Welcome back to Reiko-chan's JAL, week 10. This week, we will continue
reviewing expressions we've already learned and add some more frequently
used expressions to our vocabulary. For today, we concentrate on dou
(pronounced as doo), a question word that
means "how?" "which way?" etc.
First let's listen to Yusuke.
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Dou dei?!
How is it?
In YuYu Hakusho, characters fight against enemies all the
time. Dou dei is a colloquial way of
saying dou da. As you might remember,
da is a plain form of Japanese be-verb
desu (polite). So, dou
dei literally means "how is?" What it actually means
is something like "how is my attack? I believe it gave you considerable
damage."
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Dou desu?
What do you think?
This is the polite way of saying above phrase. Notice that
dou da or dou
desu just means "how is?" and "what is how"
is often omitted, thus the meaning changes depending on the context. In
this case, the character whose shape is an eye offered a deal and said
dou desu meaning "what do you
think of my offer?"
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Kibun wa dou da?
How do you feel?
This is an example without omission, so you can see what
is in question. In this case, a monster named Randoo wants to know kibun
(feeling) of Yusuke after Randoo attacked Yusuke. Apparently, Randoo doesn't
expect Yusuke to feel good, you know? So, he is cynical here. This sentence
can be directly translated as "As for (your) feeling, how is?"
If you want to ask something else, just replace kibun
with what you want, such as:
Anime wa dou desu (or da)?
(How about watching Anime?)
Yu Yu Hakusho wa dou deshita ka?
(How did you like YuYu Hakusho?) and so on.
Next ones are example of usage dou + suru (irregular verb; to do)
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Oi! Dou suru nda?
Hey, what are you going to do!?
Dou suru
literally means "how do you do?" (not a greeting!)
but language usage sometimes just doesn't follow grammatical rules, you
know? In this case, Yusuke wants to know what Botan has in her mind as
you can see from nda part. (nda
adds the feeling "I demand an explanation" in interrogative sentences,
you remember?) Generally, dou suru?
(without nda) means "what shall we do?" "what do you do?"
etc. as in the next example.
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Saa! Dou suru?
What do you do now!
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Dou surya ii nda?
What should I do?
The part you haven't learned is surya
(right?). It should be sureba in polite
speech. By adding eba (or reba
for ru-verb) after conjugated form of a verb (in this case suru),
you can make conditional sentences (i.e. "If" blah blah blah).
In this case, dou sureba means "If
I do how." As ii means "good,"
dou sureba ii means "What kind
of action should be good?" "What should I do to get a good result?"
etc. depending on the context. I usually translate it as "what should
I do?"
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Jaa, dou surya ii nda yo.
Then, what shall I do?
This is an example with an ending particle
yo. Notice that ja means
"well then" here. Yusuke sounds like he has suggested Botan several
options to deal with a situation, but either one is not good enough for
Botan, so, Yusuke said "Then, what shall I do, you tell me!? (notice
nda is included here)"
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Hiei: Ano baka, dou suru tsumori
da?
Hiei: That fool (= Kuwabara), what is
he going to do?
Here Hiei is watching Kuwabara fight against a monster.
New word here is tsumori. It means
"intend to." It is put after a plain form of a verb, therefore
dou suru tsumori
means "how does (he) intend to do?"
Next examples use shita, the past
tense of suru.
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Dou shita?
What's the matter with you?
Though dou shita literally means
only "how did (you) do," most frequently, it means "what
happened to you?" "what is the matter with you?" etc.
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Do, dou shita, Botan?
What's the matter with you, Botan?
Same thing as above. It just has a name Botan here.
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Dou shita no, Yuusuke?
What is the matter with you, Yusuke?
This is an example with an ending particle no.
Botan sounds soft and kind with this particle.
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Doshita?
What's the matter?
This is a short form of doushita.
You can use this if you have difficulty saying dou
(pronounced as doo) and we often do, too.
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Dou shita ndai kyuuni?
What's the matter with you so suddenly?
ndai: same as nda,
doesn't make any different in the meaning. It is just the way Botan speaks.
By adding nda, Botan sounds like "tell
me what's the matter with you."
kyuu ni: suddenly. She added this
just because Yusuke's (the listener) attitude changed suddenly.
Next examples use dou + naru (to
become)
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Saigo tte, dou naru nda?
The end? What will become of (this town)?
You need some context to understand this. Botan told Yusuke
that if enemies came to this town, it would be the end of this town. Then
Yusuke wanted to know what she meant by "the end." End, final,
etc. is saigo in Japanese.
Anyway, dou naru literally means
"how become" but it actually means "what will become of"
"what will happen to" etc. depending on the context. For example,
YuYu Hakusho, tsugi wa dou
naru nda? What will happen next
in YuYu Hakusho?
Kurama wa dou
naru no? What will happen to Kurama?
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Ittai, dou natte iru nda?
What the hell is going on?
As you might remember, te-form of verb (natte
<- naru in this case)
plus iru (to be, to exist) expresses
an action in progress. Therefore, natte iru
means "happening" here.
Omake
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Sorya dou iu koto da?
What do you mean by that?
You remember nanda to? Good.
This one means the same thing.
Sorya =
sore wa
Dou iu koto: Koto
means "thing" "matter" etc. Iu
is a verb that means "to say," so (??? for some reason?) it means
"what do you mean?" "what the meaning of" etc. Please
don't think why!
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Jo, jodan ja nee ze! Dou yatte
konna bakemono to tatakau nda yo!?
No kidding! How can I fight against a
monster like this?!
Dou yatte: Dou + yaru (you
must remember this verb now, yatte
is the te-form).
to: particle; with, against etc.
tatakau: u-verb: to fight
Konna is "this sort of,"
right? So, konna bakemono means "this
sort of monster."
That's all for today. I hope you enjoyed today's lesson.
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Tanoshi katta?
Did you have fun?
Today, I am going to introduce you some more useful but easy expressions to understand Anime. Here is the first one.
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Shouga nee na.
There is no help for it. (It cannot be
helped.)
Shou ga nai is shotened form
of shiyou ga nai. (shouga
nee is colloquial) Shiyou means
"way," "method," "mean" and etc. Therefore,
shiyou ga nai can be directly translated
as "There is no (other) way." (ga:
subject marker, nai: negative, not,
no, there isn't, there aren't, etc.) The meaning of shou
ga nai changes depending on the context. Sometimes, it may mean
"you are helpless" or "I have no choice" etc.
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Shouga nai daro?
It cannot be helped, I guess, am I right?
Same thing. Koenma is a polite person (at least politer
than Yusuke), so he won't say shouga nee,
but shouga nai. Notice daro
at the end. It adds the meaning such as "I think" "I guess"
etc. rather than just stating the fact. Here, Koenma raised the intonation
at the end, so it is an interrogative that's why I added "am I right?"
to the translation.
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Shikata ga nai.
It cannot be helped.
This phrase means the same thing as Shiyou
ga nai. Why are there two ways of saying the same thing? Please
don't ask me.
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Shikata nai na.
As in this example, you can omit particle ga.
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Iya, mada te wa aru.
No, there is still a way to deal with
it.
Te means "hand(s)"
but it also means "means" "way" etc. Aru
(ari masu for polite person) is
a verb that means "there is" or "there are" thus, te
wa (or ga)
aru, means "there are ways." This is a phrase you
can say when someone says shou ga nai
but you think s/he is wrong.
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Shimatta!
Oops!
Shimatta also is a past tense
of a verb shimaru (to close), but in this
context it is different word and means "Oops!" "Damn it!"
"I made a mess!" etc.
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A, ikenee!
Oops!
Ikenai means the same thing
as shimatta. Ikenee
is just colloquial. The difference is that ikenai
literally means "wrong" "bad" "must
not" and more depending on the context and used combined with other
words. For shimatta, I cannot think
of any other usage.
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Yabee!
(Yabai!) Oops!
I think I introduced this one,,, but,,,
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So sonna,,,
Oh, no,,,
Sonna literally means "that sort of" (you remember?)
but you can also say this when you see or hear something horrible. You
sound like "no way,,," "that's too bad" "that
cannot be true" "Oh, no,,," etc.
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Konna mon!
This is nothing!
Konna (like
sonna, anna, donna) means "this sort of" right? Mon
is a colloquial way of saying mono (thing).
So, konna mon literally means "things
like this." Since known part is usually omitted in utterances, "how"
is this sort of thing is not said in this phrase, either. In a fighting
scene, it usually means "this sort of thing (usually attack of an
enemy) is nothing" "this sort of attack has no effect on me"
and so on.
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Tanomu ze, sono mama shindero!
Please be dead as you are!
Tanomu (tanomimasu
if you want to be polite) means "I beg you" in this one. Yusuke
is asking an enemy to stay dead (not actually dead, but not to get up but
fallen) so that he can win the match. Sono mama
means "as you are" here, shinde ro is
a shortened form of shinde (te-form
of shinu, to die) plus
iru, thus
sono mama shinde ro means "stay fallen
as you are." In other cases, tanomu
also means "I entrust you" "I count on you" etc. (you
remember? Good!)
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Makashitoke!
You can count on me!
This is a phrase you can say when someone asked you tanomu
yo. The polite way of saying this is makasete
oke or
makasete okinasai. (Notice makasete
is the te-form of a verb makaseru;
to entrust)
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Youshi!
Good!
This is one of the phrases Genkai often says. She means
"good" "well done" etc. Yoshi
is derived from an i-adjective yoi.
And Genkai says youshi inserting
u sound after o. It sounds a little bit different but the meaning
is the same.
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Maa, ii ze.
Well, that's OK.
Maa has many meanings. In this
case, it means "well" "I think" "I should say"
"it should seem" etc. Yusuke thinks that something is not the
best but within the allowable range. In other cases, maa
can mean "just" "please" etc. as in Maa
yatte yo! (Just try! or Just do!) as well as "Oh!"
as in Maa! doushita no? (Oh! What happened
to you?!)
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Mo, mou ii, mou ii!
That's enough! That's enough!
Mou also has many meanings.
In this case, it means "already." Thus mou
ii means "already enough (please don't say further)."
In other cases, it means "more" as in mou
ikkai (one more time) as well as "another" or "the
other" as in mou hitori (another
person). Generally, in negative sentences, it means "(not) any more"
and in interrogatives, it means "yet."
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Mada mada!
Not yet! Not yet!
Mada is opposite of mou.
It means "(not) yet" in negatives, "still" "yet"
or "more" in affirmatives and interrogatives. Here, Kuwabara
means "I am not going to give up yet!"
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Shotto gan!
Shot gun!
Well, I just thought you may be interested in this one.
Shotto gan is Yusuke's second trick
(first one being Rei Gan, as you know.)
Hummm, I guess that's enough for today. I will introduce you more frequently used expressions tomorrow.
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Ganbatte masu ka?
The expressions I introduce you today are short and easy to remember. You already know some of them, but I included them to show how boys (or men) say what RayEarth characters say.
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Sugee!
Sugoi!
You know this one already. I just wanted to you to listen
how Kuwabara says it.
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Urusee!
Urusai!
Same thing. You know this one, already.
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Abunee na!
Abunai!
You know this one, too!
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Dekee!
Dekai!
Did I introduce this before? Well, dekai means "huge"
"gigantic" "big" etc.
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Mazui!
No good!
Mazui is a new i-adjective.
It means "No good!" or "taste bad." In this case, Kurama
meant that the fighting situation is bad for his side.
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Saa na
I am not sure.
Saa here means "well"
"let me see" etc. (in other context, it may mean, "come
on now.") This is very short (Only two syllable!) but very useful
expression. When you are not sure about something, you just say saa,,,
It conveys "Well, I am not sure" "Well. I don't know"
"who knows?" etc.
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Shoubu da, Byakko!
Let's fight, Byakko!
Shoubu means "fight."
It can means "(this is) a fight" but in a case like this where
an opponent (Kuwabara) says this facing the other opponent (Byakko), it
means "Now, let's fight!" Byakko is one of the four Sacred Beasts
against whom Kuwabara fought. Suzaku is the leader of the four Sacred Beasts
(accidentally that's the name of my dog, too.), so naturally Yusuke (the
leader, right?) was the opponent, therefore, Yusuke said to Suzaku like
this.
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Suzaku, shoubu da!
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A, hontou!?
Oh, really!?
Hontou or
hontouni means "really." Hontou
is a noun and houtouni is an adverb,
so you can say things, such as next ones.
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Hontouni daijoubuna nda rou
na?
Are you sure it is OK?
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Hontou darou na?
Are you sure?
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Kuwabara wa tsuyoi nda!
Kuwabara is strong, you see!
Tsuyoi is an i-adjective that
means "strong" (yowai (weak)
is the opposite). It is hard to find a complete sentence in Anime but this
is one!
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Shibutoi yatsu!
What nerve he's got!
Shibutoi is an i-adjective
which means "stubborn" "headstrong" "obstinate"
etc. or "tenacious" "enduring" "persevering"
and etc. As you may remember, yatsu
means fellow, thus shibutoi yatsu means
stubborn person or person who doesn't die no matter how much attacks he
gets.
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Yaru ja nee ka!
You do better than I expected!
Ja nee ka is a colloquial way
of saying yaru ja nai ka. Please, don't
think about grammar here, ja nai ka conveys feeling of surprise like this
one. Therefore, for example, sugoi ja nai ka!
means not just "you are great!", but rather "you
are greater than I thought you were" or "aren't you great, or
what?"
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Owari da.
I am finished.
Owari is a noun that means
"an end" "a finish" etc. In this case, Yusuke means
"this is the end (of me). = I am going to die."
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Kore de owari da, Kurae!
This is the finish! Take this!
Kore de can be directly translated
as "with this." Thus kore de owari
means "with this (this fight) will be over" and so on. Kurae
is an imperative form of kurau (to
eat), thus "eat!" but in this context, it means "take my
attack if you can!" because it is impossible to eat punch, kick etc.,
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Asobi wa owari da!
The play is over!
Same thing. Asobi means
"play" thus Genbu meant "the play was over, I will attack
you seriously from now."
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Owatta yo.
It is over.
Owatta
sounds similar to owari, right? It
is a past tense of a ru-verb owaru
(be over, end, come to an end etc.).
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Kuwabara-kun, nani wo asonde
iru?
Kuwabara, what are you playing?
Like a verb owaru is
derived from a noun owari, asobu
is a verb derived from a noun asobi.
Asonde is its te-form. Here. Kuwabara
was not fooling around, but fighting seriously, but as he is such a character,
he looked like playing for Kurama.
Omake
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Konaida no kawaii nee-chan!
(You are) the cute girl I met the other
day!
Kono aida means "the other
day" thus (?) kono aida no means
"of the other day" i.e. something (person, things, happenings,
etc.) that I saw, ate, heard, etc. the other day. Thus, kono
aido no piza is "pizza I ate the other day." (konaida
is colloquial)
Neechan literally means elder sister,
but also is used to refer to young female, here Kuwabara meant Botan. But
when you say nee-chan, please don't
forget to put "O" (thus o-nee-chan)
or say more politely o-nee-san. (Otherwise,
you sound really rude. But if you are male and more than 12 years old,
I advise you not to say any form of nee-chan to
mean young girl because you may sound like a flirt. You can say nee-chan
to your blood related elder sister only.)
That's all for today.
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Dou datta?
How was (the lessons)?
Today, I would like to concentrate again on adjectives. Though I introduced you some in this week's lessons already, there are MUCH MORE! Today, I will introduce some basic adjectives taught even in classrooms.
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Tashikani, muzukashii kamo
shirenai.
Surely, it might be difficult.
Tashikani: Adverb. Certainly,
surely, undoubtedly, etc.
Muzukashii: I-adjective. Difficult,
hard, etc.
Kamoshirenai: Maybe, might be,
can be, etc. So, if you want to say, it might be easy, you say yasashii
kamo shirenai just replacing the adjective. Got an idea?
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Kanari muzukashii.
Considerably difficult.
If you want to say, not just difficult, but very difficult,
you can say, totemo muzukashii,
kanari muzukashii,
etc. Likewise, if you want to say, very delicious, you can say totemo
oishii, kanari oishii, etc.
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Mendokusee ya!
It is a great bother!
Mendoukusai (i-adj) means troublesome,
tiresome, etc. If you think some job is tiresome, or you are too lazy to
do something, just say, mendoukusai.
Mendokusai is a little bit colloquial
as you see one vowel (o) is omitted.
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Sensei, taihenna ndesu! Soto
ni oozei henna hito ga,,, Sensei!
Teacher! It's a serious matter! There
are lots of abnormal people outside,,, teacher!
I know you know taihen(na) and
hen(na) already, but I wanted you to
hear this to check whether you understand or not.
Sensei: teacher (pronounced as
sensee)
Soto ni: Soto
means outside (naka means inside), and ni
is a particle put after a place.
oozei: many, a lot of (people)
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Hayai!
(He moves) fast!
Hayai, as you see, means fast.
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Kekkou hayai na!
He is faster than I expected he is.
Kekkou and kanari
are almost the same in meaning.
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Kyuuni, ichidanto hayai!
Suddenly, he moves much faster.
Ichidanto means "much more"
(ichidan literally means "one
step") thus ichidanto hayai means
much faster. So, much more great (sound strange) is ichidanto
sugoi.
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Namaikina yatsu.
What an impertinent fellow!
Urumu is Suzaku's pet (bird, but it talks). Namaikina,
a na-adjective, means "conceited" "presumptuous" "audacious"
"cheeky" "perky" etc. etc. Therefore, Kathie
Lee wa namaiki desu.
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Fuzaken ja nee! Aitsu wa
shibutoi ze!
Don't talk rubbish! She (Keiko) is enduring!
See, the meaning of shibutoi changes
depending on the context. Here, Yusuke is telling Suzaku who is trying
to kill Keiko that Keiko is not a girl easily killed by a monster like
Suzaku.
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Iya, sore wa dame da.
No, that's not good.
I know you already know dame(na),
but just wanted you to listen this to see other usage.
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Tanoshimi desu wa, tanoshimi
desu wa!
I can't wait, I can't wait!
Tanoshimi(na) is a na-adjective
that means pleasurable, enjoyable, etc. in English. However, tanoshimi
is a noun that means pleasure, enjoyment, amusement, expectation. etc.
ALSO, tanoshii is an i-adjective that
means merry, pleasant, happy, cheerful, delightful, etc. If you are having
a happy time watching Anime, you can say tanoshii!
or Anime wa tanoshii! If
you are expecting to have a good time, say, tanoshimi!
or tanoshimi desu (da)!
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Hito towa kanashii na.
Human beings are sad creatures.
Hito means man, human, etc.
Important word here is kanashii. (you
may remember it's past tense kanashikatta from
previous lesson?) It's of course an i-adjective that means "sad"
"sorrowful" "unhappy" etc.
towa: (Things) called. Thus
hito towa is things (or creatures) called human.
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Jaa ne! Kocchi mo isogashii
kara, gannbaru nda yo.
Well then, I am busy, too, so, (I am going
but) I wish you good luck.
Isogashii is the adjective
I want you to know, which means "busy."
Kocchi means "this way"
but, like in this case, it sometimes means "I."
mo: a particle which means "also"
or "too." Just replace wa
or ga with this mo,
when you want to use this. Watashi wa
isogashii desu (I am busy) -> Watashi
mo isogashii
desu. (I am busy, too.)
kara: because
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Soreni shitemo, atsui na koko
wa.
Anyway, it's hot here!
Atsui is an i-adjective that
means "hot." (temperature, not spicy) Na
is an ending particle used for emphasis purpose. Koko,
of course, means "here" or "this place" thus atsui
na koko wa (can also be said koko wa
atsui na) means "this place is hot."
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Ken ga chiisaku natteru!
The sword has become small!
OK, I know, this is difficult to understand its structure.
Natteru is short form of natte
(te-form of naru: to become)
plus iru (you know this, right?) and
it means "has become." (Please don't ask me why, OK?) Important
thing here is that when i-adjective (here chiisai
(small)) is followed by a verb, the last vowel "i"
changes to "ku" for some reason.
For example:
The sword become small. -> Ken ga chiisaku
naru.
The sword has become small. -> Ken ga chiisaku
natte iru. (Notice naru
changed to natte when followed by a
verb iru)
(The girl) become cute. -> Kawaiku
naru.
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Hitomawari ookiku natte
iru!
(The enemy) has become one size bigger!
Hitomawari here means "a
size." Please notice that this phrase uses same structure as above,
just the adjective changed from chiisai
to ookii (big).
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Byakko no karada ga ano joutai
kara ookiku natte inai.
The body of Byakko hasn't become bigger
from that state.
Byakko is the name of the enemy.
Karada is "body" thus Byakko
no karada means Byakko's body. Joutai
means "state" "condition" etc. thus ano
joutai is "that state." Kara
is "from" right? (not "because" in this context) Thus
ano jotai kara is "from that state."
Anyway, just notice natte inai part.
It's a negative form of natte iru because
inai is the negative of iru.
That's all for this week!
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Jaa ne, ganbaru nda yo!
