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Post common mistakes that you think people make. That way, we can learn from them ^^

The particle 'wa'.

I've seen people who think that the particle 'wa' or the 'ha' character when it's written means 'is'. This is wrong. It's a common mistake that people make. Let's look at an example:

Watashi wa Landa desu.

I am Landa.

Japanese does not work like english does. Some people may think that the 'watashi' means 'I', 'wa' means 'is' and 'desu' is just some random thing at the end of the sentence. In reality, 'desu' is the same as 'is/am/are'.

This mistake is mostly due to the fact that the Japanese language has these things called 'particles' that we don't have in english. When the particle 'wa' is placed after a word, it means that the word(s) before it is the subject. In this example, watashi (I) am the subject.

So the sentence is really translated as:

Watashi (I) wa (watashi is the subject) Landa (my name) desu (is/am/are).

Other common particles are:
Ni - Specific time (ie. AT 3:00, ON Monday).
De - Tool or destination (ie. BY Phone, AT the mall).
W(o) - Answers the question 'what' (ie. talking ON the phone. Drinking PEPSI)

I hope you've enjoyed this lesson ^^ If there's anything that I've done wrong or if you need more expanation, please feel free to post it ^^ I'm always looking to improve my Japanese.

*laughs* Just a glitch for girls avatars if you equip the dragon bone helm at the waist. Not sure if it works for guys, too...

Anyways, would anyone else like to contribute? ^^

One common mistake is pronunciation. If you have taken Spanish they your pronunciation is going the correct direction. You do not roll R's though in Japanese. They are a sound between R and L. It takes some practice but is easy to master. Ah, EE, ooh,eh, Oh. ooh= Kinda like the OOh and AHH people do over fireworks.

The sound TSU is like saying the end part of the words cats. CA-TSU.

Also in Japanese it is somewhat common to say desu and masu like this: deh-sue/ mah-sue. You *CAN* do it but its leaning toward the feminine way to speak or sound formal. When saying these two words/forms just say dess for desu and mahss for masu. You wont go wrong.

Umm thats all I can think of right now.

*added to say~ Japan has many different ways to say things just like in the US there are a ton of ways to say soda/coke/pop/soda pop. It all depends on what region you come from. Japanese do change how they end their sentences. I am not saying its a completely different word but they may add extra sounds for emphasis and region. Tokyo Standard/nation wide ending for a is/are sentence is desu. Nagoya the ending is sometimes desu nyaah. I kid you not. Some grannys at a sentou (public bath) were using it a lot. lol. Its all about the dialects which are my passion.

So desu is 'is/am/are'? I was taught differently. 'Wa' or 'Ga' is 'is/am/are' and 'desu' or 'da' is actually there to signify the ending of a sentence.

Using your example...:

Watashi no onamae wa Hitomi desu. (My name is Hitomi)

Watashi - being (I)

no - being another particle meaning 'ones own' (aka "my" when put next to Watashi)

(o)namae - the 'o' is infront of namae for honorific purposes and namae sounds like it means... name!

wa - is used for 'is/am/are' and in ths case 'is'

Hitomi - the name

desu - signifying the end of the sentence
-------------------------------

Another example with particle 'wa' in it:

Watashi wa jyuurokusai desu. (I am 18 years old)

Watashi - being 'I' once again

wa - 'is/am/are' and in this case 'am'

jyuuroku- - Ahh hopefully I can explain this better... jyuu is ten in the japanese language and roku is 8.... stick them together and you make eighteen! Then how do you say 28, you ask?! Well... for the 2, just merely put 'ni' (japanese word for two) 'jyuu' (the 10) and roku (eight) and you get 28! Get it? No? Ahh well...

-sai - This connected to the number means 'years old'. '-sai' and something else (I forgot sweatdrop ) means 'years old'.

desu - signifying the end of the sentence.

And just simple words with 'desu' or 'da' in it (aka a quick reply) would be:

hyakujyuurokuen da. (118 Yen)

compared to...

Sore wa hyakujyuurokuen da (That is 118 Yen)

So I'm hoping my teachings were right... if not... well... there's a few sentences for you... sweatdrop

Yes, "-katta" may be used as opposed to "deshita", but only for most adjectives that end with "i" sound. sweatdrop

I compare the particle "wa" more closely with the english particle "the." "The" is usually used to signify the main subject of the sentence, just like "wa" is, just the placement is a bit different.

Here's a common mistake I see a lot:

desu = "is"
imasu = "is" (living thing exists)
arimasu = "is" (objects exist)

Example...

tenki ha ii desu ne. (the weather is nice)
soko ha neko ga imasu. (There is the cat. literally = there the cat exists)
soko ha okane ga arimasu. (There is the money. literally = there the money exists)



Another one... the word "suki" (like) is pronounced the same as the english word "ski" although I often hear people pronounce the u in "suki."