Episode 14 – Japanese Made Easy

Full Episode Audio (download link is to the right of the volume icon)

Exercises Only

Hi Greg here, welcome to Episode 14. In this episode we’ll be learning a new counter and a need to know usage of a common particle.

I’ve been intentionally avoiding some of the absolute beginner level polite Japanese, as my hope is to have you making progress in other areas. But we do need to know the casual word for “is” or “to be” in Japanese. I assume you are comfortable with, or have at least heard of simple sentences such as

“It’s a cat.”

猫(ねこ)ですよ。(Neko desuyo.) We’ll go with the “yo” ending for these next examples.

Your large dog has a lion’s mane hair-cut which caused a panic at the dog park. You reassure everybody saying… “It’s a dog.”

犬(いぬ)ですよ。(Inu desuyo.) 

You bought a new high tech futuristic looking appliance, tell somebody…

“It’s a coffee maker.”

コーヒーメーカーですよ。(Kōhī mēkā desuyo.) 

Finally, some kids are learning countries and point to one on a map.

Tell them.. “It’s Japan.”

日本(にほん)ですよ。(Nihon desuyo.) 

Ok, so easy enough and with that let’s switch to the casual version.

You will know these famous car makers, but listen to how they are pronounced in Japanese…

日産(にっさん) 日産 (Nissan)  In English we say Nissan.

マツダ マツダ (Matsuda)   In English we say Mazda.

トヨタ トヨタ (toyota)  …of course, Toyota.　

Let’s hear those one more time in Japanese only.

日産 (Nissan), マツダ (Matsuda), トヨタ(toyota) 

The type of car you bought isn’t clear just by looking at it.

Tell a friend in casual Japanese…

It’s a Nissan.

日産だよ。(Nissan dayo.) 

Try saying… It’s a Mazda.

マツダだよ。(Matsuda dayo.) 

It’s a Toyota…

トヨタだよ。(Toyota dayo.) 

Drinking something red in color, tell a family member “It’s tomato juice.”

トマトジュースだよ。 (Tomato jyūsu dayo.) 

Moving on, I want to cover a common usage of the の particle. First a quick review of the possessive “の” that we all learn early on in Japanese…

Riku and Sora are roommates in college and Sora has always used a windows laptop. But today, Sora is using what appears to be a used laptop with a big bright apple logo on it. So Riku asks..

誰(だれ)のマック？(Dare no makku?) 

…and Sora explains all about borrowing the Mac laptop from a friend. Anyway, how would you translate…

誰のマック？(Dare no makku? ) 

That one is simple. Literally just “Who” then the particle “の” for possession, and “mac”. In other words, “Who’s mac?” How might Sora answer,

It’s a friend’s?

友達(ともだち)のよ。(Tomodachi no yo.) 

There’s some pizza on the table. As you pick up a slice and take a big bite you ask, “Who’s pizza?”

誰のピザ？(Dare no piza?) 

With that, let’s focus on a new usage of の. First and speaking of pizza, these two popular chains can be found in most large cities in Japan.

ドミノ ドミノ (domino) 

That’s the one that had the 30 minutes or less guarantee, and then this one I guess the pizza in made in a hut?

ピザハット (piza hatto) 

There isn’t a “huh” sound in Japanese so they are going with “ha”.

ピザハット (piza hatto) 

With that, if there were pizza on the table and a person asks this question…

どこのピザ？ (Doko no piza? ) and the answer…

ドミノだよ。(Domino dayo.) 

“Dominos is.” What was the person asking?

Keep in mind languages are not direct translations of each other, so the phrasing in Japanese and in English may be completely different for the same idea.

どこのピザ？ (Doko no piza? ) We heard, Where, then の, and pizza. This time a person answers…

ピザハットだよ。 (Piza hatto dayo.) 

In natural English we might answer… “It’s Pizza Hut.” or maybe, “It’s Pizza Hut pizza.” or even.. “It’s from Pizza Hut.”

Again, those are possible translations of the basic idea that’s being communicated. Let’s do just one more.

We’ve all watched some

アニメ (anime) at one time or another,

so let’s use that to further work with the idea.

Riku walks in and Sora is watching some anime. Something about it is different from the usual Japanese style anime Sora watches, and the characters aren’t speaking Japanese. So Riku asks…

どこのアニメ？(Doko no anime?)  

Sora replies…

アメリカのだよ。(Amerika no dayo.) 

So in the question we have doko, and in the answer we hear the name of a country…

Had this all been in English…

Where の (no) pizza?

Domino’s is.

Where の (no) pizza?

Pizza Hut is.

Where の (no) anime?

America の(no)  is.

So, let’s plugin the SLT or Super Literal Translation for this usage of “の”(no).

Where “from or of a place” pizza? …and the answer

Dominos, “from or of” is. … the question

Where “from or of a place” pizza? …and the answer

Pizza Hut “from or of” is. …question

Where “from or of” anime. …the answer

America “from or of” is.

So remember this usage of “の”(no)  as “from or of a place”

I’ll stick with partial English to further make the point.

French wine. That is wine that is from or of France. Would be phrased..

フランスのワイン。　(Furansu no wain) 

Using the cognate for cheese which is just…

チーズ　(chīzu)

How would you say.. “Italian cheese.”

イタリアのチーズ　(Itaria no chīzu) 

In casual Japanese say, “It’s Italian cheese.”

イタリアのチーズだよ。(Itaria no chīzu dayo.) 

Try saying, It’s Japanese anime.

日本(にほん)のアニメだよ。(Nihon no anime dayo.) 

Remember the SLT… Japan, from or of anime.

Ask a friend, Who’s pizza is this?

誰のピザ？(Dare no piza? )

Ask where is it from, or more literally “Where, from or of pizza?”

どこのピザ？ (Doko no piza? )

Answer simply, “It’s Dominos.” As in, “It’s Domino’s pizza.”

ドミノだよ。　(Domino dayo.) 

You are at a restaurant in California that is famous for having authentic Japanese sushi. The sushi they served has avocado in it.

You lean over and whisper to your friend…

日本の寿司(すし)？ (Nihon no sushi?) 

How would you translate that into natural English? A lot is implied here, but naturally this would have been…

Is this Japanese sushi?

Ok, let’s get a new counter. I mentioned donuts earlier so let’s start with those. See if you can get the gist of this conversation without too much help.

At an English conversation school one morning in Japan, a teacher brought a box of donuts to work for the other teachers to share. Dan, comes in late and sees the large, but empty box. Another teacher, we’ll call him Roger has chocolate all over his face, and little sprinkles on his shirt. Dan asks Roger…

何個(なんこ)食(た)べたの？ (Nan ko tabetano? ) 

Holding up one finger and looking guilty, Roger lies and answers..

一個(いっこ)。　 (Ikko) 

Later Dan overhears Emi talking about how good the donuts were and Dan asks her the following question, it’s understood that we are talking about the donuts, so starting with Regarding Roger…

ロジャーは何個食べた？ (Rojā wa nanko tabeta?)  

Emi isn’t sure exactly how many he ate, but it was definitely more than one, so she speculates…

三個(さんこ)食べた。。。 かな。。。 (Sanko tabeta…. kana…. )

We’ll break this all down when we come back, but for now let that sink in and let’s take a break.

I want to talk about counters a bit, and how best to approach them, as well as any other general area of study in a new language.

To improve your speaking sooner rather than later, it’s best to learn and get very comfortable with single usages one at a time, instead of trying to remember rules for all usages at once.

For example, each particle has many usages. Get good at using one of the particle usages at a time when speaking, instead of trying to remember a ton of rules for a lot of particle usages.

Learn to use each verb, and it’s endings one at a time, instead of trying to remember broad categories, such as this is a type I verb or this is a type II verb. Native Japanese speakers have no idea what that means.

That’s how adults organize knowledge for the sake of study, but not how fluency is attained. And, so it goes for counters.

Basically there are a handful of them that you’ll be using often, and each one might have small pronunciation differences. But as we’ve been doing we just want to get really good at using it when we speak, and not thinking we “learned it” just because we read the rules in a book, or watched some clickbait YouTube video claiming…”

“Learn all Japanese counters in 2 minutes” or “Learn all Japanese particles in 30 seconds” we really need to redefine the word “learn” in that case.

That kind of thing is ok for an over-view of the topic, but is of little use when it comes to conversation time.

So, as I mentioned before, particles and counters, are really not a big deal, they only seem to be when your first exposure is to the entire topic all at once.

A quick concept review and we’ll continue. In the last episode when talking about how many people were at a party we heard.

何人(なんにん)いた？ (Nan nin ita? )

Literally what, number of people, existed? or How many people were there? and then the answer…

七人(ななにん)いたよ。(Nana nin itayo.) 

Seven, number of people, existed. Seven people were there. Or, There were seven people.

With that in mind let’s listen to the donut conversation one more time. Already understood is that we are talking about donuts, as they stand over the empty donut box. Dan asked Roger…

何個食べたの？ (Nanko tabetano?) 

So there we heard “nan” or what… then “ko” and then tabeta which is ate. He was holding up one finger and the reply…

一個(いっこ)。　(Ikko) 

…and the “ee” that we are hearing is from the number one or “ichi” and again “ko” which we’ll get to. Let’s listen to the next section.

Dan asked Emi about Roger and the donuts…

ロジャーは何個食べた？ (Rojā wa nanko tabeta?) 

Literally, Regarding Roger, what “ko” ate? Emi speculates…

三個(さんこ)食べた かな。。。(Sanko tabeta kana…)

Literally three “ko” ate… and kanah… This “kana” is kind of expressing uncertainty like… He ate three… I guess.. or He ate three I suppose..

With that you probably determined that the new counter here is “ko.”

Just listen to the following answers in Japanese and see if you can get a feel for what it represents.

Let’s think about what the following food items have in common.

Asking somebody, how many

トマト (tomato) 

did you buy? and the response…

一個(いっこ) (ikko) 

How many

オレンジ (orenji)

did you buy? and the response..

二個(にこ) (niko) 

How many

ドーナツ(Dōnatsu) 

did you buy? and the response

三個(さんこ) (sanko) 

So what do these all have in common so far? Yes, they are food, but what else? Ponder that, and let’s add to they type of things we can count using “ko”…

How many square 9 volt batteries did you buy?

四個(よんこ)… 買(か)った。 (Yonko katta.) 

四個… 買った。(Yonko … katta) 

if you don’t know the last word you heard there

買(か)った, (katta) 

perhaps you can make an educated guess. That is.. we know verbs come at the end of sentences, and we’ve heard things like ..

飲(の)んだ。。(nonda)   見(み)た。(mita)    食(た)べた。 (tabeta) 

and now…

買(か)った。 (katta) 

which isn’t exactly the same as the others, but has this similar “ta” ending.

買った (katta) 

So that’s a bit of listening comprehension advice, you may not know the verb, but you can at least know that it was a verb and can perhaps guess the meaning based on the situation.

So, with that let’s get the meaning with more context…

買(か)う　買う (kau) 

With credit card in hand, Bill went to the store saying he wants to

買う(kau) 

some new shoes. Then, recalling that all his socks have holes in them, he thought.. I guess I’ll

買う(kau) 

some new socks too. So we say buy, in Japanese its…

買う(kau) 

So back to our counter. We’ve heard.. tomatoes, oranges, and square 9 volt batteries, being counted with “ko” what do those have in common? Let’s keep going.

Masaharu plays golf but is low on golf balls. He sees an ad for a golf ball sale at the local sporting goods shop and heads out. When he comes back putting the words golf

ゴルフ (gorufu) 

and ball

ボール (bōru) 

together.. somebody asks…

ゴルフボールは何個(なんこ)買った。 (gorufubōru  wa nanko katta?) 

ゴルフボールは何個(なんこ)買った。(gorufubōru  wa nanko katta?) 

One more time, and notice the pattern here… a person is asking a question about something, is starting with regarding the something… in this case golf balls or

ゴルフボール (gorufubōru) 

ゴルフボールは…(gorufubōru wa…) 

regarding golf balls,

何個買った？ (Nanko katta? )

What number of them, bought?

Semi- naturally… Golf balls は… (wa)  How many did you buy? And very naturally, How many golf balls did you buy？

Basically, the counter “ko” is used for small round-ish or clunky shaped objects that are about the size of something that can be held in one hand.

If something is clearly long like a banana or bottle, or clearly flat like a thin chocolate bar, or piece of paper, we’ll use different counters.

So, things like tomatoes, oranges, a square battery, a small toy car, a coffee mug, a computer mouse, all of these things would likely be counted using “ko”.

That being said, don’t over-think this as in “How will I judge what is what, as there are so many possible objects?” It only seems difficult if looking at the big picture, but in taking them one by one, it will be easy and will become instinctive.

OK casual. Ask somebody, “Regarding oranges, how many did you buy?”

オレンジは、何個買った？ (Orenji wa nanko katta? ) 

We understand now that we are discussing oranges, so no need to repeat that part, tell them.. I bought one.

一個買ったよ。 (Ikko kattayo.) 

Notice that it’s not “eeko”.. but kind of skips a beat… ee…ko *(iccko) Let’s change that to polite… Repeat after our native speaker.

オレンジは何個買いましたか？ (Orenji wa nannko kaimashitaka? )  Try saying, “I bought one.”

一個(いっこ)買いました。(Ikko kaimashita.) 

Ok, casual. Ask How many tomatoes did you buy?

トマトは何個買った？ (Tomato wa nannko katta? )

Answer… I bought two.

二個(にこ)買ったよ。(Niko kattayo.) 

Change the question and answer to polite Japanese.

トマトは何個買いましたか？(Tomato wa nanko kaimashitaka?)  I bought two.

二個買いました。(Niko kaimashita.) 

Ok, Let’s change it up again. Casual Japanese. This time ask…

How many donuts did you eat?

ドーナツは何個食べたの？(Dōnatsu wa nanko tabetano? ) 

We all know Roger so he probably ate six, but how would he say “I ate three.”

三個(さんこ)食べたよ。 (Sanko tabetayo.) 

You’ve been working on your tennis game recently and decide to challenge your friend Serina to a match. You have racquets but seem to be short on tennis balls, how would you translate Serina’s question.

ボールは何個ある？(Bōru wa nanko aru? ) 

Literally, ball or tennis balls, what number of exist? More naturally, How many tennis balls are there? Uncertain, you answer..

六個(ろっこ)かな。。。(Rokko kana… )

クッキーは何個ある？ (Kikkī wa nanko aru? ) 

Answer, Eight… “I guess.” or “I suppose.”

八個(はっこ)あるかな。。。(Hakko arukana…) 

Polite Japanese… Starting with Regarding sushi, ask somebody…

How many pieces of sushi did you eat?

寿司は何個食べましたか？(Sushi wa nanko tabemashitaka? )

Try saying… “I ate ten.”

十個（じゅっこ)食べました。(Jyukko tabemashita.) 

Easy cognate… this fruit is green on the inside, with little black seeds…

キウイ キウイ (kiui) 

A family member comes home from the store and says

キウイ買ったよ。　 (Kiui kattayo.) 

I bought kiwis. Don’t use the word buy, and don’t use the word kiwi, simply ask .. How many?

何個？ (Nanko? ) 

Same thing, but talking about the number of people at a party, ask..

How many?

何人？ (Nan nin?) 

Polite Japanese, starting with the word kiwi, ask how many kiwi’s did you eat?

キウイは何個食べましたか？ (Kiui wa nanko tabemashitaka? ) 

Still polite, answer, “I ate two.”

二個(にこ)食べました。(Niko tabemashita.) 

Still polite, ask How many people were there?

何人(なんにん)いましたか？ (Nan nin imashitaka? ) 

answer… There were five people.

五人(ごにん)いました。(Gonin imashita. ) 

Alight, we’ve covered a lot, so give the practice exercise audio a few listens and make sure everything is solid up to this point, and I’ll see you in the next episode.