Hello and goodbye

Japanese uses three scripts together, often in the same sentence. Hiragana is a set of rounded syllable signs for grammar words, endings and many everyday words. Katakana is a more angular set of the same syllables, used for foreign names and loanwords. Kanji are characters from Chinese that carry meaning, used for most nouns and verbs. Foreign names are said the Japanese way: Emma Clark becomes エマ・クラーク (Ema Kurāku).

You don't need to read any of this yet. Every Japanese sentence in this course also has romaji, the Latin spelling. The vowels are short and clear: a as in “father”, i as in “see”, u as in “food” but with relaxed lips, e as in “get”, o as in “hot”. A line over a vowel (ō, ū, ā) means you hold it twice as long. The u in desu and -masu is almost silent, and so is the i in -mashita: say “dess” and “kimash'ta”. The scripts are taught step by step on the reference pages.

です (desu) means “am, is, are”, and it comes at the end of the sentence. 鈴木です (Suzuki desu) is “I'm Suzuki”. To name the topic, what you're talking about, put は after it. It's written with the hiragana for “ha” but said wa: 私は会社員です (watashi wa kaishain desu), word for word “as for me, office worker am”: I'm an office worker.

For “am not, isn't, aren't”, change です (desu) to じゃないです (ja nai desu): 私は学生じゃないです (watashi wa gakusei ja nai desu), I'm not a student. You'll also hear じゃありません (ja arimasen), which means the same and sounds a little more formal. です (desu) is the same for I, you, he, she and they, and Japanese has no words for “a” or “the”. The past, “was”, comes in A2.

私 (watashi) means “I”, but Japanese leaves it out when it's clear who you mean: you'll hear 鈴木です (Suzuki desu) much more than 私は鈴木です (watashi wa Suzuki desu). The same goes for “you”, “he” and “she”: Japanese uses these words far less than English, because the situation shows who is meant.

Avoid あなた (anata), “you”, which can sound rude or too personal. Use the person's name with さん (san) instead, even when you talk to them: クラークさんはロンドンからですか？ (Kurāku-san wa Rondon kara desu ka?), are you from London, Ms Clark? さん (san) means Mr, Ms or Mrs. Never add さん (san) to your own name.

Japanese names come family name first: Suzuki Kenji. Colleagues call each other by the family name with さん (san). To say where you're from, use から来ました (kara kimashita), “I came from”, after the place: マンチェスターから来ました (Manchesutā kara kimashita).

To ask a yes-or-no question, add か (ka) to the end of the sentence. The word order doesn't change: 会社員です (kaishain desu), I'm an office worker, becomes 会社員ですか (kaishain desu ka?), are you an office worker? Answer with はい (hai), yes, or いいえ (iie), no. わかります (wakarimasu) means “I understand”, so わかりますか (wakarimasu ka?) is “do you understand?”. When you hear an answer, そうですか (sō desu ka), said with a falling tone, means “I see”.

も (mo) means “too, also”. It takes the place of は (wa): 私は会社員です (watashi wa kaishain desu) becomes 私も会社員です (watashi mo kaishain desu), I'm an office worker too. Like は, it comes after the word it's about.