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Hooray, Japanese, my second favourite language. (I'll always be loyal to Hindi!) Despite what you always hear, Japanese is not that hard of a language. It seems to have gained a reputation of being the hardest language in the world by some, but really, its very very easy. Since the majority of people seem to be familiar with the romance languages, I'll use them for comparison. You know all those conjugations and tenses and whatnot you have to learn? They don't exist in Japanese. 2 tenses, present and past. No conjugation for person, it is the same no matter who you are talking about. On top of that, many things that we see as necessary to communication, such as plural/singular distinction, are basically non-existent in Japanese.

Pronunciation

The pronunciation of Japanese is fairly simple compared to many other languages, and especially to the majority of other Asian languages, having no tones or especially odd quirks. There are relatively few sounds in the language, all but 2 or 3 perfectly understandable by the average English speaker.


Vowels

There are only five vowels.

A - like in father, IPA: a, ɔ*
I - meet, or the name of this letter: E. IPA: i
E - get, met. IPA: e
O - sword. IPA: o
U - moon, cool. IPA: ɯ*

Dont get lazy and reduce the sounds to the all to common lazy English "uuhh" sound, make every vowel clear.

Here is a good site to hear examples of these sounds. Scroll down that page a bit, and there is a chart with sound files for every sound and syllable in the Japanese language.

If you are familiar with Spanish, you should recognize those sounds. Actually, the vowels of Japanese are probably more similar to Spanish that any other. There are a few subtle differences that will make you sound a bit more authentic, but if all else fails, pronounce it like Spanish.

*Its not the "standard" way, but "a" is often pronounced as ɔ, which is like the o of "hot". This shoudlnt be suprising, since those a and o sounds are fairly similar.

*More about the Japanese U. In reality, it is rather in between the "u" of "pull" and the "oo" of "moon". I honestly cannot describe it well with words. Perhaps something like the English "oo" sound, but with the lips more drawn back. Pronouncing it like "oo" will not make you unintelligible at all. But the "real" way will make you sound more natural a wee bit. All I can say is, listen to lots of spoken Japanese and you'll get a sense of it.

Long Vowels

Japanese distinguishes vowel length, that is, words can have a difference weather a vowel is pronounces long or short. Short, or normal vowels, are the ones shown above. Long vowels are those same vowels, but held approximately twice as long as the normal vowels. This is important, because the meaning of the word can change, depending on how long you hold the vowel.

Try it, say the sound, but hold it twice* as long as usual.

a - aa
i - ii
e - ee
o - oo
u - uu

*In quick speech, it is actually only something like 60% longer. But the distinction is still important.

When these long vowels are written they sometimes have a "macron" (ancient Greek for long) over them. Just a line. But there is another way, which I prefer because it is the way it is actually written in the real Japanese script, which will come up a bit later.

The changes are:

ee = ei
oo = ou

Be sure to not mess up your pronunciation when you see these though, "ei" is not said "e-i" still "ee". Same goes for the other. This is how it is done in real Japanese also. I don't know why.

Silent Vowels

In between unvoiced consonants (k, s, t, h, p), I and U are whispered, that is, they are pronounced very very lightly, often not at all. U is always silent at the end of the word, as in the one word of Japanese everyone knows, "desu", which is pronounced, "des". I is sometimes at the end of the word still pronounced, sometimes not. For example, the word "nashi", pear, which can be heard with a full "i", or reduced down to just "nash".

Like many things, this is something that you will get used to after hearing lots of spoken Japanese. I had to actually look this up. I can do it, but I never learned specific rules to do it. Eventually, things like that just become internalized and you won't even need to think about them. And correct pronunciation helps too, because when you are saying the sounds right, stuff like this kinda happens on its own.


Consonants

Most of these are the same as English, with just a few differences.

All the consonants are very close to the English counterparts, but there are a few to be aware of.

g - always like go, never as in "register"
s - mass, don't get lazy and turn it into a Z.
f - similar to the english "f", but a bit more airy. Different books write it a s H and f, but really, it's not quite either. Just try making a more "light" or airy sounding F. IPA: ɸ
ts- cats. This sound never comes at the front of a word in English, so it may be a bit awkward at first.

n - Same as English, but in front of another n,b or p becomes an "m". It also occasionally sounds more like "ng", but there is no clear rule as to when this is, and it changes depending on region, so say it like "n" if you don't know which it should be. A vague rule would be to change it to "ng" before a g or k, and often at the end of words. You sort of just need to listen to people talk a lot to get a sense of it.

r - This one is the worst. It's not really an "r", it's somewhere between r,l, and d. To make this sound, tap your tounge on the ridge behing you teeth while making an r-sound. If you know Spanish, think of a Spanish "r", but without the trill. Like as if you were going to say "burro", but with one tap, not a bunch of them.

In many words, such as "ryouri", cooking, or "benri", convenient, the R clearly becomes a D. And in some dialects, and especially in singing, the R becomes an L in all words, for example, making "arigatou" into "aligatou".

You can hear some examples of the Japanese R here:
http://www.thejapanesepage.com/readarticle.php?article_id=204
( click on the little music note )

*For people who know the IPA: between vowels, B and G are often weakened to β and ɣ respectively. And also, G between vowels is often interchangeable with ŋ. There is no rule for it, it is fairly random weather a person decides to say the medial G in one way or the other.

And that basically covers pronunciation. One thing about Japanese consonants, they are generally less aspirated than English. The aspiration is the air that comes out of the mouth when the consonant is said, for example, in the word "pot", if you listen to yourself say it carefully, there is a second after the "p" where you are just releasing air. In general, all Japanese consonants do this less that their English counterparts.

Double Consonants

Another important distinction in Japanese. This is where you see a "pp", "kk" "tt" or any other two consonants put together in that way. The way you say this is, after saying the first sound, freeze your vocal cords for a split second, and say it again! Somewhat like the sound in something like "book keep", or "pot top". In English, this only really happens when a word starts with the same consonant as the one before it ends with. But Japanese has this feature within words as well.

Stress

The way Japanese is spoken, sounds aside, is still a bit different than English in a few ways. Japanese is spoken more or less with no stress on any one syllable than any other. In Japanese, there is a very subtle stress used. For example:

sayounara
toukyou to yokohama

(the size indicates relative pitch)

But, this stress is much lighter than in English, so it. And there are no standard rules I can tell you about it. Basically, All I will tell you is to listen to lots of Japanese spoken if you can to get an idea of where to stress words, and otherwise, say things with a relatively flat pitch.

However, this flat pitch is mainly a feature of the standard dialect. While Japanese in general has a smoother pitch than that of English, depending on the dialect of Japanese, the pitch accent can be totallly different. But luckily, this doesn't cause any problems of understanding between speakers from different areas of Japan. For some reason, I tend to speak with sort of a Hokkaido accent. I don't know why. People have no problem understanding me, they just assume I studied Japanese in Hokkaido.

~

So in conclusion, double your vowels, elongate your consonants, don't go up and down in you voice at strange times, and be sure to say every syllable clearly, and you should be understood.

Katakana

As oppposed to the swirly Hiragana that are used for most everything, Katakana are more straight and sharp looking, and are not used nearly as much. The most common use for them is writing foreign words that have been adapted into Japanese, which there are hundreds of, or foreign names. So, basically anything foreign. Also, they are used to write onomatopoeia, which Japanese has more of than any language I have ever seen. The last and most uncommon use of them is to add emphasis to a word, similar to italicizing a word in English.

I recommend mastering Hiragana first before moving on to Katakana, because they is just so much more useful in practically every way, and the sooner you can read them the better off you'll be.


ア - a　　カ - ka　　サ - sa　　タ - ta　　 ナ - na　　ハ - ha　　マ - ma　　ラ - ra
イ - i　　 キ - ki　　シ - shi　　チ - chi　　ニ - ni　　ヒ - hi　　 ミ - mi　　　リ - ri
ウ - u　　ク - ku　　ス - su　　ツ - tsu　　ヌ - nu　　フ - fu　　 ム - mu　　ル - ru
エ - e　　ケ - ke　　セ - se　　テ - te　　ネ - ne　　ヘ - he　　 メ - me　　レ - re
オ - o　　コ - ko　　ソ - so　　ト - to　　 　ノ - no　　ホ - ho　　モ - mo　　ロ - ro

ヤ - ya　　　ン - n
ユ - yu
ヨ - yo
ワ - wa
ヲ - (w)o

ガ - ga　　ザ - za　　ダ - da　　バ - ba　　パ - pa　　ファ - fa
ギ - gi　　ジ - ji　　　　　　　　　　ビ - bi　　 ピ - pi　　 フィ - fi
グ - gu　　ズ - zu　　　　　　　　　ブ - bu　　プ - pu　　フ - fu
ゲ - ge　　ゼ - ze　　デ - de　　ベ - be　　ペ - pe　　フェ - fe
ゴ - go　　ゾ - zo　　ド - do　　 ボ - bo　　ポ - po　　フォ - fo

キャ - kya　　キュ - kyu　　キョ - kyo
シャ - sha　　シュ - shu　　ショ - sho
チャ - cha　　チュ - chu　　チョ - cho
ニャ - nya　　ニュ - nyu　　ニョ - nyo
ヒャ - hya　　ヒュ - hyu　　　ヒョ - hyo
ミャ - mya　　ミュ - myu　　ミョ - myo
リャ - rya　　　リュ - ryu　　リョ - ryo
ギャ - gya　　ギュ - gyu　　ギョ - gyo
ジャ - ja　　　ジュ - ju　　　　ジョ - jo
ビャ - bya　　ビュ - byu　　　ビョ - byo
ピャ - pya　　ピュ - pyu　　　ピョ - pyo


・The only other difference is that in Katakana, long vowels are written with a ー instead of repeating the vowel.

Example: リモートコントロール - rimouto contorouru

*NOT: リモウトコントロウル


・The double consonant is done the same as Hiragana, but replace the small Hiragana つ with the Katakane version, ツ.

Example: マップ - mappu


・Be carefull about your ソ/ン、シ/ツ、ス/ヌ. It's very easy to make a "shi" look like a "tsu" or an "n" look like a "so".


Fin.

は and です

は is probably the first word you will ever learn. Now if you have learned Hiragana by this point already, you may know that it is pronounced "ha". But when used in the way that I'm going to explain now, it is always pronounced "wa". は is something called a particle, a little word placed after another word, to show that word's function in the sentence. Similar to prepositions in English, such as "in, at, on, to". The difference is that in Japanese, these words are placed after the word that they reffer to. Just as a warning, there is not a perfect one to one correspondance between Japanese particles and English prepositions, though they mostly cover the same ground, there is quite a bit of overlap.

So now, what は does. It is used to show the subject of the sentence, the thing that you are talking about. Take the English sentence, " Jon is a person." The subject of this sentence is "Jon'. So in a Japanese sentence, "Jon" would be followed by は. "Jon は... blah blah."

And now the one word that everyone knows, です, "desu". Remember that "u" is very soft at the end of most words, so therefore です is actually pronounced "des". There might be a whisper of a "u" sound, but not much.

This word means "is". But, in the same way that particles are placed after words in Japanese, verbs are also. So if you were to say "It is Jon", you would say "Jon です". You don't need any word for "it". I should mention this now. In Japanese, there are no words corresponding to the English "the", "a", or "it". So simply leave them out. Also, don't worry about plurals. In Japanese, a word can stand for the singular or plural form, so you don't need to specify.

So now, you can show the subject of the sentence, and you can say that something is something. And now, putting them together.

Vocabulary for the Following Examples

ジョンさん - Jon san - Jon
人 - ひと - hito - person
肉 - にく - niku - meat
食べ物 - たべもの - tabemono - food
魚 - さかな - sakana - fish
動物 - どうぶつ - doubutsu - animal

Example Sentences

ジョンさんは人です。- Jon san wa hito desu. - Jon is a person.
肉は食べ物です。- Niku wa tabemono desu. - Meat is food.
魚は動物です。- Sakana wa doubutsu desu. - Fish are animals.

I don't think that needs any further explanation.

. There are two types of adjectives in Japanese, い (i) adjectives and な (na) adjectives. 'I' adjectives end in the sound 'i', 'na' adjectives end in anyother sound, and are called 'na' for a reason you will see soon.

Not that all adjectives in this particular lesson are in their non-past informal form. Other conjugations come next lesson.

い Adjectives


So then, They are called い Adjectives because they all end in い. Example:

いい - ii - good
暑い - あつい - atsui - hot
つまらない - tsumaranai - boring
おいしい - oishii - delicious
寒い - さむい - samui - cold

They are placed before onoun in the same way as English.

寒い猫 - samui neko - a cold cat.

Or used to say that "something is something".

猫は寒いです - neko wa samui desu - the cat is cold.

な Adjectives

Simple enough, right? Now, the な adjectives. They are called that, because when they are placed before a noun, a な is stuck inbetween.

Many of the な adjectives used to be or are nouns, but over time, have become adjectives. Because of their "noun"-iness, they conjugate just like nouns. I'll put な in parentheses after a "na" adjective so you know that it is.


Have some!
きれい (な) - kirei (na) - clean, pretty
エレガント (な) - ereganto (na) - elegant
すてき (な) - suteki (na) - nice, attractive

な adjectives can be used the same way as い Adjectives , but notice the な when they are placed before a noun.

きれいなねこ - kirei na neko - clean cat
ねこはきれいです - neko wa kirei desu - the cat is clean


Have some common adjectives.

新しい - あいらしい - atarashii - new
甘い - あまい - amai - sweet
忙しい - いそがしい - isogashii - Busy
痛い - いたい - itai - painful
大きい - おおきい - oukii - Big
有名 - ゆうめい (な）- yuumei (na) - famous
かんぺき - な）- kampeki (na) - flawless, perfect
大丈夫 - だいじょうぶ（な）- daijoubu (na) - allright, okay

I'm doing that, thats part of the reason I'm re-writing the lessons. Have patience person. I've been asked that sooo many times.

But anyway, thats not a big par tof this anyway. I plan to go though all the grammar first before worrying about vocab building and all that.

Tenses of Adjectives

な Adjectives and Nouns

The na- adjectives work exactly like nouns. Here are some examples using きれい、(kirei, pretty/clean).


きれいだ - kirei da - is/will be pretty
きれいだった - kirei datta - was pretty
きれいじゃない - kirei janai - isn't/won't be pretty
きれいじゃなかった - kirei janakatta - wasn't pretty

きれいです - kirei desu - is/will be pretty
きれいでした - kirei deshita - was pretty
きれいじゃないです - kirei janai desu - isn't/won't be pretty
きれいじゃなかったです - kirei janakatta desu - wasn't pretty

That isn't every conjugation of desu, but it should be enough for you to get the point. Na-adjectives work just like nouns. But remember that when a na-ajdective is placed before a noun, na is put between, hence the "na" in the name.

きれいな猫 - kirei na neko - a pretty cat


い Adjectives

All of the い adjectives more complicated, but still not that bad. They are called that because they all end in the sound "i".


First, the plain non-polite forms.

・Informal non-past - just the adjective on its own, a form of desu is not needed for them.

おいしい (oishii) - will be/is delicious

・Informal Past - replace the final い (i) with かった (katta).
おいしい (oishii) - おいしかった (oishikatta)- was delicious

・Negative present - replace final い (i) with くない (kunai).
おいしい(oishii) - おいしくない (oishikunai) - isn't/won't be delicious

・Negative past - replace final い (i) with くなかった (kunakatta).
おいしい (oishii)- おいしくなかった (oishikunakatta) - wasn't delicious


Polite forms - There are two ways to make this form. The more commonly used and easiest way is just to add です to the end of the plain forms given above. I don't think I need to give examples of that. Just add desu.


These next two are the ones with an alternate conjugation

・Replace the final い (i) with くありません (kuarimasen).

おいしい (oishii)- おいしくありません (oishikuarimasen) - isn't/won't be delicious,

・Replace the final い (i) with くありませんでした. (kuarimasendeshita)

おいしい (oishii) - おいしくありませんでした (oishikuarimasendeshita)- wasn't delicious

this is like a beginners course right