Learn Japanese Grammar in 25 Minutes ALL the Basics You Need

Want more Japanese videos like this? Subscribe to our channel. Welcome to Learn Japanese Grammar, Absolute Beginner. In this video series, you'll learn basic Japanese grammar patterns and phrases through easy-to-follow audio and digital cues. Here's what we'll cover in this lesson. Ready? Let's get started. はじめまして。 Can we hear it a little bit slower? はじめまして。 Great, and one more time at natural speed. はじめまして。 And this means, nice to meet you. Right. You can use this with anyone you meet for the first time. Right, and that would be the first thing you say. はじめまして。 わたしはかおりです。 In this lesson, you'll learn a very important sentence pattern, your first sentence pattern in Japanese. Yes. Okay, so the pattern is, A is B. That is the meaning in English. For example, I am Jessie. You are Naomi. She is Jennifer. We have A, which is the item being talked about, and then we have B, which is what we identify it as. So, in Japanese, how would we say, A is B? A wa B desu. One more time. A wa B desu. Let's break it down. So, we have A followed by wa, and then B followed by desu. Okay, so the pattern one more time. A wa B desu. So, where we have A and B, we can start inserting different words to make sentences. Yes. わたしはかおりです。 わたし means I, and かおり is her name, Kaori. So, we just put both of those into the A is B structure. A wa B desu. And we get, わたしはかおりです。 I'm Kaori, or my name is Kaori. You can leave off わたしは and simply say your name plus desu. So, for example, if your name is Ken, you can say either, わたしはケンです。 or simply, ケンです。 to say, I'm Ken. Okay, so up until now, we've been using names to complete this A wa B desu pattern. But we can insert other nouns, right? Yes. For example, in place of B, you can also say your job. わたしはパイロットです。 Which means, I am a pilot. Can we hear the same phrase a little more slowly? わたしはパイロットです。 And once again at natural speed. わたしはパイロットです。 Okay, great. わたしはカオリです。 Ready? Let's get started. これは水ですか? In this lesson, you'll learn how to make a question, which is very easy. Yes, you'll be surprised. You learned how to make an A is B sentence. A wa B desu. That's right. For example, これは水です。 これ is this, and 水 is water. So altogether this means, this is water. これは水です。 So this is just a regular statement. You're just stating a fact, right? Right. Now, what if we want to ask a question? Say you have a glass of clear liquid in front of you, and you want to know, is this water? For all you know, it could be 7up or something else. Well, to turn a statement into a question, add か to the end. Just one sound, か. Let's try it. So the sentence, これは水です。 becomes これは水ですか? これは水ですか? Is this water? So sitting in front of you is a plate of something that looks like cookies. If you know they are sweets, you can say, これはお菓子です。 But say for example, if you don't know what they are, and want to ask if they are sweets, you can say, これはお菓子ですか? Are these sweets? Remember, all you need to do is add か to a statement to make it a question. That's it. これは水ですか? はい、そうです。 What's the first word? はい。 Yes. And? そうです。 Which literally means? It is so. That's right. that's an easy word to remember. It is so, so, this. That's one word that is probably the word you use the most. はい、そうです。 いいえ、ちがいます。 いいえ means? No. And ちがいます means? That's wrong? Right. ちがいます also means no if you were to translate it into English. But really, literally it means that is different or that is wrong. It's different. That's not the case. So basically, it's like saying no, someone is wrong about something or like a proposed option or something is incorrect and it's the opposite. Let's give an example. Naomi-sensei, それはダイヤモンドですか? これ? いいえ、ちがいます。 Naomi-sensei, is that a diamond? No, it's not. You see, it's really no, but it's basically that's different. It's different. It's not a diamond. It's something else, something different. いいえ、ちがいます。 Ready? Let's get started. これ、それ、あれ。 In this lesson, we're looking at こうそうあどう words. So, how do we explain what they are then? Well, こうそうあどう words are words that indicate what you're talking about. In Japanese, there are three main categories, this, that, and that over there and one category for questions. So, this is これ and that is それ So, when it comes to こうそうあどう words, remember that words that start with こ indicate something or someone close by, これです。 Words that start with そ indicate something or someone a little further away, それだ。 There are some others though, too, aren't there? Yes, like あれ。 あれ also means that, but it's used to refer to something far away from both the speaker and the listener. So, it's over there. Right. And どれ? Now, こうそうあどう words that start with ど are always the question words. They're like WH words in English. So, どれ means which or which one. Let's go over those こうそうあどう words again. これ This one. それ That one near you. あれ That one over there. どれ Which one? これ それ あれ これ これは なんですか? これは なんですか? All right, let's break that down. First word is これ This は The topic marking particle. なん What です The copula. か The question marking particle. これはなんですか? What is this? Right. All right, we have this, but what if I wanted to talk about that? You mean that one over there? I mean, that thing that's right there within your reach. That would be それ for you. それ means that close to the person you're speaking to. And how about that thing that's way over there? あれ So, you're not sure if what I'm holding in my hand now is medicine, so you would ask me それは くすりですか? Is that medicine? And then I would say はい これは くすりです which means yes, this is medicine. So, Naomi sensei, what is this? これは なんですか? And what is that, the one right in front of you? それは なんですか? And what is that one over there? あれは なんですか? これは なんですか? Want to speak real Japanese from your first lesson? Sign up for your free lifetime account at JapanesePod101.com Ready? Let's get started. 今何時ですか? What time is it? Let's break it down. 今 Now 何時 What time? です カピラ か The question marker. 今何時ですか? What time is it now? I think this is the most common expression to ask the time. That's right. And this is pretty formal in the sense that you say 今 at the beginning, you say now because when you ask the time, you usually mean right now, right? So you can omit 今 and it'll still have the same meaning. 何時ですか? What time is it? Same thing, right? Right. And of course, in a casual situation, you can drop ですか? and say 何時? And you know, it's funny. In that case, personally, from personal experience, when you're speaking casually, you tend to add the 今 at the beginning. So it would become 今何時? Right. And that's the phrase you hear the most, at least when you're speaking casually. 今何時ですか? 四時です。 Let's do the time. Let's learn all of the hours. All right, so what's one o'clock? 一時。 Two o'clock? 二時。 Three o'clock? 三時。 Four o'clock? 四時。 Five o'clock? 五時。 Six o'clock? 六時。 Seven o'clock? 七時。 Or 七時。 Eight o'clock? 八時。 Nine o'clock? 九時。 Ten o'clock? 十時。 Eleven o'clock? 十一時。 Twelve o'clock? 十二時。 There we go. Now you can count all of the hours. But you have to be careful about four o'clock, nine o'clock, and seven o'clock. The pronunciation is a bit irregular. Irregular. Okay, so let's go over them again. What's four o'clock? 四時。 Okay, I see what you're saying. So normally the number four is 四. But when it's four o'clock, it becomes 四時。 I see. So the 四 becomes 四. And you can't say 四時 either. Ah, that's right. Because another way of saying four is 四, right? And you can't say 四時. It doesn't make any sense. No one will know what time you're talking about. So what's the problem with seven o'clock? I think people usually say 七時 in a conversation. But at the train station or airport, you might hear 七時。 Nine o'clock. 九時。 It's not 九時。 Ah, nine is normally 九. But nine o'clock? 九時。 It becomes 九. 九時。 All right, so let's practice some polite conversation. What time is it now? 今何時ですか? It's four o'clock. 四時です。 And in a casual situation, What time is it? 今何時? It's four o'clock. 四時。 四時です。 Ready? Let's get started. トイレはどこですか? So what's our grammar point today? 今日は、 Asking the location. 留学センターはどこですか? Where is the study abroad office? Let's break it down. 留学センター。 Study abroad office. は。 Topic marking particle. どこ。 Where. です。 The copula. か。 The question marking particle. 留学センターはどこですか? Where is the study abroad office? So Naomi-sensei, where is the bathroom? Do you want me to say it in Japanese? Okay. トイレはどこですか? Where is the bathroom? トイレ is bathroom. All right, that's fine Naomi-sensei, But sometimes, It's you're in the dark, right? You need to find out the lights are, Or else you're going to stay in the dark. Light in Japanese is 電気. It also means electricity, right? So, Naomi-sensei, Where are the lights? 電気はどこですか? Where are the lights? But you know, Before we turn the lights on, We need to get into the room. You know, I don't have the key. Do you know where it is? Where is the key? 鍵 is key. 鍵。 鍵はどこですか? Where is the key? トイレはどこですか? 私はここです。 In this lesson, We'll be looking at コスワード words. コスワード words are words that indicate what you are talking about. Words like this and that are some examples. Now, the reason we call them コスワード words is because they all start with either こ, そ, あ, or ど. This prefix tells us the location or the object's distance relative to the speaker. The first one is こ. The prefix こ means near the speaker. The next one is そ. The prefix そ means close to the listener, but a bit far from the speaker. The next one is あ. The prefix あ means at a distance from the speaker and the listener. And the last one is ど. Now, this one doesn't refer to a location, but instead is used for question words. Remember these prefixes and their meanings. Now, let's move on to the コスワード words that describe places. The word for here is ここ. There. そこ. Over there. This word talks about a farther distance from both the speaker and the listener. あそこ. Where. どこ. Good. Now, let's hear an example. わたしは ここです。 This means I'm here. わたしは ここです。 Ready? Let's get started. すみません。 Okay, in this lesson, you'll learn how to say excuse me and I'm sorry. The best part is you only have to learn one phrase for both. That's right. There is one phrase that covers both of these meanings. That makes it easy. And that word is Naomi? すみません。 One time slowly. すみません。 And one more time regular speed. すみません。 So, this すみません has two meanings, excuse me and I'm sorry. So, the first meaning of すみません excuse me is used to get the attention of somebody. So, that means you can use it to call out to a stranger or a waiter at a restaurant, things like that. あのー、すみません。 Um, excuse me, like that. So, that's the first meaning of すみません。 The second meaning again is I'm sorry. あ、すみません。 Which is Oh, I'm sorry. This is really useful. If you make some kind of mistake, it can all be handled with すみません。 Please remember this phrase. すみません。 水、お願いします。 In this lesson, you'll learn how to ask for something in Japanese. There's one phrase you'll learn for that in this lesson. お願いします。 On its own, you can think of it as meaning please. Yes, as in menu please, water please, and so on. Okay, so Naomi, what's the formation? Very simple. Just say the item you want and add お願いします。 So that's item plus お願いします。 Exactly. Menu お願いします。 Literally, menu please. In more natural English, we'd say can I get a menu? And the next one? 水、お願いします。 Can I get some water? Now, a menu and water are both physical objects. So you can use this お願いします for actual tangible things. But, you can also use it for not so tangible things. Ah, like a service. Right. 注文、お願いします。 注文 is order and お願いします is like please. So literally, it's like saying order please. You may think it means something like can I have my order please? But what it really means is can you take my order please? So you're asking them to do something. Yes, quite handy this お願いします。 水、お願いします。 Ready? Let's get started. ラリーじゃありません。 I am not Larry. All right. What's the key point here? じゃありません。 The negative form of です. So the negative of です is ではありません which is the first way to say a negative form. There's three ways. What's the second way, Naomi-sensei? じゃありません。 And all we did here was get that では from ではありません and shorten it into じゃ. And what's the third way? じゃないです。 And this is no less polite. It's also polite but you just got the ありません and you turned it into ない. And ない is the casual version of ありません but we attach です at the end so it remains polite so you can use it to anybody. All right. And all of these expressions are polite. Are there any real differences in the way that you use them, Naomi-sensei? I would say ではありません is the most polite expression. Do you ever find yourself using it? In speaking, not much. How about in writing? Writing, I use it a lot. Okay, Naomi-sensei, so let's be a little negative here. Translate all my sentences into negative. わたしはロリーです。 わたしはロリーではありません。 わたしはロリーです。 わたしはロリーじゃありません。 わたしはロリーです。 わたしはロリーじゃないです。 And those are three ways of saying I'm not dirty in the same level of politeness. ラリーじゃありません。 うどんは300円でした。 Let's have a look at noun sentences and putting them in their polite past form. うどんは300円でした。 This sentence The udon was 300 yen is a noun sentence and it's in the past form, the polite past form. So if we were just going to say the udon is 300 yen, it would be うどんは300円です。 Okay, so putting it in the past tense, what changes is the des on the end. It becomes でした。 This is pretty simple. So for example, if we were going to say one dollar is 100 yen, we would say 一ドルは100円です。 But was there a time I think when one dollar was worth a lot more yen? はい、360円かな。 360円。 Okay, so how would we say the dollar was worth 360 yen? Was being past tense. 一ドルは360円でした。 Okay, so you can hear there that the des is becoming でした to indicate past tense and this is polite past tense. Alright, let's look at just a couple more noun sentences in the polite past form. ケネディはアメリカ人でした。 Kennedy, you mean JFK? Yeah, I guess so. Yeah, so JFK was an American. はい。 Since he has already passed away, I used でした。 Okay, so if you were talking about President Bush, you would say ブッシュはアメリカ人です。 So I think you probably get the picture now. It's just the difference between です and でした. That's all that changes in the sentence if you're indicating non-past or past because non-past is です and past is でした。 うどんは300円でした。 Want more Japanese lessons like this one? 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