Notes on Words in Japanese

* I spell words that are writte in katakana in uppercase.

* Nouns are slightly different in Japanese. First, there are no words for "a" "an" "the" or "some." These aren't translated into Japanese. Secondly, there is no distinction between singular and plural. So all words are similar to the English words "sheep" or "fish." You can have one fish or two fish, one sheep or two sheep, and the word doesn't change.

* Pronouns are extremely different in English. Actually, Japanese doen't have REAL pronouns. These words are just nouns that refer to people. They act just like nouns except you need to add a suffix to make them plural.

* There are many suffixes in Japanese that are added after a persons name. The most common and reknowned of these suffixes is "-san." "-San" can mean "Mr." or "Mrs." depending on context. A general rule is, unless you are extremely close friends with someone, you should add one of these suffixes.

---

Return