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Jessi: Hi everyone, and welcome to Lesson 5 of the new JLPT N3 Prep Course, Lesson 5. I'm Jessi and I'm here in the studio joined by...
Naomi:こんにちは、みなさん。直美です。Hi everyone, Naomi here. 前回は文法と読解のもんだい1を勉強しましたね。
Jessi:In the last lesson, you learned what もんだい1 of the grammar and reading comprehension section is like.
Naomi:このレッスンでは、問題2を紹介します。
Jessi:And in this Lesson, we'll cover もんだい 2 of the grammar and reading comprehension section.
Naomi:もんだい2は 単語の順番を変えて、正しい文章を作ります。
Jessi:In もんだい2 , you're supposed to make a correct sentence by changing the order of the given words. So in this section, you’re tested on how well you can out together words given at random to create a sentence that makes sense.
Naomi:このような問題は5個あります。
Jessi:There will be 5 of this type of question on the test. Here, you are being tested on whether you can construct a grammatically correct sentence in Japanese. So if you have down the different types of function words and particles and how they attach to nouns, verbs, and adjectives, you will be even quicker in finding the correct answer. To put it another way, you have to know the correct sentence structures to get the right answer. So if you don't know them, it may be better to skip them and devote more time on the reading section instead.
<<<こんなことをいってはどうでしょうか?>>>>
ここでは、「文法的に正しい日本語の文章がつくれるかどうか」が試されています。ですから、機能語や、助詞が動詞や形容詞、名詞のどの形につくのかをきちんと知っていると、より早く、答えを見つける事ができます。逆に言えば、センテンスストラクチャーをしらなければ、解けない問題なので、もし、しらなければ、あきらめて、読解に時間をととった方がいいのかもしれません。
:*****Instructions********
Jessi: Now, at this point in the lesson we usually read the instructions and the sample questions here, but for もんだい2, it's a bit hard to do it using only audio...
Naomi:そうですね。So instead, in this lesson, we’ll focus on reviewing phrases that contain certain words.
Jessi:What are we going to look at first?
Naomi: Phrases containing the word こと
Jessi: こと refers to a thing that is intangible. It can be used to turn verbs, adjectives or even entire sentences into a noun phrase.
Naomi: I'm sure most listeners are already familiar with ---たことがある as in 聞いた事がある"I've heard of it" 見た事がある "I've seen it before" and ことができる as in "100円で映画を見ることができる" "You can see a movie with 100yen."
In this lesson, we'll introduce こと phrases which often appear in JLPT.
Jessi: いいですね。What's first?
Naomi: [A Verb in the Dictionary form] plus こと or [Nai form ]plus こと
Jessi: This basically means "do [verb]" or "do not do [verb]". Can we hear some examples?
Naomi: Here are some rules at 図書館(library)
一週間以内に本を返すこと。
Jessi: Return the book within a week.
Naomi:大きい声で話さないこと。
Jessi:Do not speak loudly.
Naomi:図書館の中では食べ物を食べないこと。
Jessi:Do not eat inside the library.
Naomi:----こと。は、ルールを説明するときによく使います。
Jessi:Right, these forms are often used to talk about rules. Now, using こと like this creates a really, how should we say.. かたい expression. They sound very formal and rigid.
Jessi: Now, this is interesting.. if you add the copula だ after こと... the meaning changes!
Naomi: That's right. [A Verb in the Dictionary form]plus ことだ or [Nai form ]plus ことだ means "you'd better ..."It's almost same as "事が大事だ"
Jessi: Right, you would use it when giving advice, like "this is what you'd better do". Can we hear an example of that?
Naomi: JLPTN1に合格したいの?それなら、たくさん単語を覚えることだ。
Jessi: You want to pass JLPT N1? In that case, you'd better memorize a lot of vocabulary words. Very true...笑
Naomi: Of course, だ can be replaced withです。
合格したいなら、たくさん単語を覚えることです。
Naomi:I'd like to introduce one more こと expression. Which is [Nai form plus こともない。]
Jessi:...ないこともない It's actually a double negative. It means "It's not that [I] don't---", or "There is a chance that---".
Naomi:Here's a sample sentence. お酒が飲めないこともない
Jessi:It's not that I can't drink, which really means, I can drink.
Naomi:Right.飲めない(Can't drink)こと(thing)ない(doesn't exist)。
Jessi:It's a double negative. Even in English, we can use a double negative to express this. It's not that I don't [blank].
Naomi:こともないcan follow adjective too.
For example おいしくないこともない。。。
Jessi:"It's not that it's not tasty..." It means "----"
Here's a sample conversation. 直美さん、今夜暇ですか?
Naomi:暇じゃないこともないけど・・・何? (暇じゃないこともない・・・"It's not that I'm not free"..."Technically she's saying that she's free)
Jessi:今夜飲みに行きませんか?
Naomi:え~。どうしようかな~。飲みにいけないこともないけど・・・あした早いんだよね。
(飲みにいけないこともないけど。。。It's not that I can't go out for drink"...She's saying that she could go out but she needs to get up early...)
Naomi: Okay, now let's move onto phrases that use the word もの.
Jessi: もの also means thing, like こと, but it refers to tangible things.
Naomi:Right. Like the もの in 食べ物 "things to eat" or "food" 飲み物"Things to drink" or "drink, beverage"
Jessi:However when もの become part of the expression, it doesn't really refer to an actual object here.
Naomi: The first one is [Ta form] + ものだ
Jessi: "むかしは---だった", or "used to …"
This is used to talk about something you used to do, or the way something used to be.
Naomi:そうですね。例えば、For example...
学生のとき、たくさん本を読んだものだ。
Jessi:I used to read a lot when I was a student.
Naomi:この文章の意味は、「昔は、本をたくさん読んだけど、今は読まない」ということですね。
Jessi:This sentence is implying that 今はあまり読んでいない "I don't read much recently."
Jessi: So that was the [Ta form], or the past form, plus ものだ right? If you change the ta-form to the dictionary form, though, the meaning completely changes.
Naomi:あああ!いいポイントですね。Great point!
[verb in the dictionary form] plus ものだ means "---するのがとうぜんだ"or "to do [verb] is a given/common sense".
Jessi:This phrase is used to express something that is a given, or something that everybody knows. If you change the final ものだ to ものではない, it is used to express something that should not be done.
Naomi: Right.For example, 人にやさしくするものです。
Jessi: Literally, "To be nice to people is a given". So what it's really saying is you have to be nice to people."
Naomi: How about this one. うそをつくものではない。
Jessi: You should not lie (= don’t tell a lie.)
Jessi: Okay, so we've just covered some phrases that use こと and もの - two words that basically mean "thing" but are used in a lot of expressions.
As always, there are lots more in the PDF.
Naomi: Yes, more grammar structures that use こと and もの, わけ, and ばかり.
Jessi: I counted them all and there are 26 that we explain in the notes! So please make sure you review them for the test!
Naomi: お願いします!
Jessi: That's all the time we have for this lesson. Join us next time for for JLPT fun!
Naomi:じゃまた!

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