Learn how to make basic comparisons
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| Hi, everybody! My name is Alisha. |
| In this lesson, we're going to talk about how to make basic comparisons in Japanese. |
| Let’s get started! |
| Okay, first let's take a look at the focus pattern for this lesson. |
| The focus pattern is: |
| [A] は [B] より [形容詞] です。 |
| ([A] wa [B] yori [keiyōshi] desu.) |
| So, A is a noun or a noun phrase, B is also a noun or a noun phrase, and 形容詞 (keiyōshi) means "adjective," so we need to choose an adjective to finish our comparative statement. |
| Let’s take a look at some examples and then we’ll talk about what’s happening in these sentences. First one is… |
| きょうとは ならより おおきいです。 |
| (Kyōto wa Nara yori ōkii desu.) |
| きょうとは ならより おおきいです。 |
| (Kyōto wa Nara yori ōkii desu.) |
| This sentence means "Kyoto is bigger than Nara." |
| "Kyoto is bigger than Nara." |
| Another example… |
| シアトルは ロンドンより あめがおおいです。 |
| (Shiatoru wa Rondon yori ame ga ōi desu.) |
| シアトルは ロンドンより あめがおおいです。 |
| (Shiatoru wa Rondon yori ame ga ōi desu.) |
| This sentence means "Seattle is rainier than London." |
| "Seattle is rainier than London." |
| So, as you might have noticed, the word order is a bit different from English in patterns like these in Japanese. So, if we compare the two, we might read these sentences as "Kyoto is Nara than bigger." But in English, we understand it as "Kyoto is bigger than Nara." |
| So, you also noticed that this “bigger,” we use this comparative form in English with the -er at the end there, yeah? In Japanese, we’re using just a simple おおきい (ōkii) “big.” What makes this comparative is actually this part right here. So this より (yori), you can think of kind of like the English “than,” and even though we don’t change the adjective in Japanese, it takes the comparative form when we think about it in English. |
| Let’s look at the same idea with the second example sentence. |
| So… |
| シアトルは ロンドンより あめがおおいです。 |
| (Shiatoru wa Rondon yori ame ga ōi desu.) |
| We can think of this sentence as “Seattle is London than rainier.” |
| So, あめがおおい (ame ga ōi), this expression means “rain” あめ (ame), and then が (ga) is our subject marker, おおい (ōi) means “a lot of (something).” So this is actually kind of a phrase, “lots of rain,” yeah? |
| So, when we pair this with より (yori), “rainy” or lots of rain, it becomes “rainier.” This is how we can understand that in English. |
| So, “Seattle is rainier than London.” |
| So, yes, in English, we follow the first noun with our comparative adjective and then the second noun. In Japanese, the order is different. We have noun [A] は (wa), noun [B] より (yori), and then our comparative expression. |
| Let’s see this in a dialogue then. Two people are talking here. |
| Person A says… |
| まつやまは ちいさいですか。 |
| (Matsuyama wa chiisai desu ka.) |
| まつやまは ちいさいですか。 |
| (Matsuyama wa chiisai desu ka.) |
| “Is Matsuyama small?” |
| ちいさい (chiisai) means “small.” |
| B says… |
| まあ、とうきょうより ちいさいです。 |
| (Mā, Tōkyō yori chiisai desu.) |
| まあ、とうきょうより ちいさいです。 |
| (Mā, Tōkyō yori chiisai desu.) |
| “Well, it’s smaller than Tokyo.” |
| So in this dialogue, the same pattern is broken into two parts. |
| We can understand this as meaning… |
| まつやまは とうきょうより ちいさいです。 |
| (Matsuyama wa Tōkyō yori chiisai desu.) |
| We can understand person B’s reply as this full sentence, but it’s simply this… |
| とうきょうより ちいさいです。 |
| (Tōkyō yori chiisai desu.) |
| So, とうきょうより (Tōkyō yori) “than Tokyo” is kind of how we can understand it - “smaller than Tokyo.” |
| Ok, so let’s take a look now at some key vocabulary words, some adjectives that we can use in this adjective position. |
| First… |
| おおきい (ōkii) |
| おおきい (ōkii) “big” |
| おおきい (ōkii) |
| あめがおおい (ame ga ōi) |
| あめがおおい (ame ga ōi) “rainy” |
| ひとがすくない (hito ga sukunai) |
| ひとがすくない (hito ga sukunai) “few people” |
| ひと (hito) “people” |
| が (ga) subject marker |
| すくない (sukunai) “few” or “little” |
| ひとがすくない (hito ga sukunai) |
| ちいさい (chiisai) |
| ちいさい (chiisai) “small” or “little” |
| さむい (samui) |
| さむい (samui) “cold” |
| And… |
| ひとがおおい (hito ga ōi) |
| ひとがおおい (hito ga ōi) |
| Just like with few people, ひとがおおい (hito ga ōi) is… |
| ひと (hito) “person/people” |
| が (ga) subject marker |
| おおい (ōi) “many/lots of” |
| “Many people” |
| So, this is how we make basic adjective comparative sentences in Japanese. |
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