Lesson 7: Forming Questions

In this lesson, you learn the sentence structure and the particle needed to ask a question in Japanese.

Forming a question in Japanese is a pretty simple two step process. You first take a statement that is similar to the question you want to ask, then you add the particle か to the end of the sentence to change it into a question. In an informal sentence, you do not have to put か at the end of a sentence. Instead, you either end the sentence with a rising tone when speaking or put a question mark at the end of the sentence when written.

For example, to say "Will the warrior go to the cave?" you would first take the sentence below.

戦士は洞窟に行く。
せんしはどうくつにいく。
The warrior will go to the cave.

Then you add the particle か to change the sentence into a question.

戦士は洞窟に行くか。
せんしはどうくつにいくか。
Will the warrior go to the cave.

That is the only step needed to form a question in Japanese. I will include some more example sentences below to help show how to form a question in Japanese. I will first show the question I'm forming then show the sentence I will add か to then show the question with the Japanese.

Nouns:
勇者　ゆうしゃ A hero
魔法使い　まほうつかい A mage

Verb:
助ける　たすける To save

Question: "Did the hero save the village?"

勇者は村を助けた。
ゆうしゃはむらをたすける。
The hero saved the village.

勇者は村を助けたか。
ゆうしゃはむらをたすけたか。
Did the hero save the village?

Question: "Will the mage go to the desert?"

魔法使いは砂漠に行きます。
まほうつかいはさばくにいきます。
The mage will go to the desert.

魔法使いは砂漠に行きますか。
まほうつかいはさばくにいきますか。
Will the mage go to the desert?

That finishes this lesson. You should now know when you are being ask a question in a game now.

John

Example Sentences for Lesson 3: Part 2 of 2

This post is part two of the example sentences for lesson three. I will continue to have the vocabulary for the example sentences at the top of this post like in the first part.

Nouns:
剣　けん Sword　
--　ドア Door
先生　せんせい Teacher
道場　どうじょう Dojo
戦士　せんし Warrior
八時　はちじ Eight o'clock
十一時　じゅういちじ Eleven o'clock
森　もり Forest
砂漠　さばく Desert

Intransitive Verbs:
開く　あく To open
光る　ひかる To shine
行く　いく To go

Transitive Verbs:
開ける　あける To open

I will show some example sentences that show the uses of の.

戦士の剣は光る。
せんしのけんはひかる。
The warrior's sword shines.

剣の先生は道場のドアを開ける。
けんのせんせいはどうじょうのドアをあける。
The sword teacher opens the dojo's door.

I will show some example sentences for the time marking usage of に.

ドアは八時に開きます。
ドアははちじにあきます。
The door will open at eight o'clock.

戦士は十一時に行く。
せんしはじゅういちじにいく。
The warrior will go at eleven o'clock.

I will cover the usage of に for marking the location of the action of the few verbs in a later lesson.

I will now show some example sentences for the destination marking usage of に, and the usage of へ. For the ease of reading, I have only used に in the next example sentences, but you can replace all of the に's with へ's.

私は森に行きます。
わたしはもりにいきます。
I will go to the forest.

戦士は砂漠に行く。
せんしはさばくにいく。
The warrior will go to the desert.

That covers all of the particles from lesson three.

John

Example Sentences for Lesson 3: Part 1 of 2

This post contains example sentences to help you understand the particles introduced in lesson three.

Because the vocabulary I have introduced so far is not large enough to form a variety of example sentences, I will introduced some more words, but you do not have to remember them beyond this section. They will be listed in the same way as in lesson one: Kanji Kana English Notes.

A note about pluralization in Japanese: nouns are not marked as being plural unless they are pronouns or nouns that represent people. For pronouns and nouns that represent people, you add the suffix 達 （たち） to show that they are plural. For other nouns, you have to guess from context whether or not they are plural. I will cover pluralizing more in depth in a later lesson.

Nouns:
剣　けん Sword
--　ドア Door
--　ドラゴン Dragon
戦士　せんし Warrior
私　わたし First-person pronoun

Intransitive Verbs:
開く　あく To open
光る　ひかる To shine
行く　いく To go
寝る　ねる To sleep

Transitive Verbs:
開ける　あける To open
殺す　ころす To kill

I'll first show some example sentences for は.

ドアは開く。
どあはあく。
The door opens.

剣は光ります。
けんはひかります。
The sword shines.

ドラゴンは寝る
ドラゴンはねる
The dragon sleeps.

Now I'll show an example sentence for が.

戦士が行きます。
せんしがいきます。
A warrior will go.

Next I'll show some example sentences for を.

戦士はドラゴンを殺す。
せんしはドラゴンをころす。
The warrior will kill the dragon.

私はドアを開ける。
わたしはドアをあける。
I will open the door.

戦士は剣を買います。
せんしはけんをかいます。
The warrior will buy the sword.

I will show some example sentences for the three remaining particles, の, に, and へ, in the next post.

John

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