Besides the three basic particles of sentence strucutre (ga が wa は wo を) and the two particles that indicate question (ka か and ne ね), Japanese has a very wide range of words that equivalent in function to the English preposition, adverb, and conjunctions. All of these particle placed after the word they modify. We shall discuss 9 particle here which are no の to と ya や kara から made まで ni に e へde で and mo も.
- no の
no の corresponds in many ways to the English preposition “of”. It can indicate
(1) possession, ownership, attribution.
これが僕のカメラです。 Kore ga boku no kamera desu. : This is my camera.
(2) material.
木の椅子です。 Ki no isu desu. : This chair is of wood.
(3) origin, time, place, apposition.
ここのはすべてフィルムでございます。Koko no ha subete fyirumu de gozaimasu. : As for what’s is here, they are all films.
2. to と
to と can sometimes be translated as ‘with‘ and sometimes ‘and‘
近藤さんと忠臣蔵を見に行きました。kondo-san to Chushingura wo mi ni ikimashita. : I went with Mr. Kondo to see the Chushingra play.
砂糖と塩と米を買った。sato to shio to kome wo kaltuta. : I bought sugar and salt and rice.
3. ya や
ya や is usually equivalent to English ‘and‘. Like to, however, it can link only serious of nouns and pronouns.
タダオやキヨシやシゲルが神戸に行きました。 Tadao ya kiyoshi ya sigeru ga kobe ni iki mashita. : Tadao and Kiyoshi and Shigeru all went to Kobe.
4. kara から
kara から is similar to English preposition ‘from’ and indicate either space or time.
5. made まで
made までis similar to ‘until’ or ‘as far as’ or ‘up to’
ここから横浜までどれくらいですか? Koko kara Yokohama made dore kurai desu ka? : How far is it from here to Yokohama.
ここから Koko kara : after this, from now on. それから Sore kara : after that, and then, next.
今日まで Kyo made : until today, up to today. 遅くまで Osoku made : until late.
We learned 5 of particles which are no の, to と, ya や, kara から, and made まで. For the later, ni に e へde で and mo も should be described in the next lecture.