Japanese Help

[Hitokiri]

Hi guys. Hope any of you can help me out on a quick grammar-related question:

I would like to know what is the general usage of the "temo" form in Japanese?

In the textbooks that I am using (Nakama I + II), there are a few of sections that relate to the "temo" form of a verb (which is the 'te' form plus 'mo'). The textbooks only mention specifc areas to which you can use it]general[/I] case.

Thanks in advance!

By using the ~て form and combining it with ~もいい. it implies a "is it alright to do this",

これはケーキを食べてもいい。
kore ha keki o tabetemoii.
Is it ok to eat this cake

母さん、これは本を買ってもいい。
okasan,　kore wa hon o kattemoii.
Mom, is it ok for me to buy this book?

That is your most common usage. Just remember the ~て form of the verb.

There are other forms that you can use depending on the situation. It depends solely on how polite you want to be. Here is least to most polite:

～てもいい
～てもいいですか。
～てもかまいませんか。
～てもいいでしょうか。
～てもよろしでしょうか。

Obviously depending on how you are speaking to, you will use whatever seems fit such as a teacher or a boss. Grammatically speaking, ～てもいい　or ～てもいいですか are the ones I use when talking to my friends.

Vocab:
食べる　　taberu to eat
本 hon book
買う kau to buy
母さん okasan mother (your)
ケーキ ke-ki cake

[Stanton21]

Thank you for the help, Hitokiri. I have heard of the 'temo' form when it comes to asking for permission, but your explanation really helps in understanding it.

Actually, I think I have heard of another function of the 'temo' form, which brought the question up. のに is supposed to mean "despite [something]" and it attaches after a noun, plain verb, and adjective. Does the temo form have the same meaning as 'noni'?

読むのに分からない (Even if I read it, I don't understand)
読んでも分からない (Even if I read it, I don't understand)

Please correct me if this is a mistake.

[ShiroiHikari]

Yeah, thanks, Hitokiri. I learned something new today!

[Hitokiri]

Thank you for the help, Hitokiri. I have heard of the 'temo' form when it comes to asking for permission, but your explanation really helps in understanding it.

Actually, I think I have heard of another function of the 'temo' form, which brought the question up. の]" and it attaches after a noun, plain verb, and adjective. Does the temo form have the same meaning as 'noni'?

読むのに分からない (Even if I read it, I don't understand)
読んでも分からない (Even if I read it, I don't understand)

Please correct me if this is a mistake.

Hmm. I think I have heard that before. I am not 100% sure so let me do some research regarding ~のに。

I looked around and I believe both forms work. However, it seems to me that のに is used more often.

I may be wrong though haha.

[Stanton21]

[quote="Hitokiri (post: 1274188)"]Hmm. I think I have heard that before. I am not 100%]
Actually, I did a quick Babelfish check for those forms and it seems both are true, although the Japanese-English translation gives slightly different interpretations:

-"Although you read, you do not understand" for 'noni'
-"Reading, you do not understand" for 'demo'

(Babelfish sure gives out some strange translations.)

And it does seem like I can catch 'noni' more often whenever I hear it in an anime, so I can definitely take your word for that as well.

Thanks again.

[Hitokiri]

I hate babelfish. I find it unreliable. I use several books but one I find particularly useful is Yookoso. I use mostly dictionaries, grammar books, verb books, and kanji books.

As well, when I need extra help, I annoy one of my Japanese friends haha.

Anyways, I am glad I can be of help

[ShiroiHikari]

I use JWPCE. It's a word processing program, but the interface is in English and it has a pretty fantastic built-in dictionary. This is how I am able to pretend that I know kanji. XD;;

[Garjzla]

[quote="ShiroiHikari (post: 1274388)"]I use JWPCE. It's a word processing program, but the interface is in English and it has a pretty fantastic built-in dictionary. This is how I am able to pretend that I know kanji. XD]

lol dont most of us pretend we know kanji

[Hitokiri]

I try to memorize at least 10 per day (weekday that is haha). If remember how to write 5 of them, I am pretyy happy with myself haha.

[Garjzla]

I try to memorize at least 10 per day (weekday that is haha). If remember how to write 5 of them, I am pretyy happy with myself haha.

yeah i really dont have time for that...i go on about 3 different forums and am trying to get caught up in naruto....

[Hitokiri]

For anyone who wants to learn vocab, I suggest dviding each week into vocab themes. I have been doing this for a while and it helps A LOT! What I do in order to retain the vocab is I quiz myself every third week on the vocab. For instance, last week was "Medical vocab" and this week is "Academical vocab". (i.e. chishitsugaku - geology, suugaku - mathmatics, shiken - examination, buken - literature (books), etc). I apologize for romanized Japanese (I detest romanized Japanese). I am typing from a computer in the school's computer lab.

[Stanton21]

For anyone who wants to learn vocab, I suggest dviding each week into vocab themes. I have been doing this for a while and it helps A LOT! What I do in order to retain the vocab is I quiz myself every third week on the vocab. For instance, last week was "Medical vocab" and this week is "Academical vocab". (i.e. chishitsugaku - geology, suugaku - mathmatics, shiken - examination, buken - literature (books), etc).

I agree with that. And the same method can also be used when learning kanji as well.

My kanji learning reference ("Basic Kanji Book") is very good in dividing chapters with 10-15 related kanji. A chapter might focus on kanji that relates to "weather" or "feelings". Other chapters will consist of kanji with similiar radicals, verbs, etc..

The closer the association between related concepts/themes, the better it is to retain them in memory as a group.

[Kaori]

[quote="Hitokiri (post: 1274148)"]
There are other forms that you can use depending on the situation. It depends solely on how polite you want to be. Here is least to most polite:

～]

I recognize the others, but not ～てもかまいませんか。 Is it the ～ても form plus the negative form of かまう（構う）、to care about?

Hitokiriさんの専攻は日本語ですか。

[Hitokiri]

[quote="Kaori (post: 1274806)"]I recognize the others, but not ～]

Hm, I did not study the ～ても科もいませんか much. I can do some research concerning it and report back in a couple of days though.

いいえ、私の専横はAsian Studiesだ。日本の映画と中国歴史と日本の文献とアジアの現代音楽を勉強していました。アジアの現代音楽クラスは宇多田ヒカルとBollywoodとCPopとKHopを聞きました。そして音楽ビデオを見たり色々コンサートに行ったりしました。面白かったね。あなたの専攻は何か。日本語は大学に勉強しますか。

I hopefully got that right haha.

[Kaori]

い]
面白そう!


[Quote=Hitokiri]あなたの専攻は何か。日本語は大学に勉強しますか。

いいえ、専攻は英語文献でした。小さいな大学に行ったし、日本語のクラスがありませんでした。教えてもらったことがありますけど、大分は、自分で勉強しました。

For the benefit of readers with less kana background, here's the romaji and translation of what I said:

Iie, senkou wa eigo bunken deshita. Chiisai na daigaku ni ittashi, nihongo no kurasu ga arimasen deshita. Oshiete moratta koto ga arimasu kedo, daibun wa, jibun de benkyou shimashita.

[In response to a question about major] No, my major was English literature. Because I went to a small college, there was no Japanese course. There are some times when I have been taught, but I have mostly studied by myself.


[Quote=Hitokiri]I hopefully got that right haha. [/quote]
Well, the Japanese usually avoid saying "anata" when possible, but you probably already know that. There's nothing wrong with it grammatically, though.

You might already be aware of this one, too, but if you would like to imply that you listened to other music besides the specific kinds and artists you listed, you could use や. . .　や. . .　や. . .　など　to separate the items in your list instead of と　. . . と　. . . (the latter implies a complete list). It all depends on what you want to say.

[Hitokiri]

面] No, my major was English literature. Because I went to a small college, there was no Japanese course. There are some times when I have been taught, but I have mostly studied by myself.



Well, the Japanese usually avoid saying "anata" when possible, but you probably already know that. There's nothing wrong with it grammatically, though.

You might already be aware of this one, too, but if you would like to imply that you listened to other music besides the specific kinds and artists you listed, you could use や. . .　や. . .　や. . .　など　to separate the items in your list instead of と　. . . と　. . . (the latter implies a complete list). It all depends on what you want to say.

Yeah, I was doing it for the sake of standardized Japanese that is easy for Americans. I was going to use informal and some colloquial but I decided against it haha.

Hmm, I knew や meant "....and..." but it also signifies "this and this, etc"? I did not know that. Hmmm.

I would put mine in romanized and translation as well.

いいえ、私の専横はAsian Studiesだ。日本の映画と中国歴史と日本の文献とアジアの現代音楽を勉強していました。アジアの現代音楽クラスは宇多田ヒカルとBollywoodとCPopとKHopを聞きました。そして音楽ビデオを見たり色々コンサートに行ったりしました。面白かったね。あなたの専攻は何か。日本語は大学に勉強 しますか。

iie, watashi no senkou wa Asian studies da. nihon no eiga to chugoku rekishi to nihon bunken to ajia no gendai ongaku o benkyoushiteimashita. Ajia no gendai ongaku kurasu wa utada hikaru to bollywood to CPop to Khop o ikimashita. soshite ongaku bideo o imtaru iroiro konsato ni ittarishimashita. omoroshikatta ne. anata no senkou ha nan ka. nihongo ha saigaku ni benkyoushimasu ka.

No, my major is Asian Studies. I have studied Japanese Film, Chinese History, Japanese literature (books), and Asian Popular Music. In the Asian popular Music class, I listened to Utada Hikaru, Bollywood, Cpop, and Khop. As well, we watched music videos and went to various concerts. It was very interesting. What is your major? Do you study Japanese at a university?

[Aka-chan]

To answer an earlier question, "-temo" and "-noni" both mean "even if" or "but," but "-noni" implies more surprise or frustration. The result that sparked the "-noni" probably shouldn't have happened in an ideal situation.

For example: 走っても間に合わないよ。（はしってもまにあわないよ。）
"Even if you run, you won't make it." (This is a matter of fact statement.)
versus
手作りのチョコなのに彼は食べてくれない。（てづくりのチョコなのにかれはたべてくれない。）
"It's handmade chocolate, but my boyfriend still won't eat it." (She was really hoping he would try some, but no...)

I'm college fifth year level in Japanese and have spent some time living there, so I would be happy to answer questions regarding the language. I'm not on here much, though, so I probably won't have time to do much more than that.

And as a side note, dialects are lots of fun, but I definitely recommend learning standard Japanese before launching into those. It can really throw you, and you'll look really silly if you try to use it without actually knowing what you're doing. Also, dialects have specific intonations as well as grammar patterns and catchphrases, so it's hard to pull them off if you haven't spent a lot of time living in the area and hearing them. (And even anime may not help you. They often have Tokyo-ite seiyuu try to speak Kansai-ben, but supposedly a seasoned ear can hear the difference.)

[Hitokiri]

Yeah, dialects are pretty hard to get a hold of. I have just began trying and I am very lost (I even have books on it haha). However, it is fun to say a kansai-ben word every now and then. I would never use it in speech in like Osaka or Kyoto but I use freely with some of my friends haha.

That is cool Aka-chan. We only have three years at my school :/ I will be staying in Japan next summer. From June to July I will be with my university and then July to August will be on my own or visiting friends.

[FnlFntsyYuna]

I wish I could read and speak Japanese T__T

[Hitokiri]

I apologize for my absence.

Yuna, do you have any prior knowledge in the Japanese language or is it entirely new to you? If so, I can hope you out with the basics.

Does anyone have any questions?

[FnlFntsyYuna]

I apologize for my absence.

Yuna, do you have any prior knowledge in the Japanese language or is it entirely new to you? If so, I can hope you out with the basics.

Does anyone have any questions?

I listen to Jpop and watched some videos on how to lean Japanese, but it's still really heard from me to get it >_< I also sometimes go on Google Translater and type words on there for fun.^^

I want to lean Japanese so that I can make Japanese friends and when ever I get a chance to go to Japan, that I might be able to understand and speak there language =D

Questions - Dose it take a long to lean a new language and, Just curious, are you Japanese?

[Wave]

I'm going to interject with a question. I stared a new section on my Japanese compurer program. They are tring to teach me 4 words for times of day. Yoru, Asa, Hiru, yuugata. I find the little clock face that they use to try to show you what time time span this is very confusing. Can anyone clarify?

Wave.

P.S Work computer, No spellcheck or Japanese char support.

[ShiroiHikari]

夜 - yoru - night
朝 - asa - morning
昼 - hiru - noon, daytime
夕方 - yuugata - evening

Hope that helps. (I had to look them all up; how sad is that?)

[Wave]

Anther random question. What is the meaning and proper us of the Japenese words ato and mae?

wave.

[Eddosan]

[quote="ShiroiHikari (post: 1281601)"]夜]
Not sad at all. ^^;

[ShiroiHikari]

後 - ato - after, behind, later
前 - mae - before, in front, previously

[Wave]

On of these days I'll bring my Japanese to english dictionary to work so I can put to gether a whole sentence.

So Dose Nihongo have a seprate word for "thump?"


wave.

[Eddosan]

On of these days I'll bring my Japanese to english dictionary to work so I can put to gether a whole sentence.

Just write a verb down, dude. That's a whole sentence in Japanese.

[Wave]

yush!!

走る!
Hashitte!
(run)

Kadeda ha hashitte de imasu.

wave.

[Kura Ookami]

What's the best response to: 日本語上手ですね　「にほんごじょうずですね」　(nihongo jouzu desu ne) I think it translates to "You're japanese is skillful." Am I right?
This is after a simple greeting in Japanese.

And how would I say I can't read many kanji? Something like: 「かんじはよむないです。」？ (kanji wa yomunai desu.)

One last question. How would I say: "My hobbies are, reading books, playing badminton, drawing and listening to music."?
Currently I'd say something like:　 ぼくのしゅみはよむほんとあそぶバドミントンとえがくときくおんがく。　(boku no shumi wa yomu hon to asobu badominton to egaku to kiku ongaku)