Japanese Help Questions/Translations

[CrimsonNataku]

Originally Posted by AnimeFreak

hm... how come the last one is 'am?'
and ive seen 'wa' a lot too... and 'ka'
wt do those too mean?
[sry for too many questions]

It's "am" because "desu" is the verb "to be."

If you said:

Anata wa nihonjin desu.

It would mean:

You are Japanese.

It's all based on context.

Wa and ka are sentence particles. They are used to indicate anything from nominalization and possession to subject and direct object.

The "ka" particle is placed at the end of a sentence to indicate that it is a question.

I.e. Daijoubu desu. (I'm okay)
Daijoubu desu ka (Are you okay?)

The "wa" particle is indicates the topic of the sentence.

I.e. Watashi wa gakusei desu. (I am a student).

In the sentence above, the "wa" particle indicates what the topic of the sentence is, which in this case is "watashi" or "I."

[AnimeFreak]

Originally Posted by CrimsonNataku

It's "am" because "desu" is the verb "to be."

If you said:

Anata wa nihonjin desu.

It would mean:

You are Japanese.

It's all based on context.

Wa and ka are sentence particles. They are used to indicate anything from nominalization and possession to subject and direct object.

The "ka" particle is placed at the end of a sentence to indicate that it is a question.

I.e. Daijoubu desu. (I'm okay)
Daijoubu desu ka (Are you okay?)

The "wa" particle is indicates the topic of the sentence.

I.e. Watashi wa gakusei desu. (I am a student).

In the sentence above, the "wa" particle indicates what the topic of the sentence is, which in this case is "watashi" or "I."

ohhh i see...
k... lol sry for so many questions tht r like the same... idk... its probably my age... im younger than any of u [i think] i sometimes need 2-time-explaination to get wt ppl r trying to say...

[CrimsonNataku]

Originally Posted by AnimeFreak

ohhh i see...
k... lol sry for so many questions tht r like the same... idk... its probably my age... im younger than any of u [i think] i sometimes need 2-time-explaination to get wt ppl r trying to say...

That's okay. Don't worry about it. How old are you, if you don't mind me asking?

[AnimeFreak]

Originally Posted by CrimsonNataku

That's okay. Don't worry about it. How old are you, if you don't mind me asking?

lets just say... im not even in high school...
XD
wt about u? [if u dont mind]
^.^

[CrimsonNataku]

Originally Posted by AnimeFreak

lets just say... im not even in high school...
XD

Ah, I see. Well if you ever have a question and you don't understand my explanation, don't be afraid to tell me and I'll try to help you ^_^

[NekoNekoChan]

AHA! and finally desu makes sense to me. Honestly, this thread is doing wonders. Maybe, if I learn to read hiragana, I can read some manga that is not available here in the states, thus furthering my comfort in the language(or lyrics of some of my jrock cds. So 'wa' is to indicate subject. I find this a very great thing the Japanese have going for them. In English, often times I can't tell exactly who or what they are talking about because I can't tell what the subject is.

Now, how does the japanese punctuation system work? Is there an equivelent to the comma, is there a symbol for a question(outside of writing ka), periods, pauses(...) Exclamation. oh, and quotation marks.

Editn the note of age, I am 15, turning 16. 10th grade. I want to be pretty well prepared before I make the move.

[CrimsonNataku]

Originally Posted by NekoNekoChan

AHA! and finally desu makes sense to me. Honestly, this thread is doing wonders. Maybe, if I learn to read hiragana, I can read some manga that is not available here in the states, thus furthering my comfort in the language(or lyrics of some of my jrock cds. So 'wa' is to indicate subject. I find this a very great thing the Japanese have going for them. In English, often times I can't tell exactly who or what they are talking about because I can't tell what the subject is.

Now, how does the japanese punctuation system work? Is there an equivelent to the comma, is there a symbol for a question(outside of writing ka), periods, pauses(...) Exclamation. oh, and quotation marks.

Editn the note of age, I am 15, turning 16. 10th grade. I want to be pretty well prepared before I make the move.

Just a correction: "wa" indicates topic. It is the ga particle that indicates subject ^_^.

As for punctuation:
。 is a period.

、 is a comma.

「」 are quotation marks; the text goes in between the brackets.

Aside from ka, "?" is sometimes added to place emphasis on the fact that it's a question. And exclamation point is the same as in English (!).

[CrimsonNataku]

Originally Posted by AnimeFreak

wt about u? [if u dont mind]
^.^

Me? How old do you think I am? ^_^

[NekoNekoChan]

topic is what I meant, honestly. I get the two confused with each other.


now, with ga, I don't ever recall seeing this...could you give me an example of it being used? Yes, I'm an examples person lol.

Oh, and I can't read those symbols, I have yet to install asian language on here(I re-installed windows recently)

[AnimeFreak]

my sister just turned 16!
lol just saying...
XD
my age sometimes bothers me... i try to hide it as much as i can... well, judging from everyone's age, i guess im the youngest one to start TRYING to learn japanese...
^_^'
this is pretty weird... for me...
just dont use high vocabulary on me... well i dont mind... i get it, but its easier for me wen it comes to learning something... my friend uses high vocabulary 24/7... so many big words!!! ^.^ im used to it now...
but for clarifying something, it wud b easier if ppl didnt talk like my friend...
as for me, i barely use big words... only for emergency, like a writing test...
[getting off topic]
lol