Lesson Dialogues
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* Hover over or tap words to see definitions:
Situation 1
At lunchtime, at the company, Saito-san is talking to his subordinate Suzuki-san.
Comprehension Quiz (Skip if you don't understand the conversation yet)
斉藤さんと鈴木さんは、____ご飯に行く。
A 今から
B 一人で
C あまり
D ちょっとだけ
斉藤：鈴木、もうご飯食べた？
鈴木：いえ、まだです。斉藤さんは？
斉藤：俺も、今から。一緒にご飯行く？
鈴木：行きましょう！
Situation 2
At home, Saki is talking to her boyfriend Yuya.
Comprehension Quiz (Skip if you don't understand the conversation yet)
ユウヤは、なんか喋りましたか？
A はい
B いいえ
サキ：今、なんか言った？
ユウヤ：え、俺？
サキ：うん。なんか喋ってたよね？
ユウヤ：いや、何も言ってないけど。
サキ：え、ほんとに？
ユウヤ：うん。
Situation 3
In the city, Ami is talking to her older brother Takeshi while pointing at a store sign.
Comprehension Quiz (Skip if you don't understand the conversation yet)
タケシは、お店の名前を読めますか？
A はい
B いいえ
アミ：見て、あのお店。面白い名前。
タケシ：え？全然見えない。
アミ：あれ、読めないの？
タケシ：うん。目、悪くなっちゃったかも。
Situation 4
On Monday morning, at the company, Matsui-san is talking with her subordinate Yamada-san.
Comprehension Quiz (Skip if you don't understand the conversation yet)
山田さんは日曜日に、____と遊んだ。
A 松井さん
B 山田さんの子供
C 松井さんの友達
D 友達の子供
松井：日曜日、何したの？
山田：友達の子供と遊びました。
松井：へー、いいね。何して遊んだの？
山田：一緒にゲームしました。
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.
On situation 4, she asks 何なにして遊あそんだの？ would it be also correct to ask 何なに遊あそんだの？ I mean to use directly the past form of play.
I have some difficulty to fully understand て form and する, in this case is it used as an auxiliary verb? I have been playing VS I played?
In Japanese, 遊ぶ is an intransitive verb, so 何遊んだの？ is not natural.
The common and natural way to ask is:
何して遊んだの？ - What did you do for fun?
Here, して is the te-form of する, showing the kind of activity that was part of playing or having fun.
In this case, して is not functioning as an auxiliary verb.
It’s just the te-form of the verb する, used to connect to the next action 遊ぶ.
It shows the kind of action that was part of the activity of playing or having fun.
So it’s different from how auxiliary verbs are used in English, like in:
“I have been playing” → where “have been” is auxiliary, and “playing” is the main verb.
In Japanese, there is no auxiliary verb involved here.
Both する and 遊ぶ are main verbs, and the て-form just links them together.
Also, be careful with how you translate 遊ぶ into English.
It doesn’t always mean “play”:
For children, 遊ぶ usually means play (e.g., play at the park, play with toys).
But for adults, 遊ぶ often means hang out, go out, or have fun.
Examples:
子どもたちが遊んでいる – The kids are playing.
昨日友達と遊んだ – I hung out with my friends / We had fun together.
So it’s best to choose the English expression based on the situation and age group.
ありがとう
どういたしまして。^ ^
他にも分からないことがあれば、いつでも質問してください。
On exercise 3 it says that うん means no, but doesn’t it mean yes?
That’s a good quesiton.
うん itself is a casual way of saying “yes” in Japanese, similar to “yeah” in English.
However, when replying to a negative question like “Can’t you read it?”, Japanese people often say うん to mean “No, I can’t” rather than “Yes.”
This is because in Japanese, the response うん agrees with the negative part of the question (“can’t”), so it means “That’s right, I can’t.”
This can be confusing for non-Japanese speakers because the same word literally means “yes,” but in this context, it actually means “no.”
That’s why it’s tricky for us Japanese, too, when responding to negative questions in English.
This makes sense. Honestly, even for English speakers there can be clarification needed sometimes.
“You can’t do it for me?”
“Yeah”
“…yeah you can or yeah you can’t??”
Ah, that’s interesting. Thank you for your question and example! : )