Lesson 2 of 24
Who Does What?
about 13 minutes
After this lesson you can
- Say who is responsible for an activity, and read a simple team list.
Words this lesson teaches
- たんとう
- the person in charge of
- デザイン
- design
- いんさつ
- printing
- ポスター
- poster
- おんがく
- music
- てんき
- weather
- チェックします
- checks
- かいます
- buys
- りょうり
- cooking, a dish
- うけつけ
- reception, welcoming guests
What it explains
が answers だれが
This is the は/が distinction in its clearest case. だれが つくりますか asks which person, and the answer picks one out: わたしが つくります — I'm the one. Answering わたしは つくります is not wrong, but it says something slightly different: as for me, I'll make them. When a question asks who, the answer takes が.
と joins a complete list
いんさつと おんがくと てんき — printing, music and weather, and nothing else. と goes between every pair, not just the last, which looks repetitive to an English eye and is simply how the list is built. It also means the list is exhaustive; N5.3 gives you the way to say for example.
の makes one noun describe another
デザインの たんとう is the design person — the same の you learned for possession, doing a broader job. Japanese uses this constantly to build compound descriptions where English would use an adjective or a hyphen.
The scene itself is in the app.
Lesson one of this track is free to read in full. From lesson two on, the story, the audio and the review are part of a free account.
