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Help wa Nihongo de nan to iimasu ka.

kyuuei

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I'm taking Japanese 101, and while I may just post in here for advice from people who know how to speak it (I'm looking at you Wolfy!!) I figure if others are curious about the language, etc.. they can post here too :)

To start off though: Does anyone know how to stick particles in?! These things are driving me up a wall.. and although I can mostly identify which particles can go to what (thus far), it's hard to know if something deserves a particle or not.

To give an example: I know 'sushi wo tabemasu' .. But not how to put in particles for a sentence like "I'm going to eat sushi in the cafeteria tomorrow." .. I feel like I am guessing every single time I attempt a sentence!
 

nozflubber

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I'm taking Japanese 4 now. We just finished learning about potentials, like "I can go" is "Ikemasu" and of course more Kanji :D yay its fun!

Particles are REALLY hard to master.... our sensei always says "particles will haunt you".


Not sure about your last question but I'm gonna give it a shot: "Watashi wa ashita ni cafe de shushi o tabe ta indesu"
 

kyuuei

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^ :laugh: "tabe ta indesu" is out of my league yet :) but ty!
 

Shaula

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I always thought particles were pretty easy since all they really do is identify parts of speech. は (wa) always comes after the subject, を (o) after the object, で (de) indicates something 'at a place' or 'by way of doing' something, and に (ni) comes after a definate time (you don't usually use ni when refering to a vague time). Sometimes ni is a little tricky though and I forget what other things it does. As long as the sentence follows the subject-object-verb structure and you put in the right particles to indicate the right parts of speech, word order doesn't matter all that much. When in doubt of whether or not to put in a particle I would put it in anyway especially since you are just starting out. You'll learn with time.

My Japanese is a quite rusty but "Watashi wa ashita ni cafe de shushi o tabe ta indesu" is more like "I want to eat sushi at the cafe tomorrow." This sentence is also correct as "Ashita ni watashi wa cafe de sushi o tabetain desu," or "Cafe de ashita ni watashi wa sushi o tabetain desu."

Key:
subject
object
verb
place
time
 

wolfy

awsm
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I
To start off though: Does anyone know how to stick particles in?! These things are driving me up a wall.. and although I can mostly identify which particles can go to what (thus far), it's hard to know if something deserves a particle or not.

To give an example: I know 'sushi wo tabemasu' .. But not how to put in particles for a sentence like "I'm going to eat sushi in the cafeteria tomorrow." .. I feel like I am guessing every single time I attempt a sentence!

ashita cafe de sushi tabe ni ikimasu.

I was just going to start a thread like this.

Maybe it's not the particles but the verb changes that throw you.
 

wolfy

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I'll do my best to help out. I subscribed to the thread. I may not always be the best person to ask always though. I play it by ear a lot of the time.
 

kyuuei

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^ Great minds ;) My dear Japanese-inhabiting canine.
 

wolfy

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Here are some cool resources

Jim Breens Japanese Page

Cool list of Japanese learning resources.

Jim Breens Japanese English Dictionary.
The best online dictionary.

Rikaichan

rikaichan is a popup Japanese-English/German/French/Russian dictionary extension for Firefox. Install the addon and the jp/en dic.
Just mouse over the character to get the meaning of the word.

Making Sense of Japanese: What the Textbooks Don't Tell You (Power Japanese Series)
This one of the first books I got. He explains well the trickier areas of Japanese. Conversational tone. Easy to read. He translated Murakami.
 

PureWhispers

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"I'm going to eat sushi in the cafeteria tomorrow."
=
Ashita, cafe de sushi wo tabe ni ikimasu.

This translation is more literal because it keeps the "going to~" part. (A verb stem + ni ikimasu = "I'm going to [verb].") Also, having a particle with "ashita" isn't completely imperative, and if it was me at least, I'd drop it.

Source: my brain, as I'm currently in my third year of Japanese at my college.
 

wolfy

awsm
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"I'm going to eat sushi in the cafeteria tomorrow."
=
Ashita, cafe de sushi wo tabe ni ikimasu.

This translation is more literal because it keeps the "going to~" part. (A verb stem + ni ikimasu = "I'm going to [verb].") Also, having a particle with "ashita" isn't completely imperative, and if it was me at least, I'd drop it.

Source: my brain, as I'm currently in my third year of Japanese at my college.

Yeah you're right. People often leave out wo in conversational Japanese too.
 
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