Lesson 24 of 40
Vocabulary Sprint w06a — what you did, and how it came out
about 12 minutes
After this lesson you can
- Report an errand and its outcome, choosing を for the first and が for the second.
- Use 済む for a matter that needs no more attention, rather than 終わる.
Words this lesson teaches
- 払う
- pays — of money, and also of attention: 注意を払う
- おつり
- the change you get back — the お is part of the word, not politeness you can drop
- もらう
- receives, is given — the plain verb inside the 〜てもらう of N4.3
- 引き出す
- withdraws money, draws something out — 引く plus 出す, as in w05
- 探す
- looks for — the searching, whether or not anything turns up
- 選ぶ
- chooses, picks out
- 調べる
- looks into, checks — of a fact, a timetable or a suspect
- 比べる
- compares — takes と for what you compare against
- 届ける
- delivers something to someone; also reports a loss to an office
- 知らせる
- lets someone know — 知る made causative and then frozen into its own word
- 捕まえる
- catches, grabs hold of — a thief, a ball, or a taxi
- 利用
- use, making use of — 利用する, and the noun on every station notice
- 寄る
- drops in, stops by on the way — takes に for where
- 済む
- is dealt with, needs no more attention — an outcome, so it takes が
- 合う
- fits, matches, agrees — of a size, a taste, or two accounts of the same thing
- 変わる
- changes, becomes different — partner 変える, which no lesson teaches
- 似る
- resembles — almost always met as 似ている, because resembling is a state
- 付く
- is attached, comes with — the が verb behind 気が付く, to notice
- 移る
- moves across — desks, departments, or a cold from one person to another
- 勝つ
- wins — takes に for whom you beat, which surprises everybody once
What it explains
済む is not 終わる
終わる is a thing reaching its end: the film ends, the shift ends, the year ends. 済む is a thing no longer needing you. 「用事が 済みました」 says the errand is off your hands, and that is a different claim from saying it stopped. The difference shows up in what you can say next: after 終わる you might say what happened at the end, and after 済む you are free. English has no one word for this, which is why learners keep saying 終わりました about a form they have handed in, and why it sounds like the form ran out rather than went away. Note also that 済む takes が, because being dealt with is not something you do to it.
勝つ takes に, and 比べる takes と
Two particles worth pinning now, because both go the way English does not. You beat somebody, so English makes them the object; Japanese says 「チームに 勝ちました」, with the beaten team taking に as though you had won against them, which is in fact what に is doing. 比べる takes と for the thing compared against — 「去年と 比べて」 — and と is the particle of together-with, so comparison is framed as putting two things side by side rather than measuring one by the other. Neither is arbitrary once you stop translating the particle and start reading it. 寄る also takes に, and for the same reason 行く does: it is a destination, even a brief one.
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.