In this lesson, you are going to learn about telling days and months. Since you've learned numbers in lesson 3, this lesson should be very easy for you, especially in the days of the month. Even though I tried to make everything very easy, this lesson does have a lot of memorizing. So, please take all time you need to remember. Well, now let's learn how to ask or say what day today is!
Let's take a look at the folloing sentences!
A: "Kyou wa nan nichi desuka?"Let me explain these sentences in detail.
What do you think? This is very easy, right? Now, let's learn days of the month now. Again, if you understand what we did in lesson 3, you will be fine.
As you noticed, in Japanese, you can say "nichi" for day. Unfortunately, things aren't that easy, but there is a rule for you to remember easily. Again, please take all time you need to remember. Here is the days of the month in Japanese.
For these numbers above, I cannot give you a rule. Please memorize them.
This is much easier than 1st through 10th because except 14th and 20th, you can use "nichi" for the day.
Again, this is very easy. I hope you find the rule for 21st through 31st. You're right. Except 24th, you can use "nichi" for the day. Is that easy?
If you feel comfortable with these days of the month, please try this example.
A: "Kyou wa nan nichi desuka?"In next step, you are going to learn days of the week.
In this step, you will learn the names of the days of the week. Let's start from Sunday!
"yo-u-bi" means the day of the week.
If you are comfortable with the day of the week, please try the following example.
A: "Kyou wa nan yo-u-bi desuka?"Before going to the next step, I would like you to know the names of planets. I think you find them interesting related to the names fo the days of the week which you learned in the previous step.
Did you make some connections between the names of planets and the ones of days of the week?
In the previous step, you learned the names of the days of the week. In this step, you will learn the names of the month. Finally, I can tell you that the names of the month in Japanese are very simple and easy. For example, January is "ichi-gatsu". You know "ichi" is one, right? In fact, January is the first month of the year. So, Japanese people say January "ichi-gatsu". As you can guess, "gatsu" means month. Let's take a look at the rest of the months.
Did you understand the rule? Since December is 12th month of the year, you can say "ju-ni-gatsu"("ju-ni" + "gatsu").
If you are comfortable with the day of the month, please try the following example.
A: "Nan gatsu desuka?"Now you know the days of month, the days of week, and the names of the month. This means you can say the date in Japanese. Please try this example.
A: "Kyou wa nan gatsu nan nichi desuka?"Please say the example ALOUD. If you can, please practice it with you partner: like actual conversation. If you feel comfortable, please try the next example.
A: "Anata no tanjoubi wa itsu desuka?"Again, please practice this example above with your partner like actual conversation if you can. I know this lesson has a lot of memorization, but I would like you to be able to say at least your birthday in Japanese. Good luck!
So, what do you think? I hope you find them very easy. Please remember the exceptions of the rule, and please try to use them as much as you can. That's how you can learn Japanese very quickly. For your study, I suggest you print out this page and put it someplace you will frequently see it. Since you do not have to hurry, please do not rush to the next lesson unless you feel very comfortable with this lesson. Take your time! I hope you will come back to the class soon. Sayo-nara!
[Go to Lesson 6]