basic words

English Japanese(n.p.m.s.) Comments
I waa-tah-shee
watashi		 Almost sounds like "what I see"
You aa-nah-tah
anata		 Sounds like "Ann Nutter"
We waa-tah-she-touch
watashi-tachi		 Sounds like "what I see, touch." "touch" makes a plural form
Hekaa-ray
kare		Say,"curry"
Shekah-no-joe
kanojo		Plural form is "kah-no-joe-touch"
This co-lay
kore		 Plural form is "co-lay-ra", which sounds like "cholera"
That a-ray
are		 Just sounds like "array". We cannot distinguish "r"sound from"l"sound. "r"and "l" sounds the same to our ear.
Itso-ray
sore		Usage is close to that of English.
Here koh-koh
koko		 Unlike English, Koh-koh is a pronoun, not an adverb/
There sou-koh
soko		 sou-koh is also used as a pronoun, not an adverb
Where dough-koh
doko		 koh-koh wa dough-koh? (Where am I?)
Mr./Mrs./Miss sun/son
san		 Mr.Tanaka=Tanaka son. Miss Yoshida=Yoshida son
Mother ha-ha
haha		 "occur-son" is mom.
Father chi-chi
chichi		 "Otto-son" is dad
Child koh-domo
kodomo		 Children is "koh-domo-touch"
Adult oh-toner
otona		 Plural form is oh-toner-touch
Man oh-toh-koh
otoko		 "dun-say" means "male"
Woman on-naa
on'na		 "jo-say" means "female".
Who daa-ray
dare		 "Ann Nutter daa-ray?" Who are you?
What nunny
nani		 "koh-ray nunny?" What is this?

first person singular "I"
Japanese society is really a stressful one. One reason seems to lie in its complicated launguage.
Depending on whether you are a man or a woman, or the situations where you speak,
you have to change your way of speaking.
For instance, for pronoun "I" we have several ways to refer to it, such as,"watashi"
"boku","ore","atashi". We use them depending on to whom we are speaking.
But, tell you what.
As far as we know, 99 percent of foreigners living in Japan use only "watashi",when referring to him or herself.
If you use "ore" or "boku" or "atashi", people think you are a little "strange foreigner".

numerals

English Japanese(n.p.m.s) comments
one it-chee
ichi		 sounds like "itchy"
two knee
ni		 sounds like "knee"
three sun
san		 just sounds like "sun"
four she
shi		 sounds like "she"
five go
go		 just sounds like "go"
six lock
roku		 just sounds like "lock"
seven she-chee
shichi		 Almost sounds like "hitch".
eight hatch
hachi		 Just pronounce "hatch"
nine que
kyuu		 Just pronounce "queue"
ten jew
jyuu		 Just say "Jew". Ok, let's count from one to ten. Ichy,knee,sun,she,go,lock,hitch,hatch,queue,jew
eleven jew-it-chee
jyuu-ichi		 Just say like "Jew itchy". We have nothing against Jewish people.
twelvejew-nee
jyuu-ni		Sounds like "Jew knee"
twenty nee-jew
ni-jyuu		 Just pronounce,"knee Jew"
thirty sun-jew
san-jyuu		 "sun Jew" Have you got the knack?
hundred hya-koo
hyaku		 100=hya-koo,200=knee-hya-koo
thousand sen
sen		 1,000=sen 2,000=knee-sen
ten thousand mom
man		 10.000=ichy-mom 20,000=knee-mom 35,000=sun-mom go-sen

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