Hip-Pop Palace Forums :: Lesson 3: To exist/verb negation/object pronouns/adjectives

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This Lesson:

Adjectives and their classes
More about こ・そ・あ・どの/れ patterns
Practice with います・あります
Object pronouns
Verb negation
Introduction to double particles: には
More vocab
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Adjectives

Adjectives have two classes: な-adjectives, and い-adjectives. い-adjectives are usually any adjective that ends in an 'I' sound. All other adjectives are な-adjectives because after the actual word, they have 'na' at the end. (For those wondering, all foreign words/Katakana words are automatically な-adjectives and are used like that alot in songs, like Sexy Girl)

い-adjectives:

おいしい - delicious
かなしい - sad
うれしい - happy
あまい - sweet
いそがしい - busy
おもしろい - interesting
たのしい - fun
むずかしい - difficult
やさしい - easy/gentle
あたらしい - new
いい - good
ふるい - old

な-adjectives

きれい (な) - pretty/clean
しずか (な) - quiet
りっぱ (な) - fine/splendid
ゆうめい (な) - famous
ざんねん (な) - unfortunate/sorry
たいへん (な) - tough
ひま (な) - free
しんせつ (な) - kind

Examples: な-adjectives

きれいな　とけい (pretty watch)
しずかな　こども (quiet child)
ゆうめいな　ひと (famous person)
ひまな　ひ　(free day)

When classifying a noun, you must put 'な' before the noun with な-adjectives. Without it, it will sound strange. You'll learn soon enough that when conjugating adjectives, な is dropped alot when making negatives, so don't pay too much attention to it as an extremely important detail or anything because it isn't. You won't be using it too much in regular speech, either.

Examples: い-adjectives

おもしろい　ほん (interesting book)
ふるい　ふく (old clothes)
あまい　ケーキ (sweet cake)
いそがしい　ひと (busy person)

い-adjectives you can use just as they are when classifying. There's nothing to think about except the word itself.

We'll cover our first adjective conjugation when we get to past tense verbs.

More about こ・そ・あ・どの/れ

この, その, and あの mean 'This', 'That', and 'That over there', in order. And so do 'これ', それ', and 'あれ'. The difference is that the '-の' pattern, you MUST put a noun after it. With the '-れ' pattern, you can not put a noun after it. For example:

このとけい (This Watch)
このほん (This book)

You cannot say 'これとけい' or 'これほん'. Because again, it sounds strange, hence the two forms. the '-れ' patterns are usually only used before particles.

どの and どれ both mean 'which'. 'どれ' means 'which one' and どの is the noun form of it.

Note:
With 'どれ' you can replace '-れ' with '-ち' to make it polite. You can also use this method with 'ここ', 'そこ', and 'あそこ' (which mean 'This place', 'that place', and 'that place over there', in order).

Practice with います・あります

'います' means 'to exist' for living, animate things.　
'あります' means 'to exist' for non-living, inanimate things.

These verbs are used in the sense that something is here or there, it exists here or there. You don't use 'です' because 'です' is used in the sense that what you are describing is obvious in relation to where or what it is.

'りきやさんは　ここに　います'
'rikiya-san is here'

'rikiya-san' is a person, a living thing, so you use 'います'

'わたしのほんは　わたしのともだちの　うちに　あります'
'My book is at my friend's house'

'book' is an inanimate thing, so you use 'あります'

Object Pronouns - のは

This is not a double particle, at least in this case. 'の' is the pronoun referring to the thing just mentioned　or you are asking about, for example:

あかいのは　たなかさんのです
The red one is Tanaka-san's

or

せまいのは　りかちゃんのです。
The small one is Rika-chan's. (せまい=small)

or, to ask a question:

このかばんは　だれの　ですか？
Whose bag is this? (かばん=bag; だれ=who)

Try not to think of 'のは' as a double particle, because it usually isn't.

Verb Negation (Formal present tense)

Negation of formal present tense verbs is easy. Say you don't eat (in general) a certain type of food, like fish. You'd say:

さかなはたべません
(さかな=fish)

The present affirmative form is 'たべます'; when you want to make it negative, you change 'ます' to 'ません'.For example:

ありません - to not exist (inanimate)
いません - to not exist (animate)
のみません - to not drink
あいません - to not meet
べんきょしません - to not study

Double Particles: には

The trick to double particles is not to think of them as one unit. Not even native Japanese think or double particles as a unit. Think about each particle individually means and they eventually come easily to you.

'には', for example, usually means 'in (something) there is (something else)'

'このまちにはおいしいたべものがあります'
'In this city, there is delicious food.'

or

'This city has delicious food'

When you've mastered both particles of a compound particle, you can usually learn on your own where to use them together appropriately.

More Vocab

い-adjectives

おいしい - delicious
かなしい - sad
うれしい - happy
あまい - sweet
いそがしい - busy
おもしろい - interesting
たのしい - fun
むずかしい - difficult
やさしい - easy/gentle
あたらしい - new
いい - good
ふるい - old

な-adjectives

きれい (な) - pretty/clean
しずか (な) - quiet
りっぱ (な) - fine/splendid
ゆうめい (な) - famous
ざんねん (な) - unfortunate/sorry
たいへん (な) - tough
ひま (な) - free
しんせつ (な) - kind

Nouns - Household things

たんす - chest/drawers
ベッド - bed
テレビ - TV
まど - Window
ドア - Door
いす - Chair
でんわ - Phone (Note: This is only used for landline phones, cellphones are called 'keetai')
とだな - cabinet
ほんだな - bookshelf
つくえ - desk
テーブル - table
スタンド - lamp
ステレオ - stereo

Location Nouns

ちかく - near; in the vicinity
うしろ - behind
まえ - in front of
うえ - on; above
した - under
みぎがわ - right
ひだりがわ - left
よこ　－next to
そと - outside
なか - inside

Next Lesson
Past tense formal verbs
past tense adjectives
Practice with 'で'
から～まで　Pattern
Using から as 'because'
Using が as 'but'