Learn about asking questions and telling to whom the item belongs
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| INTRODUCTION |
| Eric: Lori’s story 5. How to ask what things are. So what are we talking about today, Naomi-sensei? |
| Naomi: 今日は (kyō wa), review. |
| Eric: What are we going to review? |
| Naomi: Affirmative sentence and question sentence. |
| Eric: All right. So today, we are reviewing affirmative sentences and question sentences. All right. |
| Naomi: With adjectives. |
| Eric: With adjectives. So Naomi, what happened last week with Lori? |
| Naomi: Lori-san met Mizuki-san at the airport. |
| Eric: Yeah, that’s pretty much it. So what’s happening in today’s dialogue? |
| Naomi: I think they are at the parking lot and trying to get Lori's luggage on a car. |
| Eric: So today we are basically reviewing what we have learned so far and we are going to learn more about question sentences and sentences that end with ね (ne) and よ (yo). |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| Eric: そうですよ。(Sō desu yo.) Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| 水木 (Mizuki) : これは ロリーさんの スーツケースですか。大きいですね。よいしょ。うわっ、重い...。イタタタタ。(Kore wa Rorī-san no sūtsukēsu desu ka. Ōkii desu ne. Yoisho. Uwa, omoi.... itatatata.) |
| ロリー (Rorī) : 重いですか。普通ですよ。(Omoi desu ka. Futsū desu yo.) |
| (ドサッ) (Dosa) |
| 水木 (Mizuki) : うわっ、馬鹿力...。(Uwa, bakajikara…) |
| ロリー (Rorī) : ばか... ぢから... 馬鹿？私は 馬鹿じゃないですよ。(Baka... jikara... baka? Watashi wa baka ja nai desu yo.) |
| 水木 (Mizuki) : え？あ、いえいえ。馬鹿ではありません。「ばかぢから」です。(E? A, ie ie. Baka de wa arimasen. "Bakajikara" desu.) |
| ロリー (Rorī) : ばかぢからは 何ですか。(Bakajikara wa nan desu ka.) |
| もう一度お願いします。今度は、ゆっくりお願いします。(Mō ichi-do onegai shimasu. Kondo wa, yukkuri onegai shimasu.) |
| 水木 (Mizuki) : これは ロリーさんの スーツケースですか。大きいですね。よいしょ。うわっ、重い...。イタタタタ。(Kore wa Rorī-san no sūtsukēsu desu ka. Ōkii desu ne. Yoisho. Uwa, omoi.... itatatata.) |
| ロリー (Rorī) : 重いですか。普通ですよ。(Omoi desu ka. Futsū desu yo.) |
| 水木 (Mizuki) : うわっ、馬鹿力...。(Uwa, bakajikara…) |
| ロリー (Rorī) : ばか... ぢから... 馬鹿？私は 馬鹿じゃないですよ。(Baka... jikara... baka? Watashi wa baka ja nai desu yo.) |
| 水木 (Mizuki) : え？あ、いえいえ。馬鹿ではありません。「ばかぢから」です。(E? A, ie ie. Baka de wa arimasen. "Bakajikara" desu.) |
| ロリー (Rorī) : ばかぢからは 何ですか。(Bakajikara wa nan desu ka.) |
| 今度は、英語が入ります。(Kondo wa, Eigo ga hairimasu.) |
| 水木 (Mizuki) : これは ロリーさんの スーツケースですか。大きいですね。(Kore wa Rorī-san no sūtsukēsu desu ka. Ōkii desu ne.) |
| MIZUKI: Is this your suitcase, Lori? It's big. |
| 水木 (Mizuki) : よいしょ。うわっ、重い...。イタタタタ。(Yoisho. Uwa, omoi.... itatatata.) |
| MIZUKI: (Yo-heave-ho!) It's heavy. Ouch… |
| ロリー (Rorī) : 重いですか。普通ですよ。(Omoi desu ka. Futsū desu yo.) |
| LORI: You think it's heavy? It's normal. |
| (ドサッ) (Dosa) |
| (thud) |
| 水木 (Mizuki) : うわっ、馬鹿力...。(Uwa, bakajikara…) |
| MIZUKI: Wow. You have bakajiikara (Great physical power). |
| ロリー (Rorī) : ばか... ぢから... 馬鹿？私は 馬鹿じゃないですよ。(Baka... jikara... baka? Watashi wa baka ja nai desu yo.) |
| LORI: Baka jikara? Baka...? Stupid...? I'm not stupid. |
| 水木: え？あ、いえいえ。馬鹿ではありません。「ばかぢから」です。(E? A, ie ie. Baka de wa arimasen. "Bakajikara" desu.) |
| MIZUKI (Mizuki) : Huh? Oh...No, no. I didn't say you were baka (stupid). I said you had BAKAJIKARA. |
| ロリー (Rorī) : ばかぢからは 何ですか。(Bakajikara wa nan desu ka.) |
| LORI: What's bakajikara? |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eric: Hey Naomi-sensei, did you know that Mizuki-san is a pirate? |
| Naomi: What do you mean? |
| Eric: Did you hear him? He was like heaving and hoeing. |
| Naomi: Ah… |
| Eric: Heave hoe.. |
| Naomi: You mean in English translation. |
| Eric: Yeah that’s what it means. He was on some pirate ship pulling under the sails and hurricanes were coming. |
| Naomi: あ～、そっかそっか。(Ā, sokka sokka.) |
| Eric: But what did you say in Japanese? |
| Naomi: よいしょ。(Yoisho.) |
| Eric: Yeah, here people say that all the time though when they are on pirate ships. What is that all about? |
| Naomi: People use that phrase when they need some kind of power like… |
| Eric: Also maybe to lift something. |
| Naomi: Yeah to lift something or maybe when I had a exercise at the gym and the very next day, my body sores, when I stands up, I might say よいしょ (yoisho). |
| Eric: Basically you need it to encourage yourself to do something… |
| Naomi: Encourage yourself, okay. |
| Eric: Exactly yeah. So something strenuous, something that’s hard like standing up. You walk around anywhere and you hear old people saying that and adding syllables to just stand up. |
| Naomi: You mean よっこらしょ (yokkorasho). |
| Eric: Yeah and you had to, like, put so much emphasis in it. It depends on the level of encouragement that you need to stand up but do you use that word, Naomi-sensei? I hear a lot of people just saying that all the time for stuff like standing up, but how about you? |
| Naomi: I try not to use it but… |
| Eric: But it slips out every once in a while. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Eric: I am going to get my recorder and I move around you, have it ready. You never know when it’s going to slip out. We are going to start the official Naomi-sensei よいしょ (yoisho), kind of put it on the main page. So you guys check that out. All right. So let’s go on to the vocabulary. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Eric: The first word is |
| Naomi: 重い (omoi) |
| Eric: Heavy. |
| Naomi: (slow) おもい (omoi) (natural speed) 重い (omoi) |
| Eric: Next word. |
| Naomi: 大きい (ōkii) |
| Eric: Big, large. |
| Naomi: (slow) おおきい (ōkii) (natural speed) 大きい (ōkii) |
| Eric: And the next word is? |
| Naomi: 痛い (itai) |
| Eric: Painful, sore, ouch. |
| Naomi: (slow) いたい (itai) (natural speed) 痛い (itai) |
| Eric: And the next word is |
| Naomi: 普通 (futsū) |
| Eric: Normal. |
| Naomi: (slow) ふつう (futsū) (natural speed) 普通 (futsū) |
| Eric: And the next phrase is |
| Naomi: 馬鹿力 (bakajikara) |
| Eric: Great physical power. |
| Naomi: (slow) ばかぢから (bakajikara) (natural speed) 馬鹿力 (bakajikara) |
| Eric: And the next word is |
| Naomi: よいしょ (yoisho) |
| Eric: An expression of effort or strain. Heave-hoe. |
| Naomi: (slow) よいしょ (yoisho) (natural speed) よいしょ (yoisho) |
| Eric: So we just saw the word 馬鹿力 (bakajikara) which is actually two words combined into one, right? What’s the first word, Naomi-sensei? |
| Naomi: 馬鹿 (baka) |
| Eric: I think that most people know what that is by now but what’s 馬鹿 (baka)? |
| Naomi: Stupid. |
| Eric: Right and it just means stupid. It’s like when you call somebody stupid, right? |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| Eric: You just say 馬鹿 (baka), right? |
| Naomi: そうです。(Sō desu.) |
| Eric: And what’s the second word? |
| Naomi: 力 (jikara) |
| Eric: Like by itself, you pronounce it differently, right? |
| Naomi: By itself we say ちから (chikara) |
| Eric: Because you combined it, the ち (chi) became |
| Naomi: ぢ (ji) and ぢから (jikara). 力 (chikara) means power. |
| Eric: Right so here we have what stupid power? |
| Naomi: Stupidly powerful. |
| Eric: That doesn’t really make anything much more clear for me. |
| Naomi: Very powerful. |
| Eric: Stupidly powerful. It’s so powerful, it’s stupid. What is this all about? Why put 馬鹿 (baka) to emphasize power? |
| Naomi: I don’t know the reason behind it but we sometimes use 馬鹿 (baka) as a prefix to emphasize the falling noun. |
| Eric: All right. So it’s basically compatible to like super or very or… |
| Naomi: Right. |
| Eric: Or crazy. |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| Eric: This is crazy powerful. I mean some people don’t really talk like that but some people do and you can put – can you put 馬鹿 (baka) in front of anything? |
| Naomi: Not everything but yeah in front of adjectives. Yeah, pretty much. |
| Eric: Pretty much. |
| Naomi: Yeah, because in today’s conversation, we have 大きい (ōkii), that’s the adjective. |
| Eric: Right. For big. |
| Naomi: はい。馬鹿大きい。(Hai. Baka ōkii.) Like super big. |
| Eric: This is crazy big. |
| Naomi: そんな感じです。(Sonna kanji desu.) |
| Eric: I see and I mean, I have been in Japan for a while now but I don’t really hear people saying 馬鹿です (baka desu), 馬鹿だ (baka da) too much. Was this popular like back in the day? |
| Naomi: It’s not an everyday word. People occasionally use it. |
| Eric: Right. Now to tell you the truth, actually I do use one form of it. I say 馬鹿高い (baka takai). It’s when something is extremely expensive or just unreasonably like or literally stupidly expensive. |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| Eric: You know like just it doesn’t even make sense, then sometimes I say 馬鹿高いな (baka takai na) or something like that. |
| Naomi: 馬鹿高い、言いますね。(Baka takai, iimasu ne.) We often use that phrase. |
| Eric: Okay and the dialogue Mizuki-san was talking about how big her suitcase is, right? What did he say? |
| Naomi: 大きいですね。(Ōkii desu ne.) |
| Eric: 大きいです。(Ōkii desu.) It’s big and then he said ね (ne). |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) Sentence ending particle. |
| Eric: All right and what does that particle do to the sentence. Does it change the meaning? |
| Naomi: It’s like our English tag question. |
| Eric: Sort of like isn’t it or right. |
| Naomi: Don’t you think? |
| Eric: So in English, I would probably say this is big ah! |
| Naomi: そんな感じ。(Sonna kanji.) |
| Eric: Isn’t this big or what? Something like that, right? Yeah, it depends how you say it but yeah I guess people will use words like that all the time even in English but in Japanese, it’s easier because it’s only one particle that you attach to the end of any type of sentence, right? So for example, wow this is pretty big isn’t it, would be? |
| Naomi: これは大きいですね。(Kore wa ōkii desu ne.) |
| Eric: So basically in this dialogue, it’s pretty obvious. Mr. Mizuki is talking about Lori’s suitcase. So the topic and the topic marker これは (kore wa) is omitted. 大きいですね (ōkii desu ne), if it’s pretty obvious that you know what you are talking about, you don’t have to say これは (kore wa). You don’t have to say このスーツケースは (kono sūtsukēsu wa). So let’s break it down, all right. The first word is |
| Naomi: これ (kore) |
| Eric: This. |
| Naomi: は (wa) |
| Eric: Topic marking particle. |
| Naomi: 大きい (ōkii) |
| Eric: Big. |
| Naomi: です (desu) |
| Eric: Copula. |
| Naomi: ね (ne) |
| Eric: A sentence ending particle which indicates emotion of admiration or agreement. |
| Naomi: 例えば、これは重いです。(Tatoeba, kore wa omoi desu.) |
| Eric: This is heavy. |
| Naomi: これは重いですね。(Kore wa omoi desu ne.) |
| Eric: This is heavy, isn’t it? All right. So you are talking about like stuff that’s pretty subjective right like somebody might not think it’s that heavy but how about something that’s a fact like I am Eric, エリックです (Erikku desu). |
| Naomi: エリックさんですね。(Erikku-san desu ne.) |
| Eric: So you are asking if you are Eric, aren’t you, if you don’t know. |
| Naomi: So エリックさんですか (Erikku-san desu ka), is are you Eric? エリックさんですね (Erikku-san desu ne) is you are Eric, right? |
| Eric: So this ね (ne) is still a question but you have really good reason to believe that I am Eric. We just talked about 大きい (ōkii) earlier, big. Can you say it with the accent, Naomi-sensei? |
| Naomi: 大きい (ōkii) |
| Eric: Can you break it down even slower? |
| Naomi: (slow) おおきい (ōkii) (natural speed) 大きい (ōkii) |
| Eric: Right. There is two お (o)s right in the beginning, right? |
| Naomi: Uhoo… |
| Eric: It’s not one or it’s not おきい (okii). It’s おおきい (ōkii) and plus the intonation goes up for the second お (o). So for all you listeners, just make sure that when you are practicing 大きい (ōkii), you keep the intonation intact for everybody to understand what you are saying because it can get out of hand if you start saying 大きい (ōkii) with one お (o) or with intonation going somewhere else. Okay, let’s move on to わああ～ (waā). What’s うわあ～ (uwā)? |
| Naomi: Emotional interjection. |
| Eric: Yeah, I just felt emotional right now just saying that. When do you use it? |
| Naomi: え～。どういう時だろうね。(Ē. Dō iu toki darō ne.) |
| Eric: Do you use it, Naomi-sensei? |
| Naomi: Yeah, I do. When I am surprised probably. |
| Eric: So for example, on your birthday, somebody all of a sudden brings you this huge birthday cake with 1000 candles on it because they think you are 1000 years old. |
| Naomi: Ah. |
| Eric: No nothing. |
| Naomi: うわ。(Uwa.) |
| Eric: You could just say that short? |
| Naomi: うわ〜。(Uwā.) |
| Eric: Yeah, you probably get into it, wouldn’t you? You would probably be revving it up. Yeah, I mean even on TV, people say うわ〜(uwā) all the time. They can hold it hah for minutes at a time. |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| Eric: It depends how excited you are but うわ〜(uwā) is pretty consistent. All Japanese people use it. So if you want to be surprised, say うわ〜(uwā)! And you can look at all the variations of うわ〜(uwā) in the PDF, right? |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Eric: All right, on to grammar. In a previous episode, we talked about the particle の (no) in its attributive function. |
| Naomi: Attributive function. |
| Eric: Does that make sense? |
| Naomi: うん。(Un.) |
| Eric: Okay good. Anyway, yeah basically like for example, 留学センターの水木です (ryūgaku sentā no Mizuki desu). |
| Naomi: ジャパニーズポッド１０１のなおみです。(Japanīzupoddo ichi maru ichi no Naomi desu.) |
| Eric: So you are Naomi from japanesepod101 but now we are going to talk about の (no) in its possessive form. Where did this show up in today’s dialogue? |
| Naomi: これはロリーさんのスーツケースですか。(Kore wa Rorī-san no sūtsukēsu desu ka.) |
| Eric: Is this Lori’s suitcase? Okay, so in this case, if we are talking about people’s possessions, you would say someone の (no) and noun. Something they own. |
| Naomi: Someone の (no) item. |
| Eric: So let’s break it down again. |
| Naomi: これ (kore) |
| Eric: This. |
| Naomi: は (wa) |
| Eric: Topic marker. |
| Naomi: ロリー (Rorī) |
| Eric: Lori. |
| Naomi: さん (san) |
| Eric: Mrs. |
| Naomi: の (no) |
| Eric: ‘s |
| Naomi: スーツケース (sūtsukēsu) |
| Eric: Suitcase. |
| Naomi: です (desu) |
| Eric: The copula. |
| Naomi: か (ka) |
| Eric: A question marker. And before I said ‘s and I wasn’t referring to bee’s speaking here, it was the possessive particle like Lori’s – Lori’s suitcase. Apostrophe S. |
| Naomi: 例えば、私のペン。(Tatoeba, watashi no pen.) |
| Eric: Naomi-sensei’s pen. |
| Naomi: エリックさんのペン。(Erikku-san no pen.) |
| Eric: My pen. Eric’s pen. |
| Naomi: ともこのペン。(Tomoko no pen.) |
| Eric: Tomoko’s pen. |
| Naomi: ひろしのペン。(Hiroshi no pen.) |
| Eric: Hiroshi’s pen. |
| Naomi: simpleですね (desu ne). |
| Eric: It’s pretty straightforward but it’s a little bit more flexible, right? You can use not only objects but ideas, right? |
| Naomi: あ～。(Ā.) Yeah. |
| Eric: Right, so it’s not only with the objects but just as in English with apostrophe S, you can use abstract things like ideas, statements or anything. So for example, Hiroshi’s idea would be |
| Naomi: ひろしのアイデア。(Hiroshi no aidea.) |
| Eric: Naomi-sensei, you just asked me これはロリーさんのスーツケースですか (kore wa Rorī-san no sūtsukēsu desu ka), and that’s kind of polite, isn’t it? |
| Naomi: あ～、そうですね。(Ā, sō desu ne.) |
| Eric: I mean how would you ask me if we were just hanging out on the side of the street and you are my best friend. |
| Naomi: これはロリーのスーツケース？ (Kore wa Rorī no sūtsukēsu?) |
| Eric: So basically you omitted the ですか (desu ka) at the end. So that ですか (desu ka) just makes the sentence polite and it doesn’t really add any meaning, right? |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Eric: But how do people know you are asking a question? |
| Naomi: Intonation. |
| Eric: Super important as I have said in almost every episode. Intonation, ask that question again? |
| Naomi: これはロリーのスーツケース？(Kore wa Rorī no sūtsukēsu?) |
| Eric: Naomi-san, she just took the intonation up at the end. Even though スーツケース (sūtsukēsu), スーツケース (sūtsukēsu) ends down, she took it back up スーツケース (sūtsukēsu). |
| Naomi: Right. |
| Eric: Actually I’ve had so many unanswered questions because of this problem, because of this intonation thing. In the beginning, you know back in the day, I have asked many questions and had no response because the people have thought it was a statement. I have said これはスーツケース (kore wa sūtsukēsu) and like leave the intonation down at the bottom and then people would just be like... |
| Naomi: Yeah, yeah Eric is talking to himself again? |
| Eric: Yeah, yeah right, right, right. It’s almost as if I was asking me, is this suitcase, as if I was talking to myself. So listeners, you guys, newbies, everybody, raise the intonation at the end no matter what word it is, no matter where the intonation goes. At the end, take it back up and it will become a question. That’s when you are speaking the casual without ですか (desu ka) at the end. Actually Naomi-sensei, there is a way to make it even more casual, isn’t there? |
| Naomi: Omit particle and noun, right? |
| Eric: So you are omitting the actual thing that you are talking about. |
| Naomi: Right. |
| Eric: Give it a shot. |
| Naomi: これ、ロリーの？(Kore, Rorī no?) |
| Eric: You totally didn’t even mention what you are talking about but I assumed from the conversation that it’s probably pretty obvious, right? You are probably standing in front of the suitcase with Lori and you are probably pointing at it or looking at it and you are saying, is this yours right and in English, you would say this because we have to say you know, give an object right but in Japanese, you don’t even say what it is. So let’s break it down. You said |
| Naomi: これ (kore) |
| Eric: This. |
| Naomi: ロリー (Rorī) |
| Eric: Lori. |
| Naomi: の (no) |
| Eric: Apostrophe S. This Lori’s. Of course, it doesn’t work in English but you really shortened it down. Didn’t you? |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Eric: And same thing here about the intonation. The の (no), の (no) usually has I mean it's one syllable. You can’t really do anything with it but always take it up at the end if you are asking a question. これはロリーの？(Kore wa Rorī no?) |
| Naomi: 上手ね、エリックさん。(Jōzu ne, Erikku-san.) |
| Eric: Let’s practice what we have learned so far not just in this lesson but in the previous lessons. So previously we learned something は (wa) something です (desu). This is this or this is that, whatever you want to call it. The negation of that. |
| Naomi: Something は (wa) something じゃないです (ja nai desu). |
| Eric: This is not that. |
| Naomi: And something は (wa), something ですか (desu ka). |
| Eric: Is this that? |
| Naomi: And something は何ですか (wa nan desu ka). |
| Eric: What is something and not really what is something? Right, you totally want to know. Anyway, so let’s practice a bit. Okay, so for example, a person you’ve never met came up to you with a huge smile and said… |
| Naomi: こんにちは、タロウさん。(Kon’nichiwa, Tarō-san.) |
| Eric: But you are not タロウ (Tarō). You would say |
| Naomi: タロウじゃないです。(Tarō ja nai desu.) |
| Eric: And then the person apologized for the mistake and then you realize that that person was a spitting image of Keanu Reeves. |
| Naomi: Oh. |
| Eric: You would say |
| Naomi: キアヌ・リーブスさんですか。(Kianu Rībusu-san desu ka.) |
| Eric: Are you Keanu Reeves and then the guy said |
| Naomi: キアヌ・リーブスじゃないです。そっくりさんです。(Kianu Rībusu ja nai desu. Sokkuri-san desu.) |
| Eric: I am not Keanu Reeves. |
| Naomi: And if you don’t understand the word そっくりさん (sokkuri-san), you could ask. |
| Eric: How would you ask? |
| Naomi: そっくりさん、は何ですか。(Sokkuri-san, wa nan desu ka.) |
| Eric: What is そっくりさん (sokkuri-san)? |
| Naomi: What’s そっくりさん (sokkuri-san)? そっくりさんは何ですか。(Sokkuri-san wa nan desu ka.) Spitting image? |
Outro |
|---|
| Eric: His spitting image. We will see you next week. |
| Naomi: じゃ、また。(Ja, mata.) |
Get complete breakdowns, review with quizzes and download printable practice sheets! Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Comments
Hide