Mina-san, As mentioned in the podcast, here is a link with information about the rankings of the Japanese armed forces: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_ranks_and_insignia_of_the_Japan_Self-Defense_Forces And here is a site with comparative rankings of other forces around the world: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparative_military_ranks Yoroshiku onegai shimasu!

Hello Gaynor,

I totally understand—it can be very tricky and challenging! The passive voice in Japanese does take some time to grasp.

In the examples from the lesson, such as "先生に叱られた" and "妻に逃げられた," the focus is on the action happening to the subject rather than on who is performing the action.

Here are a couple of tips to help you understand it better:

Focus on the Receiver: In passive sentences, think about who or what is affected by the action. This can help clarify why the passive form is used.

Construction: Remember that to make a verb passive, you typically change the verb to its passive form. For example, the verb 叱る (to scold) becomes 叱られる (to be scolded).

Context: The passive voice is often used when the doer of the action is less important or unknown, or when the focus is on the experience of the subject.

If you keep practicing with more examples and pay attention to how it's used in context, it will start to feel more natural.

I hope this helps. Keep going, and don't hesitate to ask more questions!

ありがとうございます！ (Arigatō gozaimasu! "Thank you!")

Yoshimi

Team JapanesePod101.com

I feel so stuck right now.😒. How do I understand the 'passive of a verb' better?and when do I use it correctly?

頭がいたい.

ありがとうございます

Hello Brian,

Thank you for your kind feedback.Let us know if you have any question.

Cheers,

Sono

Team JapanesePod101.com

It's "Who's watching whom," just like it's "by whom." The easy way to remember when to use whom is to replace who & whom with he & him. He's watching him, not he's watching he. He was watched by him, and so forth. Whenever you'd use him, that's where you'd use whom as well.

Hi Peter Lloyd,

Thank you for the comment! and sorry for this late reply.

That's right!

"見られています" is a correct sentence and い in the dialogue is omitted.

That often happens in conversation.

Keep studying with JapanesePod101.com

Cheers,

Miki(美希)

Team JapanesePod101.com

Hi,

The fourth line of dialogue:

「兵士２: ね、大尉、敵に見られてますけど。どうします？」

I am trying to understand the verb construction and would appreciate your guidance.

Miru -> Mirareru (passive) -> Mirarete (te-form) + imasu = "the enemy is looking at us".

In the dialogue the 「い」appears to have been dropped and instead of 「見られています」it is given in the dialogue as 「見られてます」。Is this just an alternative form, or am I misunderstanding the construction?

Thanks

peter

由紀さん、

コメントしてくれてありがとうございました！

由紀さんのコメントはすばらしかったです！

Thank you so much for commenting, Yuki!

Your comment was great!

:thumbsup:

エリックさん、

こんにちは。

帰る means ‘go back to my original place (in many cases ‘go home’).

戻る means ‘return’ and it doesn’t have to be ‘home.’

Suppose you are a business person and have a meeting at your business counterpart’s office so you have to go there and come back to your office. Then you can say ‘会社に戻る.’

Or suppose you are a graduate and working at a company however, you want to study something at university again. In this case you can say ‘大学に戻る.’

それともis basically used when you want to list up choices in interrogative sentences.

For example, コーヒーにしますか。それとも紅茶にしますか。

あるいはis used when a speaker has various possibilities and choices regarding one topic. It is hardly used in interrogative sentences and command sentences.

For instance, 論文やレポートなどで、図や表がページの上あるいは下に配置されている。

ユニークな造型をする建築家はいくらでもいる。丸、三角、四角、あるいはガラス、コンクリート打ちっ放しなどである。

In these cases それとも can’t be replaced.

I hope it could be helpful.:smile:

Yuki 　由紀

Team JapanesePod101.com

What is the difference between 帰る and 戻る? When would I use 戻る? Also, What is the difference between あるいは and それとも to mean "or"? Thank you!

Chang san

こんにちは。:smile:

Firstly, the wa at the end of konnichiwa must be は because it is a particle.

まま means ‘keep doing.’

Team JapanesePod101.com

Yuki 　由紀

こんにちわ！

"敵をそのままみはってください"

この句をわかりません。(I don't really understand this phrase.) この”まま”の意味を教えてください。ありがどうございます！

ベトナム人san,

basically, 見返せば is a conditional using ば although this sentence was "casual" in the dialog

and the latter part was omitted. It could have been

見返せばいいでしょう or 見返せばどうですか

Natsuko (奈津子),

Team JapanesePod101.com

Totally clear, There is one question was asked for the explaination: "見返せば, how the verb from dictionary form could be change like this, minna-san.

Thanks alot.

ミンシャルイさん　Lisaさん　こんにちは。

コメントありがとうございます。PDFのまちがいを直しました。

チェックしてみてくださいね。

Thanks for your feedback. They've been fixed so please have look.

We really appreciate any kinds of feedback. ;)

Stay tuned!

Motoko

Team JapanesePod101.com

Lisa-san,

thank you very much for letting us know about those mistakes!!

We'll fix them as soon as possible:thumbsup:

Natsuko(奈津子),

Team JapanesePod101.com

おはようございます:

I noticed a couple of things in the lesson notes.

For the last several lines of the hiragana version of the dialog, the speakers are taii 1 and heishi 2, but in all other versions, it's taii 1 and heishi 1. I was reading the hiragana version, because this lesson's kanji were new for me. It made me wonder if heishi 2 was some kind of double agent!

In the sample sentences, 戻って is romanized as modote with only one t.

Excellent dialog to illustrate passive! I think I have to listen to it about ten more times though.

大尉、命令を待っています。敵をそのまま見張ってください。はい、了解。ね、大尉、敵に見られてですけど、どうします。じゃ、見返せば。あれ、大尉は見ないんですか。あー、どうしよう。今、麻雀で忙しいから、後で。大尉、大変です。今、敵に見られています。命令を、ちょっと待って。今、見てる方あるいは見られている方。両方です。どういうこと。敵を見ているけど、敵に見られています。まだ、わからない。戻る直接説明しろう。

また、明日。

PDFに間違いがあるのかもしれないです。『席に戻って下さい。』の中『席』の訳は『sheet』じゃなくて『seat』がでしょ。

Howdy, just thought I'd do the public service piece.  Taii is actually a World War Ii - and prior - designation for captain, the 大 portion being rather self-explanatory and the 尉 portion having to do with the division known as company grade officers in the US forces. Company grade being the first three ranks of officers, generally speaking all of those with fewer than 10 years of seniority. 

Another observation is that Japan does not have an Army as such. It is the Japan Self-Defense Ground Force with missions and capabilities commensurate to defending the homeland, domestic civil relief,  and international peace cooperation and having no power projection capabilities (http://www.mod.go.jp/gsdf/). This is a result of the conclusion of World War II. By the same token, there is neither a Navy nor Air Force but rather a Maritime Self Defense Force and an Air Self Defense Force (http://www.mod.go.jp/msdf/ & http://www.mod.go.jp/asdf/).

Finally, the particulars on the modern rank structure. A JGSDF captain is now 一等 陸尉 which seems to transliterate to first class land officer. The next rank is 三等 陸佐 or major, which seems to transliterate to third-class land assistant. It is interesting that the election has been for a numerically-based 三等、二等、一等 system to replace the old 少、中、大 system.  More egalitarian and less bellicose, I suppose.  (http://www.uniforminsignia.org/).  Other than this and the interposition of 陸 between this and 尉 or 佐, as appropriate, it is exactly the same as past practice. Oh, and the rank immediately below is 二等 陸尉 or first lieutenant. I am aware that this looks counter- intuitive.  The number in Japanese is two and I have used the term first, implying a one. For the Japanese rank, the two speaks for the second rank amongst junior officers. The term first lieutenant implies the senior- most lieutenant in the command, or at least one with some seniority.  There is a historical basis for this but I'll only bore you to death...

If the discussion had to do with the JMSDF, then just replace 陸 with 海, land for ocean. It is all perfectly logical...

another "lesson notes lite" please - thanks!