Articles, gender and plural in Japanese

Level A1

Articles, gender and plural in Japanese

Good news: Japanese has no "a" or "the", no masculine and feminine nouns, and no plural ending, so 本 (hon) is "a book", "the book" and "books" all at once. What English says with articles and -s, Japanese leaves to context, to words like この (kono, "this"), and to a number when the number matters. The café dialogue uses the polite です and ます forms you'd use with a stranger, and the moving-day dialogue uses the plain forms friends use with each other.

Six everyday nouns: 本, テーブル, 椅子, ベッド, りんご, 車

No "a", no "the", no gender: 本 is a book or the book

Japanese has no words for "a" or "the", and nouns have no gender, so you never need to choose a form: 本を持っています (hon o motte imasu) is simply "I have a book." When you want to point at one particular thing, use この (kono, "this") or その (sono, "that"), where English would often just say "the": このりんごはとても甘いです (kono ringo wa totemo amai desu), "The apple is very sweet."

The particles after a noun also do some of the work of English articles. は (wa) marks something you're already talking about, which English usually marks with "the": 本はテーブルの上にあります (hon wa tēburu no ue ni arimasu), "The book is on the table." が (ga) often brings in something new, a bit like "a": うちには新しい車があります (uchi ni wa atarashii kuruma ga arimasu), "We have a new car."

No plural ending: ベッドが二つ, two beds

Japanese nouns don't change in the plural, so there is no -s to add: りんごはテーブルの上にあります (ringo wa tēburu no ue ni arimasu) can mean "the apple is" or "the apples are" on the table. When the number matters, you say it with a number and a counter after the noun: この部屋にはベッドが二つあります (kono heya ni wa beddo ga futatsu arimasu), "There are two beds in this room." Counters are taught in the numbers lesson.

For "a lot of", add たくさん (takusan): 本をたくさん持っています, "I have a lot of books." To make clear that you mean all of them, add どれも (doremo, "every one"): テーブルはどれも新しいです, "The tables are all new." An ending like たち (tachi) does exist, as in 子供たち (kodomotachi, children), but it's used for people, never for things like books or chairs.

At a café, politely: この椅子、空いていますか？

Moving in, between friends: 本はどこに置けばいい？

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