#genki notes

) Im on the third edition of book one, lesson 1

1). X は Y です You can also watch tokini andys video

・X は Y です acts as a kind of formula for a lot of the basic Japanese sentence structure. 　• X = the topic of the sentence. 　• は = when used in a topic position of any sentences, は is a particle that acts as a flag, or marks the topic of a sentence.

ex) “my cat is little.” my cat is the topic of the sentence, in Japanese you would say; “僕のねこはちさいです。” 僕のねこ is marked by は, making it the topic of the sentence, what the sentence is about.

　• Y = something about the topic, or what the topic is. 　• です = it is.

ex) in “僕のねこはちさいです。” or, “my cat is small.” we already know that “僕のねこは” is the topic of the sentence, because it is marked by は. but, what about my cat? why are we talking about my cat? he is small; “ちさいです。”

“僕のねこはちさいです。”

| あのう 　→ it has the same meaning as when you say um

| そうですか 　→ the words can mean the same thing, but how you say it, you can change how the words are perceived; Rising intonation, "is that so?". or with falling intonation, "i see...". but both kind of mean that you under stand whatever was said to you.

| せんせい 　→ is an honorable term used to describe someone else's occupation' "さくらはせんせいです" = "Sakura is a teacher"

| さん 　→ is a general title placed on other people's names as a pretty respecfull term, but theres other things you can call someone to show more respect. this title goes after a persons name, first or last; さくらさん、さとうさん、海月さん

Lesson 3) Noun の Noun

の is a particle that connects two nouns- 　-a noun is a word used to identify a class of people, places, or things.

in our sentence, “僕のねこはちさいです” 　→僕 (i) is a possessive noun, that marks ねこ (cat) as mine.

“僕のねこ” my cat.

in our sentence, “僕のねこはちさいです” or, “my cat is small.”

noun 2 = the main idea 　→using our example; Cat is the main topic

noun 1 = more information about noun 2 　→ in the example, we already know that cat is the main topic, but what cat are we talking about? whose cat is small? it’s mine, my cat is small.

“僕のねこはちさいです”

2). Question Sentences genki explains this really well, all you have to do is add か to the end of a statement to make it a question-

“僕のねこはちさいですか” or, “is my cat small?”

Tokini andy also makes a good point in saying か acts as a spoken question mark.