Time Words, Suggestion & Invitation.

This week, students learned more sophisticated sentence structures with practical verbs.

In addition to general time words, which we have covered last week, students learned how to put specific time words into a sentence.

There are two types of time words in Japanese: general time and specific time. General time word such as きょう“KYOU” (today), あさ “ASA” (morning), いま “IMA” (now), まいにち “MAINICHI” (everyday) etc. are not followed by the particle に “NI”. Specific time words, such as いちじ “ICHI JI” (one o’clock), にちようび “NICHI YOUBI” (Sunday), いちがつ “ICHIGATSU” (January), are followed by the particle に “NI”.

Also, students learned how to form a suggestion sentence and an invitation sentence. When –ましょう “MASHOU” is attached to a verb stem, the verb means “let’s do …” and is used when one makes a suggestion to others. Now students know how to say “Let’s eat SUSHI!” in Japanese.

When-ませんか “MASEN KA” is attached to a verb stem, it is used as an invitation to the listener to do something, like “Won’t you do….?/ Would you like to do …?” in English.

In class, students practiced a simple invitation sentence to more complex ones, giving them several situations as cues.

Situation 1:
You want to invite your friend to dinner.

Situation 2.
You want to invite your friend to dinner tomorrow.

Situation 3.
You want to invite your friend to dinner tomorrow at 6:00.

Situation 4.
You want to invite your friend to dinner tomorrow at 6:00 with Mr. Hiruma.

Situation 5.
You want to invite your friend to dinner tomorrow at 6:00 with Mr. Hiruma at your house.

They did very well!