I had the same problem with not being able to understand her well when I first started watching her videos. I always had subtitles on. but you get used to it quickly and after a few videos you don't even need subtitles but still understand her crystal clear.
Japanese is very unique, that it can turn an entire sentence into a noun. And then express that as a state. It’s kind of impressive, and very flexible.
Actually. English can do almost exactly the same thing: "Mother is coming is the thing." This is not "fine" English, but I think it is perfectly grammatical and very similar constructions are quite common. It might be more common to phrase it as "The thing is that mother is coming.", but I prefer it the other way around since it is so very close to the Japanese and let's me translate on the fly in my head much more easily.
When you explained that Na is the connective form of Da, my brain exploded with an eureka moment!! Because I studied linguistics at university, knowing and understanding why that works the way it does just COMPLETELY changed my life!! Thank you so so much, you are absolutely great at teaching!! Thank you!!❤
Your videos are actually so useful. In a only a few minutes I've been able to understand something that I haven't been able to get for months. You definitely deserve much more recognition.
textbooks are fine for written exercises, they just have poor and rushed explanation. They're a fine addition to Cure Dolly's videos and books, but on their own, not so much
This video explain the n-desu n-da to me in 12 minute with comprehensive details than what would normally took me over 2 weeks of reading to understand. Thank you.
Oh my goodness, I've spent the last 10 years thinking ～なんです was in some way ～何（なん）です and that that's why it's explanatory. Thank you so much for ripping out the roots of Eihongo from my brain, Dolly!
Your videos have quickly become my initial go-to source whenever I am in need of absolute clarity regarding a specific topic. Every time I watch, the proverbial coin drops. Thank you so much for providing such well elucidated explanations for American ears!
These videos are SO well done and enlightening, it is astounding, the way everything is made so simple and logical makes me feel like I'm being scammed or something
@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 because of you, in one video, i was able to understand things i was struggling with for months. like は and が for example. which i couldnt quite get a hold of for years. i even bring you up on other japanese learning channels
The last usage, after hearing your explanation and giving it a thought, is actually pretty logical and understandable. If "shukudai wo suru n da" means "It is that you will do homework", doesn't it sound commanding? You are stating it as a fact, which means you expect it to be done. Anyway, so far (until this video) I've been treating "no da" and "na no da" just as an ephasized "desu", becuase I didn't encounter a proper explanation. After watching this video, I can finally understand the grammar behind it and how and why it is used. Thank you!
For Spanish speakers out there this construction is very similar to the spanish "Es que...", for example when saying "Es que viene mi madre" using the same example as in the video, kind of making an explanation of a question that isn't even asked yet
Your advice to watch things with J-subs is the most useful thing I've ever come across. I've been quarantined in Japan the past month, and have been watching godawful NHK daytime tv a lot. The only upside is that it has subtitles, which has allowed my Japanese to improve significantly. Also because I can't pause it, I don't have time to overthink the translation like I would watching anime on my laptop.
This is what I would call "phase 2" of the J-sub operation. In the first phase (for relative beginners) we are still learning words and structure and need to take it slowly. In the later phases we can use "hands off" watching like this - and as you say, it can be an advantage to have to keep up at full speed with some help from the subtitles, not overthinking the meaning (and no translation at all is best).
Various Japanese Learning sites: X is Y Me: Okay Dolly: X is functions because of the japanese logic Me: What! So easy and logical Various Japanese Learning sites: A is B Me: Stop your lies! I believe you nothing!
As usual a brilliant lesson. One note that may be helpful to some is this: I usually change the translation of んです into "is the thing" as in "Mother is coming, is the thing.". This let's the literal English translation keep the main predicate at the end, just like the Japanese. It is also natural sounding English and it makes translating on the fly in my head much easier. So far I have not run into sentences where it messes up the logic.
Same thing in Spanish, it's used a lot actually. "Es que ~" works as a way to explain something when the speaker feels (will be) judged or a bit threatened, also used to prove people wrong or when revealing unexpected information as you said. I'm sure there might be many other uses and they don't have to have a negative connotation per se. Who would have thought after all that Japanese is not that different from what we find "normal".
Even that last use. When we say "Que pares!", we mean "(Lo que te digo) (es) que pares!". We would use this if we have already said "Para!" and the person did not stop what they were doing.
The days of scuba-diving to the internet to know the reason of this, are now officially over. Thanks so much! You are very underrated, you know? People should know you more
I'm watching Kuromukuro on Netflix and one character says...I must stay and fight to honour my fallen brethren and the other character says - '侍なのですね (samurai na no desu ne)' - You are a Samurai. I'm going to go for the strengthen the statement one at 8:58! Thanks CD and rip matey!
I've been seeing a lot of your videos (I don't comment in every video because I would feel like... an intense person) and they are really helpful, you explain things in such a mind blowing way; thanks for your hard work 先生. Lots of love!! I really love your videos
Hello, Cure Dolly-sensei! First of all, let me say that I love your content. I'm your average 16 year old Brazilian guy whose dream is to attend University in Japan, through Mext. I've been trying to learn grammar for a long time, but most of the popular textbooks and resources that I could find have tried to explain the Japanese language structure by directly translating into English. You always say how this is a bad way to explain it, but imagine this approach with someone who doesn't have English as his native language. Despite studying English for a long time, I don't consider my skills really that advanced so, in the complete beggining, this was just like hell to me. I've had so much struggle with trying to study by myself a language completely different than mine, in a language that I'm not really good at, that I've already tought about giving up some times. However, your channel has completely changed this situation for me. I've become able to study in a really comprehensible and enjoyable way. Despite the "mechanical-issues" you talked about in your last video, you always do your best to help people like me. All I have for you is mad respect and gratitude. Thanks for everything you have done and are doing, you are a literal "life-changer". I know it's kinda cliche, but sorry for the bad english lol, I just really had to thank you. As for the second part of the message (holding myself to not make a joke about the は-particle), I would like to ask you something: if の in this case is doing just like the nominalizing particle, why is the 0-が away from it? For me, it would do much more sense if the sentence order was 「母が来るの０がです」, something like "It is the thing of my mom coming'". Is this also correct or am I missing something out? I started studying this topic because of a sentence I found in my immersion with anime (Non Non Biyori). Someone said to me that the 「なん」 in 「ここがうちの村なん」 was a shorten version of 「なんだ／なのだ」 rather common on Kansai diallect. Is that right? Sorry for the long the text btw
CureDolly先生 I found your channel a few days ago (last week if I'm not mistaken) thanks to the UA-cam recommendations and I loved it ; your explanation about the Japanese passive form (the 受身/ receptive form as you called it) was the only one that made sense, I was very confused about the fact that some structures are identical to the potential form, now it's a bit easier to understand. I plan on getting your book soon through a friend that will spend a few days in the USA and will buy it for me, no book store near me had it available and online gets too expensive (the shipping and other related taxes are absurd in some areas of Brazil, it also takes months to be delivered, *if* they don't lose the package) I also found your voice quite relaxing (hope it doesn't sound creepy, I'm sorry if it does), making learning easier and fun, since some structures seem a bit tricky at first. Have an amazing Day/Night, 先生 動画のアップロードお疲れ様です
ありがとございます。Thank you so much! I am glad things are clearer. Yes, the receptive ("passive") and potential helper verbs are both られる for ichidan verbs, but in practice the concepts are different enough that one doesn't really confuse them in the wild. A lot of Japanese people in fact use れる for the potential ichidan helper (this is called らぬき - taking out the ら). It isn't considered grammatical but it's done pretty often. No not creepy at all about my voice. Actually I get some negative comments about it so I'm always happy to hear nice ones!
@@AlexBerchuk That depends what you mean by machine generated. I am a (sentient, self-learning) machine so anything generated by me is machine-generated technically speaking. But it isn't some kind of text to speech or digitized voice or something.
Dolly-sensei, Firstly, can I just say how much I appreciate this channel. When I first stumbled across your channel a little while ago, I was in the process of going through a book on Japanese for beginners. Even though I had only gone through a few chapters, I was already starting to get confused by the grammar "explanations" it provided, which were basically just abstract rules slapped onto the page with not a whiff of the logic behind them. You on the other hand do the rare and precious thing of actually teaching grammar, using grammar terminology, instead of just treating Japanese learners like babies who are only capable of mindlessly babbling 'ga-ga-ga'. Your videos saved me from descending any further into the muddy maelstrom of Eihongo grammar, and instead sent me gliding over smooth waters towards the land of Japanese. So, thank you so much for all the effort you have put into your channel and website, and please know (although I am sure others have already said this) that you are making a huge difference to people! Secondly, I have a question: what exactly does the phrase ´何言ってんだ' mean? This is the phrase that brought me to this video, having only just started trying to learn Japanese through immersion. Is there a reason someone would say that instead of just "何言っている"? Thank you.
I feel like it might be a little more similar to how we use the more casual "cause" (in place of "because") "Oh it's cause my mom is coming" doesn't sound as heavy as "it's that my mom is coming" and it also seems less heavy than "it's because my mom is coming"
I came here looking for explanation of how Manpukumaru-chan from Valkyrie Drive: Bhikkhuni speaks, as it was fascinating to me. Now I found a great resource to learn the language from. Thank You
Just found these videos, and OMG! the Eureka moments keep coming! Is this an AI or human production? Really doesn't matter, except for the crediting. Would sincerely like to thank whoever is behind this channel.
I recently found this channel and while I find the information really good and helpful I do have a very hard time understanding/hearing what’s being said. I usually have to replay 2-4 times. I guess my ears somehow doesn’t hear this tone or accent? I’ll keep trying though. Thank you.
Quite hilarious, today we went over this in class and looking at the faces of the students it was quite clear that they were all really confused. :D Even for me, who watched this video 6+ months ago and since then have had hundreds of hours immersion it was a bit confusing especially having to reproduce it (rather than just read and understand), so I'm back here again..:)
Hi Dolly Sensei! Hope you don't get tired of the comments thanking you for helping us understand. I can say I'm able to parse almost anything I find in Japanese thanks to your channel and I just found it like one month ago. I have a suggestion: could you make a video about "Nante"? By now I get it must be "Nani" + "Te Form", but I don't get in which situations it's used. Thanks a lot again! Greetings from Mexico
I always appreciate everyone's kind comments. Muchas gracias. Strangely enough a video on なんて (plus など and なんか) is exactly what I am working on right now. Well perhaps not too strange because it has been requested by several people. It will appear in two days. Spoiler - it isn't actually 何 + て-form (that doesn't really work since 何 isn't a verb or adjective) but you're not too far off.
I think the is similar to English "The thing is..." Didn't Cure Dolly say, in a previous video, that some Children's Japanese textbooks say のです is short for のものです?
Hello Cure Dolly, thank you for your lesson as allways. I would like to ask the difference between using only で without の. Like in the sentence 電車が雪で止まりました。It´s also translated as "Because of snow, train stopped." According to your lesson, I understand, that this で is the particle で and not the て form of だ. The snow itself is the casue of the train stopping. Not because the snow "is" something. That´s why there is no なの needed after the noun. But if we would say for example "The train stopped because snow was falling.", than the sentence would be 雪が降ったので電車が止まりました。Do I understand it correctly? But than also 電車が雪なので止まりました。could be also correct if the translation would be "Because it´s snow, train stopped."? Difference is how I want to say it? Thank you very much.
Yes, you're right. What the の does is put the preceding logical clause into what I call a の-box, which allows us to handle the entire logical clause as a single noun (the pronoun の). More on の-boxes here: www.patreon.com/posts/52089494 It is open to the public and part of my free Phase 3 teaching program.
@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 Thank you for your reply, I´m glad I got it right. I imagine it like the こ from この, そ from その and あ from あの, like the logical sentence is what hides behind that parts from the pronouns "because of this and that". I know it has nothing to do with eachother but I picture it like that XDD.
Very interesting explanation. I wonder, is the sentence-ending 'んだった。' structure understandable according to the same "mechanics"? 宿題をするんだった！I wish I had done my homework! I don't see an immediate connection.. I mean, I understand how it could be related to the imperative "宿題するんだ！", but it feels like some link is missing to understand the actual link between the "context-conveying", the "imperative-conveying", and the "regret-conveying" versions.
Could I request an explanation for yaru vs suru? Sorry if you’ve done this before, and I would appreciate the link to the material if available :) Thank you so much!
やる is pretty much equivalent to する (only more colloquial) when used in that way. It can also be used with the て-form to make an equivalent to Xてあげる only with the implication that the receiver is below or on a level with one. So not too polite.
Wonderful, informative video! If you have time, perhaps you can answer a question. Why, when we are giving a non-exhaustive list of reasons (きれいだし、親切だし。。。), do we use だ instead of the connective な?
Yes, because this し is essentially a clause-connector: Xがきれいだし、(∅が)親切だし・・・ so it is taking properly finished sub-clauses and linking them to form a group of modifiers for what follows and they are essentially being linked by し same way that we would link clauses with から, けれど etc.
Your comment around 9:50 about using Japanese subtitles rather than English rang true for me. A few years ago, I was in need of imrpving my Italian writing skills rather than depend on Google translate, so stumbled on an evening game show on RAI, the Italian TV network. There were subtitles of the questions asked, so there was time to review what was being said if it weren't possible to catch it the first time. This went on a for a few months, with my watching the show almost every night. Together with the fun chatter and the commercials that had a repetitive quality about them, my Italian jumped several levels.
That's interesting. A quiz show seems like a excellent material for learning. I hadn't thought of it before, but the time spent over a particular question must be really helpful. The important thing (as I'm sure you know) is to avoid any English (or other well-known language) subtitles, or the mind will congregate around them and not pick up very much of the target language.
It was great! The four answers to the questions asked of the contestants were on screen so I also participated mentally. Most had to do with common knowledge except for Italian TV shows, films and sports I didn't know about. I should really check and see if it is still going on but they did change the format several years ago.
First of all thank you very much for your videos!! They are super helpful for improving Japanese with very understandable easy rules, even for me as a beginner. So many things seem so much clearer now. But as you said your books and videos should be used alongside a usual course book. I'd like to know which books do you recommend? (I'm using Minna No Nihongo because it is completely in Japanese and it's using Kanji from the very beginning.)
I said that in the book and in some videos before the main Organic Structure series began (such as the one on this page) because at that time I had not made any systematic description of structure but was only correcting some of the misapprehensions found in conventional English ("Japanese grammar"). However it became apparent that this was not sufficient so over a year ago I started work on a complete description of Japanese structure. It now contains 45 lessons and covers all the fundamental points of Japanese grammatical structure. I now recommend using this. You'll find it here ua-cam.com/video/pSvH9vH60Ig/v-deo.html - I do intend to make a book of it too, but I haven't gotten there yet. I recommend everyone to see this series first. If you then choose to use a conventional textbook you will at least know where it is leading you astray! And if you have already used one this should set things straight.
Yes. の encapsulates the preceding statement so that it can be treated as a noun and で gives us the て-form of the copula which like all て-forms is connective and often implies causality as well. In this case, by convention, causality is always unequivocally expressed.
i've seen んだ plenty of times already, but does something like んじゃない ever come up? Seems like that would be a way to say "it's not that my mother's coming"
Thank you so much for this and all of your other videos - 本当に助かりました！I have a question about a sentence I saw which uses this structure. In A: 猫がかわいいな B: なんで猫を飼わないの？, how would you describe the use of の？Is this the same as のです？If that is the case, would it be translated as 'then why is it that you won't buy a cat?' The main reason this confuses me is the なんで, as if it goes after the zero particle, wouldn't it be 'is it that why won't you buy a cat?'. I hope this question makes sense!
This isn't the かう that means buy (買う) but the one that means "keep (an animal)" (飼う). の is often used as a question-marker. In origin I think it is the same の as in this video (evidenced by the fact that it needs な with an adjectival sentence and can mark statements just as easily as questions. Because of the latter it isn't _really_ a question-marker since questions still need to be clarified by tone (or a question mark in writing) but it is used for one since か doesn't sound polite in casual use - it is used but only by speakers who aren't worried about sounding either "rough" or "from-above".
Dolly-sensei, I stumbled upon this sentence: 「かずおちゃん、どうして なみだを 出したんだい」and looked up for your lesson regarding "んだ". What I got is that the sentence means "Kazuo-chan, why is it that you're crying?" (why is it that you had tears come out?), is this correct? Also, would 「かずおちゃん、どうして なみだが 出た」mean pretty much the same thing? Many thanks.
Yes. Strictly "why is it that you made tears come out?" since 出す is an other move verb implying that you caused them to come out as opposed to 出る which is a self-move verb, implying that they just came out themselves ua-cam.com/video/ELk1dqaEmyk/v-deo.html This is the usual way of putting such things in Japanese.
Hi! First off, great content, thank you, I just ordered your book! I have problems understanding this question "Nihon wa nagai n desu ka". Is the core here "Anata ga desu ka?" How is this nominalizing if there's no verb to turn into a noun or is this something else? Thank you!
Thank you so much. I hope you will like the book. As for your question, this sentence analyzes to: ∅が 日本は ∅が 長い んです ∅ga nihon wa ∅ga nagai n desu Is it that Japan is long? The core sentence is "∅ga .... n desu ka" = is it that? The inner secondary sentence is telling us what that n stands for: "nihon wa (∅ ga) nagai" = as for Japan, it is long. I hope this makes it clearer.
Hi! Thank you for your answer, but I was actually thinking "Have you been in Japan long" and not the literal meaning, so sorry for not being clear on that, my bad! :)
Probably my bad too. While I have some facility in analyzing grammar, I am not good at knowing what humans might be talking about. In this case, the "Nihon" of Nihon-wa (which is "speaking of Japan" or "raising the subject of Japan") is a contracted reference to the implied subject, which is something like "Nihon ni itte-ita toki" so the sentence is: "Nihon (ni itte-ita toki) wa (∅-ga) nagai n desu ka". "Speaking of the Japan matter (your being here), has (it) been long?""
That was a bit oversimplified, but I think it made the point clearer. To give the full analysis (including the n-desu part) it would be: (∅-ga) Nihon (ni itte-ita toki) wa (∅-ga) nagai n desu ka Is [Speaking of the Japan matter (your being here), (it) has been long] the case? In the English I have structured it to look somewhat like the Japanese by putting the core at the beginning and end and the sub-sentence in square brackets to make it clear. A more natural English (though still not very natural would be" Is it the case that [Speaking of the Japan matter (your being here), (it) has been long]? Heh. You see why I use trains to depict this stuff more graphically!
I don't quite understand why you say that adding the な to きれい turns it into the "connective" form? Doesn't that just turn it into an adjective? The connective form sounds the same as the conjunctive form which would be で instead. Maybe just a terminology issue, but I got a bit lost here.
な is the connective form of だ in the sense that it is what we use when we want to connect it to something _following_ the noun it belongs to. An adjectival noun plus copula is always an adjectival, so just as in English, if we say "the happy dog" or "the dog is happy" the word "happy" is an adjective in both cases, so if we say 花がきれいだ (flower is pretty) or きれいな花 (pretty-is flower) it is an adjectival in both cases. The only difference between だ and な is that な is the form of だ that we use when we are connecting the copula to something else ahead of it. Does this help?
Great lesson as always sensei! I just have a question about another の ending I encountered in one of my reading immersions and that is のか, what does it exactly mean? The sentence goes like this: 桜が、図面描いたりできるのか Thanks!
Sorry for asking a question so long after this video was done. However I believe that only cure dolly can shed light on certain things. I do appreciate you and I treasure your books. Does this apply to the "explanatory" questions. I read that ndesu Ka should be used with Naze or doushite when asking for clarification.
Thank you so much! I am happy that you like my books! | Yes that is correct. In questions where you are asking "Is that how it is?", or "how is it that...?" or "why is it that...?" the んですか form is really supplying the "it" part.
なので is not a unit. ので is a clause connector and is said to mean "because" by most English sources, but since it actually ends the cause-clause it is closer to "therefore". If the clause ends in the copula it of course becomes な.
It may have its origin in this but in practice it is working as an independent sentence-ender - in this case marking a question because か on casual sentences sounds brusque.
@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 This has plagued me for YEARS! Thank you!! Additionally, could you tell me more about what you mean by independent sentence ender? Is it a category of particles you've named in your curriculum? Or simply an explanatory phrase you're using here?
@@Shrilaraune It's an explanatory phrase. What I mean is that there is a good argument for this の originating as an abbreviation of the のだ ending, but even if that is the case it has really taken on a life of its own as a casual sentence ender which is used (depending on intonation - which in writing can be indicated by a question mark if necessary) for marking a question or emphasizing a statement. So I would say that we need to regard it as a different entity regardless of its (possible) origins. I did a video about it here: ua-cam.com/video/oayY4kBHGlM/v-deo.html
@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 AMAZING. THANK YOU SO MUCH. I'm watching the video now and feel like I've been looking for this lesson for years. THANK YOU
the way you describe the no-particle is as apostrophe-s, but this doesn't really make sense in the case "haha ga kuru no desu". E.g. normally "X no Y" would mean X's Y where X is a thing/class/person, but from this description X must be a noun. "haha ga kuru" is not a noun, so I struggle how to fit it with the given description?
It starts out as an apostrophe but as I said, it develops from there into a kind of pronoun. The pronoun is then used to bundle logical clauses for may purposes including this one.
By extension の also works as a pronoun. That is what it is doing here. The zero pronoun is located where I showed it as being located in the video. (at the beginning of the sentence. の "nominalizes" the logical clause that comes before it. 母かが来る. I would suggest watching the video on the "nominalizing の" ua-cam.com/video/Bq3GO63D9bw/v-deo.html and then re-watching this one.
@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 I think I have the same question as サントスアラーディ. Is there any english analogue to this type of nominalization? With your other video, it made perfect sense to me that さくらのが青い can be thought of as "Sakura's *item*" (or hat, in this case -- either way item or hat would be the noun). That is pretty natural since english uses the possessive the same way. Another example you used was アニメを見るのがたのしい。 In my mind, I think of the the *act* of watching anime ("act" being the noun there). So what I'm seeing is アニメを見るの ∅ がたのしい。Indeed in that video you referenced concealing the pronoun and showed the structure that way. So in this current example, 母が来るのです, I think the confusion is that we may require two concealed pronouns if の is going to nominalize here. ∅ が [母が来るの_____ ] です。 That の automatically makes me ask "の what?" So my thinking on this is ∅ が [母が来るの ∅ ] です。 Maybe the second one doesn't need to be ∅, but it does need to be some sort of concealed pronoun, however we represent it. In my mind, I think of this sentence as "It is *the act/situation of* mother coming." の here covers that "act of/situation of'".
@@floydiustube の regularly works as an independent pronoun. Whether we take this as being like the 's of Sakura's (dress) but having taken on a life of its own as it were, or whether we see it as a contraction of もの (but no longer working exactly like it), this is the fact and many constructions will become obscure if we try to avoid it. 泳ぐのができない means "the thing of swimming is not possible (to me}". It doesn't mean "the act of swimming" it means exactly what the English gerund "swimming" means - swimming as a noun-concept. If we try to avoid this some constructions become impenetrable.
@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 Thank you for the reply! I think "independent pronoun" is where I'm getting mixed up. Can you help clarify that? in the other languages I've studied, "independent pronoun" refers to either - a subject pronoun (it will act as the A in either [A does B] or [A is B]) or - it will stand alone, but in reality be an object pronoun (it acts as B in [A is B]) So some examples would be "*It* is a dog." or "*Me*." (in answer to an understood question, such as "Who is Tom?") The full sentence would be "The person who is Tom is *me*". But with の, I don't understand how it is functioning as an independent pronoun.
@@floydiustube の and こと both have the property of "nominalizing" what comes before (and modifies) them. In some videos I have referred to this as putting a clause into a の (or こと) box. This is often referred to as "nominalizing" but I don't really like the term because it implies that something has been turned into a noun - it hasn't, it has been bundled into a pronoun. But this does mean that the whole thing can now be handled as if it were a noun. This is an expression strategy used in various circumstances and is different from the expression strategies used by most languages for the same purpose. Let's take 海で泳ぐのが楽しい lit. Swim-in-sea-thing is fun In English we would say "swimming in the sea is fun". "Swimming" is a gerund (functionally a noun) and "in the sea" is post-modifying it. The Japanese strategy bundles the whole clause 海に泳ぐ into the の-box which then becomes the が-marked subject of the sentence. 海に泳ぐ is simply playing the role of modifying (defining) の. Does this help?
sensei does んです、のです、なのです、なんです only work in informal sentences? (also sensei its been 4 months since your last upload, hoping for you to return!) lets take this sentence for example: haha ga kuru n da/no desu so my question is what if the word kuru is changed to the formal form which is kimasu (haha ga kimasu n da/no desu)? will it it become grammatically wrong? if so why?
@@tankeryy1566 Did the character cure dolly pass away or does this go in much further than that? Is the actual person behind the character doing well and the character is just retired?
@@Im-BAD-at-satire the actual person, it was announced on her p@treon page and on the description of her last video "Cure Dolly Forced to Take a Break from UA-cam". (this is my 5th reply coz youtube keeps on deleting my comment)
And can those endings have other implication, like "I heard" or "I though"? Is it common? In Shirokuma cafe Panda says モテるには お面で野菜で重かったりするはずなんだけど And this phrase from the beginning was very confusing for me because of で usage here together with たり, but also English subtitles translate it as "I heard that in order to be popular, you had to have a mask (omen), vegetables (yasai), and be heavy (omoi). "
This is a very contrived and elaborate play on words, and the grammar is not to be taken seriously. The speaker is completely misunderstanding the expression イケメン で 優しく て おもしろかったり しする which means "bei good-looking, kind and interesting (witty)". What the real expression is doing is stretching the grammar in an illegitimate but understandable manner by chaining an adjectival noun イケメン で , an adjective 優しく て and another adjective 面白い (all of which is quite regular) and then adding たりする to the last adjective, which is ungrammatical because really this can only be done with verbs. However playing with grammar is something that is sometimes done especially in elaborate wordplay like this (essentially in the same vein as Shirokuma's pun-routine set-pieces - even using props as he does). As for the たり たり する form, it is often truncated, sometimes for example just popped onto a single verb to mean "doing that and other stuff". This is very common. Putting it onto an adjective is taking it beyond normal colloquial use. The overall takeaway from this is - don't take too much notice of the grammar when Shirokuma Cafe goes into elaborate verbal gag mode.
Oops - I forgot the main part of the question. No, it doesn't mean "I heard" or anything. It is explanatory. "It is that" - in other words in this case, (I thought you would be more impressed with my mask etc because...) By the way I happened to know the context but on another occasion it would be best to supply context (episode number etc) with questions like this, because Japanese is a very context-driven language, so it is hard to comment on sentences in a void.
At 8:19, is the sentence "ashi ga itai desu ka?" formal? When using the question marker 'ka' at the end of a sentence, does it always have to be preceded by 'desu'? Why doesn't it turn into the connective form 'na' in "ashi ga itai no desu ka?"?
Anything with です in is formal, and after an adjective (so-called い-adjective which is the only real adjective in Japanese) it serves no grammatical function at all but is purely a formality-marker. Ref: ua-cam.com/video/yJ2EhSPLQsk/v-deo.html か doesn't have to be preceded by です but it can sound a little brusque when it isn't so informal questions often don't use the か-marker. Ref: ua-cam.com/video/TOv3voBcEv8/v-deo.html
Yes. If you keep watching from there you will see that I am just showing the steps by which we get to はながきれいなのだ - the original だ becomes な and then we add the のだ。
CureDolly-sensei, would you mind explaining the "ni nai" part of "X生産は過去にない記録に！". To my understanding, the sentence is something like "The production of X is at a never before seen heights" and I know what 生産, 過去 and 記録 mean. But I don't see how "ni nai" makes it "compared to the past" or something :/
ない is of course the past form of ある. 過去にある means "exist in the past". Why not 過去にあった (existed in the past)? Well in my experience this form seems to be used in relation to records, data etc - a "past event" that still exists in the present. So 過去にない means not existing in the past. So this is a 記録 record not existing in the past. Interestingly I think 記録 leverages both its related senses here - a record in the sense of a written log and in the sense of a "record" that can be broken.
so as i learned that by attaching the の particle to verb it changes the verb to noun. 私が日本語を勉強する = i study japanese 日本語を"勉強すの"は難しい(です)= studying japanese is hard. so applying the same logic from the above sentence to のです sentences 私が行く= i go (i think its wrong to translate as i am going because there is no です particle) 私が学校に行く=i go to school 私が学校に行くのです= (because)i am going to school not to confuse with the sentence 私が学校に行っています means i am going to school also. the のです as cure dolly said it explains that he or she is going to school" remember the particle ので, which mean beacsue or explain reasons. 病気なので、学校に行けなかった think ので is same as のです. andので is actually the て form of のです。
It doesn't "change a verb into a noun", This is typical conventional "Japanese grammar" nonsense. の functions as a pronoun meaning something like "thing" in these cases. What comes before it can be an adjective, an adjectival noun + な, a verb or a verb clause. In other words any standard modifier. So パンを食べるのが好きだ Means "eat-bread-thing is pleasing (to me)" Note that what modifies の (tells us what "thing" we are talking about) is not the verb 食べる but the verbal clause パンを食べる のです does not make the continuous ("ing") tense. This is done by て-form + いる ua-cam.com/video/lU5rmrAORDY/v-deo.html For what sentences ending in のです are really doing please see this video: ua-cam.com/video/lYvIOi8Q3I8/v-deo.html
PS - it strikes me that you may be confused by the fact that English uses "ing" for both the continuous present and for nominalizing verbs: I am swimming (continuous present) I like swimming (gerundive nominalization - turning verb into a noun) This is a pure quirk of English. The two functions are entirely different and unrelated. Japanese (and most languages) do not have this coincidence.
I think you may find the more recent videos easier to understand. I don't get these comments much any more. Take a look at my new series and see what you think: ua-cam.com/video/pSvH9vH60Ig/v-deo.html - (I struggled a bit with lessons 2 and 4 but all the others should be better, I believe, especially after 4). There are also full subtitles on all my videos if you turn them on. My new voice-unit is almost indistinguishable from a real human. At least that's what they said in the shop. Even in "real life" I can pass for a human on a rainy night. I think.
yeah I noticed that in the next video. I would very much prefer a real voice, sorry. might be easier as an english native speaker. but it's still understandable and your content really helped me and motivates me to continue learning japanese. you are convincing, that it's not so difficult as it seems :) thank you
I'm so glad to have helped you. The voice is actually my voice so I don't have much choice about it other than to try to improve the recording quality - which I have done and continue to do.
Yes one could put it that way. Japanese textbooks explain the nominalizing no as being short for "no mono" and I think that is pretty accurate in describing how it works. To put it another way, no in "aoi no" meaning "the blue one" is indeed the no that is roughly equivalent to "mono" or "koto". And when we want to place a possessive no before this no (they are closely related as I show in the nominalizing no video) we don't double the no, but let one stand for both. So if we want to say "Sakura's one" we don't say "sakura no no" we just say "sakura no", as in "sakura no ga suki da" (I like Sakuras one". We do something very similar in English. For example we may say "Sakura's is red, Mary's is blue" which would exactly correspond to "Sakura no ga akai , Mearii no ga aoi". Rather than "Sakura's one is red and Mary's one is blue" Which, literally rendered, would be X "Sakura no no ga akai, Mearii no no ga aoi" The cross is to show that this sentence is not correct Japanese. In English we _can_ conflate the 's and the one but in Japanese we _must_ conflate the no that is 's and the no that is one. So Haha ga kuru no desu is literally ∅=the thing of mother's coming and could be notated as: (∅ga) haha ga kuru (no) no desu However I think simply remembering that no never doubles (or the nominalizing no as "no mono") is probably sufficient and avoids the extra complication. Does this clarify the situation? I should be happy if you would let me know as it is a little complex (not really complex in itself but complex to explain) and I am trying to find a way to make it clear.
the information on "no" not doubling made sense. i may have misrepresented my question though however. when i worked out the grammar point (incorrectly) before watching this video using the knowledge i got from your previous videos, this is how i saw the sentence structure: haha ga kuru no (∅ga) desu. i was trying to place the "∅" pronoun after the "no" no matter what, which led me to get the core structure wrong. your reminder of the A ga B desu structure was very helpful. you said in your "nominalizing no" video that the nominalizing no implies the zero pronoun following it. to me, your usage in this current video feels a bit contradictory and implies that "no" actually is nominalizing "haha ga kuru" rather than using its possessive function of implying a zero pronoun following it as i learned in your previous video. there should have been either two zero pronouns "(∅ga) haha ga kuru no (∅) desu" or an explanation on the hidden mono/koto "(∅ga) haha ga kuru no (mono/koto) desu" to home in on the concept. i guess it was nitpicky and im sorry to have written such a confusing reply. i was trying to explain my confusion over the zero pronoun i think. edit: sorry for all the edits.
I am sorry if I caused any confusion with my suggestion of zero in the nominalizing no lesson. I was really simply putting in a different way the Japanese school textbook idea that the nominalizing no is short for "no mono". So where the subject of the conversation is hats "Sakura no ga akai , Mearii no ga aoi". Can be expressed as "Sakura no ∅ ga akai , Mearii no ∅ ga aoi". And of course here ∅ = hat. It seemed to me a better way of notating this kind of sentence than "Sakura no mono" since we aren't really trying to say "mono" (thing) so much as something like the English "one". Now in the no desu sentences really think that mono is the best representation. I suggested that ∅ was more flexible and it is because if we wish we can here say ∅=mono. However I think it mostly clutters things to go through that process and we might as well simply take no as "no mono" in these cases. But, if we want to use ∅ then haha ga kuru no desu = (∅ ga) haha ga kuru no (∅) desu = (∅ ga) haha ga kuru no (mono/koto) desu I am not sure where the extra ga comes from in your haha ga kuru no (∅ga) desu The first ∅ ga is needed because a sentence must have a subject. So just as Tsukareta implies ∅ga tsukareta Otherwise it wouldn't be a sentence, so haha ga kuru no desu implies ∅ ga haha ga kuru no desu Because the copula desu must be coupling the predicate (haha ga kuru) no desu to something. You can't have a copula that isn't coupling anything. ua-cam.com/video/iV5rjLeFIXo/v-deo.html You also can't have ga and desu next to each other. Ga marks a subject (thing that is doing/being) and desu is attached to a noun (or na adjective which is also a noun) to turn it into a predicate (the thing that the ga-marked subject is being). So in (∅ ga) haha ga kuru no (mono/koto) desu The subject (the doer/be-er) is ∅ (it) - marked by ga because it is the doer/be-er The thing it is being is no (mono/koto) and the two are coupled by desu. haha ga kuru functions as a modifier to no (= no mono/koto) telling us what mono/koto it is. The ga in haha ga kuru is linking the doer (haha) to the thing she does (kuru), This can stand alone as a sentence in itself, but in this sentence it is being used as the modifier to no.
i get it now. thanks for the explanation. i also edited my comment like ten times before youtube told me that you replied. im sorry you had to see that. it must have hurt to see such a blatant mistake without clarifying my intent in sharing it (100% me, nothing on your part. i was trying to show you how your explanation in this video helped fix it). i really think your channel is the best i have visited and i shill it like crazy. thanks once again.
Thank YOU. Don't worry about edits - I'm an excessive editor myself. Just glad I could clear things up for you. Japanese grammar takes a bit of getting used to (it's _very_ logical compared to other grammars but almost because of that it takes a while to get used to how logically it works). So thrashing around with getting it right is a good thing. And making mistakes is a good thing too. We learn by our mistakes so long as we don't cling to them. They are part of the learning process. And thanks for shilling the channel! I think we have an important message and we're still very small, so help in getting the word out is really appreciated.
@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 oh I think I misstated, what I mean is how is the first example allow no desu but the second example does not allow no da and must use na connective form? What is the difference between kirei and kuru that allow this distinction? is it because kuru (coming) is not a noun or na-adjective? is I guess what I'm asking. Thanks again Dolly for the video.
Are you able to say whats happening in this tiny example? 「。。。死んだんだよ」. The conext is explaining why someone isn't here. It feels like there is an extra [んだ]. Is it 死にました＝死んだ？Then explanantory んだよ？
Yes that's exactly right. Literally it is saying "it (the reason) is that he died". In formal language it would be 死にましたのですよ EDIT if you are wondering where we get the it - if there is a だ/です then there must be something it is coupling with the thing it follows. This means we have a zero pronoun. So inserting that, we have ∅が∅が死んだのだよ (I changed the ん to its "proper" form の for clarity). So in this sentence the A-car (to use train language) is the first ∅が (it = the reason) and the B-engine is のだ. The second ∅が belongs to the subordinate clause that defines what の is and means "he". So ∅が死んだの means "the fact that he died" and the whole statement means "It (the reason) is the fact that he died". If the statement were simply 死んだ this would analyze to ∅が死んだ. Here, ∅ would mean "he".
I am not a native speaker. I learned Japanese through various means but the core of my method was watching Japanese anime with Japanese subtitles. I did this from very early on (as soon as I had a little vocabulary and basic grammar). I looked up words and grammatical forms as I went along. It isn't an easy way of learning Japanese (there aren't any easy ways other than going very slowly!) It would have been a lot faster if I'd had someone to tell me the things I discovered by myself - which is what I try to do here. I intend to make some videos on my "direct self-immersion" methods at some point, but I am rather tied up with the grammar series and forthcoming "from scratch" series at the moment. UPDATE: I have now started a video series on self-immersion and related techniques: ua-cam.com/video/xhEnMieHtec/v-deo.html
KawaJapa CureDolly I learned the same way, constantly checking new words and grammar usages in anime. It's tough but great for a certain level of immersion
What is the point of converting a verb into a noun? I don't get it. Is it the same like ははがくることです？ If someone asks me what do you hate the most? I could reply あそぶことです where can I use this んです？ What is the difference between はながきれいです and はながきれいなのです?
What;s the difference between saying "The dog ate my homework" and "The fact is, the dog ate my homework?" - in practice they mean exactly the same thing. Why did we add "the fact is"? What difference does it make?Somewhat difficult to explain to a foreigner who doesn't know the language. のだ etc. are somewhat similar to this in some cases. But learning exactly what their weight and value is takes experience and isn't something I or anyone else can teach you. Language is not a mechanical structure. It has structural elements and I teach them. But structure will never substitute for real experience and mass input ua-cam.com/video/3UDW5wTYbzM/v-deo.html - It will however, make it a lot easier.
Good decision! Here's my video on how to do it: ua-cam.com/video/xhEnMieHtec/v-deo.html and where to get free J-subbed anime ua-cam.com/video/Y3fXk7CzG-k/v-deo.html
I got a new microphone, so I think the audio is better in more recent videos. Of course if it's my human-imitation that's a bit off-kilter that's harder to fix.
KawaJapa CureDolly I'd say it's just hard to understand. Sounds like a bunch of mumbling to me. I have to focus too much on trying to understand what you're saying that paying attention to the lesson.
I realize that a minority of viewers do find my voice hard to understand (less now than at the time of this video). I continue to try to improve. All videos have full and exact subtitles for that reason.
yeah horrible voice but : thank you so much for the subtitles, 私はフランス人ですのがシドニーで住んでいます。日本語を勉強しているのが難しい。（？ I am trying to apply no da or desu, as I hear it all the time with my japanese friends without understanding）Now I understand a bit more I think, English explanations are very confusing for me even if I understand that language kind of well. I think it is essential to understand the core, the theory, then, only the practice will make you progress ( 練習, :-)）Thank you so much for these awesome lessons ! @@organicjapanesewithcuredol49
You do realize that, horrible or not, it is my voice you are talking about? Don't worry, I'm an android so I'm not offended, but I hope you humans are a little more tactful with each other. Thank you very much for your kind words though! I absolutely agree about practice - in fact I don't even like to call it "practice" I call it "living the language". And that is the only way you learn language. I can't teach you language and neither can any class or textbook. I can teach you _about_ language as a _preparation_ for learning it, just as a book might teach you swimming strokes. You still won't "learn swimming" outside of the water. In your sentences you don't need the の. The conjunction が (which is the formal equivalent to expressions like けど and でも) directly conjoins two complete logical clauses in a compound sentence (just like "but" in English). We don't need to bundle them into a noun-like entity with の as we do for some other uses. May I recommend my core series, which teaches the underlying principles of all this, which the standard texts and classes never tell you. I'm afraid the first three or four lessons have fairly poor sound still (but there are subtitles). I believe it improves progressively from there on: ua-cam.com/video/pSvH9vH60Ig/v-deo.html
Now why are you typing romaji at this level? You _could_ put it that way but just as in "it's sunny" (∅が) はれだ the "it" (∅) is not defined that clearly in anyone's mind. It's like saying in English that "It's sunny" really means "the weather is sunny" or "the day is sunny". It kind of does but no one thinks of it that way. Or again if you say "Its just that I have another appointment". What is "it"? The problem? The thing I was thinking? It is a non-defined subject. English has them. Japanese has them even more.
@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 I understand that, I was just trying to rationaluze it wuthin the framework of my own language. I'm typing romaji because my phone broke and the hiragana of this phone is too time-consuming to type.
@@AlexBerchuk It should be 感じの読み方. I am not sure what you mean by aligning with the English language. If we put it in Japanese structured English it is: (in) Kanji's reading-way does not do understandable time, how-do if-look-up good seem to be [question]
@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 yes, it should be の.... Now it's a bit confusing, I'm trying to find the way to explain to myself "no deshou ka" the way you explained the affirmative form. My teacher says it's to explain concern, worry. For example, 大きい地震が起きたら、どうすればいいのでしょうか。="what is it that we should be doing when a severe earthquake strikes?". I was trying to find out why this particular construction is used, and if the の is the same to the の in 子供のおもちゃ or is it a different の altogether. I'm familiar with the nominalising function of の, such as 食べるのが etc. I'm familiar with such constructions, what I was trying to find out is the origin of such a construction, or why it works the way it does. And as to the 「漢字の読み方がわからない時、どうやって調べたらいいのでしょか」, I was trying to rephrase it so that it would go with "it is that", "is it that". I cannot come to understanding where "it is... that", "is it... that...?" , "what is it that..." fits into the sentence. I know the translation. If I was to drop the final deshou ka, would it still be expressing worry and concern? I hear people just adding no with a rising intonation.
I am afraid I am an android, not a human so I have some difficulty with vocal production and recording. This is an old video and I believe I have improved things since then in more recent ones. However because I understand that my voice is not up to human standards I do have full subtitles on all videos so please turn them on if you have any difficulty.
This explanation is just mind-blowing. This channel is criminally underrated!
Except you can barely understand her!!
@@YaelEylatTanaka The subtitles on these videos are well made, so I always just have them on.
I had the same problem with not being able to understand her well when I first started watching her videos. I always had subtitles on. but you get used to it quickly and after a few videos you don't even need subtitles but still understand her crystal clear.
@@YaelEylatTanakaI can understand her perfectly fine.
1:47 This statement and the fact I can't come up with exceptions to it just blew my mind.
Japanese is very unique, that it can turn an entire sentence into a noun. And then express that as a state. It’s kind of impressive, and very flexible.
Actually. English can do almost exactly the same thing: "Mother is coming is the thing." This is not "fine" English, but I think it is perfectly grammatical and very similar constructions are quite common. It might be more common to phrase it as "The thing is that mother is coming.", but I prefer it the other way around since it is so very close to the Japanese and let's me translate on the fly in my head much more easily.
When you explained that Na is the connective form of Da, my brain exploded with an eureka moment!! Because I studied linguistics at university, knowing and understanding why that works the way it does just COMPLETELY changed my life!! Thank you so so much, you are absolutely great at teaching!! Thank you!!❤
Your videos are actually so useful. In a only a few minutes I've been able to understand something that I haven't been able to get for months. You definitely deserve much more recognition.
I am very happy to be able to help!
G GT us S😢 CC@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49
Fascinating. Why did I even spend my money on both genki books?
I have the first genki book, it was good for some drills... now it is boring and not motivating for people my age.
textbooks are fine for written exercises, they just have poor and rushed explanation. They're a fine addition to Cure Dolly's videos and books, but on their own, not so much
Spend your money on Dolly's book, only $5 and very helpful:)
Ikr 😫
This video explain the n-desu n-da to me in 12 minute with comprehensive details than what would normally took me over 2 weeks of reading to understand. Thank you.
Oh my goodness, I've spent the last 10 years thinking ～なんです was in some way ～何（なん）です and that that's why it's explanatory. Thank you so much for ripping out the roots of Eihongo from my brain, Dolly!
Your videos have quickly become my initial go-to source whenever I am in need of absolute clarity regarding a specific topic. Every time I watch, the proverbial coin drops. Thank you so much for providing such well elucidated explanations for American ears!
These videos are SO well done and enlightening, it is astounding, the way everything is made so simple and logical makes me feel like I'm being scammed or something
Don't worry, you won't wake up and find that it is all really as complicated and random as the textbooks tell you after all!
this channel is an insight gold mine, every video i click is condensed with super useful information and almost zero rambling at all.
These are undoubtedly the best youtube lessons I’ve found on Japanese. Thanks Cure Dolly, you mysterious saint!
”It is that mother is coming" these types of translations are simple and VERY helpful.
Finally a clear explanation that shows that it's easy and makes sense, rather than being a special construction to memorize. Thank you!!
You are by far the best Japanese teacher I've come across. I've tried many
Thank you!
@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 because of you, in one video, i was able to understand things i was struggling with for months. like は and が for example. which i couldnt quite get a hold of for years. i even bring you up on other japanese learning channels
@@namless3654 Thank you so much for sharing the channel. I really think we can make a revolution in the way people learn Japanese!
@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 yes! i also think your videos are adorable too haha
@@namless3654 Oh! Oh! Thank you so much!
very good, short and clear explanation. good job as always.
Thank you so much!
The last usage, after hearing your explanation and giving it a thought, is actually pretty logical and understandable. If "shukudai wo suru n da" means "It is that you will do homework", doesn't it sound commanding? You are stating it as a fact, which means you expect it to be done. Anyway, so far (until this video) I've been treating "no da" and "na no da" just as an ephasized "desu", becuase I didn't encounter a proper explanation. After watching this video, I can finally understand the grammar behind it and how and why it is used. Thank you!
For Spanish speakers out there this construction is very similar to the spanish "Es que...", for example when saying "Es que viene mi madre" using the same example as in the video, kind of making an explanation of a question that isn't even asked yet
so THAT'S why it has an implication of explanation...
clear and concise, the grammar lessons here are spot on.
Yay! Thank you!
She's anything but clear.
@@andrewmcallister3529 Turn on the subtitles then
I didn't expect this video to be so good. I felt enlightened!
That's wonderful!
ive been stuck on this for yearsssss u made it so clear omg thank u
Your advice to watch things with J-subs is the most useful thing I've ever come across. I've been quarantined in Japan the past month, and have been watching godawful NHK daytime tv a lot. The only upside is that it has subtitles, which has allowed my Japanese to improve significantly. Also because I can't pause it, I don't have time to overthink the translation like I would watching anime on my laptop.
This is what I would call "phase 2" of the J-sub operation. In the first phase (for relative beginners) we are still learning words and structure and need to take it slowly. In the later phases we can use "hands off" watching like this - and as you say, it can be an advantage to have to keep up at full speed with some help from the subtitles, not overthinking the meaning (and no translation at all is best).
Thanks. Now I can understand Rika Furude.
Various Japanese Learning sites: X is Y
Me: Okay
Dolly: X is functions because of the japanese logic
Me: What! So easy and logical
Various Japanese Learning sites: A is B
Me: Stop your lies! I believe you nothing!
As usual a brilliant lesson. One note that may be helpful to some is this:
I usually change the translation of んです into "is the thing" as in "Mother is coming, is the thing.". This let's the literal English translation keep the main predicate at the end, just like the Japanese. It is also natural sounding English and it makes translating on the fly in my head much easier. So far I have not run into sentences where it messes up the logic.
Same thing in Spanish, it's used a lot actually. "Es que ~" works as a way to explain something when the speaker feels (will be) judged or a bit threatened, also used to prove people wrong or when revealing unexpected information as you said. I'm sure there might be many other uses and they don't have to have a negative connotation per se. Who would have thought after all that Japanese is not that different from what we find "normal".
I think there are quite a lot of similarities between Japanese and Spanish.
Even that last use. When we say "Que pares!", we mean "(Lo que te digo) (es) que pares!". We would use this if we have already said "Para!" and the person did not stop what they were doing.
French has something similar with est-ce que questions (of course French is not pro-drop)
The days of scuba-diving to the internet to know the reason of this, are now officially over.
Thanks so much! You are very underrated, you know? People should know you more
I'm watching Kuromukuro on Netflix and one character says...I must stay and fight to honour my fallen brethren and the other character says - '侍なのですね (samurai na no desu ne)' - You are a Samurai. I'm going to go for the strengthen the statement one at 8:58! Thanks CD and rip matey!
Unusual format but very effective! Thanks for demystifying this subtle construction!
Incredible lesson
Ahhh it finally makes sense! Great explanation! Thank you so much for the great video!
I'm starting to really like that の-box logic !
I've been seeing a lot of your videos (I don't comment in every video because I would feel like... an intense person) and they are really helpful, you explain things in such a mind blowing way; thanks for your hard work 先生. Lots of love!! I really love your videos
And sorry if my english is bad, I'm not native. Once again, thanks for everything 先生
Your English is fine, and thank you so much for taking the trouble to comment. I am happy to be able to help.
Hello, Cure Dolly-sensei! First of all, let me say that I love your content. I'm your average 16 year old Brazilian guy whose dream is to attend University in Japan, through Mext. I've been trying to learn grammar for a long time, but most of the popular textbooks and resources that I could find have tried to explain the Japanese language structure by directly translating into English. You always say how this is a bad way to explain it, but imagine this approach with someone who doesn't have English as his native language. Despite studying English for a long time, I don't consider my skills really that advanced so, in the complete beggining, this was just like hell to me. I've had so much struggle with trying to study by myself a language completely different than mine, in a language that I'm not really good at, that I've already tought about giving up some times. However, your channel has completely changed this situation for me. I've become able to study in a really comprehensible and enjoyable way. Despite the "mechanical-issues" you talked about in your last video, you always do your best to help people like me. All I have for you is mad respect and gratitude. Thanks for everything you have done and are doing, you are a literal "life-changer". I know it's kinda cliche, but sorry for the bad english lol, I just really had to thank you.
As for the second part of the message (holding myself to not make a joke about the は-particle), I would like to ask you something: if の in this case is doing just like the nominalizing particle, why is the 0-が away from it? For me, it would do much more sense if the sentence order was 「母が来るの０がです」, something like "It is the thing of my mom coming'". Is this also correct or am I missing something out?
I started studying this topic because of a sentence I found in my immersion with anime (Non Non Biyori). Someone said to me that the 「なん」 in 「ここがうちの村なん」 was a shorten version of 「なんだ／なのだ」 rather common on Kansai diallect. Is that right?
Sorry for the long the text btw
CureDolly先生
I found your channel a few days ago (last week if I'm not mistaken) thanks to the UA-cam recommendations and I loved it ; your explanation about the Japanese passive form (the 受身/ receptive form as you called it) was the only one that made sense, I was very confused about the fact that some structures are identical to the potential form, now it's a bit easier to understand.
I plan on getting your book soon through a friend that will spend a few days in the USA and will buy it for me, no book store near me had it available and online gets too expensive (the shipping and other related taxes are absurd in some areas of Brazil, it also takes months to be delivered, *if* they don't lose the package)
I also found your voice quite relaxing (hope it doesn't sound creepy, I'm sorry if it does), making learning easier and fun, since some structures seem a bit tricky at first.
Have an amazing Day/Night, 先生
動画のアップロードお疲れ様です
ありがとございます。Thank you so much! I am glad things are clearer. Yes, the receptive ("passive") and potential helper verbs are both られる for ichidan verbs, but in practice the concepts are different enough that one doesn't really confuse them in the wild. A lot of Japanese people in fact use れる for the potential ichidan helper (this is called らぬき - taking out the ら). It isn't considered grammatical but it's done pretty often.
No not creepy at all about my voice. Actually I get some negative comments about it so I'm always happy to hear nice ones!
@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 I thought it was a machine-generated voice. Isn't it?
@@AlexBerchuk That depends what you mean by machine generated. I am a (sentient, self-learning) machine so anything generated by me is machine-generated technically speaking. But it isn't some kind of text to speech or digitized voice or something.
This was the best explanation ever thank you so so so very much! I will remember this! :)))
Dolly-sensei,
Firstly, can I just say how much I appreciate this channel. When I first stumbled across your channel a little while ago, I was in the process of going through a book on Japanese for beginners. Even though I had only gone through a few chapters, I was already starting to get confused by the grammar "explanations" it provided, which were basically just abstract rules slapped onto the page with not a whiff of the logic behind them. You on the other hand do the rare and precious thing of actually teaching grammar, using grammar terminology, instead of just treating Japanese learners like babies who are only capable of mindlessly babbling 'ga-ga-ga'. Your videos saved me from descending any further into the muddy maelstrom of Eihongo grammar, and instead sent me gliding over smooth waters towards the land of Japanese. So, thank you so much for all the effort you have put into your channel and website, and please know (although I am sure others have already said this) that you are making a huge difference to people!
Secondly, I have a question: what exactly does the phrase ´何言ってんだ' mean? This is the phrase that brought me to this video, having only just started trying to learn Japanese through immersion. Is there a reason someone would say that instead of just "何言っている"? Thank you.
Thank you, Dolly! This is clear, well-explained, and easy to understand. Thank you for taking the time to put these together!
These are all interchangable (casual/polite); んだ、んです、のだ、のです、なんだ、なんです、なのだ、なのです。
These are explanatory sentence-enders, such as ∻ (my room is so tidy) because Mother is coming on a visit ≈ 母が来るのです。
本当にありがとう！
I feel like it might be a little more similar to how we use the more casual "cause" (in place of "because")
"Oh it's cause my mom is coming" doesn't sound as heavy as "it's that my mom is coming" and it also seems less heavy than "it's because my mom is coming"
I came here looking for explanation of how Manpukumaru-chan from Valkyrie Drive: Bhikkhuni speaks, as it was fascinating to me. Now I found a great resource to learn the language from. Thank You
Serendipity.
Just found these videos, and OMG! the Eureka moments keep coming! Is this an AI or human production? Really doesn't matter, except for the crediting. Would sincerely like to thank whoever is behind this channel.
I recently found this channel and while I find the information really good and helpful I do have a very hard time understanding/hearing what’s being said. I usually have to replay 2-4 times. I guess my ears somehow doesn’t hear this tone or accent? I’ll keep trying though. Thank you.
Shiina Mayumi from Steins;Gate always use のです
I had a vague impression of what it could be, but now I could understand it better.
Rest in Peace.
Quite hilarious, today we went over this in class and looking at the faces of the students it was quite clear that they were all really confused. :D
Even for me, who watched this video 6+ months ago and since then have had hundreds of hours immersion it was a bit confusing especially having to reproduce it (rather than just read and understand), so I'm back here again..:)
Thank you so much.
Hi Dolly Sensei! Hope you don't get tired of the comments thanking you for helping us understand. I can say I'm able to parse almost anything I find in Japanese thanks to your channel and I just found it like one month ago. I have a suggestion: could you make a video about "Nante"? By now I get it must be "Nani" + "Te Form", but I don't get in which situations it's used. Thanks a lot again! Greetings from Mexico
I always appreciate everyone's kind comments. Muchas gracias. Strangely enough a video on なんて (plus など and なんか) is exactly what I am working on right now. Well perhaps not too strange because it has been requested by several people. It will appear in two days. Spoiler - it isn't actually 何 + て-form (that doesn't really work since 何 isn't a verb or adjective) but you're not too far off.
@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 So cool, looking forward to it! I'm finally seeing the light at the end of this tunnel called Japanese
@@agalvan91 That's wonderful. I am happy to be able to help.
My head is exploding with all the knowledge that I have discovered ありがとう! (Did I do that right?)
がんばってください。 (yes you did).
I think the is similar to English "The thing is..."
Didn't Cure Dolly say, in a previous video, that some Children's Japanese textbooks say のです is short for のものです?
Hello Cure Dolly, thank you for your lesson as allways. I would like to ask the difference between using only で without の. Like in the sentence 電車が雪で止まりました。It´s also translated as "Because of snow, train stopped."
According to your lesson, I understand, that this で is the particle で and not the て form of だ. The snow itself is the casue of the train stopping. Not because the snow "is" something. That´s why there is no なの needed after the noun.
But if we would say for example "The train stopped because snow was falling.", than the sentence would be 雪が降ったので電車が止まりました。Do I understand it correctly?
But than also 電車が雪なので止まりました。could be also correct if the translation would be "Because it´s snow, train stopped."? Difference is how I want to say it?
Thank you very much.
Yes, you're right. What the の does is put the preceding logical clause into what I call a の-box, which allows us to handle the entire logical clause as a single noun (the pronoun の). More on の-boxes here: www.patreon.com/posts/52089494 It is open to the public and part of my free Phase 3 teaching program.
@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 Thank you for your reply, I´m glad I got it right. I imagine it like the こ from この, そ from その and あ from あの, like the logical sentence is what hides behind that parts from the pronouns "because of this and that". I know it has nothing to do with eachother but I picture it like that XDD.
You are so great
Very interesting explanation. I wonder, is the sentence-ending 'んだった。' structure understandable according to the same "mechanics"? 宿題をするんだった！I wish I had done my homework!
I don't see an immediate connection.. I mean, I understand how it could be related to the imperative "宿題するんだ！", but it feels like some link is missing to understand the actual link between the "context-conveying", the "imperative-conveying", and the "regret-conveying" versions.
Could I request an explanation for yaru vs suru? Sorry if you’ve done this before, and I would appreciate the link to the material if available :) Thank you so much!
やる is pretty much equivalent to する (only more colloquial) when used in that way. It can also be used with the て-form to make an equivalent to Xてあげる only with the implication that the receiver is below or on a level with one. So not too polite.
Hi Dolly. Thanks for all your amazing help so far. Can you tell me.. what is the meaning of the 派 on the end of this sentence? ペンギンさんポイント貯める派
Wonderful, informative video! If you have time, perhaps you can answer a question. Why, when we are giving a non-exhaustive list of reasons (きれいだし、親切だし。。。), do we use だ instead of the connective な?
Yes, because this し is essentially a clause-connector: Xがきれいだし、(∅が)親切だし・・・ so it is taking properly finished sub-clauses and linking them to form a group of modifiers for what follows and they are essentially being linked by し same way that we would link clauses with から, けれど etc.
Organic Japanese with Cure Dolly thank you!
Your comment around 9:50 about using Japanese subtitles rather than English rang true for me. A few years ago, I was in need of imrpving my Italian writing skills rather than depend on Google translate, so stumbled on an evening game show on RAI, the Italian TV network. There were subtitles of the questions asked, so there was time to review what was being said if it weren't possible to catch it the first time. This went on a for a few months, with my watching the show almost every night. Together with the fun chatter and the commercials that had a repetitive quality about them, my Italian jumped several levels.
That's interesting. A quiz show seems like a excellent material for learning. I hadn't thought of it before, but the time spent over a particular question must be really helpful. The important thing (as I'm sure you know) is to avoid any English (or other well-known language) subtitles, or the mind will congregate around them and not pick up very much of the target language.
It was great! The four answers to the questions asked of the contestants were on screen so I also participated mentally. Most had to do with common knowledge except for Italian TV shows, films and sports I didn't know about. I should really check and see if it is still going on but they did change the format several years ago.
I wonder if there's a Japanese equivalent...
First of all thank you very much for your videos!! They are super helpful for improving Japanese with very understandable easy rules, even for me as a beginner. So many things seem so much clearer now. But as you said your books and videos should be used alongside a usual course book. I'd like to know which books do you recommend? (I'm using Minna No Nihongo because it is completely in Japanese and it's using Kanji from the very beginning.)
I said that in the book and in some videos before the main Organic Structure series began (such as the one on this page) because at that time I had not made any systematic description of structure but was only correcting some of the misapprehensions found in conventional English ("Japanese grammar"). However it became apparent that this was not sufficient so over a year ago I started work on a complete description of Japanese structure. It now contains 45 lessons and covers all the fundamental points of Japanese grammatical structure. I now recommend using this. You'll find it here ua-cam.com/video/pSvH9vH60Ig/v-deo.html - I do intend to make a book of it too, but I haven't gotten there yet. I recommend everyone to see this series first. If you then choose to use a conventional textbook you will at least know where it is leading you astray! And if you have already used one this should set things straight.
Hi Cure Dolly Sensei - I take it this is why ので is taught as "because"?
"Because (it) is (connective て form) that... explanation"
Yes. の encapsulates the preceding statement so that it can be treated as a noun and で gives us the て-form of the copula which like all て-forms is connective and often implies causality as well. In this case, by convention, causality is always unequivocally expressed.
ありがとうございました
i've seen んだ plenty of times already, but does something like んじゃない ever come up? Seems like that would be a way to say "it's not that my mother's coming"
Yes, that happens too.
Thank you so much for this and all of your other videos - 本当に助かりました！I have a question about a sentence I saw which uses this structure. In A: 猫がかわいいな B: なんで猫を飼わないの？, how would you describe the use of の？Is this the same as のです？If that is the case, would it be translated as 'then why is it that you won't buy a cat?' The main reason this confuses me is the なんで, as if it goes after the zero particle, wouldn't it be 'is it that why won't you buy a cat?'. I hope this question makes sense!
This isn't the かう that means buy (買う) but the one that means "keep (an animal)" (飼う). の is often used as a question-marker. In origin I think it is the same の as in this video (evidenced by the fact that it needs な with an adjectival sentence and can mark statements just as easily as questions. Because of the latter it isn't _really_ a question-marker since questions still need to be clarified by tone (or a question mark in writing) but it is used for one since か doesn't sound polite in casual use - it is used but only by speakers who aren't worried about sounding either "rough" or "from-above".
Dolly-sensei, I stumbled upon this sentence: 「かずおちゃん、どうして なみだを 出したんだい」and looked up for your lesson regarding "んだ".
What I got is that the sentence means "Kazuo-chan, why is it that you're crying?" (why is it that you had tears come out?), is this correct?
Also, would 「かずおちゃん、どうして なみだが 出た」mean pretty much the same thing? Many thanks.
Yes. Strictly "why is it that you made tears come out?" since 出す is an other move verb implying that you caused them to come out as opposed to 出る which is a self-move verb, implying that they just came out themselves ua-cam.com/video/ELk1dqaEmyk/v-deo.html
This is the usual way of putting such things in Japanese.
Hi! First off, great content, thank you, I just ordered your book! I have problems understanding this question "Nihon wa nagai n desu ka". Is the core here "Anata ga desu ka?" How is this nominalizing if there's no verb to turn into a noun or is this something else? Thank you!
Thank you so much. I hope you will like the book. As for your question, this sentence analyzes to:
∅が 日本は ∅が 長い んです
∅ga nihon wa ∅ga nagai n desu
Is it that Japan is long?
The core sentence is "∅ga .... n desu ka" = is it that?
The inner secondary sentence is telling us what that n stands for:
"nihon wa (∅ ga) nagai" = as for Japan, it is long.
I hope this makes it clearer.
Hi! Thank you for your answer, but I was actually thinking "Have you been in Japan long" and not the literal meaning, so sorry for not being clear on that, my bad! :)
Probably my bad too. While I have some facility in analyzing grammar, I am not good at knowing what humans might be talking about. In this case, the "Nihon" of Nihon-wa (which is "speaking of Japan" or "raising the subject of Japan") is a contracted reference to the implied subject, which is something like "Nihon ni itte-ita toki" so the sentence is:
"Nihon (ni itte-ita toki) wa (∅-ga) nagai n desu ka".
"Speaking of the Japan matter (your being here), has (it) been long?""
Oh I see :) Thank you again!
That was a bit oversimplified, but I think it made the point clearer. To give the full analysis (including the n-desu part) it would be:
(∅-ga) Nihon (ni itte-ita toki) wa (∅-ga) nagai n desu ka
Is [Speaking of the Japan matter (your being here), (it) has been long] the case?
In the English I have structured it to look somewhat like the Japanese by putting the core at the beginning and end and the sub-sentence in square brackets to make it clear. A more natural English (though still not very natural would be"
Is it the case that [Speaking of the Japan matter (your being here), (it) has been long]?
Heh. You see why I use trains to depict this stuff more graphically!
I don't quite understand why you say that adding the な to きれい turns it into the "connective" form? Doesn't that just turn it into an adjective? The connective form sounds the same as the conjunctive form which would be で instead. Maybe just a terminology issue, but I got a bit lost here.
な is the connective form of だ in the sense that it is what we use when we want to connect it to something _following_ the noun it belongs to. An adjectival noun plus copula is always an adjectival, so just as in English, if we say "the happy dog" or "the dog is happy" the word "happy" is an adjective in both cases, so if we say 花がきれいだ (flower is pretty) or きれいな花 (pretty-is flower) it is an adjectival in both cases. The only difference between だ and な is that な is the form of だ that we use when we are connecting the copula to something else ahead of it.
Does this help?
@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 It does, thank you. And you reply so quickly, I'm impressed!
Great lesson as always sensei! I just have a question about another の ending I encountered in one of my reading immersions and that is のか, what does it exactly mean? The sentence goes like this: 桜が、図面描いたりできるのか
Thanks!
か always knocks out だ (but not です) so it is the same as 桜が、図面描いたりできるのですか but in regular Japanese rather than teineigo (polite language)
@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 Thank you sensei!
Sorry for asking a question so long after this video was done. However I believe that only cure dolly can shed light on certain things. I do appreciate you and I treasure your books.
Does this apply to the "explanatory" questions. I read that ndesu Ka should be used with Naze or doushite when asking for clarification.
Thank you so much! I am happy that you like my books! |
Yes that is correct. In questions where you are asking "Is that how it is?", or "how is it that...?" or "why is it that...?" the んですか form is really supplying the "it" part.
do you have a video where you explain なので? 0.0 or is this the same as なのです but with the て-form of the copula. Btw thanks for your videos!
なので is not a unit. ので is a clause connector and is said to mean "because" by most English sources, but since it actually ends the cause-clause it is closer to "therefore". If the clause ends in the copula it of course becomes な.
However you may see it not joining clauses as in それなので but it still means "because of that". It can get abbreviated to なので.
Hi Dolly sensei!
Thanks so much for this video! Is this the same の at the end of どうしたの？Or 明日は勉強するの?
It may have its origin in this but in practice it is working as an independent sentence-ender - in this case marking a question because か on casual sentences sounds brusque.
@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 This has plagued me for YEARS! Thank you!!
Additionally, could you tell me more about what you mean by independent sentence ender? Is it a category of particles you've named in your curriculum? Or simply an explanatory phrase you're using here?
@@Shrilaraune It's an explanatory phrase. What I mean is that there is a good argument for this の originating as an abbreviation of the のだ ending, but even if that is the case it has really taken on a life of its own as a casual sentence ender which is used (depending on intonation - which in writing can be indicated by a question mark if necessary) for marking a question or emphasizing a statement.
So I would say that we need to regard it as a different entity regardless of its (possible) origins. I did a video about it here: ua-cam.com/video/oayY4kBHGlM/v-deo.html
@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 AMAZING. THANK YOU SO MUCH.
I'm watching the video now and feel like I've been looking for this lesson for years.
THANK YOU
the way you describe the no-particle is as apostrophe-s, but this doesn't really make sense in the case "haha ga kuru no desu". E.g. normally "X no Y" would mean X's Y where X is a thing/class/person, but from this description X must be a noun. "haha ga kuru" is not a noun, so I struggle how to fit it with the given description?
It starts out as an apostrophe but as I said, it develops from there into a kind of pronoun. The pronoun is then used to bundle logical clauses for may purposes including this one.
If の connects/links two nouns, so sentences like 母が来るのです, the _zero_-が is actually located...
母が来るの「 _zero_-が 」です
here?
By extension の also works as a pronoun. That is what it is doing here. The zero pronoun is located where I showed it as being located in the video. (at the beginning of the sentence. の "nominalizes" the logical clause that comes before it. 母かが来る. I would suggest watching the video on the "nominalizing の" ua-cam.com/video/Bq3GO63D9bw/v-deo.html and then re-watching this one.
@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 I think I have the same question as サントスアラーディ.
Is there any english analogue to this type of nominalization?
With your other video, it made perfect sense to me that さくらのが青い can be thought of as "Sakura's *item*" (or hat, in this case -- either way item or hat would be the noun). That is pretty natural since english uses the possessive the same way.
Another example you used was アニメを見るのがたのしい。 In my mind, I think of the the *act* of watching anime ("act" being the noun there). So what I'm seeing is アニメを見るの ∅ がたのしい。Indeed in that video you referenced concealing the pronoun and showed the structure that way.
So in this current example, 母が来るのです, I think the confusion is that we may require two concealed pronouns if の is going to nominalize here.
∅ が [母が来るの_____ ] です。 That の automatically makes me ask "の what?" So my thinking on this is ∅ が [母が来るの ∅ ] です。
Maybe the second one doesn't need to be ∅, but it does need to be some sort of concealed pronoun, however we represent it.
In my mind, I think of this sentence as "It is *the act/situation of* mother coming." の here covers that "act of/situation of'".
@@floydiustube の regularly works as an independent pronoun. Whether we take this as being like the 's of Sakura's (dress) but having taken on a life of its own as it were, or whether we see it as a contraction of もの (but no longer working exactly like it), this is the fact and many constructions will become obscure if we try to avoid it.
泳ぐのができない means "the thing of swimming is not possible (to me}". It doesn't mean "the act of swimming" it means exactly what the English gerund "swimming" means - swimming as a noun-concept. If we try to avoid this some constructions become impenetrable.
@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 Thank you for the reply! I think "independent pronoun" is where I'm getting mixed up. Can you help clarify that?
in the other languages I've studied, "independent pronoun" refers to either
- a subject pronoun (it will act as the A in either [A does B] or [A is B]) or
- it will stand alone, but in reality be an object pronoun (it acts as B in [A is B])
So some examples would be
"*It* is a dog." or
"*Me*." (in answer to an understood question, such as "Who is Tom?") The full sentence would be "The person who is Tom is *me*".
But with の, I don't understand how it is functioning as an independent pronoun.
@@floydiustube の and こと both have the property of "nominalizing" what comes before (and modifies) them. In some videos I have referred to this as putting a clause into a の (or こと) box. This is often referred to as "nominalizing" but I don't really like the term because it implies that something has been turned into a noun - it hasn't, it has been bundled into a pronoun. But this does mean that the whole thing can now be handled as if it were a noun.
This is an expression strategy used in various circumstances and is different from the expression strategies used by most languages for the same purpose.
Let's take
海で泳ぐのが楽しい
lit. Swim-in-sea-thing is fun
In English we would say "swimming in the sea is fun". "Swimming" is a gerund (functionally a noun) and "in the sea" is post-modifying it.
The Japanese strategy bundles the whole clause 海に泳ぐ into the の-box which then becomes the が-marked subject of the sentence. 海に泳ぐ is simply playing the role of modifying (defining) の.
Does this help?
sensei does んです、のです、なのです、なんです only work in informal sentences? (also sensei its been 4 months since your last upload, hoping for you to return!)
lets take this sentence for example: haha ga kuru n da/no desu
so my question is what if the word kuru is changed to the formal form which is kimasu (haha ga kimasu n da/no desu)? will it it become grammatically wrong? if so why?
hi, kimasu no desu is wrong, you should always use the dictionary form when forming a no desu structure.
@@ItachiUchiha-cp4cc yep, this comment was 10 months ago lol, havent been studying japanese lately due to school and cure dolly already passed away.
@@tankeryy1566 Did the character cure dolly pass away or does this go in much further than that? Is the actual person behind the character doing well and the character is just retired?
@@Im-BAD-at-satire the actual person, it was announced on her p@treon page and on the description of her last video "Cure Dolly Forced to Take a Break from UA-cam". (this is my 5th reply coz youtube keeps on deleting my comment)
I don't know if it's related, but what about the ～んの ending? e.g. 何もってんの？
This is an abbreviated form of 何(を)もってるの which itself is an abbreviated form of 何(を)もっているの. Similar to わかんない for わからない or つまんない for つまらない.
@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 Ty!
Me: I no like to study I'm lazi I won't do it
キュア ドリ一 : I am telling you to do it
Me: はい
so 'ndesu' is just really nominalizing verbs and adjectives ?
Technically, yes. But its implications go much further.
And can those endings have other implication, like "I heard" or "I though"? Is it common?
In Shirokuma cafe Panda says モテるには お面で野菜で重かったりするはずなんだけど
And this phrase from the beginning was very confusing for me because of で usage here together with たり, but also English subtitles translate it as "I heard that in order to be popular, you had to have a mask (omen), vegetables (yasai), and be heavy (omoi). "
This is a very contrived and elaborate play on words, and the grammar is not to be taken seriously. The speaker is completely misunderstanding the expression イケメン で 優しく て おもしろかったり しする which means "bei good-looking, kind and interesting (witty)". What the real expression is doing is stretching the grammar in an illegitimate but understandable manner by chaining an adjectival noun イケメン で , an adjective 優しく て and another adjective 面白い (all of which is quite regular) and then adding たりする to the last adjective, which is ungrammatical because really this can only be done with verbs. However playing with grammar is something that is sometimes done especially in elaborate wordplay like this (essentially in the same vein as Shirokuma's pun-routine set-pieces - even using props as he does).
As for the たり たり する form, it is often truncated, sometimes for example just popped onto a single verb to mean "doing that and other stuff". This is very common. Putting it onto an adjective is taking it beyond normal colloquial use. The overall takeaway from this is - don't take too much notice of the grammar when Shirokuma Cafe goes into elaborate verbal gag mode.
Oops - I forgot the main part of the question. No, it doesn't mean "I heard" or anything. It is explanatory. "It is that" - in other words in this case, (I thought you would be more impressed with my mask etc because...) By the way I happened to know the context but on another occasion it would be best to supply context (episode number etc) with questions like this, because Japanese is a very context-driven language, so it is hard to comment on sentences in a void.
Organic Japanese with Cure Dolly どうもありがとうございました
At 8:19, is the sentence "ashi ga itai desu ka?" formal? When using the question marker 'ka' at the end of a sentence, does it always have to be preceded by 'desu'? Why doesn't it turn into the connective form 'na' in "ashi ga itai no desu ka?"?
Anything with です in is formal, and after an adjective (so-called い-adjective which is the only real adjective in Japanese) it serves no grammatical function at all but is purely a formality-marker. Ref: ua-cam.com/video/yJ2EhSPLQsk/v-deo.html
か doesn't have to be preceded by です but it can sound a little brusque when it isn't so informal questions often don't use the か-marker. Ref: ua-cam.com/video/TOv3voBcEv8/v-deo.html
@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 thank you!
Is there any reason one would use んだ instead of のだ or vice-versa?
Is there any reason one would use I'm instead of i am? It's just a contraction...
Can you explain what is kirei na hana at 5:56? shouldn't it be kirei na no da? i didn't quite get that.
Yes. If you keep watching from there you will see that I am just showing the steps by which we get to はながきれいなのだ - the original だ becomes な and then we add the のだ。
CureDolly-sensei, would you mind explaining the "ni nai" part of "X生産は過去にない記録に！". To my understanding, the sentence is something like "The production of X is at a never before seen heights" and I know what 生産, 過去 and 記録 mean. But I don't see how "ni nai" makes it "compared to the past" or something :/
ない is of course the past form of ある. 過去にある means "exist in the past". Why not 過去にあった (existed in the past)? Well in my experience this form seems to be used in relation to records, data etc - a "past event" that still exists in the present. So 過去にない means not existing in the past. So this is a 記録 record not existing in the past. Interestingly I think 記録 leverages both its related senses here - a record in the sense of a written log and in the sense of a "record" that can be broken.
KawaJapa CureDolly Ah! I see! Thank you again sensei! 😊
すみません先。だれがAnimation tool software did you use for simulationください。
Done
so as i learned that by attaching the の particle to verb it changes the verb to noun.
私が日本語を勉強する = i study japanese
日本語を"勉強すの"は難しい(です)= studying japanese is hard.
so applying the same logic from the above sentence to のです sentences
私が行く= i go
(i think its wrong to translate as i am going because there is no です particle)
私が学校に行く=i go to school
私が学校に行くのです= (because)i am going to school
not to confuse with the sentence
私が学校に行っています means i am going to school also. the のです as cure dolly said it explains that he or she is going to school"
remember the particle ので, which mean beacsue or explain reasons.
病気なので、学校に行けなかった think ので is same as のです. andので is actually the て form of のです。
It doesn't "change a verb into a noun", This is typical conventional "Japanese grammar" nonsense.
の functions as a pronoun meaning something like "thing" in these cases. What comes before it can be an adjective, an adjectival noun + な, a verb or a verb clause. In other words any standard modifier.
So パンを食べるのが好きだ
Means "eat-bread-thing is pleasing (to me)"
Note that what modifies の (tells us what "thing" we are talking about) is not the verb 食べる but the verbal clause パンを食べる
のです does not make the continuous ("ing") tense. This is done by て-form + いる ua-cam.com/video/lU5rmrAORDY/v-deo.html
For what sentences ending in のです are really doing please see this video: ua-cam.com/video/lYvIOi8Q3I8/v-deo.html
PS - it strikes me that you may be confused by the fact that English uses "ing" for both the continuous present and for nominalizing verbs:
I am swimming (continuous present)
I like swimming (gerundive nominalization - turning verb into a noun)
This is a pure quirk of English. The two functions are entirely different and unrelated. Japanese (and most languages) do not have this coincidence.
good content, a bit hard to understand sometimes with the voice but well ._. sounds like a computer grandma
I think you may find the more recent videos easier to understand. I don't get these comments much any more. Take a look at my new series and see what you think: ua-cam.com/video/pSvH9vH60Ig/v-deo.html - (I struggled a bit with lessons 2 and 4 but all the others should be better, I believe, especially after 4). There are also full subtitles on all my videos if you turn them on. My new voice-unit is almost indistinguishable from a real human. At least that's what they said in the shop. Even in "real life" I can pass for a human on a rainy night. I think.
yeah I noticed that in the next video. I would very much prefer a real voice, sorry. might be easier as an english native speaker. but it's still understandable and your content really helped me and motivates me to continue learning japanese. you are convincing, that it's not so difficult as it seems :) thank you
I'm so glad to have helped you. The voice is actually my voice so I don't have much choice about it other than to try to improve the recording quality - which I have done and continue to do.
combining the lesson on the nominalizing "no", is it correct to think of it as "(zero[it] ga) haha ga kuru no (zero[koto]) desu"?
Yes one could put it that way. Japanese textbooks explain the nominalizing no as being short for "no mono" and I think that is pretty accurate in describing how it works.
To put it another way, no in "aoi no" meaning "the blue one" is indeed the no that is roughly equivalent to "mono" or "koto". And when we want to place a possessive no before this no (they are closely related as I show in the nominalizing no video) we don't double the no, but let one stand for both.
So if we want to say "Sakura's one" we don't say "sakura no no" we just say "sakura no", as in "sakura no ga suki da" (I like Sakuras one".
We do something very similar in English. For example we may say
"Sakura's is red, Mary's is blue"
which would exactly correspond to
"Sakura no ga akai , Mearii no ga aoi".
Rather than
"Sakura's one is red and Mary's one is blue"
Which, literally rendered, would be
X "Sakura no no ga akai, Mearii no no ga aoi"
The cross is to show that this sentence is not correct Japanese.
In English we _can_ conflate the 's and the one but in Japanese we _must_ conflate the no that is 's and the no that is one.
So
Haha ga kuru no desu
is literally
∅=the thing of mother's coming
and could be notated as:
(∅ga) haha ga kuru (no) no desu
However I think simply remembering that no never doubles (or the nominalizing no as "no mono") is probably sufficient and avoids the extra complication.
Does this clarify the situation?
I should be happy if you would let me know as it is a little complex (not really complex in itself but complex to explain) and I am trying to find a way to make it clear.
the information on "no" not doubling made sense. i may have misrepresented my question though however. when i worked out the grammar point (incorrectly) before watching this video using the knowledge i got from your previous videos, this is how i saw the sentence structure:
haha ga kuru no (∅ga) desu. i was trying to place the "∅" pronoun after the "no" no matter what, which led me to get the core structure wrong. your reminder of the A ga B desu structure was very helpful.
you said in your "nominalizing no" video that the nominalizing no implies the zero pronoun following it. to me, your usage in this current video feels a bit contradictory and implies that "no" actually is nominalizing "haha ga kuru" rather than using its possessive function of implying a zero pronoun following it as i learned in your previous video. there should have been either two zero pronouns "(∅ga) haha ga kuru no (∅) desu" or an explanation on the hidden mono/koto "(∅ga) haha ga kuru no (mono/koto) desu" to home in on the concept. i guess it was nitpicky and im sorry to have written such a confusing reply. i was trying to explain my confusion over the zero pronoun i think.
edit: sorry for all the edits.
I am sorry if I caused any confusion with my suggestion of zero in the nominalizing no lesson. I was really simply putting in a different way the Japanese school textbook idea that the nominalizing no is short for "no mono".
So where the subject of the conversation is hats
"Sakura no ga akai , Mearii no ga aoi".
Can be expressed as
"Sakura no ∅ ga akai , Mearii no ∅ ga aoi".
And of course here ∅ = hat. It seemed to me a better way of notating this kind of sentence than "Sakura no mono" since we aren't really trying to say "mono" (thing) so much as something like the English "one".
Now in the no desu sentences really think that mono is the best representation. I suggested that ∅ was more flexible and it is because if we wish we can here say ∅=mono. However I think it mostly clutters things to go through that process and we might as well simply take no as "no mono" in these cases.
But, if we want to use ∅ then
haha ga kuru no desu
= (∅ ga) haha ga kuru no (∅) desu
= (∅ ga) haha ga kuru no (mono/koto) desu
I am not sure where the extra ga comes from in your
haha ga kuru no (∅ga) desu
The first ∅ ga is needed because a sentence must have a subject. So just as
Tsukareta
implies
∅ga tsukareta
Otherwise it wouldn't be a sentence, so
haha ga kuru no desu
implies
∅ ga haha ga kuru no desu
Because the copula desu must be coupling the predicate
(haha ga kuru) no desu
to something. You can't have a copula that isn't coupling anything.
ua-cam.com/video/iV5rjLeFIXo/v-deo.html
You also can't have ga and desu next to each other. Ga marks a subject (thing that is doing/being) and desu is attached to a noun (or na adjective which is also a noun) to turn it into a predicate (the thing that the ga-marked subject is being).
So in
(∅ ga) haha ga kuru no (mono/koto) desu
The subject (the doer/be-er) is ∅ (it) - marked by ga because it is the doer/be-er
The thing it is being is no (mono/koto)
and the two are coupled by desu.
haha ga kuru
functions as a modifier to no (= no mono/koto) telling us what mono/koto it is.
The ga in
haha ga kuru
is linking the doer (haha) to the thing she does (kuru), This can stand alone as a sentence in itself, but in this sentence it is being used as the modifier to no.
i get it now. thanks for the explanation. i also edited my comment like ten times before youtube told me that you replied. im sorry you had to see that. it must have hurt to see such a blatant mistake without clarifying my intent in sharing it (100% me, nothing on your part. i was trying to show you how your explanation in this video helped fix it). i really think your channel is the best i have visited and i shill it like crazy. thanks once again.
Thank YOU. Don't worry about edits - I'm an excessive editor myself. Just glad I could clear things up for you. Japanese grammar takes a bit of getting used to (it's _very_ logical compared to other grammars but almost because of that it takes a while to get used to how logically it works). So thrashing around with getting it right is a good thing. And making mistakes is a good thing too. We learn by our mistakes so long as we don't cling to them. They are part of the learning process.
And thanks for shilling the channel! I think we have an important message and we're still very small, so help in getting the word out is really appreciated.
Cure Dolly why can't the second example be hana ga kirei no desu like the first example haha ga kuru no desu? why use hana ga kirei da?
There is no difference between だ and です except that です is formal.
@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 oh I think I misstated, what I mean is how is the first example allow no desu but the second example does not allow no da and must use na connective form? What is the difference between kirei and kuru that allow this distinction? is it because kuru (coming) is not a noun or na-adjective? is I guess what I'm asking. Thanks again Dolly for the video.
@@perzcommodus587 yes い adjectives and verbs don't need the connective な as it's already built in to their structure
5:00 かわいい
Are you able to say whats happening in this tiny example? 「。。。死んだんだよ」. The conext is explaining why someone isn't here. It feels like there is an extra [んだ]. Is it 死にました＝死んだ？Then explanantory んだよ？
Yes that's exactly right. Literally it is saying "it (the reason) is that he died". In formal language it would be 死にましたのですよ
EDIT if you are wondering where we get the it - if there is a だ/です then there must be something it is coupling with the thing it follows. This means we have a zero pronoun. So inserting that, we have ∅が∅が死んだのだよ (I changed the ん to its "proper" form の for clarity). So in this sentence the A-car (to use train language) is the first ∅が (it = the reason) and the B-engine is のだ. The second ∅が belongs to the subordinate clause that defines what の is and means "he". So ∅が死んだの means "the fact that he died" and the whole statement means "It (the reason) is the fact that he died".
If the statement were simply 死んだ this would analyze to ∅が死んだ. Here, ∅ would mean "he".
CureDolly, are you a Japanese native speaker? If not, then how did you learn Japanese?
I am not a native speaker. I learned Japanese through various means but the core of my method was watching Japanese anime with Japanese subtitles. I did this from very early on (as soon as I had a little vocabulary and basic grammar). I looked up words and grammatical forms as I went along. It isn't an easy way of learning Japanese (there aren't any easy ways other than going very slowly!) It would have been a lot faster if I'd had someone to tell me the things I discovered by myself - which is what I try to do here.
I intend to make some videos on my "direct self-immersion" methods at some point, but I am rather tied up with the grammar series and forthcoming "from scratch" series at the moment.
UPDATE: I have now started a video series on self-immersion and related techniques:
ua-cam.com/video/xhEnMieHtec/v-deo.html
KawaJapa CureDolly I learned the same way, constantly checking new words and grammar usages in anime. It's tough but great for a certain level of immersion
It is tough, but it really works doesn't it?
What is the point of converting a verb into a noun?
I don't get it.
Is it the same like ははがくることです？
If someone asks me what do you hate the most? I could reply
あそぶことです
where can I use this んです？
What is the difference between
はながきれいです and はながきれいなのです?
What;s the difference between saying "The dog ate my homework" and "The fact is, the dog ate my homework?" - in practice they mean exactly the same thing. Why did we add "the fact is"? What difference does it make?Somewhat difficult to explain to a foreigner who doesn't know the language. のだ etc. are somewhat similar to this in some cases. But learning exactly what their weight and value is takes experience and isn't something I or anyone else can teach you. Language is not a mechanical structure. It has structural elements and I teach them. But structure will never substitute for real experience and mass input ua-cam.com/video/3UDW5wTYbzM/v-deo.html - It will however, make it a lot easier.
"You can't learn how to swim if you don't touch the water"
So Friking true I should watch Japanese Subs than English subs Thank you! xD
Good decision! Here's my video on how to do it: ua-cam.com/video/xhEnMieHtec/v-deo.html and where to get free J-subbed anime ua-cam.com/video/Y3fXk7CzG-k/v-deo.html
The thing is...my Mom is coming.
how and why are you verified
キュア・ドリーが正しいんで、見ている。
ありがとう。
んだ ＝のだ
そうです
Organic Japanese with Cure Dolly そうだの？
@@theophonchana6307 Xだの → なの
umdaa ummndesss
Your comment is not very clear. You may need to take typing lessons.
@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 that was actually how you pronounce the んだ and んです ：D
@@jakellaneta5991 I see! I am afraid I am a little slow with human jokes.
For a non native english speaker, the doll is sometimes difficult to understand. Nonetheless a very good explanation. Thanks.
I try to imitate human speech but I am afraid it is far from perfect.
Voice is cringe worthy. Good concept love it just voice is just very distrubing
I got a new microphone, so I think the audio is better in more recent videos. Of course if it's my human-imitation that's a bit off-kilter that's harder to fix.
KawaJapa CureDolly I'd say it's just hard to understand. Sounds like a bunch of mumbling to me. I have to focus too much on trying to understand what you're saying that paying attention to the lesson.
I realize that a minority of viewers do find my voice hard to understand (less now than at the time of this video). I continue to try to improve. All videos have full and exact subtitles for that reason.
yeah horrible voice but : thank you so much for the subtitles, 私はフランス人ですのがシドニーで住んでいます。日本語を勉強しているのが難しい。（？ I am trying to apply no da or desu, as I hear it all the time with my japanese friends without understanding）Now I understand a bit more I think, English explanations are very confusing for me even if I understand that language kind of well. I think it is essential to understand the core, the theory, then, only the practice will make you progress ( 練習, :-)）Thank you so much for these awesome lessons ! @@organicjapanesewithcuredol49
You do realize that, horrible or not, it is my voice you are talking about? Don't worry, I'm an android so I'm not offended, but I hope you humans are a little more tactful with each other. Thank you very much for your kind words though!
I absolutely agree about practice - in fact I don't even like to call it "practice" I call it "living the language". And that is the only way you learn language. I can't teach you language and neither can any class or textbook. I can teach you _about_ language as a _preparation_ for learning it, just as a book might teach you swimming strokes. You still won't "learn swimming" outside of the water.
In your sentences you don't need the の. The conjunction が (which is the formal equivalent to expressions like けど and でも) directly conjoins two complete logical clauses in a compound sentence (just like "but" in English). We don't need to bundle them into a noun-like entity with の as we do for some other uses.
May I recommend my core series, which teaches the underlying principles of all this, which the standard texts and classes never tell you. I'm afraid the first three or four lessons have fairly poor sound still (but there are subtitles). I believe it improves progressively from there on: ua-cam.com/video/pSvH9vH60Ig/v-deo.html
(riyuu ha) haha ga kuru no (riyuu) desu.
??
Now why are you typing romaji at this level? You _could_ put it that way but just as in "it's sunny" (∅が) はれだ the "it" (∅) is not defined that clearly in anyone's mind. It's like saying in English that "It's sunny" really means "the weather is sunny" or "the day is sunny". It kind of does but no one thinks of it that way.
Or again if you say "Its just that I have another appointment". What is "it"? The problem? The thing I was thinking? It is a non-defined subject. English has them. Japanese has them even more.
@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 I understand that, I was just trying to rationaluze it wuthin the framework of my own language. I'm typing romaji because my phone broke and the hiragana of this phone is too time-consuming to type.
「漢字な読み方がわからない時、どうやって調べたらいいのでしょか」... How would that construction align with the English language?
@@AlexBerchuk It should be 感じの読み方. I am not sure what you mean by aligning with the English language. If we put it in Japanese structured English it is:
(in) Kanji's reading-way does not do understandable time, how-do if-look-up good seem to be [question]
@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 yes, it should be の.... Now it's a bit confusing, I'm trying to find the way to explain to myself "no deshou ka" the way you explained the affirmative form. My teacher says it's to explain concern, worry. For example, 大きい地震が起きたら、どうすればいいのでしょうか。="what is it that we should be doing when a severe earthquake strikes?". I was trying to find out why this particular construction is used, and if the の is the same to the の in 子供のおもちゃ or is it a different の altogether. I'm familiar with the nominalising function of の, such as 食べるのが etc. I'm familiar with such constructions, what I was trying to find out is the origin of such a construction, or why it works the way it does.
And as to the 「漢字の読み方がわからない時、どうやって調べたらいいのでしょか」, I was trying to rephrase it so that it would go with "it is that", "is it that". I cannot come to understanding where "it is... that", "is it... that...?" , "what is it that..." fits into the sentence. I know the translation.
If I was to drop the final deshou ka, would it still be expressing worry and concern? I hear people just adding no with a rising intonation.
your voice isn't clear and clean can't understand. lol
I am afraid I am an android, not a human so I have some difficulty with vocal production and recording. This is an old video and I believe I have improved things since then in more recent ones. However because I understand that my voice is not up to human standards I do have full subtitles on all videos so please turn them on if you have any difficulty.