Couple of Questions

[Musoka]

1. How do you type in Japanese? I have the language pack installed so I can see it but I cant type it...I know about alt+# but can someone help me out?

2. I am currently learning the Japanese language and I have been watching subtitled anime but I dont understand how the japanese language works. I have a learn how to speak Japanese book but some of the phrases are used diffrently in animes.

Sumimasen- Excuse me, sorry
Komendasai- Excuse me, sorry

Are they the same or am I wrong? And what other words are like that? I want to speak Japanese like the Japanese themselves speak it. Help onegai shimasu

3. How do you say the following things in Japanese?

I am allergic to dust.
How much does ______ cost?
Where can I find _____?
Do you speak english?

More to come from the Japan Obsessor

 

[SacredBlue]

1.) Sorry not a big computer person

2.) Hmm well in English the word order is Subject, Verb, Object. In Japanese the word order is usually Subject, Object, Verb. Example:

English: Musoka reads a book.
=Musoka (subject) reads (verb) a book (object).

Japanese: ムソカが本を読む。(Musoka ga hon o yomu)
Musoka(subject)ga hon(object) o yomu(verb)
ga and o are particles, you will learn them pretty quickly, because almost all sentences have them.

すみません(Sumimasen) generally means 'Excuse me'
ごめんなさい(Gomen nasai) means 'I'm sorry' ごめん(gomen) is also commonly used.

3.) I am allergic to dust.
I'm not too sure about this one..But people might know what you mean if you just say
「私のアレルギーはほこりです。」
(watashi no arerugii wa hokori desu) (My allergy is dust)

How much does ______ cost?
Xはいくらですか。
(X wa ikura desu ka) (How much does X cost?)

Where can I find _____?
I haven't come across a Japanese equivalent of this..yet..But you could always say
Xはどこですか。
(X wa doko desu ka?) (Where is X?)

Do you speak english?

There are few ways to say this. But literally it would be:
英語が話せますか。(eigo ga hanasemasu ka) (Can you speak English?)
Or can use
英語がわかりますか。(eigo ga wakarimasu ka) (Do you understand English?)

I would guess that usually the person you're speaking to knows you're addressing them, but if they don't you can put あなたは(anata wa) in front of the sentence, so it would become:
あなたは英語が話せますか。(anata wa eigo ga hanasemasu ka) (Can you speak English?)

Or use the person's name instead of anata wa to make it more polite.
ムソカは日本語がわかりますか。(Musoka wa nihongo ga wakarimasu ka)
(Do you(Musoka) understand Japanese?)

Hope I've been of some help

 

[Musoka]

Hai, arigato gozaimasu!

Only thing I need answered is the first question now...

 

[Elizabeth]

私はほこりアレルギーです
(Watashi wa hokori arerugi desu.) I believe this is correct....

I have a dust allergy.

 

[Musoka]

Ah arigato,

But can anyone answer my first question? Elizabeth and Sacred just did it...how did you?

 

[Glenn]

For typing in Japanese, I use NJStar Communicator. It's shareware, and expires after 30 days if you don't register. I'm sure most people use Global IME, which is available at Microsoft's home page, but I only used it once and haven't the foggiest clue as to how to use it.

 

[Musoka]

わたし わ あなた わ ど です

Mmmm...thanks for the program! Works great!

 

[Glenn]

Originally posted by Musoka
わたし わ あなた わ ど です

Mmmm...thanks for the program! Works great!

どういたしまして！ By the way, the topic marker "wa" is written in hiragana as "ha," so it looks like this: は. I am not sure what you were trying to say, though... One more thing, when writing in kana only, put a space after the case particle/postposition only. So a sentence in all kana would look like this: わたしの ねこは くだものを うっています。 A sentence with the copula would look like this: りんごは くだものの いちです。

 

[Musoka]

Ah, it was a test. I just wrote

Watashi wa dokshin desu

I might ahve spelled it wrong or I might be using the wrong words(dokshin)

 

[Glenn]

Originally posted by Musoka
Ah, it was a test. I just wrote

Watashi wa dokshin desu

I might ahve spelled it wrong or I might be using the wrong words(dokshin)

独身(どくしん-dokushin)? Were you trying to say that you are single? Remember, all consonants must be followed by a vowel in Japanese, with the exception of ん (N).

 

[Musoka]

Yeah, I just noticed that when using the program, it only allows consonant-vowel-consonant-vowel

 

[Buntaro]

Please note these syllables in Japanese:

chi

shi

tsu

that allow consonants next to consonants. (They are sometimes spelled differently by a few people.)

You may also interested in syllables like:

mya

pya

gya

kyu

which do follow the vowel-consonant rule, although they may look a little "funny".