Expanding On Loving And Hating
“In time we hate that which we often fear. ” - William Shakespeare
We expanded on things a little in the last chapter by throwing じゃありません into the mix. There’s a few more things you’ve learned previously that we can use as well. Things like…
- Making things into questions
- The の Particle
This will be a good opportunity to review old things and apply them to new things. It will make your sentences longer, and you’ll be able to say a lot more. Plus, it’ll start training you to think in terms of combining the separate things you’ve learned to make new, slightly newer things. I think we can jump right in!
Making すき／きらい Into Questions
Being able to do this / understand this is great, because now I can ask you questions (in Japanese) and you can answer them. For example:
Q. いぬ が すき ですか？
Do you like dogs?
A. はい、いぬ は すき です。
Yes, I like dogs / Yes, as for dogs, I like them
Ho ho ho – see what happened there? In the question, we used が because we identified the thing we’re asking about (dogs). Because dogs have already been identified, you can answer using は, which puts the emphasis and importance on whether or not you like them (i.e. what comes after は). See how that works? Pay attention to this, and do your best. It’s not the end of the world if you don’t get you は’s and が’s right (you’ll still be understood, and such), but if you make sure you pay attention you’ll learn a lot more and sound a lot more fluent, faster.
I’m going to ask some questions – you answer them. You can use any level of like, dislike, or something in between (you know, like すきじゃありません). Answer them in the same way as I did above, in the example.
Q. ねこがすきですか？
A. _________________________
Q. ちかてつがすきですか？
A. _________________________
Q. でんしゃがすきですか？
A. _________________________
Q. みずがすきですか？
A. _________________________
Q. くうこうがすきですか？
A. _________________________
Q. たべものがすきですか？
A. _________________________
That shouldn’t have been too hard for you – it’s basically the same exact thing we did before, but now with questions. Let’s add a little more to it.
The の Particle
Of course, you can use the の particle as well. This will allow you to talk about your things (or someone else’s things) and offer your opinion on whether or not you like them. The easiest example involves using わたしの (my). For example:
わたしのくるまがすきです
I like my car
わたしのしゃしんがきらいです
I hate my picture
All we’re doing is adding わたしの to the sentences we’ve already been making, turning the “thing” into “my thing.” You can do this with other people’s things as well.
ひとみさんのあさごはんがすきです
I like Hitomi’s breakfast
あなたのこどもがすきじゃありません
I don’t like your child
にほんのしんぶんがきらいです
I hate Japan’s newspaper(s).
Now we’re being more specific. We’re talking about someone or something else’s “thing” and then expressing our like/hate opinion about it. Now you try:
Q. わたしのくるまはすきですか？
A. No, I hate your car.
いいえ、あなたのくるまがきらいです
Q. あれはきらいですか？
A. Yes, I hate that thing over there
はい、あれがきらいです
At this point, you’re going to see a lot more “combining of lessons.” The more you know, the more you can piece things together. It’s like Japanese learning is a puzzle, where each lesson / vocab word / grammar concept is a single piece. If you get enough of them, and you know where to put them, the puzzle starts coming together. As you continue to learn more and more, we’ll make sure to put those pieces together whenever we can. Besides, it’s good review. This won’t be the last time you see すき and きらい.
Really quickly before moving on, though, download and import the new きらい vocab into your TextFugu Vocab deck.