Lesson Dialogues
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* Hover over or tap words to see definitions:
Situation 1
At home, Rika prepared coffee for her senior classmate Yuko.
Comprehension Quiz (Skip if you don't understand the conversation yet)
そのコーヒーは結構高いですか？
A はい
B いいえ
ユウコ：すごく美味しいね。このコーヒー。
リカ：そうですか？
ユウコ：うん。これ、結構高い？
リカ：いえ。別に普通のコーヒーですよ。
Situation 2
At home, Takeshi is talking to his younger sister Ami.
Comprehension Quiz (Skip if you don't understand the conversation yet)
その本は、タケシの部屋にありますか？
A はい
B いいえ
タケシ：俺の本見なかった？
アミ：何の本？
タケシ：英語の。今日、学校で使うんだ。
アミ：見てない。自分の部屋じゃないの？
タケシ：見たけど、無くて。
Situation 3
Matsui-san and her colleague Saito-san have come to the mall to have lunch.
Comprehension Quiz (Skip if you don't understand the conversation yet)
斉藤さんは、____に聞いてみる。
A 松井さん
B 学校の人
C お店の人
D 斎藤さんの友達
松井：どのお店で食べます？
斉藤：ここはどうですか？
松井：いいですね。でも、すぐ入れます？
斉藤：聞いてみましょう。お店の人に。
Situation 4
At home, Kaori is talking to her mom.
Comprehension Quiz (Skip if you don't understand the conversation yet)
カオリは、____に友達を呼びたい。
A 前の土曜日
B 次の土曜日
C 前の日曜日
D 次の日曜日
カオリ：うちに友達呼んでもいい？今度。
母：いいけど、いつ？
カオリ：たぶん、次の日曜日。どうかな？
母：うん、いいよ。
カオリ：ありがとう。
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.
In the first situation, Rika says “別に普通のコーヒーですよ。”
別に can be either “particularly” or “not particularly.” How can I tell which one someone means? How can I tell if the coffee is “particularly normal” or “not particularly normal”?
It means “It’s just a regular coffee.” and 別に means “nothing special.”
Thank you.
Yes, I understand what she is saying. But if 別に can mean both “particularly” and “not particularly”, a positive and a negative, how can I tell which is being used?
No problem.
I don’t know where you got that, but 別に doesn’t mean “particularly.”
It can be translated as “not particularly” depending on the context, but as I mentioned, here it means “nothing special.”
Since you asked the same question on a different lesson page, I’ll answer it there as well.
Understood, thank you.
I got it from this lesson. The answer “別に普通のコーヒーですよ” gets translated here as “It’s just regular coffee”. I was unaware that it has the meaning of “nothing special” as this isn’t given in the definitions when you hover over the word. So when I read “別に普通のコーヒーですよ”
I originally translated it in my head as “It’s not particularly normal coffee.”, which would be another way of saying something like “it’s fancy coffee”. But since it was translated as “It’s just regular coffee” I thought 別に here would be more positive than negative.
Also the definitions given for it put “not” in parenthesis, like “(not)particularly”, so I thought maybe there was another usage of the word I didn’t know about.
No problem.
Maybe our team could refine the explanation to prevent misunderstanding.
However, “(not)” suggests that the word can be used in a negative form. They use parentheses because 別に itself doesn’t mean “not.”
As with any language, simply knowing the meaning of individual words and putting them together can result in unnatural sentences. Moving forward, try to consider the context carefully and refer to the overall translation as well.
わかりました。ありがとう先生。
どういたしまして。
For conversation 2 Takeshi says,
「見たけど、無くて」Is he saying he looked in the room but then there was nothing (no book)?
Yes, he looked around his room, but the book wasn’t there.
For situation 2, is there a difference between “自分で” and “一人”?
> For situation 2, is there a difference between “自分で” and “一人”?
ー They are similar.
If you say 自分でケーキを作る, it means you’ll bake a cake by yourself instead of buying one at a shop or having someone else bake one for you.
１人でケーキを作る means you’ll bake a cake alone without company or help from others.
Does it make sense?
Yes! Thank you!
No problem! ^ ^