Let's look at some famous phrases in Japanese! EASY: 1) tori da! - It's a bird! hikouki da! - It's a plane!

e! su-pa-man da! - It's SUPERMAN! WORDS: tori - "a Bird" da - informal form of desu hikouki - "an Airplane" su-pa-man - "Superman" == Written in Katakana (because it is a foreign word) =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 2) kita, mita, katta - "I came, I saw, I conquered!" - Caesar's Famous Line WORDS: kita - "came" == simple past of 'KURU' - to come mita - "saw" == simple past of 'MIRU' - to see katta - "won" == simple past of 'KATSU' - to win =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 3) mukashi mukashi, aru tokoro ni ... - like the English, "Once upon a time..." an opener for fairy tales and other stories WORDS: mukashi - "long ago" "old days"... == The '' symbol means X2 so "MUKASHI" X2 - "A long, long time ago" aru - "a" "some" "a certain"... == other 'ARU' uses include, "ARU HI" -'One Day' & "ARU TOKI" 'Once'... tokoro - "a place" ni - "in" TO TRANSLATE: "A long, long time ago, in a certain place... (there lived an old man...)" INTERMEDIATE: 1) mugen no kanata made - Buzz Lightyear's famous line in Toy Story, "To Infinity and Beyond!" WORDS: mugen - "infinite" no -"'s" possessive kanata - "yonder" "far away" made - "until" "to" "as far as" *** A direct (and clumsy) translation of the Japanese perhaps would be: "Until the infinity's beyond!" =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= until next time... MUGEN NO KANATA MADE!!!