ＨＥＬＬＯ！ Ｉ　ＡＭ　ＱＵＩＺＢＯ™！And, welcome to Kiki+Koko: Let’s NihonGO!! Online’s Japanese Word of the Week Wednesday! But, in order to make it a bit easier, you can call it Word of the Week with QUIZBO™—that’s me. I am the robot computer friend of Kiki and Koko, and perhaps, you as well? I am here to assist you with your Japanese language studies, or at least to broaden your linguistic horizons. This is a special segment that I created to ensure as many learning opportunities as possible. Before Word of the Week Wednesday, the three days between Monday and Friday laid dormant as days without new content or learning opportunities. But, with the help of Kiki+Koko, a new corner was cemented. Though this segment is meant for a learning opportunity, it is equally important as a reminder to revise/ review previous lessons. You can catch up on older lessons or revise/review recent ones. The choice is yours! I am here to simply assist you in your journey.

As the title implies, this corner introduces a Japanese word or phrase. I not only define the word for you, but I present to you an original Japanese sentence along with the help of Kiki+Koko, who also provide helpful hints during the segment. The sentences not only allow for an opportunity to see how the word is used, but it also provides a chance to practise reading. There is the top row that has its original mixture of Japanese scripts, followed by hiragana, then romaji, and finally simply, the English translation. Associating the word with different concepts will help you retain the word more efficiently.

This is Word of the Week Wednesday, but you can enjoy this any day of the week. During this corner, I will present to you a word or phrase in Japanese. I will present it to you using its original Japanese format, then simplified in hiragana, and simplified further into romanised characters. However, I do not simply leave you with a definition, I also read the word aloud for you as many times as you fancy. I make sure to say it slowly, as well. It is encouraged to repeat after me, as it should assist you in learning the phrase properly.

If you would like to learn how to apply these words to your own basic sentences, feel free to take a look at a few of Kiki and Koko’s articles on this subject in Kiki+Koko: Let’s NihonGO!! Japanese Language Essentials.

However, I do not simply leave you with the vocabulary words and expect you to fend for yourself. I am sure to read each of the words aloud for you, slowly and carefully. The sentences, however, would be a bit much to memorise and are meant to be used as examples rather than reused in their entirety, so these are read aloud at normal speed. This should assist you in listening to Japanese sentences as well. Sometimes, listening without context does not help many people, as it is exposure without structure, which can leave many people discouraged. But, with this method, you have constructive listening in order to isolate words and their usage in sentences.

And, here to further assist you with your studies, explaining the usage of the current vocabulary word we have Kiki+Koko with their Helpful Hints, right after these messages.

Word(s) of the Week:

買い物【かいもの】※
kaimono
noun, suru verb
1. shopping

※Helpful Hints with Kiki+Koko

Photo via @kikikokoNihonGO on Twitter

Hello, there!

We’re Kiki and Koko from Kiki+Koko: Let’s NihonGO!! And it’s time to give you some helpful hints that tie into today’s Word of the Week as well as a few ways to use it. If you’re already familiar with some basic Japanese conjugation from extra studying or inference from our examples, then the way this word works may seem a bit strange, but when you take a look at a few previous words from previous segments, this will make a lot more sense.

So, if you remember 食べ物 and 飲み物—or if you have a quick click of the links—then you may infer that 買い物, kaimono, has to come from a verb conjugated to 買い, kai. And, you would be correct! This comes from the verb 買う, kau, meaning to buy, in this instance. Looking at the latter half, 物, mono, also means thing or object. Which means that 買い物, kaimono, literally means thing that you buy. Over time, you will definitely encounter more words with this structure or pattern, in which you can have the benefit of possibly learning a verb along with it. And, you’ll have that same benefit today! Of course, if you’d like to use the word 買う, kau, you’ll want to use the basic polite version, at least.

買います【かいます】
kaimasu

For example, you may want to say：

買い物に　行きます。スマホを　買います。
kaimono ni ikimasu. sumaho wo kaimasu.
I am going shopping. I will buy a phone.

Oh, and that’s another important phrase! If you want to say you’ll go shopping, it’s literally, 買い物に行く, kaimono ni iku. This grammatically works out to going (for the purpose of) shopping. We’ll definitely cover this in future particle lessons, but in the meantime, we recommend getting a good grasp of the current particles. Many beginners and even native speakers can struggle with particles, but with time and hopefully understandable instruction from your guides to Japanese language and culture, it’ll become much more natural. Sometimes it’s all in perspective. Sometimes phrases feel natural to an English speaker and other times, not quite. When you’re learning Japanese grammar, it’s definitely best to mentally start with a clean slate and never assume it works out the same way as English. We’ll cover more essential Japanese grammar for you, though, so you won’t be left in the lurch.

Otherwise, one other thing you may want to say, is to do the shopping— This would just be the act of shopping, not exactly to shop, more so do shopping. But, this can be translated as to shop. But, hopefully, this will help separate it from 買う, kau. It works quite differently grammatically as を, even if you don’t see it, is already in use. This would be:

買い物を　する / 買い物を　します。
kaimono wo suru / kaimono wo shimasu.
(I will) do the shopping. (dictionary form/ basic polite form)

Actually, in many grammatical situations such as this, there can be an を, but more often, you’ll see it omitted as:

買い物　する / 買い物　します。
kaimono suru / kaimono wo shimasu.
(I will) shop. (dictionary form/ basic polite form)

This simply happens with する, suru, and します, shimasu, but it does change the grammatical usage and has different emphasis that may be touched on in the lesson referenced above. It’s a bit much for a Word of the Week to fully explain, but this should hopefully get you acclimated to shopping in Japanese.

We hope that helps!! Until the next lesson!
♡Kiki+Koko

Thank you, Kiki and Koko! With your addition to the article, I have included another bonus word that will be helpful to readers. That is correct, it is time for another Bonus Word of the Week, then on to Japanese sentence examples using the vocabulary.

Bonus Word(s) of the Week:

買う【かう】
kau
verb, godan, transitive
1. to buy; to purchase
2. to value/appreciate; to ‘buy into’
3. to provoke
4. to accept; to take up (e.g. a challenge)

This does have some more advanced vocabulary, however, so I may provide more sentences in future as it may become too complex to cover in a few sentences below.

Example Sentences:

The first row is in Japanese with Kanji. The Next row is in hiragana, then romanised using rōmaji with the final row translated into English.
(Japanese→Hiragana→Rōmaji→English)

Example #1:

[basic polite speech]
オンラインで　買い物するのは　便利ですが、服なら、買う前に着てみたいのです。
おんらいんでかいものするのは　べんりですけど、ふくなら、かうまえに　きてみたいのです。
onrain de kaimono suru no wa benri desuga, fuku nara, kaumae ni kite mitai no desu.
Shopping online is convenient, but if it’s clothes, I like to try before I buy.

Example #2:

[casual speech]
あのローポリゴンっぽいトラックを見たの?　お洒落でまあまあの値が　つけられてるんだけど、買うの?
あの　ろーぽりごんっぽい　とらっくを　みたの？　おしゃれで　まあまあ　あたいが　つけられてるんだけど、　かうの？
ano rooporigon ppoi torakku wo mita no? oshare de maa maa no atai ga tsukareterun dakedo, kau no?
Have you seen that low poly truck? It’s stylish and reasonably priced, but will you buy it?

Example #3:

[casual speech]

休みにどこか行くと、みんなにお土産を買ってあげなければならないもん。暗黙のルールなのよ。
やすみに　どこかいくと、みんなに　おみやげを　かってあげなければならないもん。あんもくのるーるなのよ。
yasumi ni dokoka iku to , minna ni omiyage wo katte agenakereba naranai mon. anmoku no ruuru nanoyo.
If you go somewhere on holiday, you have to buy souvenirs for everyone. It’s an implicit rule.

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Thank you so much for learning with us!
♡QUIZBO™