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| INTRODUCTION |
| Jessi: The Japanese Particles Ga and No Are a Dream Come True! |
| Naomi: なおみです。(Naomi desu.) |
| Jessi: Jessi here. In the previous lesson, you learned more uses of は (wa) and が (ga). Can we hear an example? |
| Naomi: はい。キリンは首が長いです。(Hai. Kirin wa kubi ga nagai desu.) |
| Jessi: “Giraffes have long necks.” So what particles are we covering in this lesson? |
| Naomi: In this lesson, you'll learn how to use the particles が (ga) and の (no) in relative clauses. |
| Jessi: This lesson’s conversation is between an old lady and a man. |
| Naomi: そうです。おばあさんと、男の人です。(Sō desu. O-bā-san to, otoko no hito desu.) |
| Jessi: Where does this conversation take place? |
| Naomi: Um, you’ll find out in the dialogue. |
| Jessi: OK. |
| Naomi: So listen carefully. |
| Jessi: OK, so let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| 男:あなたが落とした傘は この、銀の傘ですか。それとも、この金の傘ですか？(Anata ga otoshita kasa wa kono, gin no kasa desu ka. Soretomo, kono kin no kasa desu ka?) |
| 老人(女）:違います。(Chigaimasu.) |
| : 私の落とした傘は、ピンクの傘です。(Watashi no otoshita kasa wa, pinku no kasa desu.) |
| 男:あなたは、正直ですね。(Anata wa, shōjiki desu ne.) |
| : では、あなたに、銀の傘と 金の傘を あげます。(Dewa, anata ni, gin no kasa to kin no kasa o agemasu.) |
| 老人(女）:はっ・・・夢？(Ha… yume?) |
| Naomi: 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.) |
| 男:あなたが落とした傘は この、銀の傘ですか。それとも、この金の傘ですか？(Anata ga otoshita kasa wa kono, gin no kasa desu ka. Soretomo, kono kin no kasa desu ka?) |
| 老人(女）:違います。(Chigaimasu.) |
| : 私の落とした傘は、ピンクの傘です。(Watashi no otoshita kasa wa, pinku no kasa desu.) |
| 男:あなたは、正直ですね。(Anata wa, shōjiki desu ne.) |
| : では、あなたに、銀の傘と 金の傘を あげます。(Dewa, anata ni, gin no kasa to kin no kasa o agemasu.) |
| 老人(女）:はっ・・・夢？(Ha… yume?) |
| Naomi: 今度は英語が入ります。(Kondo wa Eigo ga hairimasu.) |
| 男:あなたが落とした傘は この、銀の傘ですか。それとも、この金の傘ですか？(Anata ga otoshita kasa wa kono, gin no kasa desu ka. Soretomo, kono kin no kasa desu ka?) |
| Jessi: Is the umbrella you lost, this silver one? Or is it this gold one? |
| 老人(女）:違います。(Chigaimasu.) |
| Jessi: No. |
| : 私の落とした傘は、ピンクの傘です。(Watashi no otoshita kasa wa, pinku no kasa desu.) |
| Jessi: The umbrella I lost was pink. |
| 男:あなたは、正直ですね。(Anata wa, shōjiki desu ne.) |
| Jessi: You're very honest, aren't you? |
| : では、あなたに、銀の傘と 金の傘を あげます。(Dewa, anata ni, gin no kasa to kin no kasa o agemasu.) |
| Jessi: Well, I'll give you both the silver and gold umbrellas. |
| 老人(女）:はっ・・・夢？(Ha… yume?) |
| Jessi: Huh...it was a dream? |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Jessi: So it was a dream! 夢だったんですね。(Yume datta n desu ne.) |
| Naomi: そうみたいですね。(Sō mitai desu ne.) It looks like it. This story was inspired by “The Honest Woodcutter.” |
| Jessi: I wonder if our listeners are familiar with this? It’s actually an old fable, also known as “The Golden Axe and the Silver Axe”. So what the story is: A woodcutter drops his axe into a pond, and a water spirit offers him a silver axe and a golden axe, asking if they belong to him. The woodcutter answers no, saying that his axe was a regular one, and the spirit is impressed with his honesty and ends up giving him both the golden and silver axes. |
| What’s the Japanese title? |
| Naomi: 金の斧、銀の斧 (Kin no ono, gin no ono) “The golden axe and the silver axe.” Yeah, because 斧 (ono) is axe. We also call it 正直なきこり (Shōjiki na kikori) “The honest woodcutter.” |
| Jessi: So if you weren’t familiar with the story, listen to the conversation again – now it should make more sense! |
| Naomi: そうですね！(Sō desu ne!) |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Jessi: In this lesson, you'll learn how to use particles が (ga) and の (no) in relative clauses. |
| Naomi: First I think we should explain what a relative clause is. |
| Jessi: Good idea. |
| So a relative clause gives additional information about a noun or pronoun. In the phrase "He's the man who saw you", the "who saw you" part is known as the relative clause. In another example, the sentence "Here's the letter (that) I wrote", “(that) I wrote" is the relative clause. |
| So in English, relative clauses come after the noun and contain a relative pronoun or adverb such as ‘who’, ‘which’, ‘where’ and so on. |
| In Japanese, though, relative clauses come before the noun, and there’s no relative pronoun or adverb in between the noun and the clause. |
| So let’s show you what we mean with some examples. |
| Naomi-sensei, how do you say “the letter I wrote”? |
| Naomi: 私が書いた手紙 (watashi ga kaita tegami) |
| Jessi: So let’s break this down. 私が書いた (watashi ga kaita) “I wrote” 手紙 (tegami) “letter”. |
| So notice that in Japanese, the relative clause comes before the noun it modifies. |
| Naomi: And there’s no relative pronoun between them. |
| Jessi: Let’s do one more example. “The person I met.” |
| Naomi: In Japanese word order that would be “I met, the person” So… 私が会った人 (watashi ga atta hito). |
| Jessi: And this means “The person I met.” |
| Jessi: Did you also notice the subject in the relative clause was marked by が (ga)? |
| What I mean by that is that it’s not 私は書いた手紙 (watashi wa kaita tegami) but… |
| Naomi: 私「が」書いた手紙。(Watashi ‘ga’ kaita tegami.) |
| Jessi: So please remember that the topic or subject in a relative clause is marked by the particle が (ga), not は (wa). |
| Naomi: In the dialogue, the man said… |
| あなたが落とした傘は この銀の傘ですか。(Anata ga otoshita kasa wa kono gin no kasa desu ka.) |
| Jessi: “Is the umbrella you lost this silver one?” |
| Can you change this question into a statement to make it more simple? |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) Sure. あなたが落とした傘はこの銀の傘です。(Anata ga otoshita kasa wa kono gin no kasa desu.) |
| Jessi: So let’s break down this sentence. |
| Naomi: あなた (anata) “you”; が (ga) marks the subject in a relative clause; |
| 落とした (otoshita) “dropped”; 傘 (kasa) “umbrella.” |
| Jessi: So far we have あなたが落とした傘 (anata ga otoshita kasa) the umbrella you dropped. And then what do we have next? |
| Naomi: は (wa) |
| Jessi: The topic marking particle. |
| So that means that あなたが落とした傘 (anata ga otoshita kasa), “the umbrella you dropped”, is the topic of the whole sentence. |
| After that, we have この銀の傘 (kono gin no kasa) “this silver umbrella”; です (desu) the copula. |
| So literally, “As for the umbrella you dropped, this silver umbrella is.” |
| In more natural English “The umbrella you dropped is this silver umbrella.” |
| Naomi: Please notice that it was あなた「が」落とした傘 (anata ‘ga’ otoshita kasa) and not あなたは落とした傘 (anata wa otoshita kasa). |
| Jessi: Let’s hear one more example sentence. |
| Naomi: 私が働いている会社は小さい。(Watashi ga hataraite iru kaisha wa chiisai.) |
| Jessi: “The company I work for is small.” |
| Naomi: Since は (wa) is the topic marking particle, 私が働いている会社 (watashi ga hataraite iru kaisha) “the company I work for” is the topic of the whole sentence. |
| Jessi: And 私 (watashi) is the subject in the relative clause so it was marked by が (ga). |
| Naomi: Here’s something helpful to know - the subject in the relative clause can also be marked by の (no). |
| Jessi: So that means you can say 私の働いている会社 (watashi no hataraite iru kaisha)? |
| Naomi: Right. 私の働いている会社は小さいです。(Watashi no hataraite iru kaisha wa chiisai desu.) ”The company I work for is small.” |
| Jessi: ジェシーさんと私の働いている会社はInnovative Language Learningです。(Jeshī-san to watashi no hataraite iru kaisha wa Innovative Language Learning desu.) |
| Jessi: “The company that Jessi and I work for is Innovative Language Learning.” So now can we hear what the lady said in the dialogue one more time? |
| Naomi: Sure. 私の落とした傘は、ピンクの傘です。(Watashi no otoshita kasa wa, pinku no kasa desu.) ”The umbrella I lost was pink.” |
| Naomi: Right. You can say either 私の落とした傘 (watashi no otoshita kasa) or 私が落とした傘 (watashi ga otoshita kasa). They’re both fine. |
| Jessi: In this lesson we went over particles used in a relative clause. |
| Now it’s time to recap this lesson with a quiz. |
| I’m going to read an English sentence, and your job is to choose the best Japanese translation from the choices provided. Are you ready? The sentence is: |
| ”The person I saw.” |
| Naomi: 1. 私は見た人。(Watashi wa mita hito.) |
| 2. 私の見た人。(Watashi no mita hito.) |
| Jessi: And the answer is? |
| Naomi: 2. 私の見た人。(Watashi no mita hito.) “The person I saw.” |
| Jessi: So the subject in the relative clause needs to be marked by の (no) or が (ga). |
| Naomi: So both 私「が」見た人 (watashi ‘ga’ mita hito) and わたし「の」見た人 (watashi ‘no’ mita hito) are correct. But not わたしは見た人 (watashi wa mita hito). |
| Naomi: OK. That’s all for this lesson. じゃあまた。(Jā mata.) |
| Jessi: See you next time. |
| DIALOGUE |
| 男:あなたが落とした傘は この、銀の傘ですか。それとも、この金の傘ですか？(Anata ga otoshita kasa wa kono, gin no kasa desu ka. Soretomo, kono kin no kasa desu ka?) |
| 老人(女）:違います。(Chigaimasu.) |
| : 私の落とした傘は、ピンクの傘です。(Watashi no otoshita kasa wa, pinku no kasa desu.) |
| 男:あなたは、正直ですね。(Anata wa, shōjiki desu ne.) |
| : では、あなたに、銀の傘と 金の傘を あげます。(Dewa, anata ni, gin no kasa to kin no kasa o agemasu.) |
| 老人(女）:はっ・・・夢？(Ha… yume?) |
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