Someone should create weekly or semiweekly quizzes over kana and, eventually, kanji.
Let's transform this thread into a classroom.
Someone should create weekly or semiweekly quizzes over kana and, eventually, kanji.
Let's transform this thread into a classroom.
ねー、ラモンダさん、教えてよ～
Kana Quiz
http://www.dragonmedia.us/programs/kana.swf
It's pretty excellent. You can choose particular gyo or entire groups, hiragana or katakana (or both) and all kinds of stuff. Pretty useful once you think you've learned the kana, particularly useful for learning those tricky few that look incredibly similar.
Hey, thanks! ^^Originally Posted by JKTrix
Admittedly, while I know all hiragana without a problem, a lot of katakana mess me up because some look so similar.
かなはしりますだけど、かんじはしりません。
"Kana wa shirimasu dakedo, kanji wa shirimasen."
I got that much out of it, what does 'shirimasu dakedo' and 'shirimasen' mean?I thought to express knowledge that you have, you are supposed to use the "ている" form of 知る: in this case it would express a resultant state. 知る on its own such as in "shirimasu" means more "come to know"/"get information about something" than "to know", or at least that is how my sensei explained it to the class. So to express something we know she told us to use "知っている" (知っています) and "知らない" (知りません) as the negative.
Katakana suck. It still messes with me. x-x; I need to practise them more as well.
I was wondering that! Thanks! =O
So in the end, it's either:かなはしりますだけど、かんじはしりません。
"Kana wa shirimasu dakedo, kanji wa shirimasen."
I got that much out of it, what does 'shirimasu dakedo' and 'shirimasen' mean?I thought to express knowledge that you have, you are supposed to use the "ている" form of 知る: in this case it would express a resultant state. 知る on its own such as in "shirimasu" means more "come to know"/"get information about something" than "to know", or at least that is how my sensei explained it to the class. So to express something we know she told us to use "知っている" (知っています) and "知らない" (知りません) as the negative.
Katakana suck. It still messes with me. x-x; I need to practise them more as well.
「カナは知って（い）ますが、漢字は知りません」
「カナは知って（い）ますけど、漢字は知りません」
「カナは知って（い）ます、だけど漢字は知りません」
Last edited by Muhyo; 05-17-2008 at 05:05 AM.
Ah, I get it, kind of. It's 'chirimasen', not 'shirimasen' then, right?
(Also, how do you type the quote open/close things?)
Nah, nah it's 「shi tte(i)masu」.
（When in japanese mode, press on the "[" and "]" buttons)
Last edited by Muhyo; 05-17-2008 at 05:22 AM.
Ah, I see. But if it's 'shi<b></b>tte(i)masu', why did you use 「知」 instead of 「視」?
Isn't 「知」 the kanji for ち, and 「視」 the kanji for し?
Just wondering, because I'm relatively new and kanji's so confusing!
「視」 Has an on reading of "shi" but the kanji means "to inspect"
「知」 Has an on reading of "chi" but for this verb we use the kun reading of "shi".
To refresh you. Kanji have two readings (actually there is a third but let's not go there). There is the onyomi reading which is often used when the kanji is used in compounds and such which are approximations to their Chinese sound. Then there is the kunyomi readings, the readings used when the character is used on its own or in a verb. An example is the character 「水」 which is the character for water. All alone it is read as "mizu"; that is to say we use the kun reading. But in 「水曜日」 (read: suiyoubi; meaning: day of water, Wednesday) the kanji 「水」 is read as "sui". "Sui" is its on reading. This is why kanji are a pain in the ass. Moreover, if you want to write Japanese, you have to learn the proper stroke order. Though it is important to know the stroke order if you ever want to search for the kanji since knowing the stroke order can tell you how many strokes there are in it.
EDIT:
More information:
Wiki article on Kanji - Readings (Kinda detailed so might be too much information)
Tae Kim's Japanese Grammar Guide - Kanji (A more simple explanation)
BTW Tae Kim's Guide is <3 It is useful when looking up grammar I have yet to learn as well as the various slang forms of grammar that I already know.
Haha, that was not a refreshment for me at all, but something I did not know at all. I haven't even touched kanji yet, because I want to make sure I have all of the kana memorized first (I've got hiragana down, but katakana...not so much).
However, I understand what you're saying.
So...does that mean 「知」 alone has something to do with 'to know' or 'to understand'? 'Chi' means 'blood' though, right? Is that a different kanji?
Yes. The kanji "chi" for blood is 血.
「知」 itself means "to know". When used in the verb 「知る」 it is read as "shiru". I have no examples about when in a compound for 「知」 though. :/
The thing is many kanji can have the same kun or on reading. For example, both 「二」 and 「日」 have a reading of "ni". The first character, 「二」 (two), has an on reading of "ni" and a kun reading of "futa". 「日」 (sun/day) has on readings of "ni", "nichi" and "jitsu" (according to WWWJDIC) and kun readings of "hi", "bi" and "ka".
EDIT: Zeromus_X beat me too it. But basically what I was trying to say is that many kanji can have similar readings and sounds, but it is through writing the kanji that we get the difference in meaning. Thus writing in only hiragana sometimes can suck since you have no hint at what the word could mean, though if you recognize a kanji in a word at least you can take a stab at the meaning if you are not able to read it properly.
So in other words, there's no trick to figure out what means what, except just memorizing everything?
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