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| INTRODUCTION |
| Jessi: Coincidence Times Two, Japanese Particles Wa, No, and Mo |
| Naomi: ようこそ、JapanesePod101.comの助詞のレッスンへ. (Yōkoso, JapanesePod101 dotto komu no joshi no ressun e.) |
| Jessi: Hello, and welcome to the particle lesson series at JapanesePod101.com, where you can learn the essential grammar of Japanese language. My name is Jessi and I’m joined in the studio by Naomi-sensei. |
| Naomi: こんにちは。みなさん。直美です。(Kon'nichiwa. Mina-san. Naomi desu.) |
| Jessi: Now, as you may already know, particles are a very important part of Japanese. The particles used in a sentence give us information about the meaning. So if the wrong particles are used, the whole meaning of the sentence can change, so that's why it's very important to know how to use the different particles in Japanese. |
| Naomi: The word for particle in Japanese is 助詞 (joshi). |
| Jessi: In this series, we’ll go over particles with a dialogue so that you can see how they are actually used in a situation. OK, Naomi-sensei, what particles, or 助詞 (joshi), are we covering in this lesson? |
| Naomi: In this lesson, we'll look at 3 different particles は (wa), の (no) and も (mo). |
| Jessi: The conversation is between two people, right? |
| Naomi: そうです。男の人と女の人ですね。(Sō desu. Otoko no hito to onna no hito desu ne.) |
| Jessi: So the conversation is between a man and woman. |
| Naomi:はじめて会ったみたいです。(Hajimete atta mitai desu.) |
| Jessi: It seems like they are meeting each other for the first time. And where does this conversation take place? |
| Naomi: 職場です。(Shokuba desu.) |
| Jessi: At work. Now particles in Japanese are very important but also challenging, aren’t they? Naomi-sensei. |
| Naomi: Right. そうですよね。(Sō desu yo ne.) |
| Jessi: So after listening to this lesson, try the practice questions in the learning centre. |
| Naomi: It's a really good way to test yourself. |
| Jessi: So now let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| けい子:こんにちは。わたしは、佐藤けい子です。(Kon'nichiwa. Watashi wa, Satō Keiko desu.) |
| : どうぞ よろしく お願いします。(Dōzo yoroshiku onegai shimasu.) |
| 明:けい子さん？（笑）妻の名前もけい子です。(Keiko-san? (warai) Tsuma no namae mo Keiko desu.) |
| : あ、僕は田中明です。(A, boku wa Tanaka Akira desu.) |
| けい子:それは、偶然！私の主人も明です。(Sore wa, gūzen! Watashi no shujin mo Akira desu.) |
| Naomi: もう一度お願いします。今度はゆっくりおねがいします。(Mō ichi-do onegai shimasu. Kondo wa yukkuri onegai shimasu.) |
| けい子:こんにちは。わたしは、佐藤けい子です。(Kon'nichiwa. Watashi wa, Satō Keiko desu.) |
| : どうぞ よろしく お願いします。(Dōzo yoroshiku onegai shimasu.) |
| 明:けい子さん？（笑）妻の名前もけい子です。(Keiko-san? (warai) Tsuma no namae mo Keiko desu.) |
| : あ、僕は田中明です。(A, boku wa Tanaka Akira desu.) |
| けい子:それは、偶然！私の主人も明です。(Sore wa, gūzen! Watashi no shujin mo Akira desu.) |
| Naomi: 今度は英語が入ります。(Kondo wa Eigo ga hairimasu.) |
| けい子:こんにちは。わたしは、佐藤けい子です。(Kon'nichiwa. Watashi wa, Satō Keiko desu.) |
| : どうぞ よろしく お願いします。(Dōzo yoroshiku onegai shimasu.) |
| Jessi: Hello! I'm Keiko Sato. Nice to meet you. |
| 明:けい子さん？（笑）妻の名前もけい子です。(Keiko-san? (warai) Tsuma no namae mo Keiko desu.) |
| Jessi: Keiko? (laughs) My wife's name is also Keiko. |
| : あ、僕は田中明です。(A, boku wa Tanaka Akira desu.) |
| Jessi: Oh, I'm Akira Tanaka. |
| けい子:それは、偶然！私の主人も明です。(Sore wa, gūzen! Watashi no shujin mo Akira desu.) |
| Jessi: What a coincidence! My husband is also named Akira. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Jessi: So in the conversation that was quite a coincidence, wasn't it? |
| Naomi: うん、偶然ですね。(Un, gūzen desu ne.) But no wonder, because けい子 (Keiko) and あきら (Akira) are pretty common names in Japan. |
| Jessi: Right. Well it might depend a little on the generation right? |
| Naomi: (laughs) そうですね。 そうです、そうです、そうです。(Sō desu ne. Sō desu, sō desu, sō desu.) In my generation, yeah, Keiko and Akira are pretty common names. (laughing) |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Jessi: In this lesson, you'll learn a particle that marks the topic of the sentence, a particle that expresses possession, and a particle that means "also" or "too". |
| Naomi: Right, you’ll be learning 3 different particles, は (wa), の (no) and も (mo). But first of all. Jessi-san, I think we should explain a bit more about what particles are. |
| Jessi: Good idea. In Japanese, there is a group of words which are called particles. |
| Naomi: In Japanese, we call particles 助詞 (joshi), which literally means "helping word". |
| Jessi: And in Japanese, the subject, object, topic and so on of a sentence are identified by these particles that follow them. The role of particles is similar to prepositions or conjunctions in English. However, please note that Japanese particles always come AFTER the word, whereas English prepositions always come BEFORE the word. |
| Naomi: うーん、そうですね。(Ūn, sō desu ne.) Right. That’s why particles are sometimes called post-position in grammar terms. |
| Jessi: So let us give you an example. Naomi-sensei, how do you say 'at 1 o’clock'? |
| Naomi: 一時に (Ichi-ji ni) 一時 (ichi-ji) is one o’clock and に (ni) is the particle that indicates time, like 'at' in English. |
| Jessi: So in English we say 'AT 1'. We put the preposition BEFORE the time, but in Japanese... |
| Naomi: We say 一時に (ichi-ji ni). We put the particle AFTER the time. |
| Jessi: OK. So did you get a good idea about what Japanese particles are? Now let’s move on to this lesson’s target particles. |
| Jessi: The first particle we're going to introduce is… |
| Naomi: は (wa). In the dialogue, the woman said わたしは、佐藤けい子です。(Watashi wa, Satō Keiko desu.) |
| Jessi: I’m Keiko Sato. The particle wa is often referred to as the "topic marking particle" because it comes after the topic of the sentence. It tells the listener what the sentence is about. This wa can be translated as "as for..." or "speaking of..." in English. Let’s break down this sentence. |
| Naomi: わたし (Watashi) |
| Jessi: I |
| Naomi: は (wa) |
| Jessi: as for. So わたしは (watashi wa) can be translated as “As for me” Then we have… |
| Naomi: 佐藤けい子 (Satō Keiko) |
| Jessi: Keiko Sato |
| Naomi: です (desu) |
| Jessi: copula which is the equivalent to 'is' 'am' or 'are' in English. So literally it means, “As for me Keiko is.” or “Me? Keiko is.” But of course in natural English we'd say, “I’m Keiko Sato”. |
| Naomi: There’s one more thing we have to mention. The particle は (wa) is spelled 'ha' in hiragana, but it's pronounced as 'wa'. |
| Jessi: Good point. This can be a little confusing. This particle is pronounced [wa] and not [ha]. The hiragana は (wa) is pronounced wa only when used as a particle. It sounds complicated but if you look at the lesson notes, it will be all clear so please be sure to read those. |
| Naomi: はい、お願いします。(Hai, onegai shimasu.) |
| Jessi: Can we hear some more examples? |
| Naomi: Sure. わたしは、カナダ人です。(Watashi wa, Kanada-jin desu.) |
| Jessi: Literally "As for me, Canadian am." Of course it means "I'm Canadian." OK. One more example please. |
| Naomi: 今日は、雨です。(Kyō wa, ame desu.) |
| Jessi: Literally "As for today, rainy is." In more natural English, "It's rainy today." |
| Jessi: OK, so the next particle we’re covering is? |
| Naomi: の (no) as in 私の名前 (watashi no namae) My name |
| Jessi: The particle no usually appears between two nouns and it indicates that the first noun possesses the second noun. I think the closest translation is 'apostrophe-s' or 'of' in English. |
| Naomi:うん。(Un.) |
| Jessi:OK Naomi-sensei, |
| Naomi:はい。(Hai.) |
| Naomi:How do you say “Naomi’s, as in 'belongs to Naomi'? |
| Naomi: なおみの (Naomi no) |
| Jessi: So then how would you say, for example, “Naomi’s pen”? |
| Naomi: 直美のペン (Naomi no pen) |
| Jessi: Great. So then how would you say 'Jessi's?' |
| Naomi: ジェシーの。(Jeshī no.) So Jessi’s computer is ジェシーのコンピューター (Jeshī no konpyūtā.) |
| Jessi: So how about “My” ? |
| Naomi: OK, 私 (watashi) means “I or me” so…私の (watashi no) is I's. Of course it means 'my'. But be careful. 私の (watashi no) could be mine, too. |
| Jessi: Good point. When it's obvious what the first noun possesses, the second noun can be left out. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Jessi: OK. The last particle we’re introducing is |
| Naomi: も (mo) In the dialogue, the man said 妻の名前もけい子です。(Tsuma no namae mo Keiko desu.) |
| Jessi: “My wife's name is also Keiko.” |
| Naomi: も (mo) in this case means "also" or "too" |
| Jessi: Right. When this particle mo replaces the particle wa, it means "also", or "too". Can we have a sample sentence? |
| Naomi: わたしは、カナダ人です。ケントもカナダ人です。(Watashi wa, Kanada-jin desu. Kento mo Kanada-jin desu.) |
| Jessi: "I'm Canadian. Kent is also Canadian." The first sentence |
| Naomi: 「わたしはカナダ人です」 (Watashi wa Kanada-jin desu.) |
| Jessi:It means “I’m Canadian” Please notice that in the second sentence, the topic marking particle は (wa) is replaced with も (mo) |
| Naomi: ケントもカナダ人です。(Kento mo Kanada-jin desu.) |
| Jessi: Kent is also Canadian. Can we have another example? |
| Naomi: Sure. これは、私のです。それも私のです。(Kore wa, watashi no desu. Sore mo watashi no desu.) |
| Jessi: "This is mine. That's also mine." So notice how in the second sentence we used も (mo) instead of は (wa). それも (sore mo) the also. |
| Jessi: All right, so let’s recap this lesson with a quiz. Which of the following particles is referred to as the “topic marking particle”? |
| Naomi: １．は (wa) ２. の (no) ３．も (mo) |
| Jessi: And the answer is? |
| Naomi: 1. は (wa) |
| Jessi: So remember that は (wa) marks the topic of the sentence. Choice 2 [の] (no) is the so-called “possessive marker”, just like in English apostrophe s (‘s). Choice 3 [も] (mo) means too or also. |
| Naomi: OK. That’s all for this lesson. |
| Jessi: In this series, each lesson builds on the previous lesson. So make sure that you master this lesson before you go on to the next one. See you next time. |
| Naomi: じゃまた。(Ja mata.) |
| DIALOGUE |
| けい子:こんにちは。わたしは、佐藤けい子です。(Kon'nichiwa. Watashi wa, Satō Keiko desu.) |
| : どうぞ よろしく お願いします。(Dōzo yoroshiku onegai shimasu.) |
| 明:けい子さん？（笑）妻の名前もけい子です。(Keiko-san? (warai) Tsuma no namae mo Keiko desu.) |
| : あ、僕は田中明です。(A, boku wa Tanaka Akira desu.) |
| けい子:それは、偶然！私の主人も明です。(Sore wa, gūzen! Watashi no shujin mo Akira desu.) |
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