Introduction Pronouncing Japanese. Japanese words in English: kimono; karate; karaoke. English words in Japanese are adjusted to Japanese speech patterns: kamera ‘camera’; dejikame ‘digital camera’; hoteru ‘hotel’; aisu kurı-mu ‘ice cream’; ko-hı- ‘coffee’; T. shatsu ‘T-shirt’.

o kudasai ‘please may I have’; aisu kurı-mu o kudasai ‘Ice cream may I have’ = ‘May I have an ice cream, please?’ In Japanese, you don’t need words for ‘a’ or ‘the’. sumimasen ‘excuse me’; sumimasen aisu kurı-mu o kudasai ‘Excuse me, may I have an ice cream, please?’ kore ‘this’; sore ‘that’; are ‘that over there’; sumimasen kore o kudasai ‘Excuse me, please may I have this?’ hai ‘yes’; do-zo ‘go ahead’

tabemasu ‘to eat; I eat; she eats; he eats; you eat’: aisu kurı-mu o tabemasu ‘Ice cream [o] eat’ = ‘I eat ice cream’. sandoicchi ‘sandwich’ kore o tabemasu ‘This [o] eat’ = ‘I eat this’. This -masu form of Japanese verbs also covers the sense of ‘will’ (the future): kore o tabemasu ‘I will eat this’. nomimasu means “to drink / drink / will drink”; examples include kōhī o nomimasu (drink coffee), plus jūsu (juice) and bīru (beer).

ashita ‘tomorrow’: ashita ko-hı- o nomimasu ‘Tomorrow coffee [o] drink’ = ‘I will drink coffee tomorrow’ – the time expression generally comes first in a Japanese sentence. ashita ko-hı- o nomimasu could also mean ‘You will drink coffee tomorrow’, ‘He will drink coffee tomorrow’, ‘They will drink coffee tomorrow’ and so on, as the Japanese -masu verb form can refer to any person as the doer of the action of the verb, but in this track listing we will give the English translation with the person who was mentioned on the recording. sushi ‘rice with vinegar’: ashita sushi o tabemasu ‘I will eat sushi tomorrow’.

ka = spoken question mark: sushi o tabemasu ka ‘Sushi [o] eat [question mark]’ = ‘Do you / Will you eat sushi?’ hai, tabemasu ‘Yes, I eat’ = ‘Yes, I do / will eat it’ (no word for ‘it’ in this sort of expression).

tokidoki ‘sometimes’: tokidoki sushi o tabemasu ‘Sometimes I eat sushi’. mainichi ‘every day’: mainichi ko-hı- o nomimasu ‘Every day I drink coffee’.

mimasu ‘to watch, look, see; I watch, look, see; I will watch, look, see’. terebi ‘television’: mainichi terebi o mimasu ‘Every day television [o] watch’ = ‘I watch television every day’: o is a marker to show which item in a sentence has the action done to it. ashita terebi o mimasu ‘I will watch television tomorrow’; mainichi terebi o mimasu ka ‘Do you watch television every day?’

iie ‘no’: iie, sandoicchi o tabemasu ‘No, I will eat a sandwich / sandwiches’. In general there is no distinction in Japanese between singular and plural

soshite ‘and’ (to link sentences): ashita terebi o mimasu. Soshite sushi o tabemasu ‘Tomorrow I will watch television. And I will eat sushi’.

konban terebi o mimasu ka ‘Will you watch television tonight?’ mainichi terebi o mimasu ka ‘Do you watch television every day?’ hai, mimasu ‘Yes, I do (watch)’.

yomimasu ‘to read’ manga ‘comic book’: manga o yomimasu ka ‘Do you read comic books?’ nani ‘what’: nani o tabemasu ka ‘What [marker o] eat [question mark]’ = ‘What will you eat?’ konban nani o tabemasu ka ‘What will you eat tonight?’

To form the negative, the ‘not’ or ‘don’t / doesn’t’ part of the verb, we remove the -masu ending and replace it by -masen: tabemasu ‘I eat’; tabemasen ‘I don’t eat’. This form also covers the future: konban terebi o mimasen ‘Tonight television [marker o] not watch’ = ‘I won’t watch television tonight’. manga o yomimasu ka ‘Do you read comic books?’ iie yomimasen ‘No, I don’t read (them)’ = ‘No, I don’t’.

kaimasu ‘to buy’: ashita kamera o kaimasu ‘Tomorrow I’ll buy / I’m going to buy a camera’. The way the Japanese language is used shows respect. The -masu verbs show politeness. If we use the negative (-masen) part of the verb with the

eiga ‘film, movie’: eiga o mimasen ka ‘Won’t you / Would you like to watch a film?’ konsa-to ‘concert’: konban konsa-to o mimasen ka ‘Won’t you watch a concert tonight?’

dore ‘which’: dore o kaimasu ka ‘Which [marker o] buy [question mark]’ = ‘Which will you buy?’

desu ‘is; it is’: ko-hı- desu ‘It is coffee’ (we don’t use the marker o with desu because desu doesn’t indicate an action). ko-hı- desu ka ‘Is it coffee?’ nan desu ka ‘What is (it) [question mark]’ = ‘What is it?’ (nani ‘what’ is shortened to nan before desu ‘is’). desu also covers the plural verb form ‘are’: manga desu = ‘It is a comic book’ or ‘They are comic books’ (no word for ‘it’ or ‘they’ in this context). suki desu ‘I (etc.) like’, literally: suki ‘likeable’, desu ‘it is’: ‘likeable it is’ = ‘I (etc.) like’. kara = indication of reason, so can be translated by ‘so, therefore’: suki desu kara kaimasu ‘Likeable (it) is therefore buy’ = ‘I like it therefore I’ll buy it’. In Japanese we give the reason first, then the result, so ‘I’ll buy it because I like it’ is also suki desu kara kaimasu.

suki desu kara konban manga o yomimasu ‘I like it therefore I’ll read the comic book tonight’; suki desu kara ko-hı- o kudasai ‘I like it therefore may I have some coffee?’

omoshiroi ‘interesting’: omoshiroi desu ka ‘Is it interesting?’ omoshiroi desu kara terebi o mimasu ‘It is interesting so I’ll watch television’; omoshiroi desu kara ashita eiga o mimasu ‘It’s interesting therefore I’ll watch a / the film tomorrow’.

oishii ‘delicious’: oishii desu ka ‘Is it delicious?’; oishii desu kara konban tabemasu ‘It’s delicious so I’ll eat it tonight’.

do-shite ‘why’: do-shite manga o yomimasu ka ‘Why comic books [marker o] read [question mark]’ = ‘Why do you read comic books?’ omoshiroi desu kara ‘They are interesting therefore’ = ‘Because they are interesting’: kara, the word which we use to give a reason, can also mean ‘because’. do-shite kaimasu ka ‘Why are you going to buy it?’ suki desu kara ‘Because I like it’.

omoshiroi konsa-to ‘an interesting concert’; oishii ko-hı- desu ka ‘Is it (a) delicious coffee?’

zehi ‘certainly’ konban omoshiroi eiga o mimasen ka ‘Tonight interesting film [marker o] not watch [question mark]’ = ‘Won’t you watch an interesting film tonight?’ = ‘Would you like to watch an interesting film tonight?’ hai, zehi ‘Yes, certainly’ = Yes, I would’.

kare ‘he’; kanojo ‘she’ – as ‘he’ and ‘she’ these are needed only for clarification or emphasis. to ‘with’. to is a marker which follows the word it belongs with: kare to ‘he with’ = ‘with him’; kare to eiga o mimasu ‘He with film [marker o] watch’ = ‘I will watch a film with him’; kanojo to konban eiga o mimasu / konban kanojo to eiga o mimasu ‘I will watch a film with her tonight’ (the order of kanojo to and konban can be interchanged).

To make a suggestion in Japanese, in English ‘Let’s …’, take off the -masu ending from the verb and replace by -masho-: mimasho- ‘let’s watch’: eiga o mimasho- ‘Film [marker o] let’s watch’ = ‘Let’s watch a film’.

shimasu ‘to do / to play’; gorufu ‘golf’; tokidoki gorufu o shimasu ‘Sometimes golf [marker o] play’ = ‘I sometimes play golf’; konban gorufu o shimasho- ‘Let’s play golf tonight’. tenisu ‘tennis’; konban tenisu o shimasen ka ‘Tonight tennis [marker o] not play [question mark]’ ‘Won’t you play tennis tonight?’ shigoto ‘work’: shigoto o shimasu ‘Work [marker o] do’ = ‘I work’; kanojo to shigoto o shimasu ‘I work with her’.

To say ‘shall we’, we use the question mark word ka with the verb suggestion form -masho-: shigoto o shimasho- ka ‘Work [marker o] let’s do [question mark]’ = ‘Shall we work?’

ashita shigoto o shimasu kara konban gorufu o shimasho- ka ‘Tomorrow we will work therefore shall we play golf tonight?’ rirakkusu o shimasu ‘relax [marker o] do’ = ‘to relax’: rirakkusu o shimasho-

ikimasu ‘to go’; ikimasen ‘I don’t / won’t go’; ikimasen ka ‘Won’t you go?’ = ‘Would you like to go?’; ikimasho- ka ‘Shall we go?’; ikimasho- ‘Let’s go’. To-kyo- ‘Tokyo’; Rondon ‘London’; Nyu- Yo-ku ‘New York’; Nihon ‘Japan’ from ni = ‘day, sun’; hon = ‘root, source’ so ‘the root of the sun’, or ‘Land of the Rising Sun’.

Word order in sentences with time expressions and places: either the time expression or the place can come first: mainichi Rondon ni ikimasu / Rondon ni mainichi ikimasu ‘I go to London every day’. Similarly the position of a phrase describing how something happens, e.g. kare to ‘with him’, is flexible. But the markers (ni, to) must be after the words they belong to and the verb must go at the end.

koko ‘this place’ = ‘here’; soko ‘that place’ = ‘there’; asoko ‘that place over there’ = ‘over there’ ashita soko ni ikimasu ‘Tomorrow there to go’ = ‘I will go there tomorrow’.

mainichi shigoto ni ikimasu ‘Every day work to go’ = ‘I go to work every day’. nemui ‘sleepy’: nemui desu ‘Sleepy be’ = ‘I am / you are / he is etc. sleepy’; nemui desu ka ‘Sleepy be [question mark]’ = ‘Are you sleepy?’ konban nemui desu kara ashita shigoto ni ikimasen ‘I am sleepy tonight therefore I won’t go to work tomorrow’.

ga ‘but’. To contrast the ‘but’ – ‘every day … but tomorrow …’ – Japanese uses a marker wa, placed after the contrasting word: mainichi shigoto ni ikimasu ga ashita wa rirakkusu o shimasu ‘Every day I go to work but tomorrow I’ll relax’. nemui also covers sense of English ‘tired’: mainichi shigoto ni ikimasu ga nemui desu kara ashita wa ikimasen ‘I go to work every day but because I am tired I am not going tomorrow’.

If we want to stress or clarify the person doing the action, the word for the person is followed by the marker wa: kare wa tabemasu ‘He [marker wa] eat’ = ‘He eats’. If we say both a time expression and the person doing the action, the word order is flexible: ashita kare wa / kare wa ashita shigoto ni ikimasu ‘He goes to work tomorrow’. If we have a sentence with two halves, and the same person is doing the action in both halves, we don’t need to repeat the person in the second half of the sentence: kare wa nemui desu kara konban shigoto ni ikimasen ‘He’s sleepy so he’s not going to work tonight’.

doko ni ‘where to’ = ‘to where’: doko ni ikimasu ka ‘Where to go [question mark]’ = ‘Where are you going?’; kare wa doko ni ikimasu ka ‘Where is he going?’ doko desu ka ‘Where be [question mark]’ = ‘Where is it?’

To convey the sense of ‘want’ we put the ending -tai desu (‘want is’) onto the verb, having taken off the -masu ending: tenisu o shitai desu ‘Tennis [marker o] play want is’= ‘I want to play tennis’; nani o nomitai desu ka ‘What do you want to drink?’; dore o kaitai desu ka ‘Which do you want to buy?’ do-shite hoteru ni ikitai desu ka ‘Why do you want to go to a hotel?’

depa-to ‘department store’; sake ‘rice wine’

manga o kaitai desu kara depa-to ni ikimasu ‘Because I want to buy a comic book / I want to buy a comic book therefore I’m going to the department store’. shimasu also has sense of ‘to make’; denwa ‘phone’; denwa o shimasu ‘Phone [marker o] to make’ = ‘I make a phone call’.

We also use the marker ni about a person: kanojo ni denwa o shimasu ‘She to phone [marker o] make’ = ‘I make a phone call to her’ = ‘I ring /call her’; konban kare ni / kare ni konban denwa o shimasho- ka ‘Shall we ring / call him tonight?’; nemui desu kara kanojo ni denwa o shimasen ‘Because I’m sleepy I won’t phone her tonight / I’m sleepy therefore I won’t phone her tonight’.

kare ni denwa o shitai desu ga nemui desu kara konban (kare ni) denwa o shimasen ‘I want to phone / call him but I’m sleepy so I won’t phone / call him tonight’.

Japanese sentence order: the verb goes at the end; the time expression and the doer of the action, followed by the marker wa (if needed for stress or clarification), are interchangeable, at the beginning of the sentence. The other information is fairly flexible as to order because the markers tell us what function the nouns (people, items or places) carry out in the sentence.

tomodachi ‘friend’: tomodachi to ikimasu ‘Friend with go’ = ‘I go with my friend’ – we don’t need to say ‘my’ if it’s clear from the context. tomodachi wa nemui desu kara ashita soko ni ikimasen ‘My friend is tired so she’s not going there tomorrow’.

Layers of politeness in Japanese: ryo-shin ‘parents’; to be respectful about someone else’s parents add go-: go-ryo-shin ‘his / her / your parents’. ashita ryo-shin wa / ryo-shin wa ashita soko ni ikimasu ‘My parents will go there tomorrow’; go-ryo-shin wa ashita soko ni ikimasu ka ‘Will your parents go there tomorrow?’

go-ryo-shin wa doko ni ikimasu ka ‘[Respectful go-] parents where to go [question mark]’ = ‘Where are your parents going?’

The marker no is like the ‘apostrophe s’ construction in English, or it has a meaning like that of ‘of’ in English. It links two nouns: koko no sushi ‘Here’s sushi’ = ‘The sushi from here’; koko no sushi wa oishii desu ‘The sushi from here is delicious’. We need the marker wa in this desu sentence because we’re saying more about the sushi, not just sushi desu ‘It is sushi’, and so desu doesn’t immediately follow the noun: oishii comes between the noun and desu. soko no manga o yomitai desu ‘I want to read a comic from there’.

koko no ko-hı- o nomimasho- ka ‘Shall we drink some coffee from here?’ repo-to ‘report’: Suzuki-san no repo-to o yomimasho- ‘Let’s read Miss Suzuki’s report’. koko no hoteru no ko-hı- ‘Here’s hotel’s coffee’ = ‘The coffee from the hotel here’; koko no hoteru no ko-hı- o nomimasho- ‘Let’s drink the coffee from the hotel here’.

hoteru wa doko desu ka ‘Hotel [marker wa] where be [question mark]’ = ‘Where is the hotel?’: wa is used because we’re flagging up that it’s the hotel we’re asking about.

Nihon no terebi ‘Japan’s TV’ = ‘A Japanese TV’; Rondon no depa-to ‘A London department store’. keitai (denwa) ‘mobile (phone) / cellphone’ – we can leave out denwa: watashi no keitai desu ‘It’s my mobile / cellphone’. arigato- ‘thanks’; arigato- gozaimasu ‘thank you very much’ watashi no keitai wa doko desu ka ‘I of mobile / cellphone [marker wa] where be [question mark]’ = ‘Where’s my mobile phone?’

tasukarimashita ‘you’ve helped me’ = ‘thank you’. This ending -mashita indicates the past tense: tabemasu ‘I eat’; tabemashita ‘I ate’. kino- ‘yesterday’: kino- kanojo wa tomodachi to tenisu o shimashita ‘Yesterday she played tennis with her friend’.

kino- (watashi wa) gorufu o shimashita ga ashita wa shigoto o shimasu ‘Yesterday I played golf but tomorrow I will work’. kyo- ‘today’

kino- shigoto o shimashita ga kyo- wa rirakkusu o shimasu ‘Yesterday I worked but today I will relax’. nani o shimashita ka ‘What did you do?’; doko ni ikimashita ka ‘Where did you go?’ resutoran ‘restaurant’: asoko no resutoran ni ikimashita ‘I went to the restaurant over there’. suki desu kara kaimashita ‘Likeable it is therefore I bought’ = ‘I bought it because I like it’.

The past tense of desu is deshita: kanojo wa tomodachi deshita ‘She was a friend’. The past negative of -masu verbs is -masen deshita: tabemasen deshita ‘don’t eat was’ = ‘I didn’t eat’: tabemasen ‘I don’t eat’; tabemasen deshita ‘I didn’t eat’. watashi wa kino- terebi o mimasen deshita ‘I didn’t watch TV yesterday’. suki deshita ga kino- sore o kaimasen deshita ‘I liked it but I didn’t buy that yesterday’.

shu- ‘week’; nichi ‘day’; mainichi ‘every day’; maishu- ‘every week’; maishu-

maishu- Rondon ni ikimasu ga kyo- wa ikimasen ‘Every week I go to London but today I’m not going’. senshu- ‘last week’: senshu- soko no hoteru ni ikimashita ‘Last week there [linking marker no] hotel to go’ = ‘Last week I went to a/the hotel there’. raishu- ‘next week’: raishu- kanojo wa kare to soko ni ikimasu ‘Next week she will go there with him’.

suki desu kara raishu- Rondon ni ikitai desu ‘Likeable it is therefore next week London to go want is’ = ‘I want to go to London next week because I like it’.

kino- To-kyo- ni ikimashita ga kyo- wa Fuji-san ni ikimasu ‘I went to Tokyo yesterday but today I will go to Mount Fuji’.

Japanese word order: watashi wa terebi o tomodachi to / tomodachi to terebi o mimasu ‘I watch television with a friend’.

The marker de is used to indicate the place where something happens, e.g. hoteru de ‘in the hotel’: hoteru de yomimasu ‘I read in the hotel’. uchi ‘home’; uchi de ‘in the home; at home’: uchi de tabemasu ‘I eat at home’; resutoran de tabemasu ‘I eat at a restaurant’; soko de tabemasu ‘There at I eat’ = ‘I eat there’; soko de tabemashita ‘I ate there’. kare wa Rondon no depa-to de kamera o kaimasu ‘He buys / will buy a camera in a London department store’.

kare wa Nihon no hoteru de sushi o tomodachi to tabemasu ‘He eats sushi with a friend at a Japanese hotel’. densha ‘train’: densha de yomimasu ‘She reads on the train’. hon ‘book’: densha de Nihon no hon o yomimasu ‘She reads a Japanese book on the train’.

doko desu ka ‘Where is it?’; doko de kaimashita ka ‘Where at bought [question mark]’ = ‘Where did you buy it?’; doko ni ikimashita ka ‘Where to went [question mark]’ = ‘Where did you go?’ dokonimo ‘to nowhere’. This is always used with the verb in the negative: dokonimo ikimasen deshita ‘To nowhere not went’ = ‘I went nowhere; I didn’t go anywhere’; do-shite konban dokonimo ikimasen ka ‘Why tonight to nowhere not go [question mark]’ = ‘Why are you not going anywhere tonight?’

nanimo ‘nothing’: used with the verb in the negative: nanimo shimasen ‘Nothing not do’ = ‘I do nothing, I don’t do anything’. nanimo doesn’t need the o marker because the -mo at the end of nanimo has replaced it.

kino- dokonimo ikimasen deshita ga ashita wa Rondon ni ikimasu ‘Yesterday he didn’t go anywhere but tomorrow he will go to London’; kino- nanimo tabemasen deshita ga kyo- wa sushi o tabetai desu ‘Yesterday I didn’t eat anything but today I want to eat sushi’; senshu- Rondon ni ikimashita ga kyo- wa nemui desu kara dokonimo ikimasen ‘Last week I went to London but today I’m tired so I’m not going anywhere’.

uchi de ‘at home’. The marker de also means ‘by, with, by means of’, as in ‘with a pen’, ‘by train’. This is a different ‘with’ from the marker to, which means ‘in the company of’: kare to ‘with him’. hashi ‘chopsticks’; hashi de tabemasu ‘I eat with chopsticks’. naifu ‘knife’; fo-ku ‘fork’; naifu to fo-ku; ‘knife and fork’; naifu to fo-ku de ‘with a knife and fork’. We use the marker to to mean ‘and’ when we want to link two nouns. If we want to say ‘and’ to link two sentences, we use soshite: sushi o tabemasu. Soshite bı-ru o nomimasu. ‘I eat sushi. And I drink beer’. hashi de uchi de tabemasu ‘I eat with chopsticks at home’; kare wa naifu to fo-ku de tabemasu ‘He eats with a knife and fork’.

In polite company, the Japanese sometimes use o before certain words: ohashi ‘chopsticks’; osushi ‘sushi’; kanojo wa osushi o ohashi de tabemasu ‘She eats sushi with chopsticks’; osake ‘sake’. densha de ‘by train’: watashi wa densha de Rondon ni ikimasu ‘I go to London by train’; basu ‘bus’; basu de ‘by bus’. kimasu ‘to come’: kare wa resutoran ni kimasu ‘He comes to the restaurant’. takushı- ‘taxi’: kanojo wa tomodachı- to takushı- de hoteru ni kimasu ‘She comes to the hotel by taxi with a friend’.

hanashimasu ‘to speak’: kanojo wa denwa de hanashimasu ‘She by means of the phone speak’ = ‘She speaks on the phone’; kare wa denwa de tomodachi to hanashimasu ‘He speaks with his friend on the phone’; watashi to ‘with me’: ryo-shin wa watashi to denwa de hanashimasu ‘My parents speak with me on the phone’. We can add o to denwa to show more politeness: kanojo wa odenwa de hanashimasu ‘She speaks on the phone’. denwa de hanashimasu ‘to speak on the phone’; (o)denwa o shimasu ‘to make a phone call’: kare wa odenwa o shimashita ‘He made a phone call’.

We convey the concept of ‘while’ by replacing the -masu ending of the verb with -nagara: yominagara tabemasu ‘I read while I eat’; tabenagara terebi o mimasu ‘I eat while I watch TV, I eat while watching TV’; hanashinagara gorufu o shimasu ‘I talk while I play golf’. The -nagara ending is added to the first verb.

wain ‘wine’: wain o nominagara hanashimasu ‘I drink wine while I talk’. The -nagara ending can only be used if the same person is doing both actions: nominagara shigoto o shimashita ‘I drank while I worked, I drank while working’; shigoto o shinagara nomimashita ‘I worked while I drank, I worked while drinking’.

-go ‘language’. We add this to the name of the country to get the language: Nihongo ‘Japanese (language)’. Furansu ‘France’: Furansugo ‘French (language)’. Nihongo o hanashimasu ‘Japanese language [marker o] speak’ = ‘He speaks Japanese’. Eigo ‘English (language)’: Eigo o hanashimasu ‘He speaks English’. Nihongo o hanashimasen ‘He doesn’t speak Japanese’; (o)denwa de Nihongo o hanashimasu ‘I speak Japanese on the phone’.

Eigo de ‘by means of English, in English’. Nihongo o hanashimasu ‘I speak Japanese’; Nihongo de hanashimasu ‘I speak in Japanese’. Eigo o hanashimasu ga Tanaka-san to Nihongo de hanashimasu ‘I speak English but with Mr Tanaka I speak in Japanese’; Nihongo de hanashimasho-

To specify what we like, or what is likeable (using suki desu), we use the marker ga. This is a different use of ga from when it means ‘but’. Nihon ga suki desu ‘Japan [marker ga] likeable is’ = ‘I like Japan’; Nihongo ga suki desu ‘I like Japanese (language)’; osushi ga suki desu ‘I like sushi’. When we say the person who does the liking, or for whom the item is likeable, we put the marker wa after the person: kare wa gorufu ga suki desu ‘He [marker wa] golf [marker ga] likeable is’ = ‘He likes golf’. kirai desu ‘hateful is’ = ‘I (etc.) hate, dislike’. (This is a very strong expression, which shouldn’t be used about people.) watashi wa sushi ga kirai desu ‘I [marker wa] sushi [marker ga] hateful is’ = ‘As for me, sushi is hateful’ = ‘I don’t like sushi’.

tenisu ga suki desu kara soko ni ikitai desu ‘I like tennis so I want to go there’. When we say ‘I like’ or ‘I dislike’ in Japanese we’re not using -masu verbs: suki desu and kirai desu mean ‘likeable (it) is’ and ‘hateful (it) is’. So we don’t use the marker o to indicate what it is we like or hate; instead we use the marker ga: kore ga kirai desu kara sore o tabetai desu ‘I dislike this so I want to eat that’.

terebi ga kirai desu kara manga o yominagara kore o tabemasu ‘I dislike TV so I’ll read a comic book while I eat this’.

koko no resutoran ga suki desu kara shigoto o shinagara koko de tabemashita ‘Because I like the restaurants round here I ate here while I worked’.

jo-zu desu ‘to be good at’: kanojo wa Nihongo ga jo-zu desu ‘She [marker wa] Japanese language [marker ga] good at be’ = ‘As for her, at Japanese she is good’ = ‘She is good at Japanese’. heta desu ‘to be bad at’: tenisu ga heta desu ‘I’m bad at tennis’. When we contrast two things we use wa as a highlighter: kino- soko ni ikimashita ga ashita wa To-kyo- ni ikimasu ‘Yesterday I went there but tomorrow I will go to Tokyo’. Similarly, when we contrast something that someone is good at with what they are bad at, or something that someone likes with what they dislike, we change the ga marker to wa for the second item: gorufu ga jo-zu desu ga tenisu wa heta desu ‘Golf [marker ga] good be but tennis [marker wa] bad be’ = ‘At golf he’s good but as for tennis he’s bad’ = ‘He’s good at golf but he’s bad at tennis’; kanojo wa Furansugo ga heta desu ga Nihongo wa jo-zu desu ‘She’s bad at French but she’s good at Japanese’.

imasu ‘to be, exist’, referring to people or animals; arimasu ‘to be, exist’, referring to inanimate objects, i.e. things that don’t breathe. These verbs also convey the sense of ‘to have’: ‘Does a mobile phone / cellphone exist (for you)?’ = ‘Do you have a mobile phone?’ The item that we’re talking about is followed by the marker ga: tomodachi ga imasu ‘Friends exist’ = ‘I have friends’; keitai ga arimasu ‘Mobile phone exists’ = ‘I have a mobile phone’; shigoto ga arimasu ‘I have work’. When we specify who has the item, or for whom an item exists, we follow the person with the marker wa: watashi wa shigoto ga arimasu ‘As for me, work exists’ = ‘I have work’; kare wa tomodachi ga imasu ‘He has friends’.

kanojo wa shigoto ga arimasu ka ‘Does she have work?’; kanojo wa Nihon no tomodachi ga imasu ka ‘Does she have Japanese friends?’ yo-yaku ‘reservation’: hoteru no yo-yaku ‘hotel reservation’; kare wa hoteru no yo-yaku ga arimasu ‘He has a hotel reservation’; yo-yaku ga arimasu kara koko de tabetai desu ‘Because I have a reservation I want to eat here’ = ‘I want to eat here because I have a reservation’.

kare wa keitai ga arimasu kara watashi wa denwa o shimasu ‘I will phone / call him because he has a mobile / cellphone’: because the two parts of the sentence are about different people doing the actions (having the phone and phoning) we have to state both kare (‘he’) and watashi (‘I’). To make it clear who it is that I will phone we can add kare ni (‘to him’): kare wa keitai ga arimasu kara watashi wa kare ni denwa o shimasu. Nihon no tomodachi ga imasu kara Nihongo de hanashimasu ‘I will speak in Japanese because I have Japanese friends’.

kyo- watashi wa shigoto ga arimasu ga ashita wa arimasen ‘Today, as for me, work exists but tomorrow does not exist’ = ‘I have work today but not tomorrow’. konshu- ‘this week’: konshu- shigoto ga arimasu ga raishu- wa arimasen ‘I have work this week but not next week’.

When we specify where someone or something exists, using imasu or arimasu, the place is followed by the marker ni: watashi wa Rondon ni tomodachi ga imasu ‘As for me in London friends exist’ = ‘I have friends in London’. (In this context ni has a different function from before, when it meant ‘to’ in the sense of direction towards.) With imasu and arimasu, when we specify the place, we have to say it before the item: hoteru ni denwa ga arimasu ‘There is a phone in the hotel’; kare wa uchi ni denwa ga arimasu ‘He has a phone at home’.

-jin ‘person / people’: we add this to the name of a country to say the nationality of a person or people: Rondon ni Nihonjin ga imasu ‘There are Japanese people in London’. Nihon no tomodachi / Nihonjin no tomodachi ‘Japanese friends’; Nihongo no hon ‘A Japanese (language) book’; Furansugo ‘French (language)’; Furansujin ‘French (person / people)’; Furansu no ‘French (origin)’. Amerika ‘America’; Amerikajin ‘American (person / people)’; Igirisu ‘England’; Igirisujin ‘English (person / people)’.

koko ni denwa ga arimasu ka ‘Is there a phone here ?’ hai, arimasu ‘Yes, there is’. hoteru no resutoran ni naifu to fo-ku ga arimasu ka ‘Are there knives and forks in the hotel restaurant?’ iie, arimasen ga ohashi ga arimasu ‘No, but there are chopsticks’. If we said iie, arimasen ga ohashi wa arimasu we would be emphasising the fact that there are chopsticks: ‘as for chopsticks, they exist’.

Tanaka-san wa imasu ka ‘Is Mr Tanaka in / here?’ Suzuki-san wa imasu ka ‘Is Mrs Suzuki there?’ hai, imasu ‘Yes, she is’; iie, imasen ‘No, she isn’t in’. sumimasen ‘sorry, excuse me’ jikan ‘time’: (watashi wa) jikan ga arimasu ‘I have time’; (watashi wa) jikan ga arimasen ‘I don’t have time’. okane ‘money’ – the o at the beginning of the word is the polite addition, and this is how it is usually said. okane ga arimasen ‘I have no money’; jikan ga arimasu ga okane ga arimasen ‘I have the time but I don’t have the money’. If we say jikan ga arimasu ga okane wa arimasen we are making the contrast between having time and not having money. jikan to okane ga arimasen ‘I don’t have money and time’ = ‘I don’t have the money or the time’; Nihon ni ikitai desu ga jikan to okane ga arimasen ‘I want to go to Japan but I don’t have the money or the time’.

denwa wa doko desu ka – or, more politely, odenwa wa doko desu ka – ‘Where is the telephone?’ We use the marker wa to specify who or what we’re asking about. doko ni arimasu ka ‘Where is it?’ The difference between doko desu ka and doko ni arimasu ka to say ‘Where is it?’ is that the form with arimasu (and imasu) stresses the location more than the form with desu: doko ni imasu ka ‘Where is he (located)?’ doko ni arimasu ka ‘Where is it (located)?’; Tanaka-san wa doko ni imasu ka ‘Where is Mr Tanaka (located)?’; hoteru wa doko ni arimasu ka ‘Where is the hotel (located)?’ dare ‘who’: dare desu ka ‘Who is it?’; dare to shigoto o shimasu ka ‘Who with work [marker o] do [question mark]’ = ‘Whom do you work with?’

konban sushi o resutoran de tabenagara Nihon no tomodachi to hanashimasu ‘Tonight I will eat sushi in a Japanese restaurant while I talk with my Japanese friend’.

watashi wa gorufu ga heta desu kara ryo-shin to shimasen ‘I am bad at golf so I won’t play it with my parents’.

senshu- Nihon no tomodachi to To-kyo- ni ikimashita ‘Last week I went to Tokyo with my Japanese friend’.

ohashi de oishii resutoran de sushi o tabemashita ‘We ate sushi with chopsticks in a delicious restaurant’ – in Japanese, if the food at a restaurant is delicious, we can describe the restaurant as ‘delicious’. kino- ryo-shin to takushı- de koko ni kimashita. Soshite keitai de tomodachi to hanashimashita ‘Yesterday I came here with my parents by taxi. And I talked with my friend on a mobile / cellphone’.

jikan desu ‘It’s time; time’s up’; Nihon ni ikitai desu kara Nihongo o hanashimasho- ‘I want to go to Japan so let’s speak Japanese’; Nihongo o hanashitaidesu kara Nihon ni ikimasho- ‘I want to speak Japanese so let’s go to Japan’. arigato- gozaimasu ‘You have helped me. Thank you’. Conclusion

Use of desu: hoteru desu ‘it is a hotel’; okane desu ‘it is money’. No marker is needed immediately before desu or other forms of desu. Use of no and wa markers: kore wa watashi no okane desu ‘this [marker wa] I [marker no] money it is’ = ‘this is my money’: the marker wa is used like a highlighter pen to flag up an item, and the marker no is used to connect two items, like the English ‘apostrophe s’ or ‘of’.

ja arimasen ‘isn’t; it isn’t’ (negative form of desu ‘is’): okane ja arimasen ‘it isn’t money’. As ja arimasen is a form of desu, no marker is needed immediately before it.

koko desu ‘it is here’; koko ja arimasen ‘it isn’t here’; resutoran wa soko desu ‘restaurant [wa] there is’ = ‘the restaurant is there’: resutoran wa soko ja arimasen ‘the restaurant isn’t there’.

ja arimasen deshita ‘wasn’t; it wasn’t’; wain ja arimasen deshita ‘it wasn’t wine’.

suki desu ‘like/s; is /are likeable’: suki ja arimasen ‘don’t /doesn’t like; isn’t /aren’t likeable’. The marker ga is used with suki: sushi ga suki desu ‘sushi [marker ga] likeable is’ = ‘I like sushi’. In negative sentences, it often sounds more natural to use the marker wa instead of ga: sandoicchi wa suki ja arimasen ‘sandwiches [marker wa] likeable aren’t’ = ‘I don’t like sandwiches’.

-masen deshita ka ‘didn’t you?’; do-shite densha de ikimasen deshita ka ‘why train [marker de] go didn’t?’ = ‘why didn’t you go by train?’

terebi wa / ga suki ja arimasen deshita kara … ‘I didn’t like TV therefore …’ or ‘…because I didn’t like TV’.

tokui desu ‘my strong point is; I am good at’: gorufu ga tokui desu ‘golf [marker ga] my strong point is’ = ‘I am good at golf’. To specify who is good at something, use the name of the person or a pronoun (‘I’, ‘he’ etc.) followed by the highlighter marker wa. When a negative sentence has the highlighter wa for the person who is good at something, the marker ga is used to mark the item that we are good at, rather than wa: watashi wa gorufu ga tokui ja arimasen deshita ‘I wasn’t good at golf’.

kirei ‘clean, beautiful’; kantan ‘easy’; shinsetsu ‘kind’; benri ‘convenient’.

15 densha wa benri ja arimasen kara takushı- de ikimasho-ka ‘because the train isn’t convenient, shall we go by taxi?’; kanojo wa shinsetsu desu ga suki ja arimasen ‘she [marker wa, highlighting ‘she’] kind is but likeable isn’t’ = ‘she is kind but I don’t like her’. Use of markers de and ni: the marker de is used to specify the place where something happens: resutoran de tabemasu ‘I eat at the restaurant’. The marker ni is used with the verbs imasu and arimasu ‘is existing; is, there is’ to indicate where something exists: densha ni kare ga imasu ‘he is (existing) at train’ = ‘he is on the train’. ni is also used with verbs of motion to mark a destination: to-kyo- ni kimasu ‘I come to Tokyo’.

kakimasu ‘I etc. write / will write’.

-takunai desu ‘don’t want to’: tabetakunai desu ‘I don’t want to eat’. (o)hana ‘flower’. The marker to ‘and’ means ‘with’ in sentences such as kare to furansu no eiga o mitakunai desu ‘he [marker to] and France [marker no] film [marker o] don’t want to watch’ = ‘I don’t want to watch a French film with him’. The Japanese don’t say ‘you’ as often as do English-speakers: anata ‘you’ is more often used as a term of endearment.

ro-maji ‘Roman alphabet’; hiragana ‘hiragana alphabet’; katakana ‘katakana alphabet’; kanji (Chinese character); (ı-)me-ru ‘e-mail’.

Use of the -nagara ending meaning ‘while’: minagara tabemasu ‘while I watch, I eat’. Only the final verb is put into the past tense: minagara kakimashita ‘watch while wrote’ = ‘I watched while I wrote.’

sono aida ‘while, during, during that time’: kare wa gorufu o shimasu. sono aida watashi wa shigoto o shimasu ‘he [marker wa] golf [marker o] play, during that time I [marker wa] work [marker o] do’ = ‘He plays golf. During that time, I work.’

In the -te form of verbs, -masu is replaced with -te: mimasu ‘I watch’ ➝-te form mite; hanashimasu ‘I speak’ ➝hanashite; tabemasu ‘I eat’ ➝tabete: tabete, mimasu ‘I eat and I watch’. The final verb is in the -masu form. kaimasu ‘I buy’ ➝katte; ikimasu ‘I go’ ➝itte; nomimasu ‘I drink’ ➝ nonde; yomimasu ‘I read’ ➝yonde; kakimasu ‘I write’ ➝kaite. itte kimasu ‘I go and come’ = ‘I am going now (but I will return)’ (said on departure from home, like ‘goodbye!’).

watashi wa mite, nomimasu ‘I watch and I (also) drink’. When two verbs are linked with the -te/-de form, the implication is that the actions are done in sequence.

When a sentence with the verb in the -te/-de form is put in the past tense, the -masu verb changes to -mashita: itte kaimashita ‘I went and I bought’; nihon ni itte fujisan o mimashita ‘I went to Japan and saw Mount Fuji’. The -te/-de form also indicates ‘and then’ to show a sequence of actions: 17 watashi wa osushi o tabete, ko-hı- o nonde, repo-to o kakimasu ‘I eat sushi, drink coffee and then I write the report.’

chizu ‘map’; pen ‘pen’. Verbs in the -te/-de form can be used with kudasai to express a request: nonde kudasai ‘please drink’; mite kudasai ‘please look’; depa-to de ohana o katte kudasai ‘department store [marker de] flowers [marker o] buy please’ = ‘Please buy flowers at the department store.’

When kara is used after a verb in the -te/-de form, the meaning is that of one action immediately followed by another: shigoto ni itte kara repo-to o kakimashita ‘work [marker ni] go after report [marker o] I wrote’ = ‘After I went to work, I (immediately) wrote a report’. But kara after -masu, -mashita, -masen and -masen deshita ending verbs means ‘because, therefore’: terebi o mimashita kara, hon o yomimasen deshita ‘Because I watched TV, I didn’t read a book.’

The -mono ending turns some verbs into nouns: tabemono ‘thing to eat’ = ‘food’; nomimono ‘thing to drink’ = ‘drink(s)’; kaimono ‘thing to buy’ = ‘shopping’: kaimono o shimasu ‘I do shopping’; kaimono ni ikimasu ‘I go to shopping’ = ‘I go shopping’; kaimono ni itte, tabemono to nomimono o kaimashita ‘I went shopping and bought food and drinks.’ kimasu ‘wear’: kimono o kimasu ‘I wear a kimono’; kanojo wa t-shatsu o kimasu ‘She wears a T-shirt.’

You can ask someone to do two actions by adding kudasai ‘please’ to the final verb: itte kite kudasai ‘Please go and come (return).’

kaimono ni itte ko-hı- o nomimasho-ka ‘Shall we go shopping and then drink (have) a coffee?’ sushi o tabete gorufu o shimasho- ‘Let’s eat sushi and play golf.’ osake o nonde kara, soko ni ikimasho- ‘After we drink sake, let’s go there’ = ‘After we’ve drunk sake, let’s go there.’

When a -te/-de form is used with imasu, the meaning is that of being right now in the process of doing something, rather like the ‘-ing’ form of the verb in English: tabete imasu ‘I am eating’; mite imasu ‘I am watching’; nonde imasu ‘I am drinking’.

hairimasu ‘I enter, I will enter’; demasu ‘I leave, I will leave’: hoteru ni hairimasu ‘hotel [marker ni] enter’ = ‘I enter the hotel’; uchi o demasu ‘house [marker o] I leave’ = ‘I leave the house’; dete kudasai ‘please leave’. The -te ending of hairimasu is haitte: haitte kudasai ‘please enter’: uchi ni haitte terebi o mimasu ‘I enter the house and watch TV.’

When a -te/-de form is used with imashita the sense is that of ‘was -ing’: tabete imashita ‘I was eating’; nonde imashita ‘I was drinking.’

19 Using the -te/-de form + imasen gives the sense of ‘isn’t -ing’: ‘I am not reading (at the moment)’; ima ‘now’: ima kanojo wa repo-to o kaite imasu ga kare wa shigoto o shite imasen ‘She is writing a report now but he is not working.’ Using the -te/-de form + imasen deshita gives the sense of ‘wasn’t -ing’: nonde imasen deshita ‘I wasn’t drinking’; suki ja arimasen kara nanimo tabete imasen ‘I am not eating anything because I don’t like it.’

Using the -te/-de form + mimasu gives the sense of ‘try and’ or ‘try to’: sushi o tabete mimasu ‘I will try and eat sushi.’

nihongo de denwa o shite mimashita ‘I tried to make a phone call in Japanese;’ shite mimasho- ‘let’s try to do’; shite mimasho- ka ‘shall we try and do?’; tabete mimasen ka ‘won’t you try and eat?’

tenisu o shite mite kudasai ‘please try and play tennis’; ashita kore o katte mitai desu ‘I want to try and buy this tomorrow.’

Using the -te/-de form + mo gives the sense of ‘even if, even though’: shitemo ‘even if I do’; tabetemo ‘even if I eat’; nondemo ‘even though I drink’. When -mo is attached to the question words doko and nani, it means ‘nowhere’ or ‘nothing’: dokonimo ikimasen ‘I don’t go anywhere’; nanimo tabemasen deshita ‘I didn’t eat anything.’ The verb will be in the negative.

tabete mimasu ‘I will try and eat’; tabete mite kudasai ‘please try and eat’; tabete mitemo ‘even if I try to eat’.

When we use the -te/-de form + mo with nani o (‘what + marker o)’, we express the meaning of ‘no matter what / whatever’: nani o tabetemo oishii desu ‘No matter what I eat, it is delicious.’

Similarly, the -te/-de form + mo with doko ni gives the idea of ‘no matter where, wherever’: doko ni ittemo ‘no matter where / wherever I go’; doko ni ittemo mainichi shigoto ni denwa o shimasu ‘Wherever I go, I phone (to) work every day.’

dare ‘who’; dare to ‘with who(m)’: dare to hanashimasu ka ‘who(m) do you speak with?’; dare ni ‘to who(m)’: dare ni denwa o shimasu ka ‘who(m) do you phone (to)?’ Again, use of the -te/-de form + mo with dare to gives the idea of ‘who(m)ever, no matter who(m)’: dare ni hanashitemo nihongo de hanashite mimasu ‘Whoever I speak to, I try to speak in Japanese.’

ii desu ‘it is good, OK, fine’; ko-hı- wa? (with voice rising) ‘How about coffee?’ – ii desu ‘I am fine as I am / No, thank you.’

21 Using the -te/-de form + mo + ii desu expresses the idea ‘even if you do X, it is OK’ so ‘you may do X, it is OK for you to do X, you are allowed to do X’: ittemo ii desu ‘even if you go, it is OK’ = ‘you may go, you are allowed to go’; konban tomodachi no uchi ni ittemo ii desu ‘You may go to your friend’s house tonight.’

In order to ask permission, add ka to the -te/-de form + mo + ii desu construction: kore o tabetemo ii desu ka ‘If I eat this, is it OK?’ = ‘Is it OK if I eat this? / Please may I eat this?’ hai, ii desu ‘Yes, you may / can’; iie, ikemasen ‘No, you may not.’

Summary of the use of the -te/-de form.

If you replace the -te/-de ending of the -te/-de form by -ta/-da you obtain the ‘casual’ (‘plain’) past tense form of the verb: tabete ➝tabeta, nonde ➝nonda, shite ➝shita, etc. This casual -ta/-da form, when used on its own, has the same meaning, though not social level, as the polite -mashita ending of the verb: tabemashita and tabeta both mean ‘I ate’. To express the sense of ‘when X, Y’, e.g. ‘When I went to Japan, I saw Mount Fuji’, the -ta/-da form is combined with toki ‘when’: repo-to o kaita toki, nihongo de kakimashita ‘When I wrote the report, I wrote it in Japanese’; kamera o katta toki, nihon ni imashita ‘When I bought the camera, I was in Japan.’

koto ‘thing, fact’. The -ta/-da form can be used with koto ga arimasu to convey the sense of having done something in the near past or to have had that experience: to-kyo- ni itta koto ga arimasu ‘Tokyo [marker ni] I went a fact exists’ = ‘I have been to Tokyo.’

hanami ‘cherry blossom viewing’; sake o nomi nagara, hanami o shita koto ga arimasu ‘While drinking sake, I have done / have had the experience of cherry blossom viewing’; to-kyo- de hanami o shita koto ga / wa arimasen ‘Tokyo [marker de] cherry blossom viewing I haven’t done’ = ‘I haven’t done cherry blossom viewing in Tokyo’; nihon ni itta koto ga arimasu ka ‘Have you (ever) gone to Japan?’ – hai, arimasu ‘Yes, that exists’ = ‘Yes, I have.’

ho- ga ii desu ‘it is good to’ is combined with the -ta/-da ending to convey ‘it is better to, you should’: resutoran ni takushı- de itta ho- ga ii desu ‘You should go to the restaurant by taxi.’ kusuri ‘medicine’: mainichi kusuri o nonda ho- ga ii desu ‘You should drink (take) medicine every day’; ringo ‘apple’

ashita jikan ga arimasu kara, tenisu o shita ho- ga ii desu ‘You have time tomorrow, therefore you should play tennis.’

When the -ta/-da form is combined with ra, the meaning is ‘if’: nondara ‘if I drink’; tabetara ‘if he eats’; nihon ni ittara, fujisan o mitai desu ‘Japan I went if Mount Fuji [o] I want to see’ = ‘If I go to Japan, I want to see 23 Mount Fuji’; nihon ni ittara, fujisan o mite mimasu ‘If I go to Japan, I will try and see Mount Fuji’; nihon ni ittara, fujisan o mite mitai desu ‘if I go to Japan, I want to try and see Mount Fuji.’

nihon ni ittara, ohashi de tabete mimasu ‘If I go to Japan, I will try and eat with chopsticks’; nihon ni ittara, ohashi de tabete mitai desu ‘If I go to Japan, I want to try and eat with chopsticks’; nihon ni ittara, ohashi de tabetakunai desu ‘if I go to Japan, I don’t want to eat with chopsticks’; nihon ni ittara, ro-maji de kakitakunai desu ‘if I go to Japan, I don’t want to write in Ro-maji.’ nihon ni ittara, nihongo o hanashita ho- ga ii desu ‘If you go to Japan, you should speak Japanese’; nihon ni ittara, nihongo o hanashite mita ho- ga ii desu ‘If you go to Japan, you should try and speak Japanese’.

If you use the -ta/-da form with ri, and then follow with shimasu / shimashita, the sense is that of ‘I do / did such things as…’ This expression is used to give a sample of things you do and is not in any particular order: eiga o mitari, kaimono o shitari shimasu ‘I do such things as watching a film and doing shopping’; konsa-to ni ittari, kaimono o shitari shimashita ‘I did such things as going to a concert and doing shopping.’ Your guide to the Michel Thomas Method courses 2525 • No books • No writing • Just confidence Introductory course (2 CDs) • First 2 hours of the Foundation course • A taster of the Michel Thomas Method • £14.99 Foundation course (8 CDs) • 8-hour course for beginners • Track listing • £70.00 French, German, Italian, Spanish Language Builders (2 CDs) • Increase word power and learn colloquial phrases • Track listing • £20.00 Advanced course (4 CDs) • 5-hour follow-on to Foundation course • Track listing • £50.00 French, German, Italian, Spanish ‘New’ languages Vocabulary course (5 CDs) Vocabulary course (4 CDs) • Learn 1,000 words – painlessly • Learn hundreds of words – – in 6 hours painlessly – in 5 hours • Track listing • Track listing • £30.00 • £35.00 2626 The Michel Thomas Method product range Introductory course (2 CDs*) £14.99 Arabic ISBN: 978 0340 95728 8 Dutch ISBN: 978 0340 97170 3 French ISBN: 978 0340 78064 0 German ISBN: 978 0340 78066 4 Italian ISBN: 978 0340 78070 1 Japanese ISBN: 978 0340 97458 2 Mandarin ISBN: 978 0340 95722 6 Polish ISBN: 978 0340 97518 3 Portuguese ISBN: 978 0340 97166 6 Russian ISBN: 978 0340 94842 2 Spanish ISBN: 978 0340 78068 8 *These are the first 2 hours of the Foundation course. Foundation course (8 CDs) £70 Arabic ISBN: 978 0340 95727 1 Dutch ISBN: 978 0340 97169 7 French ISBN: 978 0340 93891 1 German ISBN: 978 0340 93892 8 Italian ISBN: 978 0340 93894 2 Japanese ISBN: 978 0340 97457 5 Mandarin ISBN: 978 0340 95726 4 Polish ISBN: 978 0340 97517 6 Portuguese ISBN: 978 0340 97167 3 Russian ISBN: 978 0340 94841 5 Spanish ISBN: 978 0340 93893 5 Advanced course (4 CDs) £50 Arabic ISBN: 978 0340 95729 5 Dutch ISBN: 978 0340 97171 0 French ISBN: 978 0340 93898 0 German ISBN: 978 0340 93913 0 Italian ISBN: 978 0340 93900 0 Japanese ISBN: 978 0340 97459 9 Mandarin ISBN: 978 0340 95723 3 Polish ISBN: 978 0340 97517 6 Portuguese ISBN: 978 0340 97168 0 Russian ISBN: 978 0340 94843 9 Spanish ISBN: 978 0340 93899 7 In the Review courses you will hear only the voice of the teacher giving the English prompts and the foreign language responses. As there are no students, there is no teaching of the language structures, and so these courses are ideal for the learner at home to check for areas causing difficulty and to revisit the relevant teaching point in the Foundation or Advanced course. Foundation Review course (2 CDs) £20 27 French ISBN: 978 0 340 92937 7 German ISBN: 978 0 340 93895 9 Italian ISBN: 978 0 340 93897 3 Spanish ISBN: 978 0 340 93896 6 Advanced Review course (1 CD) £10 French ISBN: 978 0 340 93901 7 German ISBN: 978 0 340 93902 4 Italian ISBN: 978 0 340 93904 8 Spanish ISBN: 978 0 340 93903 1 The Language Builders take the form of a ‘one-to-one’ lecture with Michel Thomas, building on the words and phrases in the Foundation and Advanced courses. The courses provide confidence in pronunciation, increase your word-power and consolidate your knowledge in just two hours. Language Builders (2 CDs) £20 French ISBN: 978 0 340 78969 8 German ISBN: 978 0 340 78973 5 Italian ISBN: 978 0 340 78975 9 Spanish ISBN: 978 0 340 78971 1 The Vocabulary courses carry forward the Michel Thomas Method teaching tradition and faithfully follow this unique approach to foreign language learning, with the all-audio and ‘building-block’ approach. Vocabulary courses: French, German, Italian, Spanish (5 CDs) £30 French ISBN: 978 0 340 93982 6 German ISBN: 978 0 340 93984 0 Italian ISBN: 978 0 340 93983 3 Spanish ISBN: 978 0 340 93973 4 Vocabulary courses: ‘new’ languages (4 CDs) £40 Arabic ISBN: 978 0 340 98323 2 Mandarin ISBN: 978 0 340 98358 4 Russian ISBN: 978 0 340 98324 9 Background reading The Test of Courage is Michel Thomas’s thrilling biography. Written by acclaimed journalist Christopher Robbins, it tells the story of the world’s greatest language teacher and of how his experience at the hands of the Gestapo fuelled his passion for language teaching. ISBN: 978 0340 81245 7; paperback; £9.99 In The Learning Revolution renowned instructional psychologist Dr Jonathan Solity draws on professional experience and lengthy discussions with Michel Thomas to explain how and why the Michel Thomas Method of language teaching works where so many others fail. ISBN: 978 0340 92833 2; hardback; £19.99 The Michel Thomas Method Special Editions comprise: 29 • The Foundation course on CD • The Language Builder CD • Sample hours from 2 other languages • A CD wallet to store the course in • Michel Thomas’ biography The Test of Courage Special Editions £99 French ISBN: 978 0 340 81402 4 Italian ISBN: 978 0 340 81403 1 Spanish ISBN: 978 0 340 88289 4 These Michel Thomas Method products are available from all good bookshops and online booksellers. 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