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Daily lessons · Day 14 of 90

Review: week two

Consolidate everything from days 8 to 13

No new grammar today. Week two gave you the convenience store, where you are from, what you like and want, family, train tickets, and how to arrange to meet someone. This is a consolidation day: the patterns pulled back out of their situations so you can see them as patterns, then a longer quiz that mixes everything from days 8 to 13.

The particles you have now met

Six small words doing most of the structural work in everything you have learned:

watashi wa gakusei desu.
I am a student.
は marks the topic, what the sentence is about.
sushi ga suki desu.
I like sushi.
が marks the subject, and it is required with すき, ほしい, あります and います.
mizu o kudasai.
Water, please.
を marks the thing the verb acts on.
eki no mae de aimashō.
Let's meet in front of the station.
の links two nouns, で marks where an action happens.
kuji kara goji made
from nine until five
から start, まで end. Works for both time and place.
Why it works

If you take one thing from this week, make it the difference between は and が. は raises a topic that is already in play; が points at something new or singles it out. You will not get this reliably right for months, and that is normal. What matters now is noticing which one a sentence uses, because that noticing is what eventually turns into instinct.

The endings that change what a sentence does

Same verb, five different jobs:

ikimasu.
I go. / I will go.
Polite present and future. Japanese does not separate them.
ikimasen.
I don't go.
The polite negative.
ikimasen ka.
Would you like to go?
A negative question used as an invitation.
ikimashō.
Let's go.
A suggestion that assumes agreement.
ikitai desu.
I want to go.
たい attached to the same stem, about yourself only.
Why it works

Every one of these is built from いき, the ます stem. That is why learning verbs in their ます form pays off: the stem is the hook that all these endings hang from. When you meet a new verb, note its ます form and you get the whole set for free.

Phrases worth having automatic

Say these until you do not have to think about them:

daijōbu desu.
No thanks, I'm fine.
Declines anything politely.
onegaishimasu.
Please. / If you would.
Accepts anything politely.
wakarimasen.
I don't understand.
Better than nodding when you have lost the thread.
mō ichido onegaishimasu.
Once more, please.
Gets the sentence repeated without any embarrassment.
Why it works

These four cover most of what goes wrong. Between them you can decline, accept, admit you are lost and ask for a repeat, which is the whole toolkit for surviving a conversation that has moved faster than you have. Learning them properly is worth more than another twenty words of vocabulary.

Carry over, from earlier days

daijōbu desu.
No thanks, I'm fine.
wakarimasen.
I don't understand.
mō ichido onegaishimasu.
Once more, please.
issho ni ikimasen ka.
Would you like to go together?

Check yourself

9 questions. Nothing is saved unless you finish.