The first thing to remember about Japanese is that they speak like Yoda. Optionally, you can watch this for mild amusement and a small explanation by the sexy guy from Tofugu:
We'll go into more detail about this later, but for now it's helpful to know that instead of
S V O (English): I (subject) eat (verb) bread (object) it would be:
S V O (Japanese): Watashi wa (I) pan o (object) tabenai (verb)
if you were wondering, 'wa' defines the subject, and the 'o' connects the object to the verb.
Aside from all that, here are some useful phrases:
Hajimemashite!- Nice to meet you!; not directly translated, but it is a common first greeting for people in Japan.
Watashi wa ____ desu. - I am _(name)_.
Ohayou gozaimasu - good morning; gozaimasu is a 'polite word' and doesn't actually translate into anything in English. So you CAN just say 'ohayou', but generally polite is a better choice.
Konnichi wa! - good afternoon!/hello! *nichi=day
Konban wa! - good evening! *ban=night
Sayounara - good bye; said when leaving for a long time
Mata ne! - see ya! (casual)
(Sore) ga suki. - I like (this). (Sore) can be replaced with anything else you like, e.x. Ichigo ga suki, or "I like strawberries".
(Sore) ga suki ja nai... - I don't like this...; polite form, literally is something like 'I don't like this very much'.
That's all for today, folks(: Next post will probably contain pronunciation tips and some common phrases! And I encourage everybody to check out Tofugu's blog site, http://www.tofugu.com .
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