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Learn Japanese with JapanesePod101.com! Today we’re making another visit to the classroom. Today’s seitotachi, or students, have been studying Swedish! The teacher asks how they like it, which leads to a bit of an argument, and what better for a rebuttal than turning the other’s words right around!

That’s why today’s newbie Japanese lesson features the negative form of i-adjectives. Discover the easy way to form i-adjectives and start using the numerous vocabulary words right away. After listening, stop by JapanesePod101.com and be sure to leave us a post!

Grammar: | Politeness Level: ,


This entry was posted on Monday, March 19th, 2007 at 6:30 pm and is filed under Newbie Season 1 . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

47 Responses to “Newbie Lesson #14 - Making the Grade”

JapanesePod101.com says:

Mina-san, how about Japanese? Muzukashii desu ka? Muzukashikunai desu ka?

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andy says:

Muzukashii desu. But thanks for your help…

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Liz21 says:

I heard that ノルウェー語 is much easier than Swedish! :wink:

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JockZon (JZ) says:

Haha and why is that Liz? :shock:
It’s practically the same, but norwegian is illogical :wink:

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Abrassart says:

Muzukashikunai of course. :grin: Well, with JP101 of course. :roll:

The truth is: reading japanese is not difficult, it’s impossible, and speaking is not especially difficult, japanese grammar is quite logical. :mrgreen:

See ya,

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marky star says:

Abrassartさん、

it’s funny you say that. cuz i think the exact opposite! hehehe
it’s easier for me to read japanese than speak it. :oops:

へばまんず!w

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Abrassart says:

marky star,

No way, you must be chinese :lol:

bye,

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mikuji says:

日本語がとても難しいでしょう。 
今まで頑張ってきましたが、頑張れば頑張るほど、まったく上手になりません。 :sad:

大変です。もっと簡単だったらもいいでしょう.

ミクジ

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DanS says:

As for the grammer, I say 楽しい and 楽しくない. For polite, it’s 楽しいです. How do you make 楽しくない polite? I’ve seen both 楽しくないです and 楽しくありません. Is there a preference for one over the other?

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DanS says:

Hopefully I didn’t make as many mistakes typing Japanese as I did typing English in my last comment!

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tip says:

This is such a wonderful and informative way to reach others. I Will be more than glad to share this site

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Jack says:

This is one of the best newbie lessons. I think you did a nice job of teaching -くない. You also did a nice job of teaching some new adjectives, and I like the repetition of them in the conversation, and you also taught the -くない form of よい which you have gone over in previous newbie lessons.

I like to watch anime sometimes. One of the characters in the anime said かわいくないよ. And I thought, hey! I know what that means! (Not cute)

Too many of the newbie lessons try to teach too much - I am a beginner, so I don’t know many words. Each lesson has lots of words I don’t know yet, so it takes me a long time to study. Don’t worry too much about a conversation sounding artificial. It’s more important that I’m able to understand the conversation at the end of the lesson. If I’m at the end of the lesson and I don’t understand the conversation, I haven’t learned anything.

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marochan says:

nihongo no benkyo muzkashikunai demo yo watashi wa motto yukuri- the rest of the sentence is still in my head waiting for more japanese vocab lessons :smile:

( i hope that translated right :wink: )
Great lesson , ganbatte

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Mihara-chan says:

I previously know that “shitakunai” meant I do not feel like it. So does “shitai” mean I feel like it? :???:

And is Nihon used more commonly than Nippon?

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maxiewawa says:

Yes, and yes!

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Mihara-chan says:

Arigatou gozaimasu! :mrgreen:

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Piitaa says:

Amazing lesson!

After a subject has become negatory (isn’t) with kunai, in formal speech, is desu still expected on the end or does the kunai form up as the “isn’t” in its place?

Also, I’ve just twigged that in Naruto, one their shinobi throwing tools is a kunai knife. So…it’s a negative knife? :hachimaki: (for any who understand the anime)

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Mayumi says:

Piitaa-san,

If you want to speak in more formal way, you want to add “desu” at the end of “kunai” sentence, like “samukunai desu” which means “it’ not cold.” But, when you want to speak casually, you would say “samukunai.” :wink:

Sorry that I’m not so familiar with “Naruto.” :dogeza:

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Shane says:

Hai! Nihongo muzukashii desu. Demo tanoshii desu.

Is that right?

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Mayumi says:

Shane-san,
Perfect!! :razz:
Ganbatte kudasai!  :kokoro:

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Shane says:

The last sentence said “motto ganbette ne” which was translated as “you should study more.

Is that more of a cultural translation? Dosen’t motto mean “more” and ganbette means “try harder”(or something similar)?

Thank you
Shane

P.S. and thank you Mayumi-san, yes i will try hard, :smile:

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Don says:

Hey so is it Proper to say… 日本語を勉強するのことが好きです。?
スウェーデン語を勉強することが楽しいです。    is that proper too?

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Mayumi says:

Don-san,
You can say 日本語を勉強することが好きです。 or 日本語を勉強するのが好きです。
You can use 「の」 or 「こと」. :wink:

スウェーデン語を勉強することが楽しいです。→ Perfect!

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Don says:

じゃー。。日本語を勉強することが楽しくて、大好きですよ。!

真由美(?)先生は最高な先生だよ!
ありがとうございます。

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Iwakura says:

Nihongo no benkyo wa muzukashii da ne! Demo, nihonbunpou wa warukunai da yo!
(To mean: “Studying Japanese is difficult, isn’t it? But Japanese grammar is not that bad!”

LOL. That’s probably not entirely how you say it, but all y’all know what I mean.

Speaking of difficult, there seems to be a slight discrepancy, at times, how words are pronounced full-speed, as it were, vs. individually. Like muzukaishii itself. In the Vocabulary List with Audio, both ‘u’ sounds in ‘muzu-’ are clearly pronounced, but at full speed it sounds more like mzkaishii. Same with suku. At times Natsuko (what a lovely voice she has!) pronounces both ‘u’ sounds, but at full speed it usually becomes more like ’ske’. I wonder what’s really correct/preferred here.

Shane-san, when Mayumi said “ganbatte kudasai,” I don’t really think she meant “Try harder!” More like: “Keep at it!” (in a positive sense). Which makes me wonder, btw, whether one could also say “Ganbatte kudasai!” to someone who is about to take a test; for good luck, I mean. Like: “Hang in there!”

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Iwakura says:

This conjugating of adjectives is most fascinating. I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t have a ‘mondai’ or two left, though. So, sumimasen, I hope someone can clarify bit.

1) Lots of adjectives we dealt with end in double ii, like tanoshii, yasashii, etc. What about those ending in single ‘i’, though, like ‘kowai’ (= scary/scared). Could I say the following?

Watashi wa kowaikunai yo!
(To mean: I’m not scared!)

Dropping the single ‘i’, to form kowakunai, feels awfully wrong somehow.

2) Speaking of kowai, I recently picked up that word in an Anime (Ergo Proxy), where Pino keeps referring to Re-L as ‘kowai onee-chan’ (= the scary lady). Can you really use onee-chan (= sister + honorific suffix) to mean ‘lady,’ as used in the above context? Or did I did I just mishear?

3) In general, can -kunai be used to negate the adjective like we would use ‘not’? Like:

Kono koneko kawaikunai desu.
(To mean: That’s not a cute kitten.)

And speaking of kitten, does the ko- prefix in koneko stem from kodomo (= child) perchance?

4) Can yoku be used for ‘well’ too? Like if someone where to ask me how my Japanese is, could I say this? (rather informal)

Yoku wakaranai.
(To mean: Don’t know it all that well.)

Thanks.

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Iwakura says:

Hmm, looking at ‘warukunai’ (from warui) seems I need to drop the last ‘i’ regardless. So, ‘kowakunai’ in my above example would be correct, after all.

Okay, let me see if I got this straight then:

Watashi wa kowakunai yo!
(To mean: I’m not scared!)

Watashi wa kowaku na katta yo!
(To mean: “I was not scared!”)

Or, formal,

Watashi wa kowaku arimasen deshita.

Or,

Koneko wa kowaku arimasen deshita.
(To mean: “The kitten was not scary!”)

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Jessi says:

Iwakuraさん,
Yes, “ganbatte kudasai!” is used a lot to someone who is about to take a test or attempt something that is really difficult :smile:

And you’ve basically answered your own question, but yes, when forming the negative, the i- does get dropped from i-adjectives with only one “i”, like kowai, samui, atsui, etc. Your sample sentences look great, too! Awesome job! :mrgreen:

About onee-chan/onee-san (and onii-chan/onii-san): yes, technically they do mean older sister and older brother, but they can also be used to refer to young men and women you don’t know as well. (Maybe similar to how “Miss” or “Young man” are used in English).

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Salivia Baker says:

今日は
そんおレッスンはむずかしくないです。でも、やさしくないです。
it is just the right level.

But I have a question. In the pdf you have students as せいと but in some other lesson (I think it was NB #4) you said a student is がくせい. what is the difference between them?

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Salivia Baker says:

damn mispelled sonna. sorry for that. forget そんお which is wrong as is can get. it’s suppose to be そんな

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Salivia Baker says:

I am confused with the politeness level here. My textbook says that -kunai is not polite if you leave of the desu (which you do here in some phrases). And the polite way would be to add -masen.
So what is going on??? help.

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Iwakura says:

Salivia,

I’m pretty new to the language myself, to be honest. Demo, this how I understand the matter:

Basically, ‘muzukashii’ is what we call an ‘adjectival verb’. It’s “(the state of) being difficult,” as it were. Which explains why you can conjugate ‘adjectives’ like these: ‘muzukashikunai’ = “being not difficult”. And indeed, adding ‘desu’ adds to the politeness level. However, don’t make the mistake of thinking this ‘desu’ is the “being” in “being difficult,” because the ‘being’ is already encapsulated in the adjectival verb ‘muzukashii’ itself. The ‘desu’ here really just functions to lift the politeness level. Therefore, all of these examples below are WRONG!

Kore wa muzukashii dewa arimasen.
Kore wa muzukashii dewa nai desu.
Kore wa muzukashii dewa nai.
Kore wa muzukashii ja arimasen.
Kore wa muzukashii ja nai desu.
Kore wa muzukashii ja nai.

They’re wrong because you need to conjugate the adjectival verb itself, and not the ‘desu’! On the Internet, I’ve come across sentences like “Nihongo wa muzukashii ja nai yo!” That’s just flat-out WRONG! However, you CAN say things like:

“Kore wa tabemono dewa arimasen.”

That’s because tabemono is just a noun. and not an adjectival verb. It’s important to realize this!

Also, -kunai (or ‘ku nai’, whichever you prefer) is just how you negate I-adjectives. And ‘arimasen’ is the polite form of ‘nai’, so:

muzukashiku nai -> Plain
muzukashiku arimasen - Polite

And, Past Tense (”was not difficult”)

muzukashiku nakatta (desu) -> Plain
muzukashiku arimasen deshita -> Polite (’deshita’ being the Paste Tense of ‘desu’, of course)

Hope this helps!

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Salivia Baker says:

Thank you.

oh and the dewa arimasen etc is for na-adjectives not i-adjectives. I know that. I was just confused because they said here in the lesson kunai is polite.

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Iwakura says:

Sou ka! Well, consider the difference between these two pairs:

wakaranai
wakarimasen

kowakunai desu
kowaku arimasen

I’d say the difference in politeness between the two, in each pair, is bigger in the first one. And this because, while “kowakunai” is not as polite as “kowaku arimasen,” the added ‘desu’ still lifts the politeness level up a bit. And even without ‘desu’, it’s my impression that using ‘-kunai’ on I-adjectives is simply deemed somewhat less impolite than using ‘nai’ on just a normal verb (like ‘wakaru’).

All-in-all, I’d say the whole conversation (between the two students, at least) is pretty darn informal, regardless. :)

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Salivia Baker says:

“All-in-all, I’d say the whole conversation (between the two students, at least) is pretty darn informal, regardless. :)

exactly my point. It is just they say in this lesson, the conversation is polite…

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Mayumi says:

Salivia Baker-san,

You are right! The students are polite when they are talking to their teacher, but they are speaking informally to each other. :wink:

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Kat says:

Iwakuraさん

You’re absolutely right about the -kunai/-ku arimasen issue. -Kunai desu is a lot easier to say than -ku arimasen, so you’ll hear that a lot more in everyday polite conversation. The politeness difference between -kunai desu and -ku arimasen is negligible, though. :smile:

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ケット says:

Okay,
Just wondering what the last conversation is on the end of the lesson. Any chance of getting the write up/translation for that?

A:あのう、すめません。
ah, excuess me
B:はい。
yes?
A:このへんにこうしゅうでんわはありますか?
Is there a publich telephone in this room?
B:こうしゅうでんわですか?え~と。ああ、
A public telephone? Hmmm, ah!, (something something about phone and location?)
(the rest goes a little too fast for me to catch. I dunno if this translation is correct. Someone help please?)\
ありがとう!

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ケット says:

okay, never mind. I see now somehow the conversation for lesson 18 was combined with lesson 15 @_@ ややこしい

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Mike says:

I really like how the dialogue is recapped at the end of the lesson… but, in this case, the dialogue at the end is not from this lesson! It’s from Newbie S1 18, where the guy is looking for a public phone. Otherwise, great lesson! Love it!

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Nori says:

Mike-san,

Thank you for letting us know.
The dialog has been fixed!

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Angry Katie says:

昨日の晩、お化け屋敷へ行ったけど怖くなかったです。 残念だった。 

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Kat says:

Angry Katieさん:お化け屋敷に行ったんですか??どこにありましたか?私は日本の怖い映画が大好きですけど、お化け屋敷に入る勇気がないです(・_・;)...I love Japanese horror films, but I’m not brave enough to go inside an obakeyashiki! The ones in Japan are soooo scary! There’s a famous one in Fuji-Q theme park which lasts a whole hour and takes place inside a real old hospital… (泣)

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王凱 says:

皆さん。日本語の勉強は楽しいですか。
はい、でも、難しいですよ。
え、難しくないよ、易しいですよ。
私はいつも九十点です。
そ、そんな。それは悪くないです。
私はいつも六十点です。
え、それはよくないですよ。もっと頑張ってね。

じゃあ、まだ明日ね。

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Charms says:

日本語はちょっとむずかしいです :oops:

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Kat says:

Charmsさん

がんばってください!! :grin:

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Valerio says:

こんにちはみなさん

にほんごはむずかしくないです。
にほんごの文法はやさしいです。イタリアごの文法はむずかしいです。
にほんごのべんきょうはとてもたのしくておもしろいです。
にほんごの発音はやさしいです。

I hope I did no mistakes.

ありがとうございます。

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