Hanamaruhanamaru

Country, person, language: じん and ご

The country's name plus じん is the person, plus ご is the language. The exceptions are languages that do not belong to one country: English is えいご.

JLPTN5
〇〇じん・〇〇ご~jin · ~go

じん means “person” and means “language”. Put them after a country's name and you have the word: にほんにほんじん (a Japanese person) and にほんご (Japanese), スウェーデンスウェーデンじん (a Swede) and スウェーデンご (Swedish). English also builds on the country's name, but changes the shape: Sweden, Swede, Swedish. Japanese changes nothing — it only adds. Two small endings cover every country there is.

The exceptions are languages that do not belong to a single country. English is えいご, so there is no アメリカご and no イギリスご — and no オーストラリアご either. The person still follows the rule as usual: アメリカじん, イギリスじん, オーストラリアじん.

Your country is not in the lesson's table? It is still the country's name plus じん or . Most countries outside East Asia are called in Japanese roughly what they call themselves or what English calls them, written in katakana: ノルウェー, フィンランド, ドイツ. Look your country up in the app's dictionary, add じん, and you have the word for yourself — add , and you have your language.

Country, person, language

Related