Practice

[mewes6190]

Ah, thanks from me too, マイケルさん。

I learned a lot from your explanations too!

Best
Kurokuma

[mmmason8967]

I learned a lot from your explanations too!

That's very kind but to be honest I'm really just thinking aloud. I like ルペンさん's questions because they're usually something that I think I know, but they often have a little twist that always makes me feel a lot less certain.

You maybe noticed that I avoided the last couple of sentences. But I'll have a go, although my confidence is not very high...

このかいしゃはサイズが小さいですでもたくさんスタッフがいます。

(This company is tiny but it has so many staff.)

This seems OK to me apart from having でも in the middle of the sentence. But you can easily fix that by making it into two sentences:-

このかいしゃはサイズが小さいです。でもたくさんスタッフがいます。

いつもくわえてこのかいしゃおきゃくさまじゃない。

(In addition, it’s usually doesn't have customers!)
Here i had no idea how to say "in addition" so i used a dictionary. I have no idea if its correct. I also struggled with "usually", in terms of sentence placement

The JPod101 Search Lessons and Dictionary is a good starting place. It's at the top of the window at the right-hand end of the red menu bar. If you search for in addition it suggests その上 (or そのうえ in kana), which I think is probably the phrase that you want.

このかいしゃ was established as the topic at the start of the first sentence, so I don't think it needs to be repeated in this sentence. You can just leave it out: you're obviously still talking about the company.

I'm not sure about おきゃくさま. I think that if you use the very polite suffix, it implies that you're talking about "our customers". So I think it should be おきゃくさん. But I'm not really sure about this.

じゃない is the plain form. Since the previous verbs were in polite form, this ought to be polite as well、which would be じゃありません. However, じゃない and じゃありません are the negatives of だ and です. I'm pretty sure you need いません here.

スタッフじゃない。かれらはロボットです。

(They’re not staff. They’re robots.)

I'm bothered by the かれらは in the second sentence. It sounds to me like there are two separate groups, one that is "not staff" and another that is "robots".

Although I'm sure I couldn't give a satisfactory explanation of exactly what a wa-phrase is, the one thing I'm sure it's not is a pronoun. The かれら in your wa-phrase is not the "They" in "They are robots". ロボットです means "they are robots"; かれらはロボットです means "as for them, they are robots". So both sentences together say "They are not staff. And as for them, they are robots", which sounds to me like two separate groups.

マイケル

[Tracel]

皆さん、こんにちは、

Can I help too? It has been a while since I was on the J-pod101 forum, but I love helping out if I can.

マイケルさん's explanations are great as usual. You are a natural teacher. I just wanted to add a couple of things with the last sentences that would make them a bit more natural sounding, I hope.

このかいしゃはサイズが小さいですでもたくさんスタッフがいます。
(This company is tiny but it has so many staff.)

With this sentence, we probably do not need the word サイズ as it is implied anyway. And if you want to say 'but' in the middle of a sentence you can use the conjunction が (looks the same as the subject particle). To me it sounds better to use スタッフがおおい rather than たくさんスタッフ, although I am not sure if both are equally ok.

このかいしゃはちいさいですが、スタッフがおおいです。

With the next sentence, I know what you mean about beginning phrases such as "in addition". There are lots of choices in dictionaries and I also never know which one to pick. I am going to pick そのほかにも mostly because it is pretty simple, but そのうえ works as well. I think which word is chosen here depends on a number of factors like formality.

いつもくわえてこのかいしゃおきゃくさまじゃない。
(In addition, it’s usually doesn't have customers!)

そのほかにも、おきゃくさんがほとんどいません。

I used ほとんどいません here because it means "rarely ..." when used with a negative verb. You may be able to use the adverb あまり here instead.

I see what マイケルさん means here with the use of かれらは. If you put it at the beginning of these sentences though it might work.

スタッフじゃない。かれらはロボットです。
(They’re not staff. They’re robots.)

かれらはスタッフじゃありませんけれど。。。ロボットですよ。
They aren't staff though....(They're) robots.

Hope this helps, and I haven't confused you too much. Let me know if you don't understand something. Natsuko-sensei, please tell me if I am wrong, OK?

ではまた、
トラ

[mewes6190]

:D 皆さん、こんにちは、

Can I help too? It has been a while since I was on the J-pod101 forum, but I love helping out if I can.

I'm not as often here right know as I would like to too - but still I'm always happy to see your input. I'm really learning a lot here.

マイケルさん's explanations are great as usual. You are a natural teacher.

Definitely! Actually, マイケルさん, thinking aloud is a great thing, 'cause that way I (and others) can follow your steps and get behind the logic. It's really good for an lower intermediate like myself to follow your trail of thoughts. So - keep shouting 'em out.

[community.japanese]

ルペンさん、マイケルさん、くろくまさん、トラさん、
こんにちは

First of al, thank you very much for this active and producive thread and kind helps!!
Let me add some advice as well

私はこえが小さいです
(I have a quiet voice)

This is PERFECT!!

私のさいふをおとしました
(I dropped my wallet)

I'd probably say （私は）さいふをおとしました。
In Japanese, we don't often use 私の if the information of "whose item/object it is" is not very relevant.

ごみばこにゴキブリがここのついます！
(There’s nine cockroaches in the bin!)

...............I wish you used different kind of creature..... Anyway, when we count
insects, we use ひき to count them. So instead of ここのつ, it'd be きゅうひき（９ひき）

でもゴキブリはおいしくてじゆうなです！
(but cockroaches are tasty and free!)
obligatory weird sentence

EWWWWWWWW!!!
I might refuse to correct this sentence
Like Michael-san already responded with superb explanations, you might need a bit of modification in
じゆうなです part. If you want to say "creature that moves freely", maybe 自由な生き物です would be
a good start. Just to make sure, you do know that おいしい actually means "delicious" and "taste good" literally, right....?
We might use the word "tasty" other than literal taste, but おいしい means literally "taste good" when you eat....

私はえいごのえいががだいすきですでも日本ごのえいががきらいです。日本分かりません。であろうゴキブリのえいがはさいこうです！！
(I love English movies but I dislike Japanese ones. I don’t understand Japanese.　I think cockroach films are the best!!)
here I struggled with the idea of contrastive wa and using ga to separate two sentences

Again, Michael-san gave you already a great insight about "wa" and "ga".
I'd add that you need to stop the first sentence with Japanese full stop 。 after です in either way.
Then, instead of 日本分かりません, it'd be 日本語は分かりません。
Also regarding であろう, Michael-san has already gave a better possible way:
ゴキブリの映画は最高だと思います。
ゴキブリのえいがはさいこうだとおもいます。
And as my opinion, nothing to do with cockroach can be even "good" at all.....

このかいしゃはサイズが小さいですでもたくさんスタッフがいます。いつもくわえてこのかいしゃおきゃくさまじゃない。
(This company is tiny but it has so many staff. In addition, it’s usually doesn't have customers!)
Here i had no idea how to say "in addition" so i used a dictionary. I have no idea if its correct. I also struggled with "usually", in terms of sentence placement

When we talk about companies, we often use 規模 to mention "scale" or "size". However, this doesn't have
to be described clearly as Michael-san explained. So, please revise his sentence
Regarding the latter sentence, other than good explanations and suggestions from Michael-san,
I'd like to say おきゃくさまじゃない means "(they're) not customer(s)".
So, if you want to say "not having customers", it'd be like "there are no customers" in Japanese.
=> それに、このかいしゃは、いつもきゃくがいません。

スタッフじゃない。かれらはロボットです。
(They’re not staff. They’re robots.

I literally agree with you
Anyway, again agree with Michael-san about かれらは part.
We might say just ロボットです。in this case.
I actually don't see much connection with the previous sentence, but if this is supposed to be
a continuation of previous part, I'd say;
（かれらは）スタッフではありません。ロボットです。


Natsuko (奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com