Taking Advantage Of Japanese Grammar (For Fun)
“Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.” - Henry Ford
I think you’re at the right point in your Japanese where you can start taking advantage of Japanese grammar in a way that will literally put people on the edge of their seats. Plus, it’ll give you some extra insight into Japanese sentence structure (which is a very good thing). This is particularly useful with な adjectives. Take the following two sentences for example:
audio.mp3あなた が すき です
I like you
audio.mp3あなた が すき じゃありません
I don’t like you
Now let’s cut the ends off these sentences.
あなた が すき
あなた が すき
Notice how they’ve basically been stripped of their meaning? If you leave it the way it is, they’ll become positive sentences (as in a casual way to say “I like you”), but if you let things trail… you have no idea what the sentence is saying until you actually say it. You could be saying you like this guy/girl, or you could be saying you don’t like this guy/girl.
In English, you know from the get go whether or not the sentence is positive, negative, past tense, or past negative.
I like you
I don’t like you
In Japanese, you don’t have to give away that part until the very end. Let’s take a look at this conversation.
a きみこさん が きらい … [long pause] … じゃありません
I don’t hate you (Kimiko)
Kimiko lets out a sigh of relief because it sounded like he was saying he hates her (until he finished the sentence with じゃありません)
a きみこさん は きれい … [long pause] … じゃありません
You (Kimiko) are not pretty
Kimiko is sad, because she thought he was going to say she’s pretty (until he finished the sentence with じゃありません)
a きみこさん の りょうり は じょうず … [long pause] … じゃありません
Your (Kimiko’s) cooking is not good/skillful
Kimiko thought he was complimenting her on her cooking… it turns out he thinks she’s bad at cooking. Kimiko’s glad she took out life insurance on her husband last year… she has the perfect plan in place…
To a lesser degree, verbs and い adjectives work too, though な adjectives and nouns are where all the fun is at. The reason is because the tense in Japanese doesn’t come until the end. Everything about a sentence can be present tense, but you don’t really know until the last part of the sentence. Particularly, though, this kind of grammar trickery is good for making positive sounding things negative.
Verbs are like this:
a ビール を のみま。。。。。。。せん！
I will not drink beer
aサッカー を しま。。。。。。せん！
I will not play soccer
a ねこ を たべま。。。。。。。せんでした！
I didn’t eat the cat
And so are い adjectives:
a すし は おいし。。。。。。くないです！
The sushi is not good tasting
a あなた は はずかし。。。。。くないです！
You are not embarrassing
a犬 は かわい。。。。。。くないです！
The dog is not cute
Basically, I’m trying to make the point that it’s the end of the sentence that counts. That’s where the magic happens, and that’s where you should immediately look if you’re trying to figure out if something is present, past, negative, or past negative. Plus, taking advantage of this can be a little fun. The above examples are kind of like the “NOT!” joke in English, where you add a “NOT!” to something you say (except Japanese has it built in right out of the box).
Try to pay attention to the endings of sentences, especially as the grammar gets more complicated and your sentences get longer. The end is always the most important part.