Making Sense of Japanese Grammar

Answers to the Questions

Answers to the Questions Unit 3 The following is the translation. The subjects are given in boldface. (1) I/we watched an anime (Japanese animated film) yesterday. (2) It was very interesting. Unit 4 You can answer the question by repeating the last part (minus -ka): Sanka-shimasu. You have just confirmed that you are going to participate in an anti-war demonstration in Washington, DC. Unit 5 The sentences are respectively of type 1 (verb), type 2 (adjective + copula), type 1 (verb), and type 3 (noun + copula). Unit 6 The team captain is a junior. She is a team captain and (is) a junior. It is an interesting idea and is easy to understand. Unit 7 If you came up with either of the following, you got the point. Sensei, sensei-no hon-wa dochira-desu-ka. Sensei, dochira-ga sensei-no hon-desu-ka. Unit 8 chigaimasu, chigaimasen, chigaimashita, chigaimasen-deshita 179 tigawanai-desu and tigawanakatta-desu are also acceptable. { } { onaji-desu, onaji-{ja-nai-desu/ja-arimasen}, onaji-deshita, onaji-{ja-nakattadesu /ja-arimasen-deshita} Unit 9 Only tadashii “correct” can be (and indeed is) an adjective, because it has -ii at the end. The other forms are definitely not adjectives, because they do not have -ii, -ai, -oi, or -ui at the end. Incidentally, one extra clue in telling the class identity of a form is whether it is written totally in kanji or not. Adjectives have at least the last i written in hiragana. If everything is written in kanji, you can be sure that a word is a noun. Unit 10 yuugai “harmful” is a noun because the negative sentence follows the pattern for a noun. Unit 11 You could answer the questions as follows: Sensei-ga kinoo kyooshitsu-de gakusei-kara hen-na hanashi-o kiita-n-desu. “The teacher heard a strange story from the students in class yesterday.” Ashita-no marason-wa byooin-no mae-kara sutaato-suru yotei-da-to itte-imashita. “They were saying that tomorrow’s marathon is planned to start in front of the hospital.” Unit 13 Migi-ni magaru-to, kooen-ga miemasu. Unit 14 Tesuto-wa ashita-desu-ne. You can also say: 180 Tesuto-wa ashita-deshita-ne. To understand why this past tense option is allowed, see Unit 49. Unit 15 Here are five other variations: Watashi-wa Asahi-shinbun-o intaanetto-de yomimasu. Intaanetto-de watashi-wa Asahi-shinbun-o yomimasu. Intaanetto-de Asahi-shinbun-o watashi-wa yomimasu. Asahi-shinbun-o watashi-wa intaanetto-de yomimasu. Asahi-shinbun-o intaanetto-de watashi-wa yomimasu. Unit 17 Since Oda-san “Mr. Oda” is introduced as an addition to the list of people who went to Canada, the preceding sentence must have referred to someone else who went to Canada, as in the following: Akechi-san-wa Kanada-e ikimashita. “Mr. Akechi went to Canada.” Unit 18 “Mr. Suzuki, Ms. Tanaka, and Mr. Nakada are all married.” This is definitely not a case of group marriage involving three people! Unit 19 (= subject) (= direct object) Dare-ga (= subject) kyoo Hayashi-san-o (= direct object) mimashita-ka. “Who (= subject) saw Ms. Hayashi (= direct object) today?” (= direct object) Kyoo Hayashi-san-o (= direct object) mimashita-ka. 181 “Did you (= subject) see Ms. Hayashi (= direct object) today?” (= subject) (= direct object) Sensei-ga (= subject) gakusei-o (= direct object) shootai-shimashita. “The teachers (= subject) invited the students (= direct object).” If you translated this last one with sensei-wa, you are not wrong. Read Unit 20 to understand the difference. Unit 20 Are-wa nan-desu-ka. (Are-wa) Hooryuuji-desu. “What is that?” “That is Horyuji Temple.” are in this exchange is the topic of the conversation, as is clear from the use of the particle -wa. The second speaker would use are to make certain that there is no misunderstanding about the topic. When she is sure that there is no misunderstanding, she can safely omit it. Dore-ga ii-desu-ka. Are-ga ii-desu. “Which one is good?” “That one is good.” In this exchange, on the other hand, the first speaker is asking the second speaker to select one item from a number of candidates, and are provides the answer, so it cannot be dropped. Unit 21 Kore-wa dare-ga tsukaimasu-ka. “Who will use this?” Nihon-jin-wa donna hon-o yomimasu-ka. “What type of books do Japanese people read...