Let’s say you are in Japan and want to take a bus to Tokyo station. Do you know what to ask? What if you are planning a Japan tour? Will you be able to ask where the tour is going and when it leaves? These obviously very important questions will be a big part of your Japanese experience. This Japanese for Beginners article introduces essential concepts such as how to ask about a destination. If you need to ask where a bus is going in Japanese, this article is for you. Save time and enjoy Japan much more by reading this Japanese article. Plus, learn a plethora of casual and polite vocabulary words and phrases.
Vocabulary: In this article, you will learn the following words and phrases:
fuji san – “Mount Fuji”
kirei (na) – “beautiful” (adjective ending -na)
watashi tachi – “Us”
ikimasu – “go” (masu form)
Densha – “train”
kyoo – “today, this day”
Grammar: In this article, you will learn the following words and phrases:
Vocabulary and useful phrases:
————————————————– ————–
kyoo “This day”
————————————————– ————–
We can read the Kanji for kyoo in two ways: kyoo Y konnichi. We use kyoo most commonly in everyday conversations. Please review the definitions below.
- kinoo – “yesterday”
- kyoo – “This day”
- Ashita – “morning”
*Kinoo, ashita, Y kyoo have irregular readings. we call this jukujikun or “language reading”. It means that the Kanji we use in jukujikun they were chosen based on the meaning of the characters, not the Chinese readings of individual characters.
————————————————– ————–
watashi tachi “Us”
————————————————– ————–
tachi it is a suffix that we add to personal pronouns or human proper names that makes the preceding noun plural.
Unique (“English”) / Plural (“English”)
watashi (“ME”) / watashi tachi (“us”)
anata (“you”) (singular) / anata-tachi (“you plural)
kodomo (“little boy”) / kodomo-tachi (“kids”)
————————————————– ————–
Today’s target phrase
Kyoo watashi-tachi wa Fuji-san and ikimasu ka.
Are we going to Mount Fuji today?
————————————————– ————–
Please review the following definitions:
- kyoo “This day”
- watashi tachi “us”
- wow “topic marker”
- fuji san “Mount Fuji”
- me “particle marker”
- ikimasu “go” (masu form)
the particle me marks the place or goal towards which the action moves along with the particle neither. Notice that we pronounce the particle me ace [e]No Hears.
————————————————– ————–
sentence patterns
————————————————– ————–
Affirmative sentences: See Japanese newbie article, Tickets Let’s Talk: Getting Around in Japan, for more details.
- Theme / wow / Place or Address / neither Prayed me / ikimasu. watashi tachi / wow / fuji san / neither / ikimasu. Konobasu / wow / Tookoo-eki / me / ikimasu.
Simple interrogative sentences: sentence final particle
what makes the award a question.
- Theme / wow / Place or Address / none hey / ikimasu / ka. Watashitachi / wow / fuji san / neither / ikimasu / ka. Konobasu / wow / Tookoo-eki / me / ikimasu / ka. Kono Densha / wow / Nagano-eki / neither / ikimasu / ka.
Negative sentences: You can get the negative form of the masu form of a verb by simply dropping
masu and adding
more in Look at the examples to be continued:
- “English” / masu verb form / polite negative “understand” / wakarimasu / wakarimasen “to carry out” / ikimasu / ikimasen “to come” / kimasu / kimasen “to return” / kaerimasu / kaerimasen
- Theme / wow / Place or Address / neither / ikimasen. Watashitachi / wow / fuji san / neither / ikimasen. Konobasu / wow / Tookoo-eki / neither / ikimasen. Kono Densha / wow / Nagano-eki / neither / ikimasen
Interrogative Interrogative Sentences: As you can see above, the sentence,
watashitachi Wa Fuji-san Ni Ikimasu Ka, means “shall we go to Mount Fuji?” When you want to say, ”
where come on”, he put
doko (“where”) in the “place” section for the actual place.
- Theme / wow / doko (“where”) / none hey / ikimasu / ka. Watashitachi / wow / doko / neither / ikimasu / ka. Konobasu / wow / doko / me / ikimasu / ka. Kono Densha / wow / doko / neither / ikimasu / ka.
————————————————– ————–
More examples
————————————————– ————–
- Sumimasen. Kono basu wa Tookyoo-eki ni ikimasu ka. “Excuse me. Does this bus go to Tokyo station?”
- That is, ikimasen. “No, he does not do it”.
- Sumimasen. Kore wa Narita and ikimasu ka. “Excuse me. Is this going to Narita?”
- Hello ikimasu. “If it does”.