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

numbers

In this lesson, we will study Japanese numbers. Let's start with one through ten.
1 - 10 rei or zero ichi ni san shi or yon go roku nana or shichi hachi kyuu or ku juu	zero one two three four five six seven eight nine ten
Note that several of the numbers have two pronunciations. Each pronunciation is used in specific situations. Sometimes either pronunciation is acceptable.
11 - 19 The numbers from 11 to 19 are formed by putting the appropriate number after ten. Thus 11 is juu + ichi = juuichi.
juu-ichi juu-ni juu-san juu-shi or juu-yon juu-go juu-roku juu-nana or juu-shichi juu-hachi juu-kyuu or juu-ku	11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 - 90 The numbers from 20 to 90 are formed by putting the appropriate number before ten. Thus 20 is ni + juu = nijuu. Think of it like saying 'two tens.'
ni-juu san-juu yon-juu go-juu roku-juu nana-juu hachi-juu kyuu-juu	twenty thirty fourty (Not shi-juu) fifty sixty seventy eighty ninety (Not ku-juu)
Other numbers can be formed in ways similar to the 1-19 and 20-90 ways. For example, 21 is formed by making twenty, then adding one. 21 = ni + juu + ichi = nijuuichi. Or, 'two tens and one' is twenty one.
Examples: san-juu-ni roku-juu-nana yon-juu-hachi kyuu-juu-ku	32 67 48 99
100 - 900 One hundred is hyaku. The numbers from 200 to 900 are formed like the numbers from 20-90. Be careful as there are some exceptions in pronunciation.
nihyaku sanbyaku yonhyaku gohyaku roppyaku nanahyaku happyaku kyuuhyaku	200 300 * 400 500 600 * 700 800 * 900
Note the exceptions in pronunciation for the numbers with asterisks.
Larger Numbers: sen man juu-man hyaku-man sen-man oku	thousand ten thousand hundred thousand million ten million hundred million

here & there

In this lesson, we will discuss identifying one's general location as well as the location of objects being spoken about. First let's start with some general location vocabulary.
koko soko asoko doko	here, next to me there, next to you over there, away from us where
From here on out 'here' will be koko, 'there' will be soko, and 'over there' will be asoko, but don't forget that the words are in reference to the speaker and who is being spoken to. Now we can instert our location words into the 'X wa Y desu' patterns.
Examples: Hon wa doko desu ka?	Where is the book?
Hon wa koko desu.	The book's here.
Enpitsu wa doko desu ka?	Where is the pencil?
Enpitsu wa asoko desu.	The pencil is over there.
Watashi no pen wa doko desu ka?	Where is my pen.
Koko desu.	It's here.
One can also describe objects given their location. If you want to indicate a pencil you are holding or one near to you 'this pencil' (as opposed to a pen near someone else) you say kono enpitsu. If you are indicating a pencil near the person you are speaking to (and not yourself) you say sono enpitsu. And finally, if you are indicating a pencil away from both of you, you say ano enpitsu. To ask which pencil (out of more than one indicated pencil), you say dono enpitsu. NOTE: Kono, sono, ano, and dono must be followed by a noun that they are describing. They cannot stand alone.
kono sono ano dono	this ___ (next to me) that ___ (next to you) that ___ over there (away from us) which ___
Examples: Kono inu wa watashi no desu.	This dog is mine.
Ano hito wa dare desu ka?	Who is that person over there?
Sono enpitsu wa dare no desu ka?	Whose pencil is that?
Dono hon desu ka?	Which book is it?
If the subject is already understood, one can simply say 'this', 'that,' or 'that over there.' Kore is 'this',sore is 'that', and are is 'that over there.' Dore is 'which' (of several things).
Examples: Kore wa nan desu ka?	What is this?
Sore wa hon desu.	That is a book.
Are wa nan desu ka?	What is that over there?
Dore desu ka?	Which is it?
Vocabulary: koko soko asoko doko kono sono ano dono kore sore are dore hon enpitsu	here (here next to me) there (there next to you) over there (away from us) where this ___ (next to me) that ___ (next to you) that ___ over there (away from us) which ___ this (next to me) that (next to you) that over there (away from us) which book pencil