We have not learned this formally yet. But reached it in LingoDeer and it doesn’t seem too bad.

Sources:

LingoDeer Android Application

Tae Kim’s Guide to Japanese

ほう

The kanji is 方, which we learned, but here it has the ほう reading and “method/option” meaning. Treat it like a nominal. You can use it for explaining what option/outcome is more X.

Ex.

泳ぐほうがいいだと思う - “I think it is better to swim”

この赤い本のほうが高いよ - “This book is more expensive”

学生じゃないほうが安いですかね - “It is cheaper if you are not a student”

Past tense adds more certainty and confidence

こちらへ行った方が早かった - “It is faster to go this way”

But negative past tense can ONLY be used with past tense predicates.

そのパーテイに行かなかったほうがよかったですね - “It was better to have not gone to that party”

Careful cause there is also negative imperfective + past

そのパーテイに行かないほうがよかったです - “It would have been better to not go to that party”

より

より is used here as “more than”, “opposed to”, “rather than”. The thing it attaches to is not as X as the other thing. You also use it as a particle (i guess…)

Ex.

牛肉が魚よりおいしい - “Beef is more delicious than fish”

You can also use ほう with it to add more of a comparison effect.

書くほうが聞くより易しいと思います - “Compared to listening, I think writing is easier”

And sometimes, the comparison object is implied.

仕事がないよりよろしいよ - “It’s better than not having a job”

ほど

We’ve seen ほど before as a particle marking the extend of an approximation. We can use it here to mark that “somethis is not as X as N”. But it can only be used with NEGATIVE predicates. Remember the N with ほど is the more X noun.

Ex.

アメリカは日本ほど楽しくないよ - America is not as fun as Japan.

Questions

Two main forms were introduced in LingoDeer:

バスケと野球とどちらが面白いですか - “Which is more interesting, basketball or baseball?”

このドレスの中でど、どれが一番好きでかす - “Among these dresses, which do you like the most?”

And, you can use the same form (replacing the interogatives) for a verbose answer.




Vocab:

Here are some kanji from the lessons that I wasn’t really familiar with at this point:

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