How
to learn Japanese grammar
How
grammar as opposed to what grammar is
Describing
grammar as opposed to listing
After
having mastered kanji the next step in learning Japanese will be
grammar. The reason why grammar is next is because if one learns one
grammatical structure one can read many sentences.
For
example if one learns that x ですtranslates
into English as it’s an x one can understand a great many
sentences: 本です、猫です、犬です、猿です。However
if you learn a piece of vocabulary you just learn one ‘thing’
which cannot be learnt in that many situations. Learning grammar is
a key to learning a language. Language is a good example of where
the whole is more than the some of the parts
Myths about Japanese Grammar
Myth 1
Japanese grammar is
simple
Truth
Japanese grammar is
different to Euopean grammar. Whereas French has
‘conjugations’ Japanese does not. To be is desu in all
‘persons’ in Japanese. This does not mean that Japanese is
easy. The very fact that Japanese is so different to the English
Brain makes it harder to learn.
New statement: Japanese
grammar is different. Some parts are harder, some parts are easier.
Myth 2: there are only
2 irregular verbs in Japanese kuru and suru
Truth aru is irregular,
iku is irregular, many verbs are irregular in the honorific. Using
European language terms like ‘irregular verbs’ is a silly way to
look at Japanese grammar. The verb ai suru does not conjugate like
other verbs
New statement:
Japanese has many verbs that could be judged to be irregular although
the verbal system is better behaved than French.
Myth 3: Japanese
grammar is written with hiragana kanji are never used in grammar
New statement Kanji are
sometimes used in grammar, and if one knows this kanji one will go on
to know the grammar. Just as in german if you know that krank means
ill and haus means house you will know hospital, so in Japanese Kanji
and other motivated symbols can tell you the meaning
Types of grammar
Verb ‘conjugations’
Conjugation Grammar
which ‘tense’ the
verb changes into. This bit is added on to the verb and the sound
and spelling of the verb changes when it’s added on. Adjectives
also conjugate in Japanese.
For example
読むbecomes読んだin
the past tense.
‘Vocabulary
Grammar’ ‘No New Rule grammar’
this
grammar can be learnt as vocabulary. All that needs to be remembered
is it’s meaning
and where it goes in the sentence.
For example など、ほとんど、can
simply be remembered as ‘ and so on’ and ‘hardly’
respectively. Kono is simply this and all that need be remembered is
that it goes before the noun. No
major further explanation is needed. Makino’s
entry for滅多にない
is
simply one page long
the entry for の is x pages
long. This grammar is the easiest grammar type to remember. This
grammar may be quite easily be remembered by way of translation.
‘derivational
morphology’
although
grammar this is treated in a separate chapter.
New
rule Grammar
Stuff
that changes the meaning of the sentence and has it’s own rules of
usage. Stuff with no direct equivalent translation in English
Grammar
like’と で に These
grammars need teaching of the rules surrounding them. Whereas
hotondo can safely be translated as ‘scarcely’ The majority of
the time で has
no similar ‘direct’, ‘normal’ translation in English. It’s
meaning depends on what other words it is used with whereas hotondo’s
meaning does not. Further explanation is needed. Explanation of
usage is needed. When teaching nomi one needs to understand what it
qualifies. Is ｘのｙ x’s
y or Y’s x? Further explanation is
needed. This grammar is separate to
conjugation grammar as the verb before it does not change. This
grammar changes the sentence, but nothing else in the sentence need
change grammatically. In order to say I want to go you must change
the verb before adding an auxillary, but for this type of grammar
nothing need be changed. For otoko no piano, only no is added and
nothing else changes. One needs to understand what effect this
grammar has on other words in the sentence: In otoko no piano is it
the piano the property of the boy or the boy the property of the
piano?
Some
grammars fit into several categories for example てほしい
is a conjugation grammar as the verb may be changed before
adding te, but when adding hoshii nothing else need be chang
ed.
Grammar
has been described as the rules governing words. Words belong to
classes and if you read a grammar of Japanese IE Jonathan Bunt’s
you will see Grammar put into classes. Grammar is best learnt in the
beginning in word classes. Words fit into the following classes
word order and sentence structure
word order in Japanese is basically subject object verb, which means
that the sentence ends in a verb, the copula or an I adjective
The basic sentences in Japanese are ( see makino, oxford japanese
dictionary )
After having understood
the above you should actually start to learn grammar.
First of all Get hold
of, buy, loan, steal several grammar books. Somewhere between three
or ten. If you do not understand something in one grammar book,
refer to it in another, then another and so on. I have often not
understood something in seven books and then understood in the eighth
as the point was explained differently. I cannot underestimate how
important it is to use as many grammar books as humanly possible
The first grammar we
will study will be closed class like demonstratives as these are
simpler than verbs to understand. Check that you understand this
grammar and after having understood it learn it parrot fashion. DO
not learn without understanding.
Things likeあの
means that one over there are not hard to remember. These may
be learnt like vocabulary
Next
study pronouns. These may be learnt like vocabulary. Ie Boku=I,
rough male. On one side write the Japanese on the other write a
translation and note on usage. For kanojo note that it is not often
used and that it may also mean girlfriend. N Japanese pronouns are
used very differently to English pronouns. Note translations but
also note usage.
There
is no real equivalent to ‘it’ in Japanese
Possessive
pronouns these are used in Japanese, but not as much as in English:
They
are formed by taking a subject pronoun and adding no
Watashi
no kuruma my car
Relative clauses :
Yes it really is that simple
In Japanese grammar
there is no word for that in the sense ‘The mouse that
roared”
To make this
statement the describer or “modifying element” goes in front of
the described or “modified element” and there is no “connector”
between these two elements.
In English the
modified (mouse) goes first and then we have ‘that’ and we have
the modifier roared.
In Japanese we have
the reverse but without the‘ that‘
た鼠
the that .
So to make the
relative clause in Japanese you simply take a verb and but it before
the NOUN.
The person who
brought the pen
ペンをった
読んだ猫
The cat that read the
book
本をんだ
The cat that reads the
book 本を読む猫
The cat that reads the
book 本を読んでいる猫
The tv programme that I
watched
た
It really is that
simple to make the relative clause. You put the modifier before the
modified, and that’s it.
In all reality there
are relative clauses in Japanese, they just aren’t marked.
Now
we will come to nouns and note one of the myths of Japanese: Japanese
does not have plurals: This isn’t strictly true: Japanese
pluralises with duplication, etc (seemakino3)
something
which
modifies
a noun is an adjective in the red car red modifies car the red
car.
In my grammar explanations the modifier is shown in coloured font,
and the modified is shown in with a background color the same color
as the font as the modifier. 赤い車
this
concept was invented by myself to explain the concept of modified and
modifier in Japanese which is one of the most important concept in
Japanese grammar.
Adjectives
in Japanese are traditionallt divided into two camps although there
are further divisions with in these camps
The
first group if adjectives is called ‘I’ adjectives as these
adjectives always end in ‘I’
An
‘I’ adjective may end in ai: ‘umai’ ii oisii ui ‘samui’
or omosiroi. No ‘I’ adjective ends in ei.
‘I’
adjectives are often caused verbal adjectives as they change there
endings like verbs.
The
second group is ‘na’ adjectives
When
used in the attributive sense, which means when they are used before
a noun they have to have a na in between them and the noun: shizuka
na machi.
When
these adjectives are used predicatively, this meaning at the end of a
sentence they need the copula or desu.: machi wa shizuka desu.
Unlike
I adjectives na adjectives do not change their form to show tense
mood and aspect although the copula does change
Some
na adjectives end in I but these can be easily spotted as they end in
ei and as is written above no ‘I’ adjective can end in ‘ei’
There
are several I adjectives with na forms in front of a noun although
these are not na adjectives.
Although
Japanese is said to be a regular language there are irregular adverbs
Onaji
reqires desu at the end oif a sentence but one may not say onaji na
machi, but should say onaji machi
Chiikaku
tooi and ooi are not used before nouns in the I form, instead we say
tookuno: we take off one I and add a kuno.
We
now get onto grammar that is extremely different to English
Next
study postpositions and conjunctions as these too should be easier to
remember as they may be learn like vocabulary. When learning them
note the similarities and differences between their English
translations. でdoes
not just mean at, but has many different depending on context. Be
extremely cautious of learning by translation. Don’t just learn
one translation but learn the rules associated with it.
Sometimes when doing
furiei with makino symbols like + and- can be used to show with or
without
respectfully. Arrows
may also be used, for example 恵美智子.
This arrow shows, reminds that megumi is in someway related with
tomoko.
ペン家族 A
family without a pen. Arrow shows that the pen is lacking
For prepositions,
arrows may also be used ロンドンへ行きました to
show that ‘he’ goes to rondon and not ikimasita. These arrows
and symbols are a type of metalanguage, a language that defines
another language. This is useful for learning and understanding:
you are making a model of the language
Makino splits Japanese
conjunctions into several camps, perhaps following halliday:
Conjunctions which
indicate cause and effect a
Conjunctions which mean
but
Conjunctions which mean
and
Conjunctions which mean
or
Conjunctions which mean
to change the subject
Conjunctions which
indicate paraphrasing
Conjunctions which mean
for example
Conjunctions which mark
a reason for something
Conjunctionsnwhich
indicate contrast
Now
study counter words: Note that these are learnt in English and also
note that they are much more common in Japanese. After understanding
their concept learn each vocabulary counter 1-10 like vocabulary.
Think of it like slices of pizza.
Counters
are a concept best described by equivalence
if
you go a beach you do not say to your children “there are many
sands” you say to them “there are many grains
of sand” and grains is a counter although this term is not used in
English as much.
Other
examples of English counters:
Slices:
There are six slices of bread.
In
Japanese this system is much more developed
Counters
often use the ichi ni san shi go roku nana hachi kyuu juu sequence as
opposed to the hitotsu futatsu mittsu sequence
Kuruma
nidai means two cars.
If
an article is present the number and counter is usually placed after
the noun and particle
Neko
wo 6biki wo kaitai
The
pattern
X y
no z
May
also be used where x=a number y= a counter and z= a noun
8piki
no sai: 8 rhinoceroses
articles:
note that Japanese does not have these,
but also note ある町 is
probably best translated as a town and not “A certain town”.
Now
we will come to verbs and adjectives which are the hardest parts of
Japanese to learn as they are so unlike English verbs and adjectives
in the way they function. This is what makes \Japanese difficult ,
it’s difference to European languages. DO NOT TRY TO COMPARE THE
JAPANESE VERBAL SYSTEM TO THE EUROPEAN Verbal SYSTEM although
pronouns and demonstratives can to a certain extent be translated,
explained, by means of a European example the verbal and adjectival
system may never be. It is just too different.
I
will first try to describe the verbal system
Unlike
European verbs verbs do not conjugate for person: I go is the same
as he goes in Japanese.
Japanese
verbs mark in there form: levels of formality. TWO tenses: Past and
Non-Past
If
the last mora of a verb is た だ
this shows that the verb is in the past tense and that the
action the verb describes happened in the past if we read “僕はホンを読んだ
“ knowing that x is a verb we know that the verb happens in
the past without knowing anymore information
Voice.
The passive and active voice are marked, though the passive voice
can mean polite or potential depending upon context
Whereas
in languages such as French and Spanish auxillary verbs are added in
front of the verb to make a two verb construction in Japanese they
are added to the end. Most of what is Japanese verbs is added to
the end of verbs.
Whereas
in French one must learn how to conjugate verbs for person in
Japanese the main battle with verbs is learning how to add
auxillaries.
To
change a Japanese verb you add things to the end and not to the
front. But before adding these things you must change a part of the
original verb
When
grammarians describe Japanese verbs they start with the plain form,
and this is how we will start. The plain form of a verb is easily
recognized, it’s final sound is “U”.
In
Japanese there are two types of verbs “ichidan” and “Godan”
as well as two very irregular verbs “Suru “ “Kuru” and quite
a large amount of quite irregular verbs. To continue the analogy of
Frech grammar Kuru and Suru could be seen as being like avoir and
etre whereas the likes of iku and aru and ai suru could be perceived
as being mangers and allers
All
verbs which fall into the ichidan group act entirely the same where
as within the godan group there are subgroups which act differently.
Because of this we will address ichidan verbs first. As the
name implies this verb only needs one “step” to change it to a
state where an auxillary may be added.
A n
example of an ichidan verb is食べる,
which may be glossed as “eat”. To say I eat one would say Watashi
wa taberu” but this verb is in the plain style which is used for
informal speech: see politeness in Japanese. In Japanese the next
highest level of politeness is marked with masu. To make taberu
polite one must add masu.
Before
adding masu we must take the last kana of the ichidan verb away: for
食べるwe
take away ru たべる,たべ
We
are now left with たべ and
all that is that is left to do now is add no masu, and we have have
apolite form of the verb食べます
All
verbs which are ichidan verbs follow this simple rule. A good
dictionary will say which group a verb belongs to
Other
auxillaries are added to ru verbs in exactly the same way: simply
take off the last kana and add the auxillary
The
auxillary tai simply means to want to do something: tabetai simply
means I WANT TO eat.
たべる
たべ
食べたい
いる
い
いたい
Nai simply means “not”
and is known in grammar as the negative version (Halliday) for
ichidan verbs youn simply add it after taking off the last kana:
たべる、たべ、たべない I
don’t eat
Must
is formed by the auxillary なければなりません、or
more informally なければならない
Again
you simply add it after you have cut off the last kana.
To
add auxillaries to ichidan verbs all you need to do is remember which
kana to take off( the last one) and which series of kana mean which
things, and that you must add the auxillary after you have taken the
last kana off
(chart
of main auxillaries)
Godan
verbs have groups within the godan group. Some auxillaries are added
in exactly the same way to every godan verb, where as others are
added in a different way . We will first describe each group of
godan verbs
