Learn how to ask about timetables
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Intro |
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| Jessi: Hi everyone, ジェシーです (Jeshī desu)。Jessi here! |
| Motoko: こんにちは (Kon'nichiwa)、Motokoです (desu)。 |
| Jessi: Missing the Japanese Train. Thanks for joining us again for our Absolute Beginner Season 2 series. Okay, so in the last lesson, we learned how to ask what something is. |
| Motoko: Yes, we learned これはなんですか (korehana ndesu ka) (Jessi: What is this?) and それはなんですか (sore wa nan desu ka). |
| Jessi: “What is that?” That's right. And, in this lesson, we'll learn how to ask what time something takes place. |
| Motoko: Yes. What's happening in the conversation? |
| Jessi: In the conversation, Masato is talking with a train station attendant and asking him about train times. |
| Motoko: Sounds good. |
| Jessi: Let's listen to the conversation. |
| Dialogue |
| (Masato was running for the train, but had just missed it.) |
| まさと:あーあ。すみません。つぎ の でんしゃ は なんじ です か。 |
| Masato: Āa. Sumimasen. Tsugi no densha wa nan-ji desu ka. |
| Station attendant: ２じ はん です。 |
| Station attendant: Ni-ji han desu. |
| まさと:２じ はん？すみません、いま なんじ です か。 |
| Masato: Ni-ji han? Sumimasen, ima nan-ji desu ka. |
| Station attendant: １じ はん です。 |
| Station attendant: Ichi-ji han desu. |
| まさと: すみません。タクシーは どこですか。 |
| Masato: Sumimasen. Takushī wa doko desu ka. |
| Jessi: Let’s listen to the conversation again slowly. |
| まさと:あーあ。すみません。つぎ の でんしゃ は なんじ です か。 |
| Masato: Āa. Sumimasen. Tsugi no densha wa nan-ji desu ka. |
| Station attendant: ２じ はん です。 |
| Station attendant: Ni-ji han desu. |
| まさと:２じ はん？すみません、いま なんじ です か。 |
| Masato: Ni-ji han? Sumimasen, ima nan-ji desu ka. |
| Station attendant: １じ はん です。 |
| Station attendant: Ichi-ji han desu. |
| まさと: すみません。タクシーは どこですか。 |
| Masato: Sumimasen. Takushī wa doko desu ka. |
| Jessi: Now let’s listen to it with the translation. |
| (Masato was running for the train, but had just missed it.) |
| まさと:あーあ。 |
| Masato: Āa. |
| Jessi: Darn it. |
| まさと: すみません。 |
| Masato: Sumimasen. |
| Jessi: Excuse me. |
| まさと: つぎ の でんしゃ は なんじ です か。 |
| Masato: Tsugi no densha wa nan-ji desu ka. |
| Jessi: What time is the next train? |
| Station attendant: ２じ はん です。 |
| Station attendant: Ni-ji han desu. |
| Jessi: It's at two-thirty. |
| まさと:２じ はん？ |
| Masato: Ni-ji han? |
| Jessi: Two-thirty? |
| まさと: すみません、いま なんじ です か。 |
| Masato: Sumimasen, ima nan-ji desu ka. |
| Jessi: Excuse me, what time is it now? |
| Station attendant: １じ はん です。 |
| Station attendant: Ichi-ji han desu. |
| Jessi: It's one-thirty. |
| まさと: すみません。タクシーは どこですか。 |
| Masato: Sumimasen. Takushī wa doko desu ka. |
| Jessi: Excuse me. Where are the taxis? |
| Vocabulary and Phrase Usage |
| Jessi: Ahh, Masato missed his train! |
| Motoko: I know, that's too bad. |
| Jessi: Well, it happens. But the next train doesn't come until an hour later! |
| Motoko: That's a long wait... |
| Jessi: Yeah, too long for him it seems, so he asks the station attendant where the taxis are. So it looks like he'll just take a taxi. |
| Motoko: By the way, do we know where he's going? |
| Jessi: Ah! It wasn't mentioned in the dialogue, but Masato is actually on his way to the airport to pick up Taylor! |
| Motoko: Oh, that's great! |
| Jessi: Yup. Well, if he can get there... |
| Motoko: Right. |
| Jessi: Okay, let's take a look at some of the vocab words. |
| Motoko: Sure. The first is 次（つぎ）の (tsugi no). |
| Jessi: Next. After it, you put the item that you are talking about. |
| Motoko: Right, for example, 電車（でんしゃ) (densha) is train. |
| Jessi: 電車（でんしゃ）。 (densha.) Train. |
| Motoko: So you could say 次（つぎ）の電車（でんしゃ） (tsugi no densha) |
| Jessi: And this means, "the next train". 次（つぎ）の電車（でんしゃ）. (tsugi no densha) |
| Motoko: Please repeat. 次（つぎ）の電車（でんしゃ）. (tsugi no densha) |
| [pause] |
| Jessi: And again, that means, "the next train". Okay, next is? |
| Motoko: 半（はん） (han) |
| Jessi: 半（はん） (han) . This means "half", and when talking about time, refers to half of an hour. For example, １時（いちじ） (ichi-ji) is one o'clock, and １時半（いちじはん） (ichi-ji han) is one thirty. |
| Motoko: １時（いちじ） (ichi-ji) plus 半（はん） (han). One thirty. |
| Jessi: Right. Another example. ５時（ごじ） (go-ji) is five o'clock, and so five thirty would be? |
| Motoko: ５時半（ごじはん）(go-ji han) |
| Jessi: That's right! We heard this word |
| Motoko: はん (han) |
| Jessi: in the dialogue. The next train comes at, what time, Motoko? |
| Motoko: ２時半（にじはん）(ni-ji han) |
| Jessi: ２時半（にじはん） (ni-ji han). Two thirty. Okay! And with that, let's move on to the lesson focus. |
| Grammar Point |
| Jessi: In this lesson, you'll learn how to ask what time something is, or what time something takes place. |
| Motoko: That's right. |
| Jessi: Now, if you remember, in Lesson 5, we learned how to ask what time it is now. |
| Motoko: Yes, do you remember? いまなんじですか (ima nan-ji desu ka)？ |
| Jessi: いまなんじですか (ima nan-ji desu ka)？ What time is it now? |
| Motoko: Our pattern today is very similar. |
| Jessi: Very! Motoko, can you tell us what it is? |
| Motoko: Sure. Our pattern is Aはなんじですか (A wa nan-ji desu ka)。 |
| Jessi: Aはなんじですか。 (A wa nan-ji desu ka.) What time is A? |
| Motoko: Aはなんじですか。 (A wa nan-ji desu ka.) |
| Jessi: Now, [A] could be anything you want to know about. An event, like a party or a meeting, or the schedule for something, like the next bus, or the next train. |
| Motoko: That's right. |
| Jessi: Let's go through some examples. |
| Motoko: Sure. How about this? でんしゃはなんじですか。 (Densha wa nan-ji desu ka.) |
| Jessi: Literally, what time is the train, or what time does the train come? How about another one? |
| Motoko: ミーティングはなんじですか。 (Mītingu wa nan-ji desu ka.) |
| Jessi: What time is the meeting, or what time does the meeting start? Okay, what else? |
| Motoko: パーティーはなんじですか。 (Pātī wa nan-ji desu ka.) |
| Jessi: What time is the party, or what time does the party start? So as you can see, we're just replacing [A] each time. Let's have the listeners repeat this time. What time is the train? |
| Motoko: でんしゃはなんじですか。 (Densha wa nan-ji desu ka.) |
| [pause] |
| Jessi: What time is the meeting? |
| Motoko: ミーティングはなんじですか。 (Mītingu wa nan-ji desu ka.) |
| [pause] |
| Jessi: What time is the party? |
| Motoko: パーティーはなんじですか。 (Pātī wa nan-ji desu ka.) |
| [pause] |
| Jessi: Excellent! Okay, now let's take a look at our example from the dialogue. |
| Motoko: Sure. Masato says つぎ の でんしゃ は なんじ です か (tsugi no densha wa nan-ji desu ka)。 |
| Jessi: What time is the next train? Let's break this one down. |
| Motoko: つぎの (Tsugi no) (Jessi: next) でんしゃ (densha) (Jessi: train) は なんじ (wa nan-ji) (Jess: what time) です か (desu ka)。 |
| Jessi: And the whole thing one more time? |
| Motoko: つぎ の でんしゃ は なんじ です か。 (Tsugi no densha wa nan-ji desu ka.) |
| Jessi: What time is the next train? Listeners, ready to repeat? |
| Motoko: つぎ の でんしゃ は なんじ です か。 (Gi no densha wa nan-ji desu ka.) |
| [pause] |
| Jessi: Sounding good. By the way, the answer to that was ２時半（にじはん）です。(ni-ji han desu.) It's at two thirty. |
| Motoko: ２時半（にじはん）です。(ni-ji han desu.) |
| Jessi: All right, now it's time for the listeners to make a sentence. What should they ask about, Motoko? |
| Motoko: Hmm... how about.. the bus? |
| Jessi: Oh, that's a good one! And it's easy too. Bus is バス (basu) in Japanese. |
| Motoko: That's right, バス (basu). |
| Jessi: Listeners, can you say, what time is the bus? Or, what time does the bus come, in Japanese? |
| [pause] |
| Jessi: Remember that the structure is [A]はなんじですか ([A ] wa nan-ji desu ka)。 |
| [pause] |
| Jessi: And the answer is? |
| Motoko: バスはなんじですか。 (Basu wa nan-ji desu ka.) |
| Jessi: バスはなんじですか。 (Basu wa nan-ji desu ka.) |
| Listeners, did you get it right? |
Outro |
| Jessi: Okay, well I think that's going to do it for this lesson. |
| Motoko: はい！ (Hai!) How was it, everyone? |
| Jessi: As always, please let us know if you have any questions. And also, feel free to practice making your own sentences in the comment section. |
| Motoko: Thank you for listening! |
| Jessi: Until next time. |
| Motoko: じゃあまた！ (Jā mata!) |
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