Learn how to use the Japanese words that mean "I heard that
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Naomi: なおみです。(Naomi desu.) |
| Peter: Peter here. Did You Hear That Japanese Rumor? In this lesson, you'll learn about the expression "I heard that...something something." |
| Naomi: Right.（何々）そうです ((naninani sō desu) as in 雨が降るそうです (ame ga furu sō desu). |
| Peter: "I heard it's going to rain." This conversation takes place at? |
| Naomi: 美容院 (biyōin) at a hair salon. なので、美容院で便利な言葉も勉強します。(Nanode, biyōin de benri na kotoba mo benkyō shimasu.) |
| Peter: Right. So you'll also learn some expressions that are useful at a hair salon. |
| Naomi: 大空 晴夜さんが美容院にいます。 (Ōzora Haruya-san ga biyōin ni imasu.) |
| Peter: Haruya Ozora is at a hair salon. Because it's a conversation between a hairdresser and a customer, you'll hear... |
| Naomi: 丁寧な日本語 (teinei na Nihon-go) |
| Peter: Formal Japanese. |
| Naomi: では、聞いてください。(Dewa, kiite kudasai.) |
| DIALOGUE |
| (At a hair salon) |
| 大空 晴夜 (Ōzora Haruya) : こんな髪形にしてください。(Konna kamigata ni shite kudasai.) |
| 美容師 (biyōshi) : はい。(Hai.) |
| : 毎日寒いですねぇ。(Mainichi samui desu nee.) |
| 大空 晴夜 (Ōzora Haruya) : そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| 美容師 (biyōshi) : 予報によると、今夜、雪が降るそうですよ。(Yohō ni yoru to, kon'ya, yuki ga furu sō desu yo.) |
| 大空 晴夜 (Ōzora Haruya) : へー。(Hē.) |
| 美容師 (biyōshi) : 眠そうですねー。(Nemusō desu nē.) |
| : あ、そういえば、おめでとうございます。お子さんが生まれたそうですね。(A, sō ieba, omedetō gozaimasu. O-ko-san ga umareta sō desu ne.) |
| : 奥さんから聞きました。元気な男の子だそうですね。(Okusan kara kikimashita. Genki na otokonoko da sō desu ne.) |
| 大空 晴夜 (Ōzora Haruya) : そうなんですよ。だから、夜、眠れなくて・・・。(Sō nan desu yo. Dakara, yoru, nemurenakute…) |
| : あ、前髪をもう少し短く切ってください。(A, maegami o mō sukoshi mijikaku kitte kudasai.) |
| 美容師 (biyōshi) : このくらいですか？(Kono kurai desu ka?) |
| 大空 晴夜 (Ōzora Haruya) : はい。(Hai.) |
| 美容師 (biyōshi) : 分け目はどうしますか。(Wakeme wa dō shimasu ka.) |
| 大空 晴夜 (Ōzora Haruya) : おまかせします。(O-makase shimasu.) |
| Naomi: もう一度、お願いします。今度はゆっくりお願いします。(Mō ichi-do, onegai shimasu. Kondo wa yukkuri onegai shimasu.) |
| 大空 晴夜 (Ōzora Haruya) : こんな髪形にしてください。(Konna kamigata ni shite kudasai.) |
| 美容師 (biyōshi) : はい。(Hai.) |
| : 毎日寒いですねぇ。(Mainichi samui desu nee.) |
| 大空 晴夜 (Ōzora Haruya) : そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| 美容師 (biyōshi) : 予報によると、今夜、雪が降るそうですよ。(Yohō ni yoru to, kon'ya, yuki ga furu sō desu yo.) |
| 大空 晴夜 (Ōzora Haruya) : へー。(Hē.) |
| 美容師 (biyōshi) : 眠そうですねー。(Nemusō desu nē.) |
| : あ、そういえば、おめでとうございます。お子さんが生まれたそうですね。(A, sō ieba, omedetō gozaimasu. O-ko-san ga umareta sō desu ne.) |
| : 奥さんから聞きました。元気な男の子だそうですね。(Okusan kara kikimashita. Genki na otokonoko da sō desu ne.) |
| 大空 晴夜 (Ōzora Haruya) : そうなんですよ。だから、夜、眠れなくて・・・。(Sō nan desu yo. Dakara, yoru, nemurenakute…) |
| : あ、前髪をもう少し短く切ってください。(A, maegami o mō sukoshi mijikaku kitte kudasai.) |
| 美容師 (biyōshi) : このくらいですか？(Kono kurai desu ka?) |
| 大空 晴夜 (Ōzora Haruya) : はい。(Hai.) |
| 美容師 (biyōshi) : 分け目はどうしますか。(Wakeme wa dō shimasu ka.) |
| 大空 晴夜 (Ōzora Haruya) : おまかせします。(O-makase shimasu.) |
| Naomi: 今度は、英語が入ります。(Kondo wa, Eigo ga hairimasu.) |
| 大空 晴夜 (Ōzora Haruya) : こんな髪形にしてください。(Konna kamigata ni shite kudasai.) |
| Please make my hair like this. |
| 美容師 (biyōshi) : はい。(Hai.) |
| Sure. |
| : 毎日寒いですねぇ。(Mainichi samui desu nee.) |
| It's been cold every day, hasn't it? |
| 大空 晴夜 (Ōzora Haruya) : そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| It sure has. (yawn) |
| 美容師 (biyōshi) : 予報によると、今夜、雪が降るそうですよ。(Yohō ni yoru to, kon'ya, yuki ga furu sō desu yo.) |
| According to the weather forecast, it's going to snow tonight. |
| 大空 晴夜 (Ōzora Haruya) : へー。(Hē.) |
| Oh yeah...? (yawn) |
| 美容師 (biyōshi) : 眠そうですねー。(Nemusō desu nē.) |
| You seem sleepy. |
| : あ、そういえば、おめでとうございます。お子さんが生まれたそうですね。(A, sō ieba, omedetō gozaimasu. O-ko-san ga umareta sō desu ne.) |
| Oh, I just remembered, congratulations! I've heard that you've just had a baby. |
| : 奥さんから聞きました。元気な男の子だそうですね。(Okusan kara kikimashita. Genki na otokonoko da sō desu ne.) |
| I heard about it from your wife. A healthy baby boy, apparently? |
| 大空 晴夜 (Ōzora Haruya) : そうなんですよ。だから、夜、眠れなくて・・・。(Sō nan desu yo. Dakara, yoru, nemurenakute…) |
| That's right. So, I can't sleep at night... |
| : あ、前髪をもう少し短く切ってください。(A, maegami o mō sukoshi mijikaku kitte kudasai.) |
| Oh, please cut my bangs a little shorter. |
| 美容師 (biyōshi) : このくらいですか？(Kono kurai desu ka?) |
| About this much? |
| 大空 晴夜 (Ōzora Haruya) : はい。(Hai.) |
| Yes. |
| 美容師 (biyōshi) : 分け目はどうしますか。(Wakeme wa dō shimasu ka.) |
| What do you want to do about your parting? |
| 大空 晴夜 (Ōzora Haruya) : おまかせします。(O-makase shimasu.) |
| I'll leave it up to you. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Naomi: ピーターさんは、美容院に行きますか。(Pītā-san wa, biyōin ni ikimasu ka.) |
| Peter: Do I go to the hair salon? うーん、日本ではもちろん行きます。(Ūn, Nihon de wa mochiron ikimasu.) In Japan, of course I go. アメリカでは、行かないです。(Amerika de wa, ikanai desu.) |
| Naomi: ん、なんで？(N, nande?) |
| Peter: In the US I don't go. |
| Naomi: You don't cut your hair? |
| Peter: Haha. 違います。アメリカでは、とこやに行きます。(Chigaimasu. Amerika de wa, tokoya ni ikimasu.) In the U.S., I go to a barber shop. |
| Naomi: あぁ、そうですか。ピーターさんは、美容院に行くんですね。(Ā, sō desu ka. Pītā-san wa, biyōin ni iku n desu ne.) |
| Peter: And speaking of 美容院 (biyōin), you have to be careful about the pronunciation. You have to really hold or really prolong the "YO" sound. |
| Naomi: Right. It's びよーいん (biyōin). I don't want to make this confusing, but the word for hospital sounds a bit similar. |
| Peter: Can you make this once? |
| Naomi: The hospital? |
| Peter: Yeah. |
| Naomi: 病院 (byōin) |
| Peter: And just break it down. |
| Naomi: びょ う い ん、びょういん (BYO U I N, byōin) |
| Peter: It’s the first two syllables that work that are quite confusing when you compare with the three syllables of hair salon, which are.. |
| Naomi: びよういん (biyōin) |
| Peter: And just break it down. |
| Naomi: び よ う い ん、びよういん (BI YO U I N, biyōin) |
| Peter: The first two syllables of hospital are |
| Naomi: びょ う (BYO U) |
| Peter: And together. |
| Naomi: びょう (BYŌ) |
| Peter: The first three syllables of hair salon are.. |
| Naomi: び よ う、びよう (BI YO U, biyōin) |
| Peter: So that's the difference. When you hear it fast, it can sound quite similar. |
| Naomi: うん。(Un.) |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Peter: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| The first word is: |
| こんな (konna) [natural native speed] |
| like this, as such |
| こんな (konna) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| こんな (konna) [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| 眠い (nemui) [natural native speed] |
| sleepy, drowsy |
| 眠い (nemui) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| 眠い (nemui) [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| 前髪 (maegami) [natural native speed] |
| bangs |
| 前髪 (maegami) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| 前髪 (maegami) [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| 分け目 (wakeme) [natural native speed] |
| parting of the hair, a part |
| 分け目 (wakeme) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| 分け目 (wakeme) [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| まかせる (makaseru) [natural native speed] |
| to leave to, to entrust |
| まかせる (makaseru) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| まかせる (makaseru) [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Peter: Let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| The first one is? |
| Naomi: 前髪 (maegami) |
| Peter: “bangs”, “fringe” |
| Naomi: 前 (mae) means “front” and かみ (kami) or がみ (gami) is “hair”. |
| Peter: So 前髪 (maegami) refers to the front part of one's hair. |
| Naomi: そうです。(Sō desu.) Here's a sample sentence. 前髪を短く切ってください。(Maegami o mijikaku kitte kudasai.) |
| Peter: “Please cut my bangs short.” OK, what do you have next? |
| Naomi: このくらい (kono kurai) |
| Peter: "this much" "this amount." この (kono) means "this" and くらい (kurai) expresses degree or amount and is often translated as "about". |
| Naomi: You'll hear some people say ぐ (gu) instead of く (ku) and say このぐらい (kono gurai). But このくらい (kono kurai) and このぐらい (kono gurai) mean the same. And you can tell the hairdresser how much you want cut using this phrase along with body language. このくらい、切ってください。(Kono kurai, kitte kudasai.) |
| Peter: “Please cut this much.” And the last phrase we're going to look at is? |
| Naomi: おまかせします (o-makase shimasu) |
| Peter: "I'll leave it to you." The Japanese verb まかせる (makaseru) means "to leave to" or "to entrust". Naomi-sensei. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: You can just say まかせる (makaseru) or まかせます (makasemasu) to mean "I'll leave it to you." Right? |
| Naomi: うん、そうですね。(Un, sō desu ne.) Right. However, the honorific prefix お (o) plus the masu-stem of a verb plus する (suru) is a very polite way to say "to do something." So おまかせします (o-makase shimasu) is a super polite way to say "I'll leave it to you." |
| Peter: Let's break down this phrase. |
| Naomi: お (o) |
| Peter: honorific prefix, followed by |
| Naomi: まかせ (makase) |
| Peter: the masu-stem of the verb まかせる (makaseru), “to leave to”. And |
| Naomi: します (shimasu) |
| Peter: “to do”. |
| Naomi: We recommend that you memorize this as a set phrase. おまかせします。(O-makase shimasu.) |
| Peter: What's the opposite? |
| Naomi: Huh? Opposite???? 反対？(Hantai?) |
| Peter: Yeah, you know, like... "Leave it to me!" |
| Naomi: Ah, OK. For that, use the te-form. まかせて (makasete) or まかせてください (makasete kudasai). |
| Peter: "Please Leave it to me!" By the way, Naomi-sensei. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: You will never ever use おまかせ (o-makase) when you are at a hair salon. |
| Naomi: うそぉ。(Usō.) |
| Peter: 本当。(Hontō.) |
| Naomi: え～、そお？(Ē, sō?) I use this phrase a lot. |
| Peter: That explains why your hair always looks like that. See.. |
| Naomi: ひどい！(Hidoi!) |
| Peter: Here's the problem. おまかせ (o-makase) is a very polite expression. It means you don't know the person who's going to cut your hair that well, which means they're gonna mess your hair up. |
| Naomi: (laugh) |
| Peter: So you should never say おまかせ (o-makase) with someone you don't know well. |
| Naomi: Oh yeah, that’s true. I use that phrase because I know the hairdresser. I usually have the same hairdresser. |
| Peter: Yes, that explains so much. So you should get a new person and then get close so that you can say まかせる (makaseru). And that means that like you're that close that you can be casual with them because they cut your hair so well. |
| Naomi: Hmm.. |
| Peter: On to the grammar point. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Peter: In this lesson, you'll learn about the expression "I heard that...something something", using 〜そうだ (-sō da). |
| Naomi: It's very easy to do. Just attach 〜そうだ (-sō da) or 〜そうです (-sō desu) to a verb or adjective in informal speech. |
| Peter: OK. Let's practice. How do you say "to snow" or "it's going to snow"? |
| Naomi: OK. 雪 (yuki) is "snow" and 降る (furu) is "to fall." |
| Peter: Or "to precipitate" |
| Naomi: So "it's going to snow" is 雪が降る (yuki ga furu). |
| Peter: So, how do you say "I heard it's going to snow". When the information is based on the third party? |
| Naomi: Attach そうだ (sō da) to it. |
| Peter: So "I heard it's going to snow" is? |
| Naomi: 雪が降るそうだ。(Yuki ga furu sō da.) |
| Peter: "I heard it's going to snow." Let's practice some more. How do you say "I heard it's going to rain"? |
| Naomi: "It's going to rain" is 雨が降る (ame ga furu). |
| Peter: To that, attach そうだ (sō da). |
| Naomi: 雨が降るそうだ。(Ame ga furu sō da.) |
| Peter: “I heard it's going to rain.” Now, if you want to mention who or what you got the information from, use the phrase |
| Naomi: 〜によると (- ni yoru to), for example, ニュース (nyūsu) is |
| Peter: “news” |
| Naomi: So ニュースによると (nyūsu ni yoru to) means |
| Peter: “according to the news” |
| Naomi: The weather forecast is 天気予報 (tenki yohō), so 天気予報によると (tenki yohō ni yoru to). |
| Peter: “according to the weather forecast” |
| Naomi: ピーターによると (Pītā ni yoru to) |
| Peter: “according to Peter” So, Naomi-sensei. How do you say “According to the weather forecast, it’s going to snow tomorrow”? |
| Naomi: 天気予報によると、明日雪が降るそうだ。(Tenki yohō ni yoru to, ashita yuki ga furu sō da.) |
| Peter: Let's recap this lesson with a quiz. Imagine you're watching the weather forecast on TV in Japan, and you hear the forecaster say |
| Naomi: 明日、雨が降ります。(Ashita, ame ga furimasu.) |
| Peter: When you pass this information onto someone else, what would you say? |
| Please note that そうだ (sō da) only comes after informal speech. Naomi-sensei? The answer is? |
| Naomi: 明日、雨が降るそうだ。(Ashita, ame ga furu sō da.) Or… 明日、雨が降るそうです。(Ashita, ame ga furu sō desu.) |
| Peter: And just to reiterate. そうだ (sō da) always comes after informal Japanese. So you’ll never have… 雨が降りますそうだ。(Ame ga furimasu sō da.) |
| Naomi: No. If you wanna be polite, attach そうです (sō desu) to an informal speech. |
| Peter: Let's stick to the informal form for now. OK listeners, listen and repeat. |
| Naomi: 明日、雨が降るそうだ。(Ashita, ame ga furu sō da.) |
| Peter: [pause ] OK. Say "I heard it's going to rain tomorrow." |
| Naomi: [pause] 明日、雨が降るそうだ。(Ashita, ame ga furu sō da.) OK. So can you add a phrase that means "according to the news" to this sentence? |
| Peter: "According to the news, it's going to rain tomorrow." |
| Naomi: [pause] ニュースによると、明日、雨が降るそうだ。(Nyūsu ni yoru to, ashita, ame ga furu sō da.) |
| Peter: OK. How did you do? OK. That’s all for this lesson. |
| Naomi: じゃ、また！(Ja, mata!) |
| Peter: See you next time. |
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