Learn Japanese easily! When you visit Japan, it’ll be crucial that you can understand and give directions. You’ll need to know all sorts of phrases and questions such as, “The pharmacy is over there” and “Do you know where the hospital is?”
By learning some important words and phrases, you’ll surely make it around in the streets of Japan. In this Newbie Japanese article, master the words and phrases you need to give and understand directions. Just a few of the Japanese vocabulary words you’ll discover are yakkyoku (“pharmacy”) and konbini (“convenience store”). You’ll also learn how to explain locations using the Japanese words for “near” and “over there.” If you want to make it around Japan with no trouble, don’t miss this article!
Vocabulary: In this article, you’ll learn the following words and phrases:
chikaku – “near”
yakkyoku – “pharmacy, drugstore”
konbini – “convenience store”
tonari – “next to”
kusuri – “medicine”
ya – a suffix which means “store” or “seller”
tsuukoo-nin – “passer, passerby”
Grammar: In this article, you’ll learn the following words and phrases:
Useful Vocabulary and Phrases at a hospital
konbini – “convenience store”
Konbini is the abbreviation of konbiniensu sutoaa.
asoko – “over there”
Asoko is one of the so-called ko-so-a-do words. For more information about Ko-so-a-do words, see Newbie Series Season 4 Article 7.
Please review the following vocabulary:
Demonstrative Pronouns:
kore – “this one”
sore – “that one”
are – “that one over there”
dore – “which one”
Demonstrative Adjectives:
kono – “this”
sono – “that”
ano – “that over there”
dono – “which”
Locations:
koko – “here”
soko – “there”
asoko – “over there”
doko – “where”
Chikaku ni yakkyoku wa arimasu ka.
“Is there a pharmacy near here?”
Please review the following vocabulary and usage:
chikaku – “nearby”
ni – particle indicating place
yakkyoku – “pharmacy”
wa – topic marker
arimasu – “exist”
ka – question-marking particle
In the Newbie Series Season 4 Article 27, we introduced the sentence structure Chikaku ni __arimasu ka. Now you’ll see that either ga or wa follows the site the speaker is looking for.
Chikaku ni / place you are looking for / (wa / ga) arimasu ka.
Chikaku ni / yakkyoku / wa arimasu ka.
Chikaku ni / yakkyoku / ga arimasu ka.
Chikaku ni / yakkyoku / arimasu ka.
Examples:
- Sumimasen. Chikaku ni toire wa arimasu ka.
“Excuse me. Is there a restroom near here?”
- Asoko desu.
“It’s over there.”
- Sumimasen. Chikaku ni eki ga arimasu ka.
“Excuse me. Is there a station near here?”
- Sumimasen. Wakarimasen.
“I’m sorry. I don’t know.”
Grammar Point
In this article, you’re going to learn how to explain a location.
Yakkyoku wa konbini no tonari desu.
“The pharmacy is next to the convenience store.”
Please review the following vocabulary and usage:
yakkyoku – “pharmacy”
wa – topic marker
konbini – “convenience store”
no – possessive particle
tonari – “next to”
desu – copula (linking verb)
Konbini no tonari means, “next to the convenience store.” Please check the usage in the following examples.
- Yakkyoku no tonari
“next to the pharmacy”
- Byooin no tonari
“next to the hospital”
- Eki no tonari
“next to the station” - Daigaku no tonari
“next to the university”
List of Positional Words:
“English” / Japanese
“on, above, over” / ue
“under, beneath, below” / shita
“in, inside” / naka
“near” / chikaku
“next to” / tonari
“in front of, before” / mae
“behind” / ushiro
Usage
Eki no (Japanese Positional Word)/ “English”
Eki no (ue) / “on the station”
Eki no (shita) / “under the station”
Eki no (naka) / “in the station”
Eki no (tonari) / “next to the station”
Eki no (chikaku) / “near the station”
Eki no (mae ) / “in front of the station”
Eki no (ushiro) / “behind the station”
Practice – Please fill in the blanks to complete the following sentences.
- “The pharmacy is in the hospital.”
Yakkyoku wa Byooin no __ desu.
- “The restroom is next to the elevator.”
Toire wa erebeetaa no __ desu.
- “The convenience store is in front of the station.”
Konbini wa eki no __ desu.
