All episodes: 月火水木金

In this series we are going to read together a Light Novel and explore grammatical structures and fascinating vocabulary. There are many similar approachs, for example the Youtube channel Game Grammar, where each episode introduces a few sentences of a game. He does a great job explaining the grammar used.

Joining the trend of explaining example sentences (=例文を説明する波に乗る <- we will understand crazy constructs like that!), I will be using Light Novels as material, which means that sentences tend to be longer and the grammar to be harder. Merely analyzing a single sentence seems like a waste of effort, so there will be assignments, where you can practice new grammar and vocabulary immediately. Be aware that this is no course for complete beginners. A lot of grammar points are taken for granted, so they will not be mentioned. However I try not to assume more than the grammar covered in the Genki books. If reading the kanjis on this page is a problem, feel free to use browser plugins like a furigana inserter or rikaichan/rikaisama. Are you ready? 始めましょう!

ライトノベルを読みましょう！ Let’s read Light Novels! #1

Outline:

The titles and the first sentence of よくわかる現代魔法

Time effort ~30 minutes

Learning the in and outs of わかる.

Learning how verbs qualify nouns.

Learning to end sentences with に or へ.

Learning to (ab)use the continuative form of verbs (BIG topic!)

Let’s start with the Light Novel よくわかる現代魔法. I am as new as you to this Light Novel, so let’s work together! First let’s analyze the title: 現代魔法 is a term going to be used quite frequently, so let’s interpret it as “modern magic”. わかる is “to understand”, which is accompanied by the adverb よく (derived from よい/いい). Together it means “to understand well”. Here we have the first problem though: In English is “to understand” a transitive verb. In Japanese however it is an intransitive verb. Two sentences to understand the meaning of this:

この問題をわかる。(NO! わかる is not transitive!!)

この問題がわかる。(I understand this problem)

宿題がわからない。(I don’t understand the homework)

A more literal translation would thus be “to be understandable”. The problem is understandable for me. The homework is not understandable. Or another example: 現代魔法がよくわかる。Modern magic is well understandable. See what I did here? This is the very same as よくわかる現代魔法. A verb before a noun qualifies/explains the noun. We are not talking about some random modern magic, no, but we are talking about the easily understandable modern magic! Let’s have a look at other examples, where a verb qualifies a noun:

魚を食べる人。(A person eating fish)

日本にいる友だち。(A friend who is in Japan)

Ok, that was the title of the book. Let’s continue with the title of the first chapter: あなたも魔法使いに I hope you are familiar with the も used here. So the first part merely means “you too”. The に used here is a bit more tricky. Whenever you see a particle in the end of a sentence, you can try to put a verb in the end. For example: 魔法使いになる, which is “to become a sorcerer”. Another example: 暖かい地へ. Here something like 行きましょう is left out. Let’s go to a warm place! The same style is used in Christian prayers, where they end a sentence with ように. この問題がわかるように. Make me understand this problem!

Now let’s have a look at the first sentence:

(激動の現代、)文明開化の波に乗り遅れた人は新世紀を生きる資格がない(と言われています。)

Let’s focus on the following parts: 波に乗り遅れた人 and 新世紀を生きる資格がない. 乗る is, like most verbs involving movement, an intransitive verb, which means “to get on”. The target is marked with に. 波に乗る means “to get on a wave”. “Wave” can not only mean the natural water wave, but also (at least here in this context) an incoming trend. 波に乗る thus means rather “to jump in on a trend”/”to flow with the stream”. You can qualify 波 easily with another noun:

文明開化の波 The trend of cultural civilization

~の人気の波に乗る Ride a wave of popularity for ~

流行の最新の波に乗る Following the newest trends of fashion

Are you familiar with the ます-form of a verb? For example 乗る->乗ります. Let’s cut out the ます, so that we get 乗り. Some people like to call this the masu-form, because you can easily derive it from this. But we can be a bit more precise and call it the continuative form (連用形). Having a verb in this form gives us a lot of crazy possibilities to change the verb! Continuative form + 始める means “to start doing ~”. Or, continuative form + 遅れる means “to be late doing ~”

魚を食べ始める。

勉強し始める。

宿題をし遅れる。(beware: it’s more common to say 宿題をし忘れる)

文明開化の波に乗り遅れた人 gets the meaning “a person who was late joining the trend of cultural civilization). The next part, 新世紀を生きる資格がない, is easier to understand grammar-wise. 資格 means “qualification” and 資格がない means “to not have a qualification”/”to be unqualified”. Similarily, 資格がある is “to have a qualification”/”to be qualified”. Similar to 波 we can modify 資格 in several ways: Either with adjectives, nouns or verbs. Example sentences:

宿題をする資格がない。

肉を食べる資格がある。

日本に生きる資格がある。

生きる is once again an intransitive verb. You might wonder why there is still a を before 生きる. It’s legal grammar! With movement verbs this construct is very easy to explain: 森を行く. I walk through the forest. In our case, 新世紀を生きる is “to live through the new century”. Now we achieved all puzzle pieces to understand the meaning of the sentence 文明開化の波に乗り遅れた人は新世紀を生きる資格がない: People, who were late joining the trend of cultural civilization, are not qualified to live in the new century.

Time for homework! Feel free to post them in the comments!

Write out any new vocabulary from this article (and create Flashcards for them, if you want) Among the following verbs, which are transitive, which are intransitive? 食べる、遅れる、行く、わかる、始める、生きる. Give an easy example sentence for each of these verbs. Can you transform the following sentences, so that the verb qualifies the noun? この問題がわかる。 宿題がわからない。 人は新世紀を生きる資格がない。 Extra challenge: For the rest homeworks, try to use only nouns that are qualified by a verb. Which waves/trends are you riding? Which trends did you miss to join? Make a few sentences with 波に乗る and 波に乗り遅れた. What things have you started to do? Where have you been late? Construct a few examples, with continuative form + 始めた or continuative form + 遅れる. What qualifications (資格) do you have/ don’t you have?

Aside from posting your homeworks, I welcome also any criticism regarding this approach of learning Japanese! Was it too hard? Do you feel any sense of accomplishment after being able to understand a hard sentence? Let me know!