Learn how to use negative Japanese adjectives to say things like "not fun" or "not expensive
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Natsuko: みなさん、こんにちは！ナツコです。 |
| Jessi: Hi everyone, I'm Jessi! |
| Natsuko: Welcome to Lower Beginner series 1 lesson 9. |
| Jessi: So Natsuko, what are we going to learn in this lesson? |
| Natsuko: In this lesson we're going to learn how to use negative adjectives to say things like "not fun" and "not expensive". |
| Jessi: And where does this lesson's dialogue take place? |
| Natsuko: In a park, where Emily is taking a walk. |
| Jessi: OK, let's listen to the dialogue. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Natsuko: I think Japan is famous for apologizing, and so the word for "sorry" is really important! |
| Jessi: We heard it in the dialogue when the boy apologized to Emily. |
| Natsuko: ごめんなさい。 This is like saying "I'm sorry", and is used when you bother someone - like when you bump into someone in the street, for example. |
| Jessi: There's another word for "sorry", right? |
| Natsuko: Yes, in business or formal situations, the word すみません, which you know also means "excuse me" to get someone's attention, is more often used to mean "I'm sorry". So すみません has two meanings. |
| Jessi: But remember you can't say ごめんなさい to mean "Excuse me". Now let's take a look at the vocabulary and phrases for this lesson. |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Natsuko: Let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Jessi: What's the first thing we're looking at today? |
| Natsuko: The sentence-ending particles ね and よ. |
| Jessi: So what do these particles do? |
| Natsuko: We heard in the dialogue Emily say 小さいですね. This ね on the end is the equivalent of what's known as a 'tag question' in English - saying 'isn't it?'' or 'doesn't it'? for example. |
| Jessi: So 小さいですね would mean 'it's small, isn't it?'. This ね softens the statement by asking for agreement from the other person. And Natsuko, we actually heard another of these sentence-ending particles in the dialogue when Emily said... |
| Natsuko: こわくないですよ。かわいいですよ。 |
| Jessi: So what does this よ do? It's different from ね in that rather than softening a statement, it actually strengthens it. It's almost like an exclamation mark. |
| Natsuko: Yes, よ expresses assertion. So if you want to make a strong assertion you would add よ to the end. |
| Jessi: OK, and our next word? |
| Natsuko: It's a really useful one; 大丈夫 |
| Jessi: This means "all right" or "fine", as in |
| Natsuko: 大丈夫です |
| Jessi: "I'm fine", "it's all right". You can use this word in so many situations, so try to memorize it! Natsuko, you can ask someone if they're OK just by your intonation on this word, right? |
| Natsuko: That's right. To ask "are you OK?" you can just say 大丈夫？ with upward intonation. To reply you use a downward intonation |
| Jessi: なつこさん、大丈夫？ |
| Natsuko: うん、大丈夫. Like that! |
| Jessi: OK, what's our next word? |
| Natsuko: It's one you can use to a misbehaving child... こら！！ |
| Jessi: We heard this in the dialogue when the boy told off his dog. こら is like "hey, quit that!" in English. |
| Natsuko: It's very direct, and can be rude, so you would only really use it to children or animals. |
| Jessi: What's our final word for the day? |
| Natsuko: It's what the boy called Emily. おねえさん. |
| Jessi: This literally means "older sister", but translates as 'young lady' in English. You often hear this used towards young women when the speaker is a stranger. Older people and children tend to use this way of address. For example, an old man could call a young woman "oneesan", and a child could also call a young woman oneesan. |
| Natsuko: There is an equivalent word to use to men: お兄さん |
| Jessi: "Older brother", or 'young man'. |
| Natsuko: You often hear parents referring to young men and women in the third person, to their own children using these words. As in おねえさんにチケットをあげて. |
| Jessi: 'Give the ticket to the young lady'. Now let's move on to today's lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Jessi: The focus of this lesson is how to make negative sentences using i-adjectives to say things like "The book isn't interesting' or "Dogs aren't scary". OK, Natsuko, so first of all, how do we make negative adjectives? |
| Natsuko: Let's take the adjective 怖い, scary, as an example. To make it negative, all you have to do is take off the final い and replace it with the negative ending くない. So こわい would become こわくない, not scary. |
| Jessi: Remember that you have to remove the final い before adding the くない - so it's not こわいくない but こわくない. Natsuko, can we have some other examples? |
| Natsuko: Sure! How about 小さい, small? This would turn into 小さくない, not small. |
| Jessi: Listeners, you try! Let's use the adjective たのしい, fun. Try to say 'not fun', using the くない ending. |
| Natsuko: [wait 5 seconds] たのしくない. |
| Jessi: Did you get it right? How about another? The adjective かわいい is one some of you might know already - it means 'cute'. Now how do you say 'not cute'? |
| Natsuko [wait 5 secs] かわいくない. |
| Jessi: おもしろい is 'interesting' or 'funny'. Now try saying 'not interesting, not funny'. |
| Natsuko: [wait 5 secs] おもしろくない. |
| Jessi: Have you got it? Now, these are all regular い adjectives. But there is one that is irregular... |
| Natsuko: The adjective いい, meaning 'good'. To say 'not good', you don't say いくない, but よくない. |
| Jessi: The reason for this is that いい comes from the more polite or formal version of the word, よい. So the negative version goes back to this よい and becomes よくない. |
| Natsuko: Listeners, listen and repeat. "Not good". よくない. |
| Jessi: [wait 5 secs] Now listeners, say "not good" in Japanese. |
| Natsuko: [wait 5 secs] よくない. |
| Jessi: There's another adjective that ends like this - the word meaning "cool" or "good-looking"... |
| Natsuko: かっこいい. This word ends in いい, so it becomes かっこよくない. |
| Jessi: Listeners, listen and repeat. "Not cool". かっこよくない。 |
| Jessi: [wait 5 secs] Now listeners, say "not cool" in Japanese. |
| Natsuko: [wait 5 secs] かっこよくない. |
| Jessi: And to make a sentence with one of these negative adjectives is really easy. All you have to do is take the AはBです structure you learned previously and insert the negative adjective for B. For example, let's say "This movie is not interesting". |
| Natsuko: この映画はおもしろくないです。 |
| Jessi: Listeners, listen and repeat. "This movie is not interesting". |
| Natsuko: [wait 5 secs] この映画はおもしろくないです。 |
| Jessi: Now listeners, say "this movie is not interesting" in Japanese. |
| Natsuko: [wait 5 secs] この映画はおもしろくないです。 |
| Jessi: Did you get it? Now using the same sentence structure, try saying "That dog is not cute". A hint - "That dog" is その犬. |
| Natsuko: [wait 5 secs] そのいぬはかわいくないです。 |
Outro |
| Jessi: That's about all we have time for today. |
| Natsuko: For more detailed explanations of this grammar point and lots more example sentences, please check out the lesson notes. |
| Jessi: Yes, please do. Please also feel free to ask us any questions or leave us any comments you may have in the lesson comments section on the site! See you next time! |
| Natsuko: じゃ、また！ |
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