So if you like to multitask this grammar principle is for you. I straight up copied my own copy to give you my best, I hope you enjoy.
Ghetto Grammar - Japanese Bunpo lesson #106
Today’s lesson focuses in on the ghetto grammar principle:
Verb (base II) + nagara - to do while 'verb'ing.
You are able to express past tense and current tenses with this bunpo. After reading the following examples, plug in your favorite Japanese verbs and play, it makes learning Japanese fun!
Example.1. Sara o arainagara, kuchibue o fuku. – While doing the dishes, I whistle.
Example 2. Enka o kikinagara, sake o nomu – While listening to an enka(Japanese folk song), I drink sake.
Ghetto Grammar Formulation Breakdown –
1. Put verb in base II
a. ex 1. The verb arau (to wash) with direct object sara (dishes) is sara o arau - to do the dishes.
b. arau in base II becomes arai.
2. Fuse arai and nagara to make arainagara, or the phrase while washing… Plugged And played.
Past tense, non-polite (familiar), plain-form ending –
Ex. 1. Sara o arainagara kuchibue of fuita. I whistled while doing the dishes.
Past tense, polite ending –
Ex. 1.Sara o arainagara, kuchibue of fukimashita. – While doing the dishes, I (politely) whistled.
Past tense, non-polite (familiar), plain-form ending –
Ex.2. Enka o kikinagara, sake o nonda. While listening to a Japanese Folk Song, I drank sake.
Past tense, polite ending –
Ex.2. Enka o kikinagara, sake o nomimashita. While listening to a Japanese Folk Song, I (politely) drank sake.
Ex. 3. Famicon or yarinagara shukudai ga dekiru. I can play nintendo while I'm doing my homework.
Ex. 4. Gamu o kaminagara kuchibue mo dekiru. I can chew gum while I'm whistling.
Ex. 5 Nenagara jishin ga atta. While I was sleeping there was an earthquake.
Do your best! Ganbatte Ne! Makurasuki sensei Yori.
About the Author:
makurasuki Sensei has enjoyed teaching for a majority of his life whether it be music or Japanese. He says He Likes Japanese and Music but not necessarily Japanese music. If you like what he has done in this article please visit his other web pages which are well made for Beginning to advance learners of Japanese at http://squidoo.com/ghettogrammar
April 1, 2008
To do while verbing - the Nagara principle
March 31, 2008
hanashi so desu to seem about to verb
To say that someone seems about to verb in Japanese, use the following construction:
Verb(base II) So^ desu
This one is an easily constructed grammar principle. First we take any verb we like and put it into base II.
Hanasu - to speak -
Hanasu(base II) = hanashi
Ochiru - to fall -
Ochiru(base II) = ochi
Naku - to cry
Naku(base II) = naki
add So^ desu to the base II of Japanese verbs will make the verb take on the nuance of things which are about to take place or that look like they are going to do it soon, ie. seems about to verb.
hanashi so^ desu
hanashiso^ desu - It seems he is about to speak
ochi so^ desu
ochiso^ desu - looks like they are about to fall down
For iru and eru ending verbs simply drop off the last syllable ru and and your So^ desu. For all other forms put into i ending.
March 19, 2008
Japanese Grammar - must verb
Ghetto grammar supplement #114
Today’s ghetto grammar lesson takes us to Kansas, where along with Toto today’s language journey will take us and show us how to say a very long, and unfamiliar Japanese bunpo(grammar) construction, 1st presented in my other article here. It only looks long and formidable at first but I’ll tell you the secret ghetto way of learning this seemingly difficult grammar. You must get into a ghetto groove and really internalize this rhythm. You will want to play with this exercise to get it just right, but in the end we are serving ourselves lanuguage gravy train, by allowing ourselves time for speech practice, and also by putting verbs into the base I + nakereba narimasen bunpo structure in Japanese for - must verb
Do you remember the song “Follow the Yellow Brick Road”? Even if you don’t, just say the words “Follow the Yellow Brick Road” and chant it a few times to get into the right groove and rhythm yourself. Yes do it now ! Say "Follow the Yellow Brick Road. Say it again and again then after you get a feel for the rhythm of that phrase, its time to commence the Japanese bunpo construction practice session.
It is always a good idea pronounce your words with pure vowels, we want to make our choir teacher proud of our diction, and good habits now are better than bad habits later. It is highly likely if your speech tends towards pure vowels that the people we speak to in the target language may actually understand us. And that is the goal... or one of them at least...TO BE UNDERSTOOD! (Or at least get people to nod as if they understand.)
Lets say it again (Follow the Yellow Brick Road) one more time just to make sure we have just the right rhythm at a comfortable tempo. After repeating the phrase you should be able to feel tit's rhythm. What we then do is super-impose the dreaded mile long grammar structure for must verb onto the rhythm of the chant, "Follow the Yellow Brick Road.” example: iku - to go
iku - base I - ika plug it into the grammar for must verb, Base I +nakereba narimasen remembering the rhythm of the above Phrase that you and Toto continue to chant.
I ka na ke re ba na ri ma sen. This works good with one syllable stemmed verbs like iku where the stem becomes I so that the whole chant becomes
I ka na ke re ban a ri ma sen. I got to go... homie!
Ikanakereba narimasen! I gotto go... homie!
Also hanasu(to speak) works
Hanasanakereba narimasen - Ive got to speak... homie.
As do the verbs Kaeru(to return), and kaku(to write)
Kaeranakereba narimasen - I must return
Kakanakereba narimasen - I must write
O.K. so not all of the verbs will fit tidily into the "Follow the yellow brick road"'s 7 syllable pattern, even ikanakereba narimasen has 10 clappable syllables to our western ears. Basically "Follow the Yellow Brick Road," has 3 strong downbeats and a pickup to repeat it again. Do the same with base I verb + nakereba narimasen.
Try some of your own to the unique rhythm of "Follow the Yellow Brick Road”
Your Japanese will surely impress the masses with its new rhythmical style, and not only that, but you can now say I must verb a little easier.
Follow the yellow brick road. Ganbatte ne! Do your best! Makurasuki sensei.
http://www.clickapps.com/moreinfo.htm?pid=1073§ion=PPC&a=883
March 17, 2008
Some serious Talk about Sake
In Japan you have your sho^chu and your sake. We don't pronounce sake like it looks, which is to say like, 'for pete's sake', we say the ke like the ke in keg. So instead of for pete's sake, you say, sa with a dropped jaw and ke like kay, so in effect you are really saying sakay. The problem with this pronunciation is that you will have failed to say SAKE correctly. Let me try this... one more time... In Japan, you have for your alcoholic beverage satisfaction, 1 of 3 choices which may or may not fit your pallete. Upper or middle or indifferent and otherwise, your choices all boil down to how much rice and in what way it was fermented.
The three choices for alcoholic beverages in Japan are; 1. Sho^chu, 2. Sake, or 3. Bi-ru. Sho^chu are the honorific 'spirits' made of all sorts of wheat + fermented rice. Sake is the Japanese equivalent of our fermented grape wine, and Bi-ru is beer made from fermented rice. You may be familiar with some of the well known Japanese beers, but you may not know that they were made more out of rice than from anything else.
As for alcoholic content, ranges are from anywhere past the Sake threshold of 15º degrees all the way up to 37º-39º or thereabouts. Sake varies in alcoholic content anywhere that our equivalent grape wine varieties exist, that is roughly between 7-15 % or as the Japanese 7º-15º degrees. And of course beer as we might be familiar with comes in at from between 3.5% to sometimes nowadays with "Wicked ale" or "Bastard Ale" up to a whopping 8% or 8º.
This brings me to formulate a hypothesis about what the º sign means in English. If in English we say 15% in Japanese it is said to contain 15º. With that said, it is to say that º = %. Got that?
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