September 2000

Some Notes on Japanese Grammar

Keith Smillie

Deartment of Computing Science

University of Alberta

Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2H1

smillie@cs.ualberta.ca

This HTML has been created from an MS Word document with minimal hand-editing. In some cases the formatting has failed during the conversion.

Table of Contents

Word Order Nouns Pronouns Demonstratives and Interrogatives Particles Verbs Introduction Present and past polite forms Expressing "to be" Uses of deshou 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

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.

Word Order

Japanese is a Subject-Object-Verb language as compared with English which is a Subject-Verb-Object language.

トラコはねこです。

Torako wa neko desu.
Torako is a cat. (Literally, "Torako as for cat is.")

トラコがねずみを見ました。

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.

トラコがねずみを見ましたか。

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 (本) book, books, a book, the book, the books

For nouns referring to people, the suffix -tachi may be used to indicate the plural.

子供［こども］

kodomo child, children

子供達［こどもたち］

kodomotachi children

田中さん達。
Tanaka san tachi Mr. Tanaka and his family or others

Japanese give the family name first followed by the given name.

田中広見 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.

花 ［はな］ 花屋［はなや］

hana flower hanaya flower shop, florist

肉　［にく］ 肉屋［にくや］

niku meat nikuya butcher shop, butcher

小説［しょうせつ］ 小説家［しょうせつか］　
shousetsu novel shousetsuka novelist

When referring to a clerk or shopkeeper, the honorific san is used.

本屋さん　

honya san bookstore clerk, bookseller

Two nouns used together as a compound noun are joined by the particle no.

日本語のクラス [にほんごのクラス]

nihongo no kurasu Japanese language class

アパートのビル　
apato no biru apartment building

Pronouns

watashi I, me anata you kare he, him kanojo she, her ano hito that person

watashitachi we, us anatatachi you karera they, them kanojotachi they, them ano hitotachi 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.

スミツさんは映画を見ましたか

Sumitsu san wa eiga o mimashita ka.
Did you (Mr. Smith) see the movie?

田中さんは何を買いましたか。
Tanaka san wa nani o kaimashita ka.
What did she (Mrs. Tanaka) buy?

The indefinite pronouns are the following:

誰か［だれか］ dareka someone 誰も daremo no one
どれか doreka something どれも doremo nothing
どこか dokoka somewhere どこも dokomo nowhere
何か［なにか］ nanika something 何も nanimo nothing

幾らか［いくらか］ ikuraka some, a little 幾らも ikuramo not much
幾つか［いくつか] ikutsuka some 幾つも ikutsumo many

なんでも nandemo anything なにも nanimo nothing

The negative indefinite pronouns take a negative verb.

誰か来ました。

Dareka kimashita.
Someone came.

誰も来ませんでした

Daremo kimasen deshita. No one came.

The one reflexive pronoun is jibun (myself, yourself, etc.).

自分で働きます。

Jibun de hatarakimasu. I am working by myself.

There are no relative pronouns in Japanese, and the relative clause precedes the word it modifies.

あそこに座っている若い女性は娘です。

Asoko ni suwatte iru wakai josei wa musume desu.
That young lady sitting over there is my daughter.

Demonstratives and Interrogatives

The demonstrative and iterrogative words, which are either pronouns, adjectives or adverbs, may be divided into four groups depending on the prefix:

ko- Something near the speaker.
so- Something nearer the listener than the speaker.
a- Something at a distance from both speaker and listener.
do- Question

これ	それ	あれ	こちら	そちら	あちら	どちら
kore	sore	are	kochira	sochira	achira	dochira
this one	that one	that one	this way	that way	that way	which way
どれ	この	その	こんな	そんな	あんな	どんな
dore	kono	sono	konna	sonna	anna	donna
which	this	That	this kind of	that kind of	that kind of	which kind
あの	どの	ここ
ano	dono	koko	こう	そう	ああ	どう
that	which	here	kou	sou	aa	dou
そこ	あそこ	どこ	in this manner	in that manner	in that manner	in which manner
soko	asoko	doko
there	over there	where

Other interrogative pronouns are the following:

誰［だれ］ dare who

どなた donata who (polite)

どちらさま dochirasama who (very polite)

なん、何［なに］ nan, nani what

何人 ［なんにん］ nannin how many people

幾ら ［いくら］ ikura how much

幾つ［いくつ］ ikutsu how many

いつ itsu when

どうして、なぜ doushite, naze why?

どうやって、　どのように douyatte, donoyouni how?

どのような donoyouna which kind of?

どのくらい donokurai how long?

Particles

wa ［は］　 Topic

陽子さんは大学院の学生です。

Youko san wa daigakuin no gakusei desu.
Youko is a graduate student. (Literally, "As for Youko, she is a graduate student.")

ga ［が］Subject

私はすしが好きです。

Watashi wa sushi ga suki desu.
I like sushi. (Literally, As for me, sushi is likeable.")

o ［を］Direct object

トラコは小鳥をみています。

Torako wa kotori o mite imasu.
Torako is looking at the bird

no [の] Possession, noun modification, apposition

シモンは娘の猫です。

Simon wa musume no neko desu.
Simon is my daughter's cat.

日本の食べ物は美味しいです。

Nihon no tabemono wa oishii desu.
Japanese food is delicious.

友達の田中さんは先生です。

Tomodachi no Tanaka san wa sensei desu.
My friend Mr. Tanaka is a teacher.

ni [に]　 object, location, direction, specific time

私は田中さんに本を貸しました。

Watashi wa Tanaka san ni hon o kasimashita.
I loaned Mr. Tanaka a book.

ひろみさんは東京にいます。

Hiromi san wa Toukyou ni imasu.
Hiromi is in Tokyo.

昨日私は早くうちに帰りました。

Kinou watashi wa hayaku uchi ni kaerimashita.
Yesterday I went home early.

gogo juuji ni
at 10 p.m.

nichiyoubi ni
on Sunday

shichigatsu ni
in July

1998 nen ni
in 1998

午後十時に	ごごじゅうじに	gogo juuji ni	at 10 PM
日曜日に	にちじょうびに	nichiyoubi ni	on Sunday
七月に	なながつに	nanagatsu ni	in july
２００１年に	にせんえんいちに	nisen'en-ichi ni	in the year 2001

de [で] Place of action, means, total, material

私は本屋で本を三冊買いました。

Watashi wa honya de hon o sansatsu kaimashita.
I bought three books at the bookstore.

田中さんはバスで会社に行ます。

Tanaka san wa basu de kaisha ni ikimasu.
Mr. Tanaka goes to the office by bus.

明日映画に二人で行ます。

Ashita eiga ni futari de ikimasu.
Tomorrow the two of us are going to a movie.

テーブルは木でできています。

Teeburu wa ki de dekite imasu.
The table is made of wood.

e [へ]　Direction

日本へ行ますか。

Nihon e ikimasu ka.
Are you going to Japan?

kara [から]　(Origin, starting time

あの人は日本から来ました。

Ano hito wa Nihon kara kimashita.
He is from Japan.

デパートは十時からです。

Depaato wa juuji kara desu.
The department store opens at 10:00 o'clock.

made