The Japanese Verb - To do

The Japanese verb "To do - Suru" is the most important verb to learn.

The plain form is - Suru する
The polite form is Shimasu します

Saying Suru or Shimasu alone is like saying speaking in a future tense, it means "I will do it".

Many Japanese nouns take the  + Sure form which makes it easy for learners of Japanese.

For example Diet wo shimasu ダイエットをします。Means I am going to go on / start a diet.

The plain tenses are as follows.

Shita した - to have done / did
Shitai したい - to want to
Shitakunai したくない - to not want to do
Shiteiru している - to be doing

The polite tenses are

Shimashita しました - to have done / did
Shiteimasu しています - to be doing.

Shitai an Shitakunai + desu will make the polite form.

Japanese Basic Phrases

Japanese basic phrases may sound long but are very easy to pronounce and remember.

English	Romaji	Hiragana
Hello	Konnichiwa	こんにちわ
Nice to meet you	Hajimemashite	はじめまして
Good Morning	Ohayou Gozaimasu	おはよう　ございます
Good Evening	Kon Banwa	こんばんわ
Good Night	Oyasumi Nasai	おやすみ　なさい
How are you?	OGenki desu ka？	おげんき　ですか？
See you again	mate ne	またね
Good bye	Sayonara	さよなら
Nice weather isn' it	ii tenki desu ne	いい　てんき　ですね

Notes:

Ohayou Gozaimasu is the polite form. Simply Ohayou is the casual form

Oyasumi Nasai is also a polite form. Simply use Oyasumi for the casual form.

Incidentaly, Nasai is often used by females after the verb stem to indicate a command.

e.g. A mother talking to a child that is taking too long to east may say "Tabenasai" - Eat your food !!

From the verb Taberu - to eat.

Japanese Numbers

Japanese has a rather unique number system in that the sound of the numbers change depending on the object or item you are counting.
Objects are normally classified into shapes and size.

Regular numbers	Romaji	Hiragana	Kanji
1	ichi	いち	一
2	ni	に	二
3	san	さん	三
4	shi, yon	し、よん	四
5	go	ご	五
6	roku	ろく	六
7	shichi, nana	しち、なな	七
8	hachi	はち	八
9	kyuu,ku	きゅう、く	九
10	juu, tou	じゅう、とう	十

Notice how some numbers have two sounds, e.g. 4, 7, 9 and 10. The pronunciation generally changes depending on whatever comes before or after the number. I will explain that in another post.

Going back to the counting again, the easiest one to learn is the general counter system. This can always be used if you don't know the correct counting system for any particular object.

Counter	Romaji	Hiragana
1	hitotsu	ひとつ
2	futatsu	ふたつ
3	mittsu	みっつ
4	yottsu	よっつ
5	itsutsu	いつつ
6	muttsu	むっつ
7	nanatsu	ななつ
8	yattsu	やっつ
9	kokonotsu	ここのつ
10	tou	とう

Counting people

As you should be able to see below, apart from the first two, the rest just the basic numbers with -nin added to the end.

Counter	Romaji	Hiragana
1	hitori	ひとり
2	futari	ふたり
3	sannin	さんにん
4	yonnin	よんにん
5	gonin	ごにん
6	rokunin	ろくにん
7	nannin	ななにん
8	hachinin	はちにん
9	kyuunin	きゅうにん
10	juunin	じゅうにん

Welcome

Welcome to my very first post, of many relating to learning Japanese.

Japanese is not always as difficult as many say and learning in much better when it is fun. I intend to make learning as easy and fun as possible.

I have been living in Japan for 15 years and work for a Japanese company. This means I get to use Japanese up to a business level, however I enjoy explaining and teaching from the basics.