Minnasan Konnichiwa! Particles are one of the most difficult and challenging part of the Japanese language! So, let us review the most common ones and keep on adding to that list! :idea: *WA* Used to mark the topic of a sentence *Kenny-san __WA__ Igirisu-jin desu.* _"Kenny __IS__ English"_ :idea: *GA* Used to introduce a new subject / To mark the subject of a sentence A new subject is often marked by GA, but then with WA thereafter - the distinction is similar to the English "A [something]" to "The [something]" *Sense __GA__ heya ni haitte kimashita. Sense wa oshie hajimemashita.* _"__A__ teacher came in the room. The teacher began to teach"_ :idea: *DE* Used to show the location of an action *Ie __DE__ neru* _"Sleep __AT__ home"_ Also, it is used to show the means of doing something *Kuruma __DE__ ie ni kaeru.* _"Go back home __BY__ car"_ :idea: *NI* Used to mark points in time *Ku-ji __NI__ kaeru* _"Go home __AT__ 9"_ Used to mark location *Terebi no ue __NI__ aru* _"It is __ABOVE__ the tv"_ :idea: *TO* Used to connect nouns to mean "And" *Osushi __TO__ sashimi o tabemasu* _"I eat sushi __AND__ sashimi"_ And we will add some more soon... :D

I noticed the meaning of ga...I have a question then. Before, I would say "Nihon ga totemo suki desu" which I meant to make it say "I really like Japan." Would I replace ga with wa instead? the main reason I chose ga is because of the audio lesson where it was asked "do you know how to speak japanese?" I am confused as to where the letter "a" would be similarly used in the sentence :[ thanks for the help.

Konnichiwa! The use of the particles GA and WA are often interchangeable. GA can be replaced by WA, either for contrast or to focus on the subject as a topic. This means that the choice of WA or GA in a particular case can be complicated by questions of context and the speaker's content. *Nihon __GA__ totemo suki desu!* is correct in saying "I really like Japan." - when the subject of "Japanese" has not been mentioned previously in the context. You can say *Nihon __WA__ totemo suki desu!* as well, if you want to put a focus on "NIHON" (as in, comparing it to other countries). There is no "a" in *Nihon __GA__ totemo suki desu!* - but you can see the difference of GA and WA if you were to translate the two ways as: *Nihon __GA__ totemo suki desu!* "I like Japan, very much" *Nihon __WA__ totemo suki desu!* "As for Japan, I like it very much"

So basically if I start a new conversation with someone, GA is a particle used for subjects that are starting the conversation.. In other words, if I were going to talk to my friend about a game, I would say the name of the game with GA following that, then later while talking about it, I could just use WA instead... Wakari Mashita. Arigato gozaimashita sayaka-san :] anatawa sugoi desu! :P

Konnichiwa! Yes that is correct. It's probably best to think of telling a story - a fable for example or "Mukashi-banashi" *Mukashi, mukashi, ojīsan to obāsan __ga__ sunde imashita. Ojīsan __wa__ mainichi yama e ikimashita.* "Once upon a time, there lived an elderly man and elderly woman. The elderly man went to the mountain every day." I hope it's getting clearer! :P

ni is supposed to mark a point in time or location..How does ni work in the following two phrases in newsletter 9? That is very kind Go shinsetsu ni dōmo. How kind of you. (casual) Shinsetsu ni arigatō.

Konnichiwa! That is an excellent question, :shock: and is a prime example why Japanese can be so tricky!! The *NI* which follows *shinsetsu* in the following two sentences... *Go shinsetsu __ni__ dōmo* *Shinsetsu __ni__ arigatō* ...actually functions to make *shinsetsu* which is a Na-adjective, to an adverbial form. So, while *shinsetsu (na)* translates as just "kind" *shinsetsu-ni* expresses "kindly". This suffix NI is super useful. It acts just like the English "LY" in "Quick__LY__" and "Quiet__LY__" :P Other examples of __Na-Adjective & Adverbial form of Adj __ are: *Shizuka (na)* "quiet" & *Shizuka-ni* "quietly" *Kantan (na)* "easy" & *Kantan-ni* "easily" *Anzen (na)* "safe" & *Anzen-ni *"safely"

Ah, so there are also "na" verbs, interesting... Well that helps a lot though, and I thank you very much! but one question...Is there a certain way to KNOW what kind of a verb a verb is? For example, I am still confused about "hanase" being that, "hanaseru" or "hanasu"... :[ Thank's sayaka!

Konnichiwa... Sorry if I may have confused you, but NO, there are no NA-VERBS, there are NA-Adjectives. :P *Shinsetsu* is a Na-adjective meaning "kind" When it comes to Japanese verbs, there are three types. The RU-verb, U-verb and the irregular verbs. The RU-verbs are those that end with る or "Ru". Such as *たべる* _Taberu_ "to eat". U-verbs are those that end with the "U" vowel when written in Romaji - such as *Nom__u__* "to drink"*Ka__u__* "to buy". And in Japanese there are 2 irregular verbs (unlike the many English irregular verbs the Japanese students have to learn!!) *くる* _Kuru_ "to come" and *する* _Suru _"to do"

[quo]*Quote from * Sayaka And in Japanese there are 2 irregular verbs (unlike the many English irregular verbs the Japanese students have to learn!!) *くる* _Kuru_ "to come" and *する* _Suru _"to do"[/quo] Yeah, he he he. Hence why I believe its harder for a Japanese person to learn English than an English person to learn Japanese. Yet the Japanese manage to do it which in a way motivates me to study my Japanese more. If only I had the time, and the brain that could absorb information that well, to study Japanese as much as I'd wish. (If you really wonder why a 16 year old such as myself doesn't have a lot of free time, its working off the various debts I have... I just finished paying for my Costa Rica trip for Spanish class, now I'm getting the pleasure of refereeing enough to earn money for my French Trip... plus savings for college etc. I'd go on but you probably don't care xD, heck I'm surprised you read this far if you did （＾－＾）) Also I particularly am fascinated with the language because of its efficiency... As in I enjoy how so much can be said with very few words. If I could do that in English my life would be heaven (I hate having to be so specific... when I try to make people use context to figure things out it never works out well...). すごい！もっとはなせますさ。 (Gee, I really need to talk more!(_sarcasm_)) それでは、じゃまったじかい。 デレック

If I had more time to do Japanese, I would have known a LOT more than I do now... Unfortunately, I work 40 hours a week, have school work almost everytime there is free time, and the extra free time I'm either spending time /w my girlfriend or studying astronomy... The EXTRA free time is my Japanese studying...so really I'm only on lesson 2.3 (kind of threw myself back since I realized I missed a lot from grammar lessons, lol). I started back in September '08, so yeah I'm going realllll slow.. Hopefully within two months, I'll be having a LOT more free time.

Oh... Lol, I've been doing this since December '08... I've completed all the audio lessons of the Rocket Japanese Premium (as in lessons 1 - 6) but at around 3.2 stopped doing grammar lessons (this was prior to the new interface) and well pretty much at this current time I'm beta testing "stuff" for Rocket Languages (it does correlate to Japanese, but I'm not telling because I don't want to risk getting into trouble). I'm also running through the Premium lessons so that I can get the bonus audio lessons, grammar I missed, and well forgotten audio lessons done. Pretty much as far as the premium audio lessons go I'm just taking the quiz to see how well I do if I get below a 70% then I will re-listen to the course (Hasn't happened yet and I'm nearly done with Lesson 3.7). So yeah, as far as progress in Japanese goes I'd say I'm learning WAY faster than my formal French and Spanish classes teach me. At school, we have a teacher who used to live in Japan and teach english and has a Japanese wife. He proctors the Japanese class (it's a distance learning system due to its low popularity. Basically a teacher is on one webcam, while 3 schools have webcams and TVs setup so that it acts as a virtual class and so they need someone to be there physically to keep things under control). He says that as far as the language goes I"ve actually surpassed the 2nd *year* kids. As far as the written part goes I'm not as far though, however if you know the language, learning the written system becomes easier to an extent (talking from experience). So yeah... that's my rant on my progress as a Japanese student (if you really care xD... I know you probably have better things to do than get to know me...).

Well much better and faster than me because of my stuff...I got the entire katakana and hiragana writing systems down...I just need to learn the words and _permanently_ memorize them. Everytime I go back to one of the previous grammar lessons, I forget a few phrases :( I wish there was another way of memorizing them... I need a Japanese friend to talk to :lol:

Well really IMHO its not smart to permanently memorize phrases. To me it makes more sense to permanently memorize the grammar and structure of the sentences and then use the vocabulary you know to piece together sentences. Although those really weird sentences that when you look at the literal meaning they make you scratch your head are the ones I'd probably memorize as a phrase... However if it is Japanese people you want to talk to you can usually find some good friends on Lang-8.com. Which is a Japanese founded that originally the plan was to allow native english people teach Japanese people for free in exchange for the native japanese teaching the english people japanese. However youc an use it for multiple languages as well like spanish or french and learn from those natives as well. Usually as you get to know the japanese people on there more they'll share skype contact info with you and you can then Literally talk with them, but it also does a good job of teaching you the written part of the language through your daily journely thing... デレック

Although the speed as of which they talk is something to get used to, and recognizing borrowed words is actually something to get used to as well... More recently I've been able to comprehend the beginning of the first premium plus audio lesson.

Derek-san, Omedeto! for being able to get a grasp on the 1st Premium-plus audio lesson! You are definitely learning like a rocket!! Soredewa, matane! Sayaka

Konnichiwa Sayaka I am wondering why the particle "o" is used for the purpose of honorific in some items and not others eg. o sushi, o terebi, etc.. but not o kohi, o wain, or o biiru? Do I miss something here, such as "o" is used for solid objects but not liquids?

Foosan, Konnichiwa. This is an excellent question which you may have answered already within your post! You mentioned the examples: *o sushi* おすし and *o terebi* おテレビ :mrgreen: - now please note that *o terebi* is incorrect. So, here are is another example: *o cha* おちゃ _("tea")_ Now, for the words which do not carry the honorific *O* お - you listed these examples: コーヒー, ワイン, ビール(*kohi, wain, biiru*) _"coffee; wine; beer"_ - notice that all three words are English-loan words? So, first rule is, honorific *O* is generally never used with an English-loan word - while the first two examples with honorific *O* (*sushi* and *cha*) are both Japanese words. Another example would be, おかね *okane* or _"money"_. -Sayaka :P

Sayaka san Konnichiwa. Your explanation clears my doubts. Arigato gozaimashita.

Foosan, どういたしまして！ You are very welcome! I hope you are enjoying your leaning journey. -Sayaka :P

Quote from Sayaka: The NI which follows shinsetsu in the following two sentences... Go shinsetsu ni dōmo Shinsetsu ni arigatō ...actually functions to make shinsetsu which is a Na-adjective, to an adverbial form. So, while shinsetsu (na) translates as just "kind" shinsetsu-ni expresses "kindly". This suffix NI is super useful. It acts just like the English "LY" in "QuickLY" and "QuietLY" Other examples of Na-Adjective & Adverbial form of Adj are: Shizuka (na) "quiet" & Shizuka-ni "quietly" Kantan (na) "easy" & Kantan-ni "easily" Anzen (na) "safe" & Anzen-ni "safely" How do you express this adverbial form with い adjectives then? Is it just the same, like Subarashii "wonderful" > Subarashii-ni "wonderfully", or is that wrong? シェーリン

シェーリン san Konnichiwa! Thank you for your question. While we add NI to Na-ending adjectives to form adverbs, い adjectives have a different set of rules to form adverbial expressions. The general rule for い adjectives is to add KU to the stem. For example: Subarashii "wonderful" > drop the final 'i' to get the stem > Subarashi- > add 'ku' > Subarashiku "wonderfully" Yasui "cheap" > drop the final 'i' > yasu- > add 'ku' > Yasuku "cheaply" Hayai "quick" > drop the final 'i' > haya- > add 'ku' > Hayaku "quickly" Tanoshii "enjoyable" > drop the final 'i' > tanoshi- > add 'ku' > Tanoshiku "enjoyably" Hope that helps! -Sayaka :)

さやか　さん、こんにちは。 That helps a lot! I figured there would be a different way to do it, but I had no idea what it could be. ありがとう　ございました。 シェーリン

どういたしまして　シェーリンさん。 べんきょう　たのしんで　ください。 :) さやか