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| INTRODUCTION |
| Jessi: Casually speaking Have some fun with Japanese particles の (no), な (na), かな (ka na) and じゃん (jan). |
| Naomi: ナオミです。(Naomi desu.) |
| Jessi: Jessi here. So, in the previous lesson, we covered 5 sentence ending particles, right, Naomi-sensei? |
| Naomi: そうですよ。(Sō desu yo.) We covered ね (ne), よ (yo), わ (wa), ぜ (ze) and ぞ (zo). |
| Jessi: And which of those particles are the ones used by men? |
| Naomi: ぜ (ze) and ぞ (zo).じゃ、はじめるぞ。(Ja, hajimeru zo.) |
| Jessi: Let’s get started.Can you tell us what particles we’ll be covering in this lesson? |
| Naomi: In this lesson, you'll learn more sentence ending particles. |
| Jessi: This conversation is between a husband and a wife. |
| Naomi: そうです。田中さんと田中さんの奥さんの会話です。(Sō desu. Tanaka-san to Tanaka-san no okusan no kaiwa desu.) |
| Jessi: The conversation is between Mr. Tanaka and his wife. Where does this conversation take place? |
| Naomi: うち、ですね。(Uchi, desu ne.) At home. |
| Jessi: It looks like they’re talking about the boy from the previous lesson. So let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| 田中(妻）:無事だったの？よかったじゃん。(Buji datta no? Yokatta jan.) |
| 田中明:そうだなぁ。(Sō da nā.) |
| 田中(妻）:勉強のストレス かな。(Benkyō no sutoresu ka na.) |
| 田中明:そうだろうなぁ。(Sō darō nā.) |
| : 「勉強しろ」「テレビみるな」「マンガ読むな」「友だちと遊ぶな」。。。(“Benkyō shiro” “Terebi miru na” “Manga yomu na” “Tomodachi to asobu na”...) |
| : 毎日 毎日 勉強だけ。。。ま、かわいそうだよな。(Mainichi mainichi benkyō dake… Ma, kawaisō da yo na.) |
| 田中(妻）:お母さんも 反省したかな？(O-kā-san mo hansei shita ka na?) |
| 田中明:どうだろうね。(Dō darō ne.) |
| 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.) |
| 田中(妻）:無事だったの？よかったじゃん。(Buji datta no? Yokatta jan.) |
| 田中明:そうだなぁ。(Sō da nā.) |
| 田中(妻）:勉強のストレス かな。(Benkyō no sutoresu ka na.) |
| 田中明:そうだろうなぁ。(Sō darō nā.) |
| : 「勉強しろ」「テレビみるな」「マンガ読むな」「友だちと遊ぶな」。。。(“Benkyō shiro” “Terebi miru na” “Manga yomu na” “Tomodachi to asobu na”...) |
| : 毎日 毎日 勉強だけ。。。ま、かわいそうだよな。(Mainichi mainichi benkyō dake… Ma, kawaisō da yo na.) |
| 田中(妻）:お母さんも 反省したかな？(O-kā-san mo hansei shita ka na?) |
| 田中明:どうだろうね。(Dō darō ne.) |
| 今度は英語が入ります。(Kondo wa Eigo ga hairimasu.) |
| 田中(妻）:無事だったの？よかったじゃん。(Buji datta no? Yokatta jan.) |
| Jessi: He was found safe? That's great. |
| 田中明:そうだなぁ。(Sō da nā.) |
| Jessi: Yeah. |
| 田中(妻）:勉強のストレス かな。(Benkyō no sutoresu ka na.) |
| Jessi: I wonder if it was stress from studying? |
| 田中明:そうだろうなぁ。(Sō darō nā.) |
| Jessi: Probably. |
| : 「勉強しろ」「テレビみるな」「マンガ読むな」「友だちと遊ぶな」。。。(“Benkyō shiro” “Terebi miru na” “Manga yomu na” “Tomodachi to asobu na”...) |
| Jessi: "Study more!" "Don't watch TV!" "Don't read manga!" "Don't play with your friends!" |
| : 毎日 毎日 勉強だけ。。。ま、かわいそうだよな。(Mainichi mainichi benkyō dake… Ma, kawaisō da yo na.) |
| Jessi: It was just study, study every day. Well, I feel sorry for him. |
| 田中(妻）:お母さんも 反省したかな？(O-kā-san mo hansei shita ka na?) |
| Jessi: I wonder if the mother is regretting it. |
| 田中明:どうだろうね。(Dō darō ne.) |
| Jessi: It's hard to say. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Naomi: ジェシーさん、家出って英語でなんていうの？ (Jeshī-san, iede tte Eigo de nan te iu no?) How do you say 家出 (iede) in English? |
| Jessi: To run away from home. What is it in Japanese again? |
| Naomi: 家出。「家を出る」ですね。(Iede. “Ie o deru” desu ne.) 家 (ie) “house”, 出る (deru) “to leave”, so…家出 (iede) is “running away from home.” 家出したことありますか。(Iede shita koto arimasu ka.) Have you ever done 家出 (iede)? |
| Jessi: No, never! I’ve never run away from home, actually. |
| Naomi: Me,neither. (笑) |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Naomi: The focus of this lesson is the usage of sentence ending particles |
| Jessi: In the previous lesson, we learned about some particles that attach to the end of a sentence to indicate the speaker's feelings and tone. In this lesson, you'll learn more of these sentence ending particles. |
| Naomi: We’ll cover の (no), な (na), かな (ka na) and じゃん (jan). |
| Jessi: Let’s start with の (no). |
| Jessi: As you learned in Lesson 4, when の (no) is used at the end of a sentence, it indicates a colloquial question. This の (no) is said with rising intonation. When の (no) is said with falling intonation, it serves to soften the statement. This second usage is usually used by women or children. The best way to illustrate this is with an example. Can we hear a sentence that uses の (no) with rising intonation? |
| Naomi: Sure. 今日、何するの。(Kyō, nani suru no.) (↑) |
| Jessi: “What are you going to do today?” Did you notice that the intonation of the の (no) went up? So that indicates a question. |
| 今日何するの？(Kyō nani suru no?) |
| OK. So how about the example of の (no) with falling intonation? |
| Naomi: 学校に行くの。(Gakkō ni iku no.) (↓) |
| Jessi: “I'm going to go to school.” Did you see that? This time の (no) has falling intonation. So it’s just a statement. |
| 学校に行くの。(Gakkō ni iku no.) |
| Naomi: And this usage is slightly feminine. |
| It’s OK for both genders to ask a question using rising の (no). But if you add の (no) to soften a statement, it sounds feminine. |
| Jessi: Right, so male speakers out there, please be careful. |
| Naomi: はい。気をつけてください。(Hai. Ki o tsukete kudasai.) |
| Jessi: Let’s go on to the next particle な (na). |
| The particle な (na) softens the speaker's assertion or agreement in informal speech. It also attaches to the dictionary form of a verb and means “don’t”, as in “don’t do that”. |
| So allow us to start with the な (na) that it used to soften the speaker’s statement. This な (na) is often used by male speakers. The final vowel [a] is often prolonged as in [nā] |
| Can we have a sample sentence? |
| Naomi: Sure. この車は高いなぁ。(Kono kuruma wa takai nā.) ”This car is expensive~.” |
| All you have to do is to attach な (na) to the informal form. この車は高い (kono kuruma wa takai) “this car is expensive” plus なー (nā). |
| Jessi: But the な (na) is not always prolonged right? |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| Jessi: When you’re using な (na) to mean “don’t!”, you don’t prolong it. It’s really short. |
| Naomi: そうです。(Sō desu.) Exactly. な (na) expresses negative command. |
| Jessi: "[The dictionary form of a verb] ＋ na" is really strong command saying not do to something. It's equivalent to "Don't!" in English. So for example, How would you say, “don’t go” |
| Naomi: “To go” is 行く (iku). So…行くな (iku na) “don’t go.” |
| Jessi: How about “don’t come”? |
| Naomi: “To come” is 来る (kuru), so 来るな (kuru na)！”don’t come!” |
| Jessi: And this is quite a strong expression, isn’t it? |
| Naomi: うん、強いですね。(Un, tsuyoi desu ne.) It’s quite strong. I don’t think we use it very often. But you might see those kinds of phrases written on a sign. Like「さわるな！危険」(“Sawaru na! Kiken”) near high-voltage electrical power lines. |
| Jessi: Mmm, I’ve seen those kinds of signs before. さわるな (Sawaru na), “Don’t touch.” 危険 (kiken), “Danger.” That makes a lot of sense. |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| Naomi: I have to admit that the next particle we’re going to introduce is one I use all the time. |
| Jessi: Which one is that? |
| Naomi: かな (ka na) |
| Jessi: Oh, that’s right, you do actually use this one a lot! (笑) The particle kana expresses the speaker's uncertainty about something. The English equivalent would be “I wonder”. |
| Naomi: Right. Like 会議は3時からかな。(Kaigi wa san-ji kara ka na.) “I wonder if the meeting is at three.” |
| If you say 会議は三時から。(Kaigi wa san-ji kara.) It’s a statement. But making a bold statement like this can be risky if you’re wrong. |
| Jessi: Ohh, right. I can see that. |
| Naomi: So what I always do is when I’m not sure, I put かな(ka na) at the end of the sentence to avoid being held responsible.（笑） |
| Jessi: I see. So if you’re not sure about something, it might not be a bad idea to use かな (ka na) to show that you aren’t 100% sure. かな (ka na) is also used as a question to oneself or a request to the listener. The last vowel [a] is sometimes prolonged, as in [kanā]. |
| Naomi: Right. どうしてかな。(Dōshite ka na.) “I wonder why.” |
| And here’s an example of how it can be used in a request. 明日会社に来られるかな。(Ashita kaisha ni korareru ka na.) “I'm wondering if you can come to work tomorrow.” |
| Jessi: The last particle we’re covering is |
| Naomi: じゃん (jan) |
| Jessi: じゃん (jan) is the contracted form of じゃない (ja nai), meaning "isn't it". It's often used by younger people to confirm or criticize something in an informal way. Do you use this a lot, Naomi-sensei? |
| Naomi: I’m not that young (笑) but I use it a lot. |
| For example, when I compliment my friend, I say… |
| いいじゃん。(Ii jan.) “That’s nice, isn't it.” |
| And if I were upset that someone forgot what I told them the day before…I would say… |
| 昨日、言ったじゃん。(Kinō itta jan.) “I told you yesterday, didn’t I?!” |
| Jessi: Oh, and one more note about this じゃん (jan). I’ve heard that it’s actually used a lot in the Kanto area, but not so much in other areas, like Kansai. |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) The people who live near Tokyo use じゃん (jan) a lot. |
| Jessi: Oh, OK, so that’s something else to keep in mind. All right, in this lesson you learned the sentence ending particles, の (no), な (na), かな (ka na) and じゃん (jan). |
| It’s time for us to recap this lesson with a quiz. |
| Which of the following particles expresses the speaker’s uncertainty? Here are the choices. |
| Naomi: 1. の (no) 2. な (na) 3. かな (ka na) 4. じゃん (jan) |
| Jessi: And the answer is? |
| Naomi: 3. かな (ka na) |
| Jessi: かな (ka na) is equivalent to "I wonder..." in English. All right, on to the next question. How do you say “Don’t go!” The choices are... |
| Naomi: 1. 行くの (iku no) 2. 行くな (iku na) 3. 行くかな (iku ka na) 4. 行くじゃん (iku jan) |
| Jessi: And the answer is? |
| Naomi: 2. 行くな (iku na) ”Don’t go!” |
| Jessi: So the dictionary form of a verb plus な (na) expresses a really strong command saying not to do something. |
| Naomi: OK, that’s all for this lesson. それじゃあまたね。(Sorejā, mata ne.) |
| Jessi: See you next time. |
| DIALOGUE |
| 田中(妻）:無事だったの？よかったじゃん。(Buji datta no? Yokatta jan.) |
| 田中明:そうだなぁ。(Sō da nā.) |
| 田中(妻）:勉強のストレス かな。(Benkyō no sutoresu ka na.) |
| 田中明:そうだろうなぁ。(Sō darō nā.) |
| : 「勉強しろ」「テレビみるな」「マンガ読むな」「友だちと遊ぶな」。。。(“Benkyō shiro” “Terebi miru na” “Manga yomu na” “Tomodachi to asobu na”...) |
| : 毎日 毎日 勉強だけ。。。ま、かわいそうだよな。(Mainichi mainichi benkyō dake… Ma, kawaisō da yo na.) |
| 田中(妻）:お母さんも 反省したかな？(O-kā-san mo hansei shita ka na?) |
| 田中明:どうだろうね。(Dō darō ne.) |
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