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Basic Japanese phrases
OK, so you've decided, that you'd like to learn some of the most common and well-
known phrases in Japanese. Or you already know some words, but are not quite sure
about their meaning. his is the right section for you.
Greetings
English !oma"i Kana
ice to meet you ha"ime mash'te
good morning ohayoo #go$aimas'%
good afternoon konnichiwa

good evening konbanwa
good night
oyasumi #nasai%
see you "aa
goodbye sayonara
&n the phrase 'ha"ime mashite' the second 'i' is not pronounced. &n 'ohayoo
go$aimasu' the 'u' is not pronounced. &n general, when 'su' is at the end of a word,
'u' is never pronounced. he double 'o' in 'ohayoo' stands for prolongation of the
sound, like in 'door' in english. he words in brackets can be omitted.
Polite phrases
English !oma"i Kana
How are you? Ogenki desuka(
I'm fine than!s.
)atashiwa genki desu.
*rigato.
!" #$
%&#
"han! you *rigato
$%&
"han! you very
much
+omo arigato
go$aimasu
'( $%&

#lease $re%uesting
s'thing&
Kudasai )*
#lease $offering
s'thing&
+o$o '+
E'cuse me $to get
attention&
,umimasen ,
(orry $mista!e& Gomen nasai
)o you spea!
english*japanese?
*natawa eigo-nihongo
o hanashimasuka(
" -/. /

+es*no*a little .ai-iie-chotto /-/01&
)o you understand? )akarimasuka( !$
I understand*I don't
understand
)akarimasu-
wakarimasen
!$/
!$,
I don't !now ,hirimasen $,


Basic grammar
he Japanese grammar has lots of specific features, mostly because it is so scarcely
related to other languages. On the other hand it is very sensible, logically very well
connected. ,ome of its features are/
0. in Japanese the predicate always stands at the end of the sentence
1. the verbs don't change depending on the person, gender or number
2. the nouns don't have plural or gender
3. the dependence between words in a sentence is e4pressed thru particles which
follow the words affected.
Personal pronouns
5irst, the personal pronouns will be covered/
singular plural
I watashi !" 2 we watashitachi
!""
23
you anata " you anatatachi
""
"3

he
she
kare
kano"o
4 5
60 57
they karera
4 5

he columns are as follows/ english, roma"i, hiragana and kan"i.

here is no neuter gender #'it'% in Japanese. here are other forms of personal
pronouns too. 5or e4ample, the most polite form of '&' is 'watakushi'. hen there is
the form that can only be used by men, 'boku', and so on...
5or 'you' males can say 'kimi', informally. 6ut 'kimi' is not dependent on the
gender of the person to whom it relates, but on the gender of the one who talks. Only
men can say that7 &t's a very specific feature of the Japanese language too.
5or 'they' there are different feminine and masculine forms too/ 'karetachi' and
'kano"ochi'.

Particles
8articles are suffi4es which follow promptly after the word that they relate to. hey
determine the function of that word in the sentence. ,ome of the most common
particles are/
WA
- determines the sub"ect in a sentence.
E'ample, )atashiwa 9ihon"in desu.

2 89: #
& Japanese am.
9otice, that 'wa' is written as 'ha' in hiragana. his is one of the few e4ceptions in
Japanese.
O
- pinpoints the direct ob"ect
E'ample, )atashiwa kohio nomimasu.

2 ;<=/ >
#
& coffee drink.
his is also an e4ception, because 'wo' is written , but "ust 'o' is read.
NI
- indirect ob"ect
- place marker
- time marker
E'ample, ?"ini okimasu .

? #
#&% get up at : o'clock.

E
- marks the direction
E'ample, +aigakue ikimasu.

*%)@ #
#& am% going to the university.
*lso an e4ception.
NO
- indicates possession
E'ample, Korewa anatano hon desu .

4 "6 .
#
his book is yours .
he main function of 'no' is to mark possession, but it also has some other minor
usages too.
MO
- inclusion, addition marker
Example: Karemo gakusei desu .

4( %), #
.e too is a student .
'mo' replaces 'wa' and indicates that the word before it also has some property.

-riting
One of the most interesting thing about Japanese is surely the script. here are three
different ones/ kan"i, hiragana and katakana. *lso, there is a transliteration of
Japanese to the !oman alphabet called roma"i.
he first three scripts are in a mi4ed everyday use. &.e., in one sentence there can be
glyphs of all three writings.
Kan"i is the set of ideographic characters that are borrowed from ;hinese. .iragana
and katakana are syllabic writings #the symbols represent syllables, which build up
world%. 5or more information, please click the links.
Very short history of the Japanese script
<ntil the 2. century *+, the Japanese didn't have any mode of writing. hen they
adapted the ;hinese, and named it 'kan-"i', the writing from the Kan dynasty of
;hina.
6ecause, the kan"i has a lot of different glyphs for every syllable, the hiragana and
katakana came to be, where every syllable has one representation #with the e4ception
of '"i' and '$u'%. .iragana was the women's way of writing. &t was indeed used by
females, because it was considered that kan"i is too comple4 for them. Katakana was
introduced because of the need to take notes fast, so it's was a way of shorthand
writing #stenography%.
&n time, the use of these writings changed, so hiragana is no longer used only by
women but it is the entry level Japanese alphabet, and katakana is mostly used to
write foreign words and loan words.
"he !ana
.iragana and katakana are the syllabic Japanese scripts, the so called kana. =ach
syllable is represented uniquely with one character or a combination of two characters
#e.g. kyu, see the e4tended chart%. &n Kan"i many glyphs can have the same
pronunciation, while in the kana every character has different pronunciation. <nlike
Kan"i, the characters don't have any meaning. =ach basic set contains 3> characters.
)ith each of the scripts, all sounds in the Japanese language can be e4pressed.
6oth of the kana are descendants of ancient ;hinese writing.

Hiragana
.istorically it was considered to be the writing of women. One of the classic works of
Japanese literature, he ale of ?en"i, was written in this script by the female author
@urasaki ,hikibu in the 00th century.
oday it is used to write/
particles, like wa, de, o, mo
verb con"ugations, like 'speak', 'spoke'
simple words like 'to be','frog'
instead of any Kan"i that is not known to the person writing
=very Japanese word can be written with hiragana, but using it instead of kan"i is
considered to be lack of education. &t is the first script that Japanese children learn in
school.
he basic hiragana chart/
6eside the basic signs, there are the derived and the composed. 5rom the syllables
starting with k the ones starting with g are derived in the following way/
likewise h transforms to b and pA t transforms to d/
5inally there are the hiragana that are composed of two others like/
.ere you can find the full list of hiragana.

Katakana
his form of writing consists of straight strokes with sharp corners unlike the smooth
hiragana.
Katakana is used when writing/
foreign names like '8aris'
company names, like 'toyota', 'yamaha'
foreign words in Japanese 'tv-set', 'bus'
newly created words, like 'karaoke'
he basic katakana chart/
.ere you can find the full list of katakana.

.umbers
&n Japanese it is very easy to construct numers from single digits. he procedure is
very straight forward. <nfortunately, it gets more complicated when counting ob"ects,
because certain qualifiers must be used. Bet's start with digits, the easy part.
o build larger numbers, the following building blocks may also be needed/
&t can be noticed that the Japanese counting is not based on the power of thousands
#million, billion, trillion%, but on the power of hundreds.
Building numbers
he above tables contain the essential building blocks. hey are the elements which
build all other combinations. .ere are some self e4planatory e4amples/
he above e4amples show that the Japanese number building makes perfect
mathematical sense.

.umbers
&n Japanese it is very easy to construct numers from single digits. he procedure is
very straight forward. <nfortunately, it gets more complicated when counting ob"ects,
because certain qualifiers must be used. Bet's start with digits, the easy part.
o build larger numbers, the following building blocks may also be needed/
&t can be noticed that the Japanese counting is not based on the power of thousands
#million, billion, trillion%, but on the power of hundreds.
Building numbers
he above tables contain the essential building blocks. hey are the elements which
build all other combinations. .ere are some self e4planatory e4amples/
he above e4amples show that the Japanese number building makes perfect
mathematical sense.

Jalan ke dalam pemahaman Jepang littered dengan kebohongan. &ni terletak tidak
dimaksudkan untuk menyakiti. Kenyataannya, pada awal yang terletak tampaknya
alam dan bermanfaat. @ereka membantu bahasa 'merasa' lebih dekat dengan kami asli
bahasa #&nggris, kemungkinan besar%. ,ayangnya, semakin banyak yang *nda
mencoba untuk timbunan di atas ini terletak, semakin banyak rumah *nda bela"ar
menyerupai sebuah rumah yang dibangun di atas dasar sponges. *lih-alih membantu,
mitos ini hanya membuat hidup lebih keras.
8ada poin, mereka dapat membuat *nda bertanya-tanya/
'@engapa saya tidak dapat memahami Jepang('
')hat's wrong with me('
',aya hanya harus men"adi bodoh.'
Ketika saya mulai mengambil kelas formal Jepang beberapa bulan lalu, saya
menyadari bagaimana orang-orang yang merugikan 'ramah terletak' dapat. ,aya
perhatikan bahwa satu kelas penuh dengan orang-orang yang telah menyelesaikan
hampir tiga perempat dari buku masih tidak dapat bergabung dalam verbs negatif
plain form. ,aya menyadari bahwa ia sulit bagi saya untuk sekelas alami yang
mentasrifkan ad"ective. &a lebih sederhana memori slips - sekelas saya benar-benar
tidak memahami cara beker"a verbs. )alaupun mereka manfaat dari guru yang asli
Jepang, dan waktu kelas percakapan, masih, kata ker"a dasar tampaknya men"auhi
mereka.
,aya menyadari, sebagai kelas progressed, bahwa sekelas adalah korban se"umlah
mitos yang "uga dihadapi. @itos ini tampaknya melekat di sebagian besar bahan
pembela"aran bagi siswa. Kecuali *nda adalah "enis orang yang tampak pada sifat tdk
tetap, dan benar-benar mencari untuk mengetahui mengapa inconsistancy yang ada,
mudah untuk minum di ini terletak, sampai mereka tumbuh besar sehingga mereka
kuku mereka "alan keluar dari otak *nda, dan pergi skittering larut malam. .
Jadi selama bulan berikutnya, saya akan dikirim ke atas semua mitos yang telah saya
pela"ari tentang Jepang verbs, dan bagaimana anda dapat mengalahkan mereka.
@udah-mudahan *nda akan menemukan mereka membantu.
Cerb *nda tahu7 #6eberapa mitos tentang Jepang verbs seperti terlihat dari "umlah
siswa dari Jepang%
+esu D is
Jika *nda merasa 'desu' D adalah, selamat, *nda akan kekalahan besar pertama *nda
mitos tentang Jepang.
Bet me ini "elas membuat/
+esu &+*K *+*9E* @=*97
idak hari ini, tidak besok, tidak pernah. +esu adalah kata yang tidak setara dalam
bahasa &nggris. ,ingkat kata, membuat apa yang anda katakan lebih sopan. .al ini
sama persis, untuk kata kata, apa yang dikatakan Jepang teman saya.
Okay, tapi bagaimana dengan/
Kore wa penu desu
&ni adalah pena.
#&ni mungkin adalah kalimat yang paling bodoh pernah%
+esu tidak berarti bahwa dalam kalimat(
,ekarang kita mengetahui rahasia nyata dari desu. +esu akan berarti kadang-kadang
berpura-pura untuk itu, "ika yang terakhir adalah kata dalam kalimat, dan "ika tidak
ada yang lebih aktif verb pada akhir kalimat *nda. *da hal yang sama persis seperti
menggunakan masu bentuk kata ker"a untuk membuat kata ker"a lebih sopan #he
@yth @asu kami akan kekalahan berikutnya%.
Jadi mengapa tidak percaya bahwa desu D saya adalah memberikan masalah(
Karena, se"umlah besar waktu, desu tidak berarti sama sekali. ,elan"utnya, "ika *nda
mencoba untuk berpikir 'desu' berarti 'adalah' hanya akan merancukan *nda untuk
benar-benar apa yang ter"adi di sebuah sentance.
=?/
Kore wa penu "a nai.
&ni, pena, bukan.
#kasual%
Kore wa penu "a nai desu.
&ni, pena, tidak
#lebih sopan - biasanya tidak mendengar, tetapi gramatically benar dan setara dengan
penu "a arimasen%
Kore wa penu "a nai 'n desu.
&ni, pena, bukan.
#&'m saying ini untuk men"elaskan sesuatu - lihat posting sebelumnya/ no da - no desu.
8olite. ,een sering.%
Jika *nda yakin #seperti yang saya lakukan% yang berarti "a nai 'tidak' dan desu berarti
'adalah', yang terakhir adalah dua sentances lengkap pikiran-twist.
Bit ini, pena tidak, adalah ... )57
*nda dapat meyakinkan diri sendiri/ well, seperti yang hanya sebuah pengecualian
peraturan, dan ia hafal. 9amun "ika anda terpaksa harus menghafal segala sesuatu
yang merupakan pengecualian ke desu D adalah mitos, akhirnya, *nda akan cepat
e4periece desu pemadaman. *nda "uga benar-benar men"adi masalah ber"alan ketika
*nda memenuhi kata memiliki arti yang lebih banyak adalah/ #buku apa yang ?enki
panggilan yang 'plain bentuk' dari desu, meskipun panggilan yang "elas untuk lebih
dari desu dari 'desu' D 'adalah' crap%
+a
+i #dalam arti 'ini adalah pena'%
& say alot dekat ini, karena kata 'adalah' dalam bahasa &nggris "auh berbeda dari
'adalah' dalam bahasa Jepang. Jepang memiliki bunch dari berbagai "enis kata untuk
mengekspresikan keberadaan. Eang paling umum yang akan *nda memenuhi adalah/
da, *ru #ada benda mati%, iru #menggerakkan benda ada%
,elain itu, karena *nda cenderung turun berlebihan bagian kalimat dalam bahasa
Jepang, kadang-kadang kata 'adalah' akan dibiarkan mati secara keseluruhan.
erakhir, kata 'adalah' di bungkus dalam setiap kata ker"a, tergantung pada bagaimana
*nda mentasrifkan itu #yang mengapa *nda tidak perlu menggunakan 'men"adi' verb
untuk mengatakan, saya pergi ke toko - @ise ni itte iru% Kami akan naik lagi yang
lebih sebagai mitos yang bangkrut.
& hope this helps membersihkan tempat kebingungan dengan desu - da.
+epan mitos falit/
5ormulir yang @asu #it's not the real deal%
*d"ectives dan verbs/ ,atu dan ,ama
6agaimana mentasrifkan verbs *d"ectives dan tanpa berkeringat darah.