Genki I study group, chapter 4 discussion thread

I thought of a good answer for 1b: 私の国にたくさんマクドナルドがあります. Since I live in America, haha!

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I’ve read this week’s chapter and done a few exercises, but I’ve still got most left to do. Luckily, next week is catch up, so there’s not as much pressure.

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いい答えです。

I live In Texas so I probably would have said something similar but about cowboys (even though that’s a lie)!

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Would anyone please help me me understand what #4 on page 38 in the workbook says? It starts out like [At the time of the kid…something…]. But that doesn’t make any sense…any help would be appreciated.

It means: “When you were a child, were you a good child?”

子供の時、いい子供でしたか。
Kodomo no toki (lit. the time of a child), ii (good) kodomo deshita (past tense of desu) ka (question mark).

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Genki I uses the の時 thing a lot in this book despite not introducing the actual grammar point until Lesson 16 in Genki II. There’ll be stuff later on like 高校の時 (when you were in high school), so I don’t know why they didn’t just teach it earlier.

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Omg! Thank you so much!!! I spent so much time on that. I couldn’t find it anywhere.

Ohhhh that makes so much sense!! I was going through book and notes searching for it! Thank you for confirming that I didn’t just miss it! I wish they would have just taught it in this chapter if they were using it for the workbook.

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いい子 not いい子供

I just quoted from the workbook. It’s literally the sentence from the book.

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Sorry mate, I’m wrong – I was thrown off by
image
but thats lesson 9. :sweat_smile:

First time I tried Genki it took some time to understand that one as well. It’s logical once you know it, strange when you don’t yet.

こんにちはみんな!I am a little late on posting it, but here are Ch.4 Genki answers.

Genki Textbook Answers


Genki Textbook Answers 読み書き編


Genki Workbook Answers



This chapter introduced a lot of particles but the one particle that has me thinking a lot about is が, which even now is hard to come up with an explanation of how it is used. In my course of studying Japanese, I’ve found different resources that have different explanations for が.

  • Genki (pg.107):
    • “the particle が introduces, or presents, the item X in (X があります)”
  • Tae Kim’s: A Guide to Japanese Grammar (pg.35):
    • “…call it the identifier particle because the particle indicates that the speaker wants to identify something unspecified.” He goes on to say that “The [が] particle identifies a specific property of something while the [は] particle is used only to bring up a new topic of conversation.”
  • Japanese from Zero: は vs が video
    • The basic explanation he gives is that は is “The thing you are going to talk about”, whereas,
    • が “Marks who or what “verbs” or is “verbed”. Also the thing being described”.

If anyone has explanations that helps you remember how it is used, I would love to hear it! Happy studying!:high_touch:

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Haha, strange that they used the simpler version in L9. Or maybe there’s a difference?

I like the explanations on YouTube by Japanese Ammo with Misa, and also the one by Cure Dolly. Everyone explains them a bit differently but you start to get the idea after a while from exposure.

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If I were to venture a guess it may be like
いい子供 = good child
いい子 = good kid

??

Helloo everyone,

thanks for all the chapter 4 discussion! If you are ready, you can now go to chapter 5 and discuss with this new thread:

if you aren’t then that’s okay too, just keep using this thread as long as you need to!

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I googled a bit and what I understand is that 子供 means “child” in relation to a child that has a family (father, mother, child, always human), while 子 is more general in meaning, for example could also mean the babies of an animal (so it means something like young/small offspring).

Edit: In the Genki example, both would be correct, though maybe with 子供 would mean something more like “good son/daughter” and maybe 子 more like “good intentions” ?

Well, I’m about a month late with this one, but here are my notes for Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Xがあります

  • Xがあります。 = There is/there are X.
    • ある is used for nonliving or inanimate things.
  • があります can be used to say something is at a certain location.
    • example:
      • あそこに公園’があります。 = There is a park over there.
  • があります can also be used to say that an event will take place.
    • 火曜日にテストがあります。 = There will be a test on Tuesday.
  • あります uses the particle に (rather than で that is usually associated with locations) and が.

Xがいます

  • Xがいます。 = There is/there are X./ X exists./I have X.
    • いる is used for living sentient beings.
    • examples:
      • あそこに学生がいます。 = There is a student over there.
      • 日本人のともだちがいます。 = I have a Japanese friend.

Describing Where Things Are

  • XはYのlocationです。 = X is {location} (to/of) Y.
    • examples:
      • かさはテーブルの下です。 = The umbrella is under the table.
      • レストランはデパートと公園です。 = The restaurant is between the department store and the park.
  • You can use location words with a verb to describe an event that will take place at a location.
    • example:
      • 私はレストランのまえでメアリーさんをまちました。 = I waited for Mary in front of the restaurant.

Past Tense of です

  • です :arrow_right: でした
  • じゃないです :arrow_right: じゃなかったです (as with present tense, also じゃありませんでした or ではありませんでした)

Past Tense of Verbs

  • ~ます :arrow_right: ~ました
  • ~ません :arrow_right: ~ませんでした

More も

  • Chapter 2 contains some uses of も.
  • も can also be used when two or more people perform the same activity or when someone buys/sees/eats/etc two or more things.
    • examples:
      • 私はきのうきょとに行きました。やました先生もきのうきょとに行きました。 = I went to Kyoto yesterday. Professor Yamashita went to Kyoto yesterday, too.
      • くつをかいました。かばんもかいました。 = I bought shoes. I also bought a bag.
  • も can also be used when the same person goes multiple places or does multiple things.
    • example:
      • 私はきょうとに行きました。おおさかにも行きました。 = I went to Kyoto. I went to Osaka, too.

一時間 (Duration)

  • The duration of an activity is expressed with ~時間. This does not require a particle.
    • examples:
      • 七時間ねました。 = I slept for seven hours.
      • 二時間半べんきょうしました。 = I studied for 2 and a half hours.

たくさん

  • たくさん = many/a lot
  • Generalized quantity words can be placed before the direct object they modify or after を.
    • examples:
      • きょうとでしゃしんをたくさんとりました。 = I took many pictures in Kyoto.
      • たくさんやさいを食べました。 = I ate a lot of vegetables.

  • と can be used to connect two nouns with “and”.
    • example:
      • 日本語と英語をはなします。 = I speak Japanese and English.
  • と can also be used as “together with”.
    • example:
      • メアリーさんはスーさんとかんこくに行きます。 = Mary will go to Korea with Sue.
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