Japanese for English speakers School · Lesson 3
Age and birthday
Say your age and birthday in Japanese — 三歳です (san sai desu, I'm 3) with the age counter 歳, and 十月十一日 (October 11) for dates.
Conversation
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Lindo
ピシさんは何歳ですか？
Pishi san wa nan sai desu ka?
How old are you, Pishi?
Tip: <nan sai> = how many + years
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Pishi
三歳です
San sai desu
I'm 3
Tip: <sai> = counter for age. "Counters" are a special Japanese part of speech (like nouns, verbs, adjectives) that do not exist in English. They have many uses, one of which is providing more information about the number that comes before. In this case "3 + counter for age" = I am 3 years old Note: It's common in Japanese to not say the subject (e.g.: I'm) in a sentence
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Lindo
お誕生日はいつですか？
O tanjōbi wa itsudesu ka?
When is your birthday?
Tip: <o> = onorific suffix to place at the beginning of a word to specify I am talking about you, not myself. This is one of the mechanisms to avoid using pronouns <tanjoubi> = birthday <itsu> = when
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Pishi
十月１１日です
Jūgatsu jū ichi nichi desu
It is on October 11th
Tip: <wa> = Particles for the topic. There are not prepositions (like in, to, at) in Japanese. Particles, placed after the noun they refer to, take their place. <san> = suffix similar to "Mr" or "Mrs". It is never used to talk about yourself