Three famous (somewhat) phrases translated into Japanese and explained.
Let’s look at some famous phrases in Japanese!
EASY:
1) 鳥だ！ tori da! – It’s a bird!
飛行機だ！ hikouki da! – It’s a plane!
スーパーマンだ！ su-pa-man da! – It’s SUPERMAN!
WORDS:
鳥 tori – “a Bird”
だ da – informal form of desu
飛行機 hikouki – “an Airplane”
スーパーマン su-pa-man – “Superman” == Written in Katakana (because it is a foreign word)
2) 来た、見た、勝った。 kita, mita, katta – “I came, I saw, I conquered!” – Caesar’s Famous Line
WORDS:
来た kita – “came” == simple past of ‘KURU’ – to come
見た mita – “saw” == simple past of ‘MIRU’ – to see
勝った katta – “won” == simple past of ‘KATSU’ – to win
3) 昔々あるところに mukashi mukashi, aru tokoro ni … – like the English, “Once upon a time…” an opener for fairy tales and other stories
WORDS:
昔 mukashi – “long ago” “old days”… == The ‘々’ symbol means X2 so “MUKASHI” X2 – “A long, long time ago”
ある aru – “a” “some” “a certain”… == other ‘ARU’ uses include, “ARU HI” -‘One Day’ & “ARU TOKI” – ‘Once’…
ところ tokoro – “a place”
に ni – “in” TO TRANSLATE: “A long, long time ago, in a certain place… (there lived an old man…)”
INTERMEDIATE:
1) 無限の彼方まで！ mugen no kanata made – Buzz Lightyear’s famous line in Toy Story, “To Infinity and Beyond!”
WORDS:
無限 mugen – “infinite”
の no -“‘s” possessive
彼方 kanata – “yonder” “far away”
まで made – “until” “to” “as far as”
*** A direct (and clumsy) translation of the Japanese perhaps would be: “Until the infinity’s beyond!”
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
until next time…
MUGEN NO KANATA MADE!!!
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
