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Please keep in mind that these are my interpretations... probably wrong... but better than nothing. If you have corrections / suggestions, e-mail me.
At any rate, this section is dedicated to all sorts of little grammar points and peculiarities that weren't explained in my Japanese class (or not before I went crazy and had to find it out myself). Some are for beginners others are not. Most of it pertains to slang. If you have a question, e-mail me and I'll give it a shot.
Point the First: っけ (kke)
っけ is like asking yourself or someone else if your statement was correct. So i guess it's *kinda* like ね at the end of a sentence.
Point the Second: ほんま, そやな, ちゃうちゃう, etc. (honma, soyana, chauchau, etc)
If you've ever wondered why some people sound like they're speaking totally different Japanese, it might be that they speak Kansai-ben. Kansai-ben is a dialect of the Kansai region in Japan (I believe around Osaka).
Some examples of Kansai-ben:
ほんま = ほんとう
そやな = そうだな
ちゃう = ちがう
If you want to learn more, searching google will give you some useful pages with some phrases... I didn't look very hard thou, so maybe you'll find more.
Point the Third: verb+てる (verb+teru)
A useful thing to know: verb+てる is short for verb+ている
例
見てる = 見ている
食べてる = 食べている
Point the Fourth: There are 4 million ways to say "I"
| How to say I (most formal on top row, least on bottom) | |
| Males: | Females: |
| わたくし watakushi | わたくし watakushi |
| わたし watashi | わたし / あたくし watashi / atakushi |
| ぼく boku | あたし atashi |
| おれ ore | -- |
Point the Fifth: うん (un) means "yes", ううん (uun) means "no"
Point the Sixth: かい (kai) and だい (dai)
かい and だい are both informal sentence endings. Basically they can replace "ka". However, かい is only used after yes-no questions and だい comes after other questions.
Point the Seventh: Japanese male teenagers like the ええ (ee) sound
I don't really know the rules, but you'll notice that male teenager slang often contracts ない endings to ねえ.
Point the Eighth: There are 4 million ways to say "you"
| How to say you (most formal on top row, least on bottom) |
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Point the Ninth: If you're a guy, don't end sentences with わ (wa)
If you started learning most of your Japanese from anime like me, it's good to know that わ is a sentence ending used by females.
toshiro@uclink4.berkeley.edu
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