:: orochinagi

Perfect Stranger wrote:Yep that's right. Kinda awkward though

Ah okay. I just wanted to know if I was using it correctly, even if it's awkward for a beginner.

And nah, I was never Deja Vu Boy, was just using an example .

But I learned a new sentence from you! Thanks!

1. I'm a bit confused about this. Desu means it's directed to a word right? As in "I am" "it is" "That is" etc? So what's the difference between:

Persona desu and Watashi wa(?) Persona

2. Konban means tonight and Konbanwa means Good Evening right? Does the "wa" make a big difference considering that the 2 meanings is almost completely different?

3. What does tsu-u (kanji) ji-yo-u (kanji) mean? And ta (kanji) me?

4. Does this make any sense? ようこそふうさんえんりおしないでえろおですけけけ

5. Is this a good method of learning japanese? Be able to read hiragana and katakana even if you don't understand > learn to form sentences > get an eng-jp dictionary so you can paste in more words to your sentences?

Persona wrote:1. I'm a bit confused about this. Desu means it's directed to a word right? As in "I am" "it is" "That is" etc? So what's the difference between:

Persona desu and Watashi wa(?) Persona

Persona desu is grammatically correctly. Watashi wa Persona lets you get the meaning across but is grammatically incorrect.

2. Konban means tonight and Konbanwa means Good Evening right? Does the "wa" make a big difference considering that the 2 meanings is almost completely different?

It's better to think of konbanwa as a set phrase, don't try to separate it down to konban and wa.

3. What does tsu-u (kanji) ji-yo-u (kanji) mean? And ta (kanji) me?

I have no idea - pasting the kanji in might help

4. Does this make any sense? ようこそふうさんえんりおしないでえろおですけけけ

Nearllllly. Right now it translates to something "Welcome Fuu-san! Don't be shy, *something* kekeke." The thing is えろお doesn't make much sense - I think you're thinking of some form of エロイ? (eroi).

5. Is this a good method of learning japanese? Be able to read hiragana and katakana even if you don't understand > learn to form sentences > get an eng-jp dictionary so you can paste in more words to your sentences?

Sure, that's basically the way I started

Hmm I was trying to say I am large (eroo) kekeke. I thought that desu meant "I am" "It is" etc but Zepy said it doesn't mean much other than for being formal and polite. He also said large in japanese is dekai so he gave me this:

おれはでかいですけけけ oreha dekai desu kekeke

oreha = I am?

---

2 questions:

1. Simon in japanese seems to say Shimon (sheemon). Is that how japanese pronounce the name?

2. How do I spell some words that aren't in the japanese alphabet? Like fa, la, etc. I remember that l is r (or something) in japanese for engrish but I don't know the rest.

Persona wrote:Hmm I was trying to say I am large (eroo) kekeke. I thought that desu meant "I am" "It is" etc but Zepy said it doesn't mean much other than for being formal and polite.

I don't think there is an equivalent in English for desu and its relatives, but "I am" "it is" etc I guess is closest. I disagree with Zepy saying it's unimportant, but like I said earlier - if you omit it you can often make yourself understood, it's just grammatically incorrect.

He also said large in japanese is dekai so he gave me this:

おれはでかいですけけけ oreha dekai desu kekeke

oreha = I am?

Ore is just a super masculine form of "I". the は character is pronounced as "wa" when used like this.

Yeah that sentence works, but it literally just means "I'm large kekeke". You might also want to try "Ore no ga dekai desu kekeke" which is just "Mine is large kekeke". Closer to what you're trying to hint at maybe?
---

2 questions:

1. Simon in japanese seems to say Shimon (sheemon). Is that how japanese pronounce the name?

Err, I wouldn't. Simon is perfectly pronounceable in Japanese - saimon.

2. How do I spell some words that aren't in the japanese alphabet? Like fa, la, etc. I remember that l is r (or something) in japanese for engrish but I don't know the rest.

You're going to have to be more specific here - what do you want to spell that isn't in the Japanese alphabet?
fa is written like this by the way: ファ (fu followed by small a)

Hmm so the ha (which is pronounced as wa) is "am" or "'m"? So if I said "I suck", it would be "ore -insert suck word-" correct?

As for ore no ga, what part of it makes it "mine" and "is"?

As for Simon, for some reason Konami writes Simon as シモン. So I guess their spelling is pronounced as Shimon? Because the english version is Simon.

Oh and is it normal that you can't remember some letters unless you see them? Let say if you tell me to write up the alphabet, I may be missing some of them because I can't imagine them but if I see them in say, a book, I would know what it is.

Also I've been reviewing the letters everyday until I can get them (hira and kana) 100% of the time. Is there any site that teaches how to start putting simple sentences together?

Persona wrote:Hmm so the ha (which is pronounced as wa) is "am" or "'m"? So if I said "I suck", it would be "ore -insert suck word-" correct?

The thing that comes before wa is supposed to highlight the topic of the sentence, so in ore wa dekai, ore is the topic of the sentence, like *I* am big.

As for ore no ga, what part of it makes it "mine" and "is"?

The no particle indicates possession, so ore no is literally "mine". ga marks the topic of the sentence as well. I don't really want to get into the whole "wa versus ga" debate (mainly because, to be plainly honest, I know when you should use wa and when you should use ga, but that's understanding that's gotten from hearing/reading Japanese over a long period of time as opposed to a formulaic understanding).

As for Simon, for some reason Konami writes Simon as シモン. So I guess their spelling is pronounced as Shimon? Because the english version is Simon.

I guess?

Oh and is it normal that you can't remember some letters unless you see them? Let say if you tell me to write up the alphabet, I may be missing some of them because I can't imagine them but if I see them in say, a book, I would know what it is.

Yeah that happens to me too, don't worry about it. Hell it'll only get worse once you start learning Kanji. I've lost track of the amount of times where I go "Wait, how do I write the lower right portion of this character.....?"

Also I've been reviewing the letters everyday until I can get them (hira and kana) 100% of the time. Is there any site that teaches how to start putting simple sentences together?

I can't think of any off-hand, mainly because I didn't search for them Reading manga/watching anime with subtitles is a good way to start though. Short, commonly repeated phrases will stick themselves into your head. Examples of this might be... "koko desu ka?" or "Asobi wa owari da!".... you know what I mean.

http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Gonna leave this here so I can pick it up anytime I need it. I'll ask more questions later.

And did you ditch MSN or something?

EDIT: Does ふうさんじやないおれがペルソナだ！！ make sense? (I dunno how to make small ya)

To get じゃ just type 'ja'.

And I think it should be おれはペルソナだ. が is the topic marker rather than the subject marker.

ふうさんじゃないおれはペルソナだ

Is this correct? Or does oreha have to be before fuusan?

EDIT: here's a few more I made up to see if I'm starting to understand or not:

あの。。。おろくんはレマーですか？

わたしはゲイマーだ

こんぼんわふうちゃんはせんもんですか？

From what cin told me, when asking a simple question, it's usually: -name- ha (wa) -noun- desu ka. Is this correct? As for nonquestion, just change the end to desu or da. Correct?

SonicTempest wrote:To get じゃ just type 'ja'.

And I think it should be おれはペルソナだ. が is the topic marker rather than the subject marker.

Damn it, see I knew I didn't understand the difference between はandが

Hell what's the difference between topic and subject?

Ok, I looked it up and I had it backwards :(

は, not が is the topic marker. So yeah, listen to PS - JLPT 1 > 2 years of college Japanese lol.

Can someone give me new sentences to play around with? All I know right now is the usual:

I am/you are/-enter name- a -enter noun- desu/ka

Need more fill in the blank sentences to practice with.

Quick Japanese lesson: koto ga aru/nai
(watashi wa) XXX koto ga aru,
where you replace XXX with the past tense of a verb.

This roughly translates to
(I have) done XXX before.

So example sentence:
kiita koto ga aru (Translation: I've heard of that before. Note I dropped the (watashi wa) part, since you normally say this in response to somebody else, hence there's no need to specifically mention *I*)
watashi wa SF4 wo yatta koto ga aru (Translation - I have played SF4 before)

Simply replace "aru" with "nai" for the negative, e.g.
watashi wa Thailand ni itta koto ga nai (Translation: I have never been to Thailand before)

わたしはマサターベシオンことがある

シニくんファクことがない

Do these make sense?