Learn about comparing two different objects or states
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Naomi: ナオミです。 (Naomi desu.) |
| Peter: Peter here. Swimsuit. Naomi-sensei, today is a rather difficult beginner lesson. |
| Naomi: ねえ、難しい。 (Nē, muzukashii.) |
| Peter: うん。ちょっと難しいですね。 (Un. Chotto muzukashii desu ne.) So we are going to get right in. Now today’s conversation is between? |
| Naomi: ボーイフレンドとガールフレンド (Bōifurendo to gārufurendo) boyfriend と (to) girlfriend ガールフレンド (gārufurendo). |
| Peter: So a couple is talking which means we are going to be using |
| Naomi: Casual, very casual Japanese. |
| Peter: And today’s conversation takes place first at the home and then they move on to the department store. |
| Naomi: Oh. |
| Peter: So they are going to buy something. Now we are a bit late with this lesson. Again this kind of has a 夏 (natsu) theme to it, a summer theme to it but it should work. So with that said, here we go. |
| DIALOGUE |
| 慶喜:暑いから、週末に海に行こうか。 |
| Yoshinobu: Atsui kara, shūmatsu ni umi ni ikōka. |
| 真季:いいね。あっ、水着買わなくちゃ。これからデパートに買いに行こうよ！ |
| Maki: Ii ne. A, mizugi kawanakucha. Kore kara depāto ni kai ni ikō yo! |
| （デパートの水着売り場で） |
| (depāto no mizugi uriba de) |
| 真季:うーん、どっちの水着がいいかなあ。 |
| Maki: Ūn, docchi no mizugi ga ii ka nā. |
| 慶喜:俺はこっちのビキニの方がワンピースの水着より似合うと思うな。 |
| Yoshinobu: Ore wa kocchi no bikini no hō ga wanpīsu no mizugi yori niau to omou na. |
| 真季:じゃあ、ビキニの方にする。1万円するけど、買ってね。 |
| Maki: Jā, bikini no hō ni suru. 10,000 en suru kedo, katte ne. |
| 慶喜:えーっ！ 俺が買うのー！？ |
| Yoshinobu: Ē! Ore ga kau nō!? |
| もう一度お願いします。ゆっくりお願いします。 |
| (Mōichido onegaishimasu. Yukkuri onegaishimasu.) |
| 慶喜:暑いから、週末に海に行こうか。 |
| Yoshinobu: Atsui kara, shūmatsu ni umi ni ikōka. |
| 真季:いいね。あっ、水着買わなくちゃ。これからデパートに買いに行こうよ！ |
| Maki: Ii ne. A, mizugi kawanakucha. Kore kara depāto ni kai ni ikō yo! |
| （デパートの水着売り場で） |
| (depāto no mizugi uriba de) |
| 真季:うーん、どっちの水着がいいかなあ。 |
| Maki: Ūn, docchi no mizugi ga ii ka nā. |
| 慶喜:俺はこっちのビキニの方がワンピースの水着より似合うと思うな。 |
| Yoshinobu: Ore wa kocchi no bikini no hō ga wanpīsu no mizugi yori niau to omou na. |
| 真季:じゃあ、ビキニの方にする。1万円するけど、買ってね。 |
| Maki: Jā, bikini no hō ni suru. 10,000 en suru kedo, katte ne. |
| 慶喜:えーっ！ 俺が買うのー！？ |
| Yoshinobu: Ē! Ore ga kau nō!? |
| 今度は英語が入ります。 |
| (Kondo wa eigo ga hairimasu.) |
| 慶喜:暑いから、週末に海に行こうか。 |
| Yoshinobu: Atsui kara, shūmatsu ni umi ni ikōka. |
| Yoshinobu: It's hot. Do you want to go to the beach this weekend? |
| 真季:いいね。あっ、水着買わなくちゃ。これからデパートに買いに行こうよ！ |
| Maki: Ii ne. A, mizugi kawanakucha. Kore kara depāto ni kai ni ikō yo! |
| Maki: Sounds good. Oh, I have to buy a bathing suit. I'm going to go to the department store right now! |
| （デパートの水着売り場で） |
| (depāto no mizugi uriba de) |
| (At the department store's bathing suit corner) |
| 真季:うーん、どっちの水着がいいかなあ。 |
| Maki: Ūn, docchi no mizugi ga ii ka nā. |
| Maki: Hmmm. Which swimming suit do you think is better? |
| 慶喜:俺はこっちのビキニの方がワンピースの水着より似合うと思うな。 |
| Yoshinobu: Ore wa kocchi no bikini no hō ga wanpīsu no mizugi yori niau to omou na. |
| Yoshinobu: I think you look better in this bikini than you do in that one-piece. |
| 真季:じゃあ、ビキニの方にする。1万円するけど、買ってね。 |
| Maki: Jā, bikini no hō ni suru. 10,000 en suru kedo, katte ne. |
| Maki: Okay. Then I'll get the bikini. It costs 10,000 yen but I want you to buy it. |
| 慶喜:えーっ！俺が買うのー！？ |
| Yoshinobu: Ē! Ore ga kau nō!? |
| Yoshinobu: What? I'm going to buy it? |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Peter: Naomi-sensei この会話、どうでしたから (kono kaiwa, dōdeshitakara)？ |
| Naomi: It's a bit off the topic but I bet this must be named one of the characters. |
| Peter: Okay. |
| Naomi: Because the guy’s name is the same as the last Shogun of Edo period. |
| Peter: Really? |
| Naomi: Yeah. |
| Peter: And that name is |
| Naomi: 慶喜 (Yoshinobu) I am not sure about the reading because many people has different reading. So it could be よしのぶ、けいき (Yoshi Nobu, keiki) or よしき (Yoshi ki) I don’t know. |
| Peter: Yeah, first names are one of the most difficult things to cover or understand in Japanese. So stop by, check out the PDF and if you have any questions, leave us a post. There we will have an answer, there we will have the reading. Okay on to today’s vocab. What do we have first? |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Naomi: 週末 (shūmatsu) |
| Peter: Weekend. |
| Naomi: しゅ・う・ま・つ「週末」 (Shu u ma tsu `shūmatsu') |
| Peter: Followed by |
| Naomi: 水着 (mizugi) |
| Peter: Bathing suit, swimsuit. |
| Naomi: み・ず・ぎ「水着」 (Mizu gi `mizugi') |
| Peter: Now the kanji for this word is quite interesting. It took me a really long time to get the reading for this because it’s definitely umm well, just took me a while. What do we have for this, the first character is |
| Naomi: 水 (mizu) Water |
| Peter: And the second character? |
| Naomi: Wear clothes. |
| Peter: Yeah. |
| Naomi: 着（ぎ） (Chaku [gi]) |
| Peter: So “water wear” and this character, the second character also means |
| Naomi: ちゃく (cha ku) |
| Peter: Which is |
| Naomi: Arrive. |
| Peter: Yeah. So that’s why, like it took me quite a while to grasp this word but if you think about it, “water wear”, water wear and it makes a lot of sense. |
| Naomi: Water arrival だと、ちょっと分かんないもんね (da to, chotto wakannai mon ne). |
| Peter: Yeah. You got to go for the other meaning. Okay next we have |
| Naomi: 売り場 (uriba) |
| Peter: A place where things are sold. |
| Naomi: う・り・ば「売り場」 (Uri ba `uriba') |
| Peter: Can we have a sample sentence? |
| Naomi: 本売り場はどこですか？ (Hon uriba wa doko desu ka?) |
| Peter: Where is the place they are selling the books? |
| Naomi: くつ売り場はどこですか？ (Kutsu uriba wa doko desu ka?) |
| Peter: “Where is the place they are selling shoes?” or “where is the shoe market, where is the book market?” Again depending and 売り場 (uriba) can be a place designated, a big area designated for selling one thing or it can be a small area designated for selling something inside a department store. So there are kind of many things, many ways to use this word 売り場 (uriba). Finally we have |
| Naomi: 似合う (niau) |
| Peter: To suit, to match. |
| Naomi: に・あ・う「似合う」 (Ni au `niau') |
| Peter: Sample sentence please. |
| Naomi: このワンピースが似合うよ。 (Kono wanpīsu ga niau yo.) |
| Peter: This one-piece bathing suit suits you, looks good on you. |
| Naomi: でも (Demo) in Japanese, “one-piece” has two meanings. One is “one-piece swimming suit,” one-piece bathing suit and another meaning is, one-piece dress. |
| Peter: And the third meaning is the comic. |
| Naomi: ああ！ (Ā!) |
| Peter: It’s that popular, one piece. |
| Naomi: 本当？ ああ、まあそうね (Hontō? Ā, mā sō ne). |
| Peter: In Japan, yeah. |
| Naomi: そうね。 (Sō ne.) |
| Peter: Okay. Let’s take a look at some of the things in today’s conversation. The first thing we want to look at is the second line. |
| Naomi: あっ、水着買わなくちゃ。これからデパートに買いに行こうよ。 (A, mizugi kawanakucha. Korekara depāto ni kai ni ikou yo.) |
| Peter: “Ah I have to buy a bathing suit. Let’s go to the department store to buy one now.” So what we want to look at is the first line. Can we have it one more time? |
| Naomi: あっ、水着買わなくちゃ。 (A, mizugi kawanakucha.) |
| Peter: “Ah I have to buy a bathing suit.” So let’s take a look at this part by part. First we have |
| Naomi: あっ (A) |
| Peter: Interjection. Person realizes something あっ (A) |
| Naomi: 水着 (mizugi) |
| Peter: Bathing suit. |
| Naomi: 買わなくちゃ (kawanakucha) |
| Peter: “I have to buy”. Now this 買わなくちゃ (kawanakucha) is actually a shortened version of |
| Naomi: なくては (nakute wa) |
| Peter: The なく (naku) stays the same but the ては (te wa) becomes |
| Naomi: ちゃ (cha) |
| Peter: Now, what comes after this is inferred, right? |
| Naomi: は、そうですね。 (Wa, sō desu ne.) Right. |
| Peter: So what is inferred after this? |
| Naomi: ふん。買わなくてはダメです。買わなくてはいけません。買わなくてはなりません。 (Fun. Kawanakute wa dame desu. Kawanakute wa ikemasen. Kawanakute wa narimasen.) |
| Peter: “It can’t become, it can’t go, it can’t happen that this thing doesn’t happen.” |
| Naomi: そうです。 (Sō desu.) |
| Peter: Did that make sense? |
| Naomi: To me, yes. |
| Peter: So it’s a roundabout way of saying, “have to, must.” |
| Naomi: そうですね。 (Sō desu ne.) |
| Peter: So in this case, we have |
| Naomi: 買わなくちゃ。 (Kawanakucha.) |
| Peter: I have to buy it. |
| Naomi: そうです。 (Sō desu.) |
| Peter: Let’s take a look at how to form this. We need the negative stem. In the case of 食べる (taberu) this would be |
| Naomi: 食べない (tabenai) |
| Peter: Then we drop the E. So we are left with |
| Naomi: 食べな (tabe na) |
| Peter: This is the negative stem. Then we attach. |
| Naomi: くちゃ (kucha) |
| Peter: To get. |
| Naomi: 食べなくちゃ (tabenakucha) |
| Peter: Which is the shortened form of |
| Naomi: 食べなくてはいけません。 (Tabenakute wa ikemasen.) |
| Peter: So “I have to eat this.” |
| Naomi: 野菜食べなくちゃ。 (Yasai tabenakucha.) |
| Peter: So I have to eat the vegetables. |
| Naomi: そうですね。 (Sō desu ne.) |
| Peter: So this expression, you wind up using a lot when you speak to yourself. |
| Naomi: そうだと思います。 (Sōda to omoimasu.) Depends on the intonation. |
| Peter: So that’s how we wind up with this shortened version. So “I have to.” For example, “if I have to eat” |
| Naomi: 食べなくちゃ。 (Tabenakucha.) |
| Peter: If I have to go to school |
| Naomi: 学校行かなくちゃ。 (Gakkō ikanakucha.) |
| Peter: If I have to go to work |
| Naomi: 仕事行かなくちゃ。 (Shigoto ikanakucha.) |
| Peter: So you get the pattern, this なくちゃ (nakucha). “I have to do something” and here, it’s the bathing suit that has to be bought. Okay, on to the next line. Here they just arrived at the department store and it seems that the female speaker has found two suits she likes because we can tell this from the question which is |
| Naomi: どっちの水着がいいかなあ。 (Dotchi no mizugi ga ii ka nā.) |
| Peter: “Hmm, I wonder which bathing suit is better.” First we have |
| Naomi: どっち (dotchi) |
| Peter: “Which,” which is a shortened version of |
| Naomi: どちら (dochira) |
| Peter: So, “which of these” followed by |
| Naomi: の (no) |
| Peter: Possessive. |
| Naomi: 水着 (mizugi) |
| Peter: “Bathing suits.” “Which of these bathing suits?” |
| Naomi: が (ga) |
| Peter: Marks the subject, the bathing suit. |
| Naomi: いい (ii) |
| Peter: Good. |
| Naomi: かなあ (ka nā) |
| Peter: “I wonder. Which of these bathing suits, good I wonder” is what we have literally but of course “I wonder which of these bathing suits is good.” Next line we have |
| Naomi: 俺はこっちのビキニの方が、ワンピースの水着より似合うと思うなあ。 (Ore wa kotchi no bikini no kata ga, wanpīsu no mizugi yori niau to omou nā.) |
| Peter: “Me, I think this Bikini suits you better than that one piece bathing suit.” All right, lots of explaining to do in here. First we have |
| Naomi: 俺は (ore wa) |
| Peter: Very masculine way to refer to oneself for male speakers followed by |
| Naomi: こっちの (kotchi no) |
| Peter: “This here.” こっち (kotchi) is short for こちら (kochira) which is this direction. So “this direction here” is |
| Naomi: ビキニ (bikini) |
| Peter: Bikini. |
| Naomi: の方が (no kata ga) |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Peter: Okay. So we stop there. This bikini and then we come to our focal point of the lesson の方が (no kata ga). So this の方が (no kata ga) is, think of it as a set phrase. Okay because what precedes 方が (hō ga) is a noun. We need the の (no). So that’s all that this の (no) is doing here. It’s not possessive or anything. Just part of the grammatical structure followed by |
| Naomi: ワンピースの (wanpīsu no) |
| Peter: One piece. |
| Naomi: 水着 (mizugi) |
| Peter: Bathing suit. |
| Naomi: より (yori) |
| Peter: Then. |
| Naomi: 似合う (niau) |
| Peter: Suits. |
| Naomi: と思う (to omou) |
| Peter: I think. |
| Naomi: な (na) |
| Peter: And just adding a bit of emphasis. So the actual subject suits here. So here he only says suits, not suit you but of course that’s inferred because she was wondering and she wanted some feedback and this was kind of understood by her saying かな (ka na). So he’s giving feedback about what he thinks about her. He thinks that the bikini suits her better than the one piece bathing suit. Now I want to kind of go through this sentence because sometimes in Japanese, things would get really, really confusing and somebody taught me a trick once. I don’t know if this is going to work for you and hopefully it doesn’t confuse you more, but I just like to point this out to you. Let’s just take a look at the first part one more time 俺は (ore wa). |
| Naomi: 俺は (ore wa) |
| Peter: What I like to do here is stop. This is the topic. So it’s kind of like if you started in English, “me?” So you are introducing the topic and then you stop there. So we all know we are talking about me. So you kind of stop there. Then, what you want to do is jump to the end and find the verb. |
| Naomi: 思う (omou) |
| Peter: So “think,” so who is thinking here, since there is no other subject or no が (ga) in here, the person introduced with the topic marking particle is the one thinking. So me, literally jumped to the end think, “me think”. “Me, I think” and then come back to the first part. |
| Naomi: こっちのビキニの方が (Kotchi no bikini no kata ga). |
| Peter: This bikini is |
| Naomi: ワンピースの水着より (Wanpīsu no mizugi yori) |
| Peter: “The one-piece bathing suit” then |
| Naomi: 似合う (niau) |
| Peter: “Suits you.” So “me, I think that this bikini then that one piece suits you” and we are going to take it a little bit further and I actually had to go back and correct that. There is a が (ga) in there but it’s part of that structure 方が (hō ga). Now next thing we will take a look at here is the より (yori). Now this より (yori) how can we say marks the thing that |
| Naomi: Is compared. |
| Peter: Marking the thing that’s compared. |
| Naomi: 例えば、アメリカの方がイギリスより大きい。 (Tatoeba, Amerika no kata ga Igirisu yori ōkī.) |
| Peter: “The US is bigger than England.” Literally we have, “the US England than bigger.” This is a very rudimentary way of looking at it but US is England than bigger. |
Outro |
| Naomi: アメリカの方がイギリスより大きい。 (Amerika no kata ga Igirisu yori ōkī.) |
| Peter: Now, this is quite a tough topic to tackle. So that’s going to do for today. |
| Naomi: じゃあ、また！ (Jā, mata!) |
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