Week 6

At last, the blog finally decided to let me log on so here is my latest up-date.

Last night (March 11) was the 6th lesson in the course so we are already over half way.

We studied the last section of ch 5 - O-tsutome wa dochira desu ka
and then moved on to the first pages of ch 6, pages 52 & 53

These covered the use of the verb "arimasu" (dictionary form "aru") which roughly translates as There is/ there are or sometimes I/you/they etc have. Literally means exists, is.

So:
There is a station in York = Yoku ni eki ga arimasu

Questions:
Is there a station in York? = Yoku ni eki wa arimasu ka

Negative:
There isn't a station in York = Yoku ni eki wa arimasen.

Note the use of the particles wa/ga - it is a gereral rule (but not hard and fast) that wa is used in negatives/ questions and ga in statements.

We also looked at the verb imasu (dictinary form iru) which is used in exactly the same way for animate things (people and animals)

Tanaka san ga imasu = Mr Tanaka is there.
Tanaka san wa imasen = Mr Tanaka isn't there
Tanaka san was imasu ka = Is Mr Tanaka there?

Check blackboard for a power point of hotel vocabulary and other power points relating to saying where things are under Asking the Way.