Learn about talking about one's ability
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Jessi: You Can Speak More Languages with Japanese Particles O and Ga! |
| Naomi: こんにちは。直美です。(Kon’nichiwa. Naomi desu.) |
| Jessi: Jessi here. |
| Naomi: In the previous lesson, we learned the three particles は (wa), の (no) and も (mo). |
| Jessi: Which are the topic marking particle, the possessive particle, and the particle meaning “also”, respectively. So what particles are we covering in this lesson? |
| Naomi: In this lesson, you'll learn two particles that mark the object of a verb. They are を (o) and が (ga). |
| Jessi: The conversation is between two people, right? |
| Naomi: そうです。あきらさんとけいこさんです。(Sō desu. Akira-san to Keiko-san desu.) |
| Jessi: The conversation is between Akira and Keiko. |
| Naomi: たぶん、同僚です。(Tabun, dōryō desu.) |
| Jessi: And they’re probably colleagues. Where does this conversation take place? |
| Naomi: 職場です。(Shokuba desu.) |
| Jessi: At work. Let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| けい子: 私の主人は、通訳をしています。(Watashi no shujin wa, tsūyaku o shite imasu.) |
| 明: へー。英語？(Hē. Eigo?) |
| けい子: いえ。主人は中国語ができます。(Ie. Shujin wa Chūgoku-go ga dekimasu.) |
| 明: けい子さんも中国語がわかる？(Keiko-san mo Chūgoku-go ga wakaru?) |
| けい子: 私？私も昔、中国語を勉強しました。(Watashi? Watashi mo mukashi, Chūgoku-go o benkyō shimashita.) |
| : でも・・・忘れました。(笑) (Demo...wasuremashita. (warai)) |
| 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.) |
| けい子: 私の主人は、通訳をしています。(Watashi no shujin wa, tsūyaku o shite imasu.) |
| 明: へー。英語？(Hē. Eigo?) |
| けい子: いえ。主人は中国語ができます。(Ie. Shujin wa Chūgoku-go ga dekimasu.) |
| 明: けい子さんも中国語がわかる？(Keiko-san mo Chūgoku-go ga wakaru?) |
| けい子: 私？私も昔、中国語を勉強しました。(Watashi? Watashi mo mukashi, Chūgoku-go o benkyō shimashita.) |
| : でも・・・忘れました。(笑) (Demo...wasuremashita. (warai)) |
| 今度は英語が入ります。(Kondo wa Eigo ga hairimasu.) |
| けい子: 私の主人は、通訳をしています。(Watashi no shujin wa, tsūyaku o shite imasu.) |
| Jessi: My husband is an interpreter. |
| 明: へー。英語？(Hē. Eigo?) |
| Jessi: Wow! Of English? |
| けい子: いえ。主人は中国語ができます。(Ie. Shujin wa Chūgoku-go ga dekimasu.) |
| Jessi: No, my husband can speak Chinese. |
| 明: けい子さんも中国語がわかる？(Keiko-san mo Chūgoku-go ga wakaru?) |
| Jessi: Do you also understand Chinese? |
| けい子: 私？私も昔、中国語を勉強しました。(Watashi? Watashi mo mukashi, Chūgoku-go o benkyō shimashita.) |
| Jessi: Me? I also studied it a long time ago. |
| : でも・・・忘れました。(笑) (Demo...wasuremashita. (warai)) |
| Jessi: But...I've forgotten it. (laughs) |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Naomi: ジェシーさんはスペイン語がわかりますね。(Jeshī-san wa Supein-go ga wakarimasu ne.) |
| Jessi : はい。(Hai.) |
| Naomi You understand Spanish, right? |
| Jessi: Right. I can understand a little Spanish. |
| Naomi A little? (laughs) I thought you speak fluent Spanish! |
| Jessi: Mmm, I’m forgetting it now! So, 直美先生は？(Naomi-sensei wa?) |
| Naomi: あ、スペイン語ね？はい。数が数えられます。(A, Supein-go ne? Hai. Kazu ga kazoeraremasu.) |
| Jessi : Ah, so the numbers? |
| Naomi Mmm. |
| Jessi: Uno, dos, tres… |
| Naomi そう！(Sō!) Uno, dos, tres… ぐらいかな？(...gurai ka na?) (laughs) I’m like Keiko. ちょっとスペイン語を勉強しました。でも、忘れました。(Chotto Supein-go o benkyō shimashita. Demo, wasuremashita.) |
| Jessi: Oh, so you’re just like Keiko in the conversation! |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Jessi: You studied it, but now you forgot it. |
| Naomi: そう… 残念ですね。(Sō… zannen desu ne.) |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Jessi: In this lesson, you'll learn two particles that mark the object of a verb |
| Naomi: そうです。(Sō desu.) を (o) and が (ga) です (desu)。Right, the particles を (o) and が (ga). |
| Jessi: So allow us to start with the particle を (o). |
| The particle を (o) comes after the direct object of an action and it shows you which word is the object of the sentence. |
| Naomi: That’s why it’s called an “Object marker” or “Object marking particle”. And writing を (o) is a bit tricky, isn’t it? |
| Jessi: Mm, I think so. |
| Naomi The Hiragana for the particle “o” is not the same as the regular o as in あいうえお (a i u e o). |
| Jessi : Right. The object marking particle is in the last row of the Hiragana chart. You can see what it looks like in the lesson notes. Some textbooks spell を (o) WO…but what do you think Naomi sensei? Do you pronounce を (o) as “o” or “wo”? |
| Naomi: (laughs) I can’t really hear the difference. I personally think just pronouncing it as regular o is good enough unless you want to be a newscaster in Japan. |
| Jessi: I see. So that’s easy enough. Next let’s illustrate the usage of the particle “o” with some examples. How do you say “to eat”? |
| Naomi: 食べる (taberu) |
| Jessi Now for “eat” you need an object- that is, the item that you are eating. The thing you eat is known as the object of the sentence. For example, say you eat “sushi”. So the object is sushi, and it has to be followed by the object marker “o”, which marks the object. |
| Naomi: So… 寿司を (sushi o) |
| Jessi: Then add the verb |
| Naomi: 食べる (taberu). 寿司を食べる (sushi o taberu) |
| Jessi: To eat sushi. Naomi-sensei, can you also add the subject of the sentence and say “I eat sushi”? |
| Naomi: Sure. 私は寿司を食べる。(Watashi wa sushi o taberu.) |
| Jessi: Great. Let’s try it with another verb. How do you say “to make”? |
| Naomi: 作る (tsukuru) |
| Jessi: How do we say “to make curry”? The object, curry, which is カレー (karē) in Japanese, has to be marked by the object marker o. So… |
| Naomi: カレーをつくる。(Karē o tsukuru.) |
| Jessi: OK. And now let’s put the subject. Let’s say “my husband makes curry” |
| Naomi: 私の主人はカレーを作る。(Watashi no shujin wa karē o tsukuru.) |
| Jessi: OK, on to the next particle. |
| Naomi: The next particle we’re looking at is が (ga) |
| Jessi: Ga marks the object of verbs of ability such as dekiru “can do”, wakaru “understand” and the potential form of verbs. In the dialogue, Keiko said. |
| Naomi: 主人は中国語ができます。(Shujin wa Chūgoku-go ga dekimasu.) |
| Jessi: My husband can speak Chinese. Literally “my husband can do Chinese.” |
| Naomi: できます (dekimasu) is a verb that indicates ability so the object has to be followed by the particle が (ga) not を (o). |
| Jessi: Right. And the verb わかる (wakaru), to understand, is also a verb of ability. |
| Naomi: Right so… ジェシーはスペイン語がわかります。(Jeshī wa Supein-go ga wakarimasu.) |
| Jessi: Jessi understands Spanish. Next, let’s compare the particles を (o) and が (ga) in context. So again, “to make” is… |
| Naomi: 作る (tsukuru) |
| Jessi: How do you say “I make curry”? |
| Naomi: わたしはカレーを作ります。(Watashi wa karē o tsukurimasu.) |
| Jessi: And now, how about the potential form of the verb to make? |
| Naomi: 作れる (tsukureru). And the －ます (masu) form is 作れます (tsukuremasu). |
| Jessi: Now, how do you say “I can make curry”? |
| Naomi: わたしはカレーが作れます。(Watashi wa karē ga tsukuremasu.) |
| Jessi: Did you notice how を (o) became が (ga)? |
| Naomi: For regular verbs, the object is marked by particle を (o). But when the verb indicates ability, が (ga) is used instead of を (o). |
| Jessi: Let’s do one more example. How do you say… “I eat sushi”? |
| Naomi: わたしは寿司を食べる。(Watashi wa sushi o taberu.) |
| Jessi: How about I can eat sushi. Can eat is たべられる (taberareru), so… |
| Naomi: わたしは寿司が食べられる。(Watashi wa sushi ga taberareru.) |
| Jessi: Lastly, we need to mention another usage of を (o). |
| Naomi: Right. We can turn certain loanwords into verbs by adding をする (o suru). |
| Jessi: Right. So for example, |
| Naomi: テニス (tenisu) “tennis” becomes テニスをする (tenisu o suru) “to play tennis”, ゴルフ(gorufu) “golf” becomes ゴルフをする (gorufu o suru) “to play golf.” But this o is often omitted. So you can also say テニスする (tenisu suru) or ゴルフする (gorufu suru). |
| Jessi: This works with not only loanwords but also Sino-Japanese compound words. |
| Naomi: such as 勉強 (benkyō) “study”, 電話 (denwa) “telephone”, 運転 (unten) “driving” and so on. |
| Jessi: So they become 勉強をする (benkyō o suru) “to study”, 電話をする (denwa o suru) “to call”, 運転をする (unten o suru) “to drive”, right? |
| Naomi: Right. However if there’s another object you need to drop “o” before suru |
| Jessi: Hmm, what do you mean by that? |
| Naomi: Well, わたしは勉強をする (watashi wa benkyō o suru) and わたしは勉強する (watashi wa benkyō suru) mean “I study” But if you want to say ‘I study Spanish’, you can not say 私はスペイン語を勉強をする (watashi wa Supein-go o benkyō o suru) -instead you have to say 私はスペイン語を勉強する (watashi wa Supein-go o benkyō suru). |
| Jessi: Oh, OK, I see. So you can’t have two を (o) in the same phrase. |
| Naomi Yeah, exactly. |
| Jessi: And there’s also another important usage of をする (o suru), right? |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) Yes. “Occupation” plus をしている (o shite iru). |
| Jessi: The particle を (o) plus している (shite iru) (which is the present progressive form of the verb する (suru)) can follow the name of an occupation or position. In the dialogue Keiko said… |
| Naomi: 主人は、通訳をしています。(Shujin wa, tsūyaku o shite imasu.) |
| Jessi: My husband is an interpreter. This をしています (o shite imasu) tends to be used for a specific occupation or position, correct? |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) Of course, you can say 主人は通訳です (shujin wa tsūyaku desu) but if you use をしています (o shite imasu) it sounds a bit more professional to me. |
| Jessi: In this lesson you learned the usage of particles を (o) and が (ga). So now let’s recap this lesson with a quiz. How do you say “to play tennis”? |
| Naomi: 1. テニス (tenisu) 2. テニスをする (tenisu o suru) 3. テニスができる (tenisu ga dekiru) |
| Jessi: And the answer is? |
| Naomi: 2. テニスをする (tenisu o suru) “to play tennis” |
| Jessi: So remember, by adding をする (o suru) to a loanword, you can change it into a verb. |
| Choice 1 テニス (tenisu) is a noun, Choice 3 テニスができる (tenisu ga dekiru) means ‘can play tennis’. Remember, particle が (ga) marks the object of verbs of ability such as できる (dekiru) “can do”, わかる (wakaru) ”understand” and the potential form of verbs. |
| Naomi: OK. That’s all for this lesson. |
| Jessi: In this series, each lesson builds on the previous one. So make sure to master this lesson before you go on to the next one. |
| Naomi: じゃまた。(Ja mata.) |
| Jessi: See you next time. |
| DIALOGUE |
| けい子: 私の主人は、通訳をしています。(Watashi no shujin wa, tsūyaku o shite imasu.) |
| 明: へー。英語？(Hē. Eigo?) |
| けい子: いえ。主人は中国語ができます。(Ie. Shujin wa Chūgoku-go ga dekimasu.) |
| 明: けい子さんも中国語がわかる？(Keiko-san mo Chūgoku-go ga wakaru?) |
| けい子: 私？私も昔、中国語を勉強しました。(Watashi? Watashi mo mukashi, Chūgoku-go o benkyō shimashita.) |
| : でも・・・忘れました。(笑) (Demo...wasuremashita. (warai)) |
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