It's in the car.

First, there are two different ways of saying something exists. One is for animate things (people and animals) and one is for inanimate things. These are the verbs imasu and arimasu. These both mean "to exist." Imasu is used for animate things and arimasu is used for inanimate things. To ask where a place or inanimate object is, one can use the form: XX wa doko ni arimasu ka. Where is XX? For people and animals, imasu is used instead: XX wa doko ni imasu ka. Where is XX? Note the use of ni. Ni was previously shown in lesson 7; its meaning here is slightly different. Ni in this case means 'at.' Doko ni means 'at what location.' Similarly, koko ni would mean 'at this location.' The above sentences literally translate as 'As for XX, at what location does it exist?' In order to say where something or someone is, just replace the 'doko' with the location.
Examples: Maiku-san wa doko ni imasu ka. Maiku-san wa gakkou ni imasu. Neko wa doko ni imasu ka. Neko wa asoko ni imasu. Watashi no ringo wa doko ni arimasu ka. Koko ni arimasu. Kaban wa doko ni arimasu ka. Kaban wa Arasuka ni arimasu.	Where is Mike? Mike is at school. Where is the cat? The cat is over there. Where is my apple? It's here. Where is the briefcase? The briefcase is in Alaska.
OK, now we can move on to specific locations. Where exactly is the cat? Is it under the desk? Inside of a box? Is the book in the bookshelf or on top of it? We will need some more vocabulary in order to say these things. mae front ushiro back, behind yoko next to, along side ue top, above shita bottom, under naka inside, middle soto outside aida between, interval mukou beyond tonari next door, neighboring hidari gawa left side migi gawa right side Now that we have more location words to work with, we can make more location sentences. Just place the correct location word in the sentence.
Examples: Neko wa doko ni imasu ka. Soto ni imasu. Naka ni imasu.	Where is the cat? It's outside. It's inside.
Now we need to combine the location words with objects to create such locations as 'in the bag' etc. We do this using the particle no. Recall from lesson 2 that no indicates possesion.
Examples: kuruma no ue kuruma no shita kuruma no naka kuruma no soto kuruma no ushiro	on the car under the car in the car outside of the car behind the car
Note that where in English these phrases are indicated with prepositions these are more likepostpositions. OK, now that we have our new locations, we can insert them in our location sentence as before.
Examples: Neko wa doko ni imasu ka. Kuruma no ue ni imasu. Kuruma no shita ni imasu. Kaban wa doko ni arimasu ka. Kuruma no naka ni arimasu.	Where is the cat? It's on the car. It's under the car. Where's the bag? It's in the car.
Vocabulary: arimasu imasu ni no mae ushiro yoko ue shita naka soto aida mukou tonari hidari gawa migi gawa kaban Arasuka kuruma	to exist (for inanimate things) to exist (for animate things) particle meaning at possessive particle front back, behind next to, along side top, above bottom, under inside, middle outside between, interval beyond next door, neighboring left side right side bag, briefcase Alaska car

Let's go.

This lesson is about the "let's" or "mashou" form of verbs. Recall that 'masu' is the polite present ending for verbs. Taking off the masu and replacing it with mashou changes it to "let's --", where the -- is replaced by whatever the verb means. Examples: masu form English mashou form English tabemasu to eat tabemashou let's eat nomimasu to drink nomimashou let's drink yomimasu to read yomimashou let's read kakimasu to write kakimashou let's write ikimasu to go ikimashou let's go kaimasu to buy kaimashou let's buy mimasu to watch/see mimashou let's watch kikimasu to listen/hear kikimashou let's listen
Using the previous lessons and some vocabulary, you should now be able to say all of the following.
Examples: Kouen ni ikimashou. Eiga o mimashou. Ongaku o kikimashou. Tegami o kakimashou. Hon o yomimashou. Tabemashou. Nomimashou. Kuruma o kaimashou. Nihongo o benkyou shimashou.	Let's go to the park. Let's watch a movie. Let's listen to music. Let's write a letter. Let's read a book. Let's eat. Let's drink. Let's buy a car. Let's study Japanese.
The mashou form is also a nice way to ask people if they want to do something with you. Just add the particle ka to the end of the sentence to make it "shall we~?". Examples:
Kouen ni ikimashou ka.	Shall we go to the park?
Nihongo o benkyou shimashou ka.	Shall we study Japanese?
A more formal way to ask if someone will do something with you is to use the masen ka ending. This is more like asking "Won't you do this?"
Examples: Zasshi o yomimasen ka. Gakkou e ikimasen ka.	Won't you read a magazine? Won't you go to school?
Vocabulary: tabemasu nomimasu yomimasu kakimasu kikimasu mimasu kaimasu benkyou shimasu ikimasu -masu -mashou -mashou ka -masen ka eiga hon kouen kuruma ongaku tegami nihongo zasshi	to eat to drink to read to write to listen to watch to buy to study to go present/future positive verb ending "let's" verb ending "shall we" verb ending "won't you" verb ending movie book park car music letter Japanese language magazine

I study every day.

The word for school is gakkou. Teachers are sensei and students are gakusei (or seito). College is daigaku (literally "big school"). A college student is daigakusei. In order to say what grade you are in, or whether you're a freshman-senior, you say "I'm a --year student." Where -- is replaced with the correct year.
ichinensei ninensei sannensei yonensei nen Ninensei desu.	first year student second year student third year student fourth year student year I'm a second year student.
To say "I am a student at the University of ----" you say: ---- daigaku no gakusei desu. or ---- daigaku no seito desu. This also works for other types of schools like high schools, junior highs and elementary schools. Just insert the name of the school in place of ---- and the type of school in place of daigaku. Note that elementary school students are not generally called seito or gakusei, but jidou(children or juveniles). West koukou no seito desu. I'm a West High School student.
Examples: mainichi kinou asatte	every day yesterday the day after tomorrow
Students of course also do a lot of shukudai (homework). To do homework is shukudai o shimasu. The verb "to do" is shimasu. Let's try a few sample sentences now.
Examples: Mainichi, nihongo o renshuu shimasu.	Every day I practice Japanese.
Mainichi, eigo o benkyou shimasu.	I study English every day.
Asatte, nihongo o renshuu shimasu.	I will practice Japanese the day after tomorrow.
Kinou, suugaku o benkyou shimashita.	Yesterday, I studied math.
Asatte, nihongo no shukudai o shimasu.	The day after tomorrow I will do Japanese homework.
Kinou, suugaku no shukudai o shimasen deshita.	I didn't do the math homework yesterday.
Vocabulary: ichinensei ninensei sannensei yonensei daigakusei seito gakusei sensei nen mainichi kinou asatte daigaku koukou suugaku shukudai benkyou shimasu renshuu shimasu	freshman/first year student sophomore/second year student junior/third year student senior/fourth year student university student student student teacher year every day yesterday the day after tomorrow university/college high school math homework to study to practice

I want to drink cola.

In this lesson, you will learn how to tell someone that you want to do something. Recall that present tense verbs have the -masu ending. In order to change these to the 'want to' ending, drop the -masu and replace it with -tai. Examples: masu form English tai form English tabemasu to eat tabetai want to eat nomimasu to drink nomitai want to drink ikimasu to go ikitai want to go kaimasu to buy kaitai want to buy yomimasu to read yomitai want to read kakimasu to write kakitai want to write mimasu to watch/see mitai want to watch/see kikimasu to listen/hear kikitai want to listen/hear
Examples: Kouen ni ikimasu. Kouen ni ikitai. Gakkou ni ikimasu. Gakkou ni ikitai.	I will go to the park. I want to go to the park. I go to school. I want to go to school.
Now for one more twist. When you use tai with verbs that take o, you can also change the o to ga for emphasis if you want.
Examples: Ringo o tabemasu. Ringo o tabetai. Ringo ga tabetai.	I eat apples. I want to eat an apple. I want to eat an apple.
In the above example, the second sentence just means that you want to eat apples. The third sentence means that you want to eat apples as opposed to something else. It's not really that important of a difference so you can stick with just o if you're more comfortable with it.
Vocabulary: ringo tegami hon kouen gakkou koora o ni ga	apple letter book park school cola object marker particle particle meaning 'to' emphatic object marker
-masu	positive present/future verb tense
-tai	'want to' verb ending

I didn't eat meat.

This lesson deals with past and present verb tenses. We have already studied the present and future tense for positive and negative verbs. As a refresher:
-masu -masen	positive present/future negative present/future
Examples: Paati ni ikimasu. Paati ni ikimasen. Koora o nomimasu. Koora o nomimasen. Niku o tabemasu. Niku o tabemasen.	I will go to the party. I won't go to the party. I drink cola. I don't drink cola. I eat meat. I don't eat meat.
Note that desu is an exception to this because the negaive of desu is dewa arimasen or janai desu. To change from present positive to past positive, take off the masu ending and replace it withmashita. To change from a negative present to a negative past, use the masen ending and adddeshita to the end.
Examples: Kouen ni ikimashita. Kouen ni ikimasen deshita.	I went to the park. I didn't go to the park.
Omizu o nomimashita. Omizu o nomimasen deshita.	I drank water. I didn't drink water.
Niku o tabemashita. Niku o tabemasen deshita.	I ate meat. I didn't eat meat.
Hon deshita. Hon dewa arimasen deshita.	It was a book. It wasn't a book.
Note that again desu is an exception. You cannot say janai deshita. This rule will be explained later. Note also the word omizu. Mizu means water. The o is only added to be respectful. Many words often have this 'honorific' o added to the front.
Vocabulary:
-masu -masen -mashita -masen deshita desu dewa arimasen deshita dewa arimasen deshita ikimasu nomimasu tabemasu paati koora niku kouen mizu hon	positive present/future verb tense negative present/future verb tense positive past verb tense negative pase verb tense is isn't was wasn't to go to drink to eat party cola/soda meat park water book

I go to school.

This lesson is about direction verbs. For our purposes, a direction verb is one that indicates movement to or from somewhere. In example: I go to the store. In other words, you are moving from somewhere to the store. In order to say "to the store" you have to use the particle ni or e. Ni and e mean 'to' when they come before a direction verb. (Note that the particle e is only pronounced as e; it is spelled with the character he.)
Examples: ikimasu kimasu kaerimasu	to go to come to return home
The sentence pattern for direction verbs is as follows: location e/ni direction verb :=: direction verb to location
Examples: Gakkou ni ikimasu. Mise ni ikimasu. Daidokoro ni ikimasu. Paati ni kimasu. Gakkou ni kimasu ka. Hai gakkou ni ikimasu. Iie, gakkou ni ikimasen.	Go to school. Go to the store. Go to the kitchen. Come to the party. Will you come to school? Yes, I'll go to school. No, I won't go to school.
It should be remembered that the response to "will you come?" should be "I will go." or "I won't go." because the two people speaking are assumed to be in different locations. One can then add time to indicate when one will go or come. This is generally more useful information that "I will go." Recall that the basic Japanese sentence structure is TTOPV. This stands for Topic/Time Object Place Verb. Our sentences will use T/TPV as there is no object in these sentences. Examples: Kyou, watashi wa gakkou ni ikimasu. Today I will go to school. Watashi wa gakkou ni ikimasen. I won't go to school. Ashita, watashi no paati ni kimasu ka. Will you come to my party tomorrow? Hai, ikimasu. Yes, I'll go. Konya, mise ni ikimasu ka. Will you go to the store tonight? Hai, mise ni ikimasu. Yes, I'll go to the store.
Note that the above examples are all in future tense in English. In Japanese, there is no difference between future tense and present tense.
Vocabulary: ikimasu kimasu kaerimasu kyou ashita konya gakkou mise paati daidokoro uchi ni (h)e	to go to come to return home today tomorrow tonight school store/shop party kitchen house particle that means 'to' particle that means 'to'

i don't read books

This lesson is about the Japanese particle wo. Wo is pronounced 'o' and will be spelled 'o' in romanized Japanese but should not be confused with the vowel o. (W)o is only used as a particle. It is used to mark the object of a sentence. The particle comes after the object and before the verb. Basically, you have "noun o action verb" which means: "do/does the action verb to the noun."
nihongo o benkyou shimasu	study Japanese language
hon o yomimasu	read a book
zasshi o yomimasu	read a magazine
niku o tabemasu	eat meat
ringo o tabemasu	eat an apple
terebi o mimasu	watch TV
koora o nomimasu	drink cola
ongaku o kikimasu	listen to music
One can also attach a subject to the sentence to explain who or what is doing the action.
Examples: Watashi wa hon o yomimasu.	I read books.
Annasan wa Nihongo o benkyou shimasu.	Anna studies Japanese.
Yoshisan wa ongaku o kikimasu.	Yoshi listens to music.
Ano neko wa ringo o tabemasu.	That cat over there eats apples.
Well, that's all well and good, but what if you want to say you don't eat meat? or don't drink coffee? Notice that all of the verbs above end in masu. That is called the masu ending. (It's pronounced like the 'moss' that grows on the ground.) That is the positive present (or future) form of the verb in polite form. If you want to use the negative present form of the verb you change the masu to masen. So "I listen", "Watashi wa kikimasu", becomes "I don't listen", "Watashi wa kikimasen."
Examples: Watashi wa hon o yomimasen.	I don't read books.
Meerisan wa ringo o tabemasen.	Mary doesn't eat apples.
Watashi no neko wa banana o tabemasen.	My cat doesn't eat bananas.
Maikusan wa Nihongo o benkyou shimasen.	Mike doesn't study Japanese.
Lesson 6 Vocabulary: (w)o ringo banana terebi koora ongaku benkyou shimasu tabemasu kikimasu yomimasu nomimasu mimasu ~masu ~masen	object marker (particle) apple banana TV cola music to study to eat to hear or listen to read to drink to watch, look, or see present positive verb form present negative verb form