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Japanese Transitive and Intransitive Verbs

You may or may not have heard these words before, and you may or may not know what they mean. Transitive means that something is being done by someone (or something). AKA, transitive verbs are the ones that you (or someone/something else) has direct influence on. When beginning to learn a language, transitive forms are used since most people talk about things they do/ are doing or things other people are doing. Examples of transitive verbs are: I opened the door, I returned the boy home, I made the cat disappear.

Intransitive means that something happens/ed on it’s own. For example, the door opened, the boy returns home, the cat disappears.

In Japanese, transitive verbs use the particle を with the action (verb) following the particle, and what is being affected by the verb before the particle. For example, when you say that you eat a banana, the banana is what is being affected by the verb, so therefore it proceeds the particle and the verb to eat follows the particle. Some people have a hard time with the verb 紹介します (しょうかいします) where the person you are introducing (to someone) follows the を particle and the person you are introducing someone TO follows the particle に because they are having something done TO them (similar to something being given TO someone with the verbs あげます).

Intransitive verbs use the particle が because there is only a subject and an outcome (verb), so basically something happened. Hajimeru 始める vs hajimaru 始まる (to begin [something] vs. [something] began), I have remembered that hajimaru is the intransitive verb which uses GA because I connected the MA to being similar to GA. Also, “I woke up” would be intransitive because it automatically happened, versus “I woke someone up” which would be transitive because you are doing an action.

I may come back to this article in the future and add some more insights once I formally learn about transitive and intransitive verbs, but for now this will do I think ^_^

I suggest you check out my Japanese Verb Conjugation post lesson here, for more on the Japanese language.

Better Ways to Learn Japanese Fluently

–Nihon Scope

Dutch Pancake in Rice Cooker with Cheddar Cheese

All Blog Posts, Food and Sake

Rice Cooker Dutch Baby

A few weeks ago when one of our friends was leaving for Winter vacation, we decided to go to a pancake restaurant that also had dutch babies. Here are some pictures of the display dutch babies as well as the ones my friend and I ordered. They were a bit thin, and they used mozzarella cheese which did not taste good with it. I also prefer to eat my dutch babies with ketchup, like an American ^_^ but they gave me honey. And my friends dutch baby was a salad, so she got dressing.

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This morning I woke up with the idea and the motivation to use our rice cooker to make a dutch baby. It was a little bit difficult because our rice cooker kept on switching to keep warm, and I did have to flip it, but overall it came out good and was totally worth the effort ^_^ It may not look absolutely beautiful, but it tastes like a dutch baby should, thick and fluffy ^_^ Maybe we will make these with our friend when she returns so that she can taste what a real dutch baby is like ^_^ I also melted some cheddar cheese on top and ate it with ketchup and sriracha sauce ^_^ I can barely tell right now that I am in Japan and not in America ^_^ Life is good ^_^

The recipe and directions are as follows:

7 eggs, 1 cup flour, 1 cup milk, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 1 tsp of cinnamon, 2 TBSP of butter, cheddar cheese. First I whisked the eggs, then added the milk and vanilla and whisked some more. Then I added the cinnamon and flour a little bit at a time while whisking. At home I would use a blender, but this time I just used a fork. Lots of whisking ^_^ I then melted 2 TBSP of butter in the rice cooker and once it was melted, I swirled it around to coat the pan a bit, then poured some of the batter in. I did not want to pour all of it in case it rose a lot and also to make sure it would be able to cook fully, so about half, but I honestly (accidentally) poured a bit more than half, but it still turned out alright ^_^ I would say that it still took about an hour to cook which is about how long it takes in an oven in America, but it depends on your rice cooker I guess. Just keep checking on it, and flip it if and when it needs, and after flipping it, you can put some cheddar cheese on the top to melt ^_^

-Nihon Scope

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おるすばんてんし

Orusuban Tenji – The House Sitting Angel

Orusubantenshi, or house sitting angel, is a book about a little boy who is visited by an angel while staying home alone while his mom is at work. This is another book published by Tully’s Coffee that I have read.

The story goes:
「きょうはおるすばんだ。なにをしようかな」そうしたらまどのそとからこえがきこえてきた。「いまおるすばんっていったよね？」「やあやあ、よいしょ」「わあ！だれだ！」「おるすばんてんしだよ」おかしいな。てんしはもっとかわいいはず。「わっかとはねがあるだろう。だからてんしだよ」「いっしょにあそぼうとおもってきたんだ」「そうなの。じゃあ」てんしとかくれんぼ！「どこかなー」でもぼくはしってる。てんしのわっかがソファーのうえでひかってる。てんしとおやつ！「ドーナッツおいしいな」「あれ。わっかとドーナッツがどっちかわからなくなっちゃった」てんしとたいそう！「いっちに、さんし！」「ごおろく、しち、はち」あれあれてんしはせなかがいたい。てんしとおふろ！「みてみて！ソフトクリーム！」てんしとおふろはきもちがいいな。てんしとトイレ！「まだですかー！」てんしのトイレはちょっとながい。「ああ。たのしかったなあ。ねえ, おるすばんてんしはどうしてぼくのところにきてくれたの？」「…それはね」カチャ「ただいま！おるばんどうだった？」「たのしかったよ！だっていまね、おるばんてんしがきてるんだよ。」ぼくはかえってきたママにいってリビングのほうをみた。「あれ？」「おるすばんてんしって？」もういえのどこをさがしてもおるすばんてんしはいなかった。またつぎのおるすばんであえるかな。

Some ことば (vocabulary):

おるすばん = house sitting

てんし(天者) = heavenly person (angel)

わっか = ring (but in this case halo)

はね = feathers (but in this case feathered wings)

おやつ = snack

「いっちに、さんし！」「ごおろく、しち、はち」 = 「一二、三四！」「五六、七、八」

きもちがいい = good feeling

カチャ = sound?

だっていまね = still now

かえってきた = to return

さがして = to search

The translation and explanation I believe would be:
A little boy said to himself, “I’m staying at home today, what shall I do?” then he could hear a voice from outside the window. The voice says, “you’re staying home right now, right?” and the little boy replies with a sound of surprise and agreement and also says, “good point” then says, “Huh, who is [saying] that?” and the voice replies “[I am a] house sitting angel.” The boy then thinks to himself, “strange, angels are suppose to be cuter” but then reasons by saying that “he has a halo and wings therefore he is an angel.” The house sitting angel then says, “I was thinking we could play together” and the boy replies, “is that so? Well, then…” and the house sitting angel and the boy play hid and seek. The little boy proclaims, “Where… [could the house sitting angel be hiding]” even though he already knows where he is because his halo is glowing above the couch. Then the boy wants to share a snack with the house sitting angel. They eat doughnuts together and the little boy proclaims, “doughnuts are delicious” but then states that “[he] cannot tell the difference between the doughnut and the house sitting angel’s halo. And then the little boy exercises with the house sitting angel. They count eight repetitions of different exercises before the house sitting angel’s back starts to hurt. Then they take a bath together. The little boy exclaims, “look, look, ice cream” while playing with the bubbles in the bath. The little boy notes that the bath with the house sitting angel feels good. Then the little boy and the house sitting angel use the toilet, but the house sitting angel fell asleep on the toilet and tells the little boy “not yet” when he is calling out to use the toilet. The little boy notes that the house sitting angel’s [time using the] toilet is a little bit long. Finally, the little boy says, “it was fun” and asks the house sitting angel, “why did you come to my place?” and just as the house sitting angel was about to answer following a long drawn out “well…” the little boy’s mother returns. After opening the door, she proclaims that “[she] is home” and asks her son “how was [your time of] staying at home?” and the little boy answers that it was “fun! because a house sitting angel came, and that even now he is still there” The little boy returns to the living room with his mom to see the house sitting angel, but he is no longer there. The little boy hopes that next time he has to stay at home that the house sitting angel will return. On the last page there is a framed photo sitting on a desk of an old man that looks like the house sitting angel holding a baby boy who looks like the little boy, so from that we discover that the house sitting angel is actually the little boy’s grandpa who passed away when the boy was younger.

Such a heartwarming story. Check out the homepage for updates on newest posts, hopefully I will continue to read and review children’s books, but either way you are likely to find something new and interesting. Thanks for reading ^_^

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