Hello! We’re starting with Chapter 1 of the Genki I 3rd Edition Textbook. We’ll be going through Lessons 1-3.
Disclaimer: There can be multiple variations of sentences in Japanese. Also I am going to try to use only Kanji when I do these posts so that we can get used to seeing it in Japanese media.
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Genki I 3rd Edition Workbook *Highly suggested so that you can keep your progress!*
Kanji Used:
- 私 -わたし- I
- 二十六 -にじゅうろく – 26
- 人 -じん- person
- 何 – なん- what
- 歳 -さい- …years old
- 肉-にく- meat
- 本 – ほん- book
- 青い – あおい- blue
- 田中-たなか- Tanaka
Lesson 1
XはYです。
We are starting off with learning XはY です。
Let’s break this down to make it easier. What this sentence is saying is: X is Y. For example:
私はテイラーです。
I am Taylor.
Of course this can be transferred to other sentences as well. For example:
私は二十六歳です 。
I am 26 years old.
Simple right? Try making your own simple sentences as well!
Lesson 2
…か。
Unlike in English, question marks are not used to denote a question in a sentence. In Japanese “か。” is used at the end of a sentence after です from the lesson above.
テイラーはアメリカ人ですか。
Is Taylor American?
When you are asking about a specific noun in a question you can use は. For example:
テイラーは何歳ですか。
How old is Taylor?
If you are not identifying a specific noun in the question, you can drop the は. Fortunately this part is easy!
Here’s some examples without は:
アメリカ人ですか。
Are you American?
肉ですか。
Is it meat?
Lesson 3
Noun 1 の Noun 2
の in this grammar point is used to denote ownership. Noun 1 is to denote the owner Noun 2 is used to denote the noun that is owned.
テイラーの本
Taylor’s book
田中のかばん
Tanaka’s bag
レッツリミックス (Let’s REMIX) *
レッツリミックス* is where I’ll add extra notes and additional examples.
Now let’s mix the lessons together!
テイラーのかばんは青いですか。
Is Taylor’s bag blue?
Conversation Practice：
A: テイラーの猫は何歳ですか。
How old is Taylor’s cat?
B: テイラーの猫は六歳です。
Taylor’s cat is six years old.
Notes:
私はテイラーです。Can also mean “My name is Taylor.”
Now you may be wondering “Woah, where did the word “name” come from?” Thus begins the uniqueness of the Japanese language. The word “name” is implied and many Japanese sentences must be implied if you have no context. Translations are almost never 1:1. If that was the case the sentence above would say I is Taylor and that doesn’t make sense grammatically in English right? As we go through Japanese together we will get used to this structure of speaking and reading in Japanese.
