しつもん Questions

1.) やせい　の　ポケモン　は　だれ　です　か？

wild / possessive marker / ポケモン / topic marker / who / です / か

2.) その　ポケモン　の　タイプ　は　なん　です　か？

that / ポケモン / possessive marker / type / topic marker / what / です / か

こたえ Answers

1.) メリープ

2.) でんき

*View the full fan manga at blueberryfild.cocolog-nifty.com.

かいもの is the word for shopping. Below is a practice sheet for writing か.

Click here to download:

Ka_for_Kaimono.pdf (96 KB)

Other words that start with か:
か - mosquito
かめ - turtle
かのじょ - she/her; girlfriend
かれ - he/him; boyfriend
からい - spicy
かるた - a type of card game

か is also an important particle. When added to the end of a sentence, it means that a question is being asked. For example, おなまえ は なん です か means, "What is your name?"

There are different levels of speech in Japan that show your relationship to that person. With a teacher, you would use formal speech (which includes endings like です and ます), while with a friend, you would use casual speech (which includes endings like る and う). か is usually used to ask a question in a sentence that uses formal speech. When asking a question using casual speech, you would make your voice go higher at the end of the sentence, like in English when asking a yes or no question.

On Bulbapedia, you can find the names of pokemon in Japanese, and learn about the origin of those names. Just type in a pokemon's name, and next to its picture will be the name in katakana and romaji. Scroll down and look for "name origin". Under this category will be explanations for the pokemon's name in English and Japanese.

Romaji are the same letters we see used in English. For example, the romaji for サトシ's name is "satoshi".

Kanto Starter Pokemon Name Origins

フシギダネ has two meanings. One is ふしぎ (mysterious) + だね (isn't it), which translates as, "Isn't that mysterious?" The other is ふしぎ (mysterious) + たね (seed), which translates as "mysterious seed". Sometimes in Japanese, when combining two words to make one word, the first character in the second word has dakuten added to it. So, the た in seed is changed to a だ.

火蜥蜴 (ひとかげ) is the word for "fire lizard" in Japanese. The kanji 火 (ひ) means "fire", and the kanji combination 蜥蜴 (とかげ) means "lizard".

銭亀 (ぜにがめ) is the word for "pond turtle" in Japanese. Look up the kanji, 銭亀, in google images, and you'll find pictures of pond turtles. Look up the katakana, ゼニガメ, and you'll find pictures of both the pokemon and the animal.

Listen for these three phrases サトシ says the day before he becomes a pokemon trainer:

フシギダネ、きみにきめた！
ゼニガメ、きみにきめた！
ヒトカゲ、きみにきめた！

きみにきめた means "I choose you". きめた (chose) is actually a past tense verb, meaning the action has already been done. The present tense for きめた is きめる (choose). So even though in the English version of Pokemon, サトシ says "I choose you", in the Japanese version, it would actually be, "I chose you".

きめる is a る verb. There are two types of regular verbs: る and う. There are also the irregular verbs: する (to do) and くる (to come).

Any verb at does not end with る is an う verb. る verbs are more complicated. If the verb ends with る and the second to last syllable has an "i" or "e" sound, then it is most likely a る verb. If the verb ends with る and the second to last syllable has an "a" "u" or "o" sound, then it is an う verb.

Example う verbs: いく (iku, or to go), はなす (hanasu, or to speak), わかる (wakaru, or to understand)

Example る verbs: きめる (kimeru, or to choose), たべる (taberu, or to eat), みる (miru, or to see)

*Learn more about る and う verbs in Tae Kim's grammar guide.

This is サトシ (satoshi), known as Ash in the English series of Pokemon. He's come a far way since his journey started in Kanto and has now been to many regions, seen many pokemon and made many friends.

The starter pokemon in Kanto are ゼニガメ (zenigame, or squirtle), フシギダネ (fushigidane, or bulbasaur) and ヒトカゲ (hitokage, or charmander).

This is the male protagonist in the Gold/Silver/Crystal and HeartGold/SoulSilver video game series. In the video games, his name is ヒビキ (hibiki, or Ethan). In the anime, his name is ケンタ (kenta, or Jimmy).

This is the female protagonist in the HeartGold/SoulSilver video game series. Her name is コトネ (kotone, or Lyra) in both the anime and the video game.

This is メリープ (meriipu, or mareep), an electric sheep pokemon.

Good kana charts are hard to come by. The syllables from hiragana and katakana are grouped together into one big group called kana. That's why furigana has the word kana in it ("k" becomes "g"), and same for okurigana. Okurigana is the kana that comes after the kanji in a word (ex: In the word 食べる (to eat), 食 is the kanji and べる is the okurigana).

Here are some things to look for in a kana chart: the basic syllabary (rows "k" through "n" in the chart above), the dakuten and handakuten basic syllabary (rows "g" through "p") and the contracted syllabary (rows "kya" through "pya"). Some charts are missing one or more of these syllabaries.

Dakuten (ex: ゛) are the dots that come after some kana. They show a change of sound in the first half of the syllable (ex: た [ta] becomes だ [da]). Handakuten is the circle (ex: ゜) that comes after the kana in the "h" row. It shows a change from the "h" sound to the "p" sound.

This is the last blog post for lesson two! Good job everyone! よくできた (yoku dekita)!

Now let's see how much you remember! Below is a simplified version of the Cardcaptor Sakura manga.

Click here to download:

Mini_Manga_Cardcaptor_Sakura_V1.pdf (373 KB)

Read It

First, start off by reading what you can. There are some words that we did not learn in this simplified version of the manga. Go ahead and read the words with the help of a hiragana and katakana chart.

Look Up Unfamiliar Words

Try looking up the new words in an online dictionary like WWWJDIC. Some of the hiragana will have to be changed into kanji for the dictionary to work. To do so, type in what you see and press space after you've finished typing a line. For example, このおとか would become この音か. Sometimes, the wrong kanji will appear. You'll learn over time how to figure out which kanji is right.

Print It

Print the mini manga and carry it around with you. Try reading it from time to time. It helps to also carry around a hiragana and katakana chart.

Write It

Copy down the dialogue from the manga into a notebook.

A great time to practice using Japanese is during breakfast.

Start your day off by saying おはよう to yourself or to someone who knows Japanese. If you're hungry, practice saying おなかがすいた. Before eating, remember to say いただきます and if the food looks good, you can say おいしそう.

Print out this sheet below to help you remember these phrases.

Click here to download:

breakfast_practice.pdf (31 KB)

さくら introduces her friend to us, だいどうじ　ともよちゃん。わたしのいちばんのともだち。

だいどうじ (daidouji) is ともよ's family name. In Japan, one says their family name first, and their given name last. ちゃん (chan) is a common thing to add onto the end of a girl's name, or even a boy's name in some cases, to show friendship. くん (kun) is more commonly used for boys.

Word Bank:

さくら is given breakfast and exclaims, わ、おいしそう！いただきます！

Word Bank:

いただきます (itadakimasu) is something people say in Japan before they begin eating. It's polite, and shows thankfulness for the food and who it came from. This isn't just said for food, but also said when accepting a present.

There are two kinds of adjectives in Japan: い (i) adjectives and な (na) adjectives. い adjectives end in い, such as おいしい and かわいい (kawaii, or cute). な adjectives don't end in い, such as しずか (shizuka, or quiet) and しんせつ (shinsetsu, or nice).

When そう is added to an い adjective, the い is dropped. That's why in the dialogue, さくら says おいしそう. When そう is added to a な adjective, nothing is dropped.