26/3/14
Week 9 Japanese
すきなかもく = favourite school subject
にがてなかもく = school subject you are weak at
すきな and にがてな are な adjectives and Japanese adjectives can be used in the same way you use
in English. You can put an adjective before a noun. For example, ‘a big dog’, ‘a small house’ and ‘a
boring subject’. In Japanese, ‘大きいいぬ’, ‘小さいうち’ and ‘つまらないかもく’. Now, think about
how you structure the following English sentence.
What is your favourite school subject?
You already know how to say ‘What is it?’ in Japanese, which is ‘なん(何)ですか。’. All you have to do
is to replace ‘it’ to ‘favourite school subject’. Thus, the sentence in Japanese will be as followings.
すきなかもくは何ですか。
As mentioned previously, the use of English adjectives and Japanese adjectives are the same. Any
adjectives can be placed before nouns and they can be replaced. For example, a small dog and a big
dog. This is applicable in Japanese, too. Where do you think にがてな can be placed in すきなかもく
はなんですか。? You already know すきな is an adjective and かもく is a noun so you need to
replace an adjective, which is すきな in this case, with にがてな, which is another adjective in this
case. Accordingly, にがてなかもくはなんですか。 is a correct answer.
New Kanji
New Reading
What month = 月, がつ
What day = にち
Month in Japanese
In Japanese, it is quite easy to say month. What you have to do is to say a number followed by がつ
(GATSU written as 月). For example, いちがつ(January), にがつ (February) and さんがつ(March).
However, April and September have special readings. April is しがつ and September is くがつ.
Dates in Japanese
The first ten days of each month, 一日 to 十日, have special readings that originate from a traditional
Japanese way of counting. Look at 一日. How is it read? The first day is important as it opens the new
month, so it has a special name. Please look at the calendar below and remember the irregular
readings.
Kanji numbers (一, 二, 三) or Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3) can
be used to write days of the month
Did you know English months (January December) are originated from Roman
Mythology?
Birthday = たんじょうび