Monday, December 31, 2018

Relative Clauses

Relative clauses, or adjective clauses, are, literally, clauses that work as adjectives to modify nouns. Now, that might sound a bit complicated and grammatical if the only clause you know is Santa, but it basically means that you can use verbs to describe things. For example:
  • neko ga shaberu 猫が喋る
    The cat talks.
    • shaberu 喋る
      To talk. (a verb.)
  • shaberu neko 喋る
    The cat [that] talks
    • ...that talks:
      A relative clause.

In the example above, we aren't talking about any one cat. We're talking about the cat that talks, the talking cat, specifically.

In Japanese, relative clauses are called rentai-shuushoku-setsu 連体修飾節, "prenominal modifying clause," since they're clauses that come before nouns to modify them.
Sunday, December 16, 2018

-naide ~ないで

In Japanese, naide ないで is a phrase created from the auxiliary adjective nai ない plus the particle de で. It has a number of different functions, the most common one being to ask people not do something.

Tabenaide!! 食べないで!! - Kaban-chan from anime Kemono Friends けものフレンズ
Anime: "Kemono Friends," Kemono Furenzu けものフレンズ
  • tabenai-de kudasai! 食べないでください!
    Please don't eat me!
  • Kaban-Chan.