Part 6

Particles
More New Words
"Koto"

Particles

Japanese uses several particles, which act as glue to hold the words of a sentence together. Particles tell
what a word "was" to
the sentence. You typically have a particle after each word. They are all one syllable long, or two roman
letters. Incidentally,
since they are one syllable long, they are one Japanese "letter", since each Japanese letter is actually a
syllable.

The particle WA

This particle tells that the preceding word is the subject of the sentence. A good way to translate it is as for.

benkyou suru koto wa yoi desu.

to study situation (as for) good is.

kore wa boku no mono desu.

this (as for) I ('s) thing is.

Guile wa tsuyoi desu.

Guile (as for) strong is.

Difference between WA and GA

People often confuse WA and GA. Ga also marks the subject of the sentence, but I think of GA as a way to
mark a word in
"Italics". You can translate GA as "instead of something or someone else". There are some other subtle
differences; but for now
I'd just worry about this much. If you're interested in all the nuances, I'm sure there are several websites that
have in-depth info.
Also, try searching Deja.com for newsgroup posts from about 1 or 2 years ago. There was a big discussion
on sci.lang.japan
about this very topic.

Example:

benkyou suru koto wa internet ga ichiban desu.

to study situation (as for) THE INTERNET (as opposed to something else) #1 is.

kore ga hayai desu.

THIS is fast. (as opposed to THAT or THE OTHER THING)

kore wa hayai desu.

this (as for) fast is. (simply saying, "this is fast")

The particle NO
No is best translated as an "apostrophe S" (the 's in Matt's). It is the possessive particle for those you
familiar with the term.
Since explanations only do so much good, I'll show you several examples:

kare wa boku no tomodachi desu.

he (as for) I ('s) friend is.
He is my friend.

are wa okaasan no kami desu.

that over there (as for) mother ('s) hair it is.
That is my mother's hair.

ano kumo wa otousan no mono desu.

that cloud (as for) father ('s) thing it is.
That cloud over there is my dad's.

kono shounen no mise wa chikai desu.

this boy ('s) store (as for) close is.
This boy's store is closeby.

sono shoujo no mise wa toui desu.

that girl ('s) store (as for) far is.
That girl's store is far away.

The particle NI

This particle means "by", "in", "on", "location" etc.

Examples:

Aeris o Sephiroth ni koroshita.

Aeris (answers "who") Sephiroth (answers "by who" or "using what") killed.
Aeris was killed by Sephiroth.

aitsu wa jigoku ni iru.

him (as for) hell (location) is in. (iru = to be somewhere)
He is in hell.

boushi wa ude ni iru.

hat (as for) arm (location) is on.
The hat is on (your) arm.

sore wo mise ni kaeshita.

that (answers WHAT) store (in, at) returned.
He returned that to the store.

The particle DE

This particle means "restricting ourselves to", "using", or "by means of".

Examples:

nihon de ichiban nagai kami desu.

japan (restricting us to) #1 long hair is.
(That) is the longest hair in Japan.
densha de otta.
train (by means of) followed (ou - to follow)
(He) followed (someone) by train.

itsumo tabemono wo taberu.

always food (answers who or what) eats
(He) always eats food.

There are several other particles (around 12 in all) which you will want to learn right away. They are used
in every sentence, so
it's very important to learn them first!

A useful word - "Koto"

Koto means "situation". You turn a phrase into a working noun by adding "koto" after it.

Take a typical short sentence:

aeris o koroshita.
Killed Aeris

If we add "koto", it allows us to use the phrase as the subject of a larger sentence.

aeris o koroshita koto

The situation where aeris was killed, aeris getting killed, etc.

aeris o koroshita koto wa zannen desu.

aeris (who or what) killed situation (as for) shame it is.
It's a shame that Aeris was killed.

You can't just say:

Aeris o koroshita wa zannen desu.

That's why "koto" is used - it turns a standalone sentence (really should be called a "phrase" since it's so
small) into the subject
of a larger sentence.

Useful words to add to your list!

Adjectives:

chikai - near
toui - far
mijikai - short (hair, etc)
nagai - long
tsumetai - cold
akai - red
ichiban - number 1

Adverbs:

itsumo - always
yukkuri - slowly, leisurely

Interrogatives:
itsu - when

Nouns:

tomodachi - friend
tabemono - food
jigoku - hell
densha - train
shoujo - girl
shounen - boy
kumo - cloud
otoko - man
onna - woman
okaasan - mother
otousan - father
mise - store
boushi - hat
ude - arm
kuchi - mouth
mono - thing
kami - hair (yes, it ALSO means god!)

Verbs:

iru - to be somewhere (for a person) plain

imasu - to be somewhere (person) polite
ou - to follow
kaesu - return something, give back
omou - to think

Pronouns:

yatsu - guy, dude

ore - I (speaker thinks he is superior)

Kono, Sono, and Ano

In Japanese, things are usually pretty organized. Let me introduce you to another example of this!

In a previous lesson, we learned:

kore - this
sore - that
are - that over there

By the way, just a reminder that you pronounce all vowels in Japanese. There is no silent 'E' at the end of
Japanese words, for
instance. So you would pronounce 'kore' as (KOE REH).

Now you'll learn 3 related words! First, let's see how you use one of the words you already know:

kore wa ore no mono desu.

this (as for) I 's thing is.
(This is my thing)
What if you wanted to say this CLOUD is yours? You wouldn't use kore - you'd use 'kono' instead.

kono kumo wa ore no mono desu.

this cloud (as for) I 's thing is.
(This cloud is my thing)

There are 3 of these - one each for kore, sore, and are:

kono - this
sono - that
ano - that over there

Sidenote - the devil of English, the schwa

In English, there is a vowel sound that can be represented by any of the 5 vowels. It is called the schwa.
(represented in
dictionaries by an upside-down 'e') For instance, you could easily spell the word "pencil" with any of the 5
vowels, and it would
sound the same:

Pencal, Pencel, Pencil, Pencol, Pencul

That's because the "i" in pencil isn't pronounced like the 'i' in image. It's a schwa.

Whenever you can't remember to spell a word - go through the 5 vowels. If they all COULD go there, then
you're having
trouble with spelling thanks to the schwa. The schwa is probably the #1 cause of spelling errors!

Thank goodness there is no such demon in Japanese!

Get a feel for Japanese sentences!

I would recommend writing several of these sentences on index cards (or on regular paper) and studying
them often. Just
reading Japanese setences helps give you a feel for how they are constructed, and helps you to make your
own sentences.
Since the grammer is so "different", you need to expose yourself to it a lot, so you can become more
comforatable with it. After
you use Japanese sentences for a while, you will start to get a feel for how they should sound, and how to
create your own.

What is the best way to practice in this area?

Japanese Manga - You will encounter countless real-world sentences which help you immensely. Manga
tends to be
very interesting, so you will have an easier time remembering the sentences. There is one downside
though - you have to
at least learn hiragana to be able to read it. There are 46 hiragana "letters" (actually syllables) which can
be learned in a
few days to a few weeks, depending on the person.
Grammar books - This will help you learn the particles, and how to make sentences. The books usually
have several
example sentences, as well as a bit of vocabulary you can learn. I already recommended one book I feel
is very useful to
anyone learning Japanese. (Refer to Japanese is Possible - Part 5)
 Anime- You hear a lot of real-world sentences here too, but it may be a bit more difficult to pull out
words and
sentences. It seems like they are talking "fast" if you don't know a lot of words. Manga allows you to
look up each and
every word in a dictionary. Anime does offer an advantage, however. You don't have to know any of the
Japanese
written language to be able to write down words and sentences you heard.

Next Week

More particles
Other important sentence-building words
More words to add to your list!

Don't miss it!