I appreciate your continued support. Thank you guys!
*Japanese Word of the Day*
ブログを始（はじ）めて1（いち）年（ねん）になります。
/burogu wo hajimete ichi-nen tachi-masu/
It's been a year since I started this blog.
*～を始（はじ）める /...wo hajimeru/ to start...
*年（ねん） /nen/ year
1年 /ichi-nen/ a year
2年 /ni-nen/ two years
3年 /san-nen/ three years
4年 /yo-nen/ four years
5年 /go-nen/ five years
6年 /roku-nen/ six years
7年 /nana-nen/ or /shichi-nen/ seven years
8年 /hachi-nen/ eight years
9年 /kyuu-nen/ nine years
10年 /juu-nen/ ten years
半年（はんとし）/han-toshi/ half a year
１（いち）年半（ねんはん）/ichi-nenhan/ half and a year
２（に）年半 /ni-nenhan/ half and two years
Or, we also use Kanji to write the numbers. Have you seen the numbers in Kanji characters? From one to ten; 一,二,三,四,五,六,七,八,九,十.
How about the months?
一か月 /i-kkagetsu/ (How to pronounce it? Check it out here!)
二か月 /ni-kagetsu/
三か月 /san-kagetsu/
四か月 /yon-kagetu/
五か月 /go-kagetsu/
六か月 /ro-kkagetsu/
七か月 /nana-kagetsu/
八か月 /hachi-kagetsu/ or /ha-kkagetsu/
九か月 /kyuu-kagetsu/
十か月 /ju-kkagetsu/
なります is masu-form (the polite form) of なる.
*～になる /...ni naru/ to become, to turn, to change
ex) 元気（げんき）になる
ex) 大人（おとな）になる /otona ni naru/ to become an adult
If it's an adjective or an adverb, ～になる changes like below.
悲（かな）しい＋～になる → 悲しくなる
可愛（かわい）い＋～になる → 可愛くなる
高（たか）い＋～になる → 高くなる
速（はや）い＋～になる → 早くなる
ex) 去年（きょねん）より可愛（かわい）くなったね。
/kyonen yori kawai-ku natta ne/
You became cuter than last year.
*去年 /kyonen/ last year
*～より /...yori/ than...
*なった /natta/ changed (the past form of なる)
ex) 英語（えいご）が上手（うま）くなりたい。
/eigo ga umaku nari-tai/
I want to be fluent in English.
*英語 /eigo/ English
*～が上手(うま)い /umai/ good at...
*なりたい /naritai/ want to become
なる（to change) ＋ たい(want to)
I hope my English got better. How long have you studied Japanese? Please leave your comments and practice your Japanese! I'd be glad if I can be your help. :D
Congratulations on this blog’s birthday and also thanks for writing it.
ReplyDeleteI’m sorry for bothering. I just have a question about はじめて。
I guess It can mean “for the first time”. Like 明日始めてすしをたべます。(I hope my sentence is not wrong). Here はじめてis translated as “for the first time”, right? And in this sentence it doesn’t imply continuation.
But in ブログを始めて1年になります. It’s translated as “it’s been [time] since I started…”
And the meaning shows continuation of something.
There is another sentence I can think about with this pattern and It’s
泳ぐを始めてはげになります。(I hope my sentence is not wrong)
Since I started swimming, I’m becoming bald.
So, can I conclude whenever there is はじめて+になります it shows starting of something+continuation of it?
Another question, isn’t およぐをはじめてはげになっています。a better sentence?
Just another little question about うまい。Since じょうず＆うまいboth have same kanji and both mean to be good at something, is there any difference between them? Or they can be used interchangeably? I remember once at class I said うまい(the one with another kanji) to mean delicious and the teacher told me it’s not a polite word and I shouldn’t use it. Is it true?
Sorry for bothering. Congratulations again!
Hi, arman. Thank you for your comment!
DeleteYes, you're right. はじめて means "for the first time".You can say 明日初めてすしをたべます (I'll eat sushi for my first time). In this case, the Kanji character for はじめて is 初めて, not 始めて. (始める is a verb which means "to begin" or "to start") And 初めて and 始めて by itself doesn't have a meaning of continuation.
You see, I wrote ブログを始めて. This 始めて doesn't mean "for the first time" but it means "since I began". 始めて is te-form of the verb 始める "to begin" or "to start". *It maybe useful to understand about te-form of verbs: http://japanese.about.com/od/grammarlessons/a/031101c.htm
So why was this sentence translated as present continuous?
Please take a look at the verb なります. You know this verb means "to become" "to change". What has changed? The time has changed (past). At a certain point of time I started to write a blog, and since then, the total time "has become" 1 year (=1 year has past).
If you want to say that you became bald because you started to swim, (1)泳ぐのを始めたせいで、はげになりました or (2)泳ぐのを始めてから、はげになってきています is more appropriate. Let me explain about it.
(1)泳ぐのを始めたせいで、はげになりました
You cannot directly add を to a verb.
× 泳ぐを始める
○ 泳ぐことを始める
○ 泳ぐのを (less formal than 泳ぐことを)
Or you can also simply say 泳ぎ始める.
The te-form verb doesn't indicate "tense" or "reason" by itself, but it's just used to combine sentences. So if you want to indicate "the reason" why you got bald, you should add せいで. せいで indicates that you feel unhappy or uncomfortable about the result, and blame for that reason.
はげになります sounds like that your hair still remains but it's almost gone, but if you said はげになりました you already got bald! XO
(2)泳ぐのを始めてから、はげになってきています。
I would add から to make the starting point clear. It is often used with きている. Do you know the difference between なっている and なってきている? Both なっている and なってきている mean "getting" "becoming" but the point of the view is different. なってきている can be also translated as "coming closer to". It indicates that you know the result, how it ends. I mean, なっている just expresses the situation you're getting bald, but なってきた means something is getting closer to the certain situation which you expect.
I hope my explanation makes sense. Please let me know if you still don't get it. I know it's very confusing..
One more! The difference between うまい and じょうず.
Deleteうまい has two different meanings, おいしい(delicious) and じょうず(be good at). In both cases, うまい is used in an informal situation since it sounds a bit less polite than おいしい or じょうず. Actually, うまい(yummy) is considered to be rude if a woman use this word. (I often say it though!! :P)
But I think it's not "impolite" or "rude" when it means じょうず(good at), we often use this word in daily conversations. Still, じょうず sounds more polite.
Thank you very much. you explained very well that even a not smart person like me could understand.
ReplyDeleteI really learned a lot of things. Though still I should study so much more!
Thanks again.
You are welcome :) Haha, I'm flattered, thank you arman.
DeleteI'm also glad to be your help. Anytime!
wow... time passes by too quickly.. :3
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely...!! :O I have to start caring for my aging skin..!! lol
Delete