In Japanese class, we've been conjugating adjectives. It's simply not enough to know the rules for conjugation. I have to train my muscle memory, just like in learning to ride a bike or drive a stick-shift. The only way I can get my mouth around some of these words is to write them down and then repeat them over and over.
The adjective that is both the most difficult and the most fun for the class is 温かかった（あたたかかった）. We can never say it without cracking up. The one that always trips me up is 少なくない（すくなくない）. In fact, all of the adjectives that end in 〜nai are confusing because they already sound negative. I notice, though, that they all have a negative association: dirty (きたない), few (すくない), boring (つまらない).
I've created some adjective flashcards as a study aid. Feel free to try them. I'm sorry to say that I haven't developed a satisfactory method for creating a print-friendly version. My longterm goal is to make them about the same size as business cards and print them on card stock.
The cards show the root of each adjective in large type. To the right, are the various endings in small type. Combine the two to read the whole word. I study it this way so that I can visualize the root and whether it's kanji only or a combination of kanji and hiragana. For each kanji, I include the furigana so that these cards double as kanji practice cards.
If you haven't studied adjectives yet, the conjugation might not be apparent. It goes like this.
| い (plain, non-past affirmative) |
| かった (plain, past affirmative) |
| くない (plain, non-past negative) |
| くなかった (plain, past negative) |
| くて |
Permalink.
あたたかくない (to say nothing of あたたかくなかった) always gives me problems. And たかくなかった as well. I'm never sure I've said it right. But we have to get used to it, for this conjugation runs throughout Japanese. But if you think these are difficult, wait till you get to potential (かのうーけい) verb forms, especially with Group 2 verbs (たとえば、たべる、みる とか). I can never say たべられる (can eat), let alone the negative past of this, たべられなかった (couldn't eat). And point of fact, many Japanese nowadays can't either, or at least choose not to, dropping the ら so that they say たべれる.
Posted by: Kurt on March 8, 2003 11:54 AM
You're right, Kurt. Dropping the ら, or ら抜きことば, seems to be in fashion, kind of. But in Hokkaido, that has long been a common practice. I used to think ら抜きことば was 北海道弁. ;)
Posted by: Kiyo on March 9, 2003 11:05 AM
I debated with myself about adding the potential forms, but decided to wait until we study them. I also find it difficult to pronounce that ra-re-ru combination (I sound like Elmer Fudd saying wabbit.) This combination is especially troublesome on verbs that contain Ws.
The sound that I find nearly impossible to pronounce is りょ (ryo) like in りょかん or りょうり.
Posted by: M on March 10, 2003 11:12 PM
This is sorta かんけない, but your example words for りょ made me think about it so I'll throw it in anyway...speaking of sounds, for the life of me I can't pick up the extra う sound in listening. Other potentially troublesome sounds, like double consonants (as in ゆっくり), or extended vowel sounds especially in katakana words (indicated by the hyphen, like コンサート), are no problem (most of the time), but the extra う, very difficult. Thus, the りょ of りょかん and the りょう of りょうり sound exactly the same! It really gives me fits trying to look things up in the dictionary, or when typing out something my wife is dictating to me.
Posted by: Kurt on March 11, 2003 12:58 PM
Kurt, think of it like taufu. Each hiragana or katakana is a chop of taufu. So, you got to cut each into equal size. If you try to "sing" it in English or even Chinese it is very hard to get them in "square and pieces." Hit the desk step by step when you pronounce, and each hit should be 同じ！ even for the small "tsu," that supposed to be half step compared to the others. Easy to say, I still cannot cut it nicely, even in the kitchen. :)
I went for a recitation class before, and I was the only gaijin. The Japanese could not understand why gaijin cannot pronounce the prolong sound or the small tsu, and I was the "material." The teacher said, you see! This gaijin is giving us the "best example!"
Posted by: Ken Loo on March 12, 2003 01:43 AM
Ken Loo, that's hilarious. Nothing like being labelled as the "bad" example in class. I've always said the double-consonant like we pronounce the double-k in "bookkeeping"--after all, we don't say "boo keeping". But I still have trouble telling the difference between cheese and maps, buildings and beer.
Posted by: M on March 12, 2003 07:19 AM
In the video game "Street Fighter", Americans always refer to the guy "Ryu" as "Riyu". Just like they tend to pronounce 京都 as "KEY-oh-toe"
Posted by: JQS on March 12, 2003 07:22 AM
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