
  

悪いですがちょっと静かにしてください。
Sorry  but could you keep it a little quieter?  

冷静になろうとしたのだが、ついかっとなった。
I tried to be calm but finally I lost my temper.  

料理はあまりおいしくなかったが、その他の点では、そのパーティーは成功だった。
The dishes were not so delicious, but otherwise the party was a success.  

立ち聞きする気はなかったが、あなたの話しが聞こえた。
I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but I did overhear you.  

彼は友だちというほどではないが知り合いだ。
He is not a friend, but an acquaintance.  

友だちとテニスの試合をしたが負けた。
I played a match of tennis with my friend, but lost.  

明日晴れるかどうかわからないが、もし晴れたら、私たちはピクニックへ行く。
I don't know if it will be fine tomorrow, but if it is fine we'll go on a
picnic.  

友人を作るのはたやすいが、友情を保つのは難しい。
It is easy to make a man one's friend, but hard to keep him so.  

友人のKは美人だが、人に思いやりがない。
My friend K is beautiful, but she is not considerate to others.  

木は浮くが鉄は沈む。
Wood floats, but iron sinks.  

明日の11時に予約をしてありますが、時間を変更できますか。
I have an apointment at eleven tomorrow, but can I change the time?  

名前は知らないが、彼女の顔だけは知っている。
I don't know her name, but I do know her by sight.  

娘に電話をかけようとしたが、通じなかった。
I tried to call my daughter but couldn't get through.  

毎日一生懸命に英語を勉強したが、あまり身につかなかった。
I studied English very hard every day, but I did not learn a lot.  

本当に申し訳ないのですが、私はあなたの傘をなくしたらしいのです。
I'm very sorry, but I seem to have lost your umbrella.  

できるだけ早く走ったが、最終電車に間に合わなかった。
I ran as fast as possible, but I was not in time for the last train.  

--- Comments ---
Thanks a lot. I think I've got all that so I'd better clean up the
comments. ^^v  
I wasn't aware that that use of ように can sometimes omit the 'に'.
(contributor: Amatuka)

本当に申し訳ないのですが、私はあなたの傘をなくしたらしいのです。
This sentence sounds awkward. 
I would say 'なくしたようです' instead of
'なくしたらしいのです.' (contributor: Nick)

Some people would say 'なくしたらしい(のです)。'. 
(contributor: Miki)

Could someone tell me what's the difference between 'Demo, Keredomo' and
'Ga'? (contributor: Kasomi)

as far as i know, ga is more like a 'yet' type of but. demo means something
closer to 'however'. And keredemo is closer to 'nevertheless'. 
(contributor: nellyaudrey)

oh, i should add that ga typically contrasts between two differing
sentences. Like that one above, 
毎日一生懸命に英語を勉強したが、あまり身につかなかった。

I studied English very hard every day, but I did not learn a lot.  

a demo sentence would be
この本はすてきでも買えないだからすぎる高いですよ.
a keredemo sentece implies that you've done something despite something
else. It would be
この本は高いけれでも買いました.

Feel free to correct any of my mistakes but these are the rules as i
learned them.  (contributor: nellyaudrey)

--- View this entry online ---
http://www.jgram.org/pages/viewOne.php?tagE=ga-2

文法: Grammar a Day - Level 4 [ 〜が (ga) ]

〜が (ga) - (subject marker)


--- Examples ---
バスが来るよ。 
The bus * is coming!  

台所にテレビがあります 。  
There is a television * in the kitchen.  

ここだと2万円前後のテレビが買える。[koko da to 2 man en
zengo no terebigakaeru.
If it's here then you can buy a television for 20,000 yen - more or less.  
  

この店ではほかでは売っていない特別仕様のCG機能を持つPCを買うことができる。
At this shop, you can buy PCs with special CG functionality that is not
offered by others.  

nihongo ga dekimasu. 
日本語ができます 「にほんごができます。」
(I) can speak * japanese  

雨が降っています。(あめがふっています)
Rain is falling. (or it's raining)    

--- Comments ---
Need to put together something on when to choose to use が (subject)
instead of は (topic) (contributor: Amatuka)

Note that が (or の) replaces を in sub-sentences.  
(See 'television' example, would be テレビを買う (terebi wo kau) if
it was a sentence on it's own. (contributor: Amatuka)

が  follows a noun or a noun phrase.
(e.g. 犬が  'the dog' / 'dog(s)'
知るのが  'what (I) know (is)'
The latter case の nominalizes (turns into a noun) 知る)

N = noun (contributor: Amatuka)

In #880, テレビが買うことができる is not acceptable.
(contributor: bamboo4)

However, would TV-wo kau-koto-ga dekiru be acceptable? In the case of -ga,
it marks the object when a verb is in the potential mood, as if the verb
was passive...  (contributor: Zhen Lin)

テレビを買うことができる is acceptable.  (contributor: bamboo4)

The book Making Sense of Japanese: What the Textbooks Don't Tell You by Jay
Rubin offers an excellent section explaining the difference between が and
は. (contributor: anonymous)

Could you explain what you leant from the book the difference between が
and は? (contributor: dakara?)

You can read Tae Kim's online guide to japanese and get a very reasonable
explanation. First of all he rejects the use of the term subject, simply
because it is laden with all the wrong connotations from english. Primarily
because subject in japanese is not the same as subject in english (and most
roman and germanic languages, probably). He calls it the identifier, a
particle used to identfy one among many, where as ha is used to say
something detailed about something, by some called the focus particle. 
(contributor: Svendsen)

@Amatuka テレビが買うことができる is wrong
@bamboo4 Yes, テレビを買うことができる is correct

Amatuka is most likely confusing を with が in clauses: if you want to
say 背が高い友達, you can also say 背の高い友達. There is no
difference at all (even in connotation) between の and が as far as every
single Japanese person I've ever asked about this is concerned, when
dealing with this type of clause. (contributor: KyleGoetz)

Can anybody tell me difference between は and が. As both are topic
markers, i dont understand when to use which (contributor: devricha)

Can anybody tell me difference between は and が. As both are topic
markers, i dont understand when to use which (contributor: devricha)

if i'm understand right, a good comparison would be
私は学生です.I am a student. Because here ha focuses on me in
particular. it's a narrower description.

学生がいます.There is a student. because this has a broader sense,
there are many students but here is one. 

feel free to correct me but that is what i've come to understand. and
thanks to svendsen because i got most of it from his comment. (contributor:
nellyaudrey)

'ha' is used when introducing/describing something

while 'ga' is used when you want to be specific and direct the focus of
attention to the noun preceding 'ga'

more or less the difference lies on the weight of 'emphasis' ~ tada hitori
no iken desukedo ^w^ (contributor: takamichi)

This article isn't as near as big as it should. I quite personally think
the two entries of ga need to be combined and expanded to show ga's other
usages. I have an article about the differences between wa and ga on my
website www.freewebs.com/kanjiwebs/ because there is no way that only a few
examples could distinguish wa and ga for beginners. There's just no way,
not even for Japanese people.  (contributor: IMABI)

--- View this entry online ---
http://www.jgram.org/pages/viewOne.php?tagE=ga

文法: Grammar a Day - Level 4 [ 〜か (ka) ]

〜か (ka) - ? (basic question particle)


--- Examples ---
これはあなたの本ですか。
Is this your book ?    

家に帰りましょうか。
Why don't we go home ?    

ひとつ質問をしてもいいですか。
May I ask you a question ?    

--- Comments ---
N.B. Commonly [name-san] would be used in place of  (contributor: Amatuka)

Placed on the end of a sentence. 

S = sentence (contributor: Amatuka)


I see question mark '?' after particle ka in several japanese writing on
internet.
(contributor: Ramesh)

better to romanize as {kore WA anata no hon desu ka}, as in this case it is
a postposition and is pronounced as wa... (contributor: sandra)

--- View this entry online ---
http://www.jgram.org/pages/viewOne.php?tagE=ka

文法: Grammar a Day - Level 4 [ 〜だ (da) ]

〜だ (da) - The 'copula' : expresses conditions. X is Y.


--- Examples ---
犬だ![inu da!]
It's a dog!  

イギリス人です。
I am English.  

それはなんですか 
What is that?  

あの人は誰でしたか。  deshita 
Who was that person?  

田中さんではありませんでした。
(That) wasn't Mr Tanaka.  

猫だった。
(That) was a cat.  

犬じゃない。
(That) is not a dog.  

きつねじゃなかった?[ kitsuneja nakatta?]
Wasn't it a fox?  

まだプロじゃないです。
I'm not a Pro yet.  

イギリス人でロンドンに住んでます。
(I'm) English and live in London.  

田中さんがこの問題は難しすぎるだと言った。
Mr. Tanaka said, 'this problem is too difficult.'  

--- Comments ---
'犬だ' is something a young kid might say on seeing a dog. (contributor:
Amatuka)

Note the particle は is _said_ 'wa' but (depending on romaji system used)
may be written 'ha'.
The kana わ on the other hand is always said and written 'wa'.
(contributor: Amatuka)

Note that the Xは of XはYです is very often omitted if it is known from
context.  (contributor: Amatuka)

An interesting Japanese page on です can be found 
here. (contributor: Amatuka)

寒いでした is awkward for me. Is it because I am not young enough? :(
寒かったでした。is more natural. (contributor: Miki)

I would recommend asking around among Japanese.  寒いでした is not
used by native speakers - even young ones, though しないです is.
(contributor: Eeker)

寒かったでした is awkward becase 寒かった already talks about
past and adding でした which also indicate something of past is
redundant. 寒かったです would be proper.
(contributor: bamboo4)

bamboo4 you are right. 寒かったです。is proper. (contributor: anon)

Right - 寒かったでした is not used by native speakers, but not just
because of a redundancy in the expression of the past tense.  It is because
when you have an い-adjective, you do not conjugate the past tense into
the です, you conjugate it into the adjective.  Note that I was referring
to 寒いでした (the example the author wrote in to this page), not
寒かったでした, but because of what I stated, both are non-native
utterances ('wrong'). (contributor: Eeker)

sorry, I am a native speaker.^^; (contributor: anon)

Sorry, I am also a native speaker. (contributor: bamboo4)

So we know that は should be read wa, but somehow no one changes this
page to reflect this. I wonder why. (contributor: Mitokomun)

I always found this 'tense' for adjectives confusing. guess we dont have a
past tense of 'cold' in english. colded?

NG: 寒い でした : cold , it was 
OK: 寒かった です: colded , it is
(contributor: dc)

Mitokomun > romanized japanese textbooks that I have seen always write は
as 'ha' even when they know it should be pronounced 'wa'. 
To make it even more confusing, there are occasions where it is pronounced
'wa' too...
Maybe someone else can explain why this is, but we are sticking to the
standard romanization method. I guess I got used to it but it really threw
me at first.
check the  page for more. (contributor: dc)

寒い でした is incorrect. 
寒かった is ok.
寒かった です is politer because of the word です which expresses
the standard polite form.

犬だ is ok, all Japs say that. And if you change だ into です, it
shows your politeness (contributor: Unnamed)

For understanding the logic behind the copula transformations across
tenses, affirmative/negative form etc... it helps to fall back to a vision
of だ as the contraction of the canonic (formal) form である.

canonic        contraction
である     だ
であります   です
であった    だった
でありました  でした
であろう    だろう
でありましょう でしょう

You can then mostly rebuild the whole conjugation table by combining that
with the following:
- は is (generally) appended to で for the negative form: では, 
contracted to じゃ in less formal situations
- conjugation of ある: negative plain form of 5段 verb ある is
い-adjective ない,  polite form of 5段 verb ある is irregular verb
ござる
- standard understanding of 5段 verb and い-adjective conjugations
(contributor: Max)

In the example #879 the romanized イギリス人 should be igirisujin.
Also, if 住んで is the -te form of sumu, what does the form
住んでます do? I always see 住んでいます. (contributor:
balrog-kun)

そのex #5524
はちゃう。「田中さんがこの問題は難しすぎるだと言った。」ってゆうより「田中さんがこの問題は難しすぎるって言った」ってゆった方がええやろ。
(contributor: フリザ)

So, all conjugations of the copula are derived from contractions of
である and ではある (for negative tenses). In the negative present
and past possible tenses, the conjugations are ないでしょう and
なかったでしょう. Why can't they also become
ではないでしょう and ではなかったでしょう? Also, why
can't the plain past and negative possible tenses be contracted from
ではないだろう and ではなかっただろう to
じゃないだろう and じゃなかっただろう? (contributor: karamu
san)

Re Mitokomun and dc's comments on は/wa/ha: 
I just checked about 20 text books/dictionaries. Without exception they all
romanize the particle は as 'wa'. The only place I have ever come across
the particle は written 'ha' is on the Internet. I presume this is due to
cases where computers have done automatic transcriptions of hiragana to
romaji without regard for the grammatical context. (contributor: Sumofan)

balrog-kun is right about example #879. イギリス人 should be romanized
as igirisujin and not igirujin. (contributor: lstep)

The copula verb is fun. I can help about when to use da as I teach Japanese
at www.freewebs.com/kanjiwebs/ (contributor: IMABI)

--- View this entry online ---
http://www.jgram.org/pages/viewOne.php?tagE=da

文法: Grammar a Day - Level 4 [ 〜たい (verb stem + tai) ]

〜たい (verb stem + tai) - I want to (verb)

--- Notes ---
It is considered impolite to ask someone else if the 'want' to do
something.  Instead, use the negative form of the verb in a question.  

Very important: 'tai' can only be used for the I person, like 'i want'. 
If you want to say that someone else wants, you use 'tagaru'. 
Ex:かれは牛乳を飲みたがっています。
This is because Japanese never imply they know what someone else wishes,
and 'garu' means: 'i think that', 'i heard that', etc. 

--- Examples ---
日本に行きたいです。
(I) want to go to Japan.    

君のところへ行きたいよ。
(I) want to go to where you are.  

日本で英語をおしえたいです。
I want to teach English in Japan.    

--- View this entry online ---
http://www.jgram.org/pages/viewOne.php?tagE=verb stem + tai