Lesson 2 - Vocabulary:
Directions
(photo
by Incase used
under terms of Creative Commons license.)
The system of writing Japanese used in this course is caIIed the Hepburn system. Pronunciation of most of the letters presents no difficulty to an American. Those letters or combinations of letters considered difficult to pronounce will be explained in this section of the lessons.
In this lesson you may have difficulty with the following:
1. The letter g in the middle of a word is pronounced Iike the ng in" sing " by natives of Tokyo. Listen :
migi |
massugu |
tsugi |
2. The letters marked with a bar, ā, ē, ō, and ū, are pronounced longer than those without a bar. Listen:
hō |
depāto |
ē to |
dōmo |
kyūkyūsha |
kēsats |
3. When
double letters appear
in a Japanese
word, the sound is
repeated. Think of
double letters as
having a hyphen between
them and pronounce
both letters distinctly.
Listen:
mas-sugu
Now compare
the double s
in massugu with
the single s
in
gasorin:
massugu
|
gasorin |
4. When
i and u
are written with
a slash mark
through them, they are
slurred, or barely
pronounced. Listen to the
difference in pronunciation
of the u
in hoteru from
the u in
kēsatsu.
tatemono |
building |
denwa |
telephone |
ch |
subway station |
res |
restaurant |
toire |
toilet; rest room |
depāto |
department store |
hoteru |
hotel |
gasorin
s |
gas station (gasoline stand) |
koko |
here |
soko |
there |
asoko |
over there |
doko? |
where? |
kono |
this |
sono |
that |
ano |
that over there |
dono? |
which? |
kochira |
this way |
sochira |
that way |
achira |
over that way |
dochira? |
which way? |
des |
is; am; are |
des |
is it? |
doko des |
where is it? |
dochira des |
which way is it? |
denwa doko
des |
where is the telephone? |
ni arimas |
there is one |
ni arimasen |
there isn't one |
ni arimas |
is there one? |
doko ni
arimas |
where is there one? |
denwa doko
ni arimas |
where is there a telephone? |
ch |
vicinity |
kono ch |
there isn't one in this vicinity |
ē
to |
well, let's see |
kado |
corner; intersection |
tsugi no
kado |
the next corner |
tsugi no
kado ni arimas |
there's one on the next corner |
migi |
right |
hidari |
left |
mae |
front |
ushiro |
rear |
no hō |
toward |
migi no
hō |
to the right |
ano migi
no hō ni
arimas |
there's
one to the
right of that over
there |
asoko ni
X arimas |
see
that X over
there? (Literally,
"there's an X
over there, isn't there?") |
asoko ni
tatemono arimas |
see that building over there? |
massugu |
straight (ahead) |
koko massugu
des |
it's straight ahead here |
soko massugu
des |
it's straight ahead there |
sumimasen |
excuse me |
kēsats |
please call the police |
kyūkyūsha yonde
kudasai |
please
|
dōmo |
thank you |