Reading and Writing Help

[harpoondude]

Hello,
I've been taking what I assume are the basic steps to learning japanese. From what I've been reading. The best way to start to learn japanese is to learn the kana. And so I have printed off the basic katakana and hiragana tables.

Along with translating every bit of japanese I can, I'm reading up on some basic japanese grammer lessons. I think I'm doing ok, but, problem is. There's areas of the language which I have to question, not in 'oh it's wrong' but in a 'I don't understand WHY' kindof way.

I'm looking for someone who wouldn't mind just explaining the bits and pieces of japanese which I can't hack my way through myself. Not a 24/7 translator :P

Thanks for any responses.

[loveskyliemole]

Thanks for your PM
So here I am

I am not sure if I can answer to your questions properly, but
I will try!

Once you learn all the hiragana and katakana,
you might find this thread is usuful too.
ひらがな　と　カタカナ　で　はなしましょう！

[harpoondude]

Heya, thanks for offering your help!

There's just a few things I'm confused about. I'll just ask like, a couple of questions now and then. So I'll start with some really basic ones.

First is, Honorifics. When putting an o before Namae (なまえ) Correct me if the hiragana is wrong, but that makes it honorific. Just interested, what falls under the catagory of honorific. It only applies to people correct? But I can't use this infront of a persons name? So what else can I use it for? I wouldn't be able to use this with animals for example? Because from what I know Ookami (おおかみ) would become like, Oookami, and kami (which I believe is god) would become... wolf?

Secondly, the word Mate(matte?)(まあて). This means 'Too see' almost? Not literally eyesight but as in, 'to meet' 'to see'. Am I right to assume that?

Edit: Sorry not matte, matta. The reason I assume this is because 'dewa mata'(ではまた) means see you later. And because 'Mata ashita'（また明日） means see you tomorrow. The way I'm seeing it is that mata is 'too meet' and dewa is later and ashita is tomorrow. But thing is, dewa arimasen means something is 'not' something, so would that mean when you say:

Neko wa dewa arimasen

You are actually saying:

The cat is later not

Surely not? So what is the meaning of dewa? See, I'm in all these loopholes I'm so confused.

Another question. Why does 'dewa mata' have the mata at the end, and 'mata ashita' has it at the beginning? Does this have something to do with the meaning of dewa?

[loveskyliemole]

Hope this will help you a little bit.

1) お (or sometimes ご)+ noun

well, it doesn't mean that we can put this "o" (or "go") before every nouns.
When I want to sound politer, or when I want to show my respect
usually to the customers or someone older than me, I use this.

お+かね(money)
お+うち(house/home)
お+なまえ(name:as you know)
eg.おなまえを　かいてください。 Write your name, please?

Of course you can say
なまえを　かいてください。

but with お　sounds politer.

However, when I talk about (or the subject was) MY NAME,
then I wouldn't use this お.
If I say
わたしの　おなまえは　まゆみ　です。
It sounds like I am trying to be polite to myself.



2) I guess it's maybe the same with English, when we actually "talk",
we wouldn't talk like we are "reading a text book" right? so there are
a few words are missing sometimes. Of should I say some words are hidden.

(sore)dewa, mata ashita (oaishimasyou)
（それ）では、また　あした　（おあいしましょう）



I don't want to make you think "Japanese is too difficult" but
I have to tell you that
sometimes, we have to guess "the ending" of the sentense or "the hidden words"

Just like you do "read between the lines"

When I talk with Japanese person, I have to read between the words as well as the lines!


では　また　has many words hidden.

それでは　また　（おあいしましょう）

When I know that I will meet that person tomorrow, I would say
では　また　あした
では　あした
また　あした


In English,
"See you" = (I will) see you right?



それでは= では　 I use this sometimes when I want to change the subject.


それでは　もうおそいので　かえります。
Well... because it's pretty late. Im gonna go home.

or when I want to go next.

それでは　つぎのもんだいにいきいましょう。
Ok then. Let's move to the next question.


I don't know what book you are using, but
I would recommend you to learn the basic grammar before you learn
"spoken expressions",
because "spoken language" has too many "exceptionals" so you might get confused.


For example,

I learned "How are you?" first and tried not to wonder
what's the difference between
How is it going?
How are you doing?
How are things?

or something like

"Long time no see"

I still don't understand this properly...
I know the meaning and I know how to use it, but
the grammartically.... ???

(It has been a) long time (for us ) no(t) (to) see (each other)"???

[loveskyliemole]

Tae Kim's Japanese guide to Japanese grammar

[Koir]

Originally Posted by loveskyliemole

or something like

"Long time no see"

I still don't understand this properly...
I know the meaning and I know how to use it, but
the grammartically.... ???

(It has been a) long time (for us ) no(t) (to) see (each other)"???

My understanding would be:

"It has been a long time for us not seeing each other"

[loveskyliemole]

Originally Posted by Koir

My understanding would be:

"It has been a long time for us not seeing each other"

I see.

Thank you Koir san!

[Bureda]

This isn't grammatically correct:
"It has been a long time for us not seeing each other"

The correct grammatical structure should be:
"We have not seen each other in a long time"