Learn how to use the Japanese particle no
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Jessi: Hi everyone! ジェシー です。Jessi here! |
| Natsuko: こんにちは！なつこです！Hi everyone, Natsuko: here! |
| Jessi: Welcome to Lower Beginner Season 1 lesson 4 - Talking about Possession in Japanese. |
| Natsuko: Yes, thanks for joining us! So Jessi, what are we going to learn in this lesson? |
| Jessi: In this lesson we're going to learn how to say that something belongs to you with the possessive particle の, as well as how to ask someone to call you by your nickname in Japanese. |
| Natsuko: And where does this lesson's dialogue take place? |
| Jessi: As in the previous lesson, Ken is at some kind of work-related party, and he and his girlfriend Emily are talking to one of his colleagues. |
| Natsuko: では聞きましょう。 |
| Jessi: Let's listen to the dialogue. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Jessi: Did you notice the word that Ms. Mori used to ask about Ken's wife? |
| Natsuko: 奥さん。 |
| Jessi: Yes, it ends in the honorific suffix さん, so we know it's a respectful term for the word "wife". But Natsuko, you wouldn't use 奥さん about your own wife, would you? |
| Natsuko: That's right. In Japanese you don't use respect language for yourself or people in "your" group, like your family. |
| Jessi: So how would we say "my wife" in Japanese? |
| Natsuko: You could use 妻 or 家内, which are both non-respectful words for "wife". Be careful not to use these about someone else's wife, though, because that would be rude. |
| Jessi: There are lots of cases like this in Japanese where you use humble language for yourself and your "group", and respectful language for others. It takes some getting used to. But Natsuko, what about "husband"? Is there respectful and humble words for "husband", too? |
| Natsuko: Yes. To refer to someone else's husband, you can say 御主人 or 旦那さん. But to refer to your own husband, you would say just 主人 or 旦那, without the respectful prefix ご, or suffix さん. |
| Jessi: This seems a little complicated... |
| Natsuko: Don't worry if you make some mistakes at the beginning! Just try to remember to use respectful words for other people and their family, and humble language for yourself and your family. |
| Jessi: OK, great. Now let's look at the vocab for this lesson. |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Jessi: Let's have a closer look at the usuage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| NatsukoY The first word we’ll look at is.... |
| Natsuko: 奥さん |
| Jessi: As we mentioned just now, this is the polite version of the word for "wife". It literally means something like "honoured person in the depths", meaning "honoured person inside the depths of the house"... which traditionally was the role of the wife. What's the next word, Natsuko? |
| Natsuko: 旦那さん |
| Jessi: This means "husband". If you take off the さん and just say 旦那, you can use it to refer to your own husband, too. But there's a slightly more common version of "husband", isn't there? |
| Host 御主人 |
| Jessi: 御主人 is used to refer to someone else's husband. Again, you can take off the honorific prefix and say 主人for your own husband. The word 主人 literally means "master", so you can see again the traditional Japanese gender roles coming into play here! |
| Natsuko; Some women prefer 旦那 over 主人 because it has fewer connotations of being "ruled" by your husband. 旦那 is also a less formal term than 主人. |
| Jessi: But what if our listeners aren't married yet? What if they want to talk about their boyfriend or girlfriend? What's the word for "boyfriend"? |
| Natsuko: 彼氏 |
| Jessi: This is sometimes shortened to just 彼, meaning just "he" or "him". What about the word for "girlfriend"? |
| Natsuko: 彼女 |
| Jessi: Be careful because you can't shorten this word! It's always 彼女. |
| Natsuko: You can also sometimes hear the words ボーイフレンド and ガールフレンド, too. |
| Jessi: Now let's move on to this week's Lesson Focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Jessi: In this lesson we're going to learn how to talk about things that belong to you as well as relationships with others with the possessive particle の, as well as how to ask someone to call you by your nickname in Japanese. So [name], how does this の work? |
| Natsuko: It's actually really easy. All you have to do to say "my [object]", is to say 私の[object]. The order is the same as in English. |
| Jessi: OK, seems straightforward! How would you say "my bag"? |
| Natsuko: "bag" in Japanese is かばん. So it would be just わたし の かばん。 |
| Jessi: Great! Now listeners, listen and repeat. "My bag". |
| Natsuko: わたしのかばん |
| Jessi: (wait 5 seconds) Now listeners, try saying "My bag" in Japanese. |
| Natsuko: (wait 5 secs) わたしのかばん。 |
| Jessi: Easy, right? Now do you remember the ko-so-a-do words you learned in previous series? This is their time to shine! You can add a "this is" or "that is" to "my bag" to make a full sentence. [name], how would we say "That's my bag?" |
| Natsuko: それはわたしのかばんです。 |
| Jessi: Listeners, listen and repeat. "That's my bag." |
| Natsuko: それはわたしのかばんです。 |
| Jessi: (wait 5 secs) Now listeners, try saying "That's my bag" in Japanese. |
| Natsuko: (wait 5 secs) それはわたしのかばんです。 |
| Jessi: Now what's the next thing we're looking at today? |
| Natsuko: You know you can use this の particle to describe your relationship with other people? It's not just for objects! |
| Jessi: Right, because in the dialogue Mori-san said... |
| Natsuko: こちらはWood さんのおくさんですか。 |
| Jessi: "Is this your wife, Mr. Wood?" To say "your wife", she said "Wood さん の おくさん". Note that she didn't use the word for "you" (あなた）, but rather said his name. Saying "you" in Japanese can actually sound overly-familiar and rude, so in general stick to saying the other person's name. |
| Natsuko: That's right. So to say "my wife", "my husband", "my boyfriend" "my girlfriend", etcetera, all you have to do is say "わたしの” and then the word for wife, husband, etcetera. |
| Jessi: That sounds simple! So say we were talking to someone called Tanaka. How would we say "your wife" to this Mr. Tanaka? |
| Natsuko: 田中さんの奥さん。 |
| Jessi: Listeners, listen and repeat. "Your wife", or "Mr. Tanaka's wife". |
| Natsuko: 田中さんの奥さん |
| Jessi: (wait 5 secs) Now try saying "Your wife", or "Mr. Tanaka's wife" in Japanese. |
| Natsuko: (wait 5 secs) 田中さんの奥さん |
| Jessi: Now, in the dialogue we heard Ken introduce Emily as "my girlfriend, Emily", using both her relationship to him and her actual name. How would we go about doing that in Japanese? |
| Natsuko: That's easy. You use の again, and say かのじょ の エミリー です。 |
| Jessi: With this structure, you just put the の between the relationship the person is to you and their name. Remember we said in Japanese that we can leave out information if it's obvious? It's the same here. You don't have to say "わたしの" if it's obvious that you're talking about yourself. So for example, to say "my little sister Sarah", the long version would be... |
| Natsuko: わたしの妹のサラ |
| Jessi: But what you would say in natural Japanese would be... |
| Natsuko: 妹のサラ。 |
| Jessi: So let's try putting it all together. How would you say "This is my little sister Sarah"? |
| Natsuko: いもうと の サラ です。 |
| Jessi: You just need to add です to make it a full sentence. Now listeners, listen and repeat. "This is my little sister Sarah." |
| Natsuko: いもうと の サラ です。 |
| Jessi: (wait 5 secs) Now listeners, try saying "This is my little sister Sarah." in Japanese. |
| Natsuko: (wait 5 secs) いもうと の サラ です。 |
| Jessi: Did you manage it? Great! Now we have one more point to introduce today. |
| Natsuko: That's right. It's asking people to call you by your preferred name or nickname. |
| Jessi: This is a really useful phrase, so listen closely! So Natsuko, how do we say "Please call me~" and then whatever you want to be called? |
| Natsuko: We use the phrase "nameとよんでください". |
| Jessi: This と is what's known as a quoting particle, and marks where the quotation ends. よんで means "call", and ください is "please". So can we have that one more time, Natsuko? |
| Natsuko: Sure. In my case it would be, なつことよんでください。 |
| Jessi: Listeners, listen and repeat, but using your name instead. |
| Natsuko: なつことよんでください。 |
| Jessi: (wait 5 secs) Now try saying "Please call me..." and then your name, in Japanese. |
| Natsuko: (wait 5 secs) なつことよんでください。 |
| Jessi: How did you do? Unfortunately we're nearly out of time for today. |
| Natsuko: ざんねん！ |
Outro |
| Jessi: Please leave us some comments letting us know how you found the lesson. Bye for now! |
| Natsuko: じゃ、また！ |
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