Learn how to talk about doing an action
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| Introduction |
| Jessi: Do You Eat Sushi in Japan? ジェシーです。(Jeshii desu.) Jessi here! |
| Naomi: こんにちは！なおみです！(Kon'nichi wa! Naomi desu!) Hi, everyone. Naomi here! |
| Jessi: Thanks for joining us for all Absolute Beginner series! In the last lesson, we learned how to talk about animate objects using います (imasu). And in this lesson, we're going to learn how to use verbs and make sentences that talk about actions! |
| Naomi:Jessi, what's going on in this conversation? |
| Jessi: Kaori, Masato, and Taylor are talking to and about Sarah. |
| Naomi: Okay. Let's listen to the conversation! |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| (Sarah cries) |
| かおり:あ、サラちゃん、おなかがすきましたか？(A, Sara-chan, onaka ga sukimashita ka?) |
| (Sarah cries) |
| かおり:あ、サラちゃん、おなかがすきましたか？(A, Sara-chan, onaka ga sukimashita ka?) |
| テイラーさん、サラちゃんはバナナをたべますか。(Teirā-san, Sara chan wa banana o tabemasu ka.) |
| テイラー:はい。たべます。サラはバナナがだいすきです。(Hai. Tabemasu. Sara wa banana ga daisuki desu.) |
| かおり:そうですか。はい、サラちゃん。どうぞ。(Sō desu ka. Hai, Sara-chan. Dōzo.) |
| (Sarah laughs) |
| (Dog whines) |
| まさと(far away):テイラーさん、マトリーはバナナをたべますか。(Teirā san, Matorī wa banana o tabemasu ka.) |
| English Host: Let’s listen to the conversation again slowly. |
| かおり:あ、サラちゃん、おなかがすきましたか？(A, Sara-chan, onaka ga sukimashita ka?) |
| (Sarah cries) |
| かおり:あ、サラちゃん、おなかがすきましたか？(A, Sara-chan, onaka ga sukimashita ka?) |
| テイラーさん、サラちゃんはバナナをたべますか。(Teirā-san, Sara chan wa banana o tabemasu ka.) |
| テイラー:はい。たべます。サラはバナナがだいすきです。(Hai. Tabemasu. Sara wa banana ga daisuki desu.) |
| かおり:そうですか。はい、サラちゃん。どうぞ。(Sō desu ka. Hai, Sara-chan. Dōzo.) |
| (Sarah laughs) |
| (Dog whines) |
| まさと(far away):テイラーさん、マトリーはバナナをたべますか。(Teirā san, Matorī wa banana o tabemasu ka.) |
| English Host: Now, let's listen to it with the translation. |
| かおり:あ、サラちゃん、おなかがすきましたか？(A, Sara-chan, onaka ga sukimashita ka?) |
| Jessi: Oh, Sarah, are you hungry? |
| テイラーさん、サラちゃんはバナナをたべますか。(Teirā-san, Sara chan wa banana o tabemasu ka.) |
| Jessi: Taylor, does Sarah eat bananas? |
| テイラー:はい。たべます。サラはバナナがだいすきです。(Hai. Tabemasu. Sara wa banana ga daisuki desu.) |
| Jessi: Yes, she does. Sarah loves bananas! |
| かおり:そうですか。はい、サラちゃん。どうぞ。(Sō desu ka. Hai, Sara-chan. Dōzo.) |
| Jessi: Oh, really? Okay, Sarah. Here you go. |
| まさと(far away):テイラーさん、マトリーはバナナをたべますか。(Teirā san, Matorī wa banana o tabemasu ka.) |
| Jessi: Taylor, does Muttley eat bananas? |
| Post conversation banter |
| Jessi: Okay. So we just had to listen to the lesson, and Naomi, we heard a lot of things we learned in previous lessons! |
| Naomi: Yes, we did! |
| Jessi: Phrases like... |
| Naomi: お腹がすきました (onaka ga sukimashita) |
| Jessi: I'm hungry, and...? |
| Naomi: Aが大好きです (A ga daisuki desu) |
| Jessi: I love [A]. Hopefully after listening to the previous lessons, you were able to catch those! |
| Naomi: This time, we also had something new, though... |
| Jessi: Yes, verbs, right? |
| Naomi: Right! This is the first time we had an action verb in the dialogue. |
| Jessi: And that action verb is actually our first vocabulary word. Naomi, can you tell us what it is? |
| Naomi: 食べます (Tabemasu) |
| Jessi: 食べます (Tabemasu), the verb meaning "to eat" |
| Naomi: 食べます (Tabemasu) |
| Jessi: You'll notice it ends in ます(masu)... here's a little tip. All verbs end in ます(masu) in polite speech. For example, the polite verb for to go is... |
| Naomi: 行きます (ikimasu) |
| Jessi: The polite verb for to see is... |
| Naomi: 見ます (mimasu) |
| Jessi: Notice how they all end in ます(masu)? This is a good point to remember. So, can we hear the verb one more time? |
| Naomi: 食べます (Tabemasu) |
| Jessi: We'll go over this verb and how it's used more in the lesson focus. What's next? |
| Naomi: Next, we have a phrase. そうですか（↓）(Sō desu ka.) |
| Jessi: "Really?" or "Is that so?" |
| Naomi: Do you remember そうです(sō desu), that we first learned in Lesson 9? |
| Jessi: そうです (Sō desu) means "yes", or "that's right." In そうですか (Sō desu ka), we've just added a か (ka) at the end to make it a question. |
| Naomi: そうです・か？ (Sō desu ka?) |
| Jessi: そうですか？(Sō desu ka?) Really? Is that so? So, when Taylor told Kaori that Sarah loves bananas, Kaori said... |
| Naomi: そうですか。(Sō desu ka.) |
| Jessi: Oh, really? This そうですか。(Sō desu ka.) is really useful in conversation. |
| Naomi: I agree. It's used a lot. |
| Jessi: If someone tells you something you didn't know or something of interest, you can respond with そうですか。(Sō desu ka.) Okay, let's move on to the lesson focus. In this lesson, you'll learn how to use verbs in a sentence. |
| Naomi: Yes! This is our first time using action verbs in this series. |
| Jessi: Once you learn some verbs and how to use them, you'll be able to say so many new things! |
| Naomi: Definitely. Verbs are essential in any language. |
| Jessi: Okay. So, just to refresh everyone's memory and make sure we're all on the same page, verbs are words that describe actions. Examples in English would be "run", "walk", "speak", "eat", "read", etc. |
| Naomi: So sentences like "I eat breakfast" |
| Jessi: "I went to school" |
| Naomi: "I'm going to study" |
| Jessi: ...all contain verbs. We're just going to practice with one verb in Japanese in this lesson. We went over it earlier. |
| Naomi: Yes, the verb 食べます (Tabemasu), to eat. |
| Jessi: 食べます (Tabemasu). Like we mentioned before, all verbs end in ます (masu) in polite speech. |
| Naomi: Yes. And also no matter who you're talking about, the verb form doesn't change! |
| Jessi: Good point. By that we mean this. In a lot of other languages, verbs change their form depending on who the subject is. Even in English, we would "I eat", but "he eats". It's a minor change, but it is there. |
| Naomi: But in Japanese, it doesn't matter who the subject is - I, you, he, she, we, they... the verb stays 食べます (Tabemasu). |
| Jessi: Nice, isn't it? So Naomi, what is our pattern for making a sentence with a verb. |
| Naomi: It's this - [ person] wa [object] o [verb]. |
| Jessi: And that's 3 parts! person + wa, object + o, and then the verb. |
| Naomi: That's right. |
| Jessi: Can we hear an example? |
| Naomi: Sure. わたしは肉を食べます。 (Watashi wa niku o tabemasu.) |
| Jessi: "I eat meat." Let's break it down. |
| Naomi: わたしは (Watashi wa) |
| Jessi: わたし (watashi) "I" + は (wa) |
| Naomi: 肉を (niku o) |
| Jessi: にく (niku) "meat" + を (o) |
| Naomi: 食べます (tabemasu) |
| Jessi: The verb meaning eat. So the sentence order in Japanese is "I meat eat". The verb comes at the end. Can we hear the sentence one more time? |
| Naomi: わたしは肉を食べます。 (Watashi wa niku o tabemasu.) |
| Jessi: "I eat meat." Listeners, please repeat after Naomi. "I eat meat." |
| Naomi: わたしは肉を食べます。 (Watashi wa niku o tabemasu.) |
| Jessi: Great! How about another one using the same verb. |
| Naomi: Okay, how about... テイラーはすしを食べます。 (Teirā wa sushi o tabemasu.) |
| Jessi: Taylor eats sushi. Let's break it down. |
| Naomi: テイラーは (Teirā wa) |
| Jessi: Taylor + は (wa) |
| Naomi: すしを (sushi o) |
| Jessi: sushi + を (o) |
| Naomi: 食べます (tabemasu) |
| Jessi: Eats. "Taylor eats sushi." So see how the verb doesn't change? It just stays the same no matter who we're talking about. 食べます (tabemasu)。Listeners, please repeat after Naomi. "Taylor eats sushi." |
| Naomi: テイラーはすしを食べます。 (Teirā wa sushi o tabemasu.) Okay, great! Let's have the listeners make a sentence on their own now. |
| Jessi: Sounds good. What sentence should we have them make? |
| Naomi: Hmm, how about "I eat pizza." |
| Jessi: Great. How about some hints. Our pattern once again, Naomi, is... |
| Naomi: [ person] wa [object] o [verb]. |
| Jessi: The person in this case is “I”, わたし (watashi), pizza is ピザ (piza), and eat is たべます(tabemasu). Listeners, can you put that all together? |
| Naomi: I'll get you started. わたしは。。。(Watashi wa...) |
| Jessi: All right, if you said... |
| Naomi: わたしはピザを食べます (Watashi wa piza o tabemasu.) |
| Jessi: Congratulations on putting that all together! One more time, please repeat. |
| Naomi: わたしはピザを食べます (Watashi wa piza o tabemasu.) |
| Jessi: Excellent. By the way, Naomi. |
| Naomi: はい？(Hai?) |
| Jessi: What do you eat if, say, there's a special occasion or something? Like a special meal like a birthday or something? |
| Naomi: 私は、ケーキを食べます (Watashi wa, kēki o tabemasu.) |
| Jessi: Ah, so you eat cake. |
| Naomi: Right. |
| Jessi: Ah, sounds good. |
| Naomi: How about you, Jessi? |
| Jessi: It depends on the occasion. For a birthday, it would be the same for me 私は、ケーキを食べます (Watashi wa, kēki o tabemasu.) But for, say, Thanksgiving though, I could say this. 私は、ターキーを食べます (Watashi wa, tākī o tabemasu.) |
| Naomi: Ah, that's nice. |
| Jessi: Okay listeners, in this lesson, we only used one verb, たべます (tabemasu), in our examples. Of course there are many more that can be used in this pattern. Where can they find more verbs, Naomi? |
| Naomi: In the lesson notes, as always~ |
| Jessi: Yes. You'll find a nice chart with some basic everyday verbs, so check that out! You can add a lot of variety to your sentences. |
| Naomi: Right. We'll also introduce another new verb in the next lesson. |
| Jessi: So please join us then! Okay. Well, that's going to do it for today. |
| Naomi: Thanks for listening. Until next time! |
| Jessi: じゃまた。(Ja mata.) |
Lesson conversation |
| (Sarah cries) |
| かおり:あ、サラちゃん、おなかがすきましたか？(A, Sara-chan, onaka ga sukimashita ka?) |
| (Sarah cries) |
| かおり:あ、サラちゃん、おなかがすきましたか？(A, Sara-chan, onaka ga sukimashita ka?) |
| (1 time natural native speed) |
| テイラーさん、サラちゃんはバナナをたべますか。(Teirā-san, Sara chan wa banana o tabemasu ka.) |
| テイラー:はい。たべます。サラはバナナがだいすきです。(Hai. Tabemasu. Sara wa banana ga daisuki desu.) |
| かおり:そうですか。はい、サラちゃん。どうぞ。(Sō desu ka. Hai, Sara-chan. Dōzo.) |
| (Sarah laughs) |
| (Dog whines) |
| まさと(far away):テイラーさん、マトリーはバナナをたべますか。(Teirā san, Matorī wa banana o tabemasu ka.) |
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