Archive for 'Grammar'
How to talk about your family Posted by yuki on Apr 28, 2013
Last week I was asked by a friend how to ask if someone is married and she also asked how to say cousin and grandchild in japanese. So I thought I’d post a thread about family members and family-related phrases. One tricky thing is that you use different words for family members depending on if…
How to talk about the weather Posted by yuki on Apr 19, 2013
Finally, you can feel it in the air, it’s springtime 春だ (haru da). When I think of spring in Japan, I think of cherry blossom viewing 花見 (hanami). Talking about the weather 天気 (tenki) is an easy way to break the ice and start a conversation. So I thought I’d post some useful spring-related vocabulary…
Let’s learn the colors! Posted by yuki on Mar 31, 2013
The word for “color” is 色 いろ(iro). Black 黒 くろ (kuro) Blue 青 あお (ao) Red 赤 あか (aka) Green 緑色 みどりいろ (midori) Sky Blue 水色 みずいろ (mizuiro) Brown 茶色 ちゃいろ (chairo) White 白 しろ (shiro) Pink 桃色 ももいろ or ピンク (pink) Purple 紫 むらさき (murasaki) Yellow 黄色 きいろ (kiiro) Orange オレンジ色 (orenji iro) Grey 灰色 はいいろ (haiiro) Gold 金色 きんいろ (kiniro) Silver 銀色 ぎんいろ (giniro) So…
How to tell time in japanese Posted by yuki on Nov 10, 2012
If you want to ask for the time, you use the phrase: “今何時ですか.“ (Ima nanji desu ka). It means „What time is it now?”. In order to tell the time, it is important that you are able to count in Japanese. To tell the time is quite easy. At first you say the hours, then…
Japanese Numbers 1 – 20 with video Posted by Transparent Language on Nov 7, 2012
If you’re new to Japanese, we’ve created this simple table of Japanese numbers from 1 to 20 just for you. We’ve also included a video with voice pronunciation. Listen to it a few times, and make sure to practice saying the words out loud too; this will really help you retain the information. When you’re ready…
Japanese numbers 1-100 Posted by yuki on Oct 23, 2012
For those who just started to learn Japanese, it can be very helpful to learn the basic counting. In the Japanese language there are two ways to write the numbers: in Arabic numerals (1,2,3 etc.) or in Japanese/Chinese numerals (一、二、三。。。). The Japanese/Chinese numerals are often used in restaurants or the typical Japanese bars, the so-called…
Japanese Pitch Accent Posted by Ginny on Aug 27, 2011
Japanese pitch accent can be tricky, especially when it comes to words that are spelled with the same hiragana but have different pitch accents. Rain (あめ) (雨) (ame) a[high] me[low] Sentence : 雨が降ると思う (ame ga furu to omou) I think it’ll rain Candy (あめ) (飴) (ame) a[low] me[high] Ex: 飴がほしい = (ame ga hoshii) I…