When to use Desu (です) & Masu (ます) in Japanese?

Hi everyone, hope everyone is enjoying the summer. Some of you might be out on vacation, others might be just staying in to relax and enjoy quality time with your friends and family.

Starting this month, I thought I would start a basic Japanese lesson to give you a foundation of Japanese, from the simple ones to a more complex ones. These are must know basic rules in Japanese in my opinion so you can have a good foundation on learning more complex rules later on.

In my first post in this series, I would like to cover “~desu(です), and ~masu(ます)”. Desu & Masu expressions are critical to know so you can speak clean and polite Japanese at all times which you can apply to any situation.

Let’s get started!

~desu. (です)

1.わたしの　なまえは　さとこ　です。（私の　名前は　さとこ　です。）

Watashino namae wa Satoko desu. My name is Satoko.

2. ここが　わたしの　いえ　です。（ここが　私の　家　です。）

Koko ga watashi no ie desu. This is my house.

3. わたしは　２５さい　です。（私は　２５歳　です。）

Watashi wa 25 sai desu. I am 25 years old.

4. わたしの　おとうさんは　べんごし　です。（私の　お父さんは　弁護士　です。）

Watashi no otousan wa bengoshi desu. My father is a lawyer.

5.かれは　にほんじん　です。（彼は　日本人　です。）

Kare wa nihon jin desu. He is Japanese.

~masu. (ます)

1. きょう　あには　さっかーの　れんしゅうに　いって　います。（今日　兄は　サッカーの　練習に　行って　います。）

Kyou ani wa sakka- no renshu ni itte imasu. My brother went to soccer practice today.

2. これから　かいものへ　いきます。（これから　買い物へ　行きます。）

Korekara kaimono e ikimasu. I am going shopping now.

3. いってきます。（行ってきます。）

Itteki masu. I am leaving now.

4. あとで　べんきょう　します。（後で　勉強　します。）

Ato de benkyo shimasu. I am going to study later.

5. どちらを　かおうか　まよって　います。（どちらを　かおうか　まよって　います。）

Dochira o kaouka mayotte imasu. I am not sure which one to buy.

When you use “desu & masu” at the end of your sentence, it normally softens up the whole expression. It sounds much cleaner and more polite than using “da(だ) & dearu(である)” .

Stay tuned for the next lesson of Basic Japanese series~.

By the way… …continue reading

    

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夏　擬態語

The full heat of summer (natsu 夏) has just come to Japan, and, being the weather, it’s often the first thing Japanese people mention when they meet.

“Atsui desu ne!” (if it’s your neighbor) or “Atsui da na!” (if you’re talking to a good friend, a child or an underling) is the standard “It’s hot, isn’t it!”

However, more nuanced talk about hot weather often involves those ever useful gitaigo or Japanese onomatopoeia.

My commute starts with a train ride which, in spite of the in-car air-conditioning, still manages to get fun-fun ふんふん (pronounced “whoon-whoon,” i.e., with the “f” sounding as much like an “h” as an “f”) i.e., close and steamy once enough people have gotten on.
Takusan no hitobito ga norikonde, shanai ga funfun shite iru. たくさんの人が乗り込んで、車内がふんふんしている。
The carriage got all hot and steamy with so many people getting on.

I then walk the 10 minutes from the station to the office.
Even the morning sun is gira-gira ぎらぎら, i.e., shining fiercely, and the walk suddenly seems twice as long as usual as I teku-teku to てくてくと (i.e., plod) go to work.
Taiyo ga gira-gira to teritsukete, teku-teku to shigotoba made arukimashita. 太陽がぎりぎらと照り付けて、てくてくと仕事まで歩きました。

I’m pota-pota ぽたぽた sweating　(i.e., it’s pouring off me) and my shirt is bettari べったり stuck to my back.
Potapota to ase ga ochite, shatsu ga senaka ni bettari kuttsuku. ぽたぽたと汗が落ちて、シャツが背中にべったりくっつく。

Hot enough for you? Stay tuned – more to come!

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相当

soutou (with both o’s lengthened: soh-toh) is a word you regularly hear in Japanese conversation that is usually used much like “rather” or “pretty” (e.g., “rather big,” pretty fast,” etc.)” in English.

There are actually more meanings than that to soutou, which appear in most dictionaries before the “pretty” meaning.

One meaning of soutou is “equivalent to,” or “much like” such as in “Shouting “Banzai!” in Japanese is much like shouting “Hurray!” in English.” Banzai o sakebu koto ha eigo de Hurray o sekebu koto ni soutou suru.” 万歳を叫ぶことは英語でホゥレイを叫ぶことに相当する。

Another meaning is “commensurate with,” or “fitting,” such as “A punishment that fits the crime” Hanzai ni soutou suru batsu. 犯罪に相当する罰

Or it can mean “suitable” in the sense of “A role suitable to someone with her level of experience” Kanojo no keiken ni soutou suru yakuwari 彼女の経験に相当する役割。

And if you look at the kanji, these “commensurate” and “fitting” meanings are clearly the original meanings, as the sou (相) is for “mutual” and the tou (当) for “appropriate.”

However, as I wrote above, in casual conversation you are much more likely to hear soutou with the meaning of “rather,” “quite,” or “pretty.”

While this is by no means a rule, I have observed that soutou tends to have a somewhat stronger meaning when used in regard to something the speaker considers undesirable, e.g., 相当寒い　soutou samui, “Pretty cold,” and a weaker meaning when used with something the speaker considers desirable, e.g., 相当きれい soutou kirei, or “Quite nice looking.”

Finally, soutou doesn’t have to be used with an adjective, either. You can also use it with a noun, such as 相当の努力　soto no doryoku, or “quite an effort.”

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