First Aid in Japanese

1. Who, what:

The words for these are だれ and なに・なん, and they are asked like this:

Who and what are pointed out with the following:

「このひとは、だれですか。」is "This person, who are they?"
「そこは、なんですか。」is "There, what is that?"

To which people can answer:

「さとうさん です。」meaning "Mr Satou."
「ぶどう です。」meaning "Grapes."

The part 「です。」is a way of confirming what you've said. Another way to see it is that it puts some completeness into the sentence.

The part 「は」(pronounced here as 'wa') confirms the thing you want to talk about. Another way to see it is that it sets up the topic of the sentence.

The part 「か」makes the sentence a question. Another way to see it is that it creates a feeling of openness for the listener to fill in.

2. Where, when

The words for these are どこ and いつ, and they are asked like this:

They are pointed out with the words:

「こちらは どこですか。」is "Here, is where?"
「いまは なんじですか。」is "Now, what time?"

To which people can answer:
「<Supermarket> です。」meaning "The supermarket."
「いま くじにじゅっぷんです。」meaning "Now, it is 9:20."

On time:

This material does not cover the names of the different times of the clock or dates.

However, to continue, to state a range of times or dates, you can use the following:

To be a bit less specific about the time you want to talk about, you can use ぐらい after stating the time you want:
「じゅっぷんぐらいです。」means "Ten minutes, around about."

You can also use the verb かかります (or its past tense form かかりました) to talk about time spent:
「<だれか が>じゅっぷん かかりました。」means "Ten minutes spent <by someone>."

The part 「が」puts an emphasis on what comes after it. It is used as a way to put a focus on explanations, descriptions, and to clarify what the subject of the sentence means.

Intersection A: General nouns:

Like in the sentence above, sometimes it's not that you have a specific person, item, place or time you want to talk about. In this case, you can use the general nouns below:

In practice, you can use these nouns in all sorts of ways, from sarcasm all the way to preserving a sense of mystery. When using them alone to answer questions, it's easy to change what you want to convey with your body language.

If you pair your answer with a quizzical look and a bit of worried flapping, you can easily convey feeling lost about not knowing which exact person, item, place, or time you want to speak about, but if you answer with a cold tone and straight face, it may seem like you're purposely avoiding the question to dismiss the other person. If you are very excited when using them it will seem like you are very caught-up with whatever (haha!) it is that you are talking about.

Please keep this in mind when using them.

Intersection A: Manners

When meeting with others you don't know, manners can say a lot about your attitude towards sharing space with other people and how you think problems should be worked out. Simple greetings can help make the other party feel that you are treating them with respect and helps to diffuse any tension that may previously exist.

Some are more formal than others, but here are some greetings you can use in different circumstances.

Greetings:

Daily interactions:

3. How, why

This section covers basic questions for how to do something, or to ask for an explanation. Remember that the way you ask them and when you ask them are important, manner-wise.

If you want to be more polite, you can use some of the sentence patterns from the later chapters (particularly どうした ら いい？)

4. Other general nouns

So far, we have covered the different who-what-where-when-how-why words and how to make them using「 か」. We can also make general nouns out of adjectives and verbs. This will be repeated in the next few pages, but nevertheless, here is a short guide to making nouns with other words:

• 「い」adjectives: turn い -> さ
  ながい("long")->ながさ("length")
• 「な」adjectives: turn な -> なの
  きれい("pretty")->きれいなの("pretty thing")


• For verbs: use plain/じっしょ form as noun
  use ~る/て/た＋ よう ("having <verb/ing/ed>")
  


• Using ＋とき、＋ばあい　("during", "the case in which")