Conflicting Advice on Grammar

One of the problems with engineers doing things is that they want to know how it works. I have been an engineer too long. I want to know why Japanese sentences are said the way they are and what the rules for constructing the sentence are. Needless to say, this is not the way children learn to talk and it probably isn't the way I should learn either.



The word "no" in Japanese is a way to state the possessive. The word for shirt in Japanese is "shatsu". If you don't pronounce the u at the end it sounds like shirts a bit. This is because essentially all of the Japanese words for western style clothing come from English. So "Frank's shirt" is "Frank-san no shatsu" in Japanese.



In pidgin Japanese I used to ask for miso soup with small clams by asking for "Shijimi Misoshiru" - clam soup. But one of the secretaries pointed out to me that I really should be putting "no" in between (not on this example, but on something similar). So, today I asked for "Shijimi no Misoshiru o kudasai" - Please give me soup of clams. Much more proper. The waitress called to the back "Shijimi Misoshiru".



So when I got back to the office I asked another secretary about it. "Oh yes - Shijimi Misoshiru is just fine" she said. What about the other example where I was supposed to put no in between. "Well", she said, "that is OK too". It is unlikely I will have to pass a Japanese grammar test so I am going to quit worrying about it.



Mata ato de... See you later...