Steve help me with my lingo!

[Xater]

So I guess I have to ask my Japanese questions at your new home.

So I encountered a problem. I don't know how to say that something is better. Of course I know parts of the vocabulary that I would probably need but I am not sure how to build the sentences.

Example 1: The movie was good, but the book was better.

Example 2: Sushi ist better than hamburgers.

It's not really something that came up before for me and I am really not sure how to say those things. Please help me Steve.

[Steve Christofferson]

Welcome to Retroids Xater and thanks for your questions!

Since you have working knowledge of Japanese I will just give you the example sentences. If there are other people who are interested I can always break it down more simply later.

For example 1 you can say
「映画はいいけど、本のほうが面白いですよ。」
"Eiga wa ii kedo, hon no hou ga omoshiroi desu yo."
The movie is good, but the book is better.

To introduce another variation you can also say,
「本のほうが面白いですけど、映画も良かった。」
Hon no hou ga omoshiroi desu kedo, eiga mo yokatta.
The book is better but the movie is also good.

For example 2, do you want to declare that sushi is categorically better than hamburgers, or do want to just give your personal preference? I will give you both.

「やっぱりハンバーガーよりお寿司がいいです。」
"Yappari hanbaagaa yori osushi ga ii desu."
Of course, sushi is better than hamburgers.

「私はハンバーガーよりお寿司が好きです。」
"Hanbaagaa yori osushi ga suki desu."
I prefer sushi over hamburgers.

In which case somebody is bound to ask you which do you prefer, hamburgers or hanbaagu? (which is borrowed from German as you can probably guess since you live in Germany. Hanbaagu refers to serving just the ground beef patty on a plate minus the bread, which is quite popular in Japan. I guess we would call it a Salisbury steak in the US.)

So, which do you prefer Hambaagu or a Hambaagaa?
「ハンバーガーとハンバーグと、どっちが好きですか？」
"Hanbaagaa to hanbaagu to, docchi ga suki desu ka?"

Please try and answer that in Japanese for your homework!
Putting on the pressure!
If you can take the heat get out of the kitchen and eat sushi instead lol.
Oh wait, you prefer sushi....oops...

Steve

[Xater]

Thank you Steve-sensei!

That was actually way easier than I thought it would be. Especially the second example, I was just missing the より. Also great that you wrote out everything in Romaji because you included some Kanji I did not know yet.

For my homework:
ハンバーグよりハンバーガーがすきです。でもピザはもっとおいしいです。

A probably more simple question is what is the best way to say film critic/movie review? 映画の批判？

[DJmizuhara]

Yeah, I'm happy to see a Lingo lab thread on Retroids, Sensei Steve will look after all your Japanese language needs.

[Steve Christofferson]

Xater,

Glad I could help.
Give that man a cigar!
So what's holding you back from hitting the culinary scene as Japanese-speaking food critic!
Speaking of critics,

Film critic is usually 映画評論家 Eiga hyouronka Movie + Critic.
For film review, just take away 家 and you have presto, 映画評論　Eiga Hyouron

Steve

[hedges1001]

hey sensei steve. i was wondering how you go about saying something was fantastic.
e.g that show was fantastic

im trying to learn conversational japanese from an ebook but it misses large gaps in conversation

[Xater]

Thanks Steve! Finally I can say what I do besides studying.

Hmm I think I want to give hedges question a try:

このショウはすごいだった！
kono sho wa sugoii datta

I guess that would a casual way to say it right?

[hedges1001]

Thanks Steve! Finally I can say what I do besides studying.

Hmm I think I want to give hedges question a try:

このショウはすごいだよ！
kono sho wa sugoii da yo

I guess that would a casual way to say it right?

thanks dude
assuming thats right i take the sho part is interchangable with other words like weather or magazine

[Xater]

Had to do a small correction because you asked the past form.

"kono" mean "this" and yeah could change the "show" part to whatever. Well if you always want to talk in hyperbole. Instead of "sugoii" you can also use "ii" (good) or for example "omoshiloi" (interesting).

[hedges1001]

thanks dude i've been trying to integrate what i know into my normal speech. thats how i learnt german at school