“No Ga” – The Japanese Tutor

There are many ways to use the particle ga that we have not yet covered on this site. Today we’ll study how to say you like or dislike performing an action, as well as how to say you are good at or are bad at performing an action. You’ve learned how to say you like a noun (“Eiga ga suki desu” means “I like movies”), but now you’ll be able to say you like watching movies.

For each action you want to discuss, simply state the verb in its original basic plain form and add “no ga” at the end. Then state that you either “like,” “dislike”, “are good at,” or “are bad at” the verb:

Suki desu = Like

Kirai desu = Dislike

Jouzu desu = To be good at

Heta desu = To be bad at

To say “I am watching a movie” in Japanese, you could say, “Eiga wo miru” in basic plain form. To say that you like or dislike watching movies, add “no ga” and either “suki desu” or “kirai desu.”

Eiga wo miru no ga suki desu. = I like watching movies.

Eiga wo miru no ga kirai desu. = I dislike watching movies.

To discuss your skills and weaknesses is similar. Let’s use the action “to speak Japanese” as our example. “Nihongo wo hanasu” can translate to “I speak Japanese.” To state that you are good or bad at speaking Japanese, add “no ga” and the appropriate vocabulary.

Nihongo wo hanasu no ga jouzu desu. = I am good at speaking Japanese. (I speak Japanese well.)

Nihongo wo hanasu no ga heta desu. = I am bad at speaking Japanese. (I speak Japanese poorly.)

If you need to indicate the subject of the sentence, you simply add the subject with a subject marker at the very beginning of the sentence, just as you would with any other sentence. For example:

Kenichi-san wa eiga wo miru no ga suki desu. = Kenichi likes watching movies.

Ane ga eiga wo miru no ga kirai desu. = My older sister dislikes watching movies.

Kare ga nihongo wo hanasu no ga jouzu desu. = He’s good at speaking Japanese. (He speaks Japanese well.)

Diana wa nihongo wo hanasu no ga heta desu. = Diana is bad at speaking Japanese. (Diana speaks Japanese poorly.)

Review some of the common Japanese verbs. How would you say you like or dislike doing these things? How would you say you are good at or are bad at doing these things?