LESSON 33

TODAY'S TOPIC: Tada no bara ja nai
"(It's) no an ordinary rose"

Welcome back to the second week lessons of Yu Yu Hakusho. This week, I would like to introduce you some of the basic Japanese grammatical rules. For today, I want to explain how to make negative sentences once again concentrating on na-adjectives and nouns. First let me explain the rules.

* As you can see from this chart, there are two ways of making negatives for polite style. Both mean the same thing, though. Luckily, I am dealing with spoken Japanese in Anime here!

Notice that how you make negative sentence are very similar for noun + da and na-adjective (+ da). When you deal with na-adjectives (the dictionary forms always end with na-sound), you can almost forget about "na" sound at the end and think them as nouns. However, when you want to modify a noun using a na-adjective, for example, "beautiful rose," you need to remember to put "na" sound back to the na-adjective, thus kireina bara. Isn't this rule easier compared to the rules related to i-adjective?

Is everything clear? Great! These are the list of na-adjectives you have already learned.
Baka (na): foolish, stupid, etc.
Dame (na): No good, useless, vain, etc.
Daijobu (na): safe, secure, free from danger, all right, OK, etc.
Genki (na): energetic, full of energy, lively, vigorous, etc.
Hen (na): strange, suspicious, queer, funny, etc.
Kirei (na): beautiful, handsome, pretty, clean, etc.
Muda (na): useless, fruitless, inefficient, vain, etc.
Shinpai (na): anxious, uneasy, etc.
Suteki (na): glorious, splendid, brilliant, wonderful, marvelous, fantastic, etc.
Taihen (na): tough, hard, serious, grave, horrible, etc.

OK, so what you really need to understand is:
1. If you want to say A is B (B = na-adjective), (for example, "I am fine") all you need to say is A wa B omitting "na" sound from B. Be-verb da is optional. Thus, watashi wa genki (for some reason, you can't put ending particle wa, ze and zo for this one only. You can use yo, ne, ka.) or watashi wa genki da (you can put any ending particles in this case).
2. If you want to say A is not B (B = na-adjective), (for example, "I am not fine") all you need to say is A wa B ja nai. (omitting "na" sound at the end of B), thus, Watashi wa genki ja nai.
3. If you want to say A was B (B = na-adjective), (for example, "I was (or have been) fine") all you need to say is A wa B datta. (omitting "na" sound from B.) Be-verb da isn't optional because only this da espresses the past. Thus, watashi wa genki datta.
4. If you want to say A was not B (B = na-adjective), (for example, "I was not fine") all you need to say is A wa B ja na katta. (omitting "na" sound at the end of B), thus, Watashi wa genki ja na katta.

For all forms except one (A is B without be-verb), you can add ending particles, such as wa, yo, ze, zo, etc. as usual. Now, let's practice saying and listening some of the examples.

Kei33-1.wav 5K
Dame da wa.
(It's) no good.
This is an example of na-adjective plus be-verb, da, plus an ending particle. Notice, you didn't hear "na" sound after dame.

yu33-1.wav 14K
Oi! Mucha da ze, Kurama!
Hey, (that's) reckless of (you), Kurama!
Here is a new na-adjective. Mucha(na) means "unreasonable" "absurd" "senseless" "reckless" "mad" etc. depending on the context. Here, Kurama was going to fight against a strong enemy alone, and Yusuke said this to mean "you must be mad as to fight alone. The opponent is very strong." If you are male, use ze like Yusuke does (kakko ii!), but don't forget to put da after a na-adjective.

btn33-1.wav 16K
Yuusuke, mucha yo!
Yusuke, (it's) reckless of you!
Yo can be used by both sexes, right? Notice that there is no be-verb in this phrase. When you use yo, da is optional. For other ending particles, such as ze, wa, zo, you need to include be-verb. Reason? Don't ask me,,,

Rando ran33-1.wav 17K
Ore no nen wa kanpeki datta hazu da.
My spell must have been perfect.
Kanpeki(na) is the word I want you to know here. Notice he put datta after the adjective, thus, this is past tense.
Ore no = my (you remember particle no functions like 's in English? Good!)
Nen = spell in this context
hazu = must, I believe, etc.

kaz33-1.wav 14K
Dou mitemo, ningen ja nee ze!
(They) hardly look like humans!
Please pay attention to ja nee part. It's a colloquial way of saying ja nai. (polite people will not say this, though.) Since I couldn't find an example of a negative form of na-adjective, I used this one as an example. When you want to say A is not B, and B is a noun or na-adjective, say just A wa B ja nai, adding ja nai after B. The rule is the same for both cases.
Note: Ningen = human
Dou mite mo = dou (= how) + mite (te-form of miru) + mo (= particle: also, too) -> no matter how hard I see it.

yu33-2.wav 17K
Ore wa Koenma no dorei ja nee.
I am not a slave of Koenma, you see.
Dorei (pronounced as doree) is the only one new word here. Do you understand this sentence? Good! Sugoi!

krm33-1.wav 32K
Mochiron, tada no bara ja nai. Roozu wuippu!
Of course, (this is not) an ordinary rose. Rose whip!
Bara is rose. Tada no means "ordinary" in this context. Therefore, tada no bara means "ordinary rose" (sometimes, tada is used to mean "free", but in this context, Kurama is not selling roses for free, you know?) This is the phrase he said when he introduced his trick, Rose Whip, for the first time in the story.

Omake

hiei33-1.wav 16K
Hotohoto amai yatsu-ra da ze.
(They) are utterly optimistic fellows!
Hotohoto = adverb, quite, utterly, really, entirely, completely, etc.
Amai = i-adjective, sweet, indulgent, or superficially optimistic (or easy-going) depending on the context. Since amai has many meanings, we enjoy making puns using this word. Here, Hiei meant optimistic, not sweet, by it. (people don't taste sweet, you know?)

Examples of usage of amai:
amai chokoreeto = sweet chocolate
amai oya = indulgent parent(s)
amai kangae = optimistic idea(s)

That's all for today! How are you doing? Let me know! Ja ne!

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LESSON 34

TODAY'S TOPIC: Isogou!
"Let's hurry!"

Today, let's learn some grammatical rules related to Japanese verbs, Yuck! In Japanese, there are only three kinds of verbs, ru-verb, u-verb, and irregular verb. Furthermore, there are only three irregular verbs (two of them are iku and suru (you know those!), and other being kuru (= to come))! Isn't that great? Here is an inflection chart that might motivate you. <G>

Please following rules when you use Ru and U-verbs:
1. Most (maybe all) of the non-past plain forms end with "u" sound.
2. Negative forms end with "a" sound.
3. Polite forms end with "i" sound
4. Imperative forms end with "e" sound
5. Let's forms end with "ou" sound
6. Te-forms end with of course "te" "da" or "tte" sound
7. Past forms end with "ta" "da" or "tta" sound.
8. Basically, te-forms are obtained just by changing ending sound of past form from "a" to "e."

For example, most often used verb, suru, conjugates as follows. (In this example, I used shinpai suru (= worry))
Shinpai suru (plus ending particle: ze, yo, wa, etc.): I worry
Shinpai shi nai: I don't (or won't) worry.
Shinpai shi masu: I worry. (polite)
Shinpai shiro: Worry about me.
Shinpai shiyou: Let's worry about (him).
Shinpai shite: Please worry about me.
Shinpai shita: I worried (or have) about you.

OK, I admit that the rules are not that simple,,, but let's me introduce you more verbs.

yu34-1.wav 10K
Nigero, Hiei!
Run, Hiei!
First one is an example of imperative form. Nigeru (= to escape, run away) is the dictionary form. Notice that the ending sound changed from "u" to "o."

krm34-1.wav 27K
Wakatta zo, miro! Kuwabara-kun no rei-ken wo!
I see! Look at Kuwabara's sword!
There are two verbs in this speech. First one, wakatta is (as you already know) the past tense of wakaru. Notice that the ending sound changed from "u" to "tta."
The second verb is miro. This is the imperative form of a verb miru (= to look). Notice the ending sound is "o" in Kurama's apeech.
Note: ken = sword, (Rei-ken: sword that uses spiritual power) wo = a particle put after a direct abject of a sentence.

Next one is some examples of conjugations of a verb isogu (= to hurry.)

krm34-3.wav 13K
Sa, saki wo isogou!
All right, let's hurry and go ahead!
Saki is a noun that means "ahead" here. Notice that isogou is the let's form and ends with "ou" sound.

yu34-2.wav 16K
Tonikaku saki wo isogou ze.
Anyway, let's hurry and go ahead!
Do you remember tonikaku? Good! You can put an ending particle like this. Of course, you can say, isogou yo, isogou ne, etc. (but not isogou wa)

yu34-3.wav 14K
Jaa, saki wo isogu ka?
Well, then, let's hurry and go ahead, shall we?
This is an example of making interrogative. Notice a question mark ka at the end.

yu34-4.wav 7K
Isogu nda.
(We've gotta) hurry up, you know!
This phrase uses now famous nda. This one sounds like "we've gotta hurry up and you know why."

hiei34-1.wav 9K
Kuwabara, isoge!
Kuwabara, hurry up!
This is an example of imperative form of isogu. Hiei ordered Kuwabara to hurry up here. He orders because Hiei thinks he is superior to Kuwabara. (you know, Hiei thinks Kuwabara is stupid.)

kaz34-2.wav 11K
Saa, tanoshimou ze.
Come now, let's enjoy!
Tanosihmou is also a let's form. Its dictionary form is tanoshimu. Notice the ending sound changed from "u" to "ou" again here.

hiei34-2.wav 18K
Kurama, Kuwabara, iku zo!
Kurama, Kuwabara, let's go!
Do you remember"ikou (let's go!)? Good. In male speech, you can also say ikou ze. This iku zo (dictionary form plus ending particle) means both "I'm going" and "let's go" (<- I am going, you follow me) depending on the context.

kaz34-3.wav 7K
Omae ga ike.
You go!
This one is the imperative form of iku. Kuwabara is ordering Yusuke to go here. Notice the ending sound is "e."

yu34-6.wav 16K
Tasukatta ze, Hiei, sankyuu!
(I was) saved, Hiei, thank you!
Do you remember tasukete (= please help!)"? Good! This one sounds very similar, but different. Tasukaru is "be saved" "be rescued" etc. Its past tense is tasukatta. (past tense of tasukeru is tasuketa) Notice the ending sound.

grg34-1.wav 13K
Koenma-sama, yari mashita ne!
Koenma-sama, you did it!
Yari mashita ne is a polite way of saying yatta! (<- do you remember? Good!) Notice in George's speech, ending sound of yaru (dictionary form) changed to "i" to make polite form.

krm34-2.wav 19K
Yamero, Hiei, konna toki ni.
Stop, Hiei, (don't do that) in the time like this.
You may remember a verb Yameru. Yamete is the te-form that means "please stop." This is the imperative form, thus, Kurama ordered Hiei to stop.
Konna: this sort of
Toki: Time
Ni: particle: put after a time (at, in)
In this context, konna toki means "when we are having a crisis." Kurama ordered Hiei to stop arguing with Kuwabara.

Well, I guess I taught you too much today.

I will introduce more verbs tomorrow. Ja ne!

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LESSON 35

TODAY'S TOPIC: Ore wo nameruna!
"Don't underestimate me!"

This week we are learning basic Japanese grammar. Today, let me introduce you some more frequently used verbs in Anime.

koen35-1.wav 32K
Koenma: Botan, iika. Keiko-chan wo mamoru nda.
Botan: Ryoukai!
Koenma: Botan, look. Protect Keiko-chan.
Botan: Roger!
The first verb I want you to know is mamoru (= to protect). In this sentence, it appeared as dictionary form because it is followed by nda.

yu35-1.wav 15K
Tanomu zo, Kuwabara.
(I) entrust you, Kuwabara.
The second verb for today is tanomu. You can see from the ending sound that it is a dictionary form (= plain, non-past). Tanomu means "entrust" "trust" "leave (a matter) to (a person)."
Next one, suru is not new for you, but,,,

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Genkai: Toubun no aida, koko de shugyou wo suru nda.
Genkai: For a while, (you) do the training here, you see.
The irregular verb suru is often combined with a noun and creates lots of verbs. Here, shugyou is a noun that means "training (serious one, not like aerobics)" but, by adding suru after that, it changes to a verb. Particle wo is often omitted. In my lesson, I call those verb suru-verb. For example;
Tenisu (wo) suru: Play tennis
Shoubu (wo) suru: Fight, have a match, play (games)
Note:
Koko de: Koko is here or this place, right? De is a particle put after a location where certain action occurs or is done. In this example, shugyou takes place here (at Genkai's).
Toubun no aida: toubun means "for some time" and aida means "period of time" "during" etc., thus tobun no aida means "for a while."

hiei35-1.wav 12K
Kanchigai suru na yo.
Don't misunderstand (me!)
This is another example of suru-verb. Kanchigai is a noun that means "misjudgment" "misunderstanding" etc. Notice, there is na after suru, therefore, this is a negative sentence.

kaz35-1.wav 10K
Mou yousha shi nee!
I'll not have mercy on you anymore!
Mou: "anymore" in negative sentence. ("more" in affirmative, though) Yousha is a noun that means "pardon" "forgiveness" or "mercy." When it is followed by suru, it means "pardon" "forgive" "have mercy on" etc. Since this is a negative sentence (notice nee (<- nai)), suru conjugated to its negative form shi.

yu35-2.wav 11K
Ja, yaru na yo!
Then, don't do it!
You know this already, but, I want to clarify one thing here. In the above negative sentence, verb suru changed to shi to conjugate with nai. In this sentence, though it is a negative sentence, the verb yaru remains as a dictionary form. Do you see that? Good. Here is a rule. When you use nai (or nee), you need to conjugate a verb proceed it. However, when you use na, you don't need to conjugate a verb just before it. Remember, though, na is an imperative form, thus, sounds like "Don't!" Also, attentive people might have noticed, there are two kinds of na in Japanese, one is this imperative negative marker and other is an ending particle. All you can do to distinguish them is to listen carefully its intonation.

kaz35-2.wav 14K
Odokasu na yo, nan da soryaa?
Don't scare me! What's that?
Odokasu: surprise, scare, frighten, etc. Notice that na is not an ending particle, but imperative negative marker. (if it were an ending particle, he must have said odokasu yo na, meaning (you) scare me!) Soryaa is a colloquial way of saying sore wa.

btn35-1.wav 15K
Otte kuru yo, dou shiyou?
(He is) coming after me! What should I do?
This short sentence contain three verbs!
Otte: Te-form of a verb ou (= to chase, pursue)
Kuru: One of the three irregular verbs, kuru. (= to come)
Shiyou: Let's form of one of the three irregular verbs, suru.
Te-form is often used to combine two verbs like in this example. Otte kuru means "chase and come" thus "come after (me)" Isn't it nice usage?

hiei 35-2.wav 16K
Ore wo nameru na
Don't underestimate me! (or Don't think light of me!)
Nameru is a verb that means both "lick" and "underestimate" depending on the context. In this context, nobody wants to lick Hiei's face, therefore, it should mean "underestimate."

yu35-4.wav 22K
Dou dai, Baasan, ichiou katta ze!
How was that Baa-san? I won somehow!
Katta is the important word here. It is the past tense of a verb katsu (= to win). Notice that past tense ends with "ta" sound.
Dou da (i) is "how is (that)!?" Please don't worry about "i" here, it doesn't have meaning. He calls Genkai, Baasan which means "grand mother" "old woman." Ichiou has lots of meaning but Anime characters often use this word to mean "somehow," for example, like in this case, Yusuke won the fight but cannot say it was an easy fight.

yu35-5.wav 46K
Yusuke: Kurama, tokorode, Shiseijuu tte donna yatsu-ra nanda?
Kurama: Sonna no wa, ore-tachi mo shira nai sa.!
Yusuke: Kurama, by the way, what kind of fellows are Four Sacred Beasts?
Kurama: We (Kurama and Hiei) don't know such things, either.
Important word here is shira nai. As I explained before, "I know" in English appears as "I am knowing" thus Shiite iru in Japanese. BUT, "I don't know" appears as just "I don't know" thus shira nai (negative form plus nai).
Donna and sonna: See my previous lesson on demonstratives. Konna is "this sort of," right? In similar way, sonna is "that sort of" and donna is "what sort of." No put after sonna is not a negative marker, but it is a pronoun that means "one" or "thing." Thus, sonna no is "that sort of thing."

Next two examples contain a verb kuru, one of the three irregular verbs in Japanese.

kaz35-3.wav 9K
Mata kuru ze!
(It's) coming again!
Mata: again (you know this, right?).
Kuru is the plain non-past (= dictionary) form. Non-past means "not past," thus present and future. Here, Kuwabara is talking about future (maybe one minute ahead). This phrase also means "I am coming again." Because subjects are often omitted in Japanse, meaning of sentenses changes depending on the context.

Genbu gnb35-1.wav 12K
Yoku kita na!
Welcome!
Kita is a past tense of kuru. If I translate this directly, it means "How well you came," weird isn't it?.

That's all for today. We will study more about verbs tomorrow! Ja mata ne!

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LESSON 36

TODAY'S TOPIC: Damatte mitero!
"Shut up and watch!"

Today, you will learn more about te-form of Japanese verb. There are lots to learn about te-form, but for today, we concentrate on two points.
1. Te-form functions as "and" to combine two verbs.
2. Te-form followed by iru (to be, exist) expresses the idea of an action in progress or repeated over a period of time.

kaz36-1.wav 13K
Iika, mitero!
All right? Keep watching me!
Mitero: This is a shortened form of mite iro. Mite is te-form of a verb miru and iro is imperative form of a varb iru. As I explained above, te-form plus iru expresses "be ---ing" in English, thus mite iro means "Be watching" (imperative)

kaz36-2.wav 26K
Urussee na! Damatte mitero!
(You are) noisy! Shut up and be watching (me fight)!
Damatte: te-form of a verb damaru (= become silent, stop speaking, shut up etc.). This te-form is used to combine the next verb miru (= to watch, look, see)

gen36-1.wav 17K
Maa, damatte miteru nda ne.
Well, let's shut up and keep watching (him), shall we?
Same verbs are used here. The difference is that Genkai added nda and ne. It sounds like "it would be better if we don't say anything but just watch, you know?" rather than just saying "shut up and watch."

kaz36-3.wav 9K
Oi, wakatten na!
Hey, you know it?
This wakatten is colloquial way of saying wakatte iru. I explained this one before, but I just want you to know that the same rule (2) is applied here. "(I) know" in English appears in Japanese as "I am knowing." You understand the differences among wakaru (I see it now), wakatta (I understood), and wakatte iru (I know)?

yu36-1.wav 8K
Aa, wakatteru yo!
Yeah, I know it!
Same thing, but wakatten is more colloquial than wakatteru. We use both of them in daily conversation.

koen36-1.wav 8K
Wakatte oru
I know.
This one means the same thing, but Koenma sounds like old man, like grand pa. You know that Koenma is very old even though he appears as a kid in Anime.

krm36-1.wav 8K
Yatsu wa ikiteru.
That fellow is alive.
Ikiteru is a shortened form of ikite iru. Ikite is te-form of a verb ikiru (= to live). Being alive is expressed by ikite iru because to live is an action that progresses.

kei36-1.wav 10K
Naka de matteru yo.
(I'll) be waiting inside.
Matteru is a shortened form of matte iru. Matsu is a verb you already know, right?

btn36-1.wav 10K
Otto matta!
Oh! Wait a moment!
Matta is a past tense of matsu (= to wait). For some reason, when matta is screamed out like this, it means just "Wait!" But if you say calmly chotto matta it means "I waited a little bit."

Genbu gnb.36-1.wav 8K
Matte kure!
Please wait!
I will explain this one in detail next week, but the rule is simple here. If you use kure instead of iru, the meaning changes to "(please) do --- for me." If you want to be more polite, say matte kudasai. (<- you remember this one? Good!)

Byakko byk36-1.wav 17K
Machi na!
Wait!
Na is not an imperative negative marker, here. If so, matsu (dictionary form) should be used. (Matsu na! = don't wait!) Thus, this na is just an ending particle used for emphasis.

Omake

If you want to say Sasuga! in a masculine way, say like Yusuke.

yu36-2.wav 7K
Sasuga da ze!

That's all for this week's lesson. Tanoshi katta? (tanoshii = fun: i-adj). Ja mata, raishuu!

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This Page is updated on Sep. 10, 1996.