Link: YouTube
Particles in the Japanese language confuse the bejessus out of me. And since they're used so often in spoken and written Japanese, I have to learn them and learn them soon if I want to proceed in my quest to learn the language. That's why I'm going to make it my mission today to understand particles.
Tae Kim's Japanese Grammar Guide looks like a nice place to start...
Particles:
Generally, particles are used to associate a noun with another noun. It's one or two hiragana characters that attach to the end of a word to define what grammatical function that word is serving in the sentence. Using the correct particles is very important because the meaning of a sentence can completely change just by changing the particles.
The 「は」 topic particle
The topic particle essentially identifies what it is that you're talking about, basically the topic of your sentence. It is written with the character 「は」. Now, while this character is normally pronounced /ha/, it is pronounced /wa/ only when it is being used as the topic particle.
The 「も」 inclusive topic particle
Another particle that is very similar to the topic particle is the inclusive topic particle. It is essentially the topic particle with the additional meaning of "also". Basically, it can introduce another topic in addition to the current topic. The inclusive topic particle is the 「も」 character.
The 「が」 identifier particle
Ok, so we can make a topic using the 「は」 and 「も」 particle. But what if we don’t know what the topic is? What if I wanted to ask, “Who is the student?” What I need is some kind of identifier because I don’t know who the student is. If I used the topic particle, the question would become, “Is who the student?” and that doesn’t make any sense because “who” is not an actual person.
This is where the 「が」 particle comes into play. It is also referred to as the subject particle but I hate that name since "subject" means something completely different in English grammar. Instead, I move to call it the identifier particle because the particle indicates that the speaker wants to identify something unspecified.
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Dummies.com gets into the nitty gritty without being too technical. Think of it as a mini-Japanese Particles for Dummies book. Here's an exerpt which describes particles in the simplest way possible...
Forming Sentences in Japanese:
The basic word order in English is subject-verb-object, but the order in Japanese is subject-object-verb. Instead of saying I watched TV, you say I TV watched. Instead of saying I ate sushi, say I sushi ate. Now you know the pattern. So repeat after me: Put the verb at the end! Verb end! Verb end! Go ahead and try it! I sake drank, I karaoke did, and I money lost! Good, you the basic word order in Japanese have.
Introducing particles
Subject-object-verb is the basic word order in Japanese, but object-subject-verb is also okay. As long as the verb is at the end of the sentence, Japanese grammar teachers are happy. For example, if Mary invited John, you can say either Mary John invited or John Mary invited in Japanese. Like I said, as long as the verb is at the end, the order of other phrases doesn't matter.
Although it sounds great, a smart person like you may be saying, "Wait a minute! How do you know who invited whom?" The secret is that Japanese use a little tag called a particle right after each noun phrase. The particle for the action performer is ga, and the particle for the action receiver is o. So, both of the following sentences mean Mary invited John:
Marî ga Jon o sasotta.
Jon o Marî ga sasotta.
Actually, ga is the subject-marking particle, and o is the direct object-marking particle. They can't be translated into English. Sorry, it's just Japanese.
Other Japanese particles include kara, made, ni, de, to, and ka. Luckily, they can be translated into English words like from, until, to, with, by, at, in, on, and, and or. But each particle is translated differently depending on the context. For example, the particle de corresponds to in, by, or with in English:
Bosuton de benkyôsuru. (I'll study in Boston.)
Takushî de iku. (I'll go by taxi.)
Fôku de taberu. (I eat with a fork.)
Translation is not always the best way to figure out a foreign language, so remember the particles in terms of their general functions, not their exact English translations.
Here's my English translation of Hug by 東方神起. It's my very own translation; I phrased each line so that it would still match the music (so that you can still sing it), but I tried to stick to the original structure of the Japanese lyrics as much as possible.
It's not final yet, since I'm still revising some lines. :-)
I wanna let you know how I feel about you, oohh baby
But somehow I can't get the courage to say it to you, cannot say a word
I don't know how, can't explain
I can't say it out loud, can't proclaim
Cause it seems like everything's gonna fade away, wow wowI'm right here with wide open arms
I'm right here entirely for you
Take you in my arms, never let you go
Can't tell you how much I want to
Despite everything that I do
I'm still missing, longing for you
And when I'm with you, I just start to shake
Can't tell you what's in my heart
I love you
If I just wait around, love won't come to me, oh baby
I feel like I'm gonna lose you if I don't do a thing, must show you my loveRight now I feel so anxious
Can you even tell that I'm nervous?
What is your heart feeling, can you let me know? Wow wowI'm right here with wide open arms
For you and your innocent smile
Wrap you in my arms, never let you go
Can't tell you how much I want to
Always and forever baby
From within your beautiful eyes
Make them shine for me, so that I will be
Born again just because
I love you
In my arms, in my soul
I wanna hold you baby
I know my heart is not lying, really baby
My feelings overflow, I'm drowning in my love
Forever and a day
I'm right here with wide open arms
I'm right here entirely for you
Take you in my arms, never let you go
Can't tell you how much I want to
Don't want us to ever part
Won't let anyone take you from me
Now I realize, I can't let you go
And whisper because baby,
I love you
Here's the original Japanese lyrics of Hug by 東方神起:
この想いを伝えたいのに Ooo baby
なぜか素直に声に出せない、いえないよ
なんとなくだけど
言葉にすることで
なにもかも消えてしまいそうで Wow wow
両手を広げて
キミのそのすべてを
この腕で受けとめて
抱きしめたいんだ
でもまだぼくには
なにかが足りなくて
頼りなく揺れている
いえない想いは
I love
you
愛はきっと移ろうもので Ooo baby
待たせてばかりいたら 必ずなくすから
焦るこの気持ち
気づいてるのかな？
その胸はなにを思ってるの Wow wow
両手を広げて
むじゃきなその笑顔
この腕に包み込み
抱きしめたいんだ
いつも、いつまでも
その瞳の中で
輝いていれるように
生まれ変わるから
I love you
In my arms
In my soul
抱きしめたいんだ
いつわりのないこの心で
あふれていくキミへの想い
止まらない
両手を広げて
キミのそのすべてを
この腕で受けとめて
抱きしめたいんだ
決して離さない
誰にも渡さない
気がつけば抱きよせて
囁いてたんだ
Here are the last two verses of Hug by 東方神起. After I translate these, I'll look over my translation of the whole song again to make sure that everything goes well together.
This next verse is exactly the same with the one from part 5.
両手を広げて
キミのそのすべてを
この腕で受けとめて
抱きしめたいんだ
Literal translation for this verse would be:
I'll widen both hands
For the whole of you
I'll take you in my arms
I want to hug you
After polishing it up a bit here's my version:
I'm right here with wide open arms
Right here entirely for you
Take you in my arms, never let you go
Can't tell you how much I want to
Next up is the very last verse!
決して離さない
誰にも渡さない
気がつけば抱きよせて
囁いてたんだ, I love you
I have a correction to that last line... It's actually...
囁いて + いた + のだ
short-te form + past tense + reasonI'm modifying my translation below and my final translation. Thanks to Kyoufu for helping me with this one.
Whew! Most of these words aren't in dictionaries and I had a terribly hard time translating them. I hope I got them all right. Anyway, here's the translation...
We will never part
I cannot hand you over to anybody
I realize and hug you
I whispered because, I love you
So, my version for that would be...
Don't want us to ever part
Won't let anyone take you from me
Now I realize, I won't let you go
And whisper because baby, I love you
Whoohoo! That's the last one! :-) Yay, I just finished translating my first song. In my next entry, I'll post my whole translation, and maybe change things around a bit.
