Instead of starting with lengthy vocabulary lists and sessions on the alphabet I'm going to throw you into a few sentences that you probably use everyday.
Basic Structure to use for now
[
subject ] wa [
place ] ni [
verb] (in this case we'll use ikimasu to describe the places we are going.
1. [Watashi] wa kyoo [ginkoo] ni [ikimasu].
I'm going to the bank today.
Watashi = I (me)
Kyoo = today
ginkoo = bank
ikimasu = am going
Now that you can see what words mean what you can see that it literally says I ... Today ... Bank ... Am going
2. [Watashi] wa ashita [kaisha] ni [ikimasen].
I will not go to my office tomorrow.
watashi = I
Ashita = tomorrow
Kaisha means office or company
ikimasen = not going
*
ikimasu means
to go/you are going
ikimasen is a negative so it means
not go/you are not going
*there are other forms of this word we'll see later
So if we change the ikimasu to ikimasen we can change the sentence to say we are not going.
1. Watashi wa kyoo ginkoo ni ikimasen.
I will not go to the bank today.
and change the ikimasen to ikimasu we can say we are going.
2. Watashi wa ashita kaisha ni ikimasu.
I will go to my office tomorrow.
Other possibly common sentences
私はクラブに行きます
Watashi wa kurabu ni ikimasu
I am going to the club
私たちはクラブに行く
Watashitachiha kurabu ni iku
We are going to the club
watashitachi (kanji: 私たち hiragana わたしたち)
means:
1. we
2. us
A : Ashita doko ni iku?
B : Kaimono ni iku.
A : Where are you going tomorrow?
B : I'm going to go shopping.
Ashita = Tomorrow
Doko = Where
Iku = going
Kaimono = Shopping
Iku = going
A : Kinoo paatii ni itta?
B : Uun. Ikanakatta.
A : Did you go to the party yesterday?
B : No. I didn't.
Kinoo = Yesterday
paatii = party
itta is the past tense form of iku (ikimasu)
Uun is sort of like the informal way to say iie (no) but it's more like saying: Well...eerr...no...
Ikanakatta is a negative past tense for iku (to go) which means did not go
Link to listen to a few of these sentences and others
If you would like to practice this
Tell me a place you are going tomorrow.
I am going to _____ tomorrow.
My journal entry:
Watashi wa kinou, ginkou ni ittekimashita
私 は
昨日 銀行 に 行ってきました
Simple Kanji to pick up:
昨日
Kinō (yesterday)
日
Hi (day)
昨
(previous)
in yesterday they took the root word day 日and added the word previous 昨 in front of it which literally means previous day 昨日
if you add
昨 previous in front of other words like
夏(natsu=summer) you just said
昨夏 Previous summer = Sakuka
In all this lesson you learned 13 words not including the different conjugation of the word iku and made 10 different sentences.
You learned 3 kanji and now know that you can add the word
昨 (previous) to other symbols to make different meanings.
Practice: Find the word for year and put previous
昨 in front of it to say last year.
Practice writing these symbols a few times on a piece of paper.
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