Differences and Usages: いきる vs. すむ

I got a question from a Japanese learner about how to use 生きる (ikiru) and 住む (sumu) correctly.
Both can be translated as "to live" in English, but they are not exactly the same in Japanese.

(Old houses in Kawagoe, Japan)

生きる means "to lead a life" or "to survive," and its opposite word is 死ぬ (shinu), "to die".
1) 私たちは生きるために水が必要です。
(わたしたちは いきるために みずが ひつようです)
We need water to survive.
2) 彼は70歳まで生きました。
(かれは　ななじゅっさいまで　いきました)
He lived to be seventy.

On the other hand, 住む means "to reside" or "to settle."
It is usually used with the name of the place where one lives.
1) 私は日本に住んでいます。
（わたしは　にほんに　すんでいます）
I live in Japan.
2) 彼は住む場所がない。
（かれは　すむ　ばしょが　ない）
He has nowhere to reside.

If you use 生きる in the place of 住む in the example sentences above:
1) 私は日本で生きています sounds like "I'm surviving in Japan," but it doesn't sound as natural as the English translation.
2) 彼は生きる場所がない sounds like "He can't survive anywhere."


Is everything clear?
I hope this helps!

Word Order in Japanese: Adverbs #2

This is a sequel to the previous entry.

We've talked about the first two rules in the previous entry.
Here is the third one:
An adverb should appear closer to the word(s) it is modifying. 

Let's look at the first picture. (Click it to see a bigger picture.)

I used some dashed arrows with すこし, "a little". It could come in the beginning if you want to emphasise it, but it is not very natural. It should come closer to the word "wine" or "drink" because it shows the amount of wine or how much you do the action.
It is not because that word is less important than the preceding words but because it has stronger connection to the latter words "wine" or "drink".

Perhaps you may wonder why すこし can come before こうえん. Okay, let's look at the second picture.

Grammatically speaking, the adjective form of すこし should be すこしの.
(e.g. すこしのワイン)
However, when used to modify a noun with a verb as in the sentences in the picture, すこし is more natural. This is because, in my personal sense of the language, the noun is perceived as a part of the predicative word-group. It can be said that "a little" is not modifying the noun "the park" but the phrase "to run in the park".

The adjective すこしの sounds like a written word. We often omit particles in casual lines, and as for すこしの, it is natural to omit the の even in formal lines.

I hope this explanation makes sense!

Word Order in Japanese: Adverbs #1

In Japanese, the word order is somewhat flexible and not as important as it is in English. As for adverbs, though there are some "common" word order patterns, they are often flexible. It depends on the speaker's preference: how much you want to put a stress on them and to which word they have more relevance.

I've been thinking about this topic since yesterday and came up with several points.
Please note that what I'm going to write is not according to any experts or textbooks of the Japanese language, but is just based on a native speaker's personal sense of the language.

OK, here we go:

The basic rules of the word order of adverbs

1. Adverbs cannot appear at the end of the sentence.
2. Frequency precedes amount.
3. Adverbs should appear closer to the word(s) it is modifying.

The first rule is very easy.
A verb or a predicator must come at the end of the sentence in Japanese, so you can't put any other elements after that, unless you want to add something that you forgot to say. In that case, you need to use a punctuation mark after the predicator to show that the following word is just a supplemental detail.
e.g. わたしはテニスをしました、きのう。(I played tennis yesterday.)

As for the second rule, think of the sentence 私はときどき少し公園で走ります。（わたしは　ときどき　すこし　こうえんで　はしります。= I sometimes run in the park a little.)
The word "ときどき" indicates the frequency, how often you do it, and "すこし" shows the amount, how much you do it at a time. You can change their positions as in the picture below. As you can see, ときどき always comes before すこし.

This entry is getting a little long, so I'll continue this topic in another entry.
Hope you stay tuned! ;-)

Differences and Usages: 知る vs. わかる

Today I'm going to explain the differences between 知る and わかる.

Their differences mainly lie in the depth of understanding and how you get the information.

知る means “to have some information about something” and can be used for any kind of information.
It’s the most general word when compared to words such as わかる and 学ぶ, and the level of understanding could be the lowest of them.

わかる is also used for any information, but the level of understanding is higher than 知る.
It implies that you not just “have some information” of something but also you “understand” it.
It’s possible to say 私は彼を知っているけど、よくわからない(= I have heard of him, but I don’t know about his personality).

The origin of わかる is the same as わける(分ける=to divide), and the original meaning is “to break down / sort out / classify something into groups”.
Suppose there is a chaotic jumble of things. In order to sort them out, you have to know them well. (e.g. their characteristics, similarities, differences, etc.)
Therefore, the basic image of わかる is to make things clear.

From this origin, わかる is also used to say “to finally discover a certain fact”.
e.g. その話は本当ではないとわかった。(That story turned out not to be true.)
You can say その話は本当ではないと知った as well, but this sounds like you heard it from someone else while わかった implies that you found it out by yourself.

This is because 知る sounds rather passive compared to わかる, and it could sound like you happened to come across the information from somewhere (e.g. the news, a newspaper, from someone else, etc.).
わかる, on the other hand, sounds more active and it could imply that it’s you  who has the information or actively sought it. (You can’t be passive when you clear up a mess, right? :-))


I heard “学ぶ” could be confused with these words.
I’ll write about it in another post to avoid this one getting too long!


If you like this kind of entry, you may also want to read this one:
”Differences and Usages: 勉強する vs. 習う vs. 学ぶ”

Differences and Usages: 勉強する vs. 習う vs. 学ぶ

Today I'll explain the differences between the following three words:
勉強する vs. 習う vs. 学ぶ.

I think the meaning of 勉強する is the same as “to study,” and this is the most commonly used word of the three. It refers to the act of understanding or acquiring knowledge by using materials such as books and notebooks.

習う is to learn something from someone else (usually from a teacher). It seems that this word is often translated as “learn”, but I think “take lessons” would be more appropriate.

学ぶ means “to come to know or understand something”. I think this is close to the word “learn,” but it is mostly used in writing, not in daily conversation.

Here are some examples:
私は英語を習っています。 I take English lessons.
私は今日の授業の前に2時間勉強しました。 I studied for 2 hours before today's class.
今日は、過去形について学びました。 I learned about the past tense today.


I like talking about languages, so I'll continue this series.
Please let me know if you have any suggestions or questions! :)

Importance of Vowels in Japanese

PaPaPi Pa PePo Pa PuPi PePu.


This is a Japanese sentence made by substituting /P/ for each consonant.
Can you guess the original phrase?

If it is read with the right intonation, most native speakers of the Japanese language can easily guess what it means.
On the other hand, it's very difficult if it's read with different vowels.
It shows the importance of vowels in the Japanese language.


The original version of the sentence above is:
わたしは、ねこがすきです。
watashi wa neko ga suki desu. (= I like cats.)

You can substitute other consonants as well:
MaMaMi Ma MeMo Ma MuMi MeMu.
KaKaKi Ka KeKo Ka KuKi KeKu.


Stage actors and actresses often practice their lines with only vowels so that they can pronounce every word very clearly.
(e.g. "ああいあ、えおあういえう" for "わたしは、ねこがすきです".)

Therefore, I recommend you try to be conscious of vowels when you practice speaking Japanese. :)