(no subject)

[kittydesade]

Describing physical appearance and skills, using ~は　~が.

Describing physical appearance:
石田さんは　目が　きれいです。
Ishida-san has beautiful eyes.

Describing skills and ability:
スミスさんは　テニスが　じょうずです。　（上手）
Smith-san is good at tennis.

みち子さんは　えいごが　すこし　わかります。
Michiko understands English a little. (Okay, I thought I was hallucinating, but no, they omitted the -san from the English in this translation under the hiragana. Huh.)

あの人は　足が　とても　ながいですね。
That person has long legs!

そうですね。　それに　かみが　とても　きれいですね。
Yes. Also, he has beautiful hair.

チョーさんは　日本語が　わかりますか。
Do you understand Japanese, Cho-san?

ええ、　わかります。　でも、　あまり　上手じゃありません。
Yes, I do. But I'm not very good at it.

A sentence describing a skiill/ability or physical appearance ends with the adjective 上手　or the intransitive verb わかる. Unlike a transitive verb, an intransitive verb does not take a direct object or the direct object marker　を. Instead, the particle　が is used.

Yamada-san understands French.
山田さんは　フランス語が　わかります。
Ishida-san is good at English.
石田さんは　えいごが　上手です。

Like すき　and きらい, the plain present affirmative form of a verb +　の　can be used with 上手.

Tanaka-san is good at singing songs.
田中さんは　うたを　うたうのが　上手です。


I cannot switch keyboards tonight for the life of me. I just went through Russian and Spanish before finally landing on Japanese. I have, however, determined that I have only two chapters left, after which there will be a giant sized review. Possibly the plan for this review will be to write down all the grammar points in brief, maybe the way they're listed in the chapters, and then make sentences with them. Or paragraphs or something. That seems like a decent plan, which means we get to see if it survives the first engagement with the enemy.

The other lesson plan for tonight involves getting used to things again. That'll be interesting. And involve a lot of Pink Floyd.

I picked up a Yuletide pinch hit that also looks like it's going to end up being pretty big, which means no more pinch hits for me until I finish these two stories. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Although I do expect to get a fair chunk of things done tonight, both the stories are coming really fast and hard. Joy! Um. Things and stuff.

I am turning into such a knitting freak these days you have no idea. I got a not-full ball of sock yarn (Trekking XXL, for those of you who keep track) in shades of pink thrown at me today, for the purposes of pink arm warmers. Which I think I will make just because I can, dammit. And because pink on a lot of black is amusing, and I do wear a lot of black. Of course, this comes after the pair of arm warmers I'm finishing up, the pair of arm warmers I'll hopefully finish up for the Elf Lord this weekend, the green scarf I'm working on... yeah. I am turning into a knitting fiend. Which is good, because I am also a spinning fiend. And it is all very awesome.

Okay! Now I'm going to go be awesome to the tune of lots and lots of Pink Floyd. Shit, this means I should probably learn how to read music, doesn't it. Fuck. I haven't done that in twenty years or so.