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Reading Japanese (488 viewing) (488) Guests
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TOPIC: Reading Japanese
#3218
Nora_AT (User)
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Reading Japanese 13 Years, 12 Months ago Karma: 3  
I can read Hiragana/Katakana fine i still don't know Kanji. - I take classes so i understand some sentences/sentence structures (still a beginner)

Question :when reading Japanese how can you tell when 1 word ends and another beings, the words are so close together! i know of the particles and i try and look out for them but how can i know if the word ends with "ha" or starts with "wa" - other than the particles are there any other ways of knowing?

- I really hope i made sense and any tips Majorly appreciated
 
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#3221
Cravez (User)
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Re:Reading Japanese 13 Years, 12 Months ago Karma: 17  
If I can try explain best I can (ill try ). It basically comes down to trying to understand grammar.

The grammar structure in Japanese is usually: Subject -> Object -> Verb

Watashi wa(Me/I - Subject) -> Sushi (Sushi - Object) -> Tabemasu (Eat - Verb)

Japanese also has grammar particles, like in the above example 'wa'. There are varying grammar particles depending on the situation of the sentence such as 'de', 'ni' and 'wo/o'. These are used when connecting a sentence together and as far as I am aware are always in Hiregana. 'De' is used when describing going somewhere in a sentence, 'Ni' attaches onto a a destination, 'Wo/o' describes somthing specific within a sentence (like an object)

e.g Watashi wa Densha de Tokyo ni Ikimasu
(I went to Tokyo by Train)

e.g Neko ga misu o Nomimasu
(The Cat is drinking water)

So basically particles are used in sentences to help structure the grammar. By natural process of elimination and also by following the Subject -> Object -> Verb structure, it should hopefully be easier to understand. Throughout your classes you will learn more particles also.

Also, this can throw people off (it did with me at first) but with the structure of a sentence in Japanese, as long as the Subject and Object remain in the same place, the rest of the sentence can be thrown around.

e.g If we take the sentence 'I go to my Office by Train'. We can phrase it:

1) Watashi wa Densha de Kaisha ni Ikimasu

2) Watashi wa Kaisha ni Densha de Ikimasu

Same with any other sentence (unless there are other varient of sentences, im still a beginner myself ), so don't let it throw you off

Hope that helps
 
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#3225
Nora_AT (User)
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Re:Reading Japanese 13 Years, 12 Months ago Karma: 3  
Yes that really helped thank you!
 
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#3228
neverhood (User)
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Re:Reading Japanese 13 Years, 12 Months ago Karma: 0  
if you read kanji text, it's quite simple to see where the words are, the problem is, with no knowledge of vocabulary you don't really know how to read them, and what do they mean.
if you read hiragana text, you almost know how it sounds, but with no vocabulary knowledge you don't really know where the words are, and what do they mean.
bottom line, study vocabulary!
 
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#3239
xxbutter_cupxx (User)
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Re:Reading Japanese 13 Years, 12 Months ago Karma: 1  
i agree with about knowing the vocabulary. i used to have the same problem when first starting out but now after knowing for a few years, i dont have that issue any more. the more time you spend reading the language and learning new words the easier it will become to tell when words end. After time you shouldnt even notice much that there arnt spaces between the words.
 
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#3240
Savetherocks (User)
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Re:Reading Japanese 13 Years, 12 Months ago Karma: 2  
Cravez's explanation was pretty good, although there were some errors, particularly with the translations of things.

For example:

QUOTE:
e.g Neko ga misu o Nomimasu
(The Cat is drinking water)


If you'd like to say "The cat is drinking water," you'd use:

QUOTE:
Neko wa mizu wo nonde imasu.


Water is "mizu" and not "misu," and in order to represent an ongoing action you need to use the -te/de form of the verb followed by "imasu." The dictionary form of the verb here is "nomu," which means to drink, and the -de form is "nonde." Therefore, it becomes nonde imasu.
 
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Last Edit: 2010/12/01 19:53 By Savetherocks.
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