Author: Tae Kim

Numbers and counting in Japanese are difficult enough to require its own section. First of all, the number system is in units of four instead of three, which can make converting into English quite difficult. Also, there are things called counters, which are required to count different types of objects, animals, or people. We will learn the most generic and widely used counters to get you started so that you can learn more on your own. To be honest, counters might be the only thing that’ll make you want to quit learning Japanese, it’s that bad. I recommend you digest only a little bit of this section at a time because it’s an awful lot of things to memorize.

The Number System

The Japanese number system is spread into units of four. So a number such as 10,000,000 is actually split up as 1000,0000. However, thanks to the strong influence of the Western world and the standardization of numbers, when numbers are actually written, the split-off is three digits. Here are the first ten numbers.

Kanji and readings for numbers 1 to 10

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
一	二	三	四	五	六	七	八	九	十
いち	に	さん	し／よん	ご	ろく	しち／なな	はち	きゅう	じゅう

As the chart indicates, 4 can either be 「し」 or 「よん」 and 7 can either be 「しち」 or 「なな」. Basically, both are acceptable up to 10. However, past ten, the reading is almost always 「よん」 and 「なな」. In general, 「よん」 and 「なな」 are preferred over 「し」 and 「しち」 in most circumstances.

You can simply count from 1 to 99 with just these ten numbers. Japanese is easier than English in this respect because you do not have to memorize separate words such as “twenty” or “fifty”. In Japanese, it’s simply just “two ten” and “five ten”.

1. 三十一 （さんじゅういち） = 31
2. 五十四 （ごじゅうよん）= 54
3. 七十七 （ななじゅうなな）= 77
4. 二十 （にじゅう） = 20

Notice that numbers are either always written in kanji or numerals because hiragana can get rather long and hard to decipher.

Numbers past 99

Here are the higher numbers:

Numerals	100	1,000	10,000	10^8	10^12
漢字	百	千	万	億	兆
ひらがな	ひゃく	せん	まん	おく	ちょう

Notice how the numbers jumped four digits from 10^4 to 10^8 between 万 and 億? That’s because Japanese is divided into units of four. Once you get past 1万 (10,000), you start all over until you reach 9,999万, then it rotates to 1億 (100,000,000). By the way, 百 is 100 and 千 is 1,000, but anything past that, and you need to attach a 1 so the rest of the units become 一万 (10^4)、一億 (10^8)、一兆 (10^12).

Now you can count up to 9,999,999,999,999,999 just by chaining the numbers same as before. This is where the problems start, however. Try saying 「いちちょう」 、「ろくひゃく」、or 「さんせん」 really quickly, you’ll notice it’s difficult because of the repetition of similar consonant sounds. Therefore, Japanese people have decided to make it easier on themselves by pronouncing them as 「いっちょう」、 「ろっぴゃく」、and 「さんぜん」. Unfortunately, it makes it all the harder for you to remember how to pronounce everything. Here are all the slight sound changes.

Numerals	漢字	ひらがな
300	三百	さんびゃく
600	六百	ろっぴゃく
800	八百	はっぴゃく
3000	三千	さんぜん
8000	八千	はっせん
10^12	一兆	いっちょう

1. 四万三千七十六 （よんまんさんぜんななじゅうろく）
   43,076
2. 七億六百二十四万九千二百二十二 （ななおくろっぴゃくにじゅうよんまんきゅうせんにひゃくにじゅうに）
   706,249,222
3. 五百兆二万一 （ごひゃくちょうにまんいち）
   500,000,000,020,001

Notice that it is customary to write large numbers only in numerals as even kanji can become difficult to decipher.

Numbers smaller or less than 1

Vocabulary

1. 零 【れい】 – zero
2. ゼロ – zero
3. マル – circle; zero
4. 点 【てん】 – period; point
5. マイナス – minus

Zero in Japanese is 「零」 but 「ゼロ」 or 「マル」 is more common in modern Japanese. There is no special method for reading decimals, you simply say 「点」 for the dot and read each individual number after the decimal point. Here’s an example:

• 0.0021 = ゼロ、点、ゼロ、ゼロ、二、一。

For negative numbers, everything is the same as positive numbers except that you say 「マイナス」 first.

• マイナス二十九 = -29

Counting and Counters

Ah, and now we come to the fun part. In Japanese, when you are simply counting numbers, everything is just as you would expect, 一、二、三、 and so on. However, if you want to count any type of object, you have to use something called a counter which depends on what type of object you are counting and on top of this, there are various sound changes similar to the ones we saw with 六百, etc.. The counter themselves are usually single kanji characters that often have a special reading just for the counter. First, let’s learn the counters for dates

Dates

Vocabulary

1. 平成 【へい・せい】 – Heisei era
2. 昭和 【しょう・わ】 – Showa era
3. 和暦 【わ・れき】 – Japanese calendar
4. 一日 【いち・にち】 – one day

The year is very easy. All you have to do is say the number and add 「年」 which is pronounced here as 「ねん」. For example, Year 2003 becomes 2003年 (にせんさんねん）. The catch is that there is another calendar which starts over every time a new emperor ascends the throne. The year is preceded by the era, for example the year 2000 is: 平成12年. My birthday, 1981 is 昭和56年 (The Showa era lasted from 1926 to 1989). You may think that you don’t need to know this but if you’re going to be filling out forms in Japan, they often ask you for your birthday or the current date in the Japanese calendar （和暦）. So here’s a neat converter you can use to convert to the Japanese calendar.

Saying the months is actually easier than English because all you have to do is write the number (either in numerals or kanji) of the month and add 「月」 which is read as 「がつ」. However, you need to pay attention to April （４月）, July （７月）, and September （９月） which are pronounced 「しがつ」、 「しちがつ」、and 「くがつ」 respectively.

Finally, we get to the days of the month, which is where the headache starts. The first day of the month is 「ついたち」 （一日）; different from 「いちにち」　（一日）, which means “one day”. Besides this and some other exceptions we’ll soon cover, you can simply say the number and add 「日」 which is pronounced here as 「にち」. For example, the 26th becomes 26日 （にじゅうろくにち）. Pretty simple, however, the first 10 days, the 14th, 19th, 20th, 29th have special readings that you must separately memorize. If you like memorizing things, you’ll have a ball here. Notice that the kanji doesn’t change but the reading does.

Days of the month

Day	Kanji	Reading
What day	何日	なん・にち
1st	一日	ついたち
2nd	二日	ふつ・か
3rd	三日	みっ・か
4th	四日	よっ・か
5th	五日	いつ・か
6th	六日	むい・か
7th	七日	なの・か
8th	八日	よう・か
9th	九日	ここの・か
10th	十日	とお・か
11th	十一日	じゅう・いち・にち
12th	十二日	じゅう・に・にち
13th	十三日	じゅう・さん・にち
14th	十四日	じゅう・よっ・か
15th	十五日	じゅう・ご・にち
16th	十六日	じゅう・ろく・にち
17th	十七日	じゅう・しち・にち
18th	十八日	じゅう・はち・にち
19th	十九日	じゅう・く・にち
20th	二十日	はつ・か
21st	二十一日	に・じゅう・いち・にち
22nd	二十二日	に・じゅう・に・にち
23rd	二十三日	に・じゅう・さん・にち
24th	二十四日	に・じゅう・よっ・か
25th	二十五日	に・じゅう・ご・にち
26th	二十六日	に・じゅう・ろく・にち
27th	二十七日	に・じゅう・しち・にち
28th	二十八日	に・じゅう・はち・にち
29th	二十九日	に・じゅう・く・にち
30th	三十日	さん・じゅう・にち
31st	三十一日	さん・じゅう・いち・にち

In Japan, the full format for dates follows the international date format and looks like: XXXX年YY月ZZ日. For example, today’s date would be: 2003年12月 2日

Time

Now, we’ll learn how to tell time. The hour is given by saying the number and adding 「時」 which is pronounced here as 「じ」. Here is a chart of exceptions to look out for.

英語	4 o’clock	7 o’clock	9 o’clock
漢字	四時	七時	九時
ひらがな	よじ	しちじ	くじ

Notice how the numbers 4, 7, and 9 keep coming up to be a pain in the butt? Well, those and sometimes 1, 6 and 8 are the numbers to watch out for.

The minutes are given by adding 「分」 which usually read as 「ふん」 with the following exceptions:

英語	1 min	3 min	4 min	6 min	8 min	10 min
漢字	一分	三分	四分	六分	八分	十分
ひらがな	いっぷん	さんぷん	よんぷん	ろっぷん	はっぷん	じゅっぷん

For higher number, you use the normal pronunciation for the higher digits and rotate around the same readings for 1 to 10. For instance, 24 minutes is 「にじゅうよんぷん」 （二十四分） while 30 minutes is 「さんじゅっぷん」 （三十分）. There are also other less common but still correct pronunciations such as 「はちふん」 for 「八分」 and 「じっぷん」 for 「十分」 (this one is almost never used).

All readings for seconds consists of the number plus 「秒」, which is read as 「びょう」. There are no exceptions for seconds and all the readings are the same.

Some examples of time.

1. 1時24分（いちじ・にじゅうよんぷん）
   1:24
2. 午後4時10分 （ごご・よじ・じゅっぷん）
   4:10 PM
3. 午前9時16分 （ごぜん・くじ・じゅうろっぷん）
   9:16 AM
4. 13時16分 （じゅうさんじ・じゅうろっぷん）
   13:16
5. 2時18分13秒 （にじ・じゅうはっぷん・じゅうさんびょう）
   2:18:13

A Span of Time

Ha! I bet you thought you were done with dates and time, well guess again. This time we will learn counters for counting spans of time, days, months, and years. The basic counter for a span of time is 「間」, which is read as 「かん」. You can attach it to the end of hours, days, weeks, and years. Minutes (in general) and seconds do not need this counter and months have a separate counter, which we will cover next.

1. 二時間四十分 （にじかん・よんじゅっぷん）
   2 hours and 40 minutes
2. 二十日間 （はつかかん）
   20 days
3. 十五日間 （じゅうごにちかん）
   15 days
4. 二年間 （にねんかん）
   two years
5. 三週間 （さんしゅうかん）
   three weeks
6. 一日 （いちにち）
   1 day

As mentioned before, a period of one day is 「一日」 （いちにち） which is different from the 1st of the month: 「ついたち」.

Pronunciations to watch out for when counting weeks is one week: 「一週間」 （いっしゅうかん） and 8 weeks: 「八週間」 （はっしゅうかん）.

To count the number of months, you simple take a regular number and add 「か」 and 「月」 which is pronounced here as 「げつ」 and not 「がつ」. The 「か」 used in this counter is usually written as a small katakana 「ヶ」 which is confusing because it’s still pronounced as 「か」 and not 「け」. The small 「ヶ」 is actually totally different from the katakana 「ケ」 and is really an abbreviation for the kanji 「箇」, the original kanji for the counter. This small 「ヶ」 is also used in some place names such as 「千駄ヶ谷」 and other counters, such as the counter for location described in the “Other Counters” section below.

In counting months, you should watch out for the following sound changes:

 

 

英語	1 month	6 months	10 months
漢字	一ヶ月	六ヶ月	十ヶ月
ひらがな	いっかげつ	ろっかげつ	じゅっかげつ

 

 

 

 

Just like minutes, the high numbers rotate back using the same sounds for 1 to 10.

1. 十一ヶ月 （じゅういっかげつ）
   Eleven months
2. 二十ヶ月 （にじゅっかげつ）
   Twenty months
3. 三十三ヶ月 （さんじゅうさんかげつ）
   Thirty three months

Other Counters

We’ll cover some of the most common counters so that you’ll be familiar with how counters work. This will hopefully allow you to learn other counters on your own because there are too many to even consider covering them all. The important thing to remember is that using the wrong counter is grammatically incorrect. If you are counting people, you must use the people counter, etc. Sometimes, it is acceptable to use a more generic counter when a less commonly used counter applies. Here are some counters.

日本語	When to Use
人	To count the number of people
本	To count long, cylindrical objects such as bottles or chopsticks
枚	To count thin objects such as paper or shirts
冊	To count bound objects usually books
匹	To count small animals like cats or dogs
歳	To count the age of a living creatures such as people
個	To count small (often round) objects
回	To count number of times
ヶ所（箇所）	To count number of locations
つ	To count any generic object that has a rare or no counter

Counting 1 to 10 (some variations might exist)

	人	本	枚	冊	匹	歳	個	回	ヶ所（箇所）	つ
1	ひとり	いっぽん	いちまい	いっさつ	いっぴき	いっさい	いっこ	いっかい	いっかしょ	ひとつ
2	ふたり	にほん	にまい	にさつ	にひき	にさい	にこ	にかい	にかしょ	ふたつ
3	さんにん	さんぼん	さんまい	さんさつ	さんびき	さんさい	さんこ	さんかい	さんかしょ	みっつ
4	よにん	よんほん	よんまい	よんさつ	よんひき	よんさい	よんこ	よんかい	よんかしょ	よっつ
5	ごにん	ごほん	ごまい	ごさつ	ごひき	ごさい	ごこ	ごかい	ごかしょ	いつつ
6	ろくにん	ろっぽん	ろくまい	ろくさつ	ろっぴき	ろくさい	ろっこ	ろっかい	ろっかしょ	むっつ
7	しちにん	ななほん	ななまい	ななさつ	ななひき	ななさい	ななこ	ななかい	ななかしょ	ななつ
8	はちにん	はちほん	はちまい	はっさつ	はっぴき	はっさい	はっこ	はちかい	はっかしょ	やっつ
9	きゅうにん	きゅうほん	きゅうまい	きゅうさつ	きゅうひき	きゅうさい	きゅうこ	きゅうかい	きゅうかしょ	ここのつ
10	じゅうにん	じゅっぽん	じゅうまい	じゅっさつ	じゅっぴき	じゅっさい	じゅっこ	じゅっかい	じゅっかしょ	とお

The changed sounds have been highlighted.
You don’t count 0 because there is nothing to count. You can simply use 「ない」 or 「いない」. The chart has hiragana for pronunciation but, as before, it is usually written with either numbers or kanji plus the counter with the single exception of 「とお」 which is simply written as 「十」.

For higher numbers, it’s the same as before, you use the normal pronunciation for the higher digits and rotate around the same readings for 1 to 10 except for 「一人」 and 「二人」 which transforms to the normal 「いち」 and 「に」 once you get past the first two. So 「一人」 is 「ひとり」 while 「11人」 is 「じゅういちにん」. Also, the generic counter 「～つ」 only applies up to exactly ten items. Past that, you can just use regular plain numbers.

Note: The counter for age is often sometimes written as 「才」 for those who don’t have the time to write out the more complex kanji. Plus, age 20 is usually read as 「はたち」 and not 「にじゅっさい」.

Using 「目」 to show order

You can attach 「目」 (read as 「め」) to various counters to indicate the order. The most common example is the 「番」 counter. For example, 「一番」　which means “number one” becomes “the first” when you add 「目」 （一番目）. Similarly, 「一回目」 is the first time, 「二回目」 is the second time, 「四人目」 is the fourth person, and so on.

Politely (and not so politely) making requests

Similar to asking for favors, which we learned in the last lesson, there are also various ways to make requests in Japanese. This is effectively the Japanese way of saying, “please do X”. We’ll first learn the most common way to make requests using a special conjugation of the verb 「くださる」 and the firmer 「なさる」. Finally, we’ll learn the rarely used excessively strong command form for the sake of completeness. You can safely skip the last part unless you’re an avid reader of manga.

「～ください」－ a special conjugation of 「くださる」

Vocabulary

1. それ – that
2. くれる (ru-verb) – to give
3. 漢字 【かん・じ】 – Kanji
4. 書く 【か・く】 (u-verb) – to write
5. ここ – here
6. 来る 【く・る】 (exception) – to come
7. 日本語 【に・ほん・ご】 – Japanese (language)
8. 話す 【はな・す】 (u-verb) – to speak
9. 消しゴム 【け・し・ごむ】 – eraser
10. 貸す 【か・す】 (u-verb) – lend
11. 遠い 【とお・い】 (i-adj) – far
12. 所 【ところ】 – place
13. 行く 【い・く】 (u-verb) – to go
14. お父さん【お・とう・さん】 – father (polite)
15. 時計 【と・けい】 – watch; clock
16. 壊れる 【こわ・れる】 (ru-verb) – to break
17. 言う 【い・う】 (u-verb) – to say

「ください」 is a special conjugation of 「くださる」, which is the honorific form of 「くれる」. We will learn more about honorific and humble forms in the beginning of the next major section. We are going over 「ください」 here because it has a slight difference in meaning from the normal 「くれる」 and the honorific 「くださる」. 「ください」 is different from 「くれる」 in the following fashion:

1. それをください。
   Please give me that.
2. それをくれる？
   Can you give me that?

As you can see 「ください」 is a direct request for something while 「くれる」 is used as a question asking for someone to give something. However, it is similar to 「くれる」 in that you can make a request for an action by simply attaching it to the te-form of the verb.

1. 漢字で書いてください。
   Please write it in kanji.
2. ゆっくり話してください。
   Please speak slowly.

The rules for negative requests are same as the rules for 「くれる」 as well.

1. 落書きを書かないでください。
   Please don’t write graffiti.
2. ここにこないでください。
   Please don’t come here.

In casual speech, it is often common to simply drop the 「ください」 part.

1. 日本語で話して。
   Please speak in Japanese.
2. 消しゴムを貸して。
   Please lend me the eraser.
3. 遠い所に行かないで。
   Please don’t go to a far place.

For those who want to sound particularly commanding and manly, it is also possible to use 「くれる」 with the 「る」 removed.

1. 日本語で話してくれ。
   Speak in Japanese.
2. 消しゴムを貸してくれ。
   Lend me the eraser.
3. 遠い所に行かないでくれ。
   Don’t go to a far place.

Because 「ください」 like the masu-form must always come at the end sentence or a relative clause, you cannot use it to directly modify a noun. For example, the following is not possible with 「ください」.

• お父さんがくれた時計が壊れた。
  The clock that father gave broke.

Of course, since direct quotes is merely repeating something someone said in verbatim, you can put practically anything in a direct quote.

• 「それをください」とお父さんが言った。
  Father said, “Please give me that.”

Using 「～ちょうだい」 as a casual request

Vocabulary

1. 頂戴 【ちょうだい】 – receiving (humble)
2. 致す 【いたす】 (u-verb) – to do (humble)
3. スプーン – spoon
4. ここ – here
5. 名前 【な・まえ】 – name
6. 書く 【か・く】 (u-verb) – to write

A casual alternative of 「ください」 is 「ちょうだい」. While it can be used by anyone, it has a slightly feminine and childish nuance and is always written in Hiragana. Written in Kanji, it is usually used in a very formal expression such as 「頂戴致します」. Grammatically, it’s used exactly the same way as 「ください」.

Examples

1. スプーンをちょうだい。
   Please give me the spoon.
2. ここに名前を書いてちょうだい。
   Please write your name here.

Using 「～なさい」 to make firm but polite requests

Vocabulary

1. 食べる 【たべ・る】 (ru-verb) – to eat
2. 飲む 【の・む】 (u-verb) – to drink
3. する (exception) – to do
4. いい (i-adj) – good
5. 聞く 【き・く】 (u-verb) – to ask; to listen
6. ここ – here
7. 座る 【すわ・る】 (ru-verb) – to sit
8. まだ – yet
9. いっぱい – full
10. ある (u-verb) – to exist (inanimate)
11. たくさん – a lot (amount)
12. それ – that
13. 思う 【おも・う】 (u-verb) – to think
14. そう – (things are) that way

「なさい」 is a special honorific conjugation of 「する」. It is a soft yet firm way of issuing a command. It is used, for example, when a mother is scolding her child or when a teacher wants a delinquent student to pay attention. Unlike 「ください」, 「なさい」 only applies to positive verbs and uses the stem of the verb instead of the te-form. It also cannot be used by itself but must be attached to another verb.

Examples

1. よく聞きなさい！
   Listen well!
2. ここに座りなさい。
   Sit here.

You can also drop 「さい」 portion of the 「なさい」 to make a casual version of this grammar.

1. まだいっぱいあるから、たくさん食べな。
   There’s still a lot, so eat a lot.
2. それでいいと思うなら、そうしなよ。
   If you think that’s fine, then go ahead and do it.

The Command Form

Vocabulary

1. くれる (ru-verb) – to give
2. 死ぬ 【し・ぬ】 (u-verb) – to die
3. する (exception) – to do
4. 来る 【く・る】 (exception) – to come
5. 食べる 【た・べる】 (ru-verb) – to eat
6. 着る 【き・る】 (ru-verb) – to wear
7. 信じる 【しん・じる】 (ru-verb) – to believe
8. 寝る 【ね・る】 (ru-verb) – to sleep
9. 起きる 【お・きる】 (ru-verb) – to wake; to occur
10. 出る 【で・る】 (ru-verb) – to come out
11. 掛ける 【か・ける】 (ru-verb) – to hang
12. 捨てる 【す・てる】 (ru-verb) – to throw away
13. 話す 【はな・す】 (u-verb) – to speak
14. 聞く 【き・く】 (u-verb) – to ask; to listen
15. 遊ぶ 【あそ・ぶ】 (u-verb) – to play
16. 待つ 【ま・つ】 (u-verb) – to wait
17. 飲む 【の・む】 (u-verb) – to drink
18. 直る 【なお・る】 (u-verb) – to be fixed
19. 買う 【か・う】 (u-verb) – to buy
20. 好き 【す・き】 (na-adj) – likable
21. あっち – that way (over there) （abbr of あちら）
22. 行く 【い・く】 (u-verb) – to go
23. 早い 【はや・い】 (i-adj) – fast; early
24. 酒 【さけ】 – alcohol
25. 持つ 【も・つ】 (u-verb) – to hold

We will go over the command form in the interest of covering all the possible verb conjugations. In reality, the command form is rarely used as Japanese people tend to be too polite to use imperatives. Also, this coarse type of speech is rarely, if indeed at all, used by females who tend to use 「なさい」 or an exasperated 「くれる」 when angry or irritated. This form is only really useful for reading or watching fictional works. You may often see or hear 「死ね！」 (“Die!”) in fiction which, of course, you’ll never hear in real life. (I hope!)

Be sure to note that, in addition to the familiar 「する」, 「くる」 exception verbs, 「くれる」 is also an exception for the command form.

Sample ru-verbs Plain Command 食べる 食べろ 着る 着ろ 信じる 信じろ 寝る 寝ろ 起きる 起きろ 出る 出ろ 掛ける 掛けろ 捨てる 捨てろ

Sample u-verbs Plain Command 話す 話せ 聞く 聞け 遊ぶ 遊べ 待つ 待て 飲む 飲め 直る 直れ 死ぬ 死ね 買う 買え

Exception Verbs Plain Command する しろ くる こい くれる くれ

Examples

1. 好きにしろ。
   Do as you please.
2. あっち行け！
   Go away!
3. 早く酒を持ってきてくれ。
   Hurry up and bring me some alcohol.

Negative Command

Vocabulary

1. 行く 【い・く】 (u-verb) – to go
2. する (exception) – to do
3. それ – that
4. 食べる 【た・べる】 (ru-verb) – to eat
5. 変 【へん】 (na-adj) – strange
6. こと – event, matter
7. 言う 【い・う】 (u-verb) – to say

The negative command form is very simple: simply attach 「な」 to either ru-verbs or u-verbs. Don’t confuse this with the 「な」 sentence-ending particle we will be learning at the end of this section. The intonation is totally different.

Examples

1. それを食べるな！
   Don’t eat that!
2. 変なことを言うな！
   Don’t say such weird things!

This is not to be confused with the shortened version of 「～なさい」 we just learned in the last section. The most obvious difference (besides the clear difference in tone) is that in 「～なさい」, the verb is first converted to the stem while the negative command has no conjugation. For example, for 「する」, 「しな」 would be the short version of 「しなさい」 while 「するな」 would be a negative command.

Japanese people like gifts

Vocabulary

1. お歳暮 【お・せい・ぼ】 – year-end presents
2. お中元 【お・ちゅう・げん】 – Bon festival gifts
3. あげる (ru-verb) – to give; to raise
4. くれる (ru-verb) – to give
5. もらう (u-verb) – to receive

One thing about Japanese culture is that they’re big on giving gifts. There are many different customs involving giving and receiving gifts (お歳暮、お中元、etc.) and when Japanese people go traveling, you can be sure that they’re going to be picking up souvenirs to take back as gifts. Even when attending marriages or funerals, people are expected to give a certain amount of money as a gift to help fund the ceremony. You can see why properly learning how to express the giving and receiving of favors and items is a very important and useful skill. For some reason, the proper use of 「あげる」、「くれる」、and 「もらう」 has always haunted people studying Japanese as being horribly complex and intractable. I hope to prove in this section that it is conceptually quite straightforward and simple.

When to use 「あげる」

Vocabulary

1. あげる (ru-verb) – to give; to raise
2. 私 【わたし】 – me; myself; I
3. 友達 【とも・だち】 – friend
4. プレゼント – present
5. これ – this
6. 先生 【せん・せい】 – teacher
7. 車 【くるま】 – car
8. 買う 【か・う】 (u-verb) – to buy
9. 代わり 【か・わり】 – substitute
10. 行く 【い・く】 (u-verb) – to go
11. 学生 【がく・せい】 – student
12. 父【ちち】 – father
13. いい (i-adj) – good
14. こと – event, matter
15. 教える 【おし・える】 (ru-verb) – to teach; to inform

「あげる」 is the Japanese word for “to give” seen from the speaker’s point of view. You must use this verb when you are giving something or doing something for someone else.

Examples

1. 私が友達にプレゼントをあげた。
   I gave present to friend.
2. これは先生にあげる。
   I’ll give this to teacher.

In order to express the giving of a favor (verb) you must use the ever useful te-form and then attach 「あげる」. This applies to all the other sections in this lesson as well.

1. 車を買ってあげるよ。
   I’ll give you the favor of buying a car.
2. 代わりに行ってあげる。
   I’ll give you the favor of going in your place.

For third-person, this verb is used when the speaker is looking at it from the giver’s point of view. We’ll see the significance of this when we examine the verb 「くれる」 next.

1. 学生がこれを先生にあげる。
   The student give this to teacher. (looking at it from the student’s point of view)
2. 友達が父にいいことを教えてあげた。
   Friend gave the favor of teaching something good to my dad. (looking at it from the friend’s point of view)

Using 「やる」 to mean 「あげる」

Vocabulary

1. 犬 【いぬ】 – dog
2. 餌 【えさ】 – food for animals
3. やる (u-verb) – to do

Usually used for pets, animals, and such, you can substitute 「やる」, which normally means “to do”, for 「あげる」. You shouldn’t use this type of 「やる」 for people because it is used when looking down on someone and can be offensive.

• 犬に餌をやった？
  Did you give the dog food?

Here, 「やる」 does not mean “to do” but “to give”. You can tell because “doing food to dog” doesn’t make any sense.

When to use 「くれる」

Vocabulary

1. くれる (ru-verb) – to give
2. 友達 【とも・だち】 – friend
3. 私 【わたし】 – me; myself; I
4. プレゼント – present
5. これ – this
6. 先生 【せん・せい】 – teacher
7. 車 【くるま】 – car
8. 買う 【か・う】 (u-verb) – to buy
9. 代わり 【か・わり】 – substitute
10. 行く 【い・く】 (u-verb) – to go
11. 学生 【がく・せい】 – student
12. 父【ちち】 – father
13. いい (i-adj) – good
14. こと – event, matter
15. 教える 【おし・える】 (ru-verb) – to teach; to inform
16. あげる (ru-verb) – to give; to raise
17. 全部 【ぜん・ぶ】 – everything
18. 食べる 【た・べる】 (ru-verb) – to eat

「くれる」 is also a verb meaning “to give” but unlike 「あげる」, it is from the receiver’s point of view. You must use this verb when someone else is giving something or doing something for you (effectively the opposite of 「あげる」).

Examples

1. 友達が私にプレゼントをくれた。
   Friend gave present to me.
2. これは、先生がくれた。
   Teacher gave this to me.
3. 車を買ってくれるの？
   You’ll give me the favor of buying a car for me?
4. 代わりに行ってくれる？
   Will you give me the favor of going in my place?

Similarly, when used in the third-person, the speaker is speaking from the receiver’s point of view and not the giver.

1. 先生がこれを学生にくれる。
   The teacher give this to student. (looking at it from the student’s point of view)
2. 友達が父にいいことを教えてくれた。
   Friend gave favor of teaching something good to my dad. (looking at it from the dad’s point of view)

The following diagram illustrates the direction of giving from the point of view of the speaker.

From the speaker’s point of view, all the giving done to others “go up” to everybody else while the giving done by everybody else “goes down” to the speaker. This is probably related to the fact that there is an identical verb 「上げる」 meaning “to raise” that contains the character for “above” （上） and that the honorific version of 「くれる」 is 「下さる」 with the character for down （下）. This restriction allows us to make certain deductions from vague sentences like the following:

• 先生が教えてあげるんですか。
  Teacher, will you be the one to give favor of teaching to… [anybody other than the speaker]?

Because all giving done to the speaker must always use 「くれる」, we know that the teacher must be doing it for someone else and not the speaker. The speaker is also looking at it from the teacher’s point of view as doing a favor for someone else.

• 先生が教えてくれるんですか。
  Teacher, will you be the one to give favor of teaching to… [anybody including the speaker]?

Because the giver is not the speaker, the teacher is either giving to the speaker or anyone else. The speaker is viewing it from the receiver’s point of view as receiving a favor done by the teacher.

Let’s see some mistakes to watch out for.

• 私が全部食べてくれました。
  「くれる」 is being used as giving done by the speaker. (Wrong)
• 私が全部食べてあげました。
  I gave favor of eating it all. (Correct)

• 友達がプレゼントを私にあげた。
  「あげる」 is being used as giving to the speaker. (Wrong)
• 友達がプレゼントを私にくれた。- Friend gave present to me. (Correct)

When to use 「もらう」

Vocabulary

1. 私 【わたし】 – me; myself; I
2. 友達 【とも・だち】 – friend
3. プレゼント – present
4. もらう (u-verb) – to receive
5. これ – this
6. 買う 【か・う】 (u-verb) – to buy
7. 宿題 【しゅく・だい】 – homework
8. チェック – check
9. する (exception) – to do
10. 時間 【じ・かん】 – time
11. ある (u-verb) – to exist (inanimate)
12. 無理 【む・り】 – impossible
13. その – that （abbr. of それの）
14. 時計 【と・けい】 – watch; clock

「もらう」 meaning, “to receive” has only one version unlike 「あげる／くれる」 so there’s very little to explain. One thing to point out is that since you receive from someone, 「から」 is also appropriate in addition to the 「に」 target particle.

Examples

1. 私が友達にプレゼントをもらった。
   I received present from friend.
2. 友達からプレゼントをもらった。
   I received present from friend.
3. これは友達に買ってもらった。
   About this, received the favor of buying it from friend.
4. 宿題をチェックしてもらいたかったけど、時間がなくて無理だった。
   I wanted to receive the favor of checking homework but there was no time and it was impossible.

「もらう」 is seen from the perspective of the receiver, so in the case of first-person, others usually don’t receive things from you. However, you might want to use 「私からもらう」 when you want to emphasize that fact that the other person received it from you. For instance, if you wanted to say, “Hey, I gave you that!” you would use 「あげる」. However, you would use 「もらう」 if you wanted to say, “Hey, you got that from me!”

• その時計は私からもらったのよ。
  (He) received that watch from me.

Asking favors with 「くれる」 or 「もらえる」

Vocabulary

1. 千円 【せん・えん】 – 1,000 yen
2. 貸す 【か・す】 (u-verb) – lend
3. する (exception) – to do
4. くれる (ru-verb) – to give
5. もらう (u-verb) – to receive
6. あなた – you
7. 私 【わたし】 – me; myself; I
8. ちょっと – a little
9. 静か 【しず・か】 (na-adj) – quiet
10. 漢字 【かん・じ】 – Kanji
11. 書く 【か・く】 (u-verb) – to write

You can make requests by using 「くれる」 and the potential form of 「もらう」 (can I receive the favor of…). We’ve already seen an example of this in example 4 of the 「くれる」 section. Because requests are favors done for the speaker, you cannot use 「あげる」 in this situation.

Examples

1. 千円を貸してくれる？
   Will you give me the favor of lending 1000 yen?
2. 千円を貸してもらえる？
   Can I receive the favor of you lending 1000 yen?

Notice that the two sentences essentially mean the same thing. This is because the giver and receiver has been omitted because it is obvious from the context. If we were to write out the full sentence, it would look like this:

1. あなたが、私に千円を貸してくれる？
   Will you give me the favor of lending 1000 yen?
2. 私が、あなたに千円を貸してもらえる？
   Can I receive the favor of you lending 1000 yen?

It is not normal to explicitly include the subject and target like this when directly addressing someone but is provided here to illustrate the change of subject and target depending on the verb 「くれる」 and 「もらえる」.

You can use the negative to make the request a little softer. You’ll see that this is true in many other types of grammar.

1. ちょっと静かにしてくれない？
   Won’t you be a little quieter?
2. 漢字で書いてもらえませんか。
   Can you write this in kanji for me?

Asking someone to not do something

Vocabulary

1. 全部 【ぜん・ぶ】 – everything
2. 食べる 【た・べる】 (ru-verb) – to eat
3. くれる (ru-verb) – to give
4. 高い 【たか・い】 (i-adj) – high; tall; expensive
5. 物 【もの】 – object
6. 買う 【か・う】 (u-verb) – to buy

In order to request that someone not do something, you simply attach 「で」 to the negative form of the verb and proceed as before.

1. 全部食べないでくれますか。
   Can you not eat it all?
2. 高い物を買わないでくれる？
   Can you not buy expensive thing(s)?

Let’s try some stuff

In English, we use the word, “try” to mean both “to try something out” and “to make an effort to do something”. In Japanese, these are separate grammatical expressions. For instance, “I tried the cherry flavor” and “I tried to do homework” mean quite different things and though English does not make a distinction, Japanese does.

To try something out

Vocabulary

1. 見る 【み・る】 – to see; to watch
2. 切る 【き・る】 (u-verb) – to cut
3. お好み焼き 【お・この・み・や・き】 – okonomiyaki (Japanese-style pancake)
4. 初めて 【はじ・めて】 – for the first time
5. 食べる 【た・べる】 (ru-verb) – to eat
6. とても – very
7. おいしい (i-adj) – tasty
8. お酒 【お・さけ】 – alcohol
9. 飲む 【の・む】 (u-verb) – to drink
10. すごい (i-adj) – to a great extent
11. 眠い 【ねむ・い】(i-adj) – sleepy
12. なる (u-verb) – to become
13. 新しい 【あたら・しい】(i-adj) – new
14. デパート – department store
15. 行く 【い・く】 (u-verb) – to go
16. 広島 【ひろ・しま】 – Hiroshima

To try something out, you simply need to change the verb to the te-form and add 「みる」. If it helps you to remember, you can think of it as a sequence of an action and then seeing the result. In fact 「みる」 conjugates just like 「見る」. However, just like the 「～てほしい」 grammar we learned, this is a set phrase and 「みる」 is usually written in hiragana.

Examples

1. お好み焼きを初めて食べてみたけど、とてもおいしかった！
   I tried eating okonomiyaki for the first time and it was very tasty!
2. お酒を飲んでみましたが、すごく眠くなりました。
   I tried drinking alcohol and I became extremely sleepy.
3. 新しいデパートに行ってみる。
   I’m going to check out the new department store.
4. 広島のお好み焼きを食べてみたい！
   I want to try eating Hiroshima okonomiyaki!

To attempt to do something

Vocabulary

1. する (exception) – to do
2. 言う 【い・う】 (u-verb) – to say
3. 思う 【おも・う】 (u-verb) – to think
4. 考える 【かんが・える】 (ru-verb) – to think
5. 見る 【み・る】 (ru-verb) – to see
6. 行く 【い・く】 (u-verb) – to go
7. 毎日 【まい・にち】 – everyday
8. 勉強 【べん・きょう】 – study
9. 避ける 【さ・ける】 (ru-verb) – to avoid
10. 無理矢理 【む・り・や・り】 – forcibly
11. 部屋 【へ・や】 – room
12. 入る 【はい・る】 (u-verb) – to enter
13. 早い 【はや・い】 (i-adj) – fast; early
14. 寝る 【ね・る】 (ru-verb) – to sleep
15. 結局 【けっ・きょく】 – eventually
16. 徹夜 【てつ・や】 – staying up all night
17. お酒 【お・さけ】 – alcohol
18. 飲む 【の・む】 (u-verb) – to drink
19. 奥さん【おく・さん】 – wife (polite)
20. 止める 【と・める】 (ru-verb) – to stop
21. なるべく – as much as possible
22. ジム – gym
23. 決める 【き・める】 (ru-verb) – to decide

We already learned that the volitional form was used to indicate a will to set out to do something. If you guessed that this next grammar for attempting to do something would involve the volitional form, you were right. To say that you tried (as in attempted) to do something, you need to conjugate the verb into the volitional, enclose it in a quotation (so that we can perform an action on the clause) and finally add the verb 「する」. Or put more simply, you just add 「とする」 to the volitional form of the verb. This is simply an extension of the quoted relative clause from the last section. Instead of saying the quote （言う） or treating it as a thought （思う、考える）, we are simply doing it with 「する」.

Examples

1. 毎日、勉強を避けようとする。
   Everyday, she attempts to avoid study.
2. 無理矢理に部屋に入ろうとしている。
   He is attempting to force his way into the room.
3. 早く寝ようとしたけど、結局は徹夜した。
   I attempted to sleep early but ended up staying up all night.
4. お酒を飲もうとしたが、奥さんが止めた。
   He tried to drink alcohol but his wife stopped him.

Though we use the verb 「する」 to say, “to do attempt”, we can use different verbs to do other things with the attempt. For instance, we can use the verb 「決める」 to say, “decide to attempt to do [X]”. Here are some examples of other actions carried out on the attempt.

1. 勉強をなるべく避けようと思った。
   I thought I would attempt to avoid studying as much as possible.
2. 毎日ジムに行こうと決めた。
   Decided to attempt to go to gym everyday.

The various uses of 「いう」

In the previous lesson, we learned how to quote a relative clause by encasing it with 「と」. This allowed us to talk about things that people have said, heard, thought, and more. We also took a look at some examples sentences that used 「と」 and 「言う」 to describe how to say something in Japanese and even what to call oneself. In this section, we will learn that with 「と」, we can use 「いう」 in a similar fashion to define, describe, and generally just talk about the thing itself. We’ll also see how to do the same thing with the casual 「って」 version we first learned about in the last lesson.

Using 「いう」 to define

Vocabulary

1. 言う 【い・う】 (u-verb) – to say
2. これ – this
3. 何 【なに／なん】 – what
4. 魚 【さかな】 – fish
5. この – this （abbr. of これの）
6. 鯛 【たい】 – tai (type of fish)
7. デパート – department store
8. どこ – where
9. ある (u-verb) – to exist (inanimate)
10. 知る 【し・る】 (u-verb) – to know
11. 友達 【とも・だち】 – friend
12. 英語 【えい・ご】 – English (language)
13. 意味 【い・み】 – meaning

In the last lesson, we briefly looked at how to introduce ourselves by using 「と」 and 「いう」. For instance, we had the following example, which Alice used to introduce herself.

• 私はアリスといいます。
  I am called Alice. (lit: As for me, you say Alice.)

This sentence pattern is probably one of the first things beginner Japanese students learn in the classroom. In this case, the verb 「いう」 doesn’t mean that somebody actually said something. Rather, Alice is saying that people in general say “Alice” when referring to her. While using kanji for 「いう」 is perfectly acceptable, in this case, since nothing is actually being said, using hiragana is also common.

This idea of describing what a person is known or referred to as can also be extended to objects and places. We can essentially define and identify anything we want by using 「という」 in this manner. As you can imagine, this is particularly useful for us because it allows us to ask what things are called in Japanese and for the definition of words we don’t know yet.

Examples

1. これは、なんという魚ですか。
   What is this fish referred to as?
2. この魚は、鯛といいます。
   This fish is known as “Tai“.
3. ルミネというデパートはどこにあるか、知っていますか？
   Do you know where the department store called “Lumine” is?
4. 「友達」は、英語で「friend」という意味です。
   The meaning of “tomodachi” in English is “friend”.

Using 「いう」 to describe anything

Vocabulary

1. 主人公 【しゅ・じん・こう】 – main character
2. 犯人 【はん・にん】 – criminal
3. 一番 【いち・ばん】 – best; first
4. 面白い 【おも・しろ・い】(i-adj) – interesting
5. 日本人 【に・ほん・じん】 – Japanese person
6. お酒 【お・さけ】 – alcohol
7. 弱い 【よわ・い】(i-adj) – weak
8. 言う 【い・う】 (u-verb) – to say
9. 本当 【ほん・とう】 – real
10. 独身 【どく・しん】 – single; unmarried
11. 嘘 【うそ】 – lie
12. リブート – reboot
13. パソコン – computer, PC
14. こう – (things are) this way
15. そう – (things are) that way
16. ああ – (things are) that way
17. どう – how
18. 再起動 【さい・き・どう】 – reboot
19. あんた – you (slang)
20. いつも – always
21. 時 【とき】 – time
22. 来る 【く・る】 (exception) – to come
23. 困る 【こま・る】 (u-verb) – to be bothered, troubled
24. 人 【ひと】 – person
25. 結婚 【けっ・こん】 – marriage
26. 出来る 【で・き・る】 (ru-verb) – to be able to do
27. 幸せ 【しあわ・せ】 – happiness
28. なる (u-verb) – to become
29. 思う 【おも・う】 (u-verb) – to think
30. 大学 【だい・がく】 – college
31. 行く 【い・く】 (u-verb) – to go
32. 意味　【い・み】 – meaning

We learned how to use 「という」 to describe what something is known or referred to as. However, we can take this idea even further by attaching two relative clauses. At this point, 「いう」 is so abstract that it doesn’t even really have a meaning. When a relative clause is encapsulated with 「と」, you must have a verb to go along with it and 「いう」 is simply being used as a generic verb to enable us to talk about any relative clause. This allows us to describe and explain just about anything ranging from a single word to complete sentences. As you can imagine, this construction is quite useful and employed quite often in Japanese.

Examples

1. 主人公が犯人だったというのが一番面白かった。
   The most interesting thing was that the main character was the criminal.
2. 日本人はお酒に弱いというのは本当？
   Is it true that Japanese people are weak to alcohol?
3. 独身だというのは、嘘だったの？
   It was a lie that you were single?
4. リブートというのは、パソコンを再起動するということです。
   Reboot means to restart your computer.

We can abstract it even further by replacing the relative clause with a generic way of doing something. In this case, we use 「こう」、「そう」、「ああ」、and 「どう」, which when combined with 「いう」 means “this way, “that way”, “that way (far away in an abstract sense)” and “what way” respectively.

Examples

1. あんたは、いつもこういう時に来るんだから、困るんだよ。
   It’s because you always come at times like these that I’m troubled.
2. そういう人と一緒に仕事をするのは、嫌だよね。
   (Anybody would) dislike doing work together with that type of person, huh?
3. ああいう人と結婚できたら、幸せになれると思います。
   I think you can become happy if you could marry that type of person.
4. 大学に行かないって、どういう意味なの？
   What do you mean, “You’re not going to go to college?”

Rephrasing and making conclusions with 「という」

Vocabulary

1. あんた – you (slang)
2. 彼女 【かの・じょ】 – she; girlfriend
3. 友達 【とも・だち】 – friend
4. 言う 【い・う】 (u-verb) – to say
5. 何 【なに／なん】 – what
6. お酒 【お・さけ】 – alcohol
7. 好き 【す・き】 (na-adj) – likable
8. ある (u-verb) – to exist (inanimate)
9. 生きる 【い・きる】 (ru-verb) – to live
10. 多分 【た・ぶん】 – maybe
11. 行く 【い・く】 (u-verb) – to go
12. 思う 【おも・う】 (u-verb) – to think
13. お金 【お・かね】 – money
14. もう – already
15. 帰る 【かえ・る】 (u-verb) – to go home
16. 駄目 【だめ】 – no good
17. 洋介 【よう・すけ】 – Yousuke (first name)
18. 別れる 【わか・れる】 (ru-verb) – to separate; to break up
19. こと – event, matter
20. 今 【いま】 – now
21. 彼氏【かれ・し】 – boyfriend
22. いる (ru-verb) – to exist (animate)
23. そう – (things are) that way

We can attach the question marker 「か」 to 「という」 in order to add a questioning element. This construction is used when you want to rephrase or redefine something such as the following dialogue.

Example Dialogue

Ａ：みきちゃんは、あんたの彼女でしょう？
A: Miki-chan is your girlfriend, right?

Ｂ：う～ん、彼女というか、友達というか、なんというか・・・
B:Um, you might say girlfriend, or friend, or something…

This construction is used all the time, particularly in casual conversations. It can be used to correct something, come to a different conclusion, or even as an interjection.

Examples

1. お酒は好きというか、ないと生きていけない。
   I like alcohol or rather, can’t live on without it.
2. 多分行かないと思う。というか、お金がないから、行けない。
   Don’t think I’ll go. Or rather, can’t because there’s no money.
3. というか、もう帰らないとだめですけど。
   Rather than that, I have to go home already.

Rather than using 「か」 to rephrase a conclusion, we can also simply use 「こと」 to sum up something without rephrasing anything.

Example Dialogue

Ａ：みきちゃんが洋介と別れたんだって。
A: I heard that Miki-chan broke up with Yousuke.

Ｂ：ということは、みきちゃんは、今彼氏がいないということ？
B: Does that mean Miki-chan doesn’t have a boyfriend now?

Ａ：そう。そういうこと。
A: That’s right. That’s what it means.

Using 「って」 or 「て」 for 「という」

Vocabulary

1. 来年 【らい・ねん】 – next year
2. 留学 【りゅう・がく】 – study abroad
3. する (exception) – to do
4. 言う 【い・う】 (u-verb) – to say
5. 智子 【とも・こ】 – Tomoko (first name)
6. こと – event, matter
7. 駄目 【だめ】 – no good
8. 時間 【じ・かん】 – time
9. ある (u-verb) – to exist (inanimate)
10. 出来る 【で・き・る】 (ru-verb) – to be able to do
11. 行く 【い・く】 (u-verb) – to go
12. いい (i-adj) – good
13. 皆 【みんな】 – everybody
14. 私 【わたし】 – me; myself; I
15. 今 【いま】 – now
16. 彼氏【かれ・し】 – boyfriend
17. いる (ru-verb) – to exist (animate)
18. もう – already
19. 帰る 【かえ・る】 (u-verb) – to go home

As mentioned in the previous lesson, 「って」 is very often used in causal slang in place of 「と」, because it allows us to leave out the rest of the sentence and assume context (or just plain assumption) will take care of the rest. We already saw that we can use 「って」 to replace 「という」 as well. However, since we just learned how to use 「という」 to do much more than just simply say something, there is a limit to just how much you can leave out. In any case, 「って」 will allow us to leave out not only 「いう」 but also any accompanying particles as you can see in the following example.

Examples

1. 来年留学するというのは、智子のこと？
   The studying abroad next year thing, is that Tomoko?
2. 来年留学するって智子のこと？
   The studying abroad next year thing, is that Tomoko?

「だって」 is also another phrase that leaves out just about everything. By convention, it is used to express disagreement or dissatisfaction usually to whine, complain, or to make an excuse but you can’t tell what it means just from looking at it. It is an abbreviation of something along the lines of 「とはいっても」 meaning, “even if that was the case”.

Example 1

Ａ：しないとだめだよ。
A: Have to do it, you know.

Ｂ：だって、時間がないからできないよ。
B: But (even so), can’t do it because there is no time.

Example 2

Ａ：行かなくてもいいよ。
A: Don’t have to go, you know.

Ｂ：だって、みんな行くって。私も行かないと。
B: But (even so), everybody said they’re going. I have to go too.

In some cases, the small 「つ」 is left out and just 「て」 is used instead of 「って」. This is done (as is usually the case for slang) in order to make things easier to say. In general, this is when there is nothing before the 「て」 or when the sound that comes before it doesn’t require the explicit separation the 「っ」 gives us in order to be understood.

Examples

1. てことは、みきちゃんは、今彼氏がいないてこと？
   Does that mean Miki-chan doesn’t have a boyfriend now?
2. ていうか、もう帰らないとだめですけど。
   Rather than that, I have to go home already.

Since slang tends to be used in whichever way the person feels like, there are no definite rules defining whether you should use 「って」 or 「て」. However, 「て」 is generally not used to express what people have actually said or heard, which is why it wasn’t covered in the last lesson.

• みきちゃんが、明日こないて。
  (Can’t use 「て」 for something actually said)

• みきちゃんが、明日こないって。
  Miki-chan says she isn’t coming tomorrow.

Saying 「ゆう」 instead of 「いう」

Vocabulary

1. もう – already
2. 帰る 【かえ・る】 (u-verb) – to go home
3. そう – (things are) that way
4. こと – event, matter

Because the 「という」construction is used so often, there are a lot of different variations and slang based on it. While I do not plan on covering all of them here, you can check out casual patterns and slang in the miscellaneous section for yet even more slang derived from 「という」.

The last thing I’m am going to briefly mention here is the use of 「ゆう」 instead of 「いう」. In conversations, it is quite normal to say 「ゆう」 instead of 「いう」. 「ゆう」 is easier to say because it is simply one letter with a long vowel sound instead of the two different vowel sounds of 「いう」.

Examples

1. てゆうか、もう帰らないとだめですけど。
   Rather than that, I have to go home already.
2. そうゆうことじゃないって！
   I said it’s not like that (lit: it’s not that type of thing)!

In the section about modifying relative clauses, we learned how to treat a relative clause like an adjective to directly modify a noun. We will extend the functionality of relative clauses by learning how to perform an action on a relative clause. Obviously, we cannot simply attach the 「を」 particle to a relative clause because the 「を」 particle only applies to noun phrases. We need something to encapsulate the relative clause into a unit that we can perform actions on. This is done by making a quoted phrase.

While in English, you can just add quotes and a comma to make a quotation, Japanese requires attaching 「と」 at the end of the quote. This is completely different from the 「と」 particle and the 「と」 conditional. Unlike quotes in English, we can perform many different types of actions on the quote besides the standard “he said”, “she said”, etc. For example, we can perform the action, “to think” or “to hear” to produce phrases such as, “I think [clause]” or “I heard [clause]” This is very important in Japanese because Japanese people seldom affirm definite statements. This is also why we will have to eventually cover many other types of grammar to express uncertainty or probability.

The direct quote

Vocabulary

1. 言う 【い・う】 (u-verb) – to say
2. 聞く 【き・く】 (u-verb) – to ask; to listen
3. 叫ぶ 【さけ・ぶ】 (u-verb) – to scream
4. 呼ぶ 【よ・ぶ】 (u-verb) – to call
5. 呟く 【つぶや・く】 (u-verb) – to mutter
6. 寒い 【さむ・い】 (i-adj) – cold
7. 今日 【きょう】 – today
8. 授業 【じゅ・ぎょう】 – class
9. 先生 【せん・せい】 – teacher
10. 田中 【た・なか】 – Tanaka (last name)

We’ll learn the simplest type of quoted phrase, which is the direct quote. Basically, you are directly quoting something that was said. This is done by simply enclosing the statement in quotes, adding 「と」 and then inserting the appropriate verb. The most common verbs associated with a direct quote would be 「言う」 and 「聞く」 but you may use any verbs related to direct quotation such as: 「叫ぶ」, 「呼ぶ」, 「呟く」, etc. This type of quotation is often used for dialogue in novels and other narrative works.

Examples

1. アリスが、「寒い」と言った。
   Alice said, “Cold”.
2. 「今日は授業がない」と先生から聞いたんだけど。
   It is that I heard from the teacher, “There is no class today.”

The verb does not need to be directly connected to the relative clause. As long as the verb that applies to the relative clause comes before any other verb, you can have any number of adjectives, adverbs or nouns in between.

• 「寒い」とアリスが田中に言った。
  “Cold,” Alice said to Tanaka.

The interpreted quote

Vocabulary

1. 先生 【せん・せい】 – teacher
2. 今日 【きょう】 – today
3. 授業 【じゅ・ぎょう】 – class
4. 聞く 【き・く】 (u-verb) – to ask; to listen
5. これ – this
6. 日本語 【に・ほん・ご】 – Japanese (language)
7. 何 【なに／なん】 – what
8. 言う 【い・う】 (u-verb) – to say
9. 私 【わたし】 – me; myself; I
10. カレー – curry
11. 食べる 【た・べる】 (ru-verb) – to eat
12. 思う 【おも・う】 (u-verb) – to think
13. 時間 【じ・かん】 – time
14. 今 【いま】 – now
15. どこ – where
16. 行く 【い・く】 (u-verb) – to go
17. 考える 【かんが・える】 (ru-verb) – to think
18. 彼 【かれ】 – he; boyfriend
19. 高校生 【こう・こう・せい】 – high school student
20. 信じる 【しん・じる】 (ru-verb) – to believe

The second type of quote is the quote along the lines of what someone actually said. It’s not a word-for-word quote. Since this is not a direct quote, no quotations are needed. You can also express thoughts as an interpreted quote as well. By using this and the verb 「思う」 you can say you think that something is so-and-so. You will hear Japanese people use this all the time. You can also use the verb 「考える」 when you are considering something.

Examples

1. 先生から今日は授業がないと聞いたんだけど。
   I heard from the teacher that there is no class today.
2. これは、日本語で何と言いますか。
   What do you call this in Japanese? (lit: About this, what do you say in Japanese?)
3. 私は、アリスと言います。
   I am called Alice. (lit: As for me, you say Alice.)

In an interpreted quote, the meaning of 「言う」 may change as you see in examples 2 and 3. Actually, as you can see from the literal translation, the meaning remains the same in Japanese but changes only when translated to normal English. (We’ll learn more about various ways to use 「いう」 in the next lesson.)

Here are some examples of thoughts being used as quoted relative clauses. In example 2 below, the question marker is used with the volitional to insert an embedded question.

1. カレーを食べようと思ったけど、食べる時間がなかった。
   I thought about setting out to eat curry but I didn’t have time to eat.
2. 今、どこに行こうかと考えている。
   Now, I’m considering where to set out to go.

Unlike the direct quotation, which you can just copy as is, if the quoted relative clause is a state-of-being for a noun or na-adjective, you have to explicitly include the declarative 「だ」 to show this.

1. 彼は、これは何だと言いましたか。
   What did he say this is?
2. 彼は高校生だと聞いたけど、信じられない。
   I heard that he is a high school student but I can’t believe it.

Notice how 「だ」 was added to explicitly declare the state-of-being that is highlighted in the English translation. You can really see how important the 「だ」 is here by comparing the following two sentences.

• これは何だと言いましたか。
  What did (he) say this is?

• 何と言いましたか。
  What did (he) say?

Using 「って」 as a casual version of 「と」

Vocabulary

1. 智子 【とも・こ】 – Tomoko (first name)
2. 来年 【らい・ねん】 – next year
3. 海外 【かい・がい】 – overseas
4. もう – already
5. お金 【お・かね】 – money
6. ある (u-verb) – to exist (inanimate)
7. 本当 【ほん・とう】 – real
8. 明日 【あした】 – tomorrow
9. 雨 【あめ】 – rain
10. 降る 【ふ・る】(u-verb) – to precipitate
11. すごい (i-adj) – to a great extent
12. いい (i-adj) – good
13. 人 【ひと】 – person

You may be surprised to hear that there is a shorter and casual version of the quoted relative clause since it’s already only one hiragana character, 「と」. However, the important point here is that by using this casual shortcut, you can drop the rest of the sentence and hope your audience can understand everything from context.

Examples

1. 智子は来年、海外に行くんだって。
   Tomoko said that she’s going overseas next year.
2. もうお金がないって。
   I already told you I have no money.
3. え？何だって？
   Huh? What did you say?
4. 今、時間がないって聞いたんだけど、本当？
   I heard you don’t have time now, is that true?
5. 今、時間がないって、本当？
   You don’t have time now (I heard), is that true?

「って」 can also be used to talk about practically anything, not just to quote something that was said. You can hear 「って」 being used just about everywhere in casual speech. Most of the time it is used in place of the 「は」 particle to simply bring up a topic.

1. 明日って、雨が降るんだって。
   About tomorrow, I hear that it’s going to rain.
2. アリスって、すごくいい人でしょ？
   About Alice, she’s a very good person, right?

How to get your way in Japan

We will now learn how to say what you want either by just coming out and saying it or by making discreet suggestions. The major topics we will cover will be the 「たい」 conjugation and the volitional form. We will also learn specialized uses of the 「たら」 and 「ば」 conditionals to offer advice.

Verbs you want to do with 「たい」

Vocabulary

1. 行く 【い・く】 (u-verb) – to go
2. 何 【なに】 – what
3. する (exception) – to do
4. 温泉 【おん・せん】 – hotspring
5. ケーキ – cake
6. 食べる 【た・べる】 (ru-verb) – to eat
7. ずっと – long; far
8. 一緒 【いっ・しょ】 – together
9. いる (ru-verb) – to exist (animate)
10. 犬 【いぬ】 – dog
11. 遊ぶ 【あそ・ぶ】 (u-verb) – to play

You can express verbs that you want to perform with the 「たい」 form. All you need to do is add 「たい」 to the stem of the verb. However, unlike most conjugations we learned where the verb turns into a ru-verb, this form actually transforms the verb into an i-adjective (notice how 「たい」 conveniently ends in 「い」). This makes sense because the conjugated form is a description of something that you want to do. Once you have the 「たい」 form, you can then conjugate it the same as you would any other i-adjective. However, the 「たい」 form is different from regular i-adjectives because it is derived from a verb. Particles we normally associate with verbs such as 「を」、「に」、「へ」、or 「で」 can all be used with the 「たい」 form in addition to the particles commonly used with regular adjectives such as 「は」 and 「が」.

「たい」 conjugations

	Positive	Negative
Non-Past	行きたい	行きたくない
Past	行きたかった	行きたくなかった

Examples

1. 何をしたいですか。
   What do you want to do?
2. 温泉に行きたい。
   I want to go to hot spring.
3. ケーキ、食べたくないの？
   You don’t want to eat cake?
4. 食べたくなかったけど食べたくなった。
   I didn’t want to eat it but I became wanting to eat.

Example 4 was very awkward to translate but is quite simple in Japanese if you refer to the section about using 「なる」 with i-adjectives”. The past tense of the verb 「なる」 was used to create “became want to eat”. Here’s a tongue twister using the negative 「～たくない」 and past-tense of 「なる」： 「食べたくなくなった」 meaning “became not wanting to eat”.

This may seem obvious but 「ある」 cannot have a 「たい」 form because inanimate objects cannot want anything. However, 「いる」 can be used with the 「たい」 form in examples like the one below.

• ずっと一緒にいたい。
  I want to be together forever. (lit: Want to exist together for long time.)

Also, you can only use the 「たい」 form for the first-person because you cannot read other people’s mind to see what they want to do. For referring to anyone beside yourself, it is normal to use expressions such as, “I think he wants to…” or “She said that she wants to…” We will learn how to say such expressions in a later lesson. Of course, if you’re asking a question, you can just use the 「たい」 form because you’re not presuming to know anything.

• 犬と遊びたいですか。
  Do you want to play with dog?

Indicating things you want or want done using 「欲しい」

Vocabulary

1. 欲しい 【ほ・しい】 (i-adj) – wanted; desirable
2. 好き 【す・き】 (na-adj) – likable; desirable
3. 大きい 【おお・きい】(i-adj) – big
4. 縫いぐるみ 【ぬ・いぐるみ】 – stuffed doll
5. 全部 【ぜん・ぶ】 – everything
6. 食べる 【た・べる】 (ru-verb) – to eat
7. 部屋 【へ・や】 – room
8. きれい (na-adj) – pretty; clean

In English, we employ a verb to say that we want something. In Japanese, “to want” is actually an i-adjective and not a verb. We saw something similar with 「好き」 which is an adjective while “to like” in English is a verb. While I didn’t get too much into the workings of 「好き」, I have dedicated a whole section to 「欲しい」 because it means, “to want something done” when combined with the te-form of a verb. We will learn a more polite and appropriate way to make requests in the “Making Requests” lesson instead of saying, “I want this done.”

Though not a set rule, whenever words come attached to the te-form of a verb to serve a special grammatical function, it is customary to write it in hiragana. This is because kanji is already used for the verb and the attached word becomes part of that verb.

Examples

1. 大きい縫いぐるみが欲しい！
   I want a big stuffed doll!
2. 全部食べてほしいんだけど・・・。
   I want it all eaten but…
3. 部屋をきれいにしてほしいのよ。
   It is that I want the room cleaned up, you know.

Like I mentioned, there are more appropriate ways to ask for things which we won’t go into until later. This grammar is not used too often but is included for completeness.

Making a motion to do something using the volitional form (casual)

Vocabulary

1. 食べる 【た・べる】 (ru-verb) – to eat
2. 入る 【はい・る】 (u-verb) – to enter
3. 着る 【き・る】 (ru-verb) – to wear
4. 信じる 【しん・じる】 (ru-verb) – to believe
5. 寝る 【ね・る】 (ru-verb) – to sleep
6. 起きる 【お・きる】 (ru-verb) – to wake; to occur
7. 出る 【で・る】 (ru-verb) – to come out
8. 掛ける 【か・ける】 (ru-verb) – to hang
9. 捨てる 【す・てる】 (ru-verb) – to throw away
10. 調べる 【しら・べる】 (ru-verb) – to investigate
11. 話す 【はな・す】 (u-verb) – to speak
12. 書く 【か・く】 (u-verb) – to write
13. 待つ 【ま・つ】 (u-verb) – to wait
14. 飲む 【の・む】 (u-verb) – to drink
15. 取る 【と・る】 (u-verb) – to take
16. 聞く 【き・く】 (u-verb) – to ask; to listen
17. 泳ぐ 【およ・ぐ】 (u-verb) – to swim
18. 遊ぶ 【あそ・ぶ】 (u-verb) – to play
19. 直る 【なお・る】 (u-verb) – to be fixed
20. 死ぬ 【し・ぬ】 (u-verb) – to die
21. 買う 【か・う】 (u-verb) – to buy
22. する (exception) – to do
23. 来る 【く・る】 (exception) – to come
24. 今日 【きょう】 – today
25. 何 【なに】 – what
26. テーマパーク – theme park
27. 行く 【い・く】 (u-verb) – to go
28. 明日 【あした】 – tomorrow
29. カレー – curry

The term volitional here means a will to do something. In other words, the volitional form indicates that someone is setting out to do something. In the most common example, this simply translates into the English “let’s” or “shall we?” but we’ll also see how this form can be used to express an effort to do something in a lesson further along.

To conjugate verbs into the volitional form for casual speech, there are two different rules for ru-verbs and u-verbs. For ru-verbs, you simply remove the 「る」 and add 「よう」. For u-verbs, you replace the / u / vowel sound with the / o / vowel sound and add 「う」.

Here is a list of verbs you should be used to seeing by now.

Sample ru-verbs Plain Volitional 食べる 食べよう 着る 着よう 信じる 信じよう 寝る 寝よう 起きる 起きよう 出る 出よう 掛ける 掛けよう 捨てる 捨てよう 調べる 調べよう

Sample u-verbs Plain Volitional 話す 話そう 聞く 聞こう 泳ぐ 泳ごう 遊ぶ 遊ぼう 待つ 待とう 飲む 飲もう 直る 直ろう 死ぬ 死のう 買う 買おう

Exception Verbs Plain Volitional する しよう くる こよう

Examples

I doubt you will ever use 「死のう」 (let’s die) but I left it in for completeness. Here are some more realistic examples.

1. 今日は何をしようか？
   What shall (we) do today?
2. テーマパークに行こう！
   Let’s go to theme park!
3. 明日は何を食べようか？
   What shall (we) eat tomorrow?
4. カレーを食べよう！
   Let’s eat curry!

Remember, since you’re setting out to do something, it doesn’t make sense to have this verb in the past tense. Therefore, there is only one tense and if you were to replace 「明日」 in the third example with, let’s say, 「昨日」 then the sentence would make no sense.

Making a motion to do something using the volitional form (polite)

Vocabulary

1. 食べる 【た・べる】 (ru-verb) – to eat
2. 入る 【はい・る】 (u-verb) – to enter
3. する (exception) – to do
4. 来る 【く・る】 (exception) – to come
5. 寝る 【ね・る】 (ru-verb) – to sleep
6. 行く 【い・く】 (u-verb) – to go
7. 遊ぶ 【あそ・ぶ】 (u-verb) – to play
8. 今日 【きょう】 – today
9. 何 【なに】 – what
10. テーマパーク – theme park
11. 明日 【あした】 – tomorrow
12. カレー – curry

The conjugation for the polite form is even simpler. All you have to do is add 「～ましょう」 to the stem of the verb. Similar to the masu-form, verbs in this form must always come at the end of the sentence. In fact, all polite endings must always come at the end and nowhere else as we’ve already seen.

Sample verbs

Plain	Volitional
する	しましょう
くる	きましょう
寝る	寝ましょう
行く	行きましょう
遊ぶ	遊びましょう

Examples

Again, there’s nothing new here, just the polite version of the volitional form.

1. 今日は何をしましょうか？
   What shall (we) do today?
2. テーマパークに行きましょう！
   Let’s go to theme park!
3. 明日は何を食べましょうか？
   What shall (we) eat tomorrow?
4. カレーを食べましょう！
   Let’s eat curry!

Making Suggestions using the 「ば」 or 「たら」 conditional

Vocabulary

1. 銀行 【ぎん・こう】 – bank
2. 行く 【い・く】 (u-verb) – to go
3. たまに – once in a while
4. 両親【りょう・しん】 – parents
5. 話す 【はな・す】 (u-verb) – to speak

You can make suggestions by using the 「ば」 or 「たら」 conditional and adding 「どう」. This literally means, “If you do [X], how is it?” In English, this would become, “How about doing [X]?” Grammatically, there’s nothing new here but it is a commonly used set phrase.

Examples

1. 銀行に行ったらどうですか。
   How about going to bank?
2. たまにご両親と話せばどう？
   How about talking with your parents once in a while?

When there’s something that must or must not be done

In life, there are things that we must or must not do whether it’s taking out the trash or doing our homework. We will cover how to say this in Japanese because it is a useful expression and it also ties in well with the previous section. We will also learn how to the say the expression, “You don’t have to…” to finish off this section.

Using 「だめ」, 「いけない」, and 「ならない」 for things that must not be done

Vocabulary

1. 駄目 【だめ】 – no good
2. ここ – here
3. 入る 【はい・る】 (u-verb) – to enter
4. それ – that
5. 食べる 【たべ・る】 (ru-verb) – to eat
6. 夜 【よる】 – evening
7. 遅い 【おそ・い】 (i-adj) – late
8. ～まで (particle) – until ～
9. 電話 【でん・わ】 – phone
10. する (exception) – to do
11. 早い 【はや・い】 (i-adj) – fast; early
12. 寝る 【ね・る】 (ru-verb) – to sleep

If you’re not familiar with the word 「だめ」（駄目）, though it can be used in many different ways it essentially means “no good”. The other two key words in this section are 「いけない」 and 「ならない」 and they have essentially the same basic meaning as 「だめ」. However, while 「いけない」 can be used by itself, 「ならない」 must only be used in the grammar presented here. In addition, while 「いけない」 and 「ならない」 conjugate like i-adjectives they are not actual adjectives. Let’s learn how to use these words to express things that must not be done.

1. ここに入ってはいけません。
   You must not enter here.
2. それを食べてはだめ！
   You can’t (must not) eat that!
3. 夜、遅くまで電話してはならない。
   You must not use the phone until late at night.
4. 早く寝てはなりませんでした。
   Wasn’t allowed to sleep early.

The difference between 「だめ」、「いけない」、and 「ならない」 is that, first of all, 「だめ」 is casual. While 「いけない」 and 「ならない」 are basically identical, 「ならない」 is generally more for things that apply to more than one person like rules and policies.

Expressing things that must be done

Vocabulary

1. 毎日 【まい・にち】 – everyday
2. 学校 【がっ・こう】 – school
3. 行く 【い・く】 (u-verb) – to go
4. 宿題 【しゅく・だい】 – homework
5. する (exception) – to do

You may have predicted that the opposite of “You must not do” would use 「いける」 or 「なる」 because they look like the positive version of 「いけない」 and 「ならない」. However, 「いけない」 and 「ならない」 must always be negative, so this is not correct. In actuality, we still use the same 「だめ／いけない／ならない」 and use the opposite of the verb that goes in front of it instead. This double negative can be kind of confusing at first but you will get used to it with practice. There are three ways to conjugate the verb before adding 「だめ／いけない／ならない」 and two of them involve conditionals so aren’t you glad that you just learned conditionals in the previous section?

The first method is the same as the “must not do” grammar form except that we simply negated the verb.

1. 毎日学校に行かなくてはなりません。
   Must go to school everyday.
2. 宿題をしなくてはいけなかった
   Had to do homework.

The second method uses the natural conditional that we learned in the last lesson. Literally, it means if you don’t do something, then it automatically leads to the fact that it is no good. (In other words, you must do it.) However, people tend to use it for situations beyond the natural consequence characterization that we learned from the last section because it’s shorter and easier to use than the other two types of grammar.

1. 毎日学校に行かないとだめです。
   Must go to school everyday.
2. 宿題をしないといけない
   Have to do homework.

The third method is similar to the second except that it uses a different type of conditional as explained in the last lesson. With the 「ば」 conditional, it can be used for a wider range of situations. Note that since the verb is always negative, for the 「ば」 conditional, we will always be removing the last 「い」 and adding 「ければ」.

1. 毎日学校に行かなければいけません。
   Must go to school everyday.
2. 宿題をしなければだめだった。
   Had to do homework.

It may seem like I just breezed through a whole lot of material because there are three grammar forms and 「だめ／いけない／ならない」 adding up to nine possible combinations (3×3). However, some combinations are more common than others but I did not explicitly point out which were more common because any combination is technically correct and going over style would merely confuse at this point. Also, keep in mind that there is nothing essentially new in terms of conjugation rules. We already covered conditionals in the last lesson and adding the wa particle to the te-form in the beginning of this section.

※ Reality Check

Although we spent the last section explaining 「～なければ」 and 「～なくては」, the reality is that because they are so long, they are practically never used in real conversations. While they are often used in a written context, in actual speech, people usually use the 「と」 conditional or the various shortcuts described below. In casual speech, the 「と」 conditional is the most prevalent type of conditional. Though I explained in depth the meaning associated with the 「と」 conditional, you have to take it with a grain of salt here because people are inherently lazy.

Various short-cuts for the lazy

Vocabulary

1. 勉強 【べん・きょう】 – study
2. する (exception) – to do
3. ご飯 【ご・はん】 – rice; meal
4. 食べる 【た・べる】 (ru-verb) – to eat
5. 学校 【がっ・こう】 – school
6. 行く 【い・く】 (u-verb) – to go
7. ここ – here
8. 入る 【はい・る】 (u-verb) – to enter
9. 駄目 【だめ】 – no good
10. 死ぬ 【し・ぬ】 (u-verb) – to die

You may have been grumbling and complaining about how long most of the expressions are just to say you must do something. You can end up with up to eight additional syllables just to say “I have to…”!

Well, others have thought the same before and people usually use short abbreviated versions of 「なくては」 and 「なければ」 in casual speech. Teachers are often reluctant to teach these overly familiar expressions because they are so much easier to use which is bad for times when they might not be appropriate. But, on the other hand, if you don’t learn casual expressions, it makes it difficult to understand your friends (or would-be friends if you only knew how to speak less stiffly!). So here they are but take care to properly practice the longer forms so that you will be able to use them for the appropriate occasions.

Right now, you may be saying, “What the?” because the “abbreviations” are about the same length as what we’ve already covered. The secret here is that, unlike the expressions we learned so far, you can just leave the 「だめ／いけない／ならない」 part out altogether!

1. 勉強しなくちゃ。
   Gotta study.
2. ご飯を食べなきゃ。
   Gotta eat.

The 「と」 conditional is also used by itself to imply 「だめ／いけない／ならない」.

• 学校に行かないと。
  Gotta go to school.

There is another 「ちゃ」 abbreviation for things that you must not do. However, in this case, you cannot leave out 「だめ／いけない／ならない」. Since this is a casual abbreviation, 「だめ」 is used in most cases.

One very important difference for this casual form is that verbs that end in 「む」、「ぶ」、「ぬ」 use 「じゃ」 instead of 「ちゃ」. Essentially, all the verbs that end in 「んだ」 for past tense fall in this category.

1. ここに入っちゃだめだよ。
   You can’t enter here.
2. 死んじゃだめだよ！ – You can’t die!

On a final note, in general, 「ちゃ」 sounds a bit cutesy or girly. You’ve already seen an example of this with the 「ちゃん」 suffix. Similarly, 「なくちゃ」 also sounds a bit cutesy or childish.

Saying something is ok to do or not do

Vocabulary

1. 全部 【ぜん・ぶ】 – everything
2. 食べる 【た・べる】 (ru-verb) – to eat
3. いい (i-adj) – good
4. 飲む 【の・む】 (u-verb) – to drink
5. 大丈夫 【だい・じょう・ぶ】 (na-adj) – ok
6. 構う 【かま・う】 (u-verb) – to mind; to be concerned about
7. もう – already
8. 帰る 【かえ・る】 (u-verb) – to go home
9. これ – this
10. ちょっと – just a little
11. 見る 【み・る】 (ru-verb) – to see

Now let’s learn how to say either that it’s ok to do or not do something. I decided to shove this section in here because in Japanese, this is essential how to say that you don’t have to something (by saying it’s ok to not do it). The grammar itself is also relatively easy to pick up and makes for a short section.

By simply using the te-form and the 「も」 particle, you are essentially saying, “even if you do X…” Common words that come after this include 「いい」, 「大丈夫」, or 「構わない」. Some examples will come in handy.

1. 全部食べてもいいよ。
   You can go ahead and eat it all. (lit: Even if you eat it all, it’s good, you know.)
2. 全部食べなくてもいいよ。
   You don’t have to eat it all. (lit: Even if you don’t eat it all, it’s good, you know.)
3. 全部飲んでも大丈夫だよ。
   It’s ok if you drink it all. (lit: Even if you drink it all, it’s OK, you know.)
4. 全部飲んでも構わないよ。
   I don’t mind if you drink it all. (lit: Even if you drink it all, I don’t mind, you know.)

In casual speech, 「～てもいい」 sometimes get shortened to just 「～ていい」 （or 「～でいい」 instead of 「～でもいい」 ）.

1. もう帰っていい？
   Can I go home already?
2. これ、ちょっと見ていい？
   Can I take a quick look at this?

How to say “if” in Japanese

This whole section is dedicated to learning how to say “if” in Japanese. Oh, if only it was as simple as English. In Japanese, there’s four (count them, four) ways to say “if”! Thankfully, the conjugations are sparse and easy especially since you don’t have to deal with tenses.

Expressing natural consequence using 「と」

Vocabulary

1. ボール – ball
2. 落とす 【お・とす】 (u-verb) – to drop
3. 落ちる 【お・ちる】 (ru-verb) – to fall
4. 電気 【でん・き】 – electricity; (electric) light
5. 消す 【け・す】 (u-verb) – to erase
6. 暗い 【くら・い】 (i-adj) – dark
7. 学校 【がっ・こう】 – school
8. 行く 【い・く】 (u-verb) – to go
9. 友達 【とも・だち】 – friend
10. 会う 【あ・う】 (u-verb) – to meet
11. たくさん – a lot (amount)
12. 太る 【ふと・る】 (u-verb) – to become fatter
13. 先生 【せん・せい】 – teacher
14. きっと – for sure
15. 年上 【とし・うえ】 – older

We’ll first cover the simplest type of “if” which is the natural consequence conditional. This means that if [X] happens, [Y] will happen as a natural consequence. No question about it. If I drop a ball, it will fall to the ground. If I turn off the lights at night, it will get dark. We can express this type of condition in the following format.

Examples

1. ボールを落すと落ちる。
   If you drop the ball, it will fall.
2. 電気を消すと暗くなる。
   If you turn off the lights, it will get dark.

These examples are designed to show how 「と」 is used to express natural consequence. However, even if the statement isn’t a natural consequence in itself, the 「と」 will tell the audience that it is nevertheless expected to be a natural consequence.

1. 学校に行かないと友達と会えないよ。
   If you don’t go to school, you can’t meet your friends.
2. たくさん食べると太るよ。
   If you eat a lot, you will get fat, for sure.
3. 先生だと、きっと年上なんじゃないですか？
   If he’s a teacher, he must be older for sure, right?

The “for sure” part is the implied meaning supplied by the 「と」. The speaker is saying that the following condition will occur in that situation, no matter what. As you can see from the last example, if the condition is a state-of-being, it must be expressed so explicitly using 「だ」. This applies to all non-conjugated nouns and na-adjectives as I’m sure you’re used to by now. This will also help prevent confusion with other types of 「と」.

Contextual conditionals using 「なら（ば）」

Vocabulary

1. 皆 【みんな】 – everybody
2. 行く 【い・く】 (u-verb) – to go
3. 私 【わたし】 – me, myself, I
4. 言う 【い・う】 (u-verb) – to say
5. 問題 【もん・だい】 – problem
6. ある (u-verb) – to exist (inanimate)
7. 図書館 【と・しょ・かん】 – library
8. あそこ – over there

Another relatively easy to understand type of “if” is the contextual conditional. You can use this particle to express what will happen given a certain context. For example, if you wanted to say, “Well, if everybody’s going, I’m going too” you would use the 「なら」 conditional because you are saying that you will go in the context of everybody else going. The contextual conditional always requires a context in which the conditional occurs. For instance, you would use it for saying things like, “If that’s what you are talking about…” or “If that’s the case, then…”

In a sense, you are explaining what would occur if you assume a certain condition is satisfied. In other words, you are saying “if given a certain context, here is what will happen.” You will see this reflected in the English translations as the phrase “if given” in the examples.

The 「なら」 is attached to the context in which the conditional occurs. The format is the same as the 「と」 conditional, however, you must not attach the declarative 「だ」.

Examples

1. みんなが行くなら私も行く。
   If given that everybody is going, then I’ll go too.
2. アリスさんが言うなら問題ないよ。
   If given that Alice-san says so, there’s no problem.

Example Dialogue

アリス：図書館はどこですか。
Alice: Where is the library?

ボブ：図書館なら、あそこです。
Bob: If given that you’re talking about the library, then it’s over there.

The following is incorrect.

• 図書館だならあそこです。

You can also decide to use 「ならば」 instead of just 「なら」. This means exactly the same thing except that it has a more formal nuance.

General conditionals using 「ば」

Vocabulary

1. 食べる 【た・べる】 (ru-verb) – to eat
2. 待つ 【ま・つ】 (u-verb) – to wait
3. おかしい (i-adj) – funny
4. ある (u-verb) – to exist (inanimate)
5. 学生 【がく・せい】 – student
6. 暇 【ひま】 – free　(as in not busy)
7. 友達 【とも・だち】 – friend
8. 会う 【あ・う】 (u-verb) – to meet
9. 買い物 【か・い・もの】 – shopping
10. 行く 【い・く】 (u-verb) – to go
11. お金 【お・かね】 – money
12. いい (i-adj) – good
13. 楽しい 【たの・しい】 (i-adj) – fun
14. 私 【わたし】 – me; myself; I
15. 病気 【びょう・き】 – disease; sickness
16. なる (u-verb) – to become

The next type of conditional just expresses a regular “if” condition without any assumptions or embedded meanings. The conjugation rules for the 「ば」 conditional is below. Note, the conjugation rule for nouns and na-adjectives is actually using the verb 「ある」 in 「である」, a formal expression we’ll learn much later.

Examples

1. 友達に会えれば、買い物に行きます。
   If I can meet with my friend, we will go shopping.
2. お金があればいいね。
   If I had money, it would be good, huh?
3. 楽しければ、私も行く。
   If it’s fun, I’ll go too.
4. 楽しくなければ、私も行かない。
   If it’s not fun, I’ll also not go.
5. 食べなければ病気になるよ。
   If you don’t eat, you will become sick.

Past conditional using 「たら（ば）」

Vocabulary

1. 自動 【じ・どう】 – automatic
2. 待つ 【ま・つ】 (u-verb) – to wait
3. 読む 【よ・む】 (u-verb) – to read
4. 忙しい 【いそが・しい】 (i-adj) – busy
5. 暇 【ひま】 – free　(as in not busy)
6. 遊ぶ 【あそ・ぶ】 (u-verb) – to play
7. 行く 【い・く】 (u-verb) – to go
8. 学生 【がく・せい】 – student
9. 割引 【わり・びき】 – discount
10. 買う 【か・う】 (u-verb) – to buy
11. 友達 【とも・だち】 – friend
12. 会う 【あ・う】 (u-verb) – to meet
13. 買い物 【か・い・もの】 – shopping
14. お金 【お・かね】 – money
15. ある (u-verb) – to exist (inanimate)
16. いい (i-adj) – good
17. 家 【1) うち; 2) いえ】 – 1) one’s own home; 2) house
18. 帰る 【かえ・る】 (u-verb) – to go home
19. 誰 【だれ】 – who
20. いる (ru-verb) – to exist (animate)
21. アメリカ – America
22. たくさん – a lot (amount)
23. 太る 【ふと・る】 (u-verb) – to become fatter

I call this next conditional the past conditional because it is produced by taking the past tense and just adding 「ら」. It is commonly called the 「たら」 conditional because all past-tense ends with 「た／だ」 and so it always becomes 「たら／だら」. Like the 「ば」 conditional, it is also a general conditional.

Examples

1. 暇だったら、遊びに行くよ。
   If I am free, I will go play.
2. 学生だったら、学生割引で買えます。
   If you’re a student, you can buy with a student discount.

For i-adjectives and verbs, it is very difficult to differentiate between the two types of conditionals, and you can make life easier for yourself by considering them to be the same. However there is a small difference in that the 「たら」 conditional focuses on what happens after the condition. This is another reason why I call this the past conditional because the condition is “in the past” (not literally) and we’re interested in the result not the condition. The 「ば」 conditional, on the other hand, focuses on the conditional part.

Let’s compare the difference in nuance.

Example 1

Ａ：友達に会えれば、買い物に行きます。
A: We will go shopping, if I can meet with my friend.

Ｂ：友達に会えたら、買い物に行きます。
B: If I can meet with my friend, we will go shopping.

Example 2

Ａ：お金があればいいね。
A: It would be good, if I had money, huh?

Ｂ：お金があったらいいね。
B: If I had money, it would be good, huh?

Going by the context, the 「～たら」 form sounds more natural for both examples because it doesn’t seem like we’re really focusing on the condition itself. We’re probably more interested in what’s going to happen once we meet the friend or how nice it would be if we had money.

The past conditional is the only type of conditional where the result can be in the past. It may seem strange to have an “if” when the result has already taken place. Indeed, in this usage, there really is no “if”, it’s just a way of expressing surprise at the result of the condition. This has little to do with conditionals but it is explained here because the grammatical structure is the same.

1. 家に帰ったら、誰もいなかった。
   When I went home, there was no one there. (unexpected result)
2. アメリカに行ったら、たくさん太りました。
   As a result of going to America, I got really fat. (unexpected result)

You can also use 「たらば」 instead of 「たら」. Similar to 「ならば」, this means exactly the same thing except that it has a more formal nuance.

How does 「もし」 fit into all of this?

Vocabulary

1. もし – if by any chance
2. いい (i-adj) – good
3. 映画 【えい・が】 – movie
4. 観る 【み・る】 (ru-verb) – to watch
5. 行く 【い・く】 (u-verb) – to go
6. 時間 【じ・かん】 – time
7. ある (u-verb) – to exist (inanimate)
8. 明日 【あした】 – tomorrow

Some of you may be aware of the word 「もし」 which means “if” and may be wondering how it fits into all of this. Well, if you want to say a conditional, you need to use one of the conditionals discussed above. 「もし」 is really a supplement to add a sense of uncertainty on whether the condition is true. For instance, you might use it when you want to make an invitation and you don’t want to presume like the following example.

1. もしよかったら、映画を観に行きますか？
   If by any chance it’s ok with you, go to watch movie?
2. もし時間がないなら、明日でもいいよ。
   If given that there’s no time, tomorrow is fine as well. (Not certain whether there is no time)

We can use the verbs 「する」 and 「なる」 in conjunction with the 「に」 particle to make various useful expressions. We are used to using the object particle with 「する」 because something is usually done to something else. We will see how the meaning changes when we change the particle to 「に」. As for 「なる」, it is always used with the 「に」 particle because “becoming” is not an action done to something else but rather a target of change. The only grammatical point of interest here is using 「なる」 with i-adjectives and verbs.

Using 「なる」 and 「する」 for nouns and na-adjectives

Vocabulary

1. 彼 【かれ】 – he; boyfriend
2. 日本語 【に・ほん・ご】 – Japanese (language)
3. 上手 【じょう・ず】 (na-adj) – skillful
4. なる (u-verb) – to become
5. 私 【わたし】 – me, myself, I
6. 医者 【い・しゃ】 – doctor
7. 有名 【ゆう・めい】 (na-adj) – famous
8. 人 【ひと】 – person
9. ハンバーガー – hamburger
10. サラダ – salad
11. する (exception) – to do
12. 他 【ほか】 – other
13. いい (i-adj) – good
14. 物 【もの】 – object
15. たくさん – a lot (amount)
16. ある (u-verb) – to exist (inanimate)
17. やはり／やっぱり – as I thought
18. これ – this

As already explained, using 「なる」 with nouns and na-adjectives presents nothing new and acts pretty much the way you’d expect.

1. 彼の日本語が上手になった。
   His Japanese has become skillful.
2. 私は医者になった。
   I became a doctor.
3. 私は有名な人になる。
   I will become a famous person.

For adjectives, using the verb 「する」 with the 「に」 particle is just a review back to the lesson on adverbs. However, for nouns, when you use the verb 「する」 with the 「に」 particle, it means that you are going to do things toward something. This changes the meaning of 「する」 to mean, “to decide on [X]”. This is a common expression to use, for instance, when you are ordering items on a menu.

1. 私は、ハンバーガーとサラダにします。
   I’ll have the hamburger and salad. (lit: I’ll do toward hamburger and salad.)
2. 他にいいものがたくさんあるけど、やっぱりこれにする。
   There are a lot of other good things, but as I thought, I’ll go with this one.

If you think this expression is strange, think about the English expression, “I’ll go with the hamburger.” Exactly where are you going with the hamburger?

Using 「なる」 with i-adjectives

Vocabulary

1. 去年 【きょ・ねん】 – last year
2. ～から (particle) – from ～
3. 背 【せ】 – height
4. 高い 【たか・い】 (i-adj) – high; tall; expensive
5. なる (u-verb) – to become
6. 運動 【うん・どう】 – exercise
7. する (exception) – to do
8. ～から (particle) – ～ so
9. 強い 【つよ・い】 (i-adj) – strong
10. 勉強 【べん・きょう】 – study
11. たくさん – a lot (amount)
12. 頭 【あたま】 – head
13. いい (i-adj) – good

Because the 「に」 particle is a target particle that is used for nouns and by extension na-adjectives, we need to use something else to show that something is becoming an i-adjective. Since “becoming” expresses a change in state, it makes sense to describe this process using an adverb. In fact, you’ll notice that we were already using adverbs (of a sort) in the previous section by using 「に」 with na-adjectives.

1. 去年から背が高くなったね。
   Your height has gotten taller from last year, huh?
2. 運動しているから、強くなる。
   I will become stronger because I am exercising.
3. 勉強をたくさんしたから、頭がよくなった。
   Since I studied a lot, I became smarter. (lit: head became better)

Using 「なる」 and 「する」 with verbs

Vocabulary

1. 海外 【かい・がい】 – overseas
2. 行く 【い・く】 (u-verb) – to go
3. こと – event, matter
4. なる (u-verb) – to become
5. 毎日 【まい・にち】 – everyday
6. 肉 【にく】 – meat
7. 食べる 【た・べる】 (ru-verb) – to eat
8. する (exception) – to do
9. 日本 【に・ほん】 – Japan
10. 来る 【く・る】 (exception) – to come
11. 寿司 【すし】 – sushi
12. 一年間 【いち・ねん・かん】 – span of 1 year
13. 練習 【れん・しゅう】 – practice
14. ピアノ – piano
15. 弾く 【ひ・く】 (u-verb) – to play (piano, guitar)
16. 地下 【ち・か】 – underground
17. 入る 【はい・る】 (u-verb) – to enter
18. 富士山 【ふ・じ・さん】 – Mt. Fuji
19. 見える 【み・える】 (ru-verb) – to be visible

You may be wondering how to use 「なる」 and 「する」 with verbs since there’s no way to directly modify a verb with another verb. The simple solution is to add a generic noun such as a generic event: こと （事） or an appearance/manner: よう （様）. These nouns don’t refer to anything specific and are used to describe something else. In this case, they allow us to describe verbs in the same manner as nouns. Here are some examples of how to use these generic nouns with 「する」 and 「なる」.

1. 海外に行くことになった。
   It’s been decided that I will go abroad. (lit: It became the event of going abroad.)
2. 毎日、肉を食べるようになった。
   It became so that I eat meat everyday. (lit: It became the appearance of eating meat everyday.)
3. 海外に行くことにした。
   I decided I will go abroad. (lit: I did toward the event of going abroad.)
4. 毎日、肉を食べるようにする。
   I will try to eat meat everyday. (lit: I will do toward the manner of eating meat everyday.)

You can modify a verb with 「なる」 or 「する」 by first making it into a noun clause and then treating it just like a regular noun. Pretty clever, huh? I hope the literal translations give you a sense of why the example sentences mean what they do. For instance, in the fourth example, 「～ようにする」 translates into “to make an effort toward…” but in Japanese, it’s really only a target towards acting in a certain manner.

Since potential verbs describe a state of feasibility rather than an action (remember, that’s why the 「を」 particle couldn’t be used), it is often used in conjunction with 「～ようになる」 to describe a change in manner to a state of feasibility. Let’s take this opportunity to get some potential conjugation practice in.

1. 日本に来て、寿司が食べられるようになった。
   After coming to Japan, I became able to eat sushi.
2. 一年間練習したから、ピアノが弾けるようになった。
   Because I practiced for one year, I became able to play the piano.
3. 地下に入って、富士山が見えなくなった。
   After going underground, Fuji-san became not visible.