1. Can a man say "Yatta
no?"
Yes, he can. I made a mistake in my lesson on that
point. If you put "no" instead of "ka" at the end of
a sentence, your speech will become some what softer, or even cuter depending
on how you say it. In Anime, usually male characters will not say "yatta
no?" but will say "yatta ka?" or "yatta noka?"
2. What is the exact meaning
of "Zettai mite yo ne!"?
It literally means "Must watch!" "Zettai
(ni)" means absolutely, positively, unconditionally, strictly etc.
"Mite" is a conjugated form of a verb "miru (to watch),"
meaning "(please) watch." "Yo" and "ne" are
particles, both emphasize what you say. ("ne" here is used for
emphasis purpose rather than used as a tag question maker) You will hear
this phrase a lot at the end of preview for next episode.
3. What are the differences
among "yatta!" "yatta yo!" "yatta wa!" and
"yatta zo!"?
They all mean the same thing, "I did it!"
By putting a particle at the end, you can emphasize what you say, but "yatta!"
alone is very strong expression even without a particle if you shout it.
The only difference is the feeling the receiver gets from the speech. It
is all up to the context.
Yatta!: I did it!
Yatta yo!: I did it! (sometimes, it includes
nuance such as "did you see that?")
Yatta wa!: I did it! (feminine)
Yatta ze!: I did it! (masculine)
Yatta zo!: Same as above
Yatta ne!: We did it, didn't we!?
Yatta wa ne!: We did it, didn't we? (feminine)
Yatta yo ne?: We did it, didn't we? (I
am sure of it, but I want to make sure and I am asking you)
Yatta no ne!: We did it, didn't we? (feminine.
Sometimes it includes the meaning "at last" or "finally")
Yatta ka?: Did you do it? Did I do it?
etc.
Yatta noka?: Did you do it? (sometimes,
it includes the meaning "I doubt it.")
Yatta no?: Did you do it? (same as Yatta
noka, but softer.)
Yatta kai?: Did you do it? (some what
masculine)
Yattakke?: Did I do it? (Very colloquial.
It might include the meaning "I forgot.")
4. How can I say "yatta!"
politely?
In polite speech (which is taught in a normal classroom),
students are told to add "masu" after a verb all the time. For
example:
Watashi wa yari masu. (I will do it. "yari"
is a conjugated form of "yaru")
Watashi wa machi masu. (I will wait.)
Then, when you change the sentence into past tense, all you need to
do is to change "masu" to "mashita."
Watashi wa yari mashita. (I did it.)
Watashi wa machi mashita. (I waited.)
Also, you can add particles at the end. (with some exceptions auch
as "zo" "ze" and "no ka") For example, you
can say:
Anata wa yari mashita ka? (Did you do
it?)
Watashi wa yari mashita yo! (I DID it!)
Anata wa yari mashita ne? (You did it,
didn't you?)
This way, you don't need to know verbs' plain past forms for a while,
but you need to know them sooner or later.
5. Is "wa" in "watashi wa Hikaru" defferent from "wa" in "yaru wa"?
Yes, they are different particles (postpositional word functioning as
an auxiliary to a main word). "Wa" in "watashi wa"
or "ore wa" is a sentence topic marker. It is put after a noun
(or noun phrase etc.) to indicate that it is the topic of the sentence.
Therefore, Watashi wa Reiko" can be directly translated as "Talking
about me, (name is) Reiko" or "Concerning myself, (name is) Reiko"
not "I am Reiko."
"Wa" in "yaru wa" is "ending particle"
usually used by women. It is always put at the end of a sentence (if there
are no other ending particles used together, as in ""Iku wa yo.")
for emphasis purpose.
In Hiragana (Japanese alphabet), Hiragana used for the pronounciation
of "ha" is used for sentence topic marker "wa" even
though the pronounciation is "wa," thus we never get comfused,
but as far as we use Romanji to study Japanese, it is hard to explain the
difference : (. Oh, I wish I could use al least Hiragana in my lessons.
6. Is Japanese sound really syllabic
all the time? I sometimes hear a consonent is pronounced alone, for example,
I don't hear the last "u" in "Arigatou gozaimasu."
Good question! We native speakers don't realize even
if we skip vowels. We think we never pronounce consonent alone. However,
there are cases it is easier for us to pronounce a word if we drop vowels,
I don't know when though. There seems to be no rules here. Maybe you don't
hear "u" in "desu" either.
7. Sometimes, there is a word
that ends in "ou", but the "u" isn't pronounced.
This is also a problem caused by using alphabet in
learning Japanese. "Ou" as in "ikou" is written using
two Hiragana(s) and pronounced as "oo" (just prolong "o"
sound, similar to English "oh"). I write alphabet by just replacing
Hiragana with Alphabet in my lessons so that you will not get confused
when you learn Hiragana in the future. If you already studied Hiragana,
my way of writing would make sense, but,,,
Whenever you encounter "o+u," please pronounce them as "oo." There is one more similar rule in Japanese, that is: "e" plus "i" makes "ee" (long "e" sound). For example:
Kouri (ice) is pronounced as "koori"
Ou-sama (king) is pronounced as "oo-sama"
Sensei (teacher) is pronounced as "sensee"
Gakusei(student) is pronounced as "gakusee"
