Sample Sentences and How To Make Sentences
|
Ni |
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. I (will) go to Japan.
Nihon no gakkoo ni ikimasu. I (will) go to school in Japan (or Japanese school).
Nihon ni iimeeru shimasu. I (will) e-mail to Japan.
Tomodachi ni tegami o kakimasu. I write a lettter to a friend.
Uchi ni kaerimasu. I (will) go home.
Daigaku ni kaerimasu. (if you live on campus, you can say this way.) I (will) go back to (my residence at) university.*
Nihon ni kaerimasu. I (will) go back to (my home in) Japan.*
*Note: If you are just returning to a place (not your residence), " もどります" is used to mean "to return (to a place)."
The all above particle “ni (destination)” can be replaced with “e (direction)” particle.”
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).
|
No |
Connecting
two nouns, and the first noun modifies the second noun |
Tookyoo daigaku no Tanaka desu. (I am)
Tanaka from Ashita no yoru shimasu. (I) will do tomorrow night. |
Many people say the particle “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 into English equivalents.
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
Tokyoo no daigaku
= University in Tokyo/University located in
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 o'clock today”
The both words “ten” and “today: modify the word “kurasu.” When you are not sure which word should come first, 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."
|
To |
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 will) go with a friend.
Tomodachi to uchi e kaerimasu. (I will) go home with a friend.
Tanaka-san to Yamada-san to ikimasu. (I will) 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, can we say by connecting verbs in one sentence? Yes, you can but it requires a bit more advanced
grammar. So at this level of a language level, let’s just make two sentences
and connect them with the words “Sorekara, soshite, sonoato, etc.”.
If
you want to know how, here it is.
Uchi ni/e kaette,
terebi o mimasu.
|
De |
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 will) eat at cafeteria.
Amerika de eego o benkyoo
shimasu. (I will) study English in
Nihon de nihogo
o hanashimasu. (I will) speak Japanese in
Daigaku de koohii o nomimasu. (I will) drink coffee at university.
Uchi de eega o mimasu. (I will) watch a movie at home.
Uchi de terebi de eega o mimasu. (I will) 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 will) a movie at T.V. of/at/in (my) home.
Hashi de soba o tabemasu. (I will) eat soba with/using chopsticks
Naihu to hooku de suteeki o tabemasu. (I will) eat a steak with/using a knife and a fork.
Konpyuutaa de nihongo no meeru o kakimasu. (I will) write a mail in Japanese with/using computer.
Tomodachi to huransugo de hanashimasu. (I will) talk with a friend in/using French.
Iimeeru de shashin o okurimasu.(I will) send a photo via e-mail.
Creating sentences
| Again, please first understand the Basic Rules of
making sentences below. · A Particle comes right after a noun. · A verb generally comes at the end of a sentence. · A topic (often omitted if known to a listener) of a conversation comes at the beginning of a sentence. · Words indicating day, date, time often comes at the beginning of a sentence. · Nouns containing a broader sense proceed other nouns. E.g. Amerika no Noosu Karoraina no Wiruminton = Wilmington, NC USA Senshuu no shuumatsu no asa no roku-ji = 6 o'clock in the morning last weekends |
You will see the repetition of NOUN + PARTICLE in Japanese sentences. Please refer to the "Other Rules" for nouns which do not require particles.
|
I go to school at 4:00. 4 o’clock is Yo-ji Since it indicates “at a specific time” ni particle has to follow Yo-ji to indicate it is a "time" in the sentence. 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.” |
|
In this case, the time 4:00 is a topic (what you are talking about) so the particle "wa" follows 4:00 (yo-ji). "Yoji" 's meaning is "time" but it does not function of "time" in the sense of "at 4:00" in this sentence. So it should be "Yo-ji wa." Time for shopping is "kaimono no jikan." So the setence is "Yo-ji wa kaimono no jikan desu. |
|
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 nouns. Generally speaking, if you say an English from the end of sentence, it becomes Japanese. So here is the Japanese equivalent: Maiasa utchi de asagohan o tabemasu = every morning at home breakfast (I) eat. 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, and number (actually street does not have a name in Japan so only the number of a section of a town is used such as "1-chome 1-banchi").. It is like a funnel from broad to specifics. |
|
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.
As I mention above, generally speaking, if you translate an English sentence into Japanese sentence by starting from the end of English sentence, it ends up a right sentence but here are some variation.
In Japanese, as you see below I am listing “noun + particle” in the following way since the order of those phrases are up to the speaker.
|
|
Other rules:
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.” |
Let’s try to make a long sentence with 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 |
saraishuu no shuumatsu no yoru |
*** |
|
|
what time |
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 |
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 also ate flan with chopsticks at university at 4 o’clock.
Tanaka-san mo yo-ji ni daigaku de purin o hashi de tabemashita.
I hope you have a good understanding of particles now. Please keep practice making sentences.