Guild Wars: EPoS Forums: Guild Wars: EPoS Forums -> Japanese Lesson 3 - Base Grammar

Welcome to the third lesson. In this lesson I will be showing you how to formulate basic sentences in Japanese, which really is not difficult. However, you will need to know some vocabulary to start you off, here are some that will prove useful with the Kanji/Kana. Please note that they have not been conjugated, but any words used will be conjugated in the lesson.



Now, they are basic words and verbs that you will need to know. I will introduce new words with their kanji and pronunciation. Now to the basic grammar.

In Japanese, the main part of the sentence, is said first, then rest is said in reverse. If that does not make sense, here is an example sentence:

私は本を読(よ)みました。
Watashi-wa Hon-wo Yomimashita.
I Book Read
I read a book

Yomimashita is the past form of 'Yomimasu' and it is a conjugation of the verb 'Yomu' which means 'to read'. As you can see, the main subject in the sentence (in this case, the speaker) comes first. After that, comes the object, or other subject in the sentence, then the rest of the sentence is added onto the end, in reverse.

When you add description (adjective) to the object, you add that before the object, similar to in English. Here is an example of this, based on the previous example.

私は古(ふる)い本(ほん)を読(よ)みました。
Watashi-wa Furui Hon-wo Yomimashita.
I Old Book Read
I read an old book

This grammar method is known as SOV which stands for Subject, Object Verb. That is another way to remember some base Japanese grammar.

This basic rule applies to basic sentences, and does not deviate much. Now, you must be thinking how you conjugate verbs in Japanese, here is the lowdown:

If the word ends in 'u' , drop the 'u' and add 'imasu' in present and 'imashita' in the past.
If the word ends in 'ru', drop the 'ru' and add 'masu' in the present and 'mashita' in the past.
There is a verb that ends in 'su', the verb 'to rest'. I will not add the way to conjugate that now as it is a bit harder then the others, stick with the above rules first.

I will add more rules at a later point, but this is all you really need to know for now until you learn more complex sentences.

テスト
Tesuto
Test

Please write all of your answers in a PM, and send them to the link below as well as saying them out loud for practice.

Lesson 1

1. Count from 1-10 using the Kunyomi.
2. Form the first and second number in each ten series, i.e. 20,21, 30,31 etc...

Lesson 2

1. Give a brief description of the particles "wa, wo, ga, no, ni, yo, ka", do not copy the lesson explanations, reiterate in your own words.
2. Give a brief description of each honourific, do not copy the lesson explanations, reiterate in your own words.
3. Introduce yourself to me (Maroni-sensei), and say that you are pleased to meet me (you do not have to say your name if you do not know what it is in Japanese, just say your name in English).
4. Reply to this sentence, O-genki desu, arigatō gozaimasu. ______-wa
5. Say goodbye, formally, and informally (choose any informal one you desire) and do not forget to mention the listener's (myself) name, as a sign of respect with the formal salutation.

Lesson 3

Write 5 basic sentences (if you can), using the verbs above. If you want to find some nouns (objects), look on

(Denshi = Electronic, Jisho = Dictionary).

PM your answers, numbers by question and categorised by lesson. Use this link (you need to be a forum member to PM me):