onegai!!!

[azuwachan]

I have some questions here about Japanese;

1) what the heck is 'dattebayo' means??

2)about 'wa' and 'ga' particle. what are the differences?? I mean, like, between 'watashi wa' and 'watashi ga'. When I can use each one of them??

3) and how to say 'I sing this song for you' in Japanese??

I don't know if someone in this forum already asked these, but onegai!!!

[Raptor]

onegai means please :P

I can't really help ya with most of what ya said I just can tell ya that "dattebayo" means absolutely nothing. it's just something Naruto uses to make him sound more anoying.

[botoman]

Yeah, like Raptor said, "dattebayo" means nothing really.

Sorry, I'm going out of order, but for your last question, one way to say it would be:

Kimi no tame ni kono uta wo utaimasu.
君のためにこの歌を歌います。

And for your second question, I really can't give you a technical answer. It can be difficult to distinguish when to use は or　が as both of them have similar functions. However, when I was first starting out in Japanese, our senseis told us that は denotes the subject and　が indicates the object.

An example would be:

Watashi WA manga GA suki desu.
I like manga.

Here, "I" am the subject, and "manga" is the object.

I've been reading this book called Making Sense of Japanese by Jay Rubin (not done reading it yet though), and he tries to explain the difference between the two particles. He says that "wa" puts emphasis on what comes after it, and "ga" puts its emphasis on what comes before. So, for example (I'm going to use his examples):

Watashi wa ikimashita.
Me? I went

Watashi ga ikimashita.
I went.

In the first one, you're expressing the idea that "you" are a different topic from other people. So you become the only one that went while your friends did not go. In the second one, you're emphasizing in a somewhat stronger way that "you" went.

I'm sure I confused you more. Believe me, I still have trouble when writing papers. But, usually, I use は　when I'm introducing a newer topic. I hope that this helps. (Please don't get mad at me if it doesn't!:( )

[KWGoDのbrucelee]

datte itself is kinda pleading "because" "but"

datte iku tte iutta noni!

But you SAID you were gonna go!

"datte bayo" sounds like some bizzare regional accent like hokkaido "dabe ya"

Think of it as Naruto's special accent:P Naruto-go

[Yoshitsune]

In the case of Naruto, datte doesn't mean "but", but it's both desu (is) and the verb to say 'iu', but both are in plain form.
Desu > da ; iimashita > itta. But you drop the i in itta when you wanna be colloquial. So you just end up with da'tte

Also, if you want someone to pay attention to you, you'd say their name plus tte ba, so like:
お兄さん？お兄さん？！お兄さんってば！ As heard many times in FMA

So if you combine both forms, you get da'tte ba yo ~ which is sort of like an attention grabber ~ Kind of like in English people say "you know it" or some form of affirmative expression.

meh

[Policeman]

Well, as I learned it, "ha" is used when the subject/object is not first mentioned or in case of a comparrison. I.e.:

すしが　すきです。
すしは　ごはんと　さかなの　ことです。 (It's just an example)

or

学校は　きらいですが、すがく(maths)は　すきです。 (again, just an example)

[Yoshitsune]

学校は　きらいですが、すがく(maths)は　すきです。 (again, just an example)

Um, for that example, you'd have to use ga...
学校がきらいですが、すうがくが好きです。

If you left it the way it was, it would mean that school is the subject, and school hates but, math likes.

The ga is used when you can understand the subject, many times if you just say something~ga it means you are the subject in that sentence, like
atama ga itai 頭が痛い
onaka ga ippai おなかがいっぱい

[Policeman]

Ok... I don't know how long you've leaned Japanese, and I don't want to offend you in any way, but all I can say is that what you say is wrong.

It is someting Japanese teachers say to make students stop asking questions... the easy way out.


/edit: I wrote mostly hiragana and added spaces, so beginners could read it easyer. Of course I don't usually write this way (In case you thougth so).

[Yoshitsune]

I also didn't know how much Japanese you knew or if were taking it in school where they first teach you to use the ga particle for objects with thinking/non action verbs/adj. so I didn't want to confuse you with the reasons why it can also be used with wa particle...but since you seem to be fluent too, then you're right about what teachers say. I thought I was answering the question to someone learning Japanese in school ~ ~ sorry man

[Policeman]

No harm done. Hell no, I'm not learning Japanese at school! :)

I'm learning in an experimental course in development by Berlins most influencial professor for Japanese Language Studies, Yoriko Yamada-Bochynek.

It works out quite well. I passed JLPT 4 after less than 1 year and without ever having visited Japan.

Now, I've been to Japan for one month in the summer and I've studied for 2 and a quater Years.

I'm heading for JLPT 2 this year or the next.

How about you?

[KWGoDのbrucelee]

I have 1kyu.

I got it 1 year ago.

I also have kanken 4kyu.

Still doesn't mean I'm into Nihongo chinchin measuring contests though.:wink

Doesn't mean I can't be wrong either....see above.:nod

[The Black Knight]

Yeah, like Raptor said, "dattebayo" means nothing really.

Sorry, I'm going out of order, but for your last question, one way to say it would be:

Kimi no tame ni kono uta wo utaimasu.
君のためにこの歌を歌います。

And for your second question, I really can't give you a technical answer. It can be difficult to distinguish when to use は or　が as both of them have similar functions. However, when I was first starting out in Japanese, our senseis told us that は denotes the subject and　が indicates the object.

An example would be:

Watashi WA manga GA suki desu.
I like manga.

Here, "I" am the subject, and "manga" is the object.

I've been reading this book called Making Sense of Japanese by Jay Rubin (not done reading it yet though), and he tries to explain the difference between the two particles. He says that "wa" puts emphasis on what comes after it, and "ga" puts its emphasis on what comes before. So, for example (I'm going to use his examples):

Watashi wa ikimashita.
Me? I went

Watashi ga ikimashita.
I went.

In the first one, you're expressing the idea that "you" are a different topic from other people. So you become the only one that went while your friends did not go. In the second one, you're emphasizing in a somewhat stronger way that "you" went.

I'm sure I confused you more. Believe me, I still have trouble when writing papers. But, usually, I use は　when I'm introducing a newer topic. I hope that this helps. (Please don't get mad at me if it doesn't!:( )

I have never came across ga used to mark the direct object. Your thinking of "o" which is written as "wo."

"Wa" marks the topic of the conversation or comment. Can be seen as the grammatical subject in most cases. "Ga" marks the grammatical subject.

1) dattebayo is emphasized form of is. Can be rude and is rarely used. It's hard to translate. but the english "believe it" is the closest translations that match the moving mouth flaps. Or it could be ya know, or because i said so. So many possible ways

2) Wa is also used by females at the end of the sentence for a softening effect. It can also be used in contrast as
Sakana wa tabemasu ga, niku wa tabemasen. (I eat fist, but i dont eat meat)
"Ga" in this case means but or although. "Ga" can also be used as and as a neutral connector (equal values)

[botoman]

I have never came across ga used to mark the direct object. Your thinking of "o" which is written as "wo."



I was actually only referring to what I had learned during high school when I first started learning Japanese. It was a simple way for my Sensei to convey the material in terms we understood without making it more confusing.

[The Black Knight]

そーですか。いまいま、僕が解りますよ。

[Yoshitsune]

スミスさん、どこから？日本語がぺらぺらか？

[The Black Knight]

僕わ亜米利加に生まれます。亜米利加人です。日本語が話します。 日系人がです。あなたが日本人ですか？　

And sorry Windows IME system froze, I'll have to restart before I can write in anymore Japanese. I'm not too sure on calling my self nikkeijin but my great grandmother was nihonjin. Although I don't have all the characteristics, my hair is a really dark brown. I have the slightly narrower eyes, if thats a way to call it. But they aren't slanted, and they are blue. Also the reason i discovered my heritage and me learning japanese is because of my "ichuunoonna." We've been together like 5 years. Known her since 2nd grade. She moved back to Okayama a few years ago. but she taught me most of the japanese i know. I'm planning to move to Okayama after college, but thats another story......but yeah shes what I learned mostly from, and also books/electronic dictionary whenever i don't know the word for something. I hate windows, my language bar freezes up on me a lot.

[Yoshitsune]

私の祖父のお父さんは日本人だから、私は１/８th日本人かな？（笑）

You use a lot of different words that I've heard used differently, like ichuu no onna, but that sounds poetic :) and America, you actually type out all the kanji for it hehe, when you could just use katakana. NF e youkoso!

[The Black Knight]

私の祖父のお父さんは日本人だから、私は１/８th日本人かな？（笑）

You use a lot of different words that I've heard used differently, like ichuu no onna, but that sounds poetic :) and America, you actually type out all the kanji for it hehe, when you could just use katakana. NF e youkoso!

Nah alll i do is type amerikajin, and press spacebar. and valla! I have the kanji. For some words I have to choose from a list. "Arigatou gozaimasu" for the welcome. Yeah like I said my great grandfather or mother (I forget, kinda bad...lol) is Nihonjin. So therefore I would be 1/8th Nihonjin also. So that would just make me a nekkeijin, since I am of Japanese descent. question though. how else have you heard "ichuunoonna" used before. From what I know it means sweetheart/girlfriend.

[Yoshitsune]

how else have you heard "ichuunoonna" used before. From what I know it means sweetheart/girlfriend.

that's the thing, i've only heard it used in books and novels, usually i hear kanojo or garufurendo