Learn about the omission of particles in Japanese
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Intro |
|---|
| Michael: Why do Japanese speakers omit particles? |
| Risa: And which ones can be omitted? |
| Michael: At JapanesePod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Ben is visiting his friend, Hana. She asks him, |
| "Do you want some water?" |
| Hana Hashimoto: 水、飲みます？ (Mizu, nomimasu?) |
| Dialogue |
| Hana Hashimoto: 水、飲みます？ (Mizu, nomimasu?) |
| Ben Lee: うん、飲みます。 (Un, nomimasu.) |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Hana Hashimoto: 水、飲みます？(Mizu, nomimasu?) |
| Michael: "Do you want some water?" |
| Ben Lee: うん、飲みます。 (Un, nomimasu.) |
| Michael: "Sure." |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: In this lesson, we will talk about dropping the particles in a Japanese sentence. Let’s take a closer look at the dialogue. Do you remember how Hana asks "Do you want some water?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Risa as Hana Hashimoto: 水、飲みます？(Mizu, nomimasu?) |
| Michael: As you can hear, this sentence doesn't have any particles. The complete sentence would be |
| Risa: 水を飲みますか。(Mizu o nomimasu ka.) |
| Michael: In Japanese, you can often omit the particles. This is possible if the meaning is clear from the context and if you use the right intonation in the sentence. Let's hear this phenomenon in a few more sentences. First is |
| Risa: 頭いたい。(Atama itai.) |
| Michael: This is a shortened and casual way for saying |
| Risa: 頭がいたい。(Atama ga itai.) |
| Michael: which means "My head hurts." If you have a headache and the person you're talking to knows you're not feeling well, it's ok to omit the subject marking particle |
| Risa: が (ga). |
| Michael: Here is another example. |
| Risa: 仕事の後、病院行った。(Shigoto no ato, byōin itta.) |
| Michael: This is a shortened way to say |
| Risa: 仕事の後で、病院に行った。(Shigoto no ato de, byōin ni itta.) |
| Michael: which means "I went to the hospital after work." |
| In casual conversations, it's very common to omit particles, but it can also happen in more formal situations. An example is the sentence pattern |
| Risa: {ITEM} をください。 |
| Michael: which means "{ITEM}, please." You can use it when requesting something at a restaurant or shop, or in many other situations. It's really common to hear native speakers omit the particle |
| Risa: を (o), |
| Michael: as in |
| Risa: お水ください。 (O-mizu kudasai.) |
| Michael: which means "Water, please" or |
| Risa: メニューください。(Menyū kudasai.) |
| Michael: which means "the menu, please." |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: We've now seen that, in both casual and polite Japanese, it's possible to omit the particles when one can infer the meaning from the context. When it's clear what you're talking about, you can drop the particles. |
| Expansion |
| Michael: Advertisements and banners are another place where you won't see any particles. Titles and catch phrases need to be concise and effective. This is why particles and copulas are dropped. For example, |
| Risa: 締め切り、真近！(Shimekiri, majika!) |
| Michael: is a shortened version of |
| Risa: 締め切りが真近です。(Shimekiri ga majika desu.) |
| Michael: which means "The deadline is approaching." |
| Cultural Insight |
| Michael: Keep in mind that the more particles are dropped, the shorter the sentence gets, and it sounds quite casual and informal. So the closer the relationship between the speaker and the listener is, the more particles you can drop. On the other hand, if you are in a formal or business setting, you should avoid omitting particles, in order to avoid turning out to be casual or even unprofessional. |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We’re here to answer them! |
| Risa: またね！ (Mata ne!) |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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