Learn about the suffix - an adjective turns the adjective into a noun
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Chigusa: おはよう、メイヨット。ちぐさです。(Ohayō, Meiyotto. Chigusa desu.) |
| Peter: Peter here. Today joining us for the opening and just the opening is the one and only Chigusa-san. Chigusa-san, how are you? |
| Chigusa: Good. こんにちは。(Kon’nichiwa.) |
| Peter: こんにちは。(Kon’nichiwa.) Now you will be with us briefly. |
| Chigusa: Yes. |
| Peter: Yes, yesterday we had our first anniversary and to celebrate that, we had |
| Chigusa: Happy Birthday. |
| Peter: Keep going. |
| Chigusa: To japanesepod101.com! Happy birthday to us. |
| Peter: I like it. Can we get a bonus track? |
| Chigusa Sure. |
| Peter: All right. Well I can’t promise anything. Stop by, maybe there is a bonus track of Chigusa’s happy birthday song. Maybe, maybe not. Got to stop by to find out. Today we are talking about probability. Today’s word, |
| Chigusa: かもしれません (kamo shiremasen) |
| Peter: Is used quite often because Japanese tend to be very vague about things rather than being very direct like some Americans in the studio. Japanese are very indirect. So there is a lot of probability in things they say. Maybe it’s this, maybe it’s that. So today we are going to start to learn about this. So we’ve been talking enough. Without further adieu, let’s get into today’s lesson. Today’s conversation takes place at a restaurant between a customer and the waitress. All right, here we go. |
| DIALOGUE |
| 客 (kyaku) : すみません。注文お願いします。(Sumimasen. Chūmon onegai shimasu.) |
| ウェイター (weitā) : はい、かしこまりました。(Hai, kashikomarimashita.) |
| 客 (kyaku) : マーボー豆腐お願いします。(Mābōdōfu onegai shimasu.) |
| ウェイター (weitā) : 辛さはどうしますか。(Karasa wa dō shimasu ka.) |
| 客 (kyaku) : そうですね。激辛お願いします。(Sō desu ne. Gekikara onegai shimasu.) |
| ウェイター (weitā) : 激辛ですか。かなり辛いですよ。辛いものは大丈夫ですか。(Gekikara desu ka. Kanari karai desu yo. Karai mono wa daijōbu desu ka.) |
| 客 (kyaku) : 辛いものには、ちょっと弱いですが。(Karai mono ni wa, chotto yowai desu ga.) |
| ウェイター (weitā) : 普通の辛さがいいと思います。激辛はお客さんには辛すぎるかもしれません。(Futsū no karasa ga ii to omoimasu. Gekikara wa o-kyaku-san ni wa karasugiru kamo shiremasen.) |
| 客 (kyaku) : はい、普通でお願いします。(Hai, futsū de onegai shimasu.) |
| Natsuko: もう一度お願いします。ゆっくりお願いします。(Mō ichi-do onegai shimasu. Yukkuri onegai shimasu.) |
| 客 (kyaku) : すみません。注文お願いします。(Sumimasen. Chūmon onegai shimasu.) |
| ウェイター (weitā) : はい、かしこまりました。(Hai, kashikomarimashita.) |
| 客 (kyaku) : マーボー豆腐お願いします。(Mābōdōfu onegai shimasu.) |
| ウェイター (weitā) : 辛さはどうしますか。(Karasa wa dō shimasu ka.) |
| 客 (kyaku) : そうですね。激辛お願いします。(Sō desu ne. Gekikara onegai shimasu.) |
| ウェイター (weitā) : 激辛ですか。かなり辛いですよ。辛いものは大丈夫ですか。(Gekikara desu ka. Kanari karai desu yo. Karai mono wa daijōbu desu ka.) |
| 客 (kyaku) : 辛いものには、ちょっと弱いですが。(Karai mono ni wa, chotto yowai desu ga.) |
| ウェイター (weitā) : 普通の辛さがいいと思います。激辛はお客さんには辛すぎるかもしれません。(Futsū no karasa ga ii to omoimasu. Gekikara wa o-kyaku-san ni wa karasugiru kamo shiremasen.) |
| 客 (kyaku) : はい、普通でお願いします。(Hai, futsū de onegai shimasu.) |
| 次は、ピーターさんの英語が入ります。(Tsugi wa, Pītā-san no Eigo ga hairimasu.) |
| 客 (kyaku) : すみません。注文お願いします。(Sumimasen. Chūmon onegai shimasu.) |
| CUSTOMER: Excuse me. I'd like to order please. |
| ウェイター (weitā) : はい、かしこまりました。(Hai, kashikomarimashita.) |
| WAITER: Yes, understood. |
| 客 (kyaku) : マーボー豆腐お願いします。(Mābōdōfu onegai shimasu.) |
| CUSTOMER: Tofu in a spicy meat sauce, please. |
| ウェイター (weitā) : 辛さはどうしますか。(Karasa wa dō shimasu ka.) |
| WAITER: How about the hotness level? |
| 客 (kyaku) : そうですね。激辛お願いします。(Sō desu ne. Gekikara onegai shimasu.) |
| CUSTOMER: Hmmm, let me see, super-hot please. |
| ウェイター (weitā) : 激辛ですか。かなり辛いですよ。辛いものは大丈夫ですか。(Gekikara desu ka. Kanari karai desu yo. Karai mono wa daijōbu desu ka.) |
| WAITER: Super-hot? It's quite spicy. Are you alright with spicy food? |
| 客 (kyaku) : 辛いものには、ちょっと弱いですが。(Karai mono ni wa, chotto yowai desu ga.) |
| CUSTOMER: Well, actually, my tolerance level for spicy food is quite low. |
| ウェイター (weitā) : 普通の辛さがいいと思います。激辛はお客さんには辛すぎるかもしれません。(Futsū no karasa ga ii to omoimasu. Gekikara wa o-kyaku-san ni wa karasugiru kamo shiremasen.) |
| WAITER: Then I think the regular hotness level is better for you. Super-hot may be too hot for you. |
| 客 (kyaku) : はい、普通でお願いします。(Hai, futsū de onegai shimasu.) |
| CUSTOMER: OK, regular please. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Peter: ナツコさん、今日の会話はどうですか。(Natsuko-san, kyō no kaiwa wa dō desu ka.) |
| Natsuko: 私は辛いもの好きですけどね。(Watashi wa karai mono suki desu kedo ne.) |
| Peter: You like hot things? |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: How about Yoshi-san? |
| Yoshi: 私も大好きです。(Watashi mo daisuki desu.) |
| Peter: You love them, too? |
| Yoshi: はい。でも、この前マーボー豆腐を食べに行った時は、ものすごく辛かったですね。(Hai. Demo, kono mae mābōdōfu o tabe ni itta toki wa, monosugoku karakatta desu ne.) |
| Peter: But the other time when we went to eat マーボー豆腐 (mābōdōfu), it was really hot. I know what you are talking about but Yoshi-san, you kind of asked for it. You are like, “Make it really hot.” |
| Yoshi: Yep. |
| Peter: The max was 5 and you are like, let me get in 8 or something. |
| Yoshi: Then I got it really hot but it was good. |
| Peter: Yeah, and you have a high tolerance. So it must have been really, really hot. |
| Natsuko: ピーターさんは？(Pītā-san wa?) |
| Peter: I like hot things too but not too hot. |
| Natsuko: Not level 8. |
| Peter: No. My max at CoCo ICHIBANYA is about 3 or 4. |
| Natsuko: That’s pretty hot. |
| Peter: It goes to 10, Natsuko-san. Yeah, but I actually prefer my wife’s カレー (karē). She makes it really, really good. That’s why I am always so happy. |
| Natsuko: はいはい。(Hai hai.) |
| Peter: Okay, okay that's okay, enough of that? All right, let’s move on. Yoshi-san, first word. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Yoshi: 注文 (chūmon) |
| Peter: Order, request. |
| Yoshi: (slow) ちゅうもん (chūmon) (natural speed) 注文 (chūmon) |
| Peter: Now you can use this as it can be seen in the dialogue where you are trying to get the attention of the waiter. Yoshi-san, what was that? |
| Yoshi: 注文お願いします。(Chūmon onegai shimasu.) |
| Peter: Order please. So if you are in the restaurant, and this is a very, very polite way of calling the waitress or waiter and letting them know you are ready to order. Okay, sometimes on the internet, you will see, Natsuko-san. |
| Natsuko: 注文フォーム (chūmon fōmu) |
| Peter: Order form, order request and you fill this out and then there should be the goods. Next we have |
| Natsuko: 激辛 (gekikara) |
| Peter: Extremely hot. |
| Natsuko: (slow) げきから (gekikara) (natural speed) 激辛 (gekikara) |
| Peter: Now this is extremely hot in the sense of spicy. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: Yoshi-san, can you give us an example? |
| Yoshi: このソースは超激辛ソースです。(Kono sōsu wa chō gekikara sōsu desu.) |
| Peter: This sauce is an extremely hot sauce. Now in the US, we have a brand, Blair's Death Sauce. The maker is Blair and he has a Death Sauce and it is really, really hot. What’s that sauce made of? |
| Yoshi: ハバネロ (habanero) |
| Peter: Yeah, Habanera and this is really, really hot. Now in Japan, a lot of people put sauce, Tabasco sauce and spicy sauce on. Yoshi-san, help me out here. We don’t do it in the US. |
| Yoshi: On Pizza. |
| Peter: That’s right. Whenever you go to a pizza place in Japan, there is some kind of hot sauce whether it be Tabasco or another brand and when you get the pizza, you put it on the pizza. Now when I first came here, you know in the US we put on the spices. |
| Natsuko: Oh really? |
| Peter: Yeah, we have the pepper like the sliced pepper slices. So they are dried up and you shake them onto the pizza but here in Japan, they use Tabasco sauce. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: So I like them both but I just have to remember not to mix up the customs because when I go back to the US and I get a piece of pizza and I am like, where is the Tabasco sauce and I try to put it on, everybody looks at me. |
| Natsuko: Really? |
| Peter: What are you doing? |
| Natsuko: Oh I didn’t know it was so unusual. |
| Peter: Some people like it too but I’d say the majority, they hand me the dried peppers and they say, please use these. |
| Natsuko: へー、知りませんでした。(Hē, shirimasen deshita.) |
| Peter: Yoshi-san, have you had any experiences like this? |
| Yoshi: It must be a New York thing. |
| Peter: Yeah. |
| Yoshi: I don’t know and also my friend in California used both Tabasco or the pepper. Depends on what they have in the restaurant. |
| Peter: Maybe it is a New York thing because they are pretty, pretty protective of their pizza. |
| Natsuko: I am pretty sure people, those in Italy, wouldn’t sprinkle anything on it. |
| Peter: Really? |
| Natsuko: No. |
| Peter: Not even the hot oil. |
| Natsuko: No. Maybe some hot olive oil. |
| Peter: Carlos-san, お願いします (onegai shimasu), we need to know what’s going on in Italy. Let us know and anybody else out there, please let us know what’s going on in your country. Now 激辛 (gekikara), really hot. Next we have |
| Yoshi: かなり (kanari) |
| Peter: Pretty, quite. |
| Yoshi: (slow) かなり (kanari) (natural speed) かなり (kanari) |
| Peter: And we would use this as an adverb to modify an adjective. For example, かなり辛い (kanari karai), pretty hot or quite hot, very hot. Next we have |
| Natsuko: 弱い (yowai) |
| Peter: Weak. |
| Natsuko: (slow) よわい (yowai) (natural speed) 弱い (yowai) |
| Peter: And what we want to point out here is that in Japanese, when you say you are weak at something, it means that you don’t have a high tolerance for it. In this case, you are not good at it. We can use it to describe how we are at something or how high our tolerance is for it. For example, in this dialogue, we had |
| Natsuko: 辛いものには、ちょっと弱い。(Karai mono ni wa, chotto yowai.) |
| Peter: I don’t really have a high tolerance for hot things. Next we have |
| Yoshi: 普通 (futsū) |
| Peter: Ordinary. |
| Yoshi: (slow) ふつう (futsū) (natural speed) 普通 (futsū) |
| Peter: And finally |
| Natsuko: お客さん (o-kyaku-san) |
| Peter: Customer. |
| Natsuko: (slow) おきゃくさん (o-kyaku-san) (natural speed) お客さん (o-kyaku-san) |
| Peter: And here we had お客さん (o-kyaku-san), a kind of less formal suffix. Now, maybe this place is kind of a bit more casual. You know again in Japan, just because we tell you, just because you heard that there are all these levels of politeness doesn’t always mean that you are going to get the most polite form of Japanese. If you walk into a very casual mom n’ pop shop, you may get a less formal greeting or be called in a less formal way. Now here we had お客さん (o-kyaku-san). Natsuko-san, what’s the step above this? |
| Natsuko: お客様 (o-kyaku-sama) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Peter: Excellent. All right, today’s grammar point is |
| Yoshi: さ (sa) |
| Peter: As in |
| Yoshi: 辛さ (karasa) |
| Peter: Now さ (sa) is a suffix that makes a noun out of an adjective by attaching to the stem of an adjective and in this case, it’s usually an i-adjective. So for example, the word for hot as in spicy is, Yoshi-san. |
| Yoshi: 辛い (karai) |
| Peter: But to make this into a noun, we drop the い (i), we add さ (sa) and we get |
| Yoshi: 辛さ (karasa) |
| Peter: So in the dialogue, we had how about the hotness level, which was |
| Yoshi: 辛さは (kara sa wa) |
| Peter: Now inside the PDF, we have a detailed write up about this. So you don’t want to miss this. This is a very important topic in Japanese as this pattern is used quite extensively. Now it’s not used as much for na-adjectives but in some instances, you will find it. Now with the na-adjective, the さ (sa) is attached directly to the adjective. Nothing is substituted, nothing is inserted. The さ (sa) is added directly to the na-adjective. Again inside the PDF, you will find out more about this. Finally we have the word |
| Yoshi: 弱い (yowai) |
| Peter: Weak. Now in Japanese, this word is used not only as an adjective, meaning weak but also as a phrase to express that someone is not good at something or not used to something. In today’s dialogue, we had |
| Yoshi: 辛いものには、ちょっと弱いですが。(Karai mono ni wa, chotto yowai desu ga.) |
| Peter: Literally hot things too, I am a little weak. That’s the literal translation but Yoshi-san, the actual meaning is quite different than the literal translation, correct? |
| Yoshi: Right. |
| Peter: Now we translated it as well, my tolerance level for spicy food is quite low. So again, you have to interpret because using 弱い (yowai) means that you are not good at something, you are not used to something and here that person is not used to or doesn’t have a high tolerance for spicy food. For example, this is quite often used in sports or one’s ability to do something. Now Yoshi-san, your English is very, very good but how is your Chinese? |
| Yoshi: 中国語は全くわかりません。(Chūgoku-go wa mattaku wakarimasen.) |
| Peter: So he has no idea about Chinese. Now Yoshi-san, is there a language that you are pretty good at speaking at? You are pretty good at Japanese. Not great, but you are pretty good. |
| Yoshi: 日本語には、ちょっと弱いですね。(Nihon-go ni wa, chotto yowai desu ne.) |
| Peter: You are not too good at Japanese. I don’t believe that but what a lot of Japanese people do say about English. Yoshi-san, this is an expression you hear quite often. |
| Yoshi: 英語に弱い (Eigo ni yowai) |
| Peter: I am not that good at English. Yoshi-san, what do you think, not good or is it even stronger than that? |
| Yoshi: I think it should be okay. |
| Peter: So you can use this for all types of things. If you are just learning Japanese… and someone says something you don’t understand, and you can say すみません、日本語にちょっと弱いんですが、もう一度お願いします。(Sumimasen, Nihon-go ni chotto yowai n desu ga, mō ichi-do onegai shimasu.) I’m not that good at Japanese, could you say that again, please? That works out, Yoshi-san? |
| Yoshi: Aha. |
Outro |
|---|
| Peter: Okay, and for more about this, check out the PDF. All right, that’s going to do it for today. |
| Yoshi: またね。(Mata ne.) |
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