Learn about the third part of the grammar and reading comprehension section on the Japanese proficiency exam
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| *****Opening******** |
| Jessi: Hi everyone and welcome to the New JLPT N4 Prep Course Lesson 6. Jessi here. |
| Naomi: こんにちは。直美です。このレッスンでは、文法と読解の問題3を紹介します。 |
| Jessi: In this lesson, we'll cover もんだい 3 of the Grammar and Reading Comprehension section. |
| Naomi:もんだい３は 短い文章を読んで、穴埋めをします。穴埋めは “filling in the blanks”. |
| Jessi: So in もんだい３, you are supposed to select the grammar that best fits into the reading passage. |
| Naomi:このような問題は5個あります。 |
| Jessi: There will be 5 of this type of question on the test. In this section, you're tested not only on grammar structures, but also conjunctions and particles. To prepare for this section, we recommend that you thoroughly review the particles and conjunctions you have learned up until now. |
| Naomi:そうですね。助詞 particles を復習してくださいね。 |
| Jessi: And speaking of particles, there is a new particle series out that is hosted by Naomi and me. So please give that a listen - I think it will really help. |
| Naomi:はい、そう思います。 Here, we'd like to introduce the top 3 particles that appeared on the JLPT in the last 5 years. |
| Jessi: Oh, sounds great. What are they? |
| Naomi:三位は「を」 |
| Jessi: So the third most common particle is を. を will be covered in Particle Series Lessons 2, 7, and 17. |
| Naomi:二位は「が」 |
| Jessi: The second most common particle is が. が is covered a lot in the Particle series - you find it in Lessons 2, 4, 9, 10, 19 and 20. And now, what's the that's most common particle in this level of the JLPT? |
| (drum roll) |
| Naomi:に. Amazingly, it's not は, but に. |
| Jessi:に is covered in Particle lessons 5, 6, 7, 17, and 22. |
| Naomi: So make sure to review how particles are used, especially を、が and に before taking the JLPT. |
| Jessi: Also in this lesson's PDF, we gave 3 particles that translate to “only” in English, but have slightly different usage and nuances. |
| Naomi: Right. The particles だけ・ばかり・しか |
| Jessi: Here, let's briefly explain the difference. だけ means “only” or “just” in general. ばかり also means “only” or “just” but it implies that something is more than one expected. And しか only appears in a negative sentence. |
| Naomi: Right. ジェシーは肉を食べる means “Jessi eats meat.” If you say... ジェシーは 肉「だけ」 食べる。 |
| Jessi: This would ”Jessi only eats meat.”…which is not true, by the way (laughs). This is a straightforward, neutral statement. |
| Naomi: You can also say ジェシーは 肉「ばかり」食べる。 |
| Jessi: This also means “Jessi only eats meat” but it implies that she eats more of it than the speaker expected. It emphasizes the amount. |
| Naomi:ジェシーは肉「しか」食べない。 |
| Jessi: ”Jessi eats nothing but meat.” The しか in this sentence is used with a negative verb to emphasize the idea of “nothing but meat”. For a more detailed explanation, please check out the lesson notes. |
| :*****Grammar review******** |
| Jessi: So Naomi-sensei, other than particles, what should we review for JLPT N4? |
| Naomi: You should definitely review how to form the passive and causative. |
| :*****Passive******** |
| Jessi:OK then. So let's review the passive tense first. Passive sentences are sentences where the subject is affected by the action of the sentence. |
| Naomi: Hmmm. Sounds complicated. |
| Jessi: I know, it's hard to put into words, but let us give you an example. Take a sentence like “the boy kicked the ball”. This is known as an active sentence. This same sentence in the passive tense would be “the ball was kicked by the boy”. So the subject, the ball, is affected by the action, to kick. |
| Naomi: Mm mm! okay, that makes sense! |
| Jessi: Some other examples of passive sentences would be... “I was hit by a car” or “My wallet was stolen.” |
| Naomi: It's not a very happy sentence. |
| Jessi: I know, not happy situations. |
| Naomi: Anyway, to make a passive sentence, you need to know how to create the passive form of the verb. 食べる (Jessi - “to eat”) becomes 食べられる(Jessi - “to be eaten”), ぬすむ(Jessi - “to steal”) becomes ぬすまれる(Jessi - “to be stolen”). |
| Jessi: The conjugation rules for this are is explained in detail in the lesson notes, so be sure to check them out if you're not sure how to make the passive tense. Now, let's move on to the sentence structure of the passive. |
| First, let's start with a regular or active, sentence. So, Naomi-sensei, how do you say “Birds eat bugs.”? |
| Naomi: Bird is とり, and 虫 is bug so...とりは むしを たべる。 |
| Jessi: And now, how would you say, “Bugs are eaten by birds.” |
| Naomi:むしは とり に たべられる |
| Jessi: So there we just change it into the passive. Notice that the one that does the action - in this case とり birds, is marked by the particle に. This is really important. |
| Naomi:とりに(Jessi - by birds) 食べられる(Jessi - to be eaten) |
| Jessi: So for example, if you wanted to say “eaten by animals”, that would be... |
| Naomi:動物(どうぶつ) is animal, so 動物にたべられる |
| Jessi: Eaten by animals. OK, now how would you say “My wallet was stolen by a thief”? |
| Naomi: ”My wallet” is 私のさいふ。”To be stolen” is ぬすまれる。 “a thief” is どろぼう So... |
| Jessi:わたしのさいふ は どろぼう に ぬすまれた？ |
| Naomi: Perfect!（笑）わたしのさいふ は どろぼう に ぬすまれた。じゃ、つぎはcausative を復習しましょう。Let's review the causative next. |
| :***Causative**** |
| Jessi: The causative in Japanese can be translated in two ways. One is “to make someone to do something”, and the other is “to let someone to do something.” You need to choose the translation that best suits the context. Both versions show up on the JLPT. |
| Naomi-sensei, can we hear a sample sentence? |
| Naomi:わたしは こどもに しゅくだいをさせました。”I made my child do homework.” |
| Jessi: And there are two things you need to remember for making a causative sentence. One, the person who makes or lets someone do something is marked by は or が. |
| Naomi: So if you want to say “I made my child do homework.” the beginning of the sentence should be わたしは or わたしが. |
| Jessi: And the second thing. The person who actually performs the action is marked by に. |
| Naomi: That's why こども was marked by に. |
| Jessi: Right, because the one who actually did the homework was the child. Can we hear the full sentence again? |
| Naomi: Sure. わたしは こどもに しゅくだいをさせました。or わたしが こどもに しゅくだいをさせました。 |
| Jessi: ”I made my child do homework.” |
| Naomi: If you say 先生は学生に勉強させました。that would be… |
| Jessi: The teacher made the students study. |
| Naomi:そうです。But this rule cannot apply to sentences talking about emotion, such as “you make me smile”, “you make laugh”, can it? |
| Jessi: Good point. With certain actions related to emotion, such as なく”to cry”, おこる ”to get angry”, わらう “to laugh”, よろこぶ “to be pleased”, and so on, the person who is made to do the action is always marked by を. For example? |
| Naomi:トムは いつも せんせいを おこらせる。 |
| Jessi: ”Tom always makes the teacher angry.” So the person who gets angry is not トム but the teacher 先生. |
| Naomi: So先生を怒らせる is…? |
| Jessi: “to make the teacher angry” |
| :****Quiz*** |
| Jessi: OK. So now we're ready to review this lesson with a quiz. Naomi先生 is going to read a Japanese sentence. Your job is to choose the best English translation. Are you ready? Here's the sentence. |
| Naomi:わたしは ははに わらわれた。 |
| Jessi: Is it… |
| 1. I was laughed at by my mother or My mother laughed at me. or |
| 2. I made my mother laugh. |
| Can we hear the sentence again? |
| Naomi:わたしは ははに わらわれた。 The answer is? |
| Jessi:1. “I was laughed at by my mother.” or “My mother laughed at me.” わらわれる is the passive form of わらう “to laugh” OK. How would you say choice 2, by the way? I made my mother laugh. |
| Naomi:わたしは母を笑わせた。 |
| Jessi:わらわせる is the causative form of わらう. Alright, so how did that go? Make sure to review the lesson notes and brush up on the passive and causative forms. And that's all the time we have for this lesson. See you next time! |
| Naomi:じゃまた。 |
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