any word describing the frog would be an adjective.
Adverb
A word used to modify a verb
Example:
The man quickly jumped through the frog.
"quickly" is the adverb, since it describes how he jumped. Jump is the verb, so
any word describing how he jumped would be an adverb.
Direct Object
Is the entity on which the verb is performed
Example:
The woman ate the apple.
Now figuring out the direct object is straighforward - simply ask the question,
"She ate WHAT?"
The question would be answered, "the apple". So "apple" would be the direct
object.
For practice in this area:
q Purchase a good Japanese grammar book
q Find websites that cover grammar
q Review an English grammar textbook
Plain vs. Polite form
Unlike English, Japanese has distinct levels of formality in speech and writing,
four main ones to be precise. One speaks differently among friends than to one's
boss. In America, that difference would mainly be reflected in tone of voice, and
use of slang words, contractions and so on. In Japanese however, there are
actually different words and verb endings for this purpose.
If you've watched Anime, you may have noticed that royalty (princesses, kings)
speak differently than most other characters. There are hundreds of examples,
including "Ayeka" from Tenchi Muyo.
In most Japanese language courses, the polite form is taught first. The instructors
reason that you can use the polite form anywhere (including with friends). The
plain form is only acceptable with friends and close family members.
However, the plain form is by far more common in songs, books, manga, anime
and on television. Since this website is somewhat focused around anime, and for
other good reasons, we will begin by teaching the plain form. Here are a number
of reasons.
1. Anime and video games tend to use the plain form, and that is where
most people will use their Japanese skills unless they go to Japan. Even
if you make Japanese friends in America, they will speak to you with the
plain form and will definitely not feel insulted if you do the same. I
personally have had conversations with Japanese teenagers, and they
have told me that I sound funny because I speak so politely (I learned
Japanese starting with the polite form and I consider myself a polite
person anyway, so that's why I use it.)
