Lesson Dialogues
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Situation 1
Yamamoto-san, who will be late to a party, is calling Tanaka-san.
田中:もしもしー。
Tanaka: Hello.
山本:おー、田中?ごめん。今から向かう!
Yamamoto: Oh, Tanaka? Sorry. I'm heading to the party now!
- 向かう to face; to go (toward, in the direction of); to head for
田中:おー、わかった。え、今日、仕事だったの?
Tanaka: Ah, got it. Oh, were you working today?
山本:そうなんだよ。ほんとは昨日終わらせたかったんだけどさ。
Yamamoto: Yeah I was, even though I had really wanted to finish my work yesterday.
- 終わらせる causative form of 終わる; ~せる means "to force/make someone/something to do something": 子どもにラーメンを食べさせる。I'm going to make the kids eat ramen.
- ~さ filler word: 明日さ、暇だったらさ、ラーメン食べない?Do you want to eat ramen if you are free tomorrow?
田中:そうなんだ。休みの日に、大変だなあ。とりあえず、おつかれ。
Tanaka. I see. It's tough to have to work on a holiday. Anyway, good job.
- とりあえず for the time being
山本:うん、ありがとう。今どんな感じ?
Yamamoto: Yeah, thanks. How's the party like now?
田中:山本の他は、皆さんもう来てるよ。
Tanaka: Other than you, everyone else is already here.
山本:わー、そうなんだ。ごめん。時間通りに参加するつもりだったんだけど…。
Yamamoto: Wow, I see. Sorry. I had wanted to be there on time, but...
- 参加 participation; 参加する to take part in, to participate
- つもり intention: 明日仕事に行くつもりです。I'm intended to go to work tomorrow.
田中:それは大丈夫だよ。まあできれば昨日メール欲しかったけどな。
Tanaka: It's okay, although I wish you had texted me yesterday if possible.
- 大丈夫 safe; all right
- ~ば if: 行けば分かる。You'll understand if you go; why don't you?: だったら行けば。Then, why don't you go.
- メール e-mail; メールする to e-mail
- 欲しい to want; to desire
山本:ほんとごめん!うーん…。何も持たずに、参加はできないな。酒は少し買っていくつもりだけど。
Yamamoto: I'm so sorry! Hmm... I can't go without bringing anything. I think I'm going to buy some alcohol to bring along.
- ~ずに without doing...: 食べずに来た。 I came without eating.
- 酒 alcohol; sake; rice wine
田中:いやいや。酒はたくさんあるから大丈夫。それより早く来い。
Tanaka: No, no. There's a lot of alcohol here so it's fine. Just come quickly.
- 来い imperative form of 来る to come; can be very rude with strangers
山本:とりあえず今向かってるから。なんか欲しい物あったらメールして。
Yamamoto: I'm on my way anyway. Text me if there's anything you want.
Situation 2
Mika-san is showing a picture she painted to her teacher.
先生:うん。いいですね。なかなかよく描けてる。
Teacher: Yeah. It's nice. It's painted pretty well.
- 描く to draw; to paint
ミカ:え、ほんとですか?嬉しいです。
Mika: Oh, really? I'm glad.
先生:まず、この家の部分だけど。しっかりときれいに描けてるね。
Teacher: First of all, for the house, it's painted really well and beautifully.
- しっかり properly; tightly; solidly
ミカ:ありがとうございます。
Mika: Thank you.
先生:それに、家の前にいる犬と子供。楽しそうな感じがしっかり表現されてると思うよ。
Teacher: Also, for the dog and the children in front of the house, I think their sense of excitement has been captured really well.
- 表現される passive form of 表現する
- 表現 expression; 表現する to express
ミカ:良かった。特に犬なんですけど。どう描くか、すごく考えたんですよ。
Mika: I'm glad. For the dog especially, I had thought very hard about how to paint it.
- ~か[どうか] whether... or..., if... : 行くかどうかわからない。/行くかわからない。I don't know whether I go or not.
先生:うん。ただし、ここの部分。ちょっと気を付けて見てみて。
Teacher: Yeah. But, this part, look at it a little more carefully.
- ただし but; however; indicates a condition: 明日仕事に行く。ただし雨だったら行かない。I will go to work tomorrow. But if it's raining, I won't.
- 気を付ける to be careful; to pay attention
ミカ:え?どういう意味ですか?
Mika: Hmm? What do you mean?
先生:ここって、日は当たってないでしょ?家があるから。
Teacher: The sunlight shouldn't hit this spot, right? Because there's a house.
- 当たる to hit; to bump; to touch; to guess right; to win
- ~でしょ isn't it?, right?; I guess that... , it seems that...: 私、お金ないでしょ? You know I don't have money, right?; 鈴木さん、会社来たじゃないですか?何でですか? Suzuki-san came to work, right? Why?
ミカ:はい。そうですね。
Mika: Yes. That's right.
先生:日が当たってる部分と、同じ色で表現しちゃっていいかな?
Teacher: Do you think it's okay to use the same color as the sunlit areas to paint this spot?
- 色 color
ミカ:あ…。たしかにそうですね。そこまで深く考えてませんでした。もう少し深い色の方がよかったですかね?
Mika: Oh... you're right indeed. I hadn't thought that deeply about it. Would it have been better to use a darker color?
- 深い deep
- ~方がいい it's better to: 歩いたほうがいい。It's better to walk; I prefer: ラーメンのほうがいい。I prefer ramen.
先生:そうだね。次描く時は、こういうとこも気を付けようね。
Teacher: That's right. Pay attention to these things as well the next time you're painting something.
- こういう such; this sort of; like this: こういう車が欲しかった。I wanted a car like this.
ミカ:はい。よくわかりました。
Mika: Yes. I understand.
先生:ただし、非常にうまくなってきてるよ。これからもどんどんと描いていこう。
Teacher: But you're getting really good at this. Let's continue to paint more and more.
- 非常に very; extremely
Step 2 - Take the Quiz
Let's see how many words you remember.
Take the quiz here.
Step 3 - Writing Exercises (Optional)
Let's practice what you learned here.
I don’t understand the meaning of “passive form” in the definition of 表現させる.
It’s a passive voice. You have an active voice and passive voice in English, too:
母がこの手紙を書いた。 My mother wrote this letter. (Active voice)
この手紙は母によって書かれた。 This letter was written by my mother. (Passive voice)
表現する (verb: express) is an active form of the verb.
表現される (be expressed) is a passive form of it.
I’m sorry, I still domt understand. I dont really see the difference between the English examples either. There’s different words, but they mean the same thing. The passive one just sounds slightly more formal. Also what’s よって?
No, we are not talking about the meaning, but the sentence structure here.
We can express the same meaning in different ways.
It’s the matter of what word you choose as the subject in a sentence.
So, the previous examples, the subject of the first sentence is 母, and
the second sentence is 手紙.
I thought you were asking about passive form.
If you want to use 表現する using the passive voice (form), the verb is changed as 表現される to fit the form.
Active voice (form) usually put someone/something who makes the action as the subject, whereas passive voice (form) put someone/something who gets affected by the action as the subject. It works in the same way as English.
よって here means “by” as in “by my mother” 母によって.
It’s a word for Level 4, so I shouldn’t have used it here.
Here’s an explanation about active and passive forms.
I wish I could find Japanese examples, too.
But it might give you a better idea about them:
https://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/activepassive.html
Aah, I see. So passive form just changes the subject. Thank you very much! Also, it’s alright if you used a higher level word. I come across words I dont know all the time in conversations like these on this site. I just look em up on Jisho and try my best to learn them.
No problem!
That’s great. I’ll keep that in mind. 🙂