Teach Yourself Japanese A Practical Guide To Gaining A Good Working Knowledge Of Both The Written And Spoken Language (English And Japanese Edition)

258 Pages·1971·30.22 MB·English

TEACH
YOURSELF

JAPANESE

a practical guide to gaining a good working knowledge
of both the written and spoken language
TEACH YOURSELF
JAPANESE

PREM MOTWANI
&

NORIKO NASUKAWA
STERLING PAPERBACKS
An imprint of
Sterling Publishers (P) Ltd.

4-59, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase-II, New Delhi-110020
Tel: [phone]; Fax: [phone]
E-mail: [email protected]
www sterlingpublishers.com

Teach Yourself Japanese
© 1998, Prem Motwani & Noriko Nasukawa
ISBN 978 81 207 8007 1
Reprint 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008,
2009, 2011, 2014

All rights are reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior
written permission of the publisher.

hed by Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi-110020.
typeset by Vikas Compographics, New Delhi-110020.
Printed at Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi-110020.
PREFACE

It is a popular myth that Japanese Language is difficult for
foreigners to learn. Itis essentially because Japanese orthography
is a unique mixture of three scripts, Hiragana, Katakana and
Kanji, making it a herculian task to master even for the Japanese
themselves. However, Japanese grammar and pronunciation are
not necessarily very difficult.

In recent years there has been widespread demand for learning
only the spoken language, minus the script. Hence there have
been a large number of books that provide instant communication
through situational conversation. This all-romanized book,
however, follows an all grammar approach aiming at providing
the reader a sound grounding in basic grammar in a short span
of time (approximately 100 to 125 hours), while still laying
maximum emphasis on conversational skills. Further, in order
to facilitate self-study, lots of annotations, drilis, with a key to
solutions, new vocabulary in each chapter and a complete audio-
tape have been provided. A complete index has also been
provided for easy reference both from English as well as
Japanese. Moreover, an appendix containing classified
vocabulary on a wide variety of subjects has been provided to
enable further in-depth study. Sentences and phrases that are
most commonly used by the Japanese in daily life have been
selected, based on the long experience of the authors of teaching
Japanese to foreigners. In sum, elementary and intermediate
Japanese have been condensed into one and hence the scope ol
this book is not limited to the casual learner or traveller to Japan.
but it should prove to be a good stepping stone for those whc
wish to build a sound base for handling the language in both
written and spoken situations without any outside guidance.

iii
PRONUNCIATION

See the syllabary chart.

Japanese has no stress accent like in English. Each syllable
is given equal stress but it has a high-low pitch system.
There are 5 syllables in Japanese and a is pronounced as ah,
ias ee, was 00, e as eh and o as oh.

The consonants are k, s, sh, t, ch, ts, h, , m, r, g, j, 2, d, band p.
Except n, there is no single consonant in Japanese. All
consonants are either a combination of one consonant and
one short vowel or double consonant and a short vowel.
The u is frequently silent at the end of a word as in desu and
masu.

Macron mark (- ) on 0 and u implies the elongation or the
prolonged sound.

Compare Kyo and Kyo, Shu and Shi.
x

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

Read each chapter carefully taking note of finer grammatical
details given in each lesson.

Attempt ‘Try these’ before proceeding on to the next part or
chapter. Use ‘Key to solutions’ dnly as the last resort.
Vocabulary used in each chapter has been given at the end
of the same. Memorizing the vocabulary is the most important
aspect of language learning.

Preferably revise the previous few chapters before attempting
anew one.

Counting, classifiers, adjectives, conjugation of verbs,
transitive and intransitive verbs have been included in the
Appendices (Part 1), but study them carefully when you
encounter them for the first time.

ABOUT THE AUDIO TAPES

‘Audio tapes contain only the basic lessons from Chapter 1 to
54 and greetings in Japanese.

Always listen to the audio tape first when attempting anew
chapter.

Serial number of sentences in each lesson has been said in
Japanese ice., ichi (for 1), ni (for 2), san (for 3) and so on. For
counting, see Appendices Part I.

In case there are 2 options in a sentence such as affirmative
and negative forms (latter in brackets), only the first option
has been included in the audio-tape.
SYLLABRY CHART

LIST OF HIRAGANA

a w i S u [aie Bio
ka | @ iki < ku | & ike = iko
a4 me vo isu | t ise | iso
ta Sent) o> | tana) eo [he & to
na fe {na wm nu | f& ine | @ ino
ha | @ Ad & fu | A ihe ho
ma | # mi @ mu | ® me ® mo
ya {a Gi) | ® yu | (e) | & yo
ra @ fra S iru | f& fre S 10
wa a | @ a@ | @ tc | € 2 |

wy

vi
ga AX joi * jou < Joe (Ff joo CF
za x ii U jw ff jze 4F joo ZS
da fi |i B ju 7D jee Flo vv
ba (Zt |bi U jou .3% Joe XN |bo (F
pa (£ |p U [pu 3% pe X [po (F

ya X ap] % vp|ivo % | fava law * vpjovo Ft
sha L fs L vpisro Lt} fia Cej ie Ulin Ut
ona £ > foru B vp loro Bt
nya (I x>|myu [Z yplayo [ZF
mya OS elt OS vp ovo OP | Love OX Jom OF vp love OF
va Ze x>|omu Ze vp vo Ze | Jove US %>[pw Ut vp|ove UF

na!) jw !) vplno Y) £

vii
LIST OF KATAKANA.

a TF ii 4 ju Yile Lio
ka AD |kii [ku 7 lke 4 !ko FD
sa tH |shi SY [su ZR jse +k jso Y
ta Y jc, F jtsu ‘Y |te F |to f
na fF fri = {nv X |ne, A Ino. /
ha 7\ Thi KE Jtu ZF |ne XN Jno RK
ma ZY {mic 3 |mu LZ, |me xX |mo €
va Va) (4)]yw a te (x) iyo =
ra 7 fa, Yul ID fel Lolo o
wa 7 1 (1) 7 lie (2) j\° Fz
a Pa

viii
CONTENTS

Desu

L-Adjectives

Na-Adjectives

Verbs (1)

Verbs (2)

Te Form of Verbs

Adverbial Form of Adjectives and Nouns
Wanting something

Capability Form

Simultaneous Actions

Easy To ~, Difficult To ~

Before : ~ ‘Mae ni’, After:~’Kara’
Plain Form

I think that :~To Omoimasu’

It is said that :~’To limasu’

~Is saying that~:’To Itte Imasu’
Called, Known as ~:Noun + ‘To Iu’
When, At the time of :~ ‘Toki’
Cause /. Reason : ‘Kara’, ‘Node’
Although: Noni’

Intend To: ‘Tsumori Desu’

May, Might: ‘Kamo Shiremasen’
Just about to; ‘~Tokoro Desu’
Have made it a point, Have Decided To
Has been decided : ‘Koto ni Narimashita’
Sometimes : ‘Koto ga Arimasu’
Experience

Non-consecutive Action

A particular condition remaining
unaltered : ‘~ Mama’

Advice

Obligation

Permission in negative

xi