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Discover the nuances of Japanese sentence endings with our guide on affirmative and negative forms. Perfect for learners to express agreement and disagreement.
- 「な」 and 「さ」 Sentence-Ending Particles
- 「かい」 and 「だい」 Sentence-Ending Particles
- Gender-Specific Sentence-Ending Particles
- That’S A Wrap!
Vocabulary
1. あのう／あの – say; well; errr 2. うん – yes (casual) 3. この – this （abbr. of これの） 4. 間 【あいだ】 – space (between); time (between); period 5. ディズニーランド – Disney Land 6. 行く 【い・く】 (u-verb) – to go 7. すごい (i-adj) – to a great extent 8. 込む 【こ・む】 (u-verb) – to become crowded 9. 何 【なに／なん】 – what 10. 出来る 【で・き・る】 (ru-verb) – to be able to do 11. 今 【いま】 – now 12. 図書館 【と・しょ・かん】 – library 13. 何で 【なん・で】 – why; how 14. 日本語 【に・ほん・ご】 – Japanese (language) 15. たくさん – a lot (amount) 16. 勉強 【べん・きょう】 – study 17. する (exce...
Example 1
洋介：今、図書館に行くんだよな。 Yousuke: You are going to the library now huh? (seeking explanation) 智子：うん、なんで？ Tomoko: Yeah, why?
Example 2
ボブ：日本語は、たくさん勉強したけどな。まだ全然わからない。 Bob: I studied Japanese a lot, right? But, I still don’t get it at all. アリス：大丈夫よ。きっとわかるようになるからさ。 Alice: No problem. You’ll become able to understand for sure, you know? ボブ：ならいいけどな。 Bob: If so, it would be good. The 「な」 sentence-ending particle is often used with the question marker 「か」 to indicate that the speaker is considering something. 1. 今日は雨が降るかな？ I wonder if it’ll rain today. 2. いい大学に行けるかな？ I wonder if I can go to a good college.
Vocabulary
1. おい – hey 2. どこ – where 3. 行く 【い・く】 (u-verb) – to go 4. 呼ぶ 【よ・ぶ】 (u-verb) – to call 5. いい (i-adj) – good 6. 一体 【いったい】 – forms an emphatic question (e.g. “why on earth?”) 7. 何時 【なん・じ】 – what time 8. 帰る 【かえ・る】 (u-verb) – to go home 9. つもり – intention, plan 10. 俺 【おれ】 – me; myself; I (masculine) 11. 土曜日 【ど・よう・び】 – Saturday 12. 映画 【えい・が】 – movie 13. 見る 【み・る】 (ru-verb) – to see 14. 一緒 【いっ・しょ】 – together 「かい」 and 「だい」 are strongly masculine sentence endings for asking questions. 「かい」 is used for...
Examples
1. おい、どこに行くんだい？ Hey, where are (you) going? 2. さきちゃんって呼んでもいいかい？ Can (I) call you Saki-chan? 3. 一体何時に帰ってくるつもりだったんだい？ What time were (you) planning on coming home exactly? 4. 俺は土曜日、映画を見に行くけど、一緒に行くかい？ I’m going to see a movie Saturday, go together?
These sentence-ending particles are primarily used just to emphasize something and doesn’t really have a meaning per se. However, they can make your statements sound much stronger and/or very gender-specific. Using 「わ」 is just like 「よ」 except it will make you sound very feminine (this is a different sound from the 「わ」 used in Kansai dialect). 「かしら」...
Vocabulary
1. 加賀 【か・が】 – Kaga (last name) 2. 先生 【せん・せい】 – teacher 3. ちょっと – a little 4. 質問 【しつ・もん】 – question 5. 聞く 【き・く】 (u-verb) – to ask; to listen 6. いい (i-adj) – good 7. はい – yes (polite) 8. 日本語 【に・ほん・ご】 – Japanese (language) 9. 何 【なに／なん】 – what 10. 言う 【い・う】 (u-verb) – to say 11. そう – (things are) that way 12. 大体 【だい・たい】 – mostly 13. こんにちは – good day 14. 思う 【おも・う】 (u-verb) – to think 15. ただし – however 16. 書く 【か・く】 (u-verb) – to write 17. 時 【とき】 – time 18. 他 【ほか】 – other 19. 表現 【ひょう・げん】 – expression...
Example 1
アリス： 加賀先生、ちょっと質問を聞いてもいいですか？ 加賀先生： はい、いいですよ。 アリス：「Hello」を日本語で何と言えばいいですか。 何と言えば = quoted sub-clause + if conditional of 言う 加賀先生： そうね。大体、「こんにちは」と言うと思いますよ。ただし、書く時は「こんにちわ」じゃなくて、「こんにちは」と書かなくてはなりません。 「と言うと思います」 = quoted sub-clause + quoted sub-clause 「じゃなくて」 = negative sequence of states アリス：そうですか。他に何かいい表現はありますか。 加賀先生：これも覚えといてね。朝は、「おはよう」と言うの。でも、上の人には「おはようございます」と言ってください。 「覚えといて」 – 覚える + abbreviated form of ～ておく + casual ～てください with ください dropped. アリス：はい、分かりました。間違えないようにします。いい勉強になりました！
Literal translation of Example 1
Alice: Kaga-sensei, is it ok to ask you a question? Kaga-sensei: Yes, it’s ok. Alice: If you say what for “hello” in Japanese, is it ok? Kaga-sensei: Well, mostly, I think people say “konnichiwa”. Only, when you write it, you must write “konnichiha” and not “konnichiwa”. Alice: Is that so? Are there any other good expressions? Kaga-sensei: Please memorize this too (in preparation for the future). In the morning, everybody says, “ohayou”. But, please say, “ohayou-gozaimasu” to a higher person....
People also ask
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- が (Subject Marker) が is used to: Indicate the subject of a sentence. Follow a question word (like who, what or where) が lets us know the sentence’s subject (i.e., who or what it’s about).
- は (Topic Marker) は is used to: Mark the topic of the sentence (the thing we’re going to talk about/comment on) Show contrast. Add emphasis. が and は are similar, but instead of indicating the subject, は tells us what or who the sentence is about.
- か (Question Particle) か is used to: Indicate a question is being asked. List options and alternatives (similar to meaning “or”) When asking a question in Japanese, add か to the end of the sentence.
- を (Direct Object Particle) を is used to: Mark a direct object. A direct object is a thing being acted upon. For example, when you say “I’m listening to a song,” song is the direct object because it’s the thing being listened to.
It would also be epic if there were any expository guides on what endings were just native to animes, Anime/manga-specific ways of stylizing speech to show things such as age and gender are called 役割語 (yakuwarigo).
Semantically, です is like English "be" (or its inflected forms, "am", "are", "is", etc). Whenever you're saying sentences like "This is a book" or "I am a student" in polite Japanese, you'll be using です at the end of each sentence. But not all Japanese sentences need it, just as not all English sentences have "be".
Some verb endings aren't dealt with in textbooks: see What are the chau, cha verb endings? The yagaru ending is considered offensive: What is the yagaru verb ending? The complications of the sou ending and the causative passive form, which rarely features in textbooks, are also detailed here: see What are the uses of the sō ending? and How ...
Aug 13, 2020 · How to Conjugate Verbs in Japanese. Japanese verb group: Irregular verbs / V3; Japanese verb groups: Ru-Verbs / V2; Japanese verb groups: U-Verbs or V1 verbs; Can a verb ending with る actually be a U-verb? Japanese Verb Conjugation Forms: For Beginners. Masu Form and Its Derivatives; Plain Form; Nai form – The Plain Negative form
