Learn about duration of time
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Jessi: Get Me To The Church, No, Make That The Hotel In Japan On Time! |
| Naomi: ナオミです。(Naomi desu.) |
| Peter: Peter here. Today we are continuing on with the taxi story line. Naomi-sensei? |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: What happened in the last lesson? |
| Naomi: Minami-san took a taxi and hit traffic, which is 渋滞 (jūtai) in Japanese. |
| Peter: That’s right. She told the taxi driver what time the party starts and ends. The party is from 6:30. |
| Naomi: でも、今６時半です。(Demo, ima roku-ji han desu.) |
| Peter: But it’s 6:30 now. So according to the conversation, it’s already 6:30. The party starts at the same time, 6:30, and she is in the taxi. |
| Naomi: She is running late. |
| Peter: Really late. Now, last lesson, we introduced two particles. |
| Naomi: から (kara) |
| Peter: From. |
| Naomi: まで (made) |
| Peter: To, with time expressions. Now we are continuing on with から (kara) and まで (made) and now we are going to introduce the length of time. |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| Peter: So the conversation is between |
| Naomi: お客さん (o-kyaku-san) |
| Peter: And |
| Naomi: 運転手 (untenshu) |
| Peter: The driver. So we are going to be using |
| Naomi: Polite Japanese. |
| Peter: And the conversation takes place? |
| Naomi: In a taxi. |
| Peter: Still haven’t gotten out. All right, with that said, here we go. |
| DIALOGUE |
| 南 夏見 (Minami Natsumi) : 運転手さん、ここから 横浜ホテルまで 何分ですか。(Untenshu-san, koko kara Yokohama Hoteru made nan-pun desu ka.) |
| タクシーの運転手 (Takushī no untenshu) : さぁ・・・。(Sā...) |
| 南 夏見 (Minami Natsumi) : あれは、駅ですか。(Are wa, eki desu ka.) |
| タクシーの運転手 (Takushī no untenshu) : ああ、そうです。横浜駅です。５分ぐらいです。(Ā, sō desu. Yokohama Eki desu. Go-fun gurai desu.) |
| 南 夏見 (Minami Natsumi) : うーん。ここから駅まで５分。駅から ホテルまで １０分・・・。運転手さん！ここでいいです。いくらですか。(Ūn. Koko kara eki made go-fun. Eki kara hoteru made juppun. ...Untenshu-san! Koko de ii desu. Ikura desu ka.) |
| もう一度お願いします。ゆっくりお願いします。(Mō ichi-do onegai shimasu. Yukkuro onegai shimasu.) |
| 南 夏見 (Minami Natsumi) : 運転手さん、ここから 横浜ホテルまで 何分ですか。(Untenshu-san, koko kara Yokohama Hoteru made nan-pun desu ka.) |
| タクシーの運転手 (Takushī no untenshu) : さぁ・・・。(Sā...) |
| 南 夏見 (Minami Natsumi) : あれは、駅ですか。(Are wa, eki desu ka.) |
| タクシーの運転手 (Takushī no untenshu) : ああ、そうです。横浜駅です。５分ぐらいです。(Ā, sō desu. Yokohama Eki desu. Go-fun gurai desu.) |
| 南 夏見 (Minami Natsumi) : うーん。ここから駅まで５分。駅から ホテルまで １０分・・・。運転手さん！ここでいいです。いくらですか。(Ūn. Koko kara eki made go-fun. Eki kara hoteru made juppun. ...Untenshu-san! Koko de ii desu. Ikura desu ka.) |
| 今度は、英語が入ります。(Kondo wa, Eigo ga hairimasu.) |
| 南 夏見 (Minami Natsumi) : 運転手さん、ここから 横浜ホテルまで 何分ですか。(Untenshu-san, koko kara Yokohama Hoteru made nan-pun desu ka.) |
| NATSUMI MINAMI: Sir, how long does it take to get to the Yokohama Hotel from here? |
| タクシーの運転手 (Takushī no untenshu) : さぁ・・・。(Sā...) |
| TAXI DRIVER: Well... I'm not sure. |
| 南 夏見 (Minami Natsumi) : あれは、駅ですか。(Are wa, eki desu ka.) |
| NATSUMI MINAMI: Is that a station? |
| タクシーの運転手 (Takushī no untenshu) : ああ、そうです。横浜駅です。５分ぐらいです。(Ā, sō desu. Yokohama Eki desu. Go-fun gurai desu.) |
| TAXI DRIVER: Oh, yeah. That's right. That's Yokohama station. It takes about five minutes to get there. |
| 南 夏見 (Minami Natsumi) : うーん。ここから駅まで５分。駅から ホテルまで １０分・・・。運転手さん！ここでいいです。いくらですか。(Ūn. Koko kara eki made go-fun. Eki kara hoteru made juppun. ...Untenshu-san! Koko de ii desu. Ikura desu ka.) |
| NATSUMI MINAMI: Well..It takes five minutes to get to the station. It takes ten minutes from the station to the hotel... Sir, stop here please. How much do I owe you? |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Peter: ナオミ先生、日本のタクシーは高いですね。(Naomi-sensei, Nihon no takushī wa takai desu ne.) |
| Naomi: 高いですね。(Takai desu.) |
| Peter: Japanese taxis are expensive. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) I agree. |
| Peter: Base fare はいくらですか (wa ikura desu ka). How much is the base fare? |
| Naomi: 660円です。(Roppyaku roku-jū-en desu.) |
| Peter: ¥660 in Tokyo. |
| Naomi: I think the price is pretty much same all over Japan. |
| Peter: Really? |
| Naomi: 多分。(Tabun.) Not sure. ごめんね。(Gomen ne.) That’s because gasoline in Japan is very, very expensive. ガソリンは高いです。(Gasorin wa takai desu.) |
| Peter: Yeah, and at night time, the price rises, too. |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) But generally speaking, taxi drivers are very nice. The taxi cabs are clean and they never rip you off. |
| Peter: Yeah, so in that aspect, it’s quite nice. |
| Naomi: それから、タクシーは便利ですね。(Sorekara, takushī wa benri desu ne.) |
| Peter: Convenient. |
| Naomi: When you miss the last train. |
| Peter: Yeah. Convenient but 高いです (takai desu). |
| Naomi: そう。本当に高いです。(Sō. Hontō ni takai desu.) |
| Peter: What’s your personal record? |
| Naomi: 5,500円。(Go-sen go-hyaku-en.) Not bad. |
| Peter: ¥5500. |
| Naomi: はい。ピーターさんは？(Hai. Pītā-san wa?) |
| Peter: 10,000円。(Ichi-man-en.) |
| Naomi: Oh…. |
| Peter: ¥10000. |
| Naomi: 高い！(Takai!) |
| Peter: 高いです。(Takai desu.) |
| Naomi: Hah! |
| Peter: 新宿から国立まで。(Shinjuku kara Kunitachi made.) |
| Naomi: 新宿から国立まで、10,000円？(Shinjuku kara Kunitachi made, ichi-man-en?) |
| Peter: そうです。(Sō desu.) |
| Naomi: 高い！(Takai!) |
| Peter: 高いです。(Takai desu.) Yeah, I don’t really want to remember that for too long. So let’s head on to the vocabulary. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Naomi: はい。駅 (Hai. eki) |
| Peter: Station. |
| Naomi: (slow) えき (eki) (natural speed) 駅 (eki) |
| Peter: Starts high and falls on the second syllable き (ki). |
| Naomi: 駅 (eki) |
| Peter: Next. |
| Naomi: ホテル (hoteru) |
| Peter: Hotel. |
| Naomi: (slow) ほてる (hoteru) (natural speed) ホテル (hoteru) |
| Peter: Starts high, falls on the second syllable テ (te) stays low. |
| Naomi: ホテル (hoteru) |
| Peter: Next. |
| Naomi: ５分 (go-fun) |
| Peter: 5 minutes. |
| Naomi: (slow) ごふん (go-fun) (natural speed) ５分 (go-fun) |
| Peter: Starts high, falls on the second syllable ふ (fu). |
| Naomi: ５分 (go-fun) |
| Peter: Next. |
| Naomi: １０分 (juppun) |
| Peter: 10 minutes. |
| Naomi: (slow) じゅっぷん (juppun) (natural speed) １０分 (juppun) |
| Peter: Falls after the じゅ (ju) stays low. |
| Naomi: １０分 (juppun) |
| Peter: Next. |
| Naomi: ぐらい (gurai) |
| Peter: About. |
| Naomi: (slow) ぐらい (gurai) (natural speed) ぐらい (gurai) |
| Peter: Falls on the second syllable ら (ra). |
| Naomi: ぐらい (gurai) |
| Peter: Next. |
| Naomi: 何分 (nan-pun) |
| Peter: How many minutes. |
| Naomi: (slow) なんぷん (nan-pun) (natural speed) 何分 (nan-pun) |
| Peter: Falls on the second syllable ん (n). |
| Naomi: 何分 (nan-pun) |
| Peter: Next. |
| Naomi: さあ (sā) |
| Peter: Well. |
| Naomi: (slow) さあ (sā) (natural speed) さあ (sā) |
| Peter: Falls on the second syllable あ (a). |
| Naomi: さあ (sā) |
| Peter: Okay, let’s take a look at some of the vocab we just went over. Let’s first take a look at |
| Naomi: ぐらい (gurai) |
| Peter: Approximately, about. |
| Naomi: ここから駅まで５分ぐらいです。(Koko kara eki made go-fun gurai desu.) |
| Peter: It takes about 5 minutes to get to the station from here. Now ぐらい (gurai) is added after the quantity and it means about or approximately. So if we look back at this previous sentence, we had the measurement in time which was |
| Naomi: ５分 (go-fun) |
| Peter: Followed by |
| Naomi: ぐらい (gurai) |
| Peter: About 5 minutes. |
| Naomi: The word order is opposite. So be careful, not ぐらい５分 (gurai go-fun). |
| Peter: Yeah. |
| Naomi: ５分ぐらい。(Go-fun gurai.) |
| Peter: Now the kanji for ぐらい (gurai) can be read as |
| Naomi: くらい (kurai) |
| Peter: く (ku), く (ku) |
| Naomi: (slow) くらい (kurai) (natural speed) くらい (kurai) |
| Peter: Or |
| Naomi: ぐらい (gurai) |
| Peter: ぐ (gu), ぐ (gu), ぐ (gu) |
| Naomi: (slow) ぐらい (gurai) |
| Peter: So it should be pronounced as ぐらい (gurai) when it is preceded by a quantity such as time, price or weight. |
| Naomi: 100円ぐらい (hyaku-en gurai) |
| Peter: ‘G’ sound, one more time. |
| Naomi: 100円ぐらい (hyaku-en gurai) |
| Peter: This is about ¥100. |
| Naomi: 今３時ぐらい (ima san-ji gurai) |
| Peter: It’s about 3 o’clock now. |
| Naomi: But people sometimes use くらい (kurai) instead of ぐらい (gurai). |
| Peter: Hmm… |
| Naomi: Yeah, the correct usage is quantity plus ぐらい (gurai) but in a conversation, people don’t really think about it. |
| Peter: So sometimes they put in くらい (kurai). ５分くらい (go-fun kurai). |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: But ぐらい (gurai) flows more natural it seems. |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| Peter: Now what I was kind of taken aback by there is kanji for this. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: I never really saw the kanji. I always see くらい (kurai) or ぐらい (gurai) written in hiragana. |
| Naomi: Ah… |
| Peter: So when I saw this, I was – I thought to myself wow, 位 (kurai). |
| Naomi: Umm, person is standing. |
| Peter: Yeah. Next we have |
| Naomi: ここでいいです。(Koko de ii desu.) |
| Peter: Here is fine. Literally this phrase means here is good. So it kind of works out like here is fine. You know we’d say in English to the taxi driver, here is fine. I am good here. Stop the cab! |
| Naomi: ここで。そうですね。ここでいいです。(Koko de. Sō desu ne. Koko de ii desu.) |
| Peter: Here is good, here is fine. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: And you can use this to get out of the taxi. |
| Naomi: ここでいいです。(Koko de ii desu.) |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Peter: Okay, let’s have a more thorough look at the grammar used in this lesson. Naomi-sensei, what did we cover in this lesson? |
| Naomi: 何分 (nan-pun) |
| Peter: How many minutes. Now let’s go back to where this appeared in the conversation. Can you repeat that sentence? |
| Naomi: ここから横浜ホテルまで何分ですか。(Koko kara Yokohama Hoteru made nan-pun desu ka.) |
| Peter: How long, how many minutes does it take to get to Yokohama hotel from here. Okay, and can you give us one more example of how we apply this? |
| Naomi: 何時何分ですか。(Nan-ji nan-pun desu ka.) |
| Peter: What time is it? Literally what hour, what minute is it. So what we want to do here is stop and go over minutes because minutes can be a bit tricky. |
| Naomi: 難しいですね。(Muzukashii desu ne.) |
| Peter: ちょっと難しいですね。(Chotto muzukashii desu ne.) |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: And the reason for that is sometimes we have a phonetic change. So we are going to go over these and give you some tips to really help you navigate your way through counting minutes and this is really good exercise because sometimes even really experienced speakers get a little tripped up by this. Okay so, ナオミ先生、お願いします。(Naomi-sensei, onegai shimasu.) One minute. |
| Naomi: １分 (ippun) |
| Peter: Two minutes. |
| Naomi: ２分 (ni-fun) |
| Peter: Three minutes. |
| Naomi: ３分 (san-pun) |
| Peter: Four minutes. |
| Naomi: ４分 (yon-pun) |
| Peter: Five minutes. |
| Naomi: ５分 (go-fun) |
| Peter: Six minutes. |
| Naomi: ６分 (roppun) |
| Peter: Seven minutes. |
| Naomi: ７分 (nana-fun) |
| Peter: Eight minutes. |
| Naomi: ８分 (happun) or ８分 (hachi-fun) |
| Peter: Nine minutes. |
| Naomi: ９分 (kyū-fun) |
| Peter: Ten minutes. |
| Naomi: １０分 (juppun) |
| Peter: Naomi-sensei, the counter for minutes is |
| Naomi: 分 (fun) or 分 (pun) |
| Peter: Yes. Now if we want to give a base, we could say that the counter is 分 (fun) but there again it changes. Now out of 1 to 10 and from what we just went over, 5 of them have 分 (fun). The other five are 分 (pun). |
| Naomi: すごい。(Sugoi.) |
| Peter: So it’s kind of an even split here. So let’s see if we can help you remember this. So we start out with the first one. |
| Naomi: １分 (ippun) |
| Peter: Notice the pause in there plus 分 (pun). One more time. |
| Naomi: １分 (ippun) |
| Peter: Followed by |
| Naomi: ２分 (ni-fun) |
| Peter: Two minutes. No pause and straight to the 分 (fun), ２分 (ni-fun). Next is |
| Naomi: ３分 (san-pun) |
| Peter: This is followed by |
| Naomi: ４分 (yon-pun) |
| Peter: Two in a row. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) I think that’s because of the ん (n) sound. ‘N’ sound. |
| Peter: Similar to the previous one, ３分 (san-pun). When you have a ‘n’ sound in there, you are going to switch to 分 (pun). |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: So three out of the first four are 分 (pun),１分 (ippun), ２分 (ni-fun),３分 (san-pun), ４分 (yon-pun). Next we have |
| Naomi: ５分 (go-fun) |
| Peter: So now we are back to the 分 (fun). This is followed by |
| Naomi: ６分 (roppun) |
| Peter: Back to the 分 (pun). So four out of the first six are 分 (pun). So this is followed by |
| Naomi: ７分 (nana-fun) |
| Peter: Seven minutes. Then we have |
| Naomi: ８分 (happun) or ８分 (hachi-fun) |
| Peter: Next. |
| Naomi: ９分 (kyū-fun) |
| Peter: Followed by |
| Naomi: １０分 (juppun) |
| Peter: So there are two in here that can be said either way 分 (pun) or 分 (fun). 4 and 8. |
| Naomi: ４分 (yon-fun) or ４分 (yon-pun). ８分 (happun) or ８分 (hachi-fun). |
| Peter: Well the way I usually remember it is if we keep ４分 (yon-pun), it’s almost like every other one is ふん (fun), ぷん (pun). |
| Naomi: Wow! I didn’t know that. |
| Peter: Right, so it’s １分 (ippun). |
| Naomi: ああ。(Ā.) |
| Peter: Then we switch to |
| Naomi: ２分 (ni-fun) |
| Peter: Then we are back to |
| Naomi: ３分 (san-pun) |
| Peter: And we just got two in a row here. |
| Naomi: ４分 (yon-pun) |
| Peter: You can also say ４分 (yon-fun) here but let’s just keep this two in a row just for to make this little trick work. So we are keeping ４分 (yon-pun), this is followed by |
| Naomi: ５分 (go-fun) |
| Peter: 分 (fun). So every other one. |
| Naomi: ６分 (roppun) |
| Peter: Back to the 分 (pun). Next we have |
| Naomi: ７分 (nana-fun) |
| Peter: Back to the 分 (fun). Next we have |
| Naomi: ８分 (happun) |
| Peter: Followed by |
| Naomi: ９分 (kyū-fun) |
| Peter: And finally |
| Naomi: １０分 (juppun) |
| Peter: So hopefully this gives you a little bit of insight. I mean…. |
| Naomi: Wow! |
| Peter: The best way to do it is kind of just memorize it. Sit down and memorize it. That’s definitely the best way but this should help maybe give you a little bit of insight. |
| Naomi: おお、すごいすごい。(Ō, sugoi sugoi.) |
| Peter: Or hopefully something to help you memorize. Okay, let’s move on to the focus of today’s lesson using the two parties から (kara) and まで (made). Now から (kara) is a particle used to indicate the starting position, where まで (made) indicates up to when talking about time or place. So let’s go back to where this appeared in the conversation. Can you repeat that sentence? |
| Naomi: ここから駅まで５分です。(Koko kara eki made go-fun desu.) |
| Peter: It takes 5 minutes to get to the station from here. Now literally we have, one more time. |
| Naomi: ここ (koko) |
| Peter: Here. |
| Naomi: から (kara) |
| Peter: From. |
| Naomi: 駅 (eki) |
| Peter: Station. |
| Naomi: まで (made) |
| Peter: To. |
| Naomi: ５分 (go-fun) |
| Peter: Five minutes. |
| Naomi: です (desu) |
| Peter: Is. Here from station to five minutes is what we have literally but of course when we translate it, it is 5 minutes to get to the station from here but the pattern stays the same. You can take two locations and swap them out. So if we want to say it takes 20 minutes from Tokyo to Yokohama, we would say |
| Naomi: 東京から横浜まで、20分です。(Tōkyō kara Yokohama made, ni-juppun desu.) |
| Peter: It takes 20 minutes from Tokyo to Yokohama. |
| Naomi: To make a question form is easy, too. 何分 (nan-pun) is a question. So ここから駅まで何分ですか (koko kara eki made nan-pun desu ka) is a question. |
| Peter: Yeah, so how long does it take from here to the station? |
Outro |
| Peter: All right, so I think that’s going to do for today. |
| Naomi: じゃあ、また。(Jā, mata.) |
| DIALOGUE |
| 南 夏見 (Minami Natsumi) : 運転手さん、ここから 横浜ホテルまで 何分ですか。(Untenshu-san, koko kara Yokohama Hoteru made nan-pun desu ka.) |
| タクシーの運転手 (Takushī no untenshu) : さぁ・・・。(Sā...) |
| 南 夏見 (Minami Natsumi) : あれは、駅ですか。(Are wa, eki desu ka.) |
| タクシーの運転手 (Takushī no untenshu) : ああ、そうです。横浜駅です。５分ぐらいです。(Ā, sō desu. Yokohama Eki desu. Go-fun gurai desu.) |
| 南 夏見 (Minami Natsumi) : うーん。ここから駅まで５分。駅から ホテルまで １０分・・・。運転手さん！ここでいいです。いくらですか。(Ūn. Koko kara eki made go-fun. Eki kara hoteru made juppun. ...Untenshu-san! Koko de ii desu. Ikura desu ka.) |
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