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Post by Nikudou Natsumi on Aug 24, 2014 12:56:15 GMT
Some people who watch anime decide to learn Japanese, and I've already met a few who are learning. So, if you have any questions about it - grammar, vocab, phrases, etc. - hopefully other's will be able to answer them here. Attachments:
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Post by koyamamiyuki on Aug 30, 2014 17:02:48 GMT
I'd be pleased to help anyone as much as possible
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Post by Nikudou Natsumi on Oct 12, 2014 21:51:42 GMT
Okay, so I've heard では (dewa), とは (towa), には (niwa), and more that I can't remember right now, but I have no idea what these mean. I think they're markers of some sort (like は, が, と, に, and で), but how are they used/what are they used for?
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Post by assasin8 on Oct 13, 2014 2:25:51 GMT
Yeah, these are a little hard to explain... "では" is used kind of like "well then" (for example, "では、また 明日", which means "well then, until tomorrow"), but it's also used in negative sentences sometimes ("えんぴつ では ありません"= I don't be a pencil.) I'm not really sure how to explain why, but instead of saying like "~~ が ありません" or "~~ は ありません", "では" can be used instead. "とは" is also a little hard to explain... According to my dictionary, it's used to indicate a word or phrase being defined. For example, "犯人 の どうき とは 今 まで 分かりません" is "even now we don't understand the criminal's motives." The "criminal's motives" are being defined as "not understood". Does that make sense...? I think I would just read it as of it were just any other old "は"... And "には" is like "speaking of" or "in regards to". For example, "彼 には 放心状態 が 好き." That means "he likes stargazing", but grammatically, it carries the idea of "speaking of him, stargazing is liked", "in his case, stargazing is enjoyable". It's weird, but it starts making sense... Eventually.....
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Post by Nikudou Natsumi on Oct 13, 2014 2:34:20 GMT
. . . Hen da na . . . Well, I hope I'll eventually be able to understand it.
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Post by Crimson Amarone on Oct 13, 2014 22:37:48 GMT
On my phone so I'm gonna stick to romaji. You have to keep in mind that dewa=de+wa and niwa=ni+wa. Both roughly indicate direction/location.
Yokohama dewa~ Something happens at Yokohama
この 工場[こうじょう]では 魚[さかな]を加工[かこう]している At this factory, fish are processed.
Gakkou niwa ~ arimasu. There's --- in/at the school. That's why you'll see niwa with imasu/arimasu a lot. I'll send if I can find some better examples later.
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Post by Mikauzoran on Oct 27, 2014 16:44:55 GMT
Hey there! A little late to the party, but I guess I'll add my two cents. では is actually the formal form of じゃ (as in じゃね! or じゃまた明日!). じゃ is a contraction used in spoken Japanese casually, between friends. では is what you'll see a lot of the time in written Japanese, or you'll hear stuffy, butler-type characters say it. It sounds more sophisticated and is what you would use with your boss or professor or something. As I think was mentioned before, they both mean "Well, then..." or "Well...".
As for the difference between えんぴつがありません and えんぴつでは(じゃ)ありません, in the first one, the particle is が, a subject marker. It can be used in a couple different ways, but right now it's telling you that the subject of the sentence is えんぴつ. The verb is ある "to have" in the negative. Thus the sentence means "I don't have a pencil" or "There isn't a penicl". (In the first one, "I" is implied.)
Okay, as for えんぴつでは(じゃ)ありません, では is part of the verb in this case. It's a form of です "to be". In the short, casual form that most of us are used to thanks to anime, this sentence would be said, えんぴつじゃない, meaning "It's not a pencil." The affirmative would be えんぴつです. Does that make sense so far?
What you're asking about, Natsumi-san, are particles. に と が は those are all particles. They're the little parts of the sentence that connect the nouns, verbs, objects, and all of that. In English they can be translated to in, at, to, from, and other words like that (not in that specific order, just as examples). You'll probably find some helpful information if you do a search for Japanese particles.
Moving on. と is a particle used to mark speech and quotations. It can also be used to mean "and", but you're asking about it's use as a speech marker. Think of と in this case as the quotation marks. ("Doku" is poison in Japnaese. Kind of like that. Sorry I can't think of a better example off the top of my head.) The は after the と is a topic marker...marking the topic of the sentence. In other words, the thing we're talking about. (Whereas が marks the subject such as I, he, she, it, they, we, you.) It kind of breaks down like this どくとは英語でpoisonです. or "Speaking about that think called 'doku', it's 'poison' in English." と is telling you "I'm defining or setting constraints on this term" while は is telling you "I'm pointing out the topic of the sentence". Does that make sense?
Lastly, には. に is used to indicate time or location. は is your friendly topic marker. Example: 京都にはたくさんお寺があります. Meaning: As for in Kyoto, there are lots of temples there. You can leave out the は, and the sentence would mean "In Kyoto, there are lots of temples." Having the は really puts the emphasis on the Kyoto. Think of Heiji wanting to show off Osaka and saying "大阪には...", really drumming it up. Without the は, it's just kind of an observation or passing on a fact. "Yeah, in Kyoto there are lots of temples." versus "In KYOTO (flashy neon sign) there are lots of temples." It's not really that extreme, but I think over-exaggerating a little helps you get the difference.
Was there anything else you wanted to know about? Did any of that make sense? Feel free to ask if you still have any questions! ^.~
-Kara (aka: Mikau)
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Post by Nikudou Natsumi on Oct 27, 2014 18:27:48 GMT
Thanks. Okay, so I got には and とは, but では is still confusing me other than the whole "Well then" thing (Like when Satou-san only says "dewa", but not in connection with any sentence).
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Post by Mikauzoran on Oct 27, 2014 18:40:44 GMT
Good! I'm glad that made sense. It seems like the part you don't understand is when では is used as a form of です. I wouldn't worry about it too much because じゃ is a lot more common. ではありません and じゃありません like in the example with the pencil before are the negative conjugation of the verb です which means "to be". They mean "is not" and "isn't" respectfully in the example sentence. I guess it would make more sense to say では and ありません aren't separate in this case, they're the same verb. It's just that they're both words when independent of each other as well. So whenever you see ではありません, it means "is not". When では is by itself, it's usually the "Well, then..." meaning. Does that help?
-Kara (aka: Mikau)
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Post by Nikudou Natsumi on Oct 27, 2014 18:45:22 GMT
I guess. Is there any instance when you have to use one instead of the other?
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Post by Mikauzoran on Oct 27, 2014 18:47:13 GMT
You mean では versus じゃ? じゃ is casual, では is formal. So it's a matter of what you would use with your friends versus what you would say to your professor.
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Post by Nikudou Natsumi on Oct 27, 2014 19:07:38 GMT
Okay. That, and when you don't use it as all. Such as if you just use がありません instead of ではありません.
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Post by Mikauzoran on Oct 27, 2014 21:03:31 GMT
Okay. が marks the subject, and ある is a verb meaning "to have". So when I say ~がありません it means "I don't have ~" or "There isn't any ~".
です is a funky verb meaning "to be" (is, are, was, were). In the affirmative form, it's です ("is" in this case). In the negative form, it's じゃ(or in formal speech では)ありません. meaning "isn't" or "is not".
じゃありません is far more common. So just use じゃ and don't worry about では so much. It's mostly for written Japanese or really formal speech.
私はえんぴつじゃありません。 means "I am not a pencil." (The verb is です "to be".)
私はえんぴつがありません。 means "I don't have a pencil." (The verb is ある "to have".)
They are in no way interchangeable because the verbs are different and, thus, have different meanings. じゃ (or では in formal speech/written Japanese) is a part of the verb in this example. が on the other hand is a particle marking the subject of the sentence. Does that make more sense?
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Post by Nikudou Natsumi on Oct 27, 2014 21:44:20 GMT
Yes, thank you
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Post by Mikauzoran on Oct 27, 2014 23:44:02 GMT
Awesome. ^.^ Good luck in your studies. Feel free to ask if you have any more questions. I'll try to answer to the best of my ability.
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