Category Archives: Intermediate

Using 「マジ」 for real

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I’m back! Most of you probably don’t know this (or care) but I actually have a real full-time job. And this being Japan, full-time means more like 9 to 8 rather than 9 to 5. So those of you who think I sit at home in my boxers working on my computer, I’m actually stuffed in a crowded train disguised amongst hundreds of Japanese businessman. And since our project is running late on the release date, I’m working more like 9 to 10… and I don’t mean one hour. No really. マジで。 And I suppose that’s just as good as any lead-in to the topic at hand: “How to use マジ to talk about what’s real.”

What is マジ?

Once you start practicing Japanese with real people outside of the classroom, you’re bound to run into the word 「まじ」 probably sooner rather than later.

You probably already know 「本当」, the word you use when you want to say things like, “Really?” or “Yes, really.” But most of the time, you don’t want to sound like a wimp by saying things like, “Oh really? That’s nice.” What you really want to say is something like, “For real?” or “No way!” or maybe even, “You’re shitting me!”. That’s where 「まじ」 comes in. 「まじ」 is often said to be a shortened form of 「真面目」 which means “to be serious” (although there are other theories regarding its origin). 「まじ」 is also often written in katakana to show that great emphasis that 「マジ」 contains.

A: クリスは、彼女ができたんだって。 – I hear Chris got a girlfriend.
B: へ～、マジ？ – Heh, for real?

Using the 「で」 Particle for マジ

One thing to remember in terms of grammar is the use of particles. When you use 「本当」 as an adverb, you attach 「に」. However, for 「マジ」 you attach 「で」. There’s no logic that I can figure out to this but then we are talking about slang here.

A: 本当に忙しくて大変だったよ。 – I was really busy and it was tough
B: そうなの？ – Is that so?

A: あいつ、マジで退学しちゃったの？ – Did that guy really drop out of school?
B: うん、マジで。 – Yeah, for real.

Differences between 「本当」 and 「マジ」

Besides the difference in the particles, 「本当」 and 「マジ」 are quite different in their tone and usage. For instance, 「本当」 sounds cuter, more polite, and more feminine than 「マジ」 which sounds very rough and crude. In fact, you should take care in using 「マジ」 with your superiors. Having said that, I think 「マジ」 is a really useful word to know that you’re going to hear over and over again in daily conversations.

Difference between 【する】 and 【やる】

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Probably one of the first words you’ll learn is 「する」 which is the verb meaning “to do”. This is a very useful verb to know for obvious reasons. This is especially true in Japanese because many verbs are simply a noun combined with this verb.

For instance, the verb, “to research” is simply the noun for “research”　（研究） plus 「する」.

１）　半導体を研究する。 – Research semi-conductors.

Somewhere along your studies, you’re bound to come across another verb 「やる」, which also means, “to do”. The foremost question that should come to mind is, “How is it different from 「する」?” The answer lies in the examples below.

正）　ゲームをする。 – Do game.
正）　ゲームをやる。 – Do game.

正）　想像する。 – Imagine.
誤）　想像やる。 – [Wrong, you cannot use 「やる」 in this case]

「やる」 means “to do” only as a physical action. So while it’s ok to say 「やる」 for doing a game, you cannot use it with 「想像」 since mental processes do not involve any physical movement. (As long as you don’t get technical with the movement of electrical impulses in the brain or whatnot).

「やる」 means “to do” only as a physical action.

Another difference between 「する」 and 「やる」, is that 「やる」 can be used as a way to give things or do something for somebody while looking down at that person. 「する」 does not share this property.

１）　お前にこれをやるよ。- I give you this. (looking down)
２）　絶対に勝ってやる！ – I’ll win (beat you) for sure!

Kanji with different readings

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There are a number of words that have more than one reading in Japanese. Sometimes, as shown by this webpage, it’s a matter of the reading changing over time. For example, I read somewhere that 「世論」 is supposed to be read as 「よろん」 but so many people misread it as 「せろん」 that it eventually emerged as an alternative reading. For words like this, choosing a reading is merely a matter of preference and depends on the popularity of the reading since the meaning is the same. However, some words have different readings and different meanings to go with them. We’ll look at two that I can think of right now (「頭」 and 「家」) and how you would identify the correct reading.

１．頭が痛いから早く家に帰りたい。
-I want to go home because my head hurts.

２．彼の家には14歳を頭に3人の子供がいる。
-In his house, there are 3 children, 14 being the oldest.

In the first sentence, 「頭」 is talking about the speaker’s head (the thing on your neck) and so we should read it as 「あたま」. However, in the second sentence, we are talking about the 14 year-old being at the head of the rest of the children. When we are using 「頭」 to mean “head” as in “chief”, or “the first”, we read it as 「かしら」. Amazingly, the English word for “head” also contains both meanings (though we don’t change the reading).

Finally, 「家」 can have two readings depending on whether the speaker is talking about his or her home or just a generic house owned by anybody. Your own home is read as 「うち」 which probably has something to do with 「内」（うち） meaning inside. The reading for a generic house is 「いえ」 (not to be confused with 「いいえ」).

So in order to figure out when to use which reading, 1) learn the difference in meaning, and then 2) look at the context of the sentence. So can you identify the correct readings for 「家」 in the examples sentences?

Japanese verbs from English

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An interesting phenomenon of the modern Japanese language is the various crazy ways English is mixed in as slang or otherwise. Some English words are so common that practically every Japanese person will understand what they mean. For instance, despite being a fairly difficult word, probably just about everybody knows what charisma （カリスマ） means. And the phrase 「アピールする」 has become so common that it is more accurate to say that it’s simply part of the Japanese vocabulary.

However, by English, we’re not talking about real English but the special bastardized Japanese version. As a result, all of this knowledge is pretty much useless for real English (unfortunately for the Japanese who all seem keen on mastering English). However, it does make things much more interesting for us; the ones that are learning Japanese. （ある意味でね）

Making Japanese verbs with English words

Today, I want to talk about an interesting class of verbs that come directly from English. Katakana words are mostly nouns since verbs require endings that can be conjugated. However, the clever Japanese youth have figured a way around this by simply attaching a generic u-verb 「る」 ending. This ending was selected undoubtably because it felt the most natural to the pioneers of modern Japanese.

A very useful verb of this type is 「サボる」, which originally comes from サボタージュ (sabotage). You will almost certainly see this verb whenever somebody is slacking off, skipping class, and the like.

試験があるから、明日の授業はサボらない方がいいよ。
– Because there is a test, it’s better not to skip tomorrow’s class.

Other less common verbs of this type include 「ダブる」 (to coincide), 「トラブる」 (to act up, cause trouble), 「ミスる」 (to miss), and 「ハモる」 (to harmonize).

ごめん、ちょっと予定がダブっちゃったからドタキャンしていい？
– Sorry, my plans ended up doubling so is it OK if I cancel at the last minute?

In a similar vein, although it’s not used very often, instead of saying 「タクシーを呼ぶ」 or 「バスに乗る」, you can also say 「タクる」 and 「バスる」 .

終電を逃したから、仕方なく家までタクった。
– I missed the last train so having no other choice, I took a taxi home.

Yet another great, recent example of this type of verb is 「ググる」. With the popularity of google.com, you might be aware that “google” has become a new verb meaning “to search something with google”. Well, Japanese also has a similar verb: 「ググる」. (Google is 「グーグル」 in Japanese but 「グーグル」 is harder to say, so the verb became 「ググる」)

それくらい自分でググれ。
– That much, you can figure it out for youself. (Lit: That amount, search on google by yourself.)

I’m gonna stop here before mentioning the various types of restaurant verbs like 「マクる」 (to go to McDonalds)、and 「ファミる」 (to go to a family restaurant) because slang of this type are usually just a passing fad. (And probably won’t make sense to Japanese people over the age of 25)

※The key thing to remember when using these verbs is that you must conjugate them as u-verbs.

Using the shortest letter 「ん」 for slang

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As is the case with most languages, there are so many types of slangs and abbreviations in Japanese that there is no way to categorize them in a unified manner. Trying to learn slang by memorizing rules is probably close to impossible because of the inumerous number of inconsistencies.

Here, I’m just going to go over a couple of common types of slang so that you can get an idea of how it works. Like I mentioned previously, it is impossible to fully and comprehensively explain these types of things but it can still be useful to get familiar with the general idea.

Fortunately, slang is very easy to pick up by speaking and listening because they naturally come about from people finding easier ways to say something.

In short, the driving force behind Japanese slang is to make things easier to say. There are two cardinal rules that go along with this idea.

1) Make it shorter.
2) Be lazy.

Since 「ん」 is the only letter that lacks a syllable, it is the shortest sound in the Japanese language. As a result, it is often used to substitute for other longer letters that require more energy to pronounce; in particular the tongue rolling 「ら、り、る、れ、ろ」 sounds.

One of the most common example of this is the substition of 「ら」 in 「わからない」.

みさちゃんはどこに行ったか、わかる？
– [Do you] know where Misa-chan went?

わかんない。
– Dunno.

In fact, you can do the same type of substitution for any 「～らない」 negative verbs.

１）なんか知んないけど、みんながすごくいいと言ってった。
– Don’t really know but everybody said it was really great.

２）ずっと暗い部屋で本を読んでいると、頭が痛くなんない？
– Doesn’t [your] head become hurting when you read a book in dark room for a long time?

Another common substitution is the 「いる」 from the 「～ている」 enduring state form.

This one’s a bit tricky because you can’t actually end a sentence with just 「ん」, you always need something to come after it.

１）何してんの？
-Whatcha doing?

誤）今、映画を見てん。
– [We need something to come after 見てん]

２）うん？今、映画を見てんだけど？
-Hm? Well, [I’m] watching movie now, but?

「ん」 is sometimes even substituted for letters in regular words such as 「つまらない」.

ここは、つまんないから、どっか行こうよ。
– It’s boring here so let’s go somewhere.

There are many more examples of 「ん」 substitution for abbreviations. One of the most common examples is the subsitution for 「のだ」 as seen here. Another example is the 「ん」 substitution for the 「ない」 in negative verb conjugations as seen here. If you spend quite a large amount of time speaking Japanese, you might find yourself making these substitutions yourself unconsciously.

All about 【切れる】

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If you look up 「切れる」 on Jim Breen’s WWWJDIC, you will get a huge list of definitions.

切れる 【きれる】 (v1) (1) to cut well; to be sharp; (2) to break (off); to snap; to wear out; (3) to be injured; (4) to burst; to collapse; (5) to be disconnected; to be out of; to expire; to sever (connections) with; (6) to be shrewd; to have a sharp mind;

Some of these, I would take with a grain of salt. For instance, I have no idea how you would use 「切れる」 to mean “to burst”. Nevertheless, 「切れる」 has many, many uses which you might want to become familiar with.
For instance, what if you wanted to say something ran out or expired?

１）電池が切れるから、新しいのを買った方がいい。
– The batteries are going to run out so you should buy a new one.

２）この商品はもう売り切れです。
– This item is already sold-out.

３）賞味期限がもう切れたから、捨てた方がいいよ。
– The sell-by date has already expired so you should throw it out.

Or what if your connection gets cut off such as on the phone?

１）トンネルに入ったら、電波が届かなくて電話が切れた。
– Once entering the tunnel, the signal didn’t reach and the phone got cut off.

You can even use it for when you lose your temper.

１）もう我慢できなくて、切れた。
– I couldn’t take it anymore and I lost my temper.

Perhaps, one of the most useful thing about 「切れる」 is that you can take the negative and use it as a verb suffix for things you can’t cut off and put an end to. This is the same as the expression 「切りがない」 for things that have no cut-off point and seems to be endless. As you can see by the examples, you just take the stem of the verb and attach 「切れない」 .

１）こんなにたくさん食べきれない。- I can’t eat this much.

２）どう頑張っても、この宿題は絶対やりきれないよ。
– No matter how much you try, there’s no way you will finish this homework.

３）状況はまだ把握しきれてないため、明日まで検討させてください。
– Because I haven’t finished getting a handle on the situation, please let me find things out until tomorrow.