Lesson 3: Basic Particles

In this lesson, I will teach six basic particles needed to form some basic sentences.

In Japanese, particles are words that follow a noun to mark the purpose of the noun in a sentence.

The first particle I will teach is the topic marker は. When the kana は is being used as a particle, it is pronounced as わ. When は follows a noun, it marks it as the topic, and normally the subject, of the sentence, so it's safe to presume that the noun は is following is also the subject unless it would make no sense for it to be the subject. In Japanese, a topic is not repeated if you do not need to repeat it to understand the sentence.

The second particle is the subject marker が. When it follows a noun, it marks the noun as the subject of the sentence. Since は and が are so similar, I'll list two of the major differences between them. が is used when something is introduced for the first time, and は is used when the thing has been introduced before. が can be used in a subordinate sentence, but は can't be used in one.

The next particle is the direct object marker を. Even though を is in the same column as わ, it is pronounce as お. When を follows a noun, it marks the noun as the direct object of the sentence.

The fourth particle, の, is a bit more complex than the ones we have learned so far. It allows a noun it's following to modify the next noun, or it allows the noun to possess the next noun. It has more uses, but I will discuss those uses in later lessons.

This next particle, に, is also a little complex since it has a lot of uses. It's used to mark the time of an event, to mark the place of action for a few verbs, and to mark a place you are heading to. It has more uses, but they require more grammar knowledge than we have covered to use.

We are now on the last particle for this lesson: へ. When the kana へ is used as a particle it is pronounced as え. へ, unlike the last two particles, is very easy because it has only one use: it marks a place you are heading to. に and へ are interchangeable when they are being used for this meaning.

I'll put up some example sentences in my next posts to help show the meaning of the particles.

John

Lesson 2: The Present Tenses

In this lesson I'm going to go over both the polite and plain forms of the present tense of verbs.

Before I start explaining how to conjugate verbs, I will point out some basics of verbs. There are three groups of verbs in Japanese: verbs that end in the vowel sound う i.e. あう, きく, and ころす; verbs that end with the sound of いる or える i.e. たべる, たりる, and いる; and three irregular verbs. From here on, I'm going to call the verbs ending with the vowel sound う "Group 1" and call the verbs ending with the sound of いる or える "Group 2". One note with verbs that end in いる or える, they can be a part of either Group 1 or Group 2.

Because Japanese does not have a future tense, the present tense serves as both a present tense and a future tense. When reading a verb in Japanese, you have to guess which it is off of the context.

I'm now going to explain the difference between the politeness levels of verbs then we'll move on to the conjugations. In Japanese, there are 3 levels of politeness of verbs: the honorific and humble forms, the polite form, and the plain form. I'm going to skip the honorific and humble forms because they aren't very useful at this level and just explain the polite and plain forms. The polite form is used around strangers. The plain form is normally used with friends and family or speaking to someone who is of a lower social rank.

The plain present tense is the same as the dictionary form which is the form you find in the dictionary and the form I list here.

The polite present tense is sometime called the ます form because when you finish conjugating the verb it ends in ます. The first step to conjugating a verb into the polite present tense is to conjugate it into it's ます-Stem then add ます to the end of the verb. I'm going to first explain how to conjugate Groups 1 and 2 verbs then show how to conjugate the irregular verbs.

For Verb Group 1, you take the final kana and change the う into an い i.e. あう→あい, きく→きき, and ころす→ころし. This form is the ます-Stem for Verb Group 1 verbs. After conjugating the verb into the ます-Stem you just add ます to the end of the stem to get the polite present tense of a Verb Group i.e. あい→あいます, きき→ききます, and ころし→ころします.

Verb Groups 2 verbs are a bit easier to conjugate. To conjugate one in it's ます-Stem, you just have to remove the final る from the verb i.e. たべる→たべ, たりる→たり, and いる→い. Now just take the ます-Stem and add ます to it i.e. たべ→たべます, たり→たります, and い→います.

I'll first list all of the irregular verbs then show you how to conjugate each of them. There is the irregular copula だ (to be) and the irregular verbs する and 来る (くる To come). だ, because it's not a normal verb, does not have a ます-Stem and conjugates straight into です for it's polite present tense. For する and 来る, Their ます-Stems are し and 来 (き) respectively. To get their polite present tense add ます to the end verb i.e.　し→します and 来→来ます (きます).

Before I bring this lesson to a conclusion, I have one thing to say: do not forget how to conjugate into the ます-Stem because it will be useful later. With that said, this lesson is over, but if you need some practice conjugating verbs you can find some exercises here.

John

Lesson 1: Basic Vocabulary

In this lesson we'll learn some basic words that are useful when playing RPGs.

The word format will be as so: Kanji, Kana, English, notes. If the word does not have a kanji, it will have two dashes in the place of a kanji. Some of the words may have notes that may not mean much right now but will mean more once you get to some of the later lessons. Here are two example words one with a kanji and one without a kanji:

剣 けん Sword You do not have to learn this word
-- りんご Apple You do not have to learn this word either

I am now going to start showing the word that you will be learning.

Common Words:
-- はい Yes
-- いいえ No
-- する To do More on this word in a later lesson

Main Menu:
-- ニューゲーム New Game
-- コンティニュー Continue
-- ロード Load する-noun
設定 せってい Option
終了 しゅうりょう Quit する-noun
続く つづく To continue Group 1 verb
消す けす To delete Group 1 verb
始める はじめる To begin Group 2 verb
写す うつす To copy Group 1 verb

Game Menu:
-- セーブ Save する-noun
-- アイテム Item
-- レベル Level
魔法 まほう Magic
命中 めいちゅう A hit The same hit as in "hit percent"
防御 ぼうぎょ Defence する-noun
攻撃 こうげき An attack する-noun
力 ちから Power
経験値 けいけんち Experience point
ー力 ーりょく - power A suffix
使う つかう To use Group 1 verb
捨てる すてる To discard Group 2 verb
話す はなす To talk Group 1 verb

Treasure:
手に入れる てにいれる To acquire Group 2 verb

Combat:
戦う たたかう To fight Group 1 verb
逃げる にげる To run away Group 2 verb
受ける うける To receive Group 2 verb
与える あたえる To deal Group 2 verb

At the store:
買う かう To buy Group 1 verb
売る うる To sell Group 1 verb
-- やめる To stop Group 2 verb

That's all of the basic words. If you think I'm missing a word or have an idea for a later lesson either write me at mewone@gmail.com or leave a comment.

John

Introduction

こんにちは、みなさん! Or hello everybody!

This blog contains lessons for learning Japanese to play video games. The focus will be on RPGs because they are normally hard to play without any knowledge, but the lessons may also be useful for other types of games.

These lessons will presume that you already know some basic grammar and all of the kana because the lessons will not use any rômaji. If you don't already know all of the kana you can find a good kana lesson on this site.

If you have any suggestions for future lessons please email me at mewone@gmail.com or leave me a comment.

John