Saying what you eat and drink in Japanese

Level A1

Saying what you eat and drink in Japanese

By the end of this lesson you can say what you eat and drink in Japanese: ご飯を食べます (gohan o tabemasu), "I eat rice", and 水を飲みます (mizu o nomimasu), "I drink water". One idea does all the work: what you eat or drink comes before the verb, marked by を (o), and the verb closes the sentence.

A quick warm-up: は and です

Here is what you'll reuse, even if this is the first time you've seen it. In 私はアナです (watashi wa Ana desu), "I am Ana", は, read wa, marks who or what you're talking about, and です (desu) closes the sentence politely. これは何ですか (kore wa nan desu ka) asks "What is this?": これ is "this", 何 is "what", and か turns the sentence into a question. 本です (hon desu) answers "It's a book". So far these sentences say what something is; now you'll say what someone does.

Three things to eat and drink

ご飯 (gohan) is cooked rice, and the same word also means a meal, so ご飯を食べます can be "I eat rice" or "I have a meal". パン (pan) is bread and 水 (mizu) is water. None of them needs "a" or "the": each one stands on its own in a sentence.

At lunch

Two colleagues are setting out lunch on a table, and the first points at a closed box nearby. They use 食べます (tabemasu), "eat", and 飲みます (nomimasu), "drink", to say what they're about to have; the same forms also say what you do in general, so 食べます covers both "I eat" and "I'm going to eat". The first speaker never says "I", because nobody needs telling who is eating. The second says 私は (watashi wa), "as for me", to set their own choice apart, and points at a drink with これ.

The thing, を, then the verb

This is the whole idea: what you eat or drink comes before the verb, を follows that thing, and the verb closes the sentence. English runs the other way, so "I drink water" becomes 水を飲みます, word for word "water を drink". を has no English translation: it marks the thing the action falls on.

Change the words in the slots and keep what makes sense: ご飯 and パン go with 食べます; 水 goes with 飲みます. これ and それ (sore), "that", for something near the person you're talking to, work with both verbs. ます is the polite ending, a partner for the です you already use.

On a word's card you'll see 食べる (taberu) and 飲む (nomu), the forms dictionaries list. Just recognize them for now; here you say 食べます and 飲みます.

ご飯を食べます。

Who's eating? Often you don't say

English normally needs a subject like "I" or "she", but Japanese leaves the person out when it's clear who you mean: said about yourself, パンを食べます (pan o tabemasu) is "I eat bread" or "I'll eat bread". 食べます keeps one form for I, you and she, so the situation tells you who.

Name the person when it isn't clear, or to set someone apart: 私はパンを食べます (watashi wa pan o tabemasu), or アナさんは水を飲みます (Ana-san wa mizu o nomimasu), "Ana drinks water". さん (san) goes after another person's name, never your own. These sentences hold both particles, in this order: the person and は at the start, then the thing and を, then the verb.

Your turn, and the short version

Say each one out loud before you look at its line below. First, tell someone you drink water. Next, point at some food near you and say you'll eat it. Last, say that Ana eats bread, using her name.

In short: the thing, を, then 食べます or 飲みます. Add 私は or アナさんは at the start when you need to say who or to set someone apart.

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