BettyBooshJapanese

How to talk about coming going and returning in Japanese!

2012-03-01T08:31:00.000-08:00

こんにちはベティーです。

Today I am going to show you how to talk about going coming and returning. Once you have mastered these words you can tell people what you have been / will be doing.

いく iku - go (polite form) いきます ikimasu

くる kuru - come (polite form) きます kimasu

かえる kaeru - return (polite form) かえります kaerimasu

The particle that is used with these words is 'ni' 'に'. ni can be used in few different ways to mean different things but for now we are using it to mean to / towards.

わたしはしごとにいきます。
watashi wa shigoto ni ikimasu.
I'm going to work / I will go to work.

Because in Japanese the present tense is the same as the future tense in most cases this sentence can either mean "I'm going to work" (meaning now) or "I will go to work" (in the future).

わたしはいましごとにいきます。
watashi wa ima shigoto ni ikimasu.
I am going to work now.

If you add the word for now 'ima' 'いま' before where you are going, the sentence becomes "I am going to work now." This is the structure we are going to use for our next few sentences.

[Person] wa [Time] [Place] ni [Verb]

たかはしさんはあしたデパートにいきます。
takahashi-san wa ashita depato ni ikimasu
Mr. Takahashi is going to a department store tomorrow.

かとうさんはきょうここにきます。
kato-san wa kyou koko ni kimasu
Mr. Kato is coming here today.

わたしはいまいえにかえります。
watashi wa ima ie ni kaerimasu.
I will return home now.

If you want to used past form, you can change the 'masu' 'ます' to 'mashita' 'ました'.

たかはしさんはきのうデパートにいきました。
takahashi-san wa kinou depato ni ikimashita.
Mr. Takahashi went to a department store yesterday.

かとうさんはきょうここにきました。
kato-san wa kyou koko ni kimashita.
Mr. Kato came here today.

わたしはきのういえにかえりました。
watashi wa kinou ie ni kaerimashita.
I returned home yesterday.

The suffix 'mashou' 'ましょう' means "lets do ... " so if you add mashou to iku, you get 'ikimashou' 'いきましょう' which means lets go. So you can say this if your about to set off somewhere.

As always any comments and feedback are appreciated, I will also answer any questions you might have. If you like my blog feel free to follow me and also feel free to check out my hiragana series on youtube :www.youtube.com/Bettybooshtv

またね！

How to ask how much something costs in Japanese!

2012-02-22T15:41:00.000-08:00

こんにちはベティーです。

Today I am going to show you how to ask how much something costs. See my post How to count in Japanese if you do not already know how to. Although when we talk about Japanese money we say 'yen', the Japanese actually say 'en' '円'. Just like we have the £ symbol, the Japanese have the ￥symbol.

これはいくらですか。
kore wa ikura desu ka.
How much is this?

それはいくらですか。
sore wa ikura desu ka.
How much is that?

あれはいくらですか。
are wa ikura desu ka.
How much is that one over there?

In English we have the words this and that depending on how close they are to us, well in Japanese they have three versions of this. 'kore' 'これ' means 'this', 'sore' 'それ' means that and 'are' 'あれ' means 'that over there'. 'Kore' is used if the thing is near to you (in reaching distance) 'sore' is used if the thing is not too far away from you, and 'are' is used if the thing is quite far away from you. The word 'ikura' 'いくら' means how much.

これは500円です。
kore wa go-hyaku en desu.
This is 500 yen.

それも500円です。
sore mo go-hyaku en desu.
That is also 500 yen.

The particle 'mo' can mean a few different things, in this case it means also.

As always any comments and feedback are appreciated, I will also answer any questions you might have. If you like my blog feel free to follow me and also feel free to check out my hiragana series on youtube :www.youtube.com/Bettybooshtv

またね！

How to talk about age in Japanese!

2012-02-18T04:03:00.000-08:00

こんにちはベティーです。

Today I am going to show you how to talk about your age and how to ask someone how old they are. The counter for years old is 'sai' 'さい', this means that you simply add sai after the number of years, for example 4 years old would be 'yonsai' 'よんさい'. There are a couple of irregular numbers to look out for but they are really easy. If you don't know how to count in Japanese take a look at my post how to count in Japanese!

♥	Romaji	Hiragana	Kanji
1	issai	いっさい	一才
2	nisai	にさい	二才
3	sansai	さんさい	三才
4	yonsai	よんさい	四才
5	gosai	ごさい	五才
6	rokusai	ろくさい	六才
7	nanasai	ななさい	七才
8	hassai	はっさい	八才
9	kyuusai	きゅうさい	九才
10	jussai	じゅっさい	十才

The numbers 1 and 8 are slightly shortened to make them easier to pronounce. The number for 1 is 'ichi' 'いち' in this case the chi has been removed and replaced with a little pause, so it is pronounced 'is-sai' 'いっさい'. This is exactly the same with the number 8 'hachi' 'はち', which becomes 'has-sai' 'はっさい'.

So to say your age you simply add 'sai' to the number of how old you are. If you want to say any age that ends in 1 or 8 remember that they are shortened. For example 21 is 'ni-juu-issai' and 38 is 'san-juu-hassai'.

あなたはなんさいですか。
anata wa nan sai desu ka.
How old are you?

私は１９才です。
わたしはじゅうきゅうさいです。
watashi wa juu-kyuu-sai desu.
I am 19 years old.

If you don't understand basic particles (wa and ka) then check out my previous post About Japanese Particles!

As always any comments and feedback are appreciated, I will also answer any questions you might have. If you like my blog feel free to follow me and also feel free to check out my hiragana series on youtube :www.youtube.com/Bettybooshtv

またね！

How to say the days of the week in Japanese!

2012-02-15T05:27:00.000-08:00

こんにちはベティーです。

Today I am going to show you how to say the days of the week in Japanese. The word for day is "youbi" 'ようび'. This is added at the end of the word just like we do with the word day. Each day in Japanese has a meaning, a couple of which are the same as english.

げつようび

getsu youbi

Monday

The symbol for 'getsu' is 月which means moon, this makes the meaning of the word "moon-day" which is actually very similar to Monday in English.

かようび
ka youbi
Tuesday

The symbol for 'ka' is 火 which means fire, this makes the meaning of the word "fire-day". This is similar to the name Tuesday in English as this means 'day of mars' which is the fire planet.

すいようび
sui youbi
Wednesday

The symbol for 'sui' is 水 which means water, this makes the meaning of the word "water-day". The name Wednesday in English actually goes back to mean the 'day of Mercury' who is the god of water.

もくようび
moku youbi
Thursday

The symbol for 'moku' is 木 which means tree, this makes the meaning of the word "tree-day".

きんようび
kin youbi
Friday

The symbol for 'kin' is 金 which means gold, this makes the meaning of the word "gold-day" or "metal-day".

どようび
do youbi
Saturday

The symbol for 'do' is 土 which means ground, this makes the meaning of the word "ground-day"

にちようび
nichi youbi
Sunday

The symbol for 'nichi' is 日 which means sun, this makes the meaning of the word "sun-day", which is the same as Sunday in English.

きょうはなんようびですか。
kyou wa nan youbi desu ka.
What day is it today?

きょうはすいようびです。
kyou wa sui youbi desu.
Today is Wednesday.

As always any comments and feedback are appreciated, I will also answer any questions you might have. If you like my blog feel free to follow me and also feel free to check out my hiragana series on youtube :www.youtube.com/Bettybooshtv

またね！

Happy Valentine's Day - How to say I love you in Japanese!

2012-02-14T13:01:00.000-08:00

こんにちはベティーです。

Since today is Valentine's Day I though that I would give you some sentences you might hear. In Japan Valentine's day is a day for boys to give girls presents but girls don't give boys presents. Girl's give boy's presents on white day which is in march.

ハッピーバレンタインデー。
happi barentain de
Happy Valentine's Day.

In one of my previous post's I talked about how to say I like/dislike. This is also used for people.

あなたがすきです。
anata ga suki desu.
I like you.

あなたがすきではありません。
anata ga suki dewa arimasen.
I dont like you.

あなたがだいすきです。
anata ga daisuki desu
I really like you / I love you.

あなたはわたしがすきですか。
anata wa watashi ga suki desu ka.
Do you like me?

Even though the Japanese have a way of saying I love you 'aishiteru' they rarely ever use it, instead they say 'daisuki' which translates as really like but is used as love.

これはあなたのプレゼントです。
kore wa anata no puresento desu.
Here is a present for you.

If your feeling bold and want to know where your present is you could say ;)

わたしのプレゼントありますか。
watashi no purezento arimasu ka.
Do you have my present?

That's all for today as always any comments and feedback are appreciated, I will also answer any questions you might have. If you like my blog feel free to follow me and also feel free to check out my hiragana series on youtube :www.youtube.com/Bettybooshtv

またね！

How to talk about time and opening hours in Japanese!

2012-02-13T16:05:00.000-08:00

こんにちはベティーです。

Today I am going to show you how to talk about time! I am also going to show you how to say what opening hours are. Firstly the counter for time is "ji" 'じ' '時'. I briefly mentioned this in my post About Japanese Counters. So to say 1 o'clock you simply add this counter to the number for one and so on. If you don't know Japanese numbers I would highly recomend reading my earlier post how to count in Japanese.

1	ichi-ji	いちじ / 一時
2	ni-ji	にじ / 二時
3	san-ji	さんじ / 三時
4	yo-ji	よじ / 四時
5	go-ji	ごじ / 五時
6	roku-ji	ろくじ / 六時
7	shichi-ji	しちじ / 七時
8	hachi-ji	はちじ / 八時
9	ku-ji	くじ / 九時
10	juu-ji	じゅうじ / 十時
11 12	juu-ichi-ji juu-ni-ji	じゅういちじ / 十一時じゅうにじ / 十二時

Next you'll need to know how to say minutes, there are a lot of irregulars to remember for minutes and it's a lot to take in all at once, so for now I am just going to show you minutes going up in 5's. The counter for minutes is "fun" 'ふん' '分' or "pun" 'ぷん' '分' depending on what minutes you say.

-fun ふん	-pun ぷん
5	10
15	20
25	30 (or han)
35	40
45	50
55	60

For 10:15 I would say 'juu-ji-juu-go-fun' '10時15分' '十時十五分'.
For 11:20 I would say 'juu-ichi-ji-ni-juu-pun' '11時20分' '十一時二十分'.
In Japanese instead of saying "30 minutes past" 'san-juu-pun' you can just say "half past" 'han', so if I want to say 12:30 I can say, 'juu-ni-ji-han'. '12時30分'.

今は何時ですか。
いまはなんじですか。 } What time is it now?
ima wa nan ji desu ka.

今は3時です。
いまはさんじです。 } Now it is 3 o'clock.
ima wa san-ji desu

Now that you know how to say what time it is you can tell someone opening hours simply by using the words "kara" 'から' (from) and "made" 'まで' (to/until).

すみませんが、スーパーは何時からですか。
sumimasenga, suupaa wa nan-ji kara desu ka.
Excuse me, what time does the supermarket open?

8時からです。
hachi-ji kara desu.
It opens at 8 o'clock.

if you replace the word kara in these sentences with the word made they would become 'Excuse me, what time does the supermarket close?' and 'It closes at 8 o'clock.'

デパートは9時から5時までです。
depaato wa kyuu-ji kara go-ji made desu.
The department store is open from 9 o'clock until 5 o'clock.

Kara and made are not only used for talking about time, they are used to say from and to places as well. For example going 'from England to Japan' would be 'eigo kara nihon made desu.' ' えいごからにほんまでです。' ' 英語から日本までです。'

As always any comments and feedback are appreciated, I will also answer any questions you might have. If you like my blog feel free to follow me and also feel free to check out my hiragana series on youtube :www.youtube.com/Bettybooshtv

またね！

How to say I like/dislike it in Japanese!

2012-02-11T15:01:00.000-08:00

こんにちはベティーです。

Today I am going to show you how to say whether you like something or not, I am also going to show you how to ask someone if they like something.

わたしはいぬがすきです。
watashi wa inu ga suki desu.
I like dogs.

The word "suki" 'すき' means like. As I have briefly explained before the word desu means is/am/are. The negative form of this is "dewa arimasen" 'ではありません' this translates as is not/am not/are not.

わたしはすしがすきではありません。
watashi wa sushi ga suki dewa arimasen.
I dont like sushi.

If you have already established in the conversation that you are talking about yourself you can drop 'watashi wa' 'わたしは'

あなたはねこがすきですか。
anata wa neko ga suki desu ka.
Do you like cats?

Since you already know the answer is going to be about cats you don't have to mention it in your responce. You can just simply say:

はい、すきです。
hai, suki desu.
Yes i like it.

いいえ、すきではありません。
iie, suki dewa arimasen.
No, I don't like it.

いいえ、きらいです。
iie, kirai desu.
No, I dislike it.

"kirai" 'きらい' means dislike or hate. It is more informal than 'suki dewa arimasen'. If you want to say you really like something or really dislike(hate) something you can do so by adding 'dai' 'だい' for example:

ケーキがだいすきです。
keeki ga daisuki desu.
I love cake / I really like cake!

さかながだいきらいです。
sakana ga daikirai desu.
I hate fish / I really dislike fish!

As always any comments and feedback are appreciated, I will also answer any questions you might have. If you like my blog feel free to follow me and also feel free to check out my hiragana series on youtube :www.youtube.com/Bettybooshtv

またね！

How to talk about your job in Japanese!

2012-02-09T05:29:00.000-08:00

こんにちはベティーです。

Today I am going to show you how to talk about your Job. The word for "job" is 'shigoto' 'しごと'.

あなたのしごとはなんですか。
anata no shigoto wa nan desu ka.
What is your job?

If you read my last blog post how to talk about hobbies, you'll know we used the same sentence structure for hobbies only using the word 'shumi' instead of 'shigoto'. This structure can be used to ask about alot of things. If you dont know what the particles (no, wa and ka) mean then check out my earlier post about Japanese particles. Once again the word 'nan' 'なん' means what or how many, in this case it means what.

わたしのしごとは____です。
watashi no shigoto wa ____ desu.
My job is ____. / I am a ____.

Just like when talking about hobbies if you have more than one job you can mention them by putting the particle "to" 'と' between them like this,

わたしのしごとは____と____です。
watashi no shigoto wa ____ to ____ desu.
My jobs are ____ and ____. / I am a ____ and a ____.

In my case I would say,

わたしのしごとはバーテンダーです。
watashi no shigoto wa baatendaa desu.
I am a bartender.

Here's a list of Jobs, If your Job isn't on the list leave a comment and I will give you the translation.

Bartender	baatendaa	バーテンダー
Student	gakusei	がくせい
Company employee	kaisha-in	かいしゃいん
Engineer	enjinia	エンジニア
Teacher	sensei	せんせい
Doctor	isha	いしゃ
Housewife	shufu	しゅふ
Vet	juui	じゅうい
Dentist	haisha	はいしゃ
Actor	tanyuu	たんゆう
Actress	joyuu	じょゆう
Chef	shefu	シェフ

As always any comments and feedback are appreciated, I will also answer any questions you might have. If you like my blog feel free to follow me and also feel free to check out my hiragana series on youtube :www.youtube.com/Bettybooshtv

またね！

How to talk about hobbies in Japanese!

2012-02-07T16:56:00.000-08:00

こんにちはベティーです。

Today I am going to look at how to talk about your hobbies. I will also list how to say a few common hobbies. the word for Hobby is 'shumi' 'しゅみ'

あなたのしゅみはなんですか。
anata no shumi wa nan desu ka.
What is your hobby? / What are your hobbies?

Remember a lot of Japanese nouns don't have a plural form so in this case it can mean either hobby or hobbies. If you don't know what the particles (no, wa and ka) mean check my earlier post about Japanese particles. The word 'nan' 'なん' means what or how many, in this case it means what.

わたしのしゅみは____です。
watashi no shumi wa ____ desu.
My hobby is ____ .

If you want to say more than one hobby you have to use the particle 'to' 'と' (and) between each hobby like this:

わたしのしゅみは____と____です。
watashi no shumi wa ____ to ____ desu.
My hobbies are ____ and ____.

In my case I would say,
わたしのしゅみはうたうとごをべんきょうです。
watashi no shumi wa utau to go o benkyou desu.
My hobbies are singing and studying languages.

Here's a list of common hobbies, If your hobby isn't on the list leave a comment and I will give you the translation.

Listening to music	ongaku kanshou	おんがくかんしょう
Watching TV	terebi o mite iru	テレビをみている
Watching Movies	eiga o mite iru	えいがをみている
Computers	konpyuutaa	コンピュータ
Playing console games	bideo geemu suru	ビデオゲームする
Reading	dokusho	どくしょ
Singing	utau	うたう
Dancing	dansu	ダンス
Languages	go o benkyou	ごをべんきょう
Swimming	oyoide iru	およいでいる
Running	hashiru	はしる
Cooking	ryouri	りょうり

About Japanese Particles!

2012-02-07T13:14:00.000-08:00

こんにちはベティーです。

Today I am going to talk about Japanese particles and briefly explain a few of them. Particles are little words that come after a noun, verb, adjective to help describe what is going on in the sentence. They are abit like connectives and are quite easy once you understand how they work. You should remember that they ALWAYS come AFTER the word they are describing. Let's look at an example.

わたしはがくせいです。
watashi wa gakusei desu.
I am a student.

The particle I used in this sentence is the topic marker 'wa' 'は'. This particle is used to mark the topic of the sentence. If you think about it as meaning 'about' or 'as for' you might find getting to grasps with it easier. Adding this after the word for I / me 'watashi' 'わたし', it can be translated as "as for me" or "about me". Taking this into consideration we can translate this sentence as "About me, I'm a student."

For anyone who can read hiragana notice that when you use the particle 'wa' you actually use the character 'ha' 'は'

わたしのほんです。
watashi no hon desu.
It is my book

The particle I used in this sentence is 'no' 'の'. The particle no shows possession. So in this case if you add the particle after the word 'watashi' 'わたし' it becomes 'my'. If you add it to the word for you 'anata' 'あなた' it becomes 'your'. Another way this particle is used is to connect an adjective to a noun. For example: "Midori no hon" 'みどりのほん' (Green book).

Probably one of the easiest particles is the particle 'ka' 'か'. This particle goes at the end of a sentence to mark a question. To show how easy this particle is I am going to add it to the last example.

わたしのほんですか。
watashi no hon desu ka.
Is it my book?

That is all you need to do to make a statement a question, this is much easier in Japanese than it is in english.

This is a far as I am going to go into particles today, there are many more but I will go into these in a later post. Once you understand particles, sentences will suddenly start making more sense. Good luck!!

As always any comments and feedback are appreciated, I will also answer any questions you might have. If you like my blog feel free to follow me and also feel free to check out my hiragana series on youtube: www.youtube.com/Bettybooshtv

またね！

About Japanese Counters!

2012-02-01T13:45:00.000-08:00

こんにちはベティーです。

Today I am going to add to one of my previous posts How to count in Japanese. In English we use just our numbers to count different things, however in Japanese there are different counter suffixes depending on what kind of objects you are counting. For now I'm only going to talk about a few very common counters.

The first counters I am going to show you are the counters for Things. These are the most important to know because if you forget any of the other counters you can just use these instead.

1	hitotsu	ひとつ / 一つ	11	juu-ichi	じゅういち / 十一
2	futatsu	ふたつ / 二つ	12	juu-ni	じゅうに / 十二
3	mittsu	みっつ / 三つ	13	juu-san	じゅうさん / 十三
4	yottsu	よっつ / 四つ	14	juu-shi	じゅうし / 十四
5	itsutsu	いつつ / 五つ	15	juu-go	じゅうご / 十五
6	muttsu	むっつ / 六つ	16	juu-roku	じゅうろく / 十六
7	nanatsu	ななつ / 七つ	17	juu-shichi	じゅうしち / 十七
8	yattsu	やっつ / 八つ	18	juu-hachi	じゅうはち / 十八
9	kokonotsu	ここのつ / 九つ	19	juu-ku	じゅうく / 十九
10	too	とお / 十	20	hatachi	はたち / 二十

The next counter that I am going to show you is the counter for people, I gave you this list previously in my post for talking about family. The suffix for people is "nin" '人'. Apart from 1 being 'hitori', 2 being 'futari' and 4 being 'yo-nin' you just add this suffix to the end of normal japanese numbers which makes it easy to remember.

1	hitori	ひとり / 一人
2	futari	ふたり / 二人
3	san-nin	さんにん / 三人
4	yo-nin	よにん / 四人
5	go-nin	ごにん / 五人
6	roku-nin	ろくにん / 六人
7	shichi-nin	しちにん / 七人
8	hachi-nin	はちにん / 八人
9	ku-nin	くにん / 九人
10	juu-nin	じゅうにん / 十人

The next counter that I am going to show you is the counter for time. Specifically how to say o'clock. The suffix for o'clock is "ji" '時'

1	ichi-ji	いちじ / 一時
2	ni-ji	にじ / 二時
3	san-ji	さんじ / 三時
4	yo-ji	よじ / 四時
5	go-ji	ごじ / 五時
6	roku-ji	ろくじ / 六時
7	shichi-ji	しちじ / 七時
8	hachi-ji	はちじ / 八時
9	ku-ji	くじ / 九時
10	juu-ji	じゅうじ / 十時
11	juu-ichi-ji	じゅういちじ / 十一時
12	juu-ni-ji	じゅうにじ / 十二時

The last counter that I am going to show you today is the counter for floors (building levels). The counter for floor is "kai" '階' There are a few irregularities you have to look out for when using this counter. When you say 3rd floor you say "gai" instead of "kai", this is also the case when you say 13th floor and so on. There are also a few changes to make the counters easier to say (It may not seem easier to you but It does for the japanese)

1	ik-kai	いっかい / 一階
2	ni-kai	にかい / 二階
3	san-gai	さんがい / 三階
4	yon-kai	よんかい / 四階
5	go-kai	ごかい / 五階
6	rok-kai	ろっかい / 六階
7	shichi-kai	しちかい / 七階
8	hachi-kai	はちかい / 八階
9	kyuu-kai	きゅうかい / 九階
10	jik-kai	じっかい / 十階
11	juu-ik-kai	じゅういっかい / 十一階
12	juu-ni-kai	じゅうにかい / 十二階

These are all the counters I am going to look at for now, It might take a while to get to grips with counters but once you do it will all drop into place. ^_^

As always any comments and feedback are appreciated, I will also answer any questions you might have. If you like my blog feel free to follow me and also feel free to check out my hiragana series on youtube: www.youtube.com/Bettybooshtv

またね！

Talking about family in Japanese!

2012-01-31T12:08:00.000-08:00

こんにちはベティーです！

Today I am going to look at how to talk about your family. Specifically how many are in your family, who they are and what they are like.

ご家族は何人ですか。
ごかぞくはなんにんですか。 } How many people are in your family?
go kazoku wa nan-nin desu ka.

You should only use "go-kazoku" when you are talking about somebody else's family. This is because the "go" is honorific.

私の家族は__ 人です。
わたしのかぞくは__にんですか。 } There are __ people in my family.
watashi no kazoku wa __ nin desu.

The counter for people in japanese is "nin" '人' usually you would just put the number your using in front of nin to make it number of people, for example 5 people is "gonin" ('五人' or '5人'). This is a very simple process but there are couple irregularities you need to remember.

'一人' for 1 person you say "hitori" 'ひとり'
'二人' for 2 people you say "futari" 'ふたり'
'三人' for 3 people you say "san-nin" 'さんにん'
'四人' for 4 people you drop the n from yon and just say "yo-nin" 'よにん'
'五人' for 5 people you say "go-nin" 'ごにん'
'六人' for 6 people you say "roku-nin" 'ろくにん'
'七人' for 7 people you say "shichi-nin" 'しちにん'
'八人' for 8 people you say "hachi-nin" 'はちにん'
'九人' for 9 people you say "kyuu-nin" 'きゅうにん'
'十人' for 10 people you say "juu-nin" 'じゅうにん'

for example in my case I would say, わたしのかぞくは三人です。- watashi no kazoku wa san-nin desu.

Now I'm going to move on to explaining who is in your family. You should take note that there's a polite way to say the names and a casual way, before you jump in you should know when to use them. When talking about your own family you should use the casual names and if your talking about somebody else's family you should use the polite names. When talking to your family member you should call them the polite name since you should be polite to your family.

Family member	Your family	Someone else's
Mother	haha はは	okaasan おかあさん
Father	chichi ちち	otousan おとうさん
Parent - Parents	oya/ryoushin おや / りょうしん
Husband	otto おっと	goshujin ごしゅじん
Wife	tsuma/kanai つま / かない	okusan おくさん
Older brother	ani あに	oniisan おにいさん
Older sister	ane あね	oneesan おねえさん
Younger brother	otouto おとうと	otoutosan おとうとさん
Younger sister Grandma Grandad	imouto いもうと sobo　　　そぼ sobu そぶ	imoutosan いもうとさん obaasan　あばあさん ojiisan　　おじいさん

To explain who is in your family you need to list them, so you will need so say the word 'and', to do this you use the particle "to" 'と'. In my case i would say,

わたしのかぞくはそぼとあねとわたしです。watashi no kazoku wa sobo to ane to watashi desu. (In my family is my grandma, my older sister and me.)

You can also say "sorekara watashi desu." 'それからわたしです' which means and then myself.

Say your family has 6 members including yourself, your mother and father, your older brother and your two sisters (one older and one younger.) you would only need to say "watashi no kazoku" once.

私の家族は六人です。父と母と姉と妹と兄それから私です。
わたしのかぞくはろくにんです。ちちとははとあねといもうととあにそれからわたしです。
watashi no kazoku wa roku-nin desu. chichi to haha to ane to imouto to ani sorekara watashi desu.

Now moving on to describing your family members. To describe your family members you need to know some describing words (adjectives) I will go into how adjectives work in a later post and for now I will just give you a few examples.

Question) あなたの[Family member]はどんなひとですか。
anatano [Family member] wa donna hito desu ka?
What kind of person is your [Family member]?

Answer) [Family member]は[adjective]ひとです。
[Family member] wa [Adjective] hito desu.
My [Family member] is a [Adjective] person.

For example

Question) あなたのおねえさんはどんなひとですか。
anata no oneesan wa donna hito desu ka?
　　　　 What kind of person is your sister?

Answer) 姉はいそがしいひとです。
ane wa isogashii hito desu.
My sister is a busy person.

If you want to use more than one describing word then you can just add "to" between the words.

かわいいとしんせつ
kawaii to shinsetsu
Cute and kind.

Before I finnish this post I'll give you just a few adjectives so you can describe you family.

kawaii　 'かわいい' Cute
genki　 'げんき' Lively
ii　　　 'いい' Good
majime　 'かわいい' Serious
shizuka　 'しずか' Quiet
shinsetsu 'しんせつ' Kind
yasashii 'やさしい' Soft / Gentle
suteki 'すてき' Stylish / Smart
kirei 'きれい' Pretty
isohashii 'いそがしい' Busy
kowai 'こわい' Scary
kibishii 'きびしい' Strict
omoshiroi 'おもしろい' Funny / Intresting
kakoii 'かっこいい' Cool
wagamama 'わがまま' Selfish

As always any comments and feedback are appreciated, I will also answer any questions you might have. If you like my blog feel free to follow me and also feel free to check out my hiragana series on youtube : www.youtube.com/Bettybooshtv

またね！

About Ichidan Verbs!

2012-01-30T16:30:00.000-08:00

こんにちはベティーです！

konnichiha betty desu.

Today I thought I would introduce how japanese verbs work, obviously its a very long subject to look into so I'm just going to stick to Ichidan verbs for now. Ichidan verbs are verbs that tend to end in either "iru" 'いる' or "eru" 'える'. For example the verb "to eat" in japanese is taberu.

I'm sure you have all heard verbs in japanese ending in "masu" 'ます' and "masen" 'ません' for example "Imasu" 'います' (To exsist) but if you searched for these words in a dictionary you would not find them. Instead you would find the dictionary form "iru" 'いる'. This is also the casual form.

So if you want to use the polite positive or negatives or these verbs how do you do it?

It's really very easy! The first thing you need to do is find the root of the verb. You do this by dropping the "ru" 'る' from the end of the word. For example the root of the verb (to open) "akeru" 'あける' is "ake" 'あけ' now using this root you can make the word have different meanings.

Firstly to make the verb polite positive you add "masu" 'ます' to the root. For example the verb (to exsist) "iru" 'いる' becomes "imasu" 'います' (This has the same meaning as iru only is more polite.)

If you want to make the verb polite negative you simply add "masen" 'ません' to the root. For example "iru" 'いる' becomes "imasen" 'いません' (since masen is negative the verb now means does not exsist.)

If you want to make the verb casual negative you simple add "nai" 'ない' to the root. For example "iru" 'いる' becomes "inai" 'いない'

There are more things you can do to ichidan verbs to give different meanings but I will go into more detail at a later date.

As always any comments are appreciated and I will answer any questions you may have. If you like my blog feel free to follow me and also feel free to check out my hiragana series on youtube http://www.youtube.com/BettyBooshTV

またね！

Let's Learn Hiragana part 6!

2012-01-28T08:04:00.000-08:00

Here's my new hiragana video showing the pronunciation and stroke order of the M-series.

As always any comments and feedback are appreciated. If you like my blog feel free to follow me or subscribe to my youtube.

またね！

Let's Learn Hiragana part 5!

2012-01-25T02:30:00.000-08:00

Here's my new video showing the stroke order and pronunciation for the N-series.

As always any comments and feedback are appreciated. If you like my blog feel free to follow me or subscribe to my youtube.

またね！

How to count in Japanese!

2012-01-17T16:10:00.000-08:00

こんにちわベティーです。
Konnichiwa Betty desu.

Counting in japanese is really simple! After this short introduction you should be able to count to 99,999! There are kanji characters for numbers in japanese however you can just use normal numbers!

1   一 ichi
2   二    ni
3   三 san
4   四 yon/shi
5   五   go
6   六 roku
7   七    nana/shichi
8   八    hachi
9 九 kyuu/ku
10   十 juu
100   百 hyaku
1000   千 sen
10000 万 man

Once you get to 11 you just add the single digit after the 10 for example 11 would be 十一 juu-ichi and 12 would be 十二 juu-ni.

Once you get to 20 you simply add the unit before the 10 for example 20 would be 二十 ni-juu and 21 would be 二十一 ni-juu-ichi.

When you reach the 100's you can add units before to make them larger (200 二百 ni-hyaku) and you can add units afterwards for example 101 would be 百一 hyaku-ichi, 201 would be 二百一 ni-hyaku-ichi and 222 would be 二百二十二 ni-hyaku-ni-juu-ni.

There are a few numbers in the 100's that are changed so that they are easier to say:
300 is 三百 san-byaku
600 is 六百 roppyaku
800 is 八百 happyaku

Now we'll move onto the 1000's which use exactly the same pattern as the 10's and 100's. Once again you can add units before to make the number larger (3000 三千 san-sen) and units afterwards for example 1100 would be 千百 sen-hyaku, 2222 would be 二千二百二十二 ni-sen-ni-hyaku-ni-juu-ni and 1234 would be 千二百三十四 sen-ni-hyaku-san-juu-yon.

Finally we can add thousands to the equation. Although with 1000 you just say sen and with 100 you just say hyaku when you say 10000 you say ichi-sen. So 10,001 would be 一万一 ichi-man-ichi, 10,100 would be 一万百 ichi-man-hyaku and 11,000 would be 一万千 ichi-man-sen.

With all this information you should now be able to count to 99,999! 九万九千九百九十九 kyuu-man-kyuu-sen-kyuu-hyaku-kyuu-juu-kyuu.

As always feel free to leave feedback ask me any questions and remember to follow my blog or Youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/user/BettyBooshTV

またね！

Let's Learn Hiragana part 4!

2011-12-06T05:25:00.000-08:00

Here's my new video showing the stroke order and pronunciation for the T-series and the D-series. Hope you like it :)

As always any comments and feedback are appreciated. If you like my blog feel free to follow me or subscribe to my youtube.

またね！

How to introduce yourself in Japanese!

2011-12-03T07:20:00.000-08:00

hajimemashite Betty desu. yoroshiku onegaishimasu.

はじめましてベティーです。よろしくおねがいします。

Nice to meet you I'm Betty. Please take care of me.

hajimemashite （はじめまして。）- How do you do? / Nice to meet you.

This is used when meeting someone for the first time as it comes from the verb hajimeru - （はじめる） which literally means "to begin".

watashi - （わたし）- I / me

watashi wa (name) desu - （わたしはnameです。）- I am (name).

The particle wa is the topic marker of the sentence. I will go into more depth about particles in later posts but for now take it as meaning "about". desu is translated at is/am/are (again I'll go into what desu is in a later post). So basically this sentence can be translated as "About me.. i am (name)". You can also cut out the watashi wa and just say (name) desu. This would sound more natural.

e.g. watashi wa betty desu. -（わたしはベティーです。）- I am Betty.

Yoroshiku onegaishimasu - （よろしくおねがいします。）- Nice to meet you / Please take care of me.

(This can be made more informal just saying "yoroshiku" or very formal by adding "douzo" before it.)

Douzo - （どうぞ）- Please / Kindly

As always feel free to leave feedback ask me any questions and remember to follow my blog or Youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/user/BettyBooshTV

またね！(mata ne) - See you again soon :)

Easy Japanese phrases!!

2011-12-02T07:11:00.000-08:00

Here's a few simple Japanese greetings that you will hear a lot in Japanese conversation.

konnichiwa - （こんにちわ。）- Hello
(This is the same as saying good afternoon so you wouldn't say it in the morning or on a night.)

ohayougozaimasu - （おはようごさいます。）- Good morning
(This can be made more informal by just saying "ohayou")

konbanwa - （こんばんわ。）- Good evening

oyasuminasai - （おやすみなさい。）- Good night
(This can be made more informal by just saying "oyasumi")

o-genki desu ka? - （おげんきですか。）- How are you?
(When you say this sentence you are basically saying "Are you healthy?" unlike in English where this ranges over emotions as well. So the response is either "Yes I am healthy." or "No I am not healthy." Also the "O" in the sentence is honorific, this means that you would not use it while talking about yourself.)

hai, genki desu - （はい、げんきです。）- Yes, I am well.

iie, genki dewa arimasen - （いいえ、げんきでわありません。）- No, I am not well.
(This question can also just be answered with Yes or No ("hai" or "iie")

Thank you can be said in many different ways depending on how polite you want to be. Below I will list a few variations moving from very polite to very informal.

domo arigatougozaimasu - （どもありがとうございます。）- Thank you very much.

arigatougozaimasu - （ありがとうございます。）- Thank you.

arigatou - （ありがとう。）- Thanks.

domo - （ども。）- Thanks.

maido ari - （まいどあり。）- Thanks as always.

(My favorite line from kurosagi.)

As always feel free to leave feedback ask me any questions and remember to follow my blog or Youtube.

またね！(mata ne) - See you again soon :)

Let's Learn Hiragana Part 3!

2011-11-28T11:39:00.000-08:00

Here's part 3 of my hiragana series.. All about SA SHI SU SE SO and ZA JI ZU ZE ZO!!

Let me know what you think and if you have any questions I will happily answer them :)

As always any comments and feedback are appreciated. If you like my blog feel free to follow me or subscribe to my youtube.

またね！

Let's Learn Hiragana Part 2!

2011-11-28T11:36:00.000-08:00

Here's part 2 of Let's learn Hiragana! .. About KA KI KU KE KO, Tenten, Hane and GA GI GU GE GO!　Please let me know what you think :)

As always any comments and feedback are appreciated. If you like my blog feel free to follow me or subscribe to my youtube.

またね！

Let's Learn Hiragana part 1!

2011-11-27T17:38:00.000-08:00

My names BettyBoosh and I'm a Japanese student from the UK. I've decided to share what I learn with fellow Japanese learners online. After all I know how hard it is to find good learning resources for free!

Okay so I've started a new series of videos on youtube called Let's Learn Hiragana. If your intrested in learning japanese you should definately give them a watch. After I've finnished these video's I'm planning on doing a Let's Learn Katakana and Let's Learn Japanese (Simple phrases).. If you watch my videos let me know what you think in the comments section :)

Please feel free to follow me and if you have any questions.. I am happy to answer them for you :) (assuming I know the answer of course!)

またね！