Lesson 28 of 40
Vocabulary Sprint w09 — machines, rooms, and English you cannot hear
about 12 minutes
After this lesson you can
- Recover the English behind a clipped loanword, and clip a new one yourself.
- Tell ガラス from グラス, and say what ソフト and ビル actually mean.
Words this lesson teaches
- パソコン
- a computer — from パーソナル・コンピュータ, two morae of each part
- コンピューター
- a computer, unclipped — also written コンピュータ without the final long mark
- ワープロ
- a word processor — from ワード・プロセッサー; the machine itself is long gone
- ファックス
- a fax — still in use in Japanese offices, which surprises visitors
- ソフト
- software — from ソフトウェア, so it is a noun and never means soft
- スクリーン
- a screen you project onto — a device's own screen is 画面
- ステレオ
- a stereo, a hi-fi — of the era when that was one piece of furniture
- ベル
- a bell — the electric kind that 鳴る, as w06b had it
- ガラス
- glass the material, or a pane — a drinking glass is グラス
- ビル
- a building — from ビルディング; it does not mean a bill
- カーテン
- a curtain
- アナウンサー
- a broadcaster, a newsreader — a station employee, not a freelance presenter
- 番組
- a programme, a show — 番 a turn in a sequence, 組 a set
- 放送
- broadcasting — 放送する, and 送 is the same 送 as in 送ります
- 鏡
- a mirror
- 冷房
- air conditioning, cooling — 冷 cold plus 房, a chamber
- 暖房
- heating — the same 房 with 暖, warm; the pair on every switch
- 布団
- bedding laid on the floor — 布 cloth; it is put away each morning
- 畳
- a straw floor mat — and the unit rooms are measured in: 六畳 is six mats
- 引き出し
- a drawer — the stem of 引き出す from w06a, made into a noun
What it explains
冷房 and 暖房 are the two words on the switch
房 is a chamber, and putting 冷 or 暖 in front of it gives you cooling or heating a room. Every air conditioner in Japan is labelled with these two, so they are not vocabulary so much as a thing you need to read on your first day in a Japanese flat. The same goes for 畳: it is a straw mat, and it is also how rooms are sized, so a listing reading 六畳 means a six-mat room and you can convert that to about ten square metres. 布団 completes the set — bedding laid on the floor and folded away each morning, which is why a Japanese room can be a bedroom at night and not one by day. These four words describe how a room works, not just what is in it.
A verb's stem is a noun, and you have now seen it three times
引き出す is to pull out; 引き出し is a drawer. 踊る is to dance; 踊り is a dance, and it is on w10's list. 話す gives 話, 始める gives 始め, 帰る gives 帰り, and the ます-form you already use is built on the same stem — 引き出します, 踊ります. So this is not a curiosity but one of the main ways Japanese makes nouns, and it works in the direction you need: meet a noun you do not know, look for the verb inside it. 番組 is not one of these, and it is worth knowing why — 番 and 組 are both nouns already, so it is a compound of the w07 kind rather than a verb wearing a different coat.
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.