UWB11602/UHB11802

JAPANESE LANGUAGE I
8SEMESTER 1, SESSION 2018/19

CHAPTER 3
GRAMMATICAL NOTES

PN. SITI HAJAR BINTI BIDIN

CENTRE FOR LANGUAGE STUDIES
UNIVERSITI TUN HUSSEIN ONN MALAYSIA
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1. N1は N2です。
2. N1は N2では ありません。
3. N1の N2 (organisation)
4. Sか
5. そうです／そうでは ありません
6. Nも
7. ～さん
8. ～さい

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i) Particle は
Particle は indicates that the word before it is the topic of the
sentence.
Example 1: Watashi wa Ahamado desu.
Meaning : I am Ahmad.
Note : (The particle は is read “wa”)

ii) です
Nouns used with です work as predicates.
です indicate positive sentence.
です also conveys that the speaker is being polite towards the
listener.
です inflects when the sentence is negative or in the past tense.
Example 2 : Watashi wa gakusei desu.
Meaning : I am a student.

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Dewa arimasen / Jya arimasen is the negative form of desu.

Jya arimasen is the form use in daily conversation.
For a formal speech or writing dewa arimasen is used instead.
Example 3 : Tanaka-san wa gakusei dewa arimasen.
Meaning : Mr. Tanaka is not a student.
Note : (は in では is read わ)

‘No’ is used to connect two nouns.

In Lesson 3, N1 is an organization or some kind of group to which N2
belongs.
Example 8 : Ahamado-san wa UTHM no gakusei desu.
Meaning : Mr. Ahmad is a student of UTHM.

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i) Particle か
Particle ‘ka’ is used to express the speaker’s doubt, question,
uncertaintly, etc.
A question is formed by simply adding ‘ka’ to the end of the
sentence.
A question ends with a rising intonation.

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ii) Questions asking whether a statement is correct or not
Answer for this question is depending on whether you agree with the statement or
not.
Your answer to such a questions begins with “Hai’ (yes) or ‘Iie’ (no).
Example 4 : Tanaka-san wa Nihon-jin desu ka.
… Hai, Nihon-jin desu.
Meaning : Is Mr. Tanaka a Japanese?
… Yes, he is.

Example 5 : Ahamado-san wa sensei desu ka.

… Iie, sensei dewa arimasen.
Meaning : Is Mr. Ahmad a teacher?
… No, he is not.

iii) Question with interrogatives

An interrogative replaces the part of the sentence that covers what you want to ask
about.
Example 6 : Anokata wa donata desu ka.
… [Anokata wa] Ahamado-san desu.
Meaning : Who is that man?
… That’s Mr. Ahmad.
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In the case of a nouns sentence, the word ‘Sou’ is often used to answer a
question requiring an affirmative or negative answer.

‘Hai, sou desu.’ is the affirmative answer.

‘Iie, sou dewa arimasen.’ is the negative answer.

Example 5 : Tanaka-san wa sensei desu ka.

… Hai, sou desu.
Meaning : Is Mr. Tanaka a teacher?
… Yes, it is. (lit. Yes, it’s so.)

Example 6 : Tanaka-san wa kaishain desu ka.

…Iie, sou dewa arimasen.
Meaning : Is Mr. Tanaka a company employer?
… No, it isn’t. (lit. No, it’s not so.)

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Note : (The verb ‘Chigaimasu’ can be used to be mean ‘Sou dewa arimasen’.

Example 7 : Tanaka-san wa kaishain desu ka.

… Iie, chigaimasu.
Meaning : Is Mr. Tanaka a company employer?
… No, it isn’t.

‘Mo’ is added after a topic instead of ‘wa’ when the statement about the topic
is the same as the previous topic.
Example 7 : Tanaka-san wa Nihon-jin desu.
Akiko-san mo Nihon-jin desu.
Meaning : Mr. Tanaka is a Japanese.
… Ms. Akiko is also a Japanese.

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‘~san’ is added to the name of the listener or a third person to show the
speaker’s respect to the person.
It should never be used with the speaker’s own name.
Example 9 : Anokata wa Rimu-san desu.
Meaning : That’ Mr. Lim.

When referring directly to the listener, the word あなた (you) is not commonly
used if you know the listener’s name.
The listener’s family name followed by ～さん is usually used.
Example 10 :
Akiko：Rimu-san wa Nihon-jin desu ka.
Rimu：Iie, Nihon-jin dewa arimasen. Chuugoku-jin desu.
Meaning : Akiko : Are you a Japanese?
Ali : No, I’m not a Japanese. I’m Chinese.