Konnichiwa. Yuko-sensei desu.
This is a small segment from my new course, Japanese 5: Adjective master course.
The course is going to be available in a few weeks, and I can offer this new course with
a discount only for the first few days so please do not miss the email if you are already
in my email list.
I'll send you the discount link by email sometime in August.
If you are not on my email list yet, you can join now at SmileNihongo.com/join.
Or keep checking my YouTube channel.
I'll share the special discount link on this channel for one or two days after the course is published.
This means that the current complete program, which is a package of Japanese 1234 is going to retire in August and will be no
longer available for new sign-ups.
So, if you want the package of Japanese 1234, please sign up before it's gone.
In this lesson, I'm going to talk about how to say "Like" in Japanese.
"like" is a verb in English but it is an adjective in Japanese.
That's why "like" and even "love" is a big part of this new course.
Let's learn how to express what you like and what you don't like in this lesson. Dewa, hajimemashoo!
Some important expressions that you are going to learn in this course are like, love, and
want to because these are all adjectives in Japanese.
Like is な Adjective, Love is な Adjective too and Want to is い Adjective.
In this lesson, I'm going to teach you how to say "like" first, so that you can start
expressing your likes and dislikes.
You will learn "love" in the next lesson and "want to" in the lesson after that.
Ok, let's get into today's lesson.
We have just learned all the conjugations of adjectives, and today, we need to focus
on this section of the chart, the な Adjective conjugation, since Like is a な Adjective
in Japanese.
Here is a quick review of the conjugation.
"Is, is not, was, was not" for Japanese な adjectives take です、じゃないです、でした、じゃなかったです
at the end.
So, for instance, "is stingy, is not stingy, was stingy, was not stingy" is けちです、けちじゃないです、けちでした、けちじゃなかったです.
And you have to apply the same conjugation pattern for "like" too since it's な Adjective.
"is fond of, is not fond of, was fond of, was not fond of" meaning "like, don't like,
liked, didn't like."
I'm going to use these meanings since it's more common in English.
Ok, here is how to say Like in Japanese.
すき、すき.
The vowel [u] in す is silent, so you don't really pronounce it.
It's [sss ki] [ssski] instead of [SUki] すき。
Let's put it here in the conjugation pattern.
"like, don't like, liked, didn't like" in Japanese are すきです、すきじゃないです、すきでした、すきじゃなかったです.
One more time.
すきです、すきじゃないです、すきでした、すきじゃなかったです。So these are the expressions that you need to
use when you talk about what you like and what you don't like.
Now, let's use them in a sentence.
For instance, if you want to say "I like sushi," then you have to go like this.
すし、が、すきです。すしがすきです。Please keep in mind that it's not すし、を、すきです。
You cannot use the particle を to mark something that you like or don't like.
It has to be が.
So, if you want to say "I don't like sushi" instead, then you have to say すしが、すきじゃないです。すしがすきじゃないです。
Of course, you can use these expressions to talk about other people's preferences like
this.
ともだちはすしがすきじゃないです。ともだちはすしがすきじゃないです。"My friend doesn't like sushi."
But when you don't have any particular person as the subject of the sentence, then the subject
is automatically the speaker "I" わたしは.
So すしがすきじゃないです automatically means "I don't like sushi" and it sounds more
natural this way without わたしは.
If you want to talk about the past as in "I liked sushi" then you have to use the past
tense of すきです, which is すきでした。すしがすきでした、すしがすきでした。And "I didn't like sushi" is すしがすきじゃなかったです、すしがすきじゃなかったです。
Ok, let's focus on the present tense for now, "like and don't' like" to try more authentic
sentences.
The first example is this.
"I like sushi, but I don't like sashimi."
Here, you have two items in contrast.
Sushi and Sashimi.
You are saying YES to sushi but NO to sashimi.
Right?
Do you remember what you have to do when you have a contrast like this in the context?
Right.
You have to mark both items with the particle は to highlight the contrast.
And don't forget to connect two sentences with でも.
As for sushi, I like it.
However, as for sashimi, I don't like it.
すしはすきです。でも、さしみはすきじゃないです。すしはすきです。でも、さしみはすきじゃないです。
You can also use けど here without ending the first sentence and convey the same fact
in one sentence instead of two sentences.
すしはすきですけど、さしみはすきじゃないです。すしはすきですけど、さしみはすきじゃないです。
If you want to learn more about how to use "but or however" in Japanese, you can watch this lesson.
I will leave the link to the lesson in the description box below.
Ok, let's see if you understood what we have learned so far.
How do you say this sentence in Japanese?
"I like basketball, but I don't like baseball."
Let me give you the vocabulary that you need here.
For basketball, you can say バスケットボール, バスケットボール. and the shorter version バスケ is also
very common.
Let me use this one here.
And for baseball, we say やきゅう、やきゅう。So, can you say "I like basketball but I don't like
baseball" in one sentence by using けど?
Ok, here is the answer.
バスケは、すきです、けど、やきゅうは、すき、じゃないです。バスケはすきですけど、やきゅうはすきじゃないです。
Very good.
By the way, here is one small tip that you may want to keep in mind in term of the culture.
Please be careful when you talk about things that you don't like especially when the statement
may have the risk of hurting somebody's feelings.
Since すきじゃないです has a negative connotation attached, we often try to soften
the phrase by adding あまり and say あまりすきじゃないです、あまりすきじゃないです.
I don't really like it or I don't like it very much.
This one sounds less direct, and as a result, you have less risk of offending or hurting
other people.
So, even if you hate baseball, just to be safe, you may want to say あまりすきじゃないです
"I don't really like baseball" in front of a friend who is a huge fan of baseball, for example.
Ok, before you go, let me ask you a question.
Do you know what we say when we confess our feelings to somebody in terms of romantic
love?
Have you ever heard it in a Japanese movie or drama?
We use this one.
すきです or すき. すき is the informal version of すきです and which one to use
depends on how close you have been already to the person.
So, in this respect, すきです can express a lot deeper feeling than just "I like sushi"
or "I like fishing."
It means almost like "I love you" in English in this context.
We are going to learn how to say "love" in the next lesson and I will explain how we
express different kinds of love in different ways in Japanese.
So, this was a sample lesson from my new online course, Japanese 5: Adjective master course.
As I mentioned in the sample lesson, in this new course, I am going to teach you how we express different
kinds of love in Japanese and why we don't use "あいしてる" very often.
The new course covers many useful expressions that make your Japanese more functional.
Again, I can offer this new course with a discount only for the first few days after the launch in August
so please do not miss it.
You can find all the information in the description box below.
では、またつぎのレッスンであいましょう。