0:27

Hello. You're listening to

0:29

learn Japanese pod, the podcast

0:32

that helps you to speak more naturally and

0:34

fluently with Japanese. And

0:37

I am joined by our

0:39

wonderful Ami Sensei who's going

0:41

to be teaching us some useful phrases,

0:43

grammar, and vocabulary. Hankidis,

0:50

Alex, Okay.

1:00

Can body mass. I will do

1:02

Nobody's not sure. Yes. We

1:04

shall. So,

1:07

Ami sensei, Hi. What

1:10

are we going to be studying in today's

1:12

podcast?

1:14

In this podcast, we'll be studying

1:16

levels of certainty in Japanese.

1:19

So we'll be teaching you how to

1:21

express the probability you think

1:23

something will happen. In

1:25

English, we do this all the time,

1:27

right, with words such as

1:30

definitely, probably, and

1:32

might. And of course, you can

1:34

do that in Japanese too. However,

1:37

one feature of Japanese is that

1:39

people tend to be less direct and

1:42

use more tentative language. And

1:44

that means there are a lot of ways to

1:46

say you think something may

1:49

or might happen. And

1:51

in fact, there are so many.

1:54

We won't be able to teach you them

1:56

all in this podcast, but

1:58

this will be a good introduction. As

2:01

always, we'll give you example

2:04

sentences as well as some dialogues

2:06

to give you a good idea of how to say the

2:08

phrases we teach you naturally in

2:11

conversation. You also get

2:13

the opportunity to listen to us

2:15

have an unscripted conversation to

2:17

allow you to practice your Japanese listening

2:19

and increase your vocabulary. So

2:22

let's dive into today's First

2:24

example, which is the dialogue you heard

2:26

at the beginning of the podcast. Have

2:29

a listen again and see how much you can

2:31

understand. Also, see

2:33

if you can figure out the level of certainty

2:35

each speaker is using. We'll

2:37

break down the dialogue afterwards.

3:02

Okay. So The

3:04

beginning of the conversation was

3:07

pretty easy. Right? What did

3:09

I say?

3:14

Pretty simple. This

3:18

weekend, your their

3:20

plans, are you have?

3:23

So do you have any

3:25

plans this weekend? That's

3:30

a very useful phrase. Right

3:33

north about there. That's great. Yeah.

3:36

Yeah. Good conversation topic too.

3:39

How about So

3:47

We got two sentences there. First

3:49

one, probably,

3:53

so there's one

3:55

way of saying probably or

3:58

I think, honking. So

4:01

in this context, Hunting

4:04

is actually sort of it

4:07

could be the name or the area of

4:09

a kansai area.

4:12

But in this context, Hanxing is

4:15

the or is a name of

4:17

a baseball team

4:19

in Japan. Know

4:21

of. Cheyenne. Cheyenne

4:24

is game or match,

4:27

depending on how you call it. Or

4:30

Watch.

4:40

I think. So I think

4:42

I'll watch the hunching

4:45

game. And I

4:47

should note here that

4:49

it's Hanxin tigers, which

4:52

is the number

4:54

one most popular based on

4:56

team in all of Kansai. And

4:59

Kansai people are very proud of their

5:01

team. Yes. Very proud of their team. Yeah. It's very proud.

5:04

Proud. Uh-huh.

5:06

Suki means that, take cuts is the

5:08

next sentence. Suki

5:11

is next, is

5:14

also to die

5:17

definitely and then

5:20

cuts his win. So you

5:23

know, we're saying, we're gonna

5:25

win

5:26

again. For sure, we're definitely

5:28

gonna win again.

5:30

And that is the good old can

5:32

side confidence there. I

5:36

guess so. And then Alex

5:39

said, sokana. And

5:42

that that could mean a lot

5:44

of things, but it's saying, I

5:47

wonder if that's so. Is kind

5:49

of But thought really, really. Like,

5:51

really? Oh, like, I'm

5:53

not sure. And

5:56

then

5:59

So now. So

6:01

maybe you guys know that word

6:07

Right.

6:08

Yeah. But in this context,

6:11

it is the name also

6:13

a name of a baseball

6:15

team. It is dance,

6:19

and it's pronounced, in

6:21

baseball. Whereas

6:23

if it's just a term for a giant,

6:26

it would be so, you

6:28

know, there's a slight difference

6:30

in intonation or pitch

6:33

there. So means

6:44

may, and then,

6:46

you know, it is followed by

6:50

or it is preceded by the verb. So

6:55

may, win, and

6:57

then your emphasis. So

7:04

Koji may win. Like,

7:07

hey, you know, who

7:09

knows? Oh, I don't know. Kelji

7:12

might win this time.

7:14

That's kind of the meaning of

7:16

that. And then the next sentence

7:18

was

7:22

Like, did dyes again means

7:24

definitely and then night.

7:27

So definitely not. Did

7:30

dye night. Of

7:32

course is again emphasis. Definitely

7:36

not. I

7:38

am confident. Gisheng means

7:40

confident. Have.

7:42

So I have confidence or I am

7:44

confident. You

7:48

show together. Minai

7:53

Minai is watch

7:55

or see.

7:57

And ishoni Minai is Do

7:59

you wanna watch together? Yeah.

8:02

The the this is an interesting grammatical

8:04

construction because it literally says,

8:06

together, not watch.

8:08

Mm-mm. Mm-mm.

8:11

Or in other words, won't you

8:13

watch this with me. Is there an email? So

8:16

when you're asking someone

8:18

out, maybe

8:20

to I don't know. Anything watch a movie

8:22

or --

8:23

Yeah. -- go up for coffee, you can

8:25

actually put the verb in the negative.

8:27

So cocky. No man. Yeah.

8:30

Eger. mean, I think we covered this in

8:32

a previous podcast they Yeah. -- it's sunny, midnight.

8:34

Don't don't you wanna come or or mona

8:36

actually. Why don't you why don't you

8:39

come and watch it with me? I

8:42

think it's like one of, you

8:44

know, I don't

8:46

wanna say few, but one

8:48

of

8:50

perry, sort of, like, tricky Japanese

8:54

grammatical points there. Yeah.

8:57

it can it can be a big like, if you're

8:59

reading it in text

9:01

form, it might be more confusing. I

9:03

think if you hear it in the conversation, it's

9:06

maybe a little bit easy to understand because

9:08

there is the

9:09

intonation. Right? You're showing me now. Mhmm.

9:12

Don't you wanna come and watch it with me?

9:14

Something like that. Exactly.

9:17

And then last but not least,

9:20

so Jat

9:23

is very useful and we hear it all

9:25

the time. Jat is like,

9:27

well then or okay

9:30

then. Mio Kana.

9:33

Mio is watch, and then

9:35

Kana is maybe

9:38

or I guess. Like,

9:41

maybe I'll okay then.

9:43

I guess or maybe maybe I'll

9:45

watch it. It's

9:48

it's I I don't know

9:51

what the percentage of confidence is,

9:53

but it's a slightly noncommittal agreement

9:55

to do something. It's like down me? Or can I

9:58

yeah? May maybe I'll watch it. Something

10:00

something like that. Yeah. It's pretty

10:02

like, I I would say maybe, like,

10:05

seventy, eighty percent. So There you

10:07

go. More towards yes. But

10:09

More towards yes. Got

10:10

it. Yeah. Well, there you go.

10:13

So that that there you go. So

10:15

if you were ever wondering, dear

10:17

listener, about levels of certainty,

10:20

that conversation gives

10:22

you some examples. So as we heard, we had

10:24

taboo, probably maybe.

10:26

We had zedai, which is absolutely

10:29

or definitely. Which

10:31

is, like, really, maybe, may, may,

10:35

or maybe. Again,

10:38

was absolutely and

10:40

then a verb with Kanami

10:43

or Kanami, maybe I'll watch it.

10:46

So so that's a really good model.

10:48

So have a listen to that conversation

10:52

a couple more times just to get your ears

10:54

used to those phrases. But

10:56

those are some really good

10:59

phrases to demonstrate levels

11:01

of certainty. Mhmm. And

11:03

although in in this conversation, of

11:06

course, antisense being from

11:08

Kansai, is very confident

11:11

in the ability of her

11:14

team to win hunching targets to win. So,

11:20

Ami Sensei, that that's a really great

11:22

breakdown. Thanks for going through

11:24

that dialogue.

11:25

You're welcome. Could you perhaps

11:28

maybe go

11:31

over? Could

11:34

you go over some of the grammar

11:37

that's related to today's phrases?

11:39

Maybe maybe give us a couple more examples.

11:42

Okay. So There are a lot

11:44

of ways to express certain tea in Japanese,

11:46

and as I mentioned before, we

11:48

probably can't cover them all.

11:51

But I will

11:54

give you guys a list of must know phrases

11:56

that will give you a good start. To

11:59

the topic. Nobody

12:02

wants this. So as you heard

12:05

in today's dialogue, to

12:07

express absolute certainty,

12:09

you can say or

12:13

at the particle need to say

12:17

So for example, I'm

12:21

definitely going. Or

12:27

there's no way I'm going to lose.

12:29

I'm definitely not losing. Or

12:36

I'll absolutely pass

12:38

the test. Okay? I

12:40

missense a bit of a question. Hi.

12:43

So you can say

12:45

something something something But you you

12:47

can you also drop the knee particle

12:50

as well?

12:51

Absolutely. If you want it really, really

12:53

casual. Right. Because I could

12:57

Okay. So

13:03

Okay. That's yeah. That's good example. So

13:05

I would say, yeah, that's probably more

13:08

natural and you hear that more often.

13:10

Mhmm. And there are

13:12

a few other phrases for talking

13:15

with absolute certainty like

13:18

something something nichey guy night

13:20

or something something But

13:26

is probably the most

13:29

commonly used phrase depending

13:31

on situation. Okay?

13:34

Everybody could so far. The

13:36

next set of phrases is

13:38

for saying that you think something might

13:41

happen. Now, as I

13:43

mentioned before, Japanese tend

13:45

to talk more tentatively, so there

13:47

are a lot of phrases, but here

13:49

are a few phrases you might find. Useful.

13:53

The first one is

13:58

this means something like probably or

14:00

might depending on the context. So

14:03

for example, I

14:07

may go It

14:11

might be difficult. It's

14:16

probably okay. Again,

14:19

depending on the context, doesn't

14:21

can express anything from might

14:23

to probably. The best thing to do

14:25

is to learn from contacts and listening

14:27

to lots of real world examples

14:30

to get a better idea of how to use

14:32

it. Yeah. I've I've I've

14:34

talked to Japanese friends about

14:36

this and said, what does carbon mean in English?

14:38

They said, probably, And then

14:41

another friend says, it means might.

14:43

No, it means probably. Well, it

14:45

might probably mean probably

14:48

Maybe.

14:49

I'd say, like, I think, you

14:51

know. Yeah. Right.

14:52

Right. Think. Yeah. So

14:54

if it doesn't these words don't

14:57

map exact on to English and

14:59

I find that, like, as you said,

15:01

Ami Sensei, I think just getting

15:04

lots of exposure to the language and

15:06

listening to these words in context will

15:08

give you a better feel for how to use these

15:10

words more naturally. Yeah. Absolutely.

15:13

Okay. So here's the next one. So

15:18

this means might or could

15:21

and is used to express a lower

15:23

level of certainty. For example,

15:28

it might go, it

15:32

might be pretty tough. It

15:37

might rain tomorrow. So

15:40

I would say slightly less Yeah.

15:43

Mhmm. A level

15:45

of certainty. Mhmm. And by the way,

15:47

you can just shorten, to

15:50

just So for example, I

15:58

might go or it

16:02

might rain tomorrow. Okay?

16:05

And finally, we have This

16:08

is added to the end of a sentence to

16:10

express uncertainty or

16:12

doubt. For example, I

16:17

wonder if this is no good. I

16:22

wonder if he might come. I

16:27

wonder if the weather is good today.

16:30

Okay? Another really useful phrase

16:32

is which

16:35

is used to mean something like, I'm not

16:37

sure about that. So for

16:39

example, someone could say, I'm

16:44

sure it'll be fine to which

16:46

you could say, I'm

16:48

not sure about that.

16:51

So by using these expressions, you

16:53

can convey different levels of certainty

16:55

in your Japanese conversations. It's

16:58

important to pay attention to the context

17:00

and tone of the conversation to determine

17:03

which expression to use. And

17:05

remember, each expression can be used

17:07

in subtly different ways.

17:10

But as long as you get lots

17:12

of listening

17:13

practice, you should be able to get

17:15

used to how these phrases are used.

17:17

Well, I mean since I thank you

17:20

so much for that amazing explanation. Yeah.

17:22

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Don't model it on the mom.

17:24

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And now

17:27

it's time to maybe switch into

17:29

Japanese so we can practice some of these

17:31

words. And we'll

17:34

have a little off script conversation

17:37

in Japanese --

17:38

Mhmm. -- and for our premium

17:40

members you can actually get access

17:42

to the transcripts of this conversation

17:45

if you want to study this in more depth.

17:47

And for more information about that,

17:49

just visit our main website

17:51

at learn japanese bot dot com. So

17:55

Hi. I'm Yossi and say I have a couple

17:57

of questions I'm gonna ask you in Japanese

17:59

and maybe --

18:00

Mhmm. you can you

18:02

can reply any way you want and

18:06

Not use any of terms that we

18:08

we set today. Right. This is

18:10

digital. Actually, actually,

18:13

this is a nonscript conversation, so

18:15

that's totally fine. Okay.

18:18

But anyway, okay, question number

18:20

one. Okay.

18:49

Hi king. In

20:35

Hey, Siri. Capitation.

20:39

Yeah, please. Hi.

21:49

Hi. Hi.

22:13

It's your Electronic

22:37

pop. Great.

22:49

Yes.

22:50

Well, thank you, Ami, since

22:52

I

22:52

Yeah. That's great. Yeah. Very good. Very

22:55

good.

23:01

So dear listener, that's

23:03

it for this week. Don't forget that the

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23:17

What? Yeah. It's

23:20

true. A Japanese only

23:22

audio file that features Japanese phrases

23:24

from the podcast you can use to improve your

23:26

listening. What? Plus

23:31

you can get detailed PDF

23:33

show notes with full transcriptions of

23:35

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wait, there's more. Wait, there's more. We'll

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join our premium member area.

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All you need to do is just visit learn japanese

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24:04

as always, if you have any questions, send

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24:09

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24:11

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24:13

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24:15

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24:17

of course, thank you so

24:19

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24:21

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24:23

We humbly bow in your

24:26

direction. Thank

24:30

you. Your

24:33

support will allow us

24:36

to make more also

24:39

we can support Ami

24:41

Sensei's Takoyaki addiction

24:44

because she she does tend to eat

24:46

a lot of

24:47

Takoyaki. It's true.

24:48

Takoyaki addiction and Takoyaki

24:50

a song that Alex and I

24:52

are making trying to make. So

25:00

thank you so much, That

25:07

was so much fun. That

25:10

was. See

25:13

you soon.