Rough Guide Phrasebooks - Mkmouse.com.br

hon can mean ‘a book’,‘the book’,‘books’,‘some books’<br />
or ‘the books’<br />
biru can mean:‘a beer’,‘the beer’,‘beers’,‘some beers’ or<br />
‘the beers’<br />
Usually, what you mean will be perfectly clear from the context.<br />
Where necessary, you can be more specific by using<br />
numbers (see Counting, page 286).<br />
Although the form of the noun itself does not change,<br />
grammatical particles placed after the noun indicate<br />
whether it is the subject, object or indirect object of a sentence:<br />
watashi no fak·kusu wa todokimashita ka?<br />
[‘I’ + possessive part. ‘fax’ + sub. part. + ‘arrived’ + question part.]<br />
has my fax arrived yet?<br />
fak·kusu o okurimashita ka?<br />
[‘fax’ + ob. part. + ‘sent’ + question part.]<br />
did you send the fax?<br />
Wa and o are known as postpositional particles (see page 273).<br />
One interesting aspect of many nouns is that they can be<br />
changed into verbs by just adding suru (to do) or shimas<br />
(polite form of ‘to do’).Thus, dokusho is the Japanese word<br />
for ‘reading’, and doksho suru is the equivalent of ‘to read’.<br />
Pronouns<br />
Generally, pronouns are omitted in Japanese whenever possible,<br />
but occasionally it might be necessary to use them for<br />
emphasis or to avoid misunderstanding. It should be remembered<br />
that, on the whole, use of pronouns does not show<br />
respect and should be avoided, especially when addressing<br />
one’s superiors. If it does become necessary to use a personal<br />
pronoun, the words listed in the sections that follow can<br />
be used.<br />
HOW THE LANGUAGE WORKS<br />
■ Nouns / Pronouns<br />
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