Some Notes On Japanese Grammar

April 2000 Some Notes on Japanese Grammar Keith Smillie No claim is made for either originality or completeness in these notes. Most of the examples have been taken from, or have been suggested by, the references given at the end. The topics chosen are those which may benefit a person who is beginning to study Japanese and who would like a quick reference to supplement more complete and authoritative sources. Table of Contents Word Order Nouns Pronouns Demonstratives and Interrogatives Particles Verbs Introduction Present and past polite forms Expressing "to be" Uses of deshô Present and past plain forms The gerund or -te form Progressive tense Desiderative form Passive form Causative form Conditional form Giving and receiving Starting an action Nominalization Adjectives Describing nouns Adverbs Comparisons Numbers Specific Time Relative Time Counters Calendar Family Acknowledgements References Appendix. A few verbs Word Order Japanese is a Subject-Object-Verb language as compared with English which is a SubjectVerb-Object language. Torako wa neko desu. Torako is a cat. (Literally, “Torako as for cat is.”) Torako ga nezumi o mimashita. Torako saw a mouse (Literally, “Torako [subject] mouse [object] saw.”) A sentence is made into a question by placing the particle ka at the end. Torako ga nezumi o mimashita ka. Did Torako see a mouse? Nouns Japanese nouns do not have gender, they may not be modified by definite or indefinite articles because none exist in Japanese, and the singular and plural forms are usually the same. In romaji the names of persons and places are capitalized as are the names of languages except English (eigo). hon book, books, a book, the book, the books For nouns referring to people, the suffix -tachi may be used to indicate the plural. kodomo child, children Tanaka san tachi kodomotachi children Mr. Tanaka and his family or others Japanese give the family name first followed by the given name. Tanaka Hiromi Hiromi Tanaka The suffix -ya means the store where the objects are sold or the person who sells them. The suffix -ka means a person who is is an expert or specialist in the designated subject. hana flower hanaya flower shop, florist niku nikuya butcher shop, butcher meat shôsetsu novel shôsetsuka novelist When referring to a clerk or shopkeeper, the honorific san is used. 2 honya san bookstore clerk, bookseller Two nouns used together as a compound noun are joined by the particle no. nihongo no kurasu Japanese language class apâto no biru apartment building Pronouns watashi anata kare kanojo ano hito I, me you he, him she, her that person watashitachi anatatachi karera kanojotachi ano hitotachi we, us you they, them they, them those persons Avoid using anata whenever possible, and use the person’s name with san instead. Similarly, when referring to a third person, use the person’s name. Sumisu san wa eigo o mimashita ka. Did you (Mr. Smith) see the movie? Tanaka san wa nani o kaimashita ka. What did she (Mrs. Tanaka) buy? The indefinite pronouns are the following: dareka doreka dokaka nanika ikuraka nandemo someone something somewhere something some, a little anything daremo doremo dokomo nanimo ikuramo nannimo no one nothing nowhere nothing not much nothing The negative indefinite pronouns take a negative verb. Dareka kimashita. Someone came. Daremo kimasen deshita. No one came. The one reflexive pronoun is jibun (myself, yourself, etc.). Jibun de hatarakimasu. I am working by myself. 3 There are no relative pronouns in Japanese, and the relative clause precedes the word it mod