More Making Out in Japanese. Todd Geers

final particle is ne , often lengthened to n ē. Only partly fictitious, it seems to us that when a newborn Japanese baby is shown off for the first time, someone will say Kawaii-nē?

(Isn’t he/she cute?), and inevitably the flock of admirers will all say Nē !

(Oh yes!). From such early exposure, the child is doomed to utter n ē for the rest of his/her life.

      Nē gives a familiar yet emphatic ending, usually to rhetorical questions, and lengthening it adds more emphasis. With a falling intonation it’s more of an explanation. It isn’t often said with a rising intonation, but can be said in a high pitch for emphasis. Girls prefer ne and nē, and guys have an alternative, na, which is used in the same way. But as we said before, the gender (speech) gap is narrowing, especially around women, guys will often use ne .

      Other handy sentence endings include yo

used to emphasise that “I’m telling you what I think (and you should do this).” Wa

is often added by women to soften phrases, and you’ll see it throughout this book. If you prefer a more blunt style, don’t use it, or use yo instead. -noda

(less formally -nda

) makes the sentence a clear explanation, with a feeling of “that’s the way it is.”

      These can be combined liberally. For example, you’re trying to decide which movie to see, and someone is being quite pushy about their choice. To be clear that you’ve already seen it and once was enough, you can say Mō mitan-dayone

      Zo

and ze

can be added (usually by guys) to give instructions. Zo means “let’s do...” as in Yoshi, iku-zo

(Right, let’s go), similar to but slightly harsher than ikō

Ze is a very strong command form, e.g. Iku-ze!

(Move it!) Finally, -kke is a handy ending, expressing either uncertainty or forgetfulness Nan-datta-kke?

(What was it again...?)

      The meaning of some phrases may be changed from a statement to a question by a rising final intonation, and these phrases are marked by diamonds (

). For example:

      Haven’t seen you around for a while.

      With a rising intonation, the sentence becomes “Haven’t seen you around for a while, have I?”

      And which parts of the phrase you stress also make a big difference—stressing a yo emphasizes that you’re pushing your opinion. Stressing the sō in sō-dane/sō desu-ne

(that’s right) means you agree more strongly.

      Finally, put emotion into your voice. You might think that the Japanese spoken around you is emotionless because it seems so fast, but nothing could be further from the truth. Put feeling into your voice as you would in English, and your message will be loud and clear.

      THE LAST WORD

      Does all of this sound really daunting? It shouldn’t! Think of this introduction as a reference page for your journey through the Japanese-speaking world. Just keep these points in mind, and you’ll find this book a valuable resource to speed your street-Japanese skills along.