Another quick language post.
I was doing my Sound of Music translation, and another sentence said, “I had nine and a half children then.”
So I translated it as:
Sono toki (then) watashi wa (I) kyuunin no kodomotachi motte imashita. (had nine children). NOTE: This translation is wrong!
I checked what I wrote with a co-worker (they are life savers) and I learned another two important rules about talking about things you have. The first was NI. に。
If you want to say “I have something” where that “thing” is a person, then you need to put, には after わたし。
E.g I have a cousin.
わたしにわいとこがいます。
(watashi ni wa, itoko ga imasu).
Here I put the “NI WA” to make it relative to me. If I left it out, it would sound strange, but if i am talking about a PSP or something like that, I leave it out, because its a “thing” not a person.
I have a PSP.
私はＰＳＰをもっています。
（watashi wa PSP wo motte imasu) I found that difference very helpful.
The second thing I learned was about the way you say “I have a child” or “I have a (Creature)”
Instead of saying “motte imasu” which is literally “i have”, you just say “exists”. I remembered this when I did some Japanese study a few years back, but i’m glad I re-learned it. So saying
“I have three children” is literally: For me, three children exist.
so 私にわさんいんおこどもたちいます。
(watashi wa, san nin no kodomotachi imasu ).
I’m writing these posts to track stuff I learn, but I find it cool to be able to evolve to this point where I am really starting to pick out grammatical points. I haven’t reached expressing conditional mooods, or arguing with a girlfriend about who paid the water bill yet, but its a start. But I will focus more on grammar after I’m done with RTK1.
cheers
Jamaican Learning Japanese 