Welcome to Level 2, Lesson 8!
In this lesson at gokigen japanese blog, you’ll gain the essential tools to articulate nuanced conditions, describe concurrent actions, and express the ease or difficulty of tasks. Furthermore, you’ll learn how to introduce specific names and ask indirect questions, significantly enriching your conversational Japanese.
The main theme of this lesson is to enable you to understand and express various conditions and describe situations with greater detail.
Key grammar patterns and expressions you will master in this lesson include:
- Conditional “When” (~時): Learn to use (Sentence 1) + 時 (toki) to specify “when” an action or event in Sentence 1 occurs, leading to Sentence 2 (e.g., 疲れた時、コーヒーを飲みます – When I’m tired, I drink coffee).
- Conditional “If / When” (~と): Master the (short/present) + と (to) pattern, which indicates that one action or state naturally leads to another, often describing constant results or actual conditions (e.g., 春になると、桜が咲きます – When spring comes, cherry blossoms bloom).
- “Without ~ing” (~ないで): Discover how to express that an action is performed “without doing” another specific action, using V-ない + で (nai de) (e.g., 財布を持たないで出かけました – I went out without my wallet).
- “While ~ing” (~ながら): Learn to describe two actions happening simultaneously using V(stem) + ながら (nagara). The main action is typically the latter part of the sentence (e.g., テレビを見ながらご飯を食べます – I eat while watching TV).
- “Easy / Hard to do ~” (~やすい / 〜にくい): Understand how to convey the ease or difficulty of performing an action by attaching やすい (yasui – easy to do) or にくい (nikui – hard to do) to the verb stem (e.g., このペンは書きやすいです – This pen is easy to write with; この漢字は読みにくいです – This kanji is hard to read).
- “N2 called N1” (N1というN2): Learn how to introduce something by its name or a descriptive phrase using N1 という N2 (N1 to iu N2) (e.g., 「富士山」という山を知っていますか – Do you know the mountain called “Mt. Fuji”?).
- Indirect Questions “Whether / If” (~か / 〜かどうか): Master forming indirect questions to ask “whether” or “if” something is the case, using (short form) + か (ka) or (short form) + かどうか (ka dou ka) (e.g., 明日パーティーに行くか聞きました – I asked if he would go to the party tomorrow; 彼が日本人かどうか分かりません – I don’t know whether he is Japanese).
By the end of Lesson 8, Level 2, you’ll be well-equipped to describe complex conditions, express simultaneous actions, talk about the ease or difficulty of tasks, introduce named items, and ask for information indirectly. These patterns are fundamental for more precise and versatile Japanese communication!
Explore the articles linked below to master conditions, action descriptions, and indirect questions in Japanese!
