Exercises in Genki

[seaDonkey]

Moderator's note: This thread is derived from "Would you like to talk at a coffee shop?".
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Back to the textbook for me chaper 4 awaits.

 

[Buntaro]

"Back to the textbook for me chaper 4 awaits."

--> Let us know how it goes. I will be curious as to which parts of Chapter 4 are the most difficult for you.

 

[seaDonkey]

You have helped focus my studies. I will try not to get sidetracked.

For the following example I think a natural sounding answer would be いいえ,ねこがいません/いないです.

あなたの家に猫がいませんか

Some of the questions seem a little broad like asking あなたの国(your country/kuni)に（(replaces で）within its bounds)何がありますか（What is there?). Let me see..

Takeshi has French, English and Computer classes on a wednesday. Genki asks 水曜日に何がありますか. Tricky. フランス語と英語とコンピューターのクラスがあります. romanji: furansugo to eigo to konpyuutaa no kurasu ga arimasu.

I was caught out by Mary met takeshi on thursday in a coffe shop with the particle.を again. メアリーさんは木曜日に喫茶店でたけしさんを会いました. I read に could replace を here but I am not sure.

oh and:
sun day, moon day,
Tuesday is named after a god of war so 'the fire of war.'
Wednesday and water begin with a w.
Thursday and tree begin with t.
Friday is payday.
Saturday is just saturday.
Fine work even if I say so myself .

 

[Buntaro]

SeaDonkey,

Let's take these one at a time.

いいえ,ねこがいません works better as いいえ、猫がいません。

Please note the Japanese comma is shaped quite differently than the English comma and takes up a full space. Another thing about Japanese commas is that they are shaped so they can be used in text that is written top-to-bottom as well as left-to-right (hence the need for it to take up one whole space). Many Japanese novels are written top-to-bottom. Look at this image containing top-to-bottom text which includes commas:



You also need to put a period at the end of the sentence. Note that the Japanese period is hollowed out and is much larger than an English period. This is so they can be easily seen in top-to-bottom text. Take a look at the image linked to above, and you will see what I mean.

Then there is the question of いません/いないです. Both are formal forms and they are approximately the same in their levels of politeness. But I would say いません is ever so slightly more polite than いないです. But I also think most Japanese people would not worry about the differences between these two in terms of politeness.

However, I am not a native Japanese speaker. I hope to hear from a native Japanese speaker regarding my comments.

 

[seaDonkey]

Thanks a lot. This is good constructive criticism. I will remember to use proper punctuation and always kanji where appropriate. To be honest I feel a little embarrassed at the messyness of my post seeing as this is a language forum.

Keeping with the ある examples in my last post. The first is the same example I included in romanji that I wanted to flesh out ( Genki teaches us to sound casual by omitting the obvious but I like to know what I have ommited.) and the second in answer to 金曜日に何がありますか。given that both an english test and a party are in takeshi's diary for friday. My main difficulty is with the correct placing of も and I would be grateful if you could confirm this.Especially might も replace が instead of using it as I do here. Thanks again .

たけしさんは水曜日にフランス語とえいごとコンピュータのクラスかあります。

たけしさんは金曜日に英語のテストがあります。金曜日にもパーティーがあります。

Fortunately I have time to study and using a pencil is so refreshing I am not feeling any fatigue. I should be making some progress and will hopefully fill my next post with sensible japanese.

 

[seaDonkey]

From chapter 4 IV B.

(4) メアリさんは金曜日に友だちの家でご飯を食べました。
(5)メアリさんは土曜日に京都に映画を見ました。
(6)メアリさんは日曜日にデパートで買物を買いました。correction 買い物をしました。

4 IV C
１）いいえ、手紙を書きました。
２）いいえ、テニスをしました。
３）はい、日本語の友達に会いました。
My confusion over に and 会う has been cleared up due to the many examples given in this section.
４）いいえ、友達の家でご飯を食べました。
５）いいえ、映画を見ました。
６）はい、買い物をしました。

4 IV D
1）学校でテニスをしました。
2）家で手紙を書きました。
３）土曜日。
The CD has it as 土曜日に映画を見ました。I would be intrested to know more about how, when answering, one could ommit what is implied by the question without sounding abrubt.
4）日曜日。（にしました？）
5）メアリさんの友達の家です。
６）きっさてんです。

Back to paper and pencil for me. Thanks to Buntaro for setting my on the right path with some great advise.

 

[Buntaro]

SeaDonkey,

(4) メアリさんは金曜日に友だちの家でご飯を食べました。
Sounds correct to me.

(5)メアリさんは土曜日に京都に映画を見ました。
I would change this to 京都で映画を見ました。because this is an example of "action entirely within the boundaries of Kyoto ".

Let's consider these two examples:
(c) 映画を見ます (eiga o mimasu) see a movie
(d) 映画を見に行きます (eiga o mi ni ikimasu) go see a movie
The example (d) is quite common and contains "go see…" which is rendered as (…見に行きます) (…mi ni ikimasu).

We can make it even more complicated and say, "go see a movie in Kyoto". But the English grammar we need to consider is, "go to Kyoto in order to see a movie", which is closer to what is actually said in Japanese, (映画を見る為に京都に行きます) (eiga o miru tame ni Kyouto ni ikimasu).
(This contains the phrase "in order to" "…する為に" "…suru tame ni", which you may have not encountered yet.)

I am bringing all of this up because I want to distinguish "京都で" (Kyouto de) from "京都に" (Kyouto ni).
"京都で" refers to an action that occurs entirely within Kyoto.
"京都に" refers to an action that begins outside of Kyoto and continues as you enter into Kyoto. So I would not say, "京都に映画を見ました。". Does your textbook say otherwise?

 

[seaDonkey]

The textbook does indeed give 京都で映画お見ました. 京都に映画を見ました would not even carry the meaning of 'I watched a film as I was travelling to Kyoto' and a sentence to that effect would require a second location as the absolute physical bounds, an airplane or some such, in order for で映画を見ました。To be used. So 'While traveling to Kyoto a film was watched on the plane' however it seems '(I) Watched a film on the plane as I was travelling to Kyoto' would likely be a 'better' translation. I hope that all made sense. You managed to give me a good Idea of where to be aiming with my grammer in quite a short post. ありがとうBentaro. Are you by any chance a language teacher?

 

[hirashin]

Hello, seaDonkey. Thanks for inviting me, Buntaro.

I haven't read all the messages here, but I'd like to point out about some sentences SeaDonkey gave.

あなたの家に猫がいませんか

This sentence sounds strange to me. It sounds as if Sherlock Holmes had said.

For example,
Holmes : あなたの家に猫がいませんか。（This sounds as if the speaker is more certain than あなたの家に猫はいませんか)
Customer : いますが、それが何か？
Holmes : わかりました。その猫は、家の中で飼っておられますね？
Customer : はい。そうですが、それと、私のお尋ねしている事と、どういう関係があるのですか？

>メアリーさんは木曜日に喫茶店でたけしさんを会いました.
We use に before 会う instead of を. メアリーさんは木曜日に喫茶店でたけしさんに会いました is correct.
But 見る takes を. You can say メアリーさんは木曜日に喫茶店でたけしさんを見ました(or 見かけました)。


>たけしさんは水曜日にフランス語とえいごとコンピュータのクラスかあります。
I think you mean クラスが instead of クラスか. えいご is usually written as 英語 in Kanji

>たけしさんは金曜日に英語のテストがあります。金曜日にもパーティーがあります。
This sounds off. 金曜日にパーティーもあります would be correct.

(4) メアリさんは金曜日に友だちの家でご飯を食べました。
Sounds correct to me.

(5)メアリさんは土曜日に京都に映画を見ました。
I would change this to 京都で映画を見ました。

I agree with Buntaro. You can also say メアリーさんは土曜日に京都に映画を見に行きました。But from stylistic point of view, using に repeatedly should be avoided. So it would sound better to say メアリーさんは、(この前の)土曜日、京都に映画を見に行きました。

I hope this helps.

Would you correct my English, if needed, Buntaro?

Hirashin from Kyoto, Japan

 

[seaDonkey]

すみません Hirashin. The textbook example was mistyped. It should have been あなたの家に猫がいますか。Does that make more sense.

Genki states "あります calls for the particle に, rather than で, for the place description." So in this case it is not my nemesis に causing the difficulty!

Sherlock: "At your home is there not a cat present?"
Customer: "Present? What are you asking?"
Sherlock: "I see. In your home, do you keep a cat as a pet?"
Customer: "I do but I fail to see how this connects with my case."

I understood maybe half. Thanks for going over my awnsers.

 

[Buntaro]

Hirashin Sensei!

You said that あなたの家に猫がいませんか sounds a little strange. Is it more common to just say 「猫がいません」 ? I would imagine it is not necessary to put in the 家に ("at home") part, right?

My understanding is that there are several ways to say "I have a cat" in Japanese:
(e) 猫がいます
(f) 猫を持っています
(g) 猫を飼っています
(Hirashin seems to be saying (h) 飼られます is also commonly used.)
Hirashin, which of these is most commonly used in conversational Japanese?


SeaDonkey,
I agree that あなたの家に猫がいませんか is unnecessarily too long, and is probably better said as just 猫がいませんか. In English, if I say, "I have a cat," it is usually pretty obvious I mean "at home" so it is not necessary to say, "at home". It is the same in Japanese.
Your example, 飛行機で映画を見ました is correct.
(SeaDonkey, by the way, Hirashin is a native Japanese speaker who teaches English at a 専門学校 in Kobe.)


At the risk of 'beating a dead horse', let's look at these two examples.
(i) 京都で映画を見に行きました。
(j) 京都に映画を見に行きました。

To my way of thinking, (i) means that the departure for and arrival at the movie theater both happened in Kyoto, whereas (j) means the departure was outside of Kyoto and the arrival at the movie theater was in Kyoto.


"Genki states "あります calls for the particle に, rather than で, for the place description.""
--> I agree. I cannot think of a situation where we would use であります. Please note the two commonly used examples:
があります
にあります
Please note that the particle は is often used in the negative, as in Hirashin's example.
はありません


買い物をしました。
--> This is grammatically correct, but I would say, 買い物に行きました。Here the meaning is "go shopping" or "go buy something" rather than just "buy something" and I think "買い物に行きました" (I went shopping) is more common.***
If I wanted to say "I bought a newspaper" I would say, "新聞を買いました".
In English we also have the phrase, "go buy a newspaper" (新聞を買いに行きます) Interestingly, in Japanese, it is common to say the inverse, "go buy something and then come back here" (買って来ます) as in the example, "I went and bought a newspaper" (新聞を買って来ました).

*** Hirashin, do you agree?


"The CD has it as 土曜日に映画を見ました。I would be intrested to know more about how, when answering, one could ommit what is implied by the question without sounding abrupt."
--> As Hirashin has indicated, we can also say, 土曜日映画を見ました. I do not think it sounds abrupt. It is simply a matter of leaving out parts that are already understood and are not necessary. But if you need to be polite, for example, when you are talking to your teacher, then using a full sentence is better. It is very important that you keep track of levels of politeness, use politeness when you talk with your teacher, and use casual forms when you talk with your friends.


As Hirashin has pointed out, please be careful of simple typos:
コンピュータのクラスかあります。
コンピュータのクラスが あります。


"Would you correct my English, if needed, Buntaro?"
--> Of course. It is 朝飯前 for me.


"Are you by any chance a language teacher?"
--> I am. I have taught English in Japan and China. I believe that beginning students should focus on grammar (in a meaningful way), which, unfortunately, is not an idea that is in vogue with most foreign language teachers nowadays.

 

[seaDonkey]

A small self introduction if I may. As a self taught programmer many years ago, and seeking a new hobby I was chosen by japanese language study. After learning the beautiful kana and an aborted attempt at studying Heisigs RTK I spent some time thinking and eventually decided to study japanese as a whole. My current desire is to complete all the exercises in Genki volume 1 and increase my vocabulary. Learning on this forum has given me perspective allowing me to continue at an improved rate for which I am grateful.

 

[seaDonkey]

5 I C
6)
メアリーさんはいそがしいです。
メアリーさんは暇じゃないです。
7)
メアリーさんはつまらないです。
メアリーさんはいそがしくないてす。
I am not sure here if I am saying 'Mary appears to be bored' or if I am accusing her of being boring.
8)その町はしずかです。/にぎやかじゃないてす。
9)その町は賑やかです／静かじゃないです。
10)その部屋はきれいですね。／きらいじゃないですよ。
11)このテストは難しいです。／やさしくないです。

５II C

1. 食べ物は高くなかった。
2. 食べ物は美味しかった。
3. ホテルは大きくなかった。
4. ホテルは新しかった。
5. レストランは静かじゃなかったです。
6. 梅はきれいでした。
7. サーフィンはおもしろかった。

5 VI A

1. あなたは先週忙しかったですか。
Would dropping です as in 忙しかったか。be usual/acceptable grammer?
2.あなたは先週元気でしたか。
3.あなたの高校はおおきかったですか。
4. あなたの時計は高かったですか。
5. あなたのかばんは新しかったですか。
6. あなたの部屋はきれいでしたか。
7. あなたの先生は難しかったですか。

Any input is gratefully appreciated. This end the reading and writing skills are improving.

 

[hirashin]

Hello, seaDonley and Buntaro.

You said that あなたの家に猫がいませんか sounds a little strange. Is it more common to just say 「猫がいません」 ? I would imagine it is not necessary to put in the 家に ("at home") part, right?

My understanding is that there are several ways to say "I have a cat" in Japanese:
(e) 猫がいます
(f) 猫を持っています
(g) 猫を飼っています
(Hirashin seems to be saying (h) 飼られます is also commonly used.)
Hirashin, which of these is most commonly used in conversational Japanese?

あなたの家に猫がいませんか is grammartically correct and may be used in some cases, but it's not common.
猫(を/は)飼って(い)ますか？ is used a lot more commonly.

We don't say (f) 猫を持っています or (h) (猫を)飼られます.

「猫(は/が)いますか」without あなたの家に can be used, but it's vague.

猫(を/は)飼っていますか can be used along with (あなたの)家に/家で.

(i) 京都で映画を見に行きました。
(j) 京都に映画を見に行きました。

We usually don't use (i). 京都で映画を見ました would be all right.

買い物をしました。
--> This is grammatically correct, but I would say, 買い物に行きました。

買い物をしました means "I bought something" while 買い物に行きました means "I wen shopping". So they are a little different in meaning. We use both of them.

1. あなたは先週忙しかったですか。
Would dropping です as in 忙しかったか。be usual/acceptable grammer?

あなたは先週忙しかったか is grammartically correct, but it would not be used because we usually drop あなた if we use 忙しかったか. あなた is too formal when you use that informal pattern.

In informal conversations, we usually ask "先週(は)、いそがしかった？" with rising intonation.

Hirashin

 

[Toritoribe]

We should also bring up the example of に which means to "travel from within the boundaries of one area into the boundaries of another area". For example, "kawa に oyogu" (swim into a river) and "Kyouto に hikkoshi suru" (move to Kyoto, in the sense of changing place of residence). Another example is "omawarisan に naru" (become a policeman, in the sense of changing from non-policeman-ness to policeman-ness). (Please forgive my use of the gender-bias word policeman.)

Sorry for nitpicking, but に doesn't always have those kinds of nuance. For instance, it's hard to say that the action starts in another area than Kyoto in 京都に着く or 電車が京都に止まる. It's usually explained that に indicates the destination (目的地/到達点) in grammar whether the action started in another area or not.

Then there is the usage of へ which means "to move towards an area without actually entering that area". For example, "kawa へ oyogu" (swim towards a river, without actually entering the river). (Please note that in this example, へ is pronounced as "e" not "he").

There is no such difference between に and へ. These two particles are interchangeable when they indicate destination. As for 川に/へ泳ぐ, this expression sounds awkward. Other expressions like 川に/へ向かって泳ぐ or 川に/へ泳いでいく would be usually used for that meaning instead.

My main difficulty is with the correct placing of も and I would be grateful if you could confirm this.Especially might も replace が instead of using it as I do here.

たけしさんは水曜日にフランス語とえいごとコンピュータのクラスかあります。

たけしさんは金曜日に英語のテストがあります。金曜日にもパーティーがあります。

金曜日にもパーティーがあります。 is grammatically correct, but the meaning is not what you want to convey. This sentence means that the speaker has a party/parties also on another day/other days than Friday.

The position of も does change the meaning. You can think that the noun preceding right before も is one of the examples. Thus, you need to put も after パーティー to show that there are other events than the party on Friday.

I cannot think of a situation where we would use であります.

Location であります can be valid.
e.g.
明日、会社で会議があります。
来年、東京でオリンピックがあります。

ある means "to be held", not "to exist" in these examples, though.

EDIT:

5. あなたのかばんは新しかったですか。
6. あなたの部屋はきれいでしたか。
7. あなたの先生は難しかったですか。

I checked Genki.

Check the tense of these questions again. The questions are "Is ~?", not "Was ~?".
As for #7, you mistranslated the word "kind".

EDIT2:

京都に映画を見ました would not even carry the meaning of 'I watched a film as I was travelling to Kyoto' and a sentence to that effect would require a second location as the absolute physical bounds, an airplane or some such, in order for で映画を見ました。To be used. So 'While traveling to Kyoto a film was watched on the plane' however it seems '(I) Watched a film on the plane as I was travelling to Kyoto' would likely be a 'better' translation. I hope that all made sense

Notice that to indicate destination is not only one function of に. In fact, 京都に映画を見ました is valid as a meaning "I saw an image of movie in Kyoto", i.e., a poetic expression that Kyoto is like a movie. に works as の中に "inside" here.

 

[seaDonkey]

金曜日にもパーティーがあります。 is grammatically correct, but the meaning is not what you want to convey. This sentence means that the speaker has a party/parties also on another day/other days than Friday.

The position of も does change the meaning. You can think that the noun preceding right before も is one of the examples. Thus, you need to put も after パーティー to show that there are other events than the party on Friday

木曜日にパーティーがあります。金曜日にもパーティーがあります。Then would be fine. Thanks for the help.

This sentence needs looking at "You can think that the noun preceding right before も is one of the examples'

'preceding right before も' should be 'preceding も'. Because 'noun' here is singular there can be no confusion. Consider the plural form 'preceding nouns.'

'The position of も does change the meaning. Think of the noun preceding も as an example of this' Is clearer.

 

[Buntaro]

SeaDonkey,

You said,

"Some of the questions seem a little broad like asking あなたの国(your country/kuni)に（(replaces で）within its bounds) 何がありますか（What is there?). Let me see.."

--> Kuni means a person's country, a person's native prefecture, a person's native area within a prefecture, or a person's hometown. When a Japanese person says "kuni", they are not always referring to Japan in its entirety. I have heard Japanese people say in English, "My country is Yamaguchi" which is clearly a mistake in English (but not a mistake in Japanese).

"I was caught out by Mary met takeshi on thursday in a coffe shop with the particle.を again. メアリーさんは木曜日に喫茶店でたけしさんを会いました. I read に could replace を here but I am not sure."

--> In English we say, "I met Takeshi", with the word "Takeshi" being the direct object of the transitive verb "meet". Therefore it is natural that we want to use the same grammar in Japanese. But we use the particle に in the corresponding sentence in Japanese, so the corresponding sentence in Japanese is not a case of a transitive verb taking a direct object, it is a case of に indicating that the word Takeshi is an indirect object.

"メアリーさんはつまらないです。
I am not sure here if I am saying 'Mary appears to be bored' or if I am accusing her of being boring."

--> You are accusing her! It is easy to make this mistake. Keep track of these two terms:

bored: 退屈 (taikutsu)
boring: つまらない (tsumaranai)

In your example, Mary is bored so we need to say 退屈. By the way, it is very common for Japanese people studying English (and Chinese people studying English) to mix these two up. Not too long ago, I heard a student say, "I am very boring" (!) when it was clear he meant to say, "I am very bored".

 

[Toritoribe]

This sentence needs looking at "You can think that the noun preceding right before も is one of the examples'

'preceding right before も' should be 'preceding も'. Because 'noun' here is singular there can be no confusion. Consider the plural form 'preceding nouns.'

'The position of も does change the meaning. Think of the noun preceding も as an example of this' Is clearer.

Thanks for correction and sorry for my unclear explanation, but it's at least understandable enough to convey my idea correctly to you, right? Hope my reply is not useless, at least.

Did you read "EDIT" part in my reply? What about your new answers in the correct tense and the translation of "kind"?

"メアリーさんはつまらないです。
I am not sure here if I am saying 'Mary appears to be bored' or if I am accusing her of being boring."

--> You are accusing her! It is easy to make this mistake. Keep track of these two terms:

bored: 退屈 (taikutsu)
boring: つまらない (tsumaranai)

In your example, Mary is bored so we need to say 退屈. By the way, it is very common for Japanese people studying English (and Chinese people studying English) to mix these two up. Not too long ago, I heard a student say, "I am very boring" (!) when it was clear he meant to say, "I am very bored".

The point is that そうだ is needed to express other's emotion since we can't know it. Both メアリーさんは退屈そうです and メアリーさんはつまらなそうです work fine in this case since that's what she really looks like.

Incidentally, メアリーさんは退屈です still expresses the speaker's emotion/feeling. メアリーさんは退屈しています is used to describe her state.

 

[seaDonkey]

> In English we say, "I met Takeshi", with the word "Takeshi" being the direct object of the transitive verb "meet". Therefore it is natural that we want to use the same grammar in Japanese. But we use the particle に in the corresponding sentence in Japanese, so the corresponding sentence in Japanese is not a case of a transitive verb taking a direct object, it is a case of に indicating that the word Takeshi is an indirect object.

So direct objects take を and indirect objects take に. This seems to mirror exactly intransitive verbs taking を and transative に. Two ways to think about the same thing. Thanks for clearing my confusion about the question 国 also.

The point is that そうだ is needed to express other's emotion since we can't know it. Both メアリーさんは退屈そうです and メアリーさんはつまらなそうです work fine in this case since that's what she really looks like.

Incidentally, メアリーさんは退屈です still expresses the speaker's emotion/feeling. メアリーさんは退屈しています is used to describe her state.

Your explanation of そう and しています are very valuable to me. In return I will try to give you another grammer lesson. Only joking.

Japanese adjectives seem to be void concepts until they are given a subject. To say 'Mary is boredom' is what we call a metaphor and can be used to add weight to an observation. And maybe a close translation.

 

[Buntaro]

...intransitive verbs taking を and transative に.

Actually, you got it backwards. Transitive verbs take を and intransitive verbs take に. But you are doing very well on all these grammar topics.

Just remember these examples:

私は日本語を勉強します。 (Watashi wa Nihongo o benkyou shimasu.) I study Japanese.

私は大阪に住んでいます。 (Watashi wa Ousaka ni sundeimasu.) I live in Osaka.

Let's put both を and に in a sentence:

私はそれを友達に上げます。(Watashi wa sore o tomodachi ni agemasu.) I give that to my friend.

You may find it fun to learn the names for these various parts of speech in Japanese:

subject 主語 shugo
verb 動詞 doushi
transitive verb 他動詞 tadoushi
grammar particle 助詞 joshi
object of the verb 目的語 mokutekigo
direct object 直接目的語 chokusetsu mokutekigo

intransitive verb 自動詞 jidoushi
preposition 前置詞 zenchishi
indirect object 間接目的語 kansetsu mokutekigo

Isn't grammar fun? (Hahaha.)

 

[seaDonkey]

subject 主語 shugo
verb 動詞 doushi
transitive verb 他動詞 tadoushi
grammar particle 助詞 joshi
object of the verb 目的語 mokutekigo
direct object 直接目的語 chokusetsu mokutekigo

intransitive verb 自動詞 jidoushi
preposition 前置詞 zenchishi
indirect object 間接目的語 kansetsu mokutekigo

Isn't grammar fun? (Hahaha.)

You are very kind to insruct me Sir.

They look a fine collection of kanji. I will start memorising these straight away. Re transative and intrasative verbs I am going to try memorising the types one by one instead of the figuring it out in the moment approach I have been using so far. I rember a programmer saying of C that it gives you just enough rope to hang yourself. Great fun.

I will post more later but here are a few that should be ok i hope
6 I C
4.私を見てください。
５.教科書にもってくてください。
６.私は漢字を教えてください。
７.私の本は返してください。

 

[Buntaro]

SeaDonkey,

Regarding these four examples, can you give us the corresponding English meanings?

4.私を見てください。
５.教科書にもってくてください。
６.私は漢字を教えてください。
７.私の本は返してください。

Since we have been discussing prepositions, I thought I'd mention a couple of things about them.

The first is the very word 'prepositions' (前置詞) (zenchishi). In regards to how they are used in Japanese, some people call them 'post-positionals' because they come at the end, not the beginning, of 'prepostional' phrases in Japanese. I think calling them 'post-positionals' makes more sense than calling them 'prepositions'

Another thing is that Japanese is an SOV (subject-object-verb) language whereas English is an SVO language. This causes Japanese sentences to be constructed in a way that gave me a great deal of trouble when I first began learning Japanese. In English we say, "I buy candy". In Japanese we say, "I candy buy". This causes Japanese 前置詞 to be post-positional. In English we say, "I buy candy at a store". In Japanese we say, "I store at candy buy". It took me a long time to become comfortable to think in sentences in this way.

 

[hirashin]

Hello, seaDonkey.

4.私を見てください。

OK

５.教科書にもってくてください。

That should be :
教科書を持って来て(もってきて)ください。

６.私は漢字を教えてください。

That should be :
私に漢字を教えてください。

７.私の本は返してください。

That should be any of these :
a) 私の本を返してください。
b) 私の本は返してください。
c) (私に)本を返してください。

(a) and (b) are a little different in meaning.

Hirashin

 

[Buntaro]

a) 私の本を返してください。
b) 私の本は返してください。

(a) and (b) are a little different in meaning.

Sensei!

What is the difference in meaning?

 

[seaDonkey]

I posted the same twice somehow... so multiple edits.

That should be :
私に漢字を教えてください。

Thankyou Hirashin. 'Direct towards me, your kanji teachings please.' is correct 'As for me, teach kanji please.' is not. I understand.