7/18/11

Kanji - The letters that are pictures... yet letters

一 -one, one line

二 -two, two lines

三 -three, three lines 一 + 二 =


四 -four, symbol for mouth + human legs

五- five, looks like a five with five extra lines


六- six, top hat with animal legs

七 -seven, hook with a cut, slash  can also mean cut or diced

八- eight, small line + big line. like our eight 8 small circle + big circle

  - nine, think of a baseball team, 9 players,

十 - 10, can also mean needle, turn it 45 degrees and it looks like roman numeral10

口- mouth, mouth of cave,river,head,bottle

日- sun, round the corners and it looks like the sun, right?

月- month, can also mean moon, round the corners and think of the 2 lines as the eye and mouth of the mythical man in the moon


check out remembering the kanji
its a great book, and its wear I learned these symbols, the link goes too their website which has a free chapter. 




ok, so these are some of the basic kanji. kanji are letters with meanings, kanji are used in conjunction with hirigana too make up words and sentences. they can also be used in conjunction with eachother too make compound words.


well. just wanted to get a brief introduction too kanji out. good luck with your learning process!
  

7/5/11

Grammer!!!

1.0 - of I and We
1.1 - of ways too use them
1.2 - of you and you(plural)


1.0

      watashi - this translates as roughly I
      tachi - an ending used for some pronouns making them plural
      watashitachi - the final i in watashi becomes silent, sounding more like wa-ta-sh-ta-chi
this roughly translates too we


1.1
      watashi wa ---- desu -   I ---- am, you may insert many different things in this structure.

japanese is a SOV (subject object verb) language, so sentances are organized slightly different then you may
be used too

watashi wa samui desu - I cold am (I am cold)
watashi wa sakura desu - I sakura am (I am sakura) replace sakura with your name. watashi wa daniel desu :)
watashi wa amerika jin desu - I american person am (Im american)
watashitachi wa amerika jin desu - we american person am (we are americans)

note: boku is a masculine form of watashi, it is also less formal, use boku in informal situations

1.2

anata - roughly means you

anata wa samui desu - you cold are
anatatachi wa samui desu- you(plural) cold are