The first thing you’re going to want to do with your Japanese is speak to people. What better way to start than by telling them your name? The way we say what our name is provides the key to understanding the Japanese sentence structure…
The copula
In English, we say “My name is Tom.” The key to this sentence is the verb to be. We can say “I am Tom.” and it gets exactly the same meaning across.
To say what something is in Japanese, we normally use です, linguistically called the copula. You can stick any noun before です. In case of giving our name, we simply say:
You may now be wondering where the pronoun ‘I’ features in this. The Japanese language has many different words for ‘I,’ which you will learn as you progress through this course. However, the most common one, used by both men and women, is 私 (whenever you see a kanji or a word you don’t know, roll over it to learn it’s meaning and how to read it).
It is very tempting as an English speaker to use 私 in the same way we use I in English. Although the meaning is the same, the usage isn’t.
For cases where the meaning is implied through the context of the conversation, it is perfectly acceptable to omit words such as 私 in simple sentences such as stating your name, and in most cases unless you specifically need to refer to yourself.
Equally, when introducing people around a circle, it’s enough to say that person’s name followed by です, as the fact that it is this particular person you are referring to is implied through your hand gesture.
As we can see, here was no need for the word my or even name in these sentences, as it was clear that Tom and Hikari were talking about themselves.
We can use a similar construction to let others know how old we are, but first, we’ll need to learn some numbers!
Cultural note: The untranslatable
Often when you learn a foreign language you’ll come across idioms and phrases that are at first glance untranslatable into your own language. Japanese is no exception as there are phrases that have developed over thousands of years of which the true, literal meaning is lost and only the idiomatic usage remains. For example, the word for hello written in kanji, 今日は, literally means “This day is…” and comes from an expression commenting on the day’s weather.
Another example is よろしくおねがいします. Although written in ひらがな nowadays, it originates with the use of 宜 which means best regards or good. The expression is used quite regularly in Japan when two people meet for the first time and wish to continue their relationship (personal or business) into the future, or when somebody is looking to seek support or companionship from somebody else after their first meeting. So, textbooks and dictionaries often translate よろしくおねがいします as “please treat me well”, “I look forward to working with you”, or “please remember me”. In truth, none of these translations encompass the full meaning of the expression. These days it’s a tradition to use this expression and one should not read to much into it’s meaning. You should understand that it is used often and get into the habit of saying it when you meet new Japanese people.
Basic numbers
Arabic numerals, which we are used to in the Western world (0, 1, 2, 3, …), can very often be seen in Japanese texts. However, each number also has its own kanji, which is used mostly when written vertically, in formal writings, and in some other, specific situations.
Housekeeping tip: Get to grips with what kanji are
Every kanji has what are known as 音読み and 訓読み; two categories of character readings. When Chinese characters were originally imported from the China, some primitive Chinese sounds accompanied the characters. For example, 日, which means sun or day, can be read にち, ひ, and か, amongst others, depending on how it is used in a word and the meaning it represents.
Some textbooks encourage students to memorise all of the many readings of kanji, but in some instances this can be a major waste of time. Kanji exist to represent words, and that’s exactly how you should learn them; as words, and as parts of words. You should always learn kanji in compounds, looking up different words they are used in and building up your own vocabulary bank. This way you won’t blindly memorize tons of (unevenly used) readings, and instead build a network of words, kanji, their meanings and their readings—each of these helping you to remember the others when the right time comes.
Also, we have made little mention of radicals, the small puzzle pieces of the kanji that are combined to make the various characters. While at first, the thousands of kanji may look impossible to learn, you will soon notice that the more complicated characters are often composed of several simple ones. For example, the character for tree is 木, and some of the characters for forest are 林 and 森.
There are some approaches to learning Japanese which focus entirely on rote learning of the radicals and their meanings early on in Japanese study. Historically, they were of great importance to learners of Japanese (both native speakers and foreigners), due to the fact that they were required to look up kanji in paper dictionaries. However, with the advent of computer lexicons, they are rapidly decreasing in utility. There is little point in rote learning the radicals from the outset, as you will gradually acquire them up as you familiarise yourself with more and more kanji.
When you do a jigsaw puzzle, it’s easier to look at the picture on the box than study each individual piece and combination to work out what you are heading towards. It is the same with kanji. Focus on the meaning and compound readings of the characters and all the rest will fall into place.
As you’ll learn later, Japanese numbers are pronounced differently depending on what you are counting. For now, however, let’s concentrate on learning their most common readings and the associated characters presented below.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
|
一
|
二
|
三
|
四
|
五
|
六
|
七
|
八
|
九
|
十
|
| いち | に | さん | し よん |
ご | ろく | しち なな |
はち | きゅう | じゅう |
Beyond ten
Numbers higher than 10 are composed of several characters. Numbers between tens are composed not unlike Roman numerals. For example, to write 12, one would simply combine 十 and 二 to form 十二 (think “ten and two”).
Multiples of ten in Japanese, however, work differently from the Roman system. To write the number 20, for example, all one has to do is swap the two characters from the previous example to form 二十 (think “two lots of ten”). The number 21 is written 二十一, 22 is 二十二, and so on.
| 12 | 13 | 20 | 40 | 100 | 1,000 | 10,000 |
|
十二
|
十三
|
二十
|
四十
|
百
|
千
|
万
|
| じゅうに | じゅうさん | にじゅう | よんじゅう | ひゃく | せん | まん |
This pattern is very simple and doesn’t change even for large numbers (e.g., 三千七百十三, 3,713). However, such numbers become increasingly difficult to read when written in kanji (ex. 九百八十五万六千四百九十七, 9,856,497) and and you’ll usually see them written in Arabic numerals or as a combination of numerals and kanji (９万３千, 93,000).
As you may have noticed already, large numbers are grouped by 10,000, not by 1,000 as is common in western countries. In other words, numbers are organized as 1,0000; 1,0000,0000; 10^12; 10^16 and so on.
The number zero can be written in three different ways: Arabic numeral 0, kanji character 零, and in some cases, as 〇. For example, depending on the situation, 2009 can be written as ２００９, 二〇〇九, or 二千九. Which ever way it is written, it is read either as れい or as ゼロ. Sometimes, 0 may also be read as まる (which means circle and is the de facto reading of the character 〇), similarly to how we spell this number as letter o in addresses, phone & room numbers.
Cultural note: Unlucky numbers
The two main unlucky numbers in Japan are 4 and 9 due to the way that they can be pronounced. The 音読み of 4 is し which is a homophone for the word death, 死. Equally, the reading for 9 is く, which is a homophone for the word 苦, which means pain, anguish or suffering. You will find many instances in Japan where these numbers do not appear such as airline seats or hospital ward numbers. Also, gifts are given in denominations of three or five, never four.
Age
In Japanese, depending on what you are going to count, you have to add a special counter word after the number. This is very similar to how you say “one loaf of bread” or “one slice of bread” in English. The Japanese equivalents would be パン一斤 (“bread one-loaf”) and パン一枚 (“bread one-flat piece”).
The Japanese word for age is 歳, and it is the first counter you are going to learn. Because the kanji is rather difficult, it is also written as 才 (although it is actually a completely different character). To let others know how old you are, simply say the number, followed by 才 and the copula です. For example, ひかり would say 「十九才です。」, “I am 19 years old.”
As you can see, it is all pretty straightforward. However, there are a few exceptions in some of the readings. The most notable example is the age of 20, which is generally read はたち. The other three exceptions are much more common and you’ll meet these readings with many other counters. 一歳 is read いっさい, 八歳 is read はっさい, and 十歳 is read じゅっさい.
House of Bamboo
If you’re still having problems remembering the many Japanese greetings, check out this parody on a public service announcement encouraging youth in using proper greetings in their daily life.
If that’s still not enough, head over to Greetings are magic entry at Know Your Meme; watching the other 1000+ versions of this video will mean that you’ll be able to repeat your Japanese greetings in your sleep!
Before you move on
- Practice counting upwards from 1–100 and then back down again.
- Visit the Numbers kanji lesson to master the characters for 0–10.
