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Yeah, Koichi’s not a huge fan of learning to write – and certainly not the sort of rote copying they do in Japanese schools – so he doesn’t really seem to assign great amounts of practice exercises aside from Anki decks, with the occasional worksheet. Essentially, it’s a little bit lacking in actual reinforcement.
One option is to get yourself another textbook and study it along with TextFugu. For me, it was actually the other way around – I signed up to TextFugu to study alongside my university courses, where we used Nakama. I also bought myself Japanese for Busy People. I was a little bit surprised at how often I found all three textbooks were teaching the same thing at the same time, so it worked as reinforcement for what I was learning. Both Nakama and JfBP come with workbooks with practice exercises in them.
I also got all three volumes of the Dictionary of Japanese Grammar, and I’ve actually read the entire first volume literally from cover to cover. One trick is you can use it for extra practice by covering over the English transation of the practice sentences and then try to understand them.
Yep. =)
Instead of 遊びます.
The Japanese verb 遊ぶ, which we translate as “to play”, actually just means general playing around and having fun. When we say “play (something)” in English, the verb they used in Japanese tends to be します (unless it’s play an instrument, in which case, the verb used depends on the type of instrument).
Play tennis = テニスをします
Play a game = ゲームをしますYour name is Legion, for you are many? =P
They convey the same general idea, but the precise meaning of けど is closer to “although”, while でも is something like “however”. They’re all valid sentences, though – aside from the fact that you’ve used the wrong verb (should be します).
A copula is a verb-like thing that goes where no verb is otherwise needed. In English, the copula is “to be”, which happens to be a verb, but you’ll notice that wherever it appears, it’s basically just being a placeholder.
“This is Spot. Spot is a dog.”
In Japanese, it’s です, which is not a verb, but it goes on the end of a sentence when you don’t have a verb there. (Fun fact: the slightly more formal literary version is である, which is a verb.)
And I’m with you on the “nope” response to long passages of text…
Basically what’s happening here is the verb is functioning as a noun-modifying phrase – the verb modifies the noun that comes after it. You’ve encountered noun-modifying phrases before, though not under that name: specifically, you’ve encountered them in the form of adjectives.
Not sure if TextFugu ever covers verbs being used as noun-modifying phrases, but basically you just stick the dictionary-form verb straight on the back of the verb.
大阪に行く電車 = the train heading for Osaka – 大阪に行く (go to Osaka) modifies 電車 (train)
ボブさんが買った本 = the book that Bob bought – ボブさんが買った (Bob bought it) modifies 本 (book)In this case, 新しい大統領を選ぶ (choose a new president) modifies 選挙 (election) – an election to choose a new president.
(Side note, jasenko – “is” is the copula. In Japanese, the copula is です, which is not a verb. =P )
Welcome! =)
It’s Monday already here. =P
Welcome! =)
This pretty much just comes down to knowing the vocabulary. And context – you’re not ever going to be expected to back-convert a verb in a vacuum. And yeah, as you said, the kanji also helps, if you’re seeing it in writing.
Here’s an example: とんだ in dictionary form could be either 飛ぶ (to fly) or 富む (to be rich), but 飛んだ is only ever going to be 飛ぶ. And again, ひこうき が とんだ (the airplane flew) can only be 飛ぶ.
In the case of きった, it’s easy – there are no verbs of the form きつ or きう. =)
If you don’t have kanji or context, the next trick is to start with the most common verb and work your way backwards, but it can get really tricky without kanji or context. For example, かった is more likely to be 買う (to buy) than 刈る (to cut hair), but it could also be 勝つ (to win), or even 飼う (to keep a pet).
And yeah, the すぎる ending attaches onto the ます-stem. 買う -> 買いすぎる
You can also say ジャムセッション or just セッション.
But yeah, I love the Japanese tendency to adopt English words for their own purposes. My favourite is オバむ (being, of course, the verb form of オバマ), which means “to chant ‘yes we can, yes we can’ “. Supposedly. =P
I must confess, I was wondering the same. =P
If you need pointers, feel free to ask away.
Welcome!
My school made me learn French. I did not enjoy it…
Basically, the deal is that transitive verbs involve a subject verbing an object, while intransitive verbs just have the subject verbing on its own. Which is to say, while the key feature of intransitive verbs is that they don’t take a direct object, it’s important that you don’t forget that both verb types still have a subject, which is marked by が. Frequently, the subject is the topic, which is marked by は, which is why you see は being used with intransitive verbs – however, the object of a transitive verb could also be the topic, and marked by は, which is why you shouldn’t take the absense of を as a definite sign that it’s an intransitive verb.
So, for example,
スーパーマンは車を止めた – Superman stopped the car
車が止まった – The car stoppedcan also be
スーパーマンは車は止めた – Superman stopped the car (but not, say, the train)
車は止まった – The car stoppedA handy rule of thumb with transitive/intransitive pairs is you’ll usually find that one is group one and the other is group two – like all rules in Japanese, however, there are exceptions, and there’s also no consistency about which of the pair falls in which group. It does give you a handy way to remember things, though.
We DO have transitive/intransitive verb pairs in English too, but they’re quite frequently the same word in both cases, so we don’t notice them so much.
On the subject of に, it’s got about a thousand uses. As well as marking time and destination, it also marks the indirect object (= the beneficiary of the verb being done), the agent in passive and causative sentences, the surface on which an action takes place (e.g. write on a piece of paper), purpose of motion, and location of existence (i.e. with ある, いる, すむ and so forth).
Pictures! Love pictures. =D
My first (and so far only) trip to Japan was before I even started learning Japanese – all I had was a phrasebook I picked up second-hand, some half-remembered phrases from anime, and charades, and I managed just fine. And as a point in favour of “don’t be afraid to speak”, I wasted 10,000 yen on a taxi on the first night because I thought I’d missed the last train, and didn’t have the courage to ask a station attendant about it.
