"ねこ"
Translation:a cat
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I remember because you collect cats in a game called "Neko Atsume".
ik this has nothing to do with it, but I just wanted it at the top so people can see it.
BTW I did a separate comment on this but it's probably at the bottom
oh my gosh I lived and breathed Neko Atsume at one point in my life
If you want to stress the number or the number itself is important, then yes. Otherwise you don't even need the number. (Though the number must be used together with a counter word. In the case of ねこ, it would be the counter word for small animals 匹（ひき）.
"There are six cats" or "I have six cats" would be
猫は六匹います・neko wa roppiki imasu・Cats (topic) six of them exist (animate)
or
六匹の猫がいます・roppiki no neko ga imasu ・ Six of them (noun-link) cats (subject) exist (animate)
counters are suffixes to numbers (like two slices, three sheets, four pairs, five loavesin English)
When "roku" gets combined with "hiki" there is some elision and with rendaku it becomes "roppiki"
When you place the number before the thing you are counting (second example) you connect that number with the object with the particle の, which is used to show possession or group of belonging. (It's like "six slices of bread)
"imasu" means "to exist" used with animate things (arimasu is used with inanimate). It also is used to mean "to have"
つ can be used as a general counter if you don't know the proper counter for a word. This counter uses the native Japanese counting system unlike most other counters. 六つ is pronounced "muttsu"
In certain circumstances you can use たち as a suffix for plurals (note this is typically only used with living things, even more usually only people, and roughly means "and company") 猫たち "nekotachi" would translate to "cats" but is more like "Cat and company" talking about a very specific group of cats, not just cats in general.
You'll see this with 彼女 - kanojo, "she" and 彼女たち - kanojotachi "they" (group of girls). And 私 watashi "I" becoming 私たち watashitachi "we"
Both が and は are grammatically fine, it only slightly changes the nuance.
は marks 'cats' as old information and would answer the question of "how many cats are there?" if 'cats' was already established/understood but the number is unknown.
が marks 'cats' as new information where you are simply stating there are six cats and could be an answer to "Do you have any pets?" where 'cats' specifically was unknown.
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When you use たち, you specifically talk about a group. For example if you say ねこたち, you talk about a specific group of cats (a specific cat and the other cats around it)
It's generally only used to pluralize human nouns/pronouns, in my experience.
Its the same thing "neko" can be used to say "a cat" "the cat" and "cats"
The Japanese don't have anything to indicate plurals. Neko could mean either one cat, multiple cats, or no cats
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Fun fact: The origin of this word is controversial, but one of the explanations is that the word is the combination of "ね"(as in ねる, sleep) and "こ"(子, kid).
- 1600
Cats meou "nyaa nyaa" or "nyan nyan" , and dogs bark "wan wan" in Japan. NYANKO and WANKO might be child's words.
Duo's listening questions are auto-generated. The contributors have no control of them and are incapable of adding multiple answer options. Since this question is from the hiragana skill, the hiragana is required.
This remind me of nekoma voleyball club from haikyuu, and of courses Kenma
I really dont understand why is there two ways to spell cat in Japanese someone please help me
Do you mean 「ねこ」and 「猫」? The first one is the hiragana form and the second is the kanji form.
*the person with the Secret of Mana profile picture standing eerily behind you*
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If you're trying to say "my cat", it would just be 私の猫 (わたしのねこ) without the は since it isn't a full sentence.
私の猫
watashi no neko
my cat
私の猫はかわいいです。
watashi no neko wa kawaii desu.
My cat is cute.
"I" by itself is just 私, you only add a は when you're the topic of the sentence.
私は猫です。
watashi wa neko desu.
I am a cat.
[2019/03/24]
I learned the Chinese character first. Then I learned it was also the kanji for it. To this day, I still think of neko first and foremost as 猫 (kanji), not as ねこ(hiragana) or ネコ (catakana).
u could prob remember "neko" by thinking of nekoma a funny and unique volleyball team from the anime "Haikyuu!" (if u havent watched this anime u need to its the best sports anime out there)~
Why is 猫 marked as wrong? It says I should write ねこ, but what's wrong with the kanji?
I'm only guessing because this is mostly the hiragana section. So it's only going to look for the hiragana and not the kanji. You are correct and it would work for other lessons in this course.
