Japanese verb help?

Question

Last night I looked up the word "it" in a Japanese dictionary, and it said no translation, and then it gave a sentence of "I don't like it" It said the sentence was "Watashi wa kirai desu." Wouldn't that be I am hate? Or you, he, she, etc. is "hate?" Which word translates into "it?" Thanks.

But sore is only for a subject. I need it as an object. So what would Watashi wa kirai desu translate into?

Well, my dictionary also says that, for example, the sentence, "It's Charlie here" would translate as "Chaari desu." So I guess the third person's right, it doesn't translate. (And why should it? It makes things that much simpler. ^_^)

Answer 1

Kiru Kiru Pa!

Answer 2

Yes, there is no word for "it" in Japanese. "Watashi wa kirai desu" is correct. Japanese often omits the object from a sentence and sometimes omits even the object as well. If you wanted to say the same thing using a more complete sentence, you could say "Watash wa sore ga kirai desu." However, Japanese people normally wouldn't say it that way. The most natural Japanese answer is, in fact, "Watashi wa kirai desu."

Here's an example from daily speech. Sometimes my wife, who is Japanese, will ask me if I remembered to send out the mail.
"Kyou, yuubin o dashita?"
kyou: today; yuubin: mail, dashita; put out (past tense)
Did (you is omitted) send (literally put out) the mail?
"Un, dashita."
Yeah, I did.
(I and mail is omitted)

I at one time also struggled with trying to directly translate every single English word into Japanese to try to understand Japanese. This simply does not work. When I started trusting my teacher and friends and stopped analyzing what I was studying, it became a lot easier to study Japanese. Japanese is so different from English in so many ways, that trying to analyze it and compare it with English will not help in anyway. It will only serve to confuse you. Try thinking more in Japanese and look at the sentence or phrase as a whole instead of analyzing each word or relational in a sentence. "Watashi wa kirai desu" = "I don't like it."

Answer 3

When learning Japanese you have to discard English. Otherwise you'll just confuse yourself--quickly.

Yes, "watashi wa kirai desu" can be "I am hate", but in this case it's saying (more or less) "As for me, I hate [it]."
In fact, "watashi wa ... desu" is often used when ordering food. It doesn't mean you literally are that food, it means your order is for it.
"Watashi wa aisukuriimu desu" is more of "as for me, I [want] ice cream".

In Japanese you can just say "kirai desu" and people will still understand that you hate the topic at hand. The same goes for adjectives and pretty much anything. Japanese is a language very accepting toward laziness in speakers.

Answer 4

Why don't you trust your dictionary?

'It' as a word refereing to something that has already mentioned in the same text does not exist in Japanese. 'sore' is close but used in a different way.
"Watashi wa kirai desu" means "I hate (it [or him, her, them, etc. for that matter])".
"Chaari desu.", if you must translate it into English, means simply "Charlie". It can mean, depending on the context, "I'm Charlie", "It's Charlie", "Charlie did", etc.

As other answeres point out, it's impossible to translate Japansese into English word for word. It's a completely different language system.

Answer 5

sore

It's important to note however that once a topic is stated it will be addressed until a new topic is noted. The Japanese language is ambiguous so there's really no need for the word it.

Let me give you an example of how a conversation might go:

The boy walked over to his house. Then went to school. Ate lunch. Had a conversation with friends. Made a sandwich. Hooked up with a chick. Went to sleep.

Because of this, it's hard to ease drop on a conversation.

"It" does not exist as an object.

Answer 6

Japanese often omits the subject, object and etc. if they are figured out from the context.

A: I like the cat. -> watashi wa sono neko ga suki desu.
B: I hate it. -> watashi wa ( sore ga ) kirai desu. where the object is omitted.

I love you -> ( watashi wa ) anata wo aishite imasu. where the subject is omitted.

Answer 7

You can't learn Japanese according to English sentence structures.

Just like some other foreigners who use their language directly translated to English, ended up sounding very silly. Like in Chinese "Do you like it?" would sound like "You like or no like it?"

So you should try to get used to the sentence structure in Japanese, in which the subject and/or object are often omitted.

Answer 8

just an addition..
i usually hear by japanese ppl saying the subject last.. not always but most of the time..

Answer 9

i think they generally omit the word 'it' like they do several other words that are understood. i really dont know though sorry...im trying to teach myself >_<