"Yes, I am American."
Translation:はい、アメリカ人です。
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Wouldn't this mean: "Yes American person is"? Like from where does the "I am" part come from if you don't use "watashi"? This is so confusing.
It is context sensitive. This is a thing will se in japanese a LOT. If the person you are talking to understands that now we are talking about this topic then you don't need it. は is commonly referred to as the topic marker particle meaning that it is usually only needed when changing topics.
I'm sure this is asked a lot but, what is the difference between a Topic and a Subject? And an Object for that matter?
OK - for subjects and objects I recommend you to read the following - https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/grammar/subjects-and-objects.
A topic is like bringing a particular subject, object, complement or phrase up and comments of the topic follows the topic. One would normally mark an element as a topic when
- There is a negative clause following the element.
- It is a question to the listener about the element.
- The speaker wants to compare similar elements with the topic chosen.
It is amazingly hard to explain, and topic-based languages are FUNDAMENTALLY different to subject-based languages like English. https://8020japanese.com/wa-vs-ga/?fbclid=IwAR2jqa8Z-AY4im4ZhR7y3SLt7DmNS5qWbRGB8ci6fLRf5iz0SOAIkLeocPY This article helped me wonders in my war to try and understand what the h*cc は is, if you have an open mind and are willing to accept that some languages just are different, this will be your strongest tool right now.
It is similar in Spanish where you don't use the subject as it is usually known by the verb or the context.
You can use わたしは after はい and before アメリカ.
はい、わたしは アメリカ人です。 is correct sentence.
Constantly saying わたし in japanese is almost culturally similar to referring to yourself in third person all the time. It sounds strange and isn't smart practice. More often that not, it isn't needed because people already know that you are talking about yourself.
That really makes a lot of sense, but it honestly feels like at times Duo wants you to use "わたし" and sometimes it doesn't. Its really hard to tell when and it just seems random.
Why do you think so?
Both sentences are correct sentences as Japanese language.
わたしも means "I also", so it would mean "Yes, I am also American" which is a different sentence used in different situations.
There is now, they changed the selections. And yet it's wrong. When the previous lessons tell you it's right. Either the Japanese course is a mess, or they're purposefully tripping up free users to tempt them with premium to ditch the health system.
Why does the male voice sound like it's saying "Isto" instead of "jin"?
When you want to turn a statement into a question.
・アメリカ人です = "(I) am American." 》 アメリカ人ですか = "Are (you) American?"
I put the subject in brackets because they're what is usually assumed without any other context.
The "hito" character is pronounced as "jin" in this instance, meaning person. アメリカ by itself would just mean America but by adding 人 you get アメリカ人 meaning American. Someone else explained this better in an above comment too, if more clarification is needed.
"人" indicates that you or someone is an American person/from America. アメリカ = America, アメリカ人 = American.
I read on another thread that でわあります is the polite form of です
If that's the case, why doesn't it accept アメリカ人でわあります?
You probably mean であります, but that is a rather archaic form (primarily used in the Edo period, if my research isn't mistaken).
The polite negative form for です on the other hand, is still very much in use, and is somewhat similar: ではありません
Why is there 人 here when you are addressing what you are? When you call yourself a student you don't use it.
Just like American (-an), British (-sh), German (-an), Dutch (-ch), teacher (-er), doctor (-or), there are a number of ways saying who you are. In this case, 学生 (-生), 先生 (-生) they both have the (-生) which means "the living." Some other examples, 看護師 (-師 nurse)、事務員 (-員 office staff)、アメリカ人 (-人 American). Just like English, not always 人.
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Is it wrong to say いい、アメリカ人です？ I'm confused about the difference between いい and はい or are they interchangeable?
ええ、アメリカ人です should be correct. ええ and はい are both used in conversations but はい is more used in written form.
Just to clarify: ええ is the spoken form equivalent of はい
But いい means "good/well" not "yes", so it is not at all interchangeable with はい.
But in spoken japanese you can use Watashi without a wa only by making a pause
Only with people you're close with, and then you have to use the "futsu" (dictionary) form of verbs you're using, and then it still sounds weird.
You need the "wa" to indicate what is the object of the sentence, ex: "Watashi HA, Mira-san ga sunde itta uchi o shite imasu": Yo, conozco la casa donde vivia Mira-san
Otherwise you need to change the subject of the sentence:
"kore HA Mira-san ga sunde itta uchi desu". Esta es la casa donde vivia Mira-san
This character 人 jin means "person/people" and is used as a suffix to describe a person or people from a country.
アメリカ only means "America/the US/USA" and not "American". By adding 人 to アメリカ人, you get "American person/people".
As pointed out it means person, "jin" is the chinese pronunsiation, alone you would read it as "hito".
You can remember it because in shounen anime it is often said that the kanji of person are 2 people reclining on each other.
ジン is the 漢音（かんのん）of 人. Copying from Wiktionary (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E6%BC%A2%E9%9F%B3): The kan'on readings are based mainly on the Chinese pronunciation in use in the areas around Chang'an (around modern-day Xi'an) and Henan, as imported into Japanese in the Nara period and the early Heian period in Japanese history, and roughly from the late Tang Dynasty through the early Song Dynasty in Chinese history.
From the wiktionary (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E4%BA%BA#Pronunciation) the Middle Chinese reading of 人 is "nyin" (Baxter–Sagart system 1.1).
You probably don't need は to make a correct sentence. For example ええ、アメリカ人です translates to "Yes I am American."
you can still use 私 because you could still specify who you're talking about
Both はい、私はアメリカ人です。and はい、アメリカ人です。are correct sentences. In Japanese, the subject is very commonly omitted when it is obvious through the context.
Please read the other comments before posting, as this has been discussed numerous times on this page already.
The correct answer was supposedly "はい、アメリカ人です" (Which is). But I didn't even have はい to use
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I like that Duolingo likes to trick me by telling me "人" is "hito" and not "jin" when selecting it as a word brick. Even though the soundclip says jin. Looking it up, I know that this "人" can be pronounced in these two different ways, but... please don't trick me like that, it's rude.
It's trickier than that. 人 can be read as ひと, じん, にん, り or と, depending of the context in which it is written.
Something that helped me deal with kanji is this: kanji is not for reading, kanji literally has no phonetic information as English (kind of) does, it is intended to note the meaning of the sentences, and has nothing to do with the actual language.
Look, everything you have to think is this: Japanese is an spoken language, the single most important thing in the language is the SPOKEN form, the language didn't even have a written form until the 3rd century b.c, so the thing that has to make sense are the words. The kanji came from a different language, and the Japanese had to adapt the system as well as they could, to a language as inflectional as Japanese is, they used the system to break homophones and mark work boundaries, but they does not carry phonetic information. So when you find a kanji being read in a weird way, don't ask why, just add as new reading to the list xD
Just so you can understand:
When meaning "Day", 日 is read as Hi
In 日常 (Everyday, Nichijou), is read as Nichi
In 先日 (Past days, Senjitsu), it's read as Jitsu
In 日記 (Dairy, Nikki), it's read as Ni
In 誕生日 (Tanjoubi, birthday), it's read as Bi
In 生年月日 (Birth date, seinen gappi), it's read as ppi (っぴ)
In 二日 (Two days, futsuka), it's read as Ka
And in 今日 (Today, kyou), it doesn't even have an individual reading.
Just remember: kanji don't read, just represents, pictures ideas and words.
Neither, they're the same level of formality, but the former (without わたしは) is generally more natural.
I can't understand what was wrong in my answer. The only differebce with the correction is that they have forgotten to translate "yes"
They forgot to translate "yes"? What was your answer and what was the correction they gave you?
If you forgot to translate "yes", that's a lot simpler to answer. Duo thinks you don't know that はい means "yes", so they mark you wrong to make you check/try again.
Different languages have different grammar. Like some british would say: I was sat at the chair outside the library.
Anyways, the Japanese characters usually have more than one variation and pronounsiation, depending on context. In this case, the 人 character should be pronounsed at jin. But the speaker reads it as hi tou, which is the 人 character in japanese, but means a different thing. Right?
Wouldn't it also be okay for me to say, "はい, 私アメリカ人です。" ? or "はい 私はアメリカ人です。"?
