Words and expressions in Japanese - the basics you need to know.

This Russian-Japanese phrasebook with pronunciation and transcription includes common words and expressions for everyday communication: standard phrases of greetings, thanks, questions, requests, a set of words for communication in shops, restaurants, hotels, orientation in a new and unfamiliar place and much more.

Typically, English is used for communication in the tourism industry. At the same time, knowing and using common polite phrases that the Japanese phrasebook offers will help establish contact and earn the respect of the local population.

In the Russian-Japanese phrasebook for tourists, pronunciation is given based on transcription. The colon indicates the longitude of the sound. For convenience, you can download the Russian-Japanese phrasebook for free in pdf format.

Greetings

Standard phrases

Some cool Japanese phrases.

If you want your speech to be as close as possible to the native language, then this minimum vocabulary is for you!

よろしくお願いします。Yoroshikuonegaishimasu Nice to meet you. One of the first introductory phrases you may have already learned. Used when making acquaintances. When meeting new friends, you can shorten it to よろしくね yoroshikune.

頑張ってくださいgambattekudasai Try your best! (do your best) When a friend needs extra support, you can simply say 頑張って. This simple word means "Good luck" or "Do your best." And for business, formal situations, the option 頑張ってください is used.

おめでとうございます omedeto:gozaimasu Congratulations! Once your friend announces to you that he has passed the exam, congratulate him by saying おめでとう or more formally おめでとうございます. If he tells you that he passed the exam without mistakes, you can express your surprise with phrases such as マジ で？ madzide? Indeed? or うそ ！ uso! It can't be! (or you're lying!).

すごい！sugoi Wow! Marvelous! You can answer almost anything this way, it's a very common phrase. If you speak to a Japanese person in a native language, you will most likely hear this addressed to you. Conversely, if you want to say that something is terrible and not at all cool, then say: ヤバイ！yabai. However, this is a colloquial phrase; it can be used in dialogue with friends and family, but not in a formal setting. Otherwise you will be considered rude.

Hurray, you can now say a few basic words and phrases in Japanese. The Japanese words and expressions in this collection can go on and on! Don't just stop at these words, expand your vocabulary. Using these phrases, you can chat with new friends or show others that you are sincerely interested in learning Japanese. Just by including a few of these words in your conversation, you are sure to hear 日本語が上手ですね！ Nihongoga jozudesune! You speak Japanese well!

If you don’t know the Hiragana alphabet yet, you can learn it in a quick way that we talk about in this article: read the article

Railway station

Suffix "Kun"

" Kun " is less formal and a little more "friendly". It is also a mistake to believe that Kun is used exclusively for men. Yes, in practice, it mostly turns out this way, but it is not 100% always the case. Those. It’s fair to use “ Kun” to refer to a girl, too, if you don’t want to substitute the suffix “ Tian ,” i.e. when the diminutive form is not entirely appropriate. Kun being used for girls .

Those. If you show graphically the rank of politeness, then you can place Kun San ”, but above “ Tian ”.

And these 3 suffixes should be enough for the first couple of years of study. And then come the following suffixes.

Passport control

Suffix "Senpai"

“Senpai” is someone who is “senior” in a particular area. For example, for a 1st grade high school student, the senpai will be a 2nd grade high school student, and for a 2nd grade high school student, the 1st grade student will be Kohai.

We can say that they represent both simple words and nominal suffixes, just like Sensei. Those. they can also be used with names, such as Tanaka-senpai. Or you have been working for the company for 2 years, and another person has been working for 5 years. Who do you think he is for you? Right! Senpai! And for him you are Kohai.

To avoid confusion between Senpai and Kohai, use literal translation and mnemonics. Senpai is “comrade in front”, Kohai is “comrade behind”, and in the distance stands Sensei – “born before”.

Those. We imagine a graph where you stand and in the distance stands the Sensei who was born before you, the kanji Sen just hints that they came before you. Also, ahead of you is Senpai. And Kohai is behind you, as indicated by the kanji “after”.

Orientation in the city

Summary table of characters of the Katakana and Hiragana alphabets (with Russian transcription and Romaji)

Notes:

1. In Japanese there are long and short vowel sounds. The length of the vowel plays a meaningful role. So, KADO means “gate”, and KA:DO means “card”. In the case of transcription using the letters of the Russian alphabet, the length of vowels is indicated by doubling the corresponding vowel (KAA), a short line above the vowel sound (KA̅) or a colon (KA:); in the case of transcription in Latin letters, the length of vowels is indicated similarly (FUU, FU:); when written in katakana alphabet, vowel length is indicated by doubling the vowel or by a horizontal line in the middle of the line (サア SA:, サー SA:); When a hiragan’s alphabet is recorded, the longitude of the vowels can be indicated by doubling the corresponding vowel (お う o: こう こう こう すう すう SU :) or (in the case of vowels お, ゆ, よ) vowel う (お う こう こう, び よう, り, り, り, り,ゆう RYU:). A double vowel sound in some cases can indicate not only a long vowel, but also the presence of a syllable. For example すう (SU-U “to pass”).

2. The vowel sound U in the position between voiceless consonants, between a voiceless consonant and C, in the final syllable SU is sometimes reduced to the point of complete disappearance. So, SUKOSI is pronounced [skosi], DESU is pronounced [des], UTSUKUSIY is pronounced [utsksi:]; The vowel sound I is reduced in the position between voiceless consonants, between a voiceless consonant and C. For example, ASITA is pronounced [asta], SITSUMON is pronounced [ssumon].

The reduction of vowels い and う is indicated by a short horizontal line above the vowel sound (Ī, Ū) or in Russian transcription И, Ў. The vowel い in a position after another vowel is in many cases pronounced [y], and is designated as Y in Russian transcription.

3. In a number of Japanese words there are double consonants. To convey them, the subscript TsU is used, which is not readable, but doubles the consonant sound that follows it. For example, 才デッサ (ODESSA), はっぴょう (HAPPYO:).

4. The consonant N in the position before M, B, P is read as [m]. In this regard, a word, for example ランパ, in Russian transcription will be written: RAMPA.

5. When writing in the katakana alphabet, in addition to TsU, any sign from the following can be used as a subscript: A, I, E, O. In this case, the syllable followed by a subscript loses its vowel sound, which is replaced by a subscript. For example: ツァ CA, ティ TI, フェ FE, フォ FO. Similar cases can often be observed when writing words borrowed into Japanese from other languages.

6. In the case when, in a word, syllables consisting of the vowels A, I, U, E, O, Ya, Yu, E come after the syllable represented by the consonant N, in Russian transcription it is customary to use the dividing solid sign Ъ to show , that there are, for example, the syllables N and I, and not the syllable NI. Without taking this into account, you will not find the corresponding word, for example, in the “Big Japanese-Russian Dictionary”, ed. N.I. Conrad. Thus, the word SINAI-NARU with the meaning “beloved, dear” in this dictionary should be looked for in the form SINAI-NARU after the word SHINTSU:RIKI, and not after the word SINAI. When transcribing in Latin letters, an apostrophe is sometimes used in such cases.

7. As part of the Japanese sentence, there are so-called “case indicators”. Some of them are designated in a special way: BA (は), E (へ). The signs を and ヲ are used only to denote the case indicator O. To denote the syllable O within a word, the signs お and オ are used.

8. Regarding the stress in words, we note that the force stress that occurs in the Russian language is uncharacteristic of the Japanese language. In this regard, without going into details ( at this stage , in more detail in the following lessons), it is recommended to pronounce words with equal stress on all syllables.

9. Auxiliary signs: “゛” “ nigori ”, indicates the voicing of the corresponding consonant sound. For example が(ガ) GA. "゜" " hannigori ", indicates the semi-voicing of the corresponding consonant sound. For example ぴ（ピ） PI. “ゝ” is a repeat character of the alphabet character. For example, まゝ is equivalent to まま, and 力ゝ is equivalent to 力力. “ゞ” is a repetition sign of an alphabet character with voicing. For example, かゞ is equivalent to かが.

10. Along with the usual period and comma (. ,), Japanese texts may contain their Japanese analogues (。、）.

11. To move to the next line, a Japanese word can be interrupted at any place (i.e. on any syllable). The carry sign is not placed in this case. Even the period at the end of a sentence can be moved to the next line.

How to correctly pronounce borrowings from Japanese in Russian

So, first of all, you need to keep in mind that the Latin notation of Japanese words is not English. This is one of the options for transcribing the sounds of Japanese speech, in this case in letters of the Latin alphabet, and in accordance with it there is a transcription in characters of the Russian alphabet. In it, the syllables SHA, SHI, SHU, SHO, SNA, CHI, CHU, SNO correspond to the syllables SYA, SI (and not SHI!), SYU, SIO, TYA, TI (and not CHI!), TYU, TE (and not WHAT!). The syllables JA, JI, JU, JO correspond to the syllables DZYA, DZI, DZYU, DZO. The syllable YO corresponds to E (not YO!), the vowel sound E (Latin) corresponds to E. And there shouldn’t be anything else in the Russian language. But it already is. The word “GEISHA” (not “GEISHA”!) has already entered the Russian language, and words such as “TOYOTA”, “TOSHIBA”, “HITACHI”, “SUSHI”, etc. have become entrenched in everyday communication.

The problem is that in Russian the combination [sh] is perceived as [Ш], the combination [ch] as [CH], and the voiced j as [ДЗ]. Accordingly, with an eye to the English language, [sha] [shu] [sho] is pronounced as [Sha], [SHU], [SHO]; [cha] [chu] [cho] pronounced as [CHA], [CHU], [CHO]; a [ja] [ji] [ju] [jo] is pronounced as [JA], [JI], [JU], [JO]. As a result, Japanese words written in Latin letters, proper names in particular, undergo incredible changes in Russian speech, to the point of being unrecognizable. This is how the Japanese names “Toshiba”, “Hitachi” appear in Russian, and this is how “sushi” appeared. Such pronunciation is sometimes overlaid with arbitrary stress, which in the Japanese language is very specific, in any case having little in common with the force stress in the Russian language. As a result, the name sounds like [TASHYBA] with stress on the second syllable (unstressed O in the Russian tradition is pronounced as [A]), which is unlikely to be adequately perceived by the Japanese interlocutor.

You could say this. If the legislators regarding the norms of linguistic communication were, in terms of the problems under consideration, orientalists (Japanese studies), then we would definitely say “SUSI”, “HITACHI”, “TOSIBA”, “MITSUBISHI”, “TOYOTA”, and this spelling variant would have unconditional grounds in the form of established transcription rules. But language develops according to its own laws. And our people, the native speaker and creator of the Russian language, find SUSHI closer and dearer.

The problem is not insignificant. The fact is that until recently, for many years, Japan experienced an active invasion of the Japanese language by foreign vocabulary. Now the situation is reversed. Following the spread of Japanese technology and Japanese goods throughout many countries of the world, Japaneseisms are beginning to actively penetrate into the languages ​​of the corresponding countries (and Russia is no exception). Uniformity in the “assimilation” of Japaneseisms would be very appropriate, but, unfortunately, there is none. Although, probably, at one time in Japan, traditions of phonetic transformation of foreign language vocabulary were not immediately formed.

Since we have begun to discuss how to correctly write Japanese words in Russian, it is appropriate to say a few words about the declension of Japanese proper names. Here it is advisable to be guided by the following rule. Since the Japanese language does not know declension, it would be more correct not to change Japanese proper names, but where it is necessary to express the relationship between words in a sentence using endings, to resort to the declension of the auxiliary word, for example: “Nagoya City Municipality” (but not “Nagoya Municipality” ).

And one last thing. According to established tradition, it is customary not to indicate the length of vowels when writing proper names.

Transport

Suffix "Senshu"

"Senshu" is not only the word for "athlete", but it is also a suffix used for famous athletes.

PS You expected that there would be more nominal suffixes here, but I thought about it and realized that there is nothing more to talk about, so if I remember something, I will definitely update the article.

Now let's talk about when suffixes are not used , because this also happens.

Suffixes do not need to be used in relation to family members when, for example, you are talking to someone.

Also, there is no particular need to use a suffix when addressing by name, because Usually in Japan this indicates a fairly close relationship to the person, so why the suffix? Those. when the relationship with a person is close enough, suffixes are not needed. On the other hand, there are so many nuances that even within the family circle they can use nominal suffixes by name.

Hotel

Suffix "Tian"

I see errors quite often with this suffix. Most beginners and some textbooks believe that the suffix “Kun” is used in relation to boys, and “chan” is used in relation to girls. Of course this is not true. I honestly admit, I don’t know where it came from, maybe it was like this once or it’s a usage error, I don’t know what I don’t know.

However, if we talk about the Japanese language at the present time, then “ Tian ” in real life is similar to our diminutive suffix . That is, when you say, for example, Yoko- chan - you essentially say Yokochka , or to make it easier in Russian you say Masha - Mashenka . It is used in much the same way as in Russian, that is, in informal speech, and it is a gross misconception to think that “Tyan” is used exclusively for girls, although for some reason many people think so.

So, for example, you can hear when a girl calls a guy Akira- chan and this does not mean that Akira has become a girl.

This is just a diminutive of Akirochka. Or if grandfather is called “Oji-chan”, this will not make him a woman.

But there is one “BUT” : of course, a guy won’t call a guy with the suffix “chan”, because... it will really be strange, although there are such cases. Well, our two guys don’t talk in a diminutive style among themselves.

Emergencies

Dates and times

Purchases

Suffix "Herself"

The suffix “Sama” has the highest position in our hierarchy.

It’s hard to translate literally, but essentially as “honorable.” It is quite rare in spoken Japanese, but it does occur. For example, this is how the service staff may address you when they ask 何名様ですか “Nan mei sama deska” - “table for how many people”? Not San, but herself. Or when you are waiting and they read you from the list, for example: 山田様はいらっしゃいますか “Yamada-sama wa irasshaimaska?” That is, we often use the nominal suffix “Sama” in the conversation of service personnel.

Just like with us, Sama can be used as a joke, this is comparable when we say “Sorry, sir” or something similar, when we deliberately raise a person’s rank as a joke.

If we are not talking about colloquial language, then “sama” is used quite often. For example, in letters to the recipient they use Sama.

Restaurant

Dictionaries and translators

Dictionaries are available in paper and electronic formats; the latter work offline or online only. Just a few decades ago there were very few dictionary options, but in recent years the choice has become much wider.

Among the paper ones, the most famous are:

• Large Japanese-Russian dictionary (two volumes);
• Japanese-Russian scientific and technical hieroglyphic dictionary (two volumes);
• Japanese-Russian dictionary "Sanseido".

Among the electronic dictionaries that audiences love are:

• Yarksi;
• WWWJDIC;
• Nihon Moji.

Japanese translators mainly work online. Known Resources:

• yakusu.ru;
• nihongo.aikidoka.ru;
• warodai.ru.

Previously, portable electronic translators from Casio were widely used, but in recent years their popularity has waned, but the online translator from Google is conquering new heights, being able not only to translate the entered text, but also to identify characters on paper through a camera.

Which of the dictionaries and translators to use in their studies is up to the student to decide. Ordinary books are good for accuracy and reliability. They make it easier to remember the spelling of a symbol, but interaction takes time. Online dictionaries are larger, work automatically, require a minimum of time to search for a sign, and are updated regularly. There is a fly in the ointment: most programs require an Internet connection, and translations are not always accurate.

Numbers and numbers

We hope that the Japanese phrasebook posted on the site will be useful during your trip to Japan - in solving household, transport and other common issues.

Numerals