People can still understand you even if you don’t know this.
Why I’m learning this now
I started Indonesian with conversations and didn’t want to care too much about rules and grammar. Up until now, I’ve randomly add me- when I feel like it 🤣 truth is, people will still understand.
I feel like I’ve been stuck in the same level for some time, so trying to pick up these rules bit by bit.
How is it used
Used for active verbs, indicating an action performed by a subject.
Prefix: root word starts with (red means the letter is dropped)
me + m: b, f, p
me + n: d, j, c, t
me + ng: vowels, g, h, k
me + ny: s
me: everything else
Examples
B: beli (buy) – membeli
F: fokus (focus) – memfokuskan (make notes on the -kan affix in the future)
P: pakai (use) – memakai (note: ‘p’ dropped)
D: dengar (hear) – mendengar
J: jual (sell) – menjual
C: cuci (wash) – mencuci
T: tulis (write) – menulis (note: ’t’ dropped)
A: ambil (take) – mengambil
G: ganti (change) – mengganti
H: hafal (memorize) – menghafal (note: more academic word than mengingat)
覚ます (さます) – to wake someone up 彼は早く目を覚ます必要があります。 He needs to wake up early.
直接 (ちょくせつ) – direct, directly 彼は直接社長に報告しました。 He reported directly to the president.
爆発 (ばくはつ) – explosion 彼女は昨日の爆発で亡くなった。 She passed away in yesterday’s explosion.
詰まる (つまる) – to be clogged, to be blocked 流しの排水管が詰まっている。 The sink drain is clogged.
放す (はなす) – to release, to let go 鳥を空に放した。 They released the bird into the sky.
我慢 (がまん) – patience, endurance 彼女は痛みを我慢した。 She endured the pain.
戦う (たたかう) – to fight, to battle 彼は正義のために戦う。 He fights for justice.
拝む (おがむ) – to pray, to worship 彼女は毎日神社で拝む。 She prays at the shrine every day.
虹色 (にじいろ) – rainbow-colored 空には美しい虹色が広がっていた。 A beautiful rainbow color spread across the sky.
山門 (さんもん) – the main gate of a temple 古い寺の山門は立派だった。 The old temple’s main gate was magnificent.
wow, thank you for transcribing them and giving examples!
I’m putting this particular vocabulary deck together myself based on things I’m encountering in my daily life, songs I like, as well as vocabularies from my grammar deck, so it’s great to see more examples using them.
That’s what initially drawn me to this post because I have a feeling this is where the vocabulary is coming from 🥳
I’ve been here since 2014 but well, I never got around to actually introducing myself, I guess? Here I go.
My name is Helen (They/Them).
24 year old Queer INFP Capricorn in Myanmar.
What am I learning? Well, a lot of things but mostly languages, literature, and psychology.
I am a native Burmese speaker but I also speak other languages! English (C2), Korean (TOPIK 6) Mandarin Chinese (HSK5) and Japanese (JLPT N3) respectively. I try to keep my certifications up to date but covid made it really difficult.
I’m working towards a Diploma in Pali.
I am also learning Spanish, Russian, Latin, ASL etc and absolutely getting my ass kicked by them.
I’m a freelance translator, writer, tarot reader, astrologist, language study guide, language instructor and a booksellerby trade!
I don’t do all of those at once. I just sort of… rotate them if that makes sense. 2 at a time, 3 at a time etc.
I am very hardworking but I also have neck arthritis (Cervical Spondylosis), ADHD and Social Anxiety so it’s a struggle.
I also have tons of hobbies. I like reading books, writing reviews, journaling and writing fan fictions etc so I’m all over the place.
I have a lot of stray cats that I’ve adopted so you’ll get to see them obstructing my studies as well!
My life’s not very glamorous. I’m in Myanmar. With the wars going on, there ain’t a lot to glamorize either. But I’m trying my best to hang on and also help others hang on. So you’ll see me talking about free consultations and free lectures and humanitarian aid stuff etc.
I run a weekly book club called “HAIYUU” with my friend! HAIYUU stands for 俳友 which is Haiku friends and it’s so fun!
I also run a paid telegram channel for tarot/oracle readings with my Haiyuu co-host as well as other friends
I’m taking it one day at a time.
That’s pretty much all of it! I hope y’all have a fun time looking at my posts.
As I touched on in my japanese goncharov post, it’s amazing how much novel research, entertainment, and art are locked behind a language barrier. Even though as english speakers, we are privileged to have many things translated into our language, it’s a simple fact that most things will not be translated into most languages.
I am a huge fan of ゆる言語学ラジオ, a japanese podcast about linguistics. The hosts recently released a book, 言語沼, which goes into detail about some of the subconscious rules native japanese speakers follow but aren’t consciously aware of (an english equivalent might be that adjective-ordering rule we follow e.g. big brown cow, not brown big cow). I’m finding it fascinating, and I wanted to discuss some of it here in english, because I think people learning japanese would find some of these things really useful. It’d be a shame if this knowledge stayed stuck behind the japanese language barrier when the people who would find it the most useful can’t speak japanese fluently enough to read it!
The book talks about how most Japanese people will think of 「あのー」 and 「えーっと」 as having the exact same meaning – they’re both “meaningless” filler words. Despite their belief that they’re the same, those same native speakers will subconsciously only use あのー in one particular type of situation and 「えーっと」 in another, and even feel confused or annoyed if they hear another speaker use one in the wrong context.
So what’s the actual difference? 「えーっと」 is used when the speaker is taking time to remember or solve something. For example, the following exchange is very natural:
Person A: 7 x 5は？ Person B: えーっと、35だ
This makes it a pretty versatile filler word! You can use it pretty much anywhere. Another example would be when you’re talking to yourself, trying to remember where you left your keys.
えーっと、鍵どこ置いたっけ？
On the other hand, あのー is much more specific. It can only be used when you’re taking time to figure out the best way to phrase something. For example, when you’re trying to get a stranger’s attention.
あのー、ちょっといいですか？
In contrast, if Person A was addressed with 「えーっと、ちょっといいですか？」by Person B, they’d feel it was rude because instead of considering how to say something, B is considering what to say, which gives the impression that they hadn’t even figured out what they needed to ask before addressing Person A.
This gives 「あのー」 a more ”polite” feeling than 「えーっと」, even though neither is actually more polite than the other. They’re just used in different circumstances.
Let’s quickly look at the example with the lost keys again. If you replace the filler word:
あのー、鍵どこ置いたっけ？
It is very unnatural. The authors of the book jokingly say that it sounds like you’re talking to a ghost, because 「あのー」 is only used when you’re figuring out how to phrase something, and you wouldn’t worry about that if you’re talking to yourself.
Also, did you know even japanese children properly use each filler word in the correct situation? Despite almost all japanese people (even as adults) being unaware of this rule, they’re subconsciously abiding by it even as children – just from listening to their parents follow the same rules!
It really is amazing how good your subconscious mind is at acquiring language, and how terrible your conscious mind is at it. If you’re not already, I highly recommend integrating a lot of simple language content (e.g. youtube, kids shows, etc) into your study routine – listening to people talk is simply the fastest way to become fluent in your target language.
Amazingly I could feel あのー、鍵どこ置いたっけ？sounds weird. Perhaps the years of anime watching helps?
I seem to be gaining new followers so I thought it’s about time I did a self introduction.
I’m Yan and welcome to my langblr ^^ I mostly focus on Japanese and Korean right now but I hope to one day dabble in other languages I’m interested in. I was a longtime lurker when I was more active but because I want to keep up with my target languages and language learning in general, I decided to get back on Tumblr. If anyone has suggestions on what kind of posts I should make, feel free to share them!
JP/KR Short Intro
안녕하세요. 저는 연이라고 하고 99년생입니다. 한국어를 독학하고 있어서 이 브로그를 하게 됐습니다. 잘 부탁드립니당!
