No, the first sentence makes no sense. The second does mean "This is an apple" (or "These are apples"). Also, you want は (and not わ) as the topic marker (pronounced "wa" nevertheless).
In a nutshell,
これ = "this"
この = "this [something]"
このりんごはあかいです。 (This apple is red.)
このあかいのはりんごです。 (This red one is an apple.)
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Anonymous2012-09-02 0:22
>>961
Ah, thank you very much that clears a lot up! Thankyou.
これはひとですか？ （Is this a person?)
そのひとはやさしです。 （That person is kind)
And that last one can also mean 'Those people are kind' right?
Thank you for all the help, I know this is pretty elementary.
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Anonymous2012-09-02 3:31
Just started.
English:
>26 characters
>plus rules on how they go together
Japanese:
>50 characters
>for not at many sounds
>then another 50 for the same
>then 40K characters for individual words
>plus additional rules on sounds
Their alphabet is kinda inefficient, isn't it?
Also, having one character represent a consonant and vowel is going to take some getting used to.
</blog>
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Anonymous2012-09-02 5:14
>>963
don't forget roughly 1800 commonly used characters.
You speak that way because you're biased toward English, which has dozens of bizarre spelling rules. Although it may seem like a lot, Katakana and Hiragana become as easy as the alphabet, and the spelling rules are always consistent and generally straightforward with exception to maybe particles. Kanji is another story.
I guess. Maybe. Their alphabet seems to limit their sounds way more than necessary, though. You can't write "black" in its pure form using Japanese letters. Closest you can get is "wuraku".
Also, I'm glad that I started while following a Japanese stream. Perfect practice.
Although trying to pick out familiar characters from a mass of unfamiliar characters is a bit of a headache.
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Anonymous2012-09-02 6:34
Also, I like how immediately rewarding this is.
That's fifteen characters that I saw all the time but might as well have been moonrunes two days ago that aren't gibberish anymore.
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Anonymous2012-09-02 9:12
>>966
That's because you cant SAY "black" in its "pure form". Japanese (katakana and hiragana) is actually 100% synchronized with its alphabet. Spellings instantly creates pronunciation (aside from some particles), reason in part as to why their literacy is higher than most. Are you seriously suggesting the English system of pronunciation is somehow more efficient or does a better job of amalgamating words with their pronunciations?
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Anonymous2012-09-02 9:40
Could some one verify this sentence please?
ぼくはひとやさしいです。 (I am a kind person)
I realise it's probably wrong, but would anyone be able to correct it using only hiragana and a simple vocabulary please? I'm just trying to fortify my understanding by making sentences in a format I haven't been taught yet.
"40k kanji" - Why do people keep intimidating themselves like that? You don't even use most of them on a daily basis; the jouyou kanji count is only ~5% of that (2136).
If you really can't get over that, think of kanji as nothing more than an spatial arrangement of strokes, in the same way that English words are a linear arrangement of letters. You know how sometimes you can guess at the meaning of a word from its roots? Same goes for kanji - the radicals can sometimes give you hints on meanings.
tl;dr stop scaring yourself and just get used to the language
>That's because you cant SAY "black" in its "pure form".
What the hell are you talking about?
English speakers have no problems saying "black". They don't need to put a vowel after the "B" or the "ck". They can transition straight into the "l" and not have any other sounds after the "ck".
You're starting to sound like a butthurt Japanese native who doesn't like people pointing out the flaws of his language. GURORIOUSU NIPON RANGUAGE HASU NO FURASU. BAKA GAIJIN.
Or maybe someone who speaks another scarcely used language as his first and is projecting his butthurt into this Japanese discussion?
Don't you guys use kanji because your writing would get cumbersome without them, too?
I don't get mad when people say that English is redundant and has words and "rules" that don't seem to conform to any actual rules. You shouldn't get mad when people point out the flaws in Japanese, either. Stop being stupid.
I'm not scaring myself out of it. Just... posting thoughts. I have to take breaks from stuff.
Learning something vast and unfamiliar is always a little intimidating, but also exciting.
Best you can do is move forward. Learn and adapt.
Not speaking Japanese has been noticeably limiting my hobbies for about a decade now. Valkyria Chronicles 3? Idol Master? Most SRW games? Want to play them. Could, but it would involve a lot of guesswork, and I wouldn't be able to follow the story. I'm at the mercy of translators.
If I could speak Japanese somewhat fluently in 2017, then good.
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Anonymous2012-09-02 18:11
>>976
Are you retarded? He was talking about Japanese. They can't say it. That's why they can't write it and vice versa.
Also, the Japanese CANNOT localize English words without butchering them beyond recognition to anyone with untrained ears, due to their need to put emphasis on a vowel sound after every consonant except for "n" and having less sounds in general. We have 21 consonants. They have ten, plus some modifiers that still don't add up to enough to express every sound in the English language.
As far as I know, the only problems that English would have with Japanese words are their "l/r" sound and "tsu".
He's trying to say that when you say "black", you're actually saying "bulacke", albeit with very, very short vowel sounds, due to the nature of air moving from your mouth.
According to him, Japanese is superior because it represents all of those vowel sounds in writing.
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Anonymous2012-09-02 18:49
Oh yeah, and as for the literacy thing, I'd chalk that up to a culture that puts a lot of stress on DO WELL IN SCHOOL.
Americans? Our youth will shrug off/rush homework assignments in favor of more facebook time, and our schools will pass them through the system anyways.
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Anonymous2012-09-02 23:09
>>977
And I'll tell you now. VC 3 was pretty good. Cleaned up for the mess that 2 was.
What the hell are you going on about? Japanese is limited in its sounds. That doesn't make it empirically better or worse. English has less sounds than some other languages. There isn't (nor should there be) one language that encompasses every possible sound that the human mouth can make. You can't express the clicks present in many African languages, but that doesn't mean English is any worse off for it.
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Anonymous2012-09-03 0:15
ぼくはあなたのママおやる。
That's right, right?
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Anonymous2012-09-03 0:27
How should I know when to use kanji and when not to use kanji?
Leets say I wanted to say 'Where is the new toilet?' Is’新といれはどこですか？’ Right? Is 新トイレはどこですか？’ Right also?
新 as a direct prefix is used in making new words. 新トイレ sounds like one word or one concept ('newtoilet', perhaps) whereas 新しいトイレ is what would be used for "new toilet". As a general rule, kanji follow the language and not the other way around.
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Anonymous2012-09-03 2:38
I don't get how you guys can master both hiragana and katakana over 4-5 days.
Just learning ten in a day tires me out on the subject.
I could force myself to keep going, but I don't think that it would sink in very well.
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Anonymous2012-09-03 2:48
>>987
I transcribed lyrics of some Japanese songs to kana (i.e., replace all the kanji with the readings) and listened to those on repeat while singing along. Had all of hiragana memorized in a couple of days.
The point is to study them in conjunction with something you like. Oh, and prioritize hiragana.
Ten hiragana per day (one page full of each), identify all known hiragana on Japanese websites until I'm not making mistakes anymore.
I can write what I've seen so far off of memory.
Might not work as great for katakana, though.
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Anonymous2012-09-03 3:22
>>985
More of a guideline than a rule, but:
- Use kanji for the most important parts of the sentence (generally, nouns, adjectives, and verbs) when one exists.
- Don't use kanji for stuff marked as "uk" (= "usually written using kana alone") on EDICT.
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Anonymous2012-09-03 11:44
Can someone translate?
見る夢は私に人生をあきらめて睡眠に落ち込もうという誘惑を仕掛けていると時折思う
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Anonymous2012-09-03 12:02
>>991
Sometimes I feel like dreams are tempting me to give up on daily life and fall into the depths of sleep.
Is how I interpret it but somehow the sentence feels a little weird.
>>989
You're going way too slow if you want to see results anytime soon. A week should be enough to learn reading and writing both hiragana and katakana.
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Anonymous2012-09-03 14:45
>>992
The "depth of sleep" sounds a little too poetic to me but everything looks fine. Why would you say its weird?
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Anonymous2012-09-03 15:04
>>994
Word usage. Using 見る夢 as if it's a noun etc.
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Anonymous2012-09-03 15:13
>>995
The difference is probably attributable to the noun phrase "(私が)見る夢", saying "my dreams", "the dreams I have".
睡眠に落ち込もう might sound kind of weird but its not "wrong".
If anyone could tell me which of the above two is right (if any) I'd be really grateful. I know I should be using Kanji in a lot of those words, but lets just ignore that little mess up there.
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Anonymous2012-09-04 18:24
アメリカ is always going to be written in katakana except in very specific dialog-related situations.
おおきい is the word you want, not おおき. おおきな(noun) is also used, but it requires a noun. Assuming you use おおきい, both are correct. Adding です just makes it polite.
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Over 1000 Thread2012-09-04 18:24Over 1000
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