会話 Dialogue 2

 

単語 Vocabulary

Romanized Japanese	Hiragana	Other Japanese scripts	English
Tanjoubi	たんじょうび	誕生日	birthday
＋Tanjoubi omedetou gozaimasu	たんじょうびおめでとうございます	誕生日おめでとうございます	Happy birthday.
〜nen	〜ねん	年	year(s)
nan-nen	なんねん	何年	what year?
nan-nen umare	なんねんうまれ	何年生まれ	what year were you born?
＋umaremasu	うまれます	生まれます	be born
to iu koto wa	ということは		in another words
heisei	へいせい	平成	Heisei Era
hachi-nen	はちねん	八年	year 8
~sai	〜さい	〜歳、〜才	classifier for human age
nan-sai	なんさい	何歳、何才	how old
hatachi	はたち	二十歳	twenty years old
wakai	わかい	若い	young
＋toshi	とし	年	year(s), age
＋nenrei	ねんれい	年齢	age (formal)
＋toshi ue	としうえ	年上	older
＋toshi shita	としした	年下	younger

文法 Grammar Notes

7-2-1 Naming and Counting Months and Years

がつ
The naming classifier for months is 〜gatsu 月、and when naming dates, the month

かげつ
proceeds the day. The counting classifier is 〜kagetsu ヶ月. It is conventionally written

with the small katakana ヶ. Note the sound change /ka/  /kka/ with 1, 6, 8, and 10

Naming Months

Romanized Japanese	Hiragana	Kanji	English
Ichigatsu	いちがつ	一月	January
Nigatsu	にがつ	二月	February
Sangatsu	さんがつ	三月	March
Shigatsu	しがつ	四月	April
Gogatsu	ごがつ	五月	May
Rokugatsu	ろくがつ	六月	June
Shichigatsu	しちがつ	七月	July
Hachigatsu	はちがつ	八月	August
Kugatsu	くがつ	九月	September
Juugatsu	じゅうがつ	十月	October
Juuichigatsu	じゅういちがつ	十一月	November
Juunigatsu	じゅうにがつ	十二月	December
Nangatsu	なんがつ	何月	what month?

Counting Months

Romanized Japanese	Hiragana	Kanji	English
ik-kagetsu	いっかげつ	一ヶ月	one month
ni-kagetsu	にかげつ	二ヶ月	two months
san-kagetsu	さんかげつ	三ヶ月	three months
yon-kagetsu	よんかげつ	四ヶ月	four months
go-kagetsu	ごかげつ	五ヶ月	five months
rok-kagetsu	ろっかげつ	六ヶ月	six months
nana-kagetsu	ななかげつ	七ヶ月	seven months
hachi-kagetsu	はちかげつ／はっかげつ	八ヶ月	eight months
kyuu-kagetsu	きゅうかげつ	九ヶ月	nine months
juk-kagetsu	じゅっかげつ	十 ヶ 月	ten months
juuik-kagetsu	じゅういっかげつ	十一ヶ月	eleven months
juuni-kagetsu	じゅうにかげつ	十二ヶ月	twelve months
nan-kagetsu	なんかげつ	何ヶ月	how many months?

ねんねんかん
The classifier for naming and counting years is 〜nen 年, but 〜nenkan 年間is

なんねん
often used for counting to avoid confusion. The question word is nan-nen 何年 ‘what

なんねんかん
year/how many years’ or nan-nenkan 何年間 ‘how many years?’ So, 15 nen can mean

either 15 years or the year 2015/Heisei 15 depending on the context. The existence or non-existence of the particle ni and/or the kind of approximation expression that is used with it, goro or gurai, tells you if it’s the naming expression or counting expression.

Compare the following:

ごねん い
五年に行きました．Go-nen ni ikimashita. I went there in the year 5.

五年、行きました。Go-nen ikimashita. I went there for five years.

五年ごろ行きました．Go-nen-goro ikimashita. I went there around the year 5.

五年ぐらい行きました. Go-nen–gurai ikimashita. I went there for about 5 years.

7-2-2 Counting age: ~sai for people and animals, ~nen for others

~sai 才 is used to express the age of people and animals while 〜 nen 年 is used to express the age of inanimate things. Note the sound change of /sai/ /ssai/ with the numbers 1, 8, and 10. People’s age are also expressed by the classifier ~tsu, and hatachi is the special form of this series for a twenty year old. To ask how old someone is you can use one of the following. The last one is polite.

何歳ですか。Nan-sai desu ka.

(年は)いくつですか(Toshi wa) ikutsu desu ka.

(お年は)おいくつですか。 (Otoshi wa) oikutsu desu ka. (Polite) Babies that are less than one year old are counted by days, weeks and months.

It’s often pointed out that Japanese society is very much age conscious. Age determines many things including interpersonal relationships. Even just one year of difference in age usually results in seniority status and affects how people talk to each other. Therefore it is not uncommon to ask someone’s age when meeting him/her for the first time. When you ask any personal questions, it’s safer to first say shitsurei desu kedo ‘It’s rude of me to ask this, but…’

7-2-3 Japanese Calendar

There are two systems of naming years in Japan. In addition to the western

せいれきげんごう われき
calendar (西暦), Japan uses its own calendar (元号、和暦)． The latter is often used in official documents. The Japanese year designations are based on the year of the reign of the emperors. When one emperor dies and a new emperor ascends to the throne, a new

がんねん
period or era starts. The first year of a period is called gan-nen 元年. The years are

named and counted with the Chinese numbers plus 〜nen. The most recent periods include:

Era (Romanized Japanese)	Era (Japanese)	Years of Era
Meiji	めいじ 明治	1868-1912
Taisho	たいしょう 大正	1912-1926
Showa	へいせい 昭和	1926-1989
Heisei	へいせい 平成	1989-present

It may be handy to remember your birthday according to the Japanese calendar.

National Holidays

Date	English name	Official name (Japanese script)	Official name (Romanized Japanese)
January 1	New Year’s Day	元日	Ganjitsu
2nd Monday of January	Coming of Age Day	成人の日	Seijin no hi
February 11	National Foundation Day	建国記念の日	Kenkoku kinen no hi
March 20 or March 21	Vernal Equinox Day	春分の日	Shunbun no hi
April 29	Shōwa Day	昭和の日	Shōwa no hi
May 3	Constitution Memorial Day	憲法記念日	Kenpō kinenbi
May 4	Greenery Day	みどりの日	Midori no hi
May 5	Children’s Day	子供の日	Kodomo no hi
3rd Monday of July	Marine Day	海の日	Umi no hi
3rd Monday of September	Respect for the Aged Day	敬老の日	Keirō no hi
September 23 or September 24	Autumnal Equinox Day	秋分の日	Shūbun no hi
2nd Monday of October	Health-Sports Day	体育の日	Taiiku no hi
November 3	Culture Day	文化の日	Bunka no hi
November 23	Labour Thanksgiving Day	勤労感謝の日	Kinrō kansha no hi
December 23	The Emperor’s Birthday	天皇誕生日	Tennō tanjōbi

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_calendar

7-2-4 Informal Style: Noun Sentence and Adjective Sentence

All Japanese sentences take either the formal style or informal style. ~masu,

~desu, and their variants (negative forms and past forms) all designate that the sentence is in the formal style. The formal style is typically used when talking to someone who is not very close to the speaker and some formality is expected. We covered this style first in this textbook because it is socially less risky to use.

In this lesson, we introduce the informal style, which is typically used when speaking to those close to you such as friends, family, children and yourself, in casual settings. We start with the noun sentences and adjective sentences here, and the verb sentences in the next lesson. Please note the following:

• For Adjective sentences, you just drop ~desu/~deshita to make the informal style.
• For Noun sentences, you can replace ~desu with ~da and ~deshita with ~datta.
• However, the ~da in the sentence final position is often dropped.
• The question particle ka is usually dropped and replaced by a rising intonation while other sentence particles such as yo, ne, nee, ka nee, etc. remain.
• It can be challenging for learners to figure out the right speech style for a given situation. Styles are chosen to indicate the right distance between speakers. However, distance can change even within a course of conversation, between the same pair of speakers. Each shift carries some linguistic and social meaning.