Hover a line for its reading in kana and its translation; hover a word for its meaning. Tap 🔊 to hear it.
Over lunch, Kenji asks Alex how he spends an ordinary day.
ごろ and about-ness: 十一時ごろ is 'around eleven', and unlike an exact time it drops the に — 十一時ごろ寝ます, never 十一時ごろに寝ます. For quantities rather than times, the word is ぐらい.
How do I read these pronunciations? See the pronunciation guide.
1. …ます — the everyday present
A ます verb covers both 'I do' and 'I will do', and habit as much as plan: 起きます is 'I get up' and 'I'll get up'. Japanese leaves the difference to context and to time words like 毎日.
2. …ません — the negative
Swap ます for ません and the verb turns negative: 食べます becomes 食べません, 飲みます becomes 飲みません. Nothing else changes, and no extra word is needed.
3. だけ — only
だけ follows the word it limits and pushes out を: コーヒーだけ飲みます, not コーヒーをだけ. It can also close a sentence — 火曜日と金曜日だけです.
4. Ordering the day
それから strings actions in sequence, 時々 and いつも say how often, and both sit at the front of their clause. None of them takes a particle — they are adverbs, not nouns.
A. Fill in the Blank · 空欄をうめましょう
Fill in the blank with a word from this lesson's vocabulary.
- 1.六時半に。get up
- 2.朝ご飯を。don't eat
- 3.コーヒー飲みます。only
- 4.十一時寝ます。around
B. Multiple Choice · えらびましょう
Choose the best answer.
- 1.What is the negative of 食べます?
- 2.Which is correct?
- 3.Which is correct with ごろ?
- 4.What does 起きます mean here?
C. Rearrange the Sentence · ならべかえましょう
Rearrange the words into a correct sentence, adding the punctuation shown in parentheses.
- 1.Tap tiles below…
- 2.Tap tiles below…
- 3.Tap tiles below…
- 4.Tap tiles below…
D. True or False · ○か×か
Based on the dialogue, mark each sentence T (true) or F (false).
- 1.Alex gets up at half past six.
- 2.Alex runs every morning.
- 3.Alex eats breakfast.
- 4.Alex studies Japanese in the evening.
E. Matching · せんでむすびましょう
Match each line on the left with the best response on the right.
F. Translation · やくしましょう
Translate items 1–2 into Japanese, and items 3–4 into English.
- 1.I get up at half past six.
- 2.I don't eat breakfast.
- 3.時々、本を読みます。
- 4.十一時ごろ寝ます。
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The commute is long
An hour each way is an unremarkable Tokyo commute and ninety minutes is common, because housing only becomes affordable well outside the center. Rush-hour trains are correspondingly full — the staff who push passengers in are real, if rarer than they were — and the etiquette is fixed: no phone calls, bag held in front of you, near silence. People read, or sleep upright with practiced skill and wake at their own station. It is why a Japanese day starts early, and what 毎朝 quietly covers.