ブライス先生

Here is some easy English for you. A lot of my students tend to use “but” a little too much.

I studied really hard for a month, but I failed the test.

This is OK, but I feel that most Japanese might say something like

1ヶ月一生懸命勉強したのに、試験に落ちた！

..using a のに, not a けど.

So, an easy way to express のに in English is “even though“.

Even though ___A____ , ____B_____ .

or

___B____ even though ____A____ .

So,

• Even though I studied really hard for a month, I failed the test.
• My Japanese is not so good, even though I’ve been living in Japan for almost 14 years.
• Even though she promised she would come to the party, she never showed up.
• Even though he’s Japanese, Hiro hates sushi.
• I can never remember the word “断る”, even though I’ve studied it countless times.

Do you know this word “stuff”??  As a noun, it is uncountable (数えられない), but very common to describe 物 or 事 in English.



For example.

• There is a lot of stuff in my wife’s bag.
• I have some stuff to do today.
• I gave some of my stuff to my brother.
• She learned interesting stuff at the seminar.
• Can you help me move my stuff tomorrow?  (引越し)
• My father knows a lot of stuff.

Also, you could use “things” instead of “stuff” for the same meaning.  The only real difference is that “thing” is a 数えられる名詞, so you need to mind your grammar.

• There are a lot of things in my wife’s bag.