The Japanese Subjects: Part 1

Watashi　わたし 私

(!)This is used for normal situations and it is considered to be formal.　Mostly used by woman than men.
-Watashi ha Amerika jin desu　わたしはアメリカじんです || I am an American.
(!)"ha" in this sentence is pronounced "wa" due to it being a verb.
(!)notice that "ha" is equivalent to English's "To be" verb.
(!)Meaning of "ha" ( x )

I (AM) You (ARE)
We (ARE) He/She (IS)

1) "の", "no" is equivalent to the English: 's (ex. My, Your, His, Her, Dan's, Our)

-Watashi no namae ha Dan desu || My name is Dan.

Some examples:My ~ Watashi no 私の　わたしの

My ~ Ore no　俺の　おれの

My ~ Boku no　僕の　ぼくの
Your ~ Anata no　あなｔの
His ~ Kare no　彼の　かれの
Her ~ kanojo no　彼女の　かのじょの
Dan's ~ Dan no　ダンの
Our ~ Watashi tachi no　私たちの　わたしたちの

2) "名前', "なまえ", "namae", pronounced (nah-ma-eh), and it means "Name".
3) "Desu" is basically a spoken period and loosely means "is".
ex. Dan desu ~ (I) am Dan.
Inu desu ~ (It's) a dog.

Ore　俺　おれ (Masculine)

This is used mostly by men, and is considered informal (only use with close friends)
1) "俺", "おれ", "Ore" has the same meaning as "私", "わたし".

私はバカです。

わたしはばかです。
Watashi ha baka desu

I am an idiot.

俺はバカです。

おれはばかです。
Ore ha baka desu 

I am an idiot. 

2) However, "俺", "おれ", "Ore" can be vulgar when misused.
3) Females mostly don't use this term.

Jibun　"自分", "じぶん" - Self, Myself, Yourself

Definition 1: Used with the meaning of "Myself".

自分も分かりません。

じぶんもわかりません。
Jibun mo wakarimasen.

I don't understand, myself (also).
1) "Jibun", in this case, is used to explain how YOU feel and what YOU think of a certain matter.
2) "mo" is used after nouns and means, "Also".
More on "も" here.
Watashi mo ~ Me, too!
Anata mo? ~ You, too?
Kono Inu mo! ~ This dog, too!

3) "wakarimasen" is a verb that means, "Don't understand" 

End of Part 1... I will post Part 2 tomorrow.

Learning to read and write Hiragana and Katakana

If you're reading this lesson I am going to assume that you understand when to use Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. If you don't know. Go to Written Japanese.

How to read/write/pronounce 

Hiragana and Katakana

A great site that shows you the stroke order of writing hiragana.

This is a great site that lets you hear the pronouncation of each Hiragana.

the same site but with Katakana.

Try to memorize and be familiar with them so you can actually practice reading as the lessons progress.

If you're serious about learning, I would definitely practice writing each and every hiragana. Learning how to write a language is a gateway to new freedom: Reading signs on roads, reading books, reading the menu, and being able to write in Japanese! If you know how to write an alphabet/word you will definitely be able to read it.

Tip: Get a notebook and just write each letter MANY times. Try to mimic the stroking order.

Tip: Once you have learned all the hiragana words, you can start typing Japanese on your computer.

Type Japanese on your computer (On a MAC and Windows)

In order to type in Japanese, you need to change a couple of settings.

For WindowXP and below: (You need the service pack 2 CD that most likely came with your computer.)

-Go to start
-Settings
-Control Panel
-Regional and Language Options
-Language Tab
-Details
-Click Add
-Scroll Down to Japanese in Input Languages
-Press Ok
-Click on Language Bar
-Make sure "Show the language bar on the desktop" is checked.
-Press OK
-Go to the "advanced" tab
-Check "Extend support of advanced text services to all programs"
-Press OK

ON VISTA and WIN7

-go to start
-open control panel
-go to clock, language and region
-go to regional and Language options
-press changekeyboards or other input methods
-press change keyboard
-press "add" and... voila'!
~thank you for submitting this, toiletcat27

ON A MAC:

Apple Menu > System Preferences > International > Input Menu tab
Now check the box next to the languages you want to use
Then you Click the flag on the upper right of the screen



Have fun typing in numerous languages!!!

Introduction to Writing Japanese

We all know that the Japanese use a different style of writing than we do, so I'm going to try and explain the history behind the mysterious "kanji" through the way I learned it!
(Please point out if I'm wrong at all)

When I first started learning Japanese, I started to wonder why the Japanese had so many alphabets(three to be exact), and I wasn't comfortable with using it until I understood it more clearly.

Kanji (These "pictographs" you see usually in names of organizations or important documents) has many uses in the modern world. From universal translations to shortening sentences (sometimes elongating).

Way back when, Japan traveled to China to trade with them. Consequently, they picked up some of their writings and culture, and ended up taking back some of it to Japan. For instance, 金（かね）pronounced as "kah-neh" was used to represent the idea of money, or gold. This Kanji for money/gold can be written in three ways: 1) Hiragana 2) Kanji 3) Katakana(rarely)

HIRAGANA ひらがな

Click here to learn to Read/Write/Speak Hiragana/Katakna.

The Japanese use hiragana mainly for conveying "particles" or grammatical words that serves the only purpose of making the sentence "come alive" and actually make sense. Since we're not japanese, we mainly use hiragana when we don't know the kanji form of the word. かね Kane (Kah-Neh)

KANJI　漢字　かんじ

2) Kanji is used, as described earlier, to shorten, or to make their medium universal. There's no real reason other than these that the Japanese use kanji in their writing, but if you look at your own culture, and you're one of those kids who asks the teacher, "Why do we have to learn new vocab?! I can have a descent conversation with the words I already know!", then it's kind of like that. The Japanese learn kanji to increase their level of intellect, and to expand their vocabulary at times in different languages (Chinese/Korean etc).  There are many dialects within China, each with their own distinct sounds.  Kanji remains universal to all dialects.

KATAKANA カタカナ

Katakana is almost exclusively used for foreign words like, "Bo-ru"(Boh-Roo) = ボール＝ Ball. Japanese, essentially, is a language taken from other languages. It has elements in its grammar/vocabulary/writing style from many different languages. In a more confusing situation, katakana is also used in random situations (yeah you heard me right). We also use it to write foreign names in Japanese.

Onomatopoeia 

In addition to foreign words, katakana is also commonly used to write onomatopoetic words, that is to say words that describe a sound. For example if you want to write "woof woof" (dog bark), you write it in katakana: ワンワン=wanwan.

Also, the names of plants and animals are usually written in katakana (or hiragana), even though most have a kanji version as well.

Conclusion

And about learning kanji... I've seen many people complain about it and being like "why on Earth do they use kanji, why don't they just write with the same alphabet we do? D: " but actually in my opinion kanji is far better for written Japanese because of the Japanese language's vocabulary. Japanese has many words that can mean different things, for example "kami" can mean 1. paper, 2. god, or 3. hair. In speech you'll get the meaning of the word from the context or the word's syllables might be "stressed" differently depending on which meaning the speaker is using the word in. However, in written Japanese you obviously can't know the stresses and also the context might be hazier, so isn't it great that all of these different meanings of a word are written with a different kanji, despite that they are pronounced the same way? In "kami"'s case, that would be paper=, god=, and hair=. This way there's no fear of a mix-up and if you just know the kanjis, I think it makes the text a lot faster to follow than if it were written only in (for example) hiragana.

Sent in by Awatemono

Edited by Sunwooz

Comparisons in Japanese より

You only need to know one word to be able to compare: Yori, より. Which means, "more than".

Lets look at a sentence example:

I am stronger than her.

私 は彼女より強いです。
わたしはかのじょよりつよいです。
Watashi ha Kanojo yori Tsuyoi desu.

1) First, you state your subject. Whoever or whatever is "more than" something.

私は
わたしは
Watashi ha
I am
は-ha is a descriptive particle.
２）Then, you state the "weaker" subject followed by "yori, より".

彼女より
かのじょより
kanojo yori 
Her     more than
More than her.

3) Then you state the adjective. Then end it with "desu, です" (remember to pronounce it as "Dess".

強いです。 
つよいです。
Tsuyoi desu. 
Is strong.
(!) notice how there's no "er" as in "stronger" in Japanese.
(!) the adjective doesn't change forms because "より" literally means "more than".
All of this combines to be:

私（わたし）は I am
彼女（かのじょ）より more than her
強（つよ）いです is strong
I am stronger than her.
Follow this formula and you can practically compare anything in Japanese!

Other examples would be:
1)　　
私は台湾より日本に行きたい。
わたしは　たいわにょり　          にほんに　  いきたい。
I           more than taiwan   to Japan   want to go.
I want to go to Japan more than Taiwan.　　　　
2)
この石はあの石より小さいです。
このいしは　    あのいしより　             ちいさいです。
This rock is   more than that rock   small.
This rock is smaller than that rock.
If something isn't clear, please tell me! Write in the comments or go to the forums!

How to use この、その、あの This and That (Kono, Sono, Ano)

The Japanese(and korean) have a strange way of communicating what is "this, that".

The easy one is "This".

Kono Inu　このいぬ　(この犬)

This dog

Kono neko　このねこ　(この猫)

This cat

NOTE: Kono is used in conjunction with a noun to say,"This dog" or, "this cat"

You can even say "This" without having to use a noun.

Kore(koh-reh)　これ means "This (thing)"
"Thing" is a noun so don't use a noun after "Kore".

Ex.

Kore wa nan desu ka?　これはなんですか？　(これは何ですか？） 

What is this?

NOTE: (nan/nani means "what") (ka implies a question)

Kore wa neko desu!　これはねこです！　(これは猫です！）

This is a cat!

The harder one is "That"　

There are two types of "That" in Japanese. (Are/Ano, Sore/Sono)　（あれ・あの、それ・その）

Situation One

You're sitting in a room with a friend. You look out the window and spot a furry little cat. You poke your friend, and shout,

Ano neko wo mite!　あのねこをみて！　(あの猫を見て！)

Look at that cat

NOTE: Again, "ano" is used right before a noun, so you use the "that" version that ends with an "o" but when you don't use it with a noun.

Are wa nani?!　あれはなに？！　(あれは何？！)

What is that?!

Conclusion: You use Are/Ano when the person you are conversing with is realtively close to you, and the object/person/cat you're pointing out happens to be relatively far away.

Situation Two

You're sitting in a room with a friend. You are sitting on the bed, and your friend is sitting in a chair relatively far from you. You spot a cat that walks in and sits itself down on your friend's lap. You are very excited, and you point out the obvious to your friend.

sono neko wo mite!　そのねこをみて！　(その猫を見て！）

Look at that cat!

NOTE: Again, "sono" is used right before a noun, so you use the "that" version that ends with an "o" but when you don't use it with a noun.

Sore wa nani?!　それはなに？！　(それは何？！)

What is that?!

Conclusion: You use Sore/Sono when the person you are conversing with is relatively far away from you, but the object/person/cat you're pointing out is close to the person you are conversing with.

SUMMARY

The only difference is that Kono/ano/sono is used WITH nouns.

Kono baka　このばか　(このバカ)

kono neko　このねこ　(この猫）

ano inu　あのいぬ　(あの犬)

ano CD　あのＣＤ

kono/ano/sono + noun　この・あの・その

Kore/sore/are is rougly translated into "This thing".　これ・それ・あれ

kore wa neko desu　これはねこです　(これは猫です)

this(thing) is a cat

sore wa inu desu　それはいぬです　(それは犬です)

that(thing) is a dog

are wa nan desu ka?　あれはなんですか？　(あれは何ですか？)

what is that(thing)?

How to use: も (mo) - Also; At all; Even.

も (mo) is a very versatile word, able to be used in many useful situations.

1. The simplest use is to combine a noun with も.

彼も犬が好き

かれ　も　いぬ　が　すき

He      also    dog             like

He also likes dogs.

2. It's also used to modify the word "What" to give the meaning: Anything

なんでも

僕はなんでも出来る！

ぼく　   は　        なんでも   できる

  I  (descriptive)      anything     can do

I can do anything!

なんでもない！

なんでも　ない！

 anything       not

It's nothing!

3. and can also be used with "what" for: "Nothing".

なにも

僕は何も出来ない。。。

ぼく　  は　       なにも　できない。。。

I    (descriptive)   nothing    Can't do

I can't do anything.

4. It can also be used to modify "who" to say, "No one".

だれも

誰も知らない人

だれも　しらない　ひと

No one   not know   person

A person no one knows.

5. You guessed it! It can also be used to say, "Anyone".

だれでも

誰でも知ってる人

だれでも　しってる　ひと

 Anyone      know        person 

A person anyone knows.

6. Lastly, "even a little bit".

すこし by itself means "a little bit", but if you add も。。。

すこしも

少しも美味しくない！

すこしも　       おいしくない！

even a little bit    not delicious

It's not even a little bit delicious!

This is definitely not the extent of the numerous uses you can put も to work!

It's a little confusing, but practice and you'll start to understand!

I bought this Japanese grammar book when I first started to learn Japanese, and it has helped me immensely to learn all the uses of the elusive "Particles".  Definitely a bargain price for such a wealth of information.

I recommend this book to beginners and intermediate users alike.