Lesson 25
Get under the desk.
When Anna is attending Professor Suzuki’s Japanese class, the school building begins to shake.
Key phrase:
TSUKUE NO SHITA NI HAIRE
Scripts
| 先生 | 地震だ。みんな、落ち着いて。 机の下に入れ。 |
It's an earthquake. Everybody, keep calm. Get under the desk.
|
|---|---|---|
| Teacher | JISHIN DA. MINNA, OCHITSUITE. TSUKUE NO SHITA NI HAIRE. It's an earthquake. Everybody, keep calm. Get under the desk.
|
|
| 先生 | 揺れは収まったようだ。 | The shaking seems to have
subsided.
|
| Teacher | YURE WA OSAMATTA YÔ DA.
The shaking seems to have
subsided.
|
|
| アンナ | びっくりした。日本は本当に地震が多いですね。 | I was surprised. Japan truly has many earthquakes, doesn't it?
|
| Anna | BIKKURI SHITA. NIHON WA HONTÔ NI JISHIN GA ÔI DESU NE.
I was surprised. Japan truly has many earthquakes, doesn't it?
|
Grammar tips
YÔ DA / YÔ DESU
YÔ DA is a casual expression of YÔ DESU, indicating that the speaker assessed the situation, and has made a certain judgement about the state of affairs.
Before YÔ DA, you cannot use the MASU-form verbs.
e.g.) YURE WA OSAMATTA YÔ DA.
(The shaking seems to have subsided.)
* OSAMATTA = TA-form of OSAMARIMASU (to subside)
Difference between the particles WA and GA
WA: the particle indicating a topic
GA: the particle indicating a subject
The topic means the theme of a sentence. It is indicated by WA. The subject is related to the topic, and is indicated by GA and sometimes by WA. In the predicate part of a sentence, you express what the subject does or in what condition or situation the subject is.
e.g.) ZÔ WA HANA GA NAGAI.
(Elephants have long trunks.)
Teach Us, Teacher
Command form of verbs
This is how to make the command form from the MASU form of verbs. First, for the verbs that end with the vowel "E" in the syllable just before MASU, you change MASU to RO. For example, "to eat," TABEMASU, becomes TABERO (Eat!).
Sound Words
Shaking
Japanese is a language with lots of onomatopoeia. A wide range of onomatopoeia in the Japanese language, from noises made by animals to expressions of feelings, is explained by audio.
Anna's Tweets
When an earthquake occurs, the first thing we have to do is to get information on radio or TV. I was told to do so.
