Season 二.一 - Asking questions in Japanese / Radicals 一

Basically, to ask a question in Japanese, you simply add the particle か to the end of a sentence. There are some exceptions (aren't there always??) but this is a general rule of thumb to follow. At least for now while we're just in the simple grammar stages

For example, the sentence でんしゃです can be turned into a question by simply adding か to the end - でんしゃですか. You go from stating that 'it is a train' to asking if it is a train.

As far as the first radicals lesson, we looked at the one-stroke radicals which we need to learn the one-stroke kanji. They are as follows along with their mnemonics:

• Ground  一

This radical consists of a single, horizontal stroke. What’s the biggest, single, horizontal stroke? That’s the ground.

• Barb亅

This radical is shaped like a barb, like you’d see on barb wire. Imagine one of these getting stuck in your arm, and think about how much it would hurt to pull it out with that hook on the end.

• Stick｜

This is a single stick, standing upright. It even looks like a stick. The stick is standing up straight because it can stick out of the ground (radical), which is why it’s vertical.

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At the end of this lesson was a practice session that included です and ですか sentences along with a new Anki sentences deck that consisted of questions that was merged with the existing Anki sentence deck and a new Anki deck for the radicals detailed above.

I covered this lesson in its entirety last time I sat at the study cubby, but needed to get to blogging on it which is what this is all about. I haven't been doing well with getting into the cubby every day but I'm trying to stay motivated to change that. I need to be here AT LEAST three times a week.

Onward!