Okay, here goes the first part of my Japanese Romaji Project! If you haven’t read the introduction and purpose of this certain endeavor of mine yet, read it by clicking here.

Introduction | I | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII | VIII | IX | X

Anyway, let’s start with the translation of pronouns. With the help of various sites I’ve come across to, I was able to compile all these for our future use with constructing Nihongo sentences.

Some useful info:

1.) Pronouns really aren’t used much in Japanese speech and writing, unless really necessary. As much as possible, they are to be omitted as long as it is clear on who or what the speaker is talking about.

2.) Unlike the common English pronouns ‘I’ and ‘you’ which have no other meaning, there are certain pronouns in the Japanese language that also indicate the speaker and/or listener’s gender and social status. Meaning, you can’t just randomly choose from the pool of words below. Some pronouns can appeal extreme hostility or rudeness just by saying it, even without you knowing. Thankfully, I was also able to find info on their level of formality, which gender should use it or whom to use it to, as well as additional notes.

3.) There are also commonly used verbs that already indicate the subject of the sentence, therefore making the use of pronouns unnecessary. For example, ‘kureru‘ means ‘give’ in a way that ‘somebody gives something to me or to somebody very close to me.‘ and ‘ageru‘ where ‘someone gives something to someone other than me.‘ For sentences with a single adjective (often ending in -shii), it is assumed that the speaker is the subject. For example, ‘sabi-shii‘ means ‘I am lonely.’

4.) In some contexts, if it is required to state the second person, the listener’s name (suffixed with a honorific e.g. -san) would be more widely used instead of pronouns.

5.) These are only the most commonly used terms, and therefore incomplete.

6.) I roughly got them via internet dive. Feel free to message me if there are corrections! :D

Hello, internet people! Out of my wholehearted interest in the Japanese culture (and watching too much Japanese-dubbed anime), I’ve decided to take personal notes and research on learning the Nihon language via the Romaji route – the romanization of Japanese wherein the language is written by utilizing the Latin script. In short, roman letters.

Introduction | I | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII | VIII | IX | X

Yes, we get to learn the words by hearing and pronouncing it with the aid of the English alphabet. I know what you’re thinking: “You can’t learn Japanese just by ear and mouth, you idiot!” Well, I guess you’re right. We can’t technically read Japanese by Romaji. This can be a start though, and I feel like I can’t take on Kanji and Kana just like that with the half-motivated me right now. Of course, I’ll make that happen and share it with you guys here in the future. For now, my friend Nico is doing a similar project wherein he blogs about learning Kanji. Check him out at NicoKanji!

To begin, there are three modern systems under Romaji – that is the Hepburn, Nihon-shiki and Kunrei-shiki romanization. Now, I won’t turn this blog post to a boring history lecture so I’ll just get straight to the point: From here on out,  I’ll be sharing the translation of Japanese words to Romaji using the Hepburn system, and how to construct sentences with them. To those interested in the history behind, fully-detailed articles are ready for you to read at Wikipedia.

Yosh, hajimemashou! (Alright, let’s begin!)

Here is the prospected ‘course outline’ for this project:

I. Pronouns
II. Common Nouns
III. Adjectives
IV. Verbs
V. Adverbs
VI. Interjections
VII. Numbers
VIII. Basic Sentence Construction
IX. Basic Conversation
X. Resources and Helpful Links

Anyway, don’t expect too much – this is all just done by an inspired effort of diving thoroughly through the internet on my free time. I hope you learn something from this series of posts in my blog! d^_^b