uNIT 2 – ATTRACTING ATTENTION

Key phrases
sumimasen                             excuse me / sorry
Eigo ga wakarimasu ka?       do you understand English?
hai, wakarimasu.                     yes, I understand
iee, wakarimasen.                   no, I don’t understand
Listening and speaking
Sumimasen. Eigo ga wakarimasu ka?                                                                                            Excuse me. Do you understand English?
Iee, wakarimasen.                   No, I don’t understand.
Sumimasen. Eigo ga wakarimasu ka?                                                                                             Excuse me. Do you understand English?
Hai, wakarimasu.                     Yes, I understand.
Sumimasen. Nihongo ga wakarimasu ka?                                                                                     Excuse me. Do you understand Japanese?
Sumimasen. Wakarimasen.   Sorry. I don’t understand.

LANGUAGE INFORMATION
Omitting the obvious In Japanese, when both you and the other speaker know what or who you are talking about, you don’t actually need to say it!
e.g. Eigo ga wakarimasu ka? Do (you) understand English?
Hai, wakarimasu.                     Yes, (I) understand (English).

Markers (1)
Japanese word order is quite flexible, so various “markers” or “particles” are used to give sentences more structure. A marker follows the word it refers to and indicates what function that word has in the sentence. Some markers have multiple uses, but don’t worry we are only going to explain what is relevant to this course!
ga
…can mark the subject or object of certain sentences. All you need to know for now is that ga can be used to mark the object of sentences describing ability and reference. For example, in the sentence “I understand English”, “understand” is an ability, so ga is used to mark the object English”.
Eigo ga wakarimasu.            English (object) understand
wa
…indicates what the whole sentence is about – it’s the topic marker.
watashi wa Igirisu-jin desu.   I (topic) British am
See Unit 6 for some more markers.

NOTE

ka “?”
You can turn a statement into a question simply by adding ka to the end of it. Think of it as a spoken question mark.

CULTURAL INFORMATION 

You
It is advisable to avoid using the word anata, which means “you”, especially with your superiors. It is more respectful to use the person’s name followed by -san.