Archive for January, 2010
Winter Festivals Posted by Ginny on Jan 31, 2010
Who said that you have to stay inside for the winter? Just because it’s cold doesn’t mean it has to be boring! Around late January and February, winter festivals are all the rage in Japan. You’ve probably heard of the famous Sapporo Snow Festival, but did you know that there were other winter festivals in Japan? Every region has…
Informal Forms of Verbs Posted by Ginny on Jan 28, 2010
Here are some examples of the casual form for RU verbs in the present tense affirmative and negative: おきる (to get up) : affirmative – おきる. Negative – おきない ねる (to sleep) : affirmative – ねる. Negative – ねない みる (to see) : affirmative – みる. Negative – みない Did you notice that the casual…
Informal Forms of い and な Adjectives Posted by Ginny on Jan 25, 2010
So far we looked at the polite forms of the い and な adjectives. Today we’ll look at the casual forms of い and な adjectives, but only in the present tense. The present tense polite affirmative of an い adjective : すずしいいです (cool) The present tense casual affirmative of an い adjective : すずしいい (cool) To…
Daibutsu Posted by Ginny on Jan 22, 2010
In Japanese, だいぶつ means, “great buddha”. In many parts of Japan, you’ll see countless buddha statues where people flock to give offerings, pray or just admire the statue as a work of art. The statues we’ll talk about today are one of the largest, tallest and well known buddha statues of Japan. The Ushiku Daibutsu (牛久大仏)…
Exceptions with い and な Adjectives Posted by Ginny on Jan 19, 2010
いい (good) which is an い adjective, is irregular, but only in certain cases. For example, in the present affirmative polite, いい will be いいです However in the present negative polite, いい will be よくありません Similarly, in the past affirmative polite, いい will be よかったです And the past negative polite, it will be よくありませんでした When using…
な Adjectives Posted by Ginny on Jan 16, 2010
な adjectives are adjectives that end in な. Some examples are: たいへんな (hard, serious) かんたんな (simple, easy) たいせつな (important) To form the present affirmative polite of な adjectives, drop the な and add です to the adjective しずかな (quiet) will be しずかです (It’s quiet) ひまな (not busy, to have free time) will be ひまです (It’s…
い Adjectives Posted by Ginny on Jan 13, 2010
Generally speaking, an い adjective is an adjective that ends in い. (There are exceptions to this rule, but we’ll talk about that some other time.) Examples include: はやい (fast) おそい (slow) ふるい (old for things) To form the present affirmative polite of い adjectives, add です to the adjective. Therefore: たかい (tall, expensive) will be たかいです (It’s expensive)…