Learn how to give simple directions to people
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| Hi, everybody. My name is Alisha. |
| 皆さん、こんにちは。Alisha です。 (Mina-san, kon'nichiwa. Alisha desu.) |
| In this lesson, we’re going to look at how to give simple directions in Japanese. |
| Let's get started! |
| Okay, let's start by looking at the dialogue for this lesson. The first line of the dialogue is this, |
| としょかんは どこですか。(Tosho-kan wa doko desu ka.) |
| としょかんは どこですか。(Tosho-kan wa doko desu ka.) "Where is the library?" |
| The response is, |
| まっすぐいってください。それから、こうさてんを みぎに まがってください。としょかんは ひだりに あります。(Massugu itte kudasai. Sorekara, kōsaten o migi ni magatte kudasai. Tosho-kan wa hidari ni arimasu.) |
| So at faster pace, |
| まっすぐいってください。それから、こうさてんを みぎに まがってください。としょかんは ひだりに あります。(Massugu itte kudasai. Sorekara, kōsaten o migi ni magatte kudasai. Tosho-kan wa hidari ni arimasu.) |
| This means "Go forward. And then turn right at the intersection. The library will be on the left." |
| Let's take a look at some more examples of this and break down the parts of the sentence. |
| Okay, great! So, let's look at the breakdown of these direction-related sentences and look at some more examples. First, let’s take a look in depth at the dialogue. The dialogue begins with a basic question, where is the library. Notice this question starts with the location we’re looking for, としょかん (toshokan) “library.” Then, the answer begins with the first direction, まっすぐいってください (massugu itte kudasai). So, まっすぐ (massugu) means “go straight” and then いってください (itte kudasai) is a polite way of saying “go ahead.” |
| So, まっすぐいってください (massugu itte kudasai), if we want to translate this directly would mean “please go straight.” |
| We follow this with それから (sorekara), which means “and then” or “after that.” |
| こうさてんを みぎに まがってください (kōsaten o migi ni magatte kudasai) |
| So here, we have our next kind of point, our keypoint, our location that we need to use for reference purposes. |
| こうさてんを (kōsaten) means “intersection.” |
| So, こうさてんを みぎに まがってください (kōsaten o migi ni magatte kudasai). |
| みぎ (migi) means “right.” |
| So, we have our two direction words here: |
| まっすぐ (massugu) “go straight” |
| みぎ (migi) “right” |
| And then later on, we have: |
| としょかんは ひだりに あります。(Tosho-kan wa hidari ni arimasu.) |
| としょかん (toshokan), so “library,” は ひだりに あります (wa hidari ni arimasu). |
| ひだり (hidari) means “left.” |
| So, we have our three direction words in this sample sentence. |
| So, let’s take a look at some more examples and see how we can shift these words around. |
| So, for example, in this sentence, we have: |
| ひだりに いってください。 (Hidari ni itte kudasai.) |
| ひだりに いってください。 (Hidari ni itte kudasai.) |
| So, ひだり (hidari) means “left.” It’s on the same position as まっすぐいってください (massugu itte kudasai) was, in this example. |
| ひだりに いってください。 (Hidari ni itte kudasai.) |
| それから、(Sorekara,) |
| After that, こうさてんを ひだりに まがってください。ぎんこうは みぎにあります。(kō sa ten o hidari ni magatte kudasai. Gin kō wa migi ni arimasu.) |
| So, in this sentence, we’re looking for ぎんこう (gin kō), so the “bank.” |
| In this case, we’ve replaced としょかん (toshokan), which we had in the first example with ぎんこう (gin kō). So, we simply put ぎんこう (gin kō) or the place that we’re looking for in this position in the sentence. In this case, we’re giving a reply for the direction. |
| So, one more time: |
| ひだりに いってください。それから、こうさてんを ひだりに まがってください。ぎんこうは みぎにあります。 |
| (Hidari ni itte kudasai. Sorekara, kō sa ten o hidari ni magatte kudasai. Gin kō wa migi ni arimasu.) |
| So, ぎんこうは みぎにあります (gin kō wa migi ni arimasu) means “the bank is on the right.” |
| You’ll notice this pattern right here, みぎにあります (migi ni arimasu) or in this case, ひだりに あります (hidari ni arimasu). This is how we say, it’s on the left or it’s on the right. So, in English, we use that preposition “on” in this sentence, right? |
| ひだりに あります (hidari ni arimasu) is the pattern that we use - “it’s on the left.” |
| And みぎにあります (migi ni arimasu) for “it’s on the right.” |
| Let’s take a look at one more example sentence then: |
| まっすぐいってください。それから、こうさてんを みぎに まがってください。くやくしょは ひだりに あります。(Massugu itte kudasai. Sorekara, kō sa ten o migi ni magatte kudasai. Ku yakusho wa hidari ni arimasu.) |
| So, again, we have “go straight” to begin the direction, まっすぐいってください (massugu itte kudasai). |
| Then, we have それから (sorekara). |
| After that, こうさてんを みぎに まがってください (kō sa ten o migi ni magatte kudasai) “turn right at the intersection.” |
| Finally, くやくしょは ひだりに あります。 (Ku yakusho wa hidari ni arimasu.) |
| くやくしょ (Ku yakusho) in this case. |
| くやくしょ (Ku yakusho) means “city hall.” |
| So, くやくしょは ひだりに あります (ku yakusho wa hidari ni arimasu.) |
| One more point that you should consider when you’re giving directions is this right here, こうさてんを (kō sa ten o). In all of these example sentences, we see こうさてんを (kō sa ten o). So, we don’t want to use に (ni) as we’re doing here, ひだりに あります (hidari ni arimasu). We’re using こうさてんを (kō sa ten o) in this case. |
| So, こうさてんを ひだりに まがって (kō sa ten o hidari ni magatte). |
| こうさてんを みぎに まがって (kō sa ten o migi ni magatte). |
| So, it’s another point to watch out for. Be careful of these little particles. |
| Okay, so, with the sentence breakdowns done and with these example sentences in our mind, let’s take a look at the basic pattern for this lesson. |
| Okay, great! Let’s take a look at the basic pattern for this lesson. |
| The basic pattern to reply to someone’s request for directions is |
| [Direction] いってください。 ([Direction] itte kudasai)... |
| So, direction here means go straight, left or right. |
| So, [Direction] いってください。 ([Direction] itte kudasai)... |
| This means go [direction], so go straight, go left, or go right. |
| いってください (itte kudasai) |
| So, this is a more polite way to say go in that direction. Kind of like saying go straight, please, or go left please or go right, please. |
| Then the follow-up to this is: |
| それから、[Place] を [right/left] にまがってください。 |
| (Sorekara, [place] o [right/left] ni magatte kudasai.) |
| So, in this followup, we’re saying after that, after this first direction, next location. So, this can be another building, it can be an intersection, whatever, [place] を (o) [right/left], depending on the direction, にまがってください (ni magatte kudasai). This まがってください (magatte kudasai) means “turn.” So this comes from the verb まがる (magaru), yeah. |
| So, まがってください (magatte kudasai) means “please turn.” Please turn right or left at this place. |
| それから、[place] を [right/left] にまがってください。 |
| (Sorekara, [place] o [right/left] ni magatte kudasai.) |
| And then turn [right/left] at the [place]. |
| Okay. |
| Then we have the location, the final location. |
| [Place] は [right/left] にあります。 |
| ([Place] wa [right/left] ni arimasu.) |
| So, [place], the location, the actual destination, は (wa) [right/left], depending on the street, [right/left] にあります (ni arimasu). So, the place that you’re looking for will be on the right or on the left. Great! |
| Finally, let’s take a look at some key vocabulary words that you can use with this pattern to make your own directions. |
| Okay, lastly, let’s take a look at the key vocabulary for this lesson. In this lesson, we talked about two different categories of vocabulary. We talked about direction words and place words. |
| Let’s review the direction words first. |
| First we have まっすぐ (massugu), まっすぐ (massugu), which means “forward” or “straight.” |
| まっすぐ (massugu) |
| Note, in this word, we have a stop, so not まっすぐ (massugu), but まっすぐ (massugu), まっすぐ (massugu). Make sure you have kind of that stop or that breath in the middle of the words. So not まっすぐ (massugu). |
| まっすぐ (massugu) |
| まっすぐ (massugu) |
| This means forward or straight. |
| Next we have “left” ひだり (hidari). |
| ひだり (hidari), this means “left.” |
| We saw this in ひだりに まがってください (hidari ni magatte kudasai) “please turn left.” |
| On the other hand, we have みぎ (migi), みぎ (migi) “right.” |
| We saw this in みぎに まがって ください (migi ni magatte kudasai) “please turn right.” |
| So, these are our direction-related words for this lesson. |
| Now, let’s take a look at our place words. |
| So, we saw some of these in the dialogue and the example sentences. Let’s review. |
| First is としょかん (toshokan), としょかん (toshokan). |
| としょかん (Toshokan) means “library.” |
| We saw this in the first example sentence: |
| としょかんは どこですか。(Tosho-kan wa doko desu ka.) "Where is the library?" |
| Next is こうさてん (kōsaten), こうさてん (kōsaten). |
| こうさてん (kōsaten) [enunciated] |
| こうさてん (kōsaten) |
| This means “intersection,” intersection. |
| So, we talked about turning right or turning left at the intersection, こうさてん (kōsaten). |
| Next is: |
| コーヒーショップ (kōhī shoppu) |
| コーヒーショップ (kōhī shoppu) |
| These have long sounds here, so not コヒ(kohi), but コーヒーショップ (kōhī shoppu). |
| コーヒーショップ (kōhī shoppu), which means “coffee shop,” coffee shop, might be your destination. |
| コーヒーショップは どこですか。(Kōhī shoppu wa doko desu ka.) |
| The next word is くやくしょ (kuyakusho), くやくしょ (kuyakusho). |
| くやくしょ (kuyakusho) [enunciated] |
| くやくしょ (kuyakusho) means “city hall,” city hall or you might also see it translated as “ward office.” |
| くやくしょ (kuyakusho) |
| Finally, we have しんごう (shingō), しんごう (shingō). |
| しんごう (shingō) [enunciated] |
| しんごう (shingō) |
| しんごう (shingō) means “traffic light” or “traffic signal.” |
| So, we can use all of these to give directions and to ask about certain destinations in the city. |
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