Let's learn a little Japanese grammar and understand how these Japanese sentences are put together.
We will take a sentence at a time from our basic dialogues and look at the Japanese words from a grammatical point of view.
Sumimasen! Nihon jin desu ka? すみません！日本人ですか？
Sumimasen is used here to mean "excuse me." Can also mean "Sorry," like when you step on someone's foot.
A slightly more polite way of saying "excuse me" is shitsurei desu ga.
Nihon jin is literally Japanese person. Jin means person.
Desu is basically the Japanese equivalent of the English verb "to be," used in the present tense. This is the polite form. The plain or familiar form being da, which is used when talking to friends, those lower in rank than yourself or when used mid sentence, as in quoting something.
Ka just indicates that it's a question.
The question mark is not particularly necessary, so you can just replace it with a full stop.
Hai means mostly "yes." The Japanese use it in a number of ways, but it basically means "I have heard you."
Sou, as it is used here is very similar to the English "so," as in "it is so." Or "That's right!" Again, it can have a number of meanings, depending on context and how it is said.
Anata means "you." It's the polite form. A more familiar form being kimi. As I have said, it is usually dropped in normal Japanese conversation.
A better way of referring to the person, if you must, is by using the person's surname and attaching san to it. As in yamada-san.
Usually though, if it is obvious who you are referring to, just omit it.
Wa is one of these extra words that lie around in Japanese sentences, called particles, and are not really translatable. Wa indicates what precedes it is the subject and topic of the sentence.
These extra words are called particles and tell us the function of the word before it. In this case it indicates that anata is the subject of the sentence. It's like saying "When it comes to you(anata) ..."
Doko means "where."
Kara, in this sense means "from."
Chikaku is the adverbial form of the adjective chikai, which means "near."
You can use this construction with all adjectives that end in ...ii.
For example: Just knock off the "i" and add ku.
Big okii okiku
Pleasant tanoshii tanoshiku
Nice yoi(ii) yoku
Happy ureshii ureshiku
no, another particle, indicates the possessive. It's like saying "the nearness belonging to Tokyo." It's used in the same way that we use the "(apostrophe 's" in English. I.e. Joe's apple.
Another example: Watashi no ringo = My apple.
Ryokou means travel or a trip.
Chikaku is the adverbial form of the adjective chikai, which means "near."
You can use this construction with all adjectives that end in ...ii.
For example: Just knock off the "i" and add ku.
Big okii okiku
Pleasant tanoshii tanoshiku
Nice yoi(ii) yoku
Happy ureshii ureshiku
no
is the possessive. It's like saying "the nearness belonging to Tokyo."
It's used in the same way that we use the "(apostrophe 's" in English.
I.e. Joe's apple.
Another example:
Watashi no ringo = My apple.
Ryokoumeans travel or a trip.
The majority of adjectives end in "ii." For example: ureshii, tanoshii. Some don't.
When they don't and they come before the noun they modify, then the particle "na" is inserted between the adjective and the noun. For example:
Benri, which means convenient.
This is a convenient hotel. Kore wa benri na hoteru desu.
However...
This hotel is convenient. Kono hoteru wa benri desu.
As you can see, you only use "na" when the adjective directly preceeds the noun.
Some "ii" adjectives also can take "na" before a noun: ookii na.
This is a set piece to add to your basic Japanese that you can always roll out in this kind of scenario.
Dewa means "well." Used to mark the end of a conversation. It is often contracted to ja.
o-hanashi/o-ai indicates a talking or a meeting. The "o" here being the honorific "o." It makes the sentence even more polite.
dekite is the "te" form of the verb dekiru, which means "to be able to." Dekiru is the plain or dctionary form of the verb, meaning the way it is written in the dictionary.
Here, the ...te part of dekite, can be translated as "because." So, you could translate the sentence as "I am happy, because I was able to talk to you."
This is another of those useful set pieces that there are so many of in the Japanese language.
The "have a " part of "Have a nice trip" is omitted as understood, which is often the case in Japanese.
o を is a particle and indicates the object that belongs to a verb.
ありがとうございます means "Thank you very much."
Leaving off the "gozaimasu" makes it less formal.
さよなら means "Goodbye," in the sense that "we won't be meeting for a very long time."
For "See you later" you can say: dewa mata or the English byebye is also popular.
Let's go to the next of our dialogues and check out the Japanese grammar as it applies to the basic Japanese in these sentences.
When you feel you have digested the above then click here.