March 16, 2012

Look! I'm being productive!

I added pages to the Japanese Language Wiki!
Go here or here to see how productive and helpful I am, bwahaha!

Finished~

For those who care, a complete chart of the JLPT N5 Kanji and their readings (as well as their meanings) can now be found here, although I'm warning you - you'll need to be able to read Hiragana and Katakana to be able to read the On-yomi and Kun-yomi (aka the readings of the Kanji). Don't be scared, though! It helps a lot with your Japanese, as Japanese culture doesn't use romaji very much, if at all, so think of it as being immersed in Japanese for just a short while, even if the word 'immersed' is used in the loosest way possible here.
Have fun~

March 15, 2012

ほら、見て!日本語のウィキですよ! Hey, look! A Japanese Language Wiki!

This isn't gonna be about any Japanese grammar rules or whatever, I'm just giving a link to a Wiki that I'm probably going to contribute to. It can be found here: Japanese Language Wiki!!
I didn't start this Wiki, but, as I'm sure you all know, anyone can help further a Wiki, so that'll be me... Right now I'm working on making a page with a chart for each of the JLPT levels... I'm only on Level 5, where I began... It's so tedious, but I'm about halfway done OTL

March 11, 2012

Japanese Revelations {How to conjugate う-verbs to other basic forms}

At first, the various verbs of the Japanese language seem daunting. However, stick with learning it, and you'll find out that, though there are two kinds, and both conjugate differently, the る-verbs are super simple to change to different forms, and the う-verbs are a bit trickier, but aren't as difficult as they might seem at first, possibly because a fair amount of verbs that end in る are actually う-verbs. There is a trick to being able to tell most of the time what kind of verb a verb is, though.
If the verb ends in an ~ある, ~うる, or ~おる sound (meaning the second-to-last syllable is from the あ, う, or お column), the verb is most likely a う-verb.
If the verb ends in ~える or ~いる, and the second-to-last ~え or ~い sound isn't part of the kanji, it's most likely a る-verb. On that note, let's look at う-verbs! ^^

First of all, there's a helpful little chart for the different (basic) forms of う-verbs. Study this, guys - it's absolute genius. XD


~あ* | negative form: add ~ない
~い | ます form: add ~ます
~う | Dictionary form: this is what you start out with.
~え | Command form: leave it as-is, with an え-sound at the end
| 'If'-form: just add ~ば)
~お | Volitional form (meaning "let's ____): add a ~う to the end

* If the verb ends with a う (like in 買う - to buy) change the う to a わ and then add ~ない (買う → 買わない).

The ~'s in front of the あ, い, う, え, and お mean change the syllable that ends in a u-sound (in the う column, such as う, く, ぐ, す, つ, ぬ, ぶ, む, and る, as う-verbs can end in those sounds only) to a syllable from the same consonant family. For example...

う→わ・い・え・お
く→か・き・け・こ
ぐ→が・ぎ・げ・ご
す→さ・し・せ・そ
つ→た・ち・て・と
ぬ→な・に・ね・の
ぶ→ば・び・べ・ぼ
む→ま・み・め・も
る→ ら・り・れ・ろ
(The ・ symbol is the Japanese equivalent of a slash)

Examples!!
買う「かう」 (To buy) →
     買わない → Didn't buy
     買います → To buy (polite)
     買えば→ If (I/you/he/she/etc) buy
     買おう → Let's buy
書く「かく」 (To write) →
     書かない → Didn't write
     書きます → To write (polite)
     書けば → If (I/you/he/she/etc) write
     書こう → Let's write
泳ぐ「およぐ」 (To swim) →
     泳がない → Didn't swim
     泳ぎます → To swim (polite)
     泳げば → If (I/you/he/she/etc) swim
     泳ごう → Let's swim
話す「はなす」 (To speak) →
     話さない → Didn't speak
     話します → To speak (polite)
     話せば → If (I/you/he/she/etc) speak
     話そう → Let's speak
待つ「まつ」 (To wait) →
     待たない → Didn't wait
     待ちます → To wait (polite)
     待てば → If (I/you/he/she) wait
     待とう → Let's wait
死ぬ「しぬ」 (To die - this is the only verb that ends in a ぬ) →
     死なない → Didn't die
     死にます → To die (polite)
     死ねば → If (I/you/he/she/etc) die
     死のう → Let's die
飛ぶ「とぶ」 (To fly) →
     飛ばない → Didn't fly
     飛びます → To fly (polite)
     飛べば → If (I/you/he/she/etc) fly
     飛ぼう → Let's fly
読む「よむ」 (To read) →
     読まない → Didn't read
     読みます → To read (polite)
     読めば → If (I/you/he/she/etc) read
     読もう → Let's read
帰る「かえる」 (To return) →
     帰らない → Didn't return
     帰ります → To return (polite)
     帰れば → If (I/you/he/she/etc) return
     帰ろう → Let's return

Whew! I'm NEVER typing up a chart like that again!
On a brighter note, hopefully this all makes sense now. ^^ I used a verb with each possible syllable at the end for a reason~

Have fun learning Japanese! ^u^

PS:
WARNING! 行く (いく) is NOT a う-verb! It's an irregular verb, so pay attention to its conjugations and its different forms!!

March 02, 2012

Japanese Revelations {Tell everything 洗いざらい言う}

This is gonna be a really short post, but a post nonetheless.
So.
Japanese has MANY words for 'everything'. Some are adverbs (not even sure how that even works, but Rikaichan says they are, so it must be true), some are nouns, and I've never been able to tell if 全て(すべて) is a noun or a verb ending in ~て.

Either way, one way to say everything is with 洗いざらい(あらいざらい).
It can only be used (or at least as far as I know) with 言う. When put in front of 言う, it means that [someone] told everything [that had never been told to someone else]. Maybe like something you just realized, and it was long, so it had to include the word 'everything', and you hadn't told it to anyone else yet. Or maybe a secret of your's. I don't know any other examples/situations that I can think of to use with this.

Sorry this is so short, but enjoy anyways! ^^