Thanks to the popularity of Japanese films, video games, and anime, more and more people around the world have started to learn the Japanese language. The Japanese language is one of the most fast-paced spoken languages in the world. Here are six essential facts about this incredible language and Japanese translation:
Making Sentences Only with Verbs In Japanese Translation
For native English speakers, Japanese can be one of the most challenging languages to learn because of its totally-different grammar rules. For example, English sentences typically follow a subject-verb-object (SVO) word order. In contrast, Japanese uses a subject-object-verb (SOV) order. However, in Japanese, it’s not necessary to specify the subject and objects are optional. As a result, forming a sentence using only verbs is grammatically correct when providing translation services.
Japanese Has Three Writing Systems
There are three writing systems in the Japanese language: the Japanese alphabets hiragana and katakana, as well as the Chinese characters known as kanji. The three writing systems coexist and are occasionally employed in the same sentence. Kanji is combined with hiragana to make words and sentences, while katakana is used for foreign loanwords as well as emphasis.
There are No Plurals in Japanese
In the Japanese language, there’s no difference between saying ‘there is an apple’ and ‘there are apples.’ To avoid confusion, people usually use a number and a counter with plurals or make it understood through context. Additionally, Japanese doesn’t differentiate between ‘a’, ‘an’, and ‘the’. While this doesn’t cause significant problems for English speakers of Japanese, this linguistic concept is kind of tricky for non-English speakers of Japanese.
Japanese Is An Official Language
Japan is the only country with the Japanese language as its official language. However, the language is popularly spoken in many places of the world. For example, in 2010 in the US, 1% of Californians and 15% of Hawaiian residents speak Japanese.
Unique Names of the Days of the Week
The Japanese names of the days of the week come from the 7 seven mobile stars in the order of Monday to Sunday: the Sun, the Moon, Mars (kanji of fire), Mercury (kanji of the water), Jupiter (wood kanji), Venus (metal kanji) and Saturn (earth kanji).
The Four Ways to Express “I” In Japanese Translation
One interesting fact about Japanese is that even the same word can have different meanings when expressed differently. For instance, when talking about yourself in Japanese, there are multiple ways to say “I”, a fact that can trip up even skilled providers of interpreting services:
- “Watashi” is the most common and standard word which can be used in any situation regardless of age or gender.
- “Watakushi” sounds more polite than “Watashi” and is perfect for formal situations.
- “Boku” means the same but sounds more childish and is mostly used by young boys.
- “Ore” is suitable for men to use in casual situations, whereas it is not preferable when talking to someone who is older than you.
Japanese Translation Services at Language Connections
Are you looking for language translation or interpreting services? The Japanese translation team at Language Connections consists of trained linguists who provide exemplary professional language services. Our Japanese specialists come from diverse backgrounds and are experts in their subject areas, allowing us to complete projects perfectly in many industries. If you have questions about Japanese business translation, technical translation, legal translation, or others, please reach out.
About Language Connections:
Language Connections is one of the top language service companies in the US. Over the last 30 years, we’ve focused on providing the best business translation services, interpreting services, as well as interpreter training and customized language training programs. In addition to top-tier corporate language training, we offer certified corporate interpreters and professional business translation services in 200+ languages. Our network includes linguists with backgrounds in all major industries. They’re ready to meet your needs, whether they’re for technical translation services, legal translation, government translation services, international development translation services, education translation services, life sciences translation, or something else. Reach out to us today for a free quote on our cost-efficient and timely translation services, interpreters, or other linguistic services.
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