Ni

(This is still a rough draft but I hope this helps some of you.)

Destination

Gakkoo ni ikimasu. (I ) go to school.

Time, days, month, years

Ni-ji ni gakkoo ni ikimasu. (I) go to school at two.

Do-yoobi ni kaimono ni ikimasu. (I) go shopping on Sat.

Nihon ni ikimasu.

Nihon no gakkoo ni ikimasu.

Nihon ni iimeeru shimasu.

Tomodachi ni tegami o kakimasu.

Uchi ni kaerimasu.

Daigaku ni kaerimasu. (if you live on campus, you can say this way.)

Nihon ni kaerimasu.

The all above particle “ni” can be replaced with “e” particle, which indicates “direction.”.

Note: Relative time does not require a particle. Relative times are words indicates days such as “kyoo, ashita, asatte, kinoo, maiasa, mainichi, senchuu, shuumatsu, etc.) The dates for those words changes as time progresses. Today will be Yesterday tomorrow.

Connecting nouns and the first noun modifies the second noun

Tookyoo daigaku no Tanaka desu. (I am) Tanaka from Tokyo Univ.

Ashita no yoru shimasu. (I) will do tomorrow night.

Many people say “no” is possessive. Yes, “Possessive” is one of the meanings of No particle but if you limit the definition to just possessive, you cannot have good applications of No particle. Let’s look at different phrases using No and see how you can translate.

Watashi no meeshi

My business card

Nihongo no sensee

a teacher of Japanese language

Suugaku no kurasu

a math class/ a class of math

Tookyoo daigaku no Tanaka

Tanaka from Tokyo University

Tokyoo no daigaku

University in Tokyo/University located in Tokyo

Asa no ku-ji

9 o’clock in the morning

Nihongo no eega

A movie in Japanese langauge

Konshuu no Getsu-yoobi

This Monday/ Monday of this week

Number: roku roku hachi no ichi ni san shi

668-1234 (in this case no is simply a hyphen.)

How to say: “Class at ten today”

The both word “ten” and “today: modify the word “kurasu.” When you are not sure which word should come first to modify or list, just remember that “a meaning in bigger/broader sense comes first.” So the phrase “Class at ten today” should be : Kyoo no juu-ji no kurasu

With

Tomodachi to tabemasu. (I) talk with a friend.

and

Piza to sandoicchi o tabemasu. (I) eat pizza and sandwiches.

Note: Do not use “to” to connect sentences as you use “and” in English. Use “Sorekara, soshite, sonoato, etc.” to connect sentences in Japanese.

Tomodachi to ikimasu.

(I) go with a friend.

Tomodachi to uchi e kaerimasu.

(I) go home with a friend.

Tanaka-san to Yamada-san to ikimasu.

(I) go with Tanaka-san and Yamada-san.

Please Do not use “to” to connect sentences as you use the English word “and.” Use “Sorekara, soshite, sonoato, etc.” to connect sentences in Japanese.

So if you want to say “I go home and watch T.V.” Since there are two verbs in this sentence, you have to make two sentences and connect them in this way:

Uchi ni/e kaerimasu. Sorekara, terebi o mimasu.

The word “sorekara” comes at the beginning of the second sentence.

Some of you might be wondering, you cannot say connect verbs in one sentence? Yes, you can but it requires advanced grammar. So at this level of a language course, let’s just make two sentences and connect them with the words “Sorekara, soshite, sonoato, etc.”.

Place of activities

Daigaku no toshokan de benkyoo shimasu. (I) study at university library.

By means of, by using

Nihongo de itte kudasai. Say in Japanese.

Terebi de eega o mimasu. (I) watch a movie on TV.

Kafeteria de tabemasu.

(I) eat at cafeteria.

Amerika de eego o benkyoo shimasu.

(I) study English in America.

Nihon de nihogo o hanashimasu.

(I) speak Japanese in Japan

Daigaku de koohii o nomimasu.

(I) drink coffee at university.

Uchi de eega o mimasu.

(I) watch a movie at home.

Uchi de terebi de eega o mimasu.

(I) watch a movie at home. (The first de particle indicates “place of activity” and the second de particle indicates “by means of/by using.”

Uchi no terebi de eega o mimasu.

(I) a movie at T.V. of/at/in (my) home.

Hashi de soba o tabemasu.

(I) eat soba with/using chopsticks

Naihu to hooku de suteeri o tabemasu.

(I) eat a steak with/using knife and fork.

Konpyuutaa de nihongo o kakimasu.

(I) write Japanese with/using computer.

Tomodachi to huransugo de hanashimasu.

(I) talk with a friend in/using French.

Iimeeru de shashin o okurimasu.

(I) send a photo via e-mail.

Creating sentences

Make sentences to convert the following English in Japanese.

How do you say …

“I go to school at 4:00?” In Japanese?

4 o’clock is Yo-ji

Since it indicates “at specific time” ni has to follow Yo-ji

Then how do you say go to school?

gakkoo e/ni ikimasu

So the sentence goes “ Yo-ji ni gakkoo e/ni ikimasu.”

If you want to ask the question, saying “Do you go to school at 4?”

Just add ka at the end of the sentence and say, “ Yo-ji ni gakkoo e/ni ikimasu ka.”

How do you say …

I eat breakfast at home every morning.

When the sentence gets longer, English speakers often wonder “so how should I start the sentence?” If you wonder this way, you are still thinking in English. The orders of words are very loose in Japanese so say it as a word comes to your mind. But use appropriate particles with the word (nouns).

There is a tendency of word order in Japanese. The tendency is that a word with broader/bigger meaning comes first. This is opposite of English since English usually start with specific information first.

For example, when you want to write an address on an envelop, in English the address starts with number, street, city, state, and zip code while in Japanese the address starts with prefecture (state), city, town, street (actually street does not have name in Japan so section of a town is used), and number. It is like a funnel from broad to specifics.

I eat breakfast at cafeteria every morning.

English is very liner. There is some variation of location of the word “every morning. Though. It can come at the beginning or the end of the sentence, depending on emphasis or importance.

eat

breakfast

at home

Every morning

In Japanese, I would like to list the “noun + particle” in the following way since the order of those phrases are up to the speaker.

Maiasa

(Watashi wa)

Uchi de

Asagohan o

tabemasu

Let’s try to make a long sentence by ending the sentence with the verb “tabemasu.”

Keep the following questions in mind; “when, what time, who, with whom, what, and what kind of.”

Questions	Answers	Particles	+ tabemashita.
When (itsu)	saraishuu no shuumatsu no yoru	***
what time (nan-ji ni)	Juu ni-ji san juu go hun/fun	ni (indicating time)
Who (dare ga)	Gozira-san	Ga (action doer) or wa (topic)
with whom, (dare to)	Tanak-san	to
What (nani o) and what kind (donna)	Sutoroberii keeki	o

*** None (relative time does not require a particle). Relative times are words indicates days such as “kyoo, ashita, asatte, kinoo, maiasa, mainichi, senchuu, shuumatsu, Getsu-yoobi, etc.)

Also the words indicate frequency and degree do not require particles such as “yoku, tokidoki, amari, and zenzen.”

One more practice. How do you say:

I ate flan.

(Watashi wa) purin o tabemashita.

I ate flan with chopsticks.

(Watashi wa) purin o hashi de tabemashita.

(Watashi wa) hashi de purin o tabemashita.

I ate flan with chopsticks at university.

(Watashi wa) daigaku de purin o hashi de tabemashita.

(Watashi wa) purin o daigaku de hashi de tabemashita.

(Watashi wa) purin o hashi de daigaku de tabemashita.

I ate flan with chopsticks at university at 4 o’clock.

(Watashi wa) yo-ji ni daigaku de purin o hashi de tabemashita.

(Watashi wa) daigaku de yo-ji ni purin o hashi de tabemashita.

(Watashi wa) daigaku de purin o yo-ji ni hashi de tabemashita.

(Watashi wa) daigaku de purin o hashi de yo-ji ni tabemashita.

I ate flan with chopsticks at university at 4 o’clock with Tanaka-san.

(Watashi wa) Tanaka-san to yo-ji ni daigaku de purin o hashi de tabemashita.

(Watashi wa) yo-ji ni Tanaka-san to daigaku de purin o hashi de tabemashita.

(Watashi wa) yo-ji ni daigaku de Tanaka-san to purin o hashi de tabemashita.

(Watashi wa) yo-ji ni daigaku de purin o Tanaka-san to hashi de tabemashita.

(Watashi wa) yo-ji ni daigaku de purin o hashi de Tanaka-san to tabemashita.

Tanaka-san ate flan with chopsticks at university at 4 o’clock, too.

Tanaka-san mo yo-ji ni daigaku de purin o hashi de tabemashita.

You will see the repetition of NOUN + PARTICLE in Japanese sentences. Please refer to the above for nouns which do no require particles.

I hope you have a good understanding of particles now. Please keep making sentences.