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This is an in-depth tutorial on Japanese grammar. We start at chapter 1: Meeting. For more, please visit my livejournal and maybe even join my very new community.

--

Fuji: Hajimemashite.
Loxley: Hajimemashite.
Fuji: Watashi wa Fuji Syuusuke desu.
Loxley: Watashi wa Loxley no Robin desu.
Fuji: Douzo yoroshiku.
Loxley: Kochira koso, douzo yoroshiku.
              Fuji-san wa, eigo ga wakarimasu ka.
Fuji: Hai, wakarimasu.
Loxley: Jya, eigo ga hanashimasu ka.
Fuji: Hai, hanashimasu.
Loxley: Jya, eigo de hanashimashoo.
Fuji: Soo shimashoo.

--

Haha, ok, apart from the silly names I chose (Fuji Syuusuke is from Prince of Tennis and Robin of Loxley is from Robin Hood), this dialogue is pretty much the whole chapter. Now, let's see the English equivalent of these sentences and then we'll go on to breaking it down to bits.

--

Fuji: Hello.
Loxley: Hello.
Fuji: I am Syuusuke Fuji.
Loxley: I am Robin of Loxley.
Fuji: A pleasure to meet you.
Loxley: No, it is my pleasure to meet you.
             Mr. Fuji, do you understand English?
Fuji: Yes, I do understand (English).
Loxley: Then do you speak English?
Fuji: Yes I do speak (English).
Loxley: Then let us speak in English.
Fuji: Let's do that.

--

Basically, as you can no doubt tell, Fuji and Loxley are meeting for the first time. I guess Robin got tired of Sherwood Forest and decided to move on to the untamed forests of Japan (?). Loxley does not know how to speak Japanese very well yet and so he asks if Fuji can understand and speak English, of which, fortunately for Robin, he could, and then they start speaking in English.

--

Notes:

        >Hajimemashite is a word reserved only for meeting someone the very first time. You say it to a person once in your lifetime and it basically translates into "Nice meeting you for the very first time."

        >Douzo yoroshiku really has no literal translation in English. And if it does, it's probably going to go something like, "Please consider me kindly,"--which we don't usually say in meetings. It's a set phrase that shows your politeness, willingness, and gratitude to be their acquaintance.

                 +Kochira koso holds the meaning "It is I who should be saying that." It is used to humble yourself. Japan is a place where respect is a very important thing (their language is based upon this politeness ranking. There's humbling yourself, being polite, and even honoring the other person. Don't worry about this yet)

        > ~mashoo is a suffix added to verbs (i.e hanasu, taberu, etc) to make it mean "Let's do (verb)"
             (Ex: Hanashimashoo- let us talk
                     Tabemashoo- let us eat)

        > ~masu is a suffix added to verbs to make it sound polite. It puts the verb in a non-past form, meaning it is in a state of continual doing, or will be done (much like the verb "to run" conjugates into "runs" and "will run". Keep in mind however, that I do not say "running". There is another way to form an 'ing' verb, but that comes later).
             (Ex: Watashi wa wakarimasu- I understand
                     Fuji-san wa arukimasu- Fuji runs)

                 + ~masen is a suffix opposite of ~masu. It makes the verb negative, but still polite.
                      (Ex: Watashi wa eigo ga wakarimasen- I do not understand English)

        >Desu is a copula (a word added with no real specific meaning) that basically holds the idea of "state of being." You could think of it like the English "is", but sometimes it may be unreliable.
            (Ex: Hon desu- A book
                    Fuji desu- It is Fuji)

        >Watashi is how a person would refer to themselves as. It translates into "I" and is considered a polite and refined way to refer to oneself. Women and men can both use this (you'll find out later that in Japanese, there are many different ways to refer to yourself depending on your gender and sex (which, I am told, are two very different things).

        > ~san is a suffix added to names of others in order to be polite. It is equivalent to Mr./Mrs./Ms. However, you do not add ~san (or other honorific suffixes) to your own name unless you want to sound egotistic or bold. My advice is, since you're barely learning Japanese, don't try to act 'cool' with native speakers and add cute suffixes like ~chan (like what they do in the anime when introducing themselves). Stick with the basics for now.
             On a side note, for those of you who know the famous Jrocker Miyavi, or Atobe Keigo from Prince of tennis, will realize they call themselves Ore-sama, and if you're wondering what in the world that means, Ore is basically a way to refer to oneself as someone who is masculine and strong, like what you would say as Boss, or BigDude in English. Ore by itself is not that bad, but since they add the suffix ~sama, which is an honorific suffix for a lord, god, some noble guy, etc, they basically say The Almightly Masculine and Strong Me. Which... sounds overly egotistic (but since it's Miyavi and Atobe, hey, why not?)

--

Now we're going into the nouns, verbs, and particles of this chapter. If I were you, I'd really try to memorize this section of the chapter, as you'll see these words over and over again. Watashi actually is supposed to go here as well, but since I started talking about it in the ~san section, I decided to introduce it to you beforehand.

--

Nouns:

        > Eigo is the Japanese word for "English". The suffix ~go is added to a country's name to refer to its language.
           Doitsu + go = German language
          Chuugoku + go = Chinese
           Supein + go = Spanish
           Furansu + go = French
           Nihon + go = Japanese
           Itaria + go = Italian

        >Anata is the japanese equivalent of "you". I think this is a good time to introduce you to the fact that Japanese people don't have words like "he" or "she" or anything particular like that. For some reason, they spent it all on their "me's"....

        >Fuji is a Japanese surname. It is customary in Japan to say last names first before first names. They do know that other countries do the opposite though, so just keep your ears or eyes out. It is also considered a bit bold for a new acquaintance to call their newly met friend by their first names only. Generally they'd refer to you first by your surname-san, and then move on to name-kun or name-chan (if it's a girl). But don't worry about that yet. Worry about last names and using ~san as the suffix first.

Verbs:

        >Wakarimasu means I or someone understands. It's the ~masu form of wakaru. Incidentally, wakarimasen means I or someone does not understand.

        >Hanashimasu means I or someone speaks. ~Masu form of hanasu.

        >Shimashoo means let's do. ~Mashoo form of Suru (don't worry if it looks odd. We'll talk about it later)

        >Arukimasu means to walk. ~Masu form of aruku.

        >Tabemasu means to eat. ~Masu form of taberu.

--

Now this is the hardest part of the chapter. I know it's been long, but hey, that's the pain of learning. These are the particles. They are like little words that hold no meaning by itself. They're the markers of the sentences, and they direct you to what the topic is, the direct/indirect object, etc. Remember that they define the preceding words.

--

        >Wa is the topic marker. Whatever we're talking about in the sentence, it will always relate to what this 'wa' particle is defining.
          (Ex: Watashi wa Fuji desu.   Here, wa is marking watashi, and therefore, our main topic is watashi. Whatever we're talking about ultimately relates to this. In this case, "Fuji desu" relates to "watashi", and thus: as for Watashi, it is Fuji.

        >Ga is a direct object marker, meaning whatever action the verb is relating, it refers to the word 'ga' is defining.
           (Ex: Eigo ga wakarimasu.   Wakarimasu is the verb, but what is it referring to? What is being wakarimasu? Eigo.
            To make things even more confusing, my teacher had said once that wa and ga are very similar in a way. I think sometimes, it can be interchangeable (you can use wa in place of ga in some cases). For example, you could probably say Eigo wa wakarimasu, meaning "as for English, it is comprehensible", but we don't know if it's to you or to someone else. So it may be a bit vague. In this situation, I'm not too sure if it'll work switching wa and ga. For example, if you want to say, As for English, I understand it, I don't think Eiga wa watashi ga wakarimasu will sound right. I think that'd come out...odd, since literally, by following the rules given, it would be "As for English, I am comprehensible". In a way it may sound right, but I don't know. Someone help me out here and tell me if I'm correct. At any rate, I just wanted to share that with you, so you can start thinking along those lines as well.
           (More examples: Fuji san wa, chuugokugo ga hanashimasu.   As for Fuji-san, he is able to hanashimasu chuugokugo.)

        >Ka is basically the Japanese's question mark. They typically don't use (?) to express the question, instead, they sort of use a high intonation with 'ka' as a form of asking.
          (Ex: Fuji-san desu ka.   Are you Fuji?)

        >No is a particle that links 2 nouns together. This is one of the particles where there will be about 6 uses, all having different meanings. Remember this as (no number 1.) Things only get harder from here on out with these darn particles. But one step at a time. This is basically "of" in English language.
          (Ex: Loxley no Robin = Robin of Loxley
                  Nihongo no hon = Book of Japanese or a Japanese book)
          If you put the nouns the other way around, as in Hon no nihongo, then it'll come out as The Japanese of books. Oo, that sounds intimidating, in a way. Like there'll be a war between the Chinese of books, and German of books. Who will win?

        >De, like no, will have many uses. In this particular usage, it is equivalent to "by means of" or "using". It is a particle that marks how a thing marked by the verb should be done.
          (Ex: Furansugo de hanashimashoo. Let's speak by means of French.)

--

Alright! This is where chapter 1 ends. I do hope you learned a lot amd enjoyed learning in the process, because I sure enjoyed writing this up. Comments, questions, suggestions, please comment or email at damnreccaishot@yahoo.com .

Check these out

Japanese Grammar Tutorial part 2

Hiragana Tutorial

Description
This is an in-depth tutorial on Japanese grammar. We start at chapter 1: Meeting. For more, please visit my livejournal and maybe even join my very new community.

--

Fuji: Hajimemashite.
Loxley: Hajimemashite.
Fuji: Watashi wa Fuji Syuusuke desu.
Loxley: Watashi wa Loxley no Robin desu.
Fuji: Douzo yoroshiku.
Loxley: Kochira koso, douzo yoroshiku.
              Fuji-san wa, eigo ga wakarimasu ka.
Fuji: Hai, wakarimasu.
Loxley: Jya, eigo ga hanashimasu ka.
Fuji: Hai, hanashimasu.
Loxley: Jya, eigo de hanashimashoo.
Fuji: Soo shimashoo.

--

Haha, ok, apart from the silly names I chose (Fuji Syuusuke is from Prince of Tennis and Robin of Loxley is from Robin Hood), this dialogue is pretty much the whole chapter. Now, let's see the English equivalent of these sentences and then we'll go on to breaking it down to bits.

--

Fuji: Hello.
Loxley: Hello.
Fuji: I am Syuusuke Fuji.
Loxley: I am Robin of Loxley.
Fuji: A pleasure to meet you.
Loxley: No, it is my pleasure to meet you.
             Mr. Fuji, do you understand English?
Fuji: Yes, I do understand (English).
Loxley: Then do you speak English?
Fuji: Yes I do speak (English).
Loxley: Then let us speak in English.
Fuji: Let's do that.

--

Basically, as you can no doubt tell, Fuji and Loxley are meeting for the first time. I guess Robin got tired of Sherwood Forest and decided to move on to the untamed forests of Japan (?). Loxley does not know how to speak Japanese very well yet and so he asks if Fuji can understand and speak English, of which, fortunately for Robin, he could, and then they start speaking in English.

--

Notes:

        >Hajimemashite is a word reserved only for meeting someone the very first time. You say it to a person once in your lifetime and it basically translates into "Nice meeting you for the very first time."

        >Douzo yoroshiku really has no literal translation in English. And if it does, it's probably going to go something like, "Please consider me kindly,"--which we don't usually say in meetings. It's a set phrase that shows your politeness, willingness, and gratitude to be their acquaintance.

                 +Kochira koso holds the meaning "It is I who should be saying that." It is used to humble yourself. Japan is a place where respect is a very important thing (their language is based upon this politeness ranking. There's humbling yourself, being polite, and even honoring the other person. Don't worry about this yet)

        > ~mashoo is a suffix added to verbs (i.e hanasu, taberu, etc) to make it mean "Let's do (verb)"
             (Ex: Hanashimashoo- let us talk
                     Tabemashoo- let us eat)

        > ~masu is a suffix added to verbs to make it sound polite. It puts the verb in a non-past form, meaning it is in a state of continual doing, or will be done (much like the verb "to run" conjugates into "runs" and "will run". Keep in mind however, that I do not say "running". There is another way to form an 'ing' verb, but that comes later).
             (Ex: Watashi wa wakarimasu- I understand
                     Fuji-san wa arukimasu- Fuji runs)

                 + ~masen is a suffix opposite of ~masu. It makes the verb negative, but still polite.
                      (Ex: Watashi wa eigo ga wakarimasen- I do not understand English)

        >Desu is a copula (a word added with no real specific meaning) that basically holds the idea of "state of being." You could think of it like the English "is", but sometimes it may be unreliable.
            (Ex: Hon desu- A book
                    Fuji desu- It is Fuji)

        >Watashi is how a person would refer to themselves as. It translates into "I" and is considered a polite and refined way to refer to oneself. Women and men can both use this (you'll find out later that in Japanese, there are many different ways to refer to yourself depending on your gender and sex (which, I am told, are two very different things).

        > ~san is a suffix added to names of others in order to be polite. It is equivalent to Mr./Mrs./Ms. However, you do not add ~san (or other honorific suffixes) to your own name unless you want to sound egotistic or bold. My advice is, since you're barely learning Japanese, don't try to act 'cool' with native speakers and add cute suffixes like ~chan (like what they do in the anime when introducing themselves). Stick with the basics for now.
             On a side note, for those of you who know the famous Jrocker Miyavi, or Atobe Keigo from Prince of tennis, will realize they call themselves Ore-sama, and if you're wondering what in the world that means, Ore is basically a way to refer to oneself as someone who is masculine and strong, like what you would say as Boss, or BigDude in English. Ore by itself is not that bad, but since they add the suffix ~sama, which is an honorific suffix for a lord, god, some noble guy, etc, they basically say The Almightly Masculine and Strong Me. Which... sounds overly egotistic (but since it's Miyavi and Atobe, hey, why not?)

--

Now we're going into the nouns, verbs, and particles of this chapter. If I were you, I'd really try to memorize this section of the chapter, as you'll see these words over and over again. Watashi actually is supposed to go here as well, but since I started talking about it in the ~san section, I decided to introduce it to you beforehand.

--

Nouns:

        > Eigo is the Japanese word for "English". The suffix ~go is added to a country's name to refer to its language.
           Doitsu + go = German language
          Chuugoku + go = Chinese
           Supein + go = Spanish
           Furansu + go = French
           Nihon + go = Japanese
           Itaria + go = Italian

        >Anata is the japanese equivalent of "you". I think this is a good time to introduce you to the fact that Japanese people don't have words like "he" or "she" or anything particular like that. For some reason, they spent it all on their "me's"....

        >Fuji is a Japanese surname. It is customary in Japan to say last names first before first names. They do know that other countries do the opposite though, so just keep your ears or eyes out. It is also considered a bit bold for a new acquaintance to call their newly met friend by their first names only. Generally they'd refer to you first by your surname-san, and then move on to name-kun or name-chan (if it's a girl). But don't worry about that yet. Worry about last names and using ~san as the suffix first.

Verbs:

        >Wakarimasu means I or someone understands. It's the ~masu form of wakaru. Incidentally, wakarimasen means I or someone does not understand.

        >Hanashimasu means I or someone speaks. ~Masu form of hanasu.

        >Shimashoo means let's do. ~Mashoo form of Suru (don't worry if it looks odd. We'll talk about it later)

        >Arukimasu means to walk. ~Masu form of aruku.

        >Tabemasu means to eat. ~Masu form of taberu.

--

Now this is the hardest part of the chapter. I know it's been long, but hey, that's the pain of learning. These are the particles. They are like little words that hold no meaning by itself. They're the markers of the sentences, and they direct you to what the topic is, the direct/indirect object, etc. Remember that they define the preceding words.

--

        >Wa is the topic marker. Whatever we're talking about in the sentence, it will always relate to what this 'wa' particle is defining.
          (Ex: Watashi wa Fuji desu.   Here, wa is marking watashi, and therefore, our main topic is watashi. Whatever we're talking about ultimately relates to this. In this case, "Fuji desu" relates to "watashi", and thus: as for Watashi, it is Fuji.

        >Ga is a direct object marker, meaning whatever action the verb is relating, it refers to the word 'ga' is defining.
           (Ex: Eigo ga wakarimasu.   Wakarimasu is the verb, but what is it referring to? What is being wakarimasu? Eigo.
            To make things even more confusing, my teacher had said once that wa and ga are very similar in a way. I think sometimes, it can be interchangeable (you can use wa in place of ga in some cases). For example, you could probably say Eigo wa wakarimasu, meaning "as for English, it is comprehensible", but we don't know if it's to you or to someone else. So it may be a bit vague. In this situation, I'm not too sure if it'll work switching wa and ga. For example, if you want to say, As for English, I understand it, I don't think Eiga wa watashi ga wakarimasu will sound right. I think that'd come out...odd, since literally, by following the rules given, it would be "As for English, I am comprehensible". In a way it may sound right, but I don't know. Someone help me out here and tell me if I'm correct. At any rate, I just wanted to share that with you, so you can start thinking along those lines as well.
           (More examples: Fuji san wa, chuugokugo ga hanashimasu.   As for Fuji-san, he is able to hanashimasu chuugokugo.)

        >Ka is basically the Japanese's question mark. They typically don't use (?) to express the question, instead, they sort of use a high intonation with 'ka' as a form of asking.
          (Ex: Fuji-san desu ka.   Are you Fuji?)

        >No is a particle that links 2 nouns together. This is one of the particles where there will be about 6 uses, all having different meanings. Remember this as (no number 1.) Things only get harder from here on out with these darn particles. But one step at a time. This is basically "of" in English language.
          (Ex: Loxley no Robin = Robin of Loxley
                  Nihongo no hon = Book of Japanese or a Japanese book)
          If you put the nouns the other way around, as in Hon no nihongo, then it'll come out as The Japanese of books. Oo, that sounds intimidating, in a way. Like there'll be a war between the Chinese of books, and German of books. Who will win?

        >De, like no, will have many uses. In this particular usage, it is equivalent to "by means of" or "using". It is a particle that marks how a thing marked by the verb should be done.
          (Ex: Furansugo de hanashimashoo. Let's speak by means of French.)

--

Alright! This is where chapter 1 ends. I do hope you learned a lot amd enjoyed learning in the process, because I sure enjoyed writing this up. Comments, questions, suggestions, please comment or email at damnreccaishot@yahoo.com .

Check these out

Japanese Grammar Tutorial part 2

Hiragana Tutorial