[OzukakiBurasuki]

Originally Posted by masaegu

I am now in Japan.
今、私が日本でいます。 or 今は私が日本でいます。 Or should I use 日本に instead of 日本で?

Use 「私は」 and 「日本に」. No 「は」 after 「今」, except for a longer sentence as below.

You may be addicted to using 「が」 all the time like so many Japanese-learners I've spoken to. You need a reason to use it. For example, to say "My sister was in Japan last month and now I am in Japan.", you use 「が」 for the second part.

You do not use 「で」 unless it precedes an action verb. 「いる = to be」 is a stationary verb. There are only a few other stationary verbs --- 「住む」「滞在する」「ある」, etc. Action verbs are numerous (and endless) -- buy, kill, run, eat, teach, study, watch, etc.

Yeah, the book made me slightly addicted to using が for いる/ある while not explaining yet why it switches between が / は. I suppose が would be for certain cases or the addition of another topic?

Ms. Tanaka is fine. Mr. Yamakawa is not fine. (I assume by fine they mean 大丈夫)
田中さんは大丈夫です。山川さんは大丈夫じゃありませ ん。 ?

Correct by children's standards. Better speakers do not combine the highly casual 「じゃ」 with the not too casual 「ありません」.　 Do use 「では」instead of 「じゃ」.

In Kansai, however, 「じゃありません」 might sound more acceptable to adult speakers. Around Tokyo, you will not sound too cool saying it.

The book wanted me to use じゃ for speech and では for writing purposes, but I tend to forget between the two are time as じゃ is faster for me to write than では

I went to the mountain with a Japanese man and woman.
私は日本人の男の人と女の人で山に行きました。 (do I need to classify both as 日本人 or is it assumed?)

It is assumed. The only mistake is the 「で」. Use 「といっしょに」.

You can say 「３人で行きました。= went in a group of three」 , but not 「ＡとＢで行きました。」


I saw somewhere that 「私は日本人の男の人と女の人と山に行きました。」 worled fine. Would that be just as good as といっしょに?

I ate dinner with my friend on Tuesday.
私は火曜日に友達と晩御飯で食べました。 (Would i need to put 火曜日に before 私は? Also does it sound okay?)

Are you addicted to using 「で」 as well? Why 「で」 there of all possiibilities? Definitely 「を」. Nothing else is even remotely correct.

ごめん。 I just realized that I messed up here. >_< Since 晩御飯 is the direct object, I should have used を like you said.

On Wednesday, I drank a lot of alcohol. And then I saw a video.
私は水曜日にたくさんお酒を飲みました。それから、ビ デオを見ました。 (Would I need 、 after それから? Does it sound right? )

Excellento! No comma neededo. (Don't be laughing at my pronunciation. I'm a Japanese-speaker; I've gotta throw in an extra vowel here and there to feel like one.)lol

Can you put the two sentences into one, though? That will sound a lot smarter.


I haven't learned compound sentences yet, so I don't understand what you mean.

I dislike cold mornings.
私は寒い明日がきらいです。 (does this sound right)

Why 「明日 = tomorrow」? Use 「朝」.

For advanced learners, the sentence「私は寒い朝がきらいです。」, while being grammatical, sounds like it was translated from a foreign language. More native speakers would say it 「朝が寒いのは苦手です。」

OH GOSH NOT AGAIN! I was thinking 朝 and accidentally typed 明日 instead. ごめん。 >///< Thanks for the insight. :'D

Let's watch the movie tonight.
今晩はこの映画を見ました。 (would 今晩 need to be the topic? It just doesn't sound quite right to me.)

Your English and Japanese do not match up. 「見ました」 = someone watched. Use 「見ましょう」.

今晩はこの映画を見ましょう。 <-- Watching movies at night is a very common event for these people. "We watched A last night, so let's watch B tonight!"
今晩この映画を見ましょう。<-- Someone just thought of watching a movie tonight.

I'm such a mess up. >_< I completely forgot that it was supposed to be ましょう. I'm assuming since 今晩 is the topic, that is the reason why it is common?

ありがとうございます。 <-- We say this ONLY after the service has been rendered, not before as in European languages. You can say 「よろしくお願いします。」.

ありがとうございます。(kyle and masaegu) I was doing these at 3AM and actually fell asleep while doing them. I noticed that my particles tend to get crazy when I'm half-asleep as I tend to usually only study in the mornings/afternoon. I had to get Genki I lesson 5 finished before Monday, so I was speeding through the practices in the book/workbook. Sorry.