二ノ国 on the DS – the team-up between Level 5 and Studio Ghibli.

Remember that words in Japanese refer to real things that you encounter every day. Instead of linking them in your mind to the English word, link them directly to what they represent – eliminate the middleman.

What I mean is, rather than going “Oh, 走る means ‘run’ in English, and I know what ‘run’ means”, instead maybe try to think of the actual act of running as you’re learning 走る. Or even perform the act of running.

You can also try the stick-post-it-notes-on-everything trick. =)

This is the AはBがC structure, and since it’s one of the basic structures in Japanese, you’ll probably see a lot of it. Basically, the grammar dictionary’s explanation is that “C says something about B, and BがC says something about A”. It goes into a bit more detail on that subject – along with a list of words that almost always use this form – if you’d like me to type it out. (Or find the last post I typed it out in and copy/paste. =P )

I feel like part of your confusion here stems from the fact that in English, “like” and “hate” are both verbs, but in Japanese, they’re adjectives. If it helps at all, you can think of them as “likeable” and “hateable”. So, “For middle-school students, high school students are detestable” kind of thing.

Sadly, I’m not really sure I can explain how the form came to be. Etymology! Something about B is the subject of the subordinate clause BがC.

Welcome! I have to admit, I’ve never heard of a single one of those authors you mentioned. =P

I’ve been playing an untranslated RPG myself, and I’ve found I’ve been understanding it surprisingly well.

Welcome! =)

I can’t seem to find the worksheet in question – what lesson are you up to, specifically?

So, trunklayer has got it, pretty much. Just want to expand on a few things.

(For one thing, trunky, みる is group 2 – group 3 consists of just する and くる. Koichi’s description of “group 2 verbs that look like they should be group 1″ makes it SEEM like they’re group 3s, but they’re still all group 2s. Honestly, though, I’ve never been a fan of calling them “group 1″ and “group 2″, because I can never remember which group is which – I learnt them as う-verbs and る-verbs. In Japanese, they’re called 五段 (ごだん) and 一段 (いちだん), for etymological reasons that I don’t precisely recall, but personally I remember because ごだん verbs form the ～た form five different ways, while いちだん verbs only form it one way. But I digress.)

In general, leelzeebub, you seem to have a fairly weak causal link between the clauses in your sentences. Which is to say, even though the sentence is “because of A, B happened”, there doesn’t seem to be anything about A that actually causes B. Trunklayer touched on this in his suggestions for your first sentence. “Because I studied Japanese, I watched anime”, but there’s nothing about watching anime that suggests it should directly be caused by studying Japanese. “I was able to watch anime” works better there.

2 has a better causal link, but your grammar in the B clause is a bit off. V-stem+に行く has a special meaning of “go (somewhere) with the express purpose of (verbing)”. For example, 図書館に勉強しに行った “I went to the library to study”. Think what you needed to say was 勉強し始める “I started to study” (though I’m not sure you’ve learnt that form yet), or “I was able to study”.

3, as trunklayer mentions, should either be いくために (in order to go to Tokyo), or the clauses should be switched.

4, again, has a weak causal link. Trunklayer got this one exactly – drinking shouldn’t preclude you from performing the verb 乗る.

5 might make more sense with appropriate context, but as it is, it’s kinda odd. You didn’t watch the video because it was made – but if it hadn’t been made, you still wouldn’t have watched it. =P

MisterM2402 [Michael] wrote:

@Joel: Post #50000 GET!

Hah, nice. I didn’t even notice. =)

It’s psychic, doncha know?

Also, you’re logged in, so it knows who you are. =P