Learn about describing how something was in the past
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Jun: おはよう、グラスゴー。じゅんです。 (Ohayō, gurasugō. Jun desu.) |
| Peter: Peter here. じゅんさん、お久しぶりですね。 (Jun-san, ohisashiburi desune.) |
| Jun: お久しぶりです。 (Ohisashiburi desu.) |
| Peter: Now it is great to have you back in the studio. Today we have a very interesting dialogue and again, in season 2, the goal is to reinforce what we learned in our ongoing beginner series. So today we are focusing on the past tense of い (i) adjectives. With that said, here we go. |
| DIALOGUE |
| 男性: ああ〜。楽しかった!K−1はなかなか面白いね。最高の大晦日! (Aa. Tanoshikatta! K-1 wa nakanaka omoshiroi ne. Saikō no Ōmisoka!) |
| 女性: はあ〜。全然楽しくなかった。切符はいくらだった? (Haa. Zenzen tanoshikunakatta. Kippu wa ikura datta?) |
| 男性: 俺の切符は5万2千円とお前の切符は5千円。。。 (Ore no kippu wa 5 man 2 sen en to omae no kippu wa 5 sen en...) |
| 女性: 切符も高かったし。今日は超つまらなかった! (Kippu mo takakatta shi. Kyō wa chō tsumaranakatta!) |
| 男性: でも、二人は一緒に大晦日を過ごした。 (Demo, futari wa issho ni Ōmisokamisoka o sugoshita.) |
| 女性: 一緒に??? (Isshoni???) |
| 男性: まあ、同じ建物だけど。。。 (Mā, onaji tatemono da kedo...) |
| 女性: ああ〜。思い出した。面白いところがあった。あのブラジル人がこうやった時に (Aa. Omoidashita. Omoshiroi tokoro ga atta. Ano Burajiru-jin ga kō yatta toki ni) |
| 男性: ああああああ (Aaaaaa) |
| 女性: 結構面白かった。 (Kekkō omoshirokatta.) |
| Jun: もう一度、お願いします。ゆっくり、お願いします。 (Mōichido, onegaishimasu. Yukkuri, onegaishimasu.) |
| 男性: ああ〜。楽しかった!K−1はなかなか面白いね。最高の大晦日! (Aa. Tanoshikatta! K-1 wa nakanaka omoshiroi ne. Saikō no Ōmisoka!) |
| 女性: はあ〜。全然楽しくなかった。切符はいくらだった? (Haa. Zenzen tanoshikunakatta. Kippu wa ikura datta?) |
| 男性: 俺の切符は5万2千円とお前の切符は5千円。。。 (Ore no kippu wa 5 man 2 sen en to omae no kippu wa 5 sen en...) |
| 女性: 切符も高かったし。今日は超つまらなかった! (Kippu mo takakatta shi. Kyō wa chō tsumaranakatta!) |
| 男性: でも、二人は一緒に大晦日を過ごした。 (Demo, futari wa issho ni Ōmisokamisoka o sugoshita.) |
| 女性: 一緒に??? (Isshoni???) |
| 男性: まあ、同じ建物だけど。。。 (Mā, onaji tatemono da kedo...) |
| 女性: ああ〜。思い出した。面白いところがあった。あのブラジル人がこうやった時に (Aa. Omoidashita. Omoshiroi tokoro ga atta. Ano Burajiru-jin ga kō yatta toki ni) |
| 男性: ああああああ (Aaaaaa) |
| 女性: 結構面白かった。 (Kekkō omoshirokatta.) |
| 男性: ああ〜。楽しかった! (Ā 〜. Tanoshikatta!) |
| Peter: Ah that was fun. |
| K−1はなかなか面白いね。 (K − 1 wa nakanaka omoshiroi ne.) |
| Peter: K-1 is quite interesting. |
| 最高の大晦日! (Saikō no ōmisoka!) |
| Peter: This New Year’s is the best. |
| 女性: はあ〜。全然楽しくなかった。 (Hā 〜. Zenzen tanoshikunakatta.) |
| Peter: Hah! That wasn’t fun at all. |
| 切符はいくらだった? (Kippu wa ikuradatta?) |
| Peter: How much were the tickets? |
| 男性: 俺の切符は5万2千円とお前の切符は5千円。。。 (Ore no kippu wa 5 man 2 sen-en to omae no kippu wa 5 sen-en...) |
| Peter: My ticket was ¥52,000 and your ticket was ¥5000. |
| 女性: 切符も高かったし。 (Kippu mo takakattashi.) |
| Peter: The tickets were expensive among other things. |
| 今日は超つまらなかった! (Kyō wa chō tsumaranakatta!) |
| Peter: Today was painfully boring. |
| 男性: でも、二人は一緒に大晦日を過ごした。 (Demo, futari wa issho ni ōmisoka o sugoshita.) |
| Peter: But we spent New Year’s Eve together. |
| 女性: 一緒に??? (Issho ni? ? ?) |
| Peter: Together? |
| 男性: まあ、同じ建物だけど。。。 (Mā, onaji tatemonodakedo...) |
| Peter: Well in the same building. |
| 女性: ああ〜。思い出した。 (Ā 〜. Omoidashita.) |
| Peter: Ah I remember. |
| 面白いところがあった。 (Omoshiroi tokoro ga atta.) |
| Peter: There was something interesting. |
| あのブラジル人がこうやった時に (Ano burajiru-jin ga kō yatta toki ni) |
| Peter: When the Brazilian did this… |
| 男性: ああああああ (Ā ā ā) |
| Peter: Aaaaaa |
| 女性: 結構面白かった。 (Kekkō omoshirokatta.) |
| Peter: That was pretty interesting |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Peter: Natsuko-san. |
| Natsuko: Hello… |
| Peter: Hello, what did you think of the conversation? |
| Natsuko: Well I guess the girl kind of enjoyed the event. |
| Peter: Really? |
| Natsuko: At the end. |
| Peter: At the end, yes. At the end. Now there is so much to get into about this conversation that I don’t even know where to start. Natsuko-san, where should we start? |
| Natsuko: Let’s start with some vocab. |
| Peter: Okay let’s cover these quick because I’d like to take a look at this conversation because again in this conversation which is informal as the conversation is between a couple or |
| Natsuko: couple... |
| Peter: Former couple? |
| Natsuko: Umm… |
| Peter: Husband, wife. |
| Natsuko: I am not sure. |
| Peter: Not sure but they have some kind of close relationship, some kind of intimate relationship where they are speaking informal Japanese but again in season 2, what we want to do is go over a lot of points we’ve covered in the beginner lessons. So I’d like to take a look at those plus I’d like to look at the vocab. So let’s just cover them quickly. I think we will just shoot right through them. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Peter: Natsuko-san. First one. |
| Natsuko: 大晦日 (Ōmisoka) |
| Peter: New Year’s Eve. |
| Natsuko: (slow)おおみそか (Ō miso ka) (natural speed) 大晦日 (Ōmisoka) |
| Peter: Followed by. |
| Natsuko: K-1 |
| Peter: K-1. |
| Natsuko: (slow)けいわん (kei wan) (natural speed) K-1 |
| Peter: Now K-1 is a type of mixed martial arts. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: And some of you, I don’t know, you may be wondering, why are we talking about K-1 on New Year’s Eve? Well, Natsuko-san is going to tell us why. Natsuko-san. |
| Natsuko: There is usually a big K-1 event on New Year’s Eve. |
| Peter: Really big. |
| Natsuko: Yes, which is covered by the television network. |
| Peter: So lots of people at home tune into this. |
| Natsuko: Yes and lots of people actually go and see the event. |
| Peter: If you can get tickets. |
| Natsuko: Yes, like this couple. |
| Peter: Yeah like… |
| Natsuko: Like this couple. |
| Peter: Yeah that’s the thing. A lot of couples and a lot of people will watch this together. The announcer is... there is a female announcer. |
| Natsuko: Yes there are actually many females who love this event. |
| Peter: Yeah but it’s become a staple of New Year’s Eve. |
| Natsuko: Right. |
| Peter: K-1 and New Year’s Eve. So there is this association in Japan. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: Hence the reason we are talking about it. Okay this is followed by |
| Natsuko: いくら (ikura) |
| Peter: How much. |
| Natsuko: (slow)いくら (ikura) (natural speed) いくら (ikura) |
| Peter: Next we have |
| Natsuko: 切符 (kippu) |
| Peter: Ticket. |
| Natsuko: (slow)きっぷ (kippu) (natural speed) 切符 (kippu) |
| Peter: Yeah and the tickets for K-1 on New Year’s Eve are not cheap. |
| Natsuko: I can imagine that. |
| Peter: Yeah someone like the ringside seats can get up to $500,000 |
| Natsuko: Wow! |
| Peter: Yeah and that’s if you could buy them from like the Ticketmaster |
| Natsuko: Yes |
| Peter: In Japan. |
| Natsuko: Uhoo… |
| Peter: Secondhand, even more. Next we have |
| Natsuko: つまらない (tsumaranai) |
| Peter: Boring, dull. |
| Natsuko: (slow)つまらない (tsumaranai) (natural speed) つまらない (tsumaranai) |
| Peter: Next we have |
| Natsuko: 過ごす (sugosu) |
| Peter: To spend and we covered this in our previous season 2 lesson. |
| Natsuko: (slow)すごす (sugosu) (natural speed) 過ごす (sugosu) |
| Peter: Next we have |
| Natsuko: 一緒に (issho ni) |
| Peter: Together. |
| Natsuko: (slow)いっしょに (issho ni) (natural speed) 一緒に (issho ni) |
| Peter: After that |
| Natsuko: 思い出す (omoidasu) |
| Peter: To recall, to remember. |
| Natsuko: (slow)おもいだす (omoidasu) (natural speed) 思い出す (omoidasu) |
| Peter: And please remember this word because this one actually I tried to get the equivalent for remember for a long time in Japanese. So this word should come in handy. Now this word is made up of two verbs. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: You have to put together compound verbs. First we have |
| Natsuko: 思う (omou) |
| Peter: To think followed by |
| Natsuko: 出す (dasu) |
| Peter: To take out, to think, to take out. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: So you are taking out a thought. |
| Natsuko: Uhoo.. |
| Peter: 思い出す (omoidasu) |
| Natsuko: Yes. Yeah right. It’s like you know, pulling up your memory. |
| Peter: Yeah from that sea or whatever is going on in that mind of yours. Think about it that way. Pull one out, take one out. Taking out a thought. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: Okay and finally we have. |
| Natsuko: ブラジル (Burajiru) |
| Peter: Brazil. |
| Natsuko: (slow)ブラジル (Burajiru) (natural speed) ブラジル (Burajiru) |
| Peter: Yes and when we talk about mixed martial arts, you cannot escape talking about Brazil. |
| Natsuko: Oh really? |
| Peter: Yeah. They have a very, very talented team when it comes to mixed martial arts. |
| Natsuko: Wow. |
| Peter: Yeah so that’s why they are in today’s lesson. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Peter: Now let’s take a look at the lesson because again in informal Japanese, most of the stuff we covered in season 1 but again for people who are new people joining in, let’s just take a look. Let’s get in here and really see what’s going on okay. Let’s start off, Natsuko-san. First we have. |
| Natsuko: あ～楽しかった。 (A, tanoshikatta.) |
| Peter: Oh that was fun. Now, the past tense of an い (i) adjective. The adjective for fun is |
| Natsuko: 楽しい (tanoshī) |
| Peter: But here we have the past tense. |
| Natsuko: 楽しかった (tanoshikatta) |
| Peter: The quick and dirty way, to get the past tense of an い (i) adjective is, you drop the final い (i) and replace it with |
| Natsuko: かった (katta) |
| Peter: か、ちっちゃい「つ」 (Ka, chitchai `tsu') which means a small pause followed by た. かった (Ta. Katta) So it’s 楽しい (tanoshī) is one, drop that final い (i), add かった (katta) and we have |
| Natsuko: 楽しかった (tanoshikatta) |
| Peter: Ah that was fun. Now the interesting thing here is that 楽しかった (tanoshikatta) means was fun. It was fun. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: Again we don’t need the subject. We just need the past tense. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: Of the verb for fun to say that was fun. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: Because they are leaving the event. They are on their way out and it can be inferred. They are referring to tonight’s events. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: It was fun and then we have |
| Natsuko: K-1はなかなか面白いね。 (K-1 wa nakanaka omoshiroi ne.) |
| Peter: K-1 is quite interesting right? First we have |
| Natsuko: K-1 |
| Peter: And this is topic. This is marked by the topic marker. |
| Natsuko: は (wa) |
| Peter: Followed by |
| Natsuko: なかなか (nakanaka) |
| Peter: This adverb meaning quite is modifying |
| Natsuko: 面白い (omoshiroi) |
| Peter: Interesting and then the sentence ends with |
| Natsuko: ね (ne) |
| Peter: Tag question here. Talking to his girl friend or former girlfriend or former wife whatever but at this current point, they are still together. So right, that ‘ne’ indicating that he wants some kind of input from the listening party and he finishes off. Again it seems like this person is very interested in himself. So he finishes off by |
| Natsuko: 最高の大晦日 (saikō no ōmisoka) |
| Peter: Literal translation. The best New Year’s Eve. This New Year’s was the best but we can translate this as what a new year’s eve. How great a new year’s eve. |
| Natsuko: Yes |
| Peter: And his girlfriend |
| Natsuko: はぁ。全然楽しくなかった。 (Ha~a. Zenzen tanoshikunakatta.) |
| Peter: Size and the size followed by |
| Natsuko: 全然 (zenzen) |
| Peter: Completely. |
| Natsuko: 楽しくなかった (tanoshikunakatta) |
| Peter: Not fun. This was not fun. Now here we have the negative past tense of the い (i) adjective. First let’s turn 楽しい (tanoshī) into its negative form. |
| Natsuko: 楽しくない (tanoshikunai) |
| Peter: Again we dropped that final い (i) and we add. |
| Natsuko: くない (kunai) |
| Peter: Or you can think of it as replacing the final い (i) with |
| Natsuko: く (ku) |
| Peter: And then adding |
| Natsuko: ない (nai) |
| Peter: Now the interesting thing about ない (nai), it can be treated as an い (i) adjective. |
| Natsuko: Right. |
| Peter: So what do we do to get the past tense? |
| Natsuko: Drop い (i) |
| Peter: And add |
| Natsuko: かった (katta) |
| Peter: So we have |
| Natsuko: 楽しくなかった (tanoshikunakatta) |
| Peter: It wasn’t fun and then the 全然 (zenzen) modifies this. It was not fun at all. |
| Natsuko: Yes, kind of emphasizing. |
| Peter: Then. |
| Natsuko: 切符はいくらだった？ (Kippu wa ikuradatta?) |
| Peter: So first we have |
| Natsuko: 切符 (kippu) |
| Peter: Ticket marked by the topic marking particle. |
| Natsuko: は (wa) |
| Peter: Followed by |
| Natsuko: いくら (ikura) |
| Peter: How much. |
| Natsuko: だった (datta) |
| Peter: What was it? Now this is the past tense of the copula. The informal past tense of the copula. Now the past tense of the copula is |
| Natsuko: でした (deshita) |
| Peter: But here the informal version is |
| Natsuko: だった (datta) |
| Peter: So how much were the tickets? Literally we have tickets. How much were they? We have to rearrange how much worth of tickets. He responds with an unbelievable answer. |
| Natsuko: 僕の切符は5万2千円 (Boku no kippu wa go-man ni-sen en) |
| Peter: My ticket was ¥52,000. |
| Natsuko: と、君の切符は5千円。 (To, kimi no kippu wa go-sen en.) |
| Peter: And your ticket was ¥5000. Natsuko-san. First before you even start, what do you think this means? |
| Natsuko: I have never went to these kinds of events but is there such a difference in the seats they have? |
| Peter: Yeah I think if you are ringside, right down very close, you are going to pay about ¥52000, maybe even more for where a seat is very close. |
| Natsuko: Unbelievable. |
| Peter: And then the cheap seats are about $5000 but I don’t even think the tickets are ¥5000 for the K-1 like New Year special. I think we just kind of made these numbers up but the main point. |
| Natsuko: Is it more expensive you mean? |
| Peter: Yeah. |
| Natsuko: Wow. |
| Peter: But I think the main point here is that their seats were separated. |
| Natsuko: I see. |
| Peter: So but let’s take a look at the Japanese and not even worry about what’s going on in the story. First we have. |
| Natsuko: 僕の切符 (boku no kippu) |
| Peter: My ticket. We use the personal pronoun followed by の (no) to indicate the possessive and then what comes after it is possessed. So in this case, it’s |
| Natsuko: 僕の切符 (boku no kippu) |
| Peter: My ticket marked by the topic marking particle は (wa) followed by |
| Natsuko: 5万2千円 (go-man ni-sen en) |
| Peter: ¥52000. Again we want to get you familiar with these numbers. 5万 (go-man) 50,000 followed by |
| Natsuko: と (to) |
| Peter: And |
| Natsuko: 君の切符は (kimi no kippu wa) |
| Peter: Your ticket. And how much was the ticket? |
| Natsuko: 5千円 (go-sen en) |
| Peter: Just ¥5000. Okay next we have |
| Natsuko: 切符も高かったし (Kippu mo takakattashi) |
| Peter: The tickets were also expensive. Now what we want to point out here is the し (shi) at the end of the sentence. This is indicating that there are other reasons. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: The ticket was expensive plus I don’t really like K-1 plus our seats were separate plus |
| Natsuko: Many more. |
| Peter: Many, many more reasons. Again we reviewed this in some previous lessons but again we really want to reinforce and show you how to use it in context over and over. Next we have. |
| Natsuko: 今日は超つまらなかった。 (Kyō wa chō tsumaranakatta.) |
| Peter: Today was so boring. Today was super boring. Pretty straightforward sentence except for we have a modifier in here and that is |
| Natsuko: 超 (chō) |
| Peter: Which means extremely. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: Now つまらない (tsumaranai) by itself means boring but when we attach this to adjectives, it gives that nuance of really, really something. |
| Natsuko: Yeah, like super or ultra. |
| Peter: Ultra. I like it ultra boring. |
| Natsuko: Yeah it’s like that. |
| Peter: So – yeah it’s kind of a bit slanging. |
| Natsuko: Oh it is, it is really casual. |
| Peter: Not for business meetings. |
| Natsuko: No. Better not. |
| Peter: Yeah informal situations. Then we are on to |
| Natsuko: でも二人は一緒に大晦日を過ごした。 (Demo futari wa issho ni ōmisoka o sugoshita.) |
| Peter: This is a great line but we spent New Year’s together. In the beginning first we have |
| Natsuko: でも (demo) |
| Peter: But |
| Natsuko: 二人は (futari wa) |
| Peter: The two of us |
| Natsuko: 一緒に (issho ni) |
| Peter: Together. |
| Natsuko: 大晦日を (Ōmisoka o) |
| Peter: New Year’s Eve |
| Natsuko: 過ごした (sugoshita) |
| Peter: Spent. Now with a rearrangement, but the two of us spent New Year’s Eve together. Ah she responds with |
| Natsuko: 一緒に？ (Issho ni?) |
| Peter: Together? |
| Natsuko: まあ、同じ建物だよね。 (Mā, onaji tatemono da yo ne.) |
| Peter: Yeah but it’s the same building and then she responds with |
| Natsuko: ああ、思い出した。 (Ā, omoidashita.) |
| Peter: Yeah I remember. |
| Natsuko: 面白いところがあった。 (Omoshiroi tokoro ga atta.) |
| Peter: There was something interesting. Now let’s just take a quick look at this. First we have |
| Natsuko: 面白い (omoshiroi) |
| Peter: Interesting. |
| Natsuko: ところ (tokoro) |
| Peter: Place. |
| Natsuko: が (ga) |
| Peter: Marking the subject |
| Natsuko: あった (atta) |
| Peter: There was. There was something interesting. |
| Natsuko: Yes. It’s like there was a point that was interesting. |
| Peter: Yeah remember when Japanese ask what was interesting, many times they will ask |
| Natsuko: どこが面白かった？ (Doko ga omoshirokatta?) |
| Peter: Where it was interesting literally but we have to translate it as what was interesting. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: So if they are asking where is it interesting in the question it suits or fits that they would answer with that point that was interesting. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: Then we have |
| Natsuko: あのブラジル人がこうやった時に。 (Ano burajiru-jin ga kō yatta toki ni.) |
| Peter: When that Brazilian did this. Now let’s take a look at the sentence because we really want to focus on 時に (tokini) and 時 (toki) here. Natsuko-san. |
| Natsuko: あのブラジル人 (ano burajiru-jin) |
| Peter: That Brazilian |
| Natsuko: が (ga) |
| Peter: Marking him with the particle が (ga). |
| Natsuko: こうやった時 (kō yatta toki) |
| Peter: こうやった (kō yatta) Like this did when. So the when actually comes at the end. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: In English, it comes |
| Natsuko: At the front. |
| Peter: Yeah but here at the end. So you explain what happened and then put the when. When that Brazilian did this. What do you think she did? |
| Natsuko: I can’t imagine. |
| Peter: Because there are some really violent moves in mixed martial arts. Whatever she did, he responded with. |
| Natsuko: ああああああ (ā ā ā) |
| Peter: Now that I like. |
| Natsuko: Sounds violent. |
| Peter: Sounds violent. |
| Natsuko: It’s amazing she could imitate that. Isn’t it? |
| Peter: I think she had yes of course I think it’s possible well within the realm of possibilities. |
| Natsuko: Maybe |
| Peter: Okay and then she follows it off while he is probably hunched over in pain. |
| Natsuko: 結構面白かった。 (Kekkō omoshirokatta.) |
| Peter: Quite interesting it was literally with the adverb coming in the beginning, 結構 (kekkō) followed by 面白かった (omoshirokatta). So again translated to it was quite interesting. What a story, what a lesson. |
Outro |
| Peter: Now that we went through it, we would like you to listen to the whole dialogue at natural native speed one more time. Let’s see if this explanation going through everything really helps reinforce it, all right. That’s going to do it for today. |
| Natsuko: じゃ、また明日ね。 (Ja, mata ashita ne.) |
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