Thursday 6 December 2012

___がすきです。

In a normal conversation, you might decide you want to say you like something. Well this is very easy in Japanese!

すき is 'like' and だいすき is 'love.' だいすき is pretty strong, so I don't use it that often. Some people will say that 'love' in Japanese is あいしてる however I've never heard anyone say that, ever. It seems like it's really OTT, like something from a film?

Anyway, to make a sentence, you just need to put the thing you like followed by がすきです。

ビデオゲームすきです。I like video games.

ビデオゲーム 'Video games.'

が This is the particle 'ga.' The usage of this is still pretty lost on me, so I use about.com  to explain it to me. Maybe this description of 'ga' will help you too. 
["Ga" is used when a situation or happening is just noticed or newly introduced.
The object of the sentence is usually marked by the particle "o," but some verbs and adjectives (expressing like/dislike, desire, potential, necessity, fear, envy etc.) take "ga" instead of "o."]
 So, in this case, 'ga' is just irregular when expressing likes and dislikes. If you know more about 'ga' and can explain it better, feel free to share!

すき As explained, this means 'to like.' 

です as explained in previous blogs, this is just 'to be' that finishes a sentence politely.

To say you love video games would be, ビデオゲームがだいすきです。But you might sound like an おたく、haha.

To add a variation, you can also add いちばん which means 'favourite.' If someone asked you what your favourite hobby is, maybe you could say ビデオゲームがいちばんすきです, which means 'I like video games the best.'

If you want to be mean and say you don't like something, you can use きらい instead. In Japanese this might be considered rude though. I've never had to say it, so I always forget what it is! ビデオゲームがきらいです。I think maybe instead of being that blunt, you could say ちょと。。。instead. It's just a kind of polite 'uhmmm not really' sound.

Thanks!

サリー

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