JPNS/JPNX 1010 Unit Book, Semester 1

GRAMMAR・ぶんぽう
Grammar Point 1.1: Basic Japanese sentence structure
Our first grammar point is one of the most important in Japanese: the basic sentence
structure [X] wa [Y] desu. Here, [X] is a noun (or noun phrase), and [Y] is a noun, noun
phrase, or adjective. Note that wa is written using the hiragana that is normally read as ha
(は) rather than the hiragana for wa (わ). We will explain this more next week.

wa de su
[NOUN 1] は [NOUN 2 or ADJECTIVE] です。

Literal: As for [Noun 1], it is [X].

Common English: [Noun 1] is/am/are [X].

In this structure, wa is a grammatical particle. Japanese uses grammatical particles to

explicitly mark the role of each noun or noun phrase in a sentence. The particle wa
“Topics” marks the noun before it as the topic of the sentence. For now, it’s okay to treat a topic as
don’t
exist in
the sentence’s subject. We will learn the difference between a topic and subject in Week 6.
English!
Desu is equivalent to the English “to be”. Japanese grammar does not conjugate “to be”
though. As a result, desu can mean “(he/she/it) is”, “(I) am”, and “(you/they/we) are”.

The example below breaks down this [X] wa [Y] desu structure visually:

The verb desu is normally

wa ta shi wa se n se i de su pronounced as des,
without the final u sound.
watashi is a polite わたし は せんせい です。
first person pronoun.
desu ends the sentence.
We translate it as “I”. wa marks the Here, it works like the
sentence topic. English “am”, as in “I
The topic of this sensei means
am a teacher”.
sentence is therefore “teacher”.
“watashi”. Japanese does
not use “a/the”.

The sentence tells us that watashi is the topic, and the topic is (desu) a teacher (sensei).

However, there is one small complication. Japanese does not distinguish between a and
the, so two translations/meanings are actually possible (use context to decide):

I am a teacher. or
watashi wa sensei desu =
I am the teacher.

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Let’s practice the [X] wa [Y] desu by learning to introduce ourselves. For now, just use
English for your name. Once you get comfortable though, try pronouncing your name
using the Japanese sound system. This hyperlink will bring you to a website that can help.

Non-Japanese names are normally written using katakana rather than hiragana. We
will learn katakana in Week 3, but if you want to memorize how to write your name in
katakana now, please go ahead. The sooner the better!

There are three important things to note when practicing introductions:

1. Do not put the honorific ~san after your own name, but always put if after others’.
wa ta shi wa ma i ku de su You can use the suffixes
わたし は マイク です。 [I am Mike.] -kun or -chan instead of -san
with close friends, but never
a na ta wa ta na ka sa n de su
use names with no suffix
あなた は たなかさん です。 [You are Tanaka.] unless you are very close.
Traditionally, -kun is used
after boys’ names, and
2. Japanese names are normally given with the last name first. -chan is used after girls’.

wa ta shi wa ya ma shi ta ke n ji de su
わたし は やました けんじ です。 [I am Kenji Yamashita.]

3. Non-Japanese names are often given with the first name first. The marker ・ is
regularly used to separate the first and last name.
wa ta shi wa jakku che n de su
わたし は ジャック・チェン です。 [I am Jack Chen].
wa ta shi wa sa ra su mi su de su
わたし は サラ・スミス です。 [I am Sarah Smith].

When talking about a specific person, we can then use this same [X] wa [Y] desu pattern,
using the person’s name for [X]. However, don’t forget that you must attach ~san to their
name unless you are good friends. So don’t think of ~san as just “mr./ms.”! Japanese
people use ~san in contexts where “mr./ms.” would be odd in English, such as saying good
morning to a coworker you’ve known for years, or even greeting a classmate in university.
Think of ~san as indicating a “standard” relationship, rather than a formal one.

a na ta
Also, whenever possible, use proper nouns rather than あなた (you). It isn’t rude to use
あなた, but names or titles (e.g., “manager”, “teacher”) are always preferred. Try to only
use あなた if you have to, like when talking to a stranger.

ma i ku sa n wa da i ga ku se i de su
マイクさん は だいがくせい です。
[Mike is a/the university student OR You, Mike, are a/the uni student.]

ta ka mu ra sa n wa se n se i de su
たかむらさん は せんせい です。
[Takamura is a/the teacher OR You, Takamura, are a/the teacher.]

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JPNS/JPNX 1010 Unit Book, Semester 1

Grammar Point 1.2: Nations/nationalities

Let’s develop the [X] wa [Y] desu form by talking about nations and nationalities.

Only three Japanese country names will be entirely new to English speakers. Because these
three are Japanese words, we will write them in hiragana until we learn kanji:

nihon chuugoku kankoku

にほん ちゅうごく かんこく
Japan China S. Korea

Most other country names are from English, so they sound quite similar to words you
already know. This makes memorization easy, but don’t get sloppy! We still need to use
Japanese pronunciation. If you call “Australia” “awe-strayl-yuh” you won’t be understood.

Country English Pronunciation Japanese Pronunciation

America/amerika uh-mayre-ih-kuh ah-meh-ree-kah
Australia/oosutoraria awe-strayl-yuh ooh-sue-toe-rah-ree-ah

Not all country names from from English though, as some are instead borrowed from their
local languages. For instance, “Germany” is doitsu ( “Deutschland”), and “The
Neatherlands” is oranda (“Holland”). The Chapter 1 Vocab List has a list of nations
essential for this week. If your country isn’t listed, please look it up in a dictionary or ask a
teacher, as its important to know even if it’s not on our vocab list.

In Japanese, all country names can become nationalities via the suffix ~jin (~じん). When
reading the examples below, remember that Japanese doesn’t use/require “a” or “the” or
mark plurals. When translating, we therefore must add these elements based on context.

wa ta shi wa o o su to ra ri a ji n de su
わたし は オーストラリア じん です。 This could also be
[I am an Australian.] “The teachers are all
Chinese people”,
because Japanese
se n se i wa chuu go ku ji n de su
せんせい は ちゅうごく じん です。 rarely marks plurals.

[The teacher is Chinese/is a Chinese person.]

“Americans are (all) teachers”
a me ri ka ji n wa se n se i de su
is grammatically possible
アメリカ じん は せんせい です。 here, but not factually possible.
[The American is a teacher.] “The Americans are teachers”
could be possible in context.
a i ko se n se i wa ni ho n ji n de su
あいこ せんせい は にほん じん です。
[Ms. Aiko (the teacher) is Japanese.]

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Because Japanese usually doesn’t mark plurals, the plural of sensei is just sensei. We can
only be sure if someone means one sensei or many sensei through context. The one big
exception is the word “we”: watashi is always singular, watashitachi always means “we”.

da i ga ku se i wa ka n go ku ji n de su
だいがくせい は かんごく じん です。 だいがくせい
[The uni student is Korean.] or [The uni students are Korean.]
だいがくせい
a me ri ka ji n wa da i ga ku se i de su
アメリカ じん は だいがくせい です。
[The American is a uni student.] or [(The) Americans are uni students.]

se n se i wa ni ho n ji n de su
せんせい は にほん じん です。
[The teacher is Japanese.] or [The teachers are Japanese.]

wa ta shi ta chi wa se n se i de su
わたしたち は せんせい です。 Watashitachi is usually
pronounced more like watash-
[We are teachers.] tachi, dropping the first i sound.

Grammar Point 1.3: Counting, age, & school years

Counting in Japanese is easy! We can count all the way to 99 with just the numbers 1-10.
As you can see in the chart, all Japanese numbers besides zero are written in hiragana.

ze ro
0 ゼロ
i chi ro ku
1 いち 6 ろく
ni na na shi chi
2 に 7 なな・しち
sa n ha chi
3 さん 8 はち
yo n shi kyuu
4 よん・し 9 きゅう
go juu
5 ご 10 じゅう

You probably noticed that both 4 and 7 have two names. When counting to ten, you can
use either! As we move forward though, there will be cases where only one is okay.

When counting between 10 and 20, simply say 10 and then the next number. For instance,
11 is juu ichi (ten-one), and twelve is juu ni (ten-two).

ju u i chi ju u i chi
じゅう ＋ いち ＝ じゅういち

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JPNS/JPNX 1010 Unit Book, Semester 1

juu juu go
10 じゅう 15 じゅうご
juu i chi juu ro ku
11 じゅういち 16 じゅうろく
juu shi chi
juu ni じゅうしち
12 じゅうに 17 juu na na

じゅうなな
juu sa n juu ha chi
13 じゅうさん 18 じゅうはち
juu shi

じゅうし juu kyuu

14 juu yo n 19 じゅうきゅう
じゅうよん

We can continue this process up to 99 by saying [number] [ten] [number]! Twenty is

simply “two-ten” (ni juu). Twenty-one is then “two-ten-one”, or ni juu ichi. Easy!

sa n juu go sa n juu go
35 = 30 + 5 = さんじゅう + ご = さんじゅうご

The only trick is that forty is yon juu and seventy is nana juu. You cannot say shijuu
for 40 or shichijuu for 70.

yo n juu na na na na juu yo n
47 よんじゅうなな 74 ななじゅうよん

We can use numbers to say someone’s age as well. In most cases, simply add the suffix ~sai
sa i
(さい) to the end of a number to make it an age. For example:

wa ta shi wa juu kyuu sa i de su

わたし は じゅうきゅう さい です。
[I am 19 years old.]

ju n sa n wa yo n juu ro ku sa i de su
ジュンさん は よんじゅうろく さい です。
[Jun is 46 years old.]

However, any age ending in 1, 8, or 0 changes slightly to add a small pause between the
number and sai. For instance, ~1 (ichi) and sai combine to become ~issai (“i-ssai”), ~8
(hachi) becomes ~hassai (“ha-ssai”), and ~0 (juu) becomes ~jussai (“ju-ssai”).

wa ta shi wa juu issa i de su a na ta wa juu hassa i de su

わたし は じゅういっさい です。あなた は じゅうはっさい です。
[I am 11 years old. You are 18 years old.]

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Also, any age ending in ~4 and ~7 can only be yon-sai and nana-sai, just like how we only
use yon/nana to count 40/70. See the chart below for a summary of everything so far:

1 issai 11 juu issai 21 nijuu issai

2 ni sai 12 juu ni sai 22 nijuu ni sai
3 san sai 13 juu san sai 23 nijuu san sai
4 yon sai 14 juu yon sai 24 nijuu yon sai
5 go sai 15 juu go sai 25 nijuu go sai
6 roku sai 16 juu roku sai 26 nijuu roku sai
7 nana sai 17 juu nana sai 27 nijuu nana sai
8 hassai 18 juu hassai 28 nijuu hassai
9 kyuu sai 19 juu kyuu sai 29 nijuu kyuu sai
10 jussai 20 hatachi 30 sanjussai

Lastly, 20-years-old is hatachi (not hatachi-sai). The age of “20-years-old” gets its own
word because 20 is a very important age in Japan.

a ki ko sa n wa ni jussa i de su In Japan, 20 is the year you culturally

あきこ さん は にじゅっさい です。 (and legally!) become an adult. It’s like 18
[Akiko is twenty (incorrect).] in Australia, or 21 in the USA.

a ki ko sa n wa ha ta chi de su Be sure to use hatachi for this year!

あきこ さん は はたち です。 If you say nijussai you will be understood,
[Akiko is twenty.] but so will the limits of your Japanese.

One last use of numbers for this chapter is to talk about your year in school. The suffix to
list school years is ~nensei. Unlike age, the numbers don’t change shape except for one
case: a fourth-year is yonensei. You cannot say yon-nensei or shi-nensei. In theory,
~nensei can attach to numbers above four, but rarely does for obvious reasons.

wa ta shi wa i chi ne n se i de su
わたし は いちねんせい です。
[I am a first-year.]

sa o ri sa n wa ni ne n se i de su
さおりさん は にねんせい です。
[Saori is a second-year.]

yo ne n se i wa ma i ke ru sa n de su
よねんせい は マイケルさん です。
[The fourth-year is Micheal.]

da i ga ku se i wa sa n ne n se i de su
だいがくせい は さんねんせい です。
[The uni student is a third-year.] or [The uni students are third-years.]

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JPNS/JPNX 1010 Unit Book, Semester 1

Grammar Point 1.4: Self-introductions

Now that we’ve learned how to talk about our age and school year, let’s master Japanese
self-introductions! First, begin with the phrase hajimemashite, and then give your name.

ha ji me ma shi te
はじめまして。 Literally, はじめまして
means something like “this
ke n ta de su is the first time” or “(our

けんたです。 acquaintance) begins”.

Hajimemashite is often translated as “nice to meet you” or “how do you do?”. These are
not the literal meanings of the phrase, but they work fine as English equivalents.

Other details (name, nationality, age, school year, etc.) come after hajimemashite.
However, it is common and natural in Japanese to drop the topic/subject of a
sentence when it is obvious. You can even drop watashi wa from the first sentence of a
self-introduction (as Kenta does in the image above) because the topic (I) is obvious there.

ha ji me ma shi te
Nice to meet you.
はじめまして。 English requires
“I” 3 times here.
Japanese uses
wa ta shi wa na o mi bu ra u n de su
I am Naomi Brown. watashi once, and
わたし は ナオミ・ブラウン です。 even that could be
dropped in this
ha ta chi de su ni ne n se i de su
I am 20 years old. I am a second year. context because you
はたち です。 にねんせい です。 are obviously
talking about
yourself during a
o o su to ra ri a ji n de su
I am Australian. self introduction.
オーストラリア じん です。

Finally, a Japanese self-introduction ends with the phrase yoroshiku onegaishimasu. This
literally means “please be good/nice to me”. In response to yoroshiku onegaishimasu, it is
common to say kochira koso, which means something like “no, I should be saying that!”.

ha ji me ma shi te to mu de su
はじめまして。 トム です。
Niec to meet you. I am Tom.
ha ji me ma shi te ma ri de su
はじめまして。 まり です。
Nice to meet you. I am Mari.

yo ro shi ku o ne ga i shi ma su
よろしく おねがい します。
I look forward to getting to know you

ko chi ra ko so yo ro shi ku o ne ga i shi ma su

こちらこそ。よろしく おねがい します。
No, no, the pleasure is all mine!
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