us to include all the variations (more on the regional ones later) of the phrases in this book, so we’ve gone a standard Japanese (hyōjungo 標びょう準じゅん語ご) style, which everyone will understand and which you can adapt to the area you’re living in.
Adaptation is really important—the phrases here might seem too harsh to some ears and too soft to others. Take your cues from the speech and reactions of people around you. If they warm to the way you’re talking, great, otherwise think about the way they’re taking it and adjust. If all else fails, ask—foreigners aren’t expected to know everything!
JAPANESE-ENGLISH-JAPANESE-...
You’ll have seen above that we’ve written Japanese phrases in two ways—in rōmaji (ローマ字じ—Western script, with lines above some vowels meaning long sounds) and in Japanese script with furigana (phonetic hiragana 平ひら仮か名な above the Chinese kanji 漢かん字じ) for an added challenge as you get better. But many phrases are written in another phonetic alphabet, katakana 片かた仮か名な. Katakana are mostly used for foreign words, and there are many of them in this book—for example, “batteries” are batterī バ ッテリー. Among other things, they’re also used to write a few Japanese superlatives, such as chō 超ちょう (amazing-ly/ fantastic-ally).
When using katakana, life gets a bit tricky when you hit the limitations of the Japanese language. It has only one final consonant (n), so when the Japanese pronounce English words with other consonant endings, they have to tack on a vowel, usually a u. “Game” becomes gēmu ゲーム, “bed” becomes beddo ベッド, etc. With no final “r” sound, they usually use a long “a”; for example “locker” becomes rokkā ロッカー. And since there is no “l” at all, “r” is used instead.
There are a few introduced sounds that the Japanese can usually pronounce, and so they’ve created new ways of writing them. A “we” (as in “web”) is written ウェ, and v sounds are written as ヴ followed by a katakana vowel, as in va ヴァ, vi ヴィ etc.—though the ability to pronounce the v varies greatly, especially between generations!
The Japanese enjoy using English words sporadically in their speech and you should do the same. With a little practice, it’s easy to get the hang of how to “katakana-ize” an English word, that is, to pronounce it the way a Japanese would, strange as it might seem at first. As a foreigner, you’d be expected to use katakana words—so don’t hold back!
As a reference point, the chart next page shows the basic kana in each alphabet.
There are a few more variations in readings to watch out for. Notables are the use of ha as the subject particle, in which case it’s read wa (such as わたしは = watashi-wa = I am), and verbs ending in -masu ます, which we’ve romanized to -mas, because that’s how you say it. You’ll pick them all up as you go along.
THE BASIC HIRAGANA & KATAKANA CHARACTERS
BEING CHOOSY
There are plenty of phrases for which the Japanese have alternatives, as in any language. As well as the boy/girl classification, we’ve listed them in a rough order from least to most casual, also getting rougher as they become more casual. If what you’re saying doesn’t seem to fit the mood, again, adapt to the speech of the people around you!
In the book, we’ve included the Japanese words for “me” and “you” in many phrases. In practice, they often leave them out, unless particular clarification is needed, but until you can instinctively understand who is being referred to, it’s best to use them. If you do, there are a range of words available, not just the gender-neutral watashi 私わたし (with its super-formal counterpart watakushi 私わたし) and anata あなた that textbooks love.
For girls, there’s atashi あたし, and for guys there’s boku 僕ぼく and ore 俺おれ. To say “you,” girls can say anata あなた or anta あんた, and guys can say kimi 君きみ or omae 前. In this book, we’ve stuck with anata and kimi, because these are the “safest” for everyday conversation. Omae 前おまえ and ore in particular are very harsh, uncompromising words that can put people off. Until you know when best to use these words (again by the speech of the Japanese around you), steer clear!
STRESSED OUT OVER ENDINGS
One thing that we have to say is that in Japanese, how you say something can have more meaning than what you say. Think about it: when you’re sharing an intimate moment, you can convey many emotions by sounding caring and serious, on top of what you’re actually saying. Some phrases can be changed from statements to questions just by the tone or particle at the end... the list goes on. Here’s a rundown of some slang endings and tonal tricks.
For starters, the rules say that plain negative verbs end in -nai (e.g. wakaranai 分わからない I don’t understand/ know). But you’ll hear other forms, like -n, as in wakaran 分わからん, or shiran 知しらん (I dunno) or special corruptions like wakan’nai 分わかんない and iu 言いう pronounced yū ゆう. (Plain positive forms generally don’t change as they’re pretty simple already.)
The most common slang final particle is ne, often lengthened to nē. Only partly fictitiously, it seems to us that when a newborn Japanese baby is shown off for the first time, someone will say Kawaii-nē かわいいね (Isn’t he/she cute?), and inevitably the flock of admirers will all say Nē! ねえ！ (Oh yes!). From such early exposure, the child is doomed to utter nē for the rest of his/her life.
Nē gives an (familiar yet) emphatic ending, usually a rhetorical question, and lengthening it adds more emphasis. With falling intonation it’s more of an explanation. It isn’t often said with a rising intonation, but can be said in a high pitch for emphasis. Girls prefer ne and nē, and guys have an alternative, na, which is used in the same way. But as we said before, the gap is narrowing, and, especially around women, guys will often use ne.
Other handy sentence endings (added to any form but the mas form) include yo よ, used to emphasise that “I’m telling you what I think (and you should do this).” Wa わ is often added by women to soften phrases, and you’ll see it throughout this book. If you prefer a more blunt style, don’t use it, or use yo instead. -noda ～のだ (less formally -nda ～んだ) makes the sentence a clear explanation, with a feeling, of “that’s the way it is.”
These can be combined liberally. For example, you’re trying to decide which movie to see, and someone is being quite pushy about their choice. To be clear that you’ve already seen it and once was enough, you can say Mō mitan--dayo-ne もう見みたんだよね。
Zo ぞ and ze ぜ can be added (usually by guys) to give instructions. Zo means “let’s do...” as in Yoshi, iku-zo よし行いくぞ (Right, let’s go), similar to but slightly harsher than ikō 行いこう. Ze is a very strong command form, e.g. Iku-ze! 行いくぜ！ (Move it!) Finally, -kke is a handy ending, expressing either uncertainty or forgetfulness Nan-datta-kke? 何なんだっ たっけ？ (What was it again...?)
The meaning of some phrases may be changed from a statement to a question by a rising final intonation, and these phrases are marked by diamonds (◆). For example:
Haven’t seen you around for a while.
◆ Hisashiburi-ne. ♀
久しぶりね。
◆ Hisashiburi-dane.
久しぶりだね。
With a rising intonation, the sentence becomes “Haven’t seen you around for a while, have I?”
And which parts of the phrase you stress also make a big difference—stressing a yo emphasizes that you’re pushing your opinion. Stressing the sō in sō-dane/sō