Learn about talking about someone's appearance and character
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Eric: Lori’s Story, Lesson 38. Make your Japanese colorful. In this lesson, you will learn how to describe people’s personalities and appearances. We are also going to introduce another type of adjective. |
| Naomi: I-adjectives such as 大きい (ōkii). |
| Eric: Big. |
| Naomi: Or かっこいい (kakkoii). |
| Eric: Cool. This conversation takes place at |
| Naomi: ロリーさんのうち。(Rorī-san no uchi.) |
| Eric: Lori’s apartment. The conversation is between |
| Naomi: ロリーさんと静さん。(Rorī-san to Shizuka-san.) |
| Eric: Lori and Shizuka. Lori and Shizuka are talking about a boy. Uh, girls talk ah! |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| Eric: Let’s listen. |
| DIALOGUE |
| ロリー (Rorī) : ああ... 大きくて 面白い ドリューさん？(Ā... Ōkikute omoshiroi Doryū-san?) |
| 静 (Shizuka) : ちがいます。ちがいます。中国人で... 細くて かっこいい リュウさん。(Chigaimasu. Chigaimasu. Chūgoku-jin de... hosokute kakkoii Ryū-san.) |
| ロリー (Rorī) : ああー。リュウさん。やさしくて おとなしい人ですね。はいはい。わかります。友だちでした。(Ā. Ryū-san. Yasashikute otonashii hito desu ne. Hai hai. Wakarimasu. Tomodachi deshita.) |
| 静 (Shizuka) : でした？(Deshita?) |
| ロリー (Rorī) : ええ。もう 友だちじゃないです。私の彼氏です。(Ee. Mō tomodachi ja nai desu. Watashi no kareshi desu.) |
| 静 (Shizuka) : ええーっ。うそぉ〜。(Ē. Usō.) |
| 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.) |
| ロリー (Rorī) : ああ... 大きくて 面白い ドリューさん？(Ā... Ōkikute omoshiroi Doryū-san?) |
| 静 (Shizuka) : ちがいます。ちがいます。中国人で... 細くて かっこいい リュウさん。(Chigaimasu. Chigaimasu. Chūgoku-jin de... hosokute kakkoii Ryū-san.) |
| ロリー (Rorī) : ああー。リュウさん。やさしくて おとなしい人ですね。はいはい。わかります。友だちでした。(Ā. Ryū-san. Yasashikute otonashii hito desu ne. Hai hai. Wakarimasu. Tomodachi deshita.) |
| 静 (Shizuka) : でした？(Deshita?) |
| ロリー (Rorī) : ええ。もう 友だちじゃないです。私の彼氏です。(Ee. Mō tomodachi ja nai desu. Watashi no kareshi desu.) |
| 静 (Shizuka) : ええーっ。うそぉ〜。(Ē. Usō.) |
| 今度は、英語が入ります。(Kondo wa, Eigo ga hairimasu.) |
| ロリー (Rorī) : ああ... 大きくて 面白い ドリューさん？(Ā... Ōkikute omoshiroi Doryū-san?) |
| LORI: Ahh... Drew, the big, funny guy? |
| 静 (Shizuka) : ちがいます。ちがいます。中国人で... 細くて かっこいい リュウさん。(Chigaimasu. Chigaimasu. Chūgoku-jin de... hosokute kakkoii Ryū-san.) |
| SHIZUKA: No, no. He's Chinese. He's slim and good-looking, and his name is Ryu. |
| ロリー (Rorī) : ああー。リュウさん。(Ā. Ryū-san.) |
| LORI: Ahh! Ryu. |
| ロリー (Rorī) : やさしくて おとなしい人ですね。(Yasashikute otonashii hito desu ne.) |
| LORI: The nice, quiet guy. |
| ロリー (Rorī) : はいはい。わかります。(Hai hai. Wakarimasu.) |
| LORI: Okay okay, I got it now. |
| ロリー (Rorī) : 友だちでした。(Tomodachi deshita.) |
| LORI: He was my friend. |
| 静 (Shizuka) : でした？(Deshita?) |
| SHIZUKA: Was your friend? |
| ロリー (Rorī) : ええ。もう 友だちじゃないです。(Ee. Mō tomodachi ja nai desu.) |
| LORI: Yeah. He's not my friend anymore. |
| ロリー (Rorī) : 私の彼氏です。(Watashi no kareshi desu.) |
| LORI: He's my boyfriend. |
| 静 (Shizuka) : ええーっ。うそぉ〜。(Ē. Usō.) |
| SHIZUKA: What?! No way! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eric: Whoa, didn’t see that coming, Naomi-sensei. |
| Naomi: ねぇ！三角関係ですね。(Nee! Sankaku kankei desu ne.) By the way, 三角 (sankaku) is triangle and 関係 (kankei) is relationship. |
| Eric: Wait, wait, wait so you think that Shizuka also likes Ryu? |
| Naomi: と、思いますけどね。(To, omoimasu kedo ne.) I think so. |
| Eric: Fu! Things are getting hot open here. So okay – so Lori said that Ryu is her 彼氏 (kareshi) right which means boyfriend. |
| Naomi: はい、そうです。(Hai, sō desu.) Right, but the word 彼氏 (kareshi) literally means he or him. |
| Eric: But it’s not really ever used as he or him, right? It’s usually used as a boyfriend. |
| Naomi: そうですね。Boyfriend ですね。(Sō desu ne. “Boyfriend” desu ne.) |
| Eric: On to the vocabulary. |
| Naomi: 次は、単語です。(Tsugi wa, tango desu.) |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Eric: The first word is |
| Naomi: 違います (chigaimasu) |
| Eric: To be different, to differ. |
| Naomi: (slow) ちがいます (chigaimasu) (natural speed) 違います (chigaimasu) |
| Eric: The next word is |
| Naomi: 細い (hosoi) |
| Eric: Thin, slender. |
| Naomi: (slow) ほそい (hosoi) (natural speed) 細い (hosoi) |
| Eric: The next word is |
| Naomi: 優しい (yasashii) |
| Eric: Kind, gentle. |
| Naomi: (slow) やさしい (yasashii) (natural speed) 優しい (yasashii) |
| Eric: The next word is |
| Naomi: 大人しい (otonashii) |
| Eric: Quiet, calm. |
| Naomi: (slow) おとなしい (otonashii) (natural speed) 大人しい (otonashii) |
| Eric: The last word is |
| Naomi: 彼氏 (kareshi) |
| Eric: Boyfriend. |
| Naomi: (slow) かれし (kareshi) (natural speed) 彼氏 (kareshi) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Eric: What’s the first word we are going to look at today, Naomi-sensei? |
| Naomi: 彼氏 (kareshi) and 彼氏 (kareshi) |
| Eric: Boyfriend. So it’s the same word with different pronunciations. |
| Naomi: Right. そうです。(Sō desu.) |
| Eric: By the way, what’s girlfriend in Japanese? |
| Naomi: 彼女 (kanojo) or 彼女 (kanojo) |
| Eric: Which like 彼氏 (kareshi) also means her, right? |
| Naomi: Uhh. |
| Eric: And in this case, it’s pretty common to actually say 彼女 (kanojo) to mean her. |
| Naomi: Umm, if you are going to say he or him, 彼 (kare) is more common and 私の彼氏 (watashi no kareshi) or 私の彼女 (watashi no kanojo) implies your steady lover. It doesn’t mean male friend or female friend. |
| Eric: Oh okay. So you can talk about your friend saying hey, that’s my 彼女 (kanojo), that’s my 彼氏 (kareshi). People would assume that’s your girlfriend or boyfriend. |
| Naomi: そうです。(Sō desu.) |
| Eric: So how do you say male friend then? |
| Naomi: 男友達。(Otoko tomodachi.) 男 (otoko) is man. 友達 (tomodachi) is friend. |
| Eric: So what about a female friend? |
| Naomi: 女友達。(Onna tomodachi.) 女 (onna) is woman. 友達 (tomodachi) is friend. |
| Eric: You know but in my experience, people don’t usually specify what gender their friend is, right? |
| Naomi: No, no. |
| Eric: People will say like oh I went out with my 友達 (tomodachi) yesterday. |
| Naomi: そうそうそうそう。(Sō sō sō sō.) |
| Eric: And you are left, you know, guessing what kind of friend. |
| Naomi: But if like somebody asks you like おー、彼氏 (ō, kareshi)? |
| Eric: Ah then you say... いいえ (iie). |
| Naomi: あ～、いいえ。彼氏じゃないです。男友達です。(Ā, iie. Kareshi ja nai desu. Otoko tomodachi desu.) |
| Eric: Sounds good. On to the grammar. |
| Naomi: 次は、文法です。(Tsugi wa, bunpō desu.) |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Eric: In this lesson, you are going to learn how to describe people or items using more than two adjectives. We will also review i-adjectives. So look out for the bonus track of extra i-adjectives on the japanesepod101.com feed. Okay Naomi-sensei, give us two i-adjectives. |
| Naomi: 面白い (omoshiroi) |
| Eric: Interesting. |
| Naomi: 優しい (yasashii) |
| Eric: Kind. How do you say interesting and kind? |
| Naomi: 面白くて優しい (omoshirokute yasashii) |
| Eric: So when you want to combine two i-adjectives, the first adjective you say has to be changed to te-form, right? So to create the te-form of an i-adjective, you have to drop the final い (i) sound and add |
| Naomi: くて (kute) |
| Eric: All right. This is better explained with an example. So the dictionary form of interesting is |
| Naomi: 面白い (omoshiroi) |
| Eric: Drop the い (i) |
| Naomi: 面白 (omoshiro) |
| Eric: And add くて (kute) |
| Naomi: 面白くて (omoshirokute) |
| Eric: So how do you say sweet and delicious? |
| Naomi: Sweet is 甘い (amai), delicious is 美味しい (oishii). So 甘くて美味しい (amakute oishii). |
| Eric: What about cake? |
| Naomi: ケーキは甘くて美味しいです。(Kēki wa amakute oishii desu.) |
| Eric: Cake is sweet and delicious. 京都は？(Kyōto wa?) What about Kyoto? |
| Naomi: 京都は古くて面白いです。(Kyōto wa furukute omoshiroi desu.) |
| Eric: Kyoto is old and interesting. |
| Naomi: じゃあエリックさん。マイアミは？(Jā Erikku-san. Maiami wa?) |
| Eric: マイアミは暑くて楽しい。(Maiami wa atsukute tanoshii.) |
| Naomi: Hot and fun. |
| Eric: That’s right. なおみ先生、千葉は？(Naomi-sensei, Chiba wa?) |
| Naomi: 千葉？千葉は…うーん。(Chiba? Chiba wa… ūn.) I have to use i-adjectives, right? 千葉は東京から近くて楽しいです。(Chiba wa Tōkyō kara chikakute tanoshii desu.) |
| Eric: Ah, adding a condition to it. It’s close to Tokyo and it’s fun. |
| Naomi: 東京から近い (Tōkyō kara chikai) is close from Tokyo, so... 東京から近くて楽しいです。(Tōkyō kara chikakute tanoshii desu.) |
Outro |
| Naomi: 皆さんの町はどんなところですか。(Mina-san no machi wa donna tokoro desu ka.) |
| Eric: What’s your hometown like everybody? Let us know in the comments section for this episode. |
| Naomi: そうですね。I-adjectives を使ってください。(Sō desu ne. “I-adjectives” o tsukatte kudasai.) |
| Eric: Yeah, please use i-adjectives. |
| Eric: So that does it for today but I will see you guys next time. |
| Naomi: じゃ、また。(Ja, mata.) |
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Comments
HideMina-san, who can you describe by combining i-adjectives?
Konnichiwa レアンドロ・コンチャ
コメントをありがとうございます。
「煩い」is correct but we use mostly Hiragana for this Kanji.
Keep up the good work and Feel free to ask us any questions.
Sono
Team JapanesePod101.com
リマは涼しくて煩いです。
sandeepさん
Thank you so much for your feedback😄
I'm going to forward this to my team👍
Please let us know if you have any questions :)
Sincerely
Ryoma
Team JapanesePod101.com
add kanji stroke order in your kanji notes it will be very useful
Hi Rachel,
Thank you for posting!
Your answers are all good.
Please note, however, that there's a difference between 速い and 早い.
速い is quick or fast (action)
早い is early (time)
So 速い電車 means fast train and 早い電車 means early train.
Please let us know if you have any question:)
Sincerely,
Miho
Team JapanesePod101.com
1a. 大きい
2a. 暑い
3a. 速い
4a. 高い
5a. 新しい
1b. 安くて、速い
2b. 安くて、速くて、美味しい
1a. 私の両親は面白くて、楽しくて、スマ一トです。
Monica (モニカ)さん
コメントありがとうございます😄
りゅうさんは流石（さすが）ですね！
Please let us know if you have any question :)
Sincerely
Ryoma
Team JapanesePod101.com
Uwa Ryu-San! What a ladies man
Hi gee,
Thanks for leaving a comment.
Usually, the order is different. "Chiisakute abunai desu."
For example a button battery is small so it's dangerous to small children.
We say 「ボタン電池は小さくて危ないです。(ボタンでんち は ちいさくて あぶない です。Botan denchi wa chiisakute abunai desu.) 」
If you have any questions when studying Japanese, please ask us in the comment section!
Sincerely,
Miki H
Team JapanesePod101.com
abunakute chiisai desu.
ルベンさん、こんにちは。
どういたしまして。
バルキシメトは美しい都市なのですね！
勉強頑張ってください👍👍👍
エリカ
Team JapanesePod101.com
Hi ライアン,
Thanks for the comment!
私の町は小さくて少しつまらないですが、いい町/所です。
Sounds nice:)
Please let us know if you have any question.
Sincerely,
Erica
Team JapanesePod101.com
分かりました。そしてバルキシメト都は美しいですよ。答えり、ありがとうございます。日本語の勉強を頑張ります！ 👍👍
私の町は小さくて少しつまらないですが、いいです
アンドレさん こんにちは。
コメントありがとうございます。
アンドレさんのお兄ちゃんは細くておとなしい人ですか。
いいですね！
私の弟は大きくておとなしい人です。
もとこ
Team JapanesePod101.com
Hi Max,
Thank you for trying!
Good job!!
That's right. Yoshinoya's selling point is it:)
Keep up the good work with us!
Sincerely,
Miho
Team JapanesePod101.com
アンドレさん、こんにちは！
コメントありがとうございます。
お兄さんは、細くておとなしい人ですか。
またコメントお願いします。
Cheers,
Miho
Team JapanesePod101.com
Practice 1:
1）ちいさい - おおきい
2）さむい - あつい
3）おそい - はやい
4）やすい - たかい
5）ふるい - あたらしい
Practice 2:
1）でんしゃはやすくてはやいです。
2）よしのやはやすくてはやくておいしいです。
わたしのお兄ちゃんは細くておとなしい人です
こんにちは、ルベンさん
コメントありがとうございます！お返事が遅くなって、ごめんなさいね。
You can use ～くて for three adjectives such as "バルキシメトは暑くて楽しくて美しい都です。". Or you can also separate the sentence with "、" such as "バルキシメトは暑くて楽しく（て）、（そして）美しい都です。"
Hope this helps you.
Keep studying with JapanesePod101.com
Cheers,
Miki(美希)
Team JapanesePod101.com