I went to the dog groomers this week to make an appointment for my little ball of fur. The shop is close to my house so I often walk in to make appointments when I am walking my dog, rather than calling.

Some days, the Japanese just comes out all wrong and it was most definitely one of those days.

When I was telling her about his hair changing (he is growing up!), I said this:

X ［犬の］髪が暗く変わっているね。
X ［いぬの］かみ　が　くらく　かわっている　ね。
(The dog’s) hair is changing darker isn’t it.
Literally: “dog + の + hair + dark + changing + ね”

Can you see where I made a mistake?

Just like in English, in Japanese there are two separate words for human hair and dog fur. Instead of saying 髪（かみ）, I should have used 毛（け）.

The groomer corrected me after I said it and I felt like a proper idiot, but I won’t be making that mistake again!
Even after learning Japanese for many years, I still make some pretty basic mistakes sometimes. But that doesn’t mean I can’t learn from them. And if I am learning, you should be too!

So let’s play a game: Spot my mistake.

Take a look at some mistakes I either make very often, or have made when I was beginner at Japanese.

Can you guess the errors in these sentences?

1.) When asking a friend if she speaks English:

英語をしらべますか？
えいご　を　しらべます　か
X Can you speak English?
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Did you understand my mistake? I used 調べる（しらべる）meaning “to investigate, to look up” instead of しゃべる which means “to talk, to chat.” So I actually asked her if she could look up English.

The correct sentence would be:

英語をしゃべれますか？
えいご　を　しゃべれます　か？
Do you speak English?

As you can see, the potential form of しゃべる is used to mean “can you.”

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2.) When I wanted to talk about an earthquake:

熊本しじんはひどいね！
くまもと　しじん　は　ひどい　ね！
X The Kumamoto earthquake is terrible!
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I got the words 地震（じしん）and 詩人（しじん）confused. So instead of saying the Kumamoto earthquake is terrible, I said Kumamoto poets are terrible.

The correct sentence would be:

熊本地震はひどいね！
くまもと　じしん　は　ひどい　ね！
The Kumamoto earthquake is terrible!

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3.) When I asked someone to dinner:

５月五つはどう？
ごがつ　いつつ　は　どう？
X How is the 5th of May?
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This one is a bit obvious, I used 五つ（いつつ）in place of the date 五日（いつか）. So I effectively said; “How is 5 Mays?”
Counters for dates are so hard to remember, and it took me forever to figure out the difference between ８日（ようか）and ４日（よっか）.

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4.) When it took me more than 30 seconds to find my bike in the lot:

自転車を盗んだと思った
じてんしゃ　を　ぬすんだ　と　おもった
X I thought my bike was stolen
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In this case, I actually said “I thought I stole a bike.” The correct sentence would be using the passive conjugation, 盗まれる（ぬすまれる）.

自転車を盗まれたと思った
じてんしゃ　を　ぬすまれた　と　おもった
I thought my bike was stolen

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5.) When my friend was telling me about a new outfit she bought:

かわいそうですね！
X It seems cute!
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I was trying to use the ~そう ending in which you take away an い and replace it with そう to mean “seems like.” For example おいしそう means “seems tasty.”
However, かわいい can’t be used in this way. Actually かわいそう is its very own word which means “pitiful,” or “poor thing.” So I pretty much told her I felt bad for her buying a new outfit…

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6.) When I was ordering coffee from a sign that said this:

「本日のコーヒー」

I asked:
にほんのコーヒーください
X Today’s coffee please
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I have met a lot of people who make this mistake actually. When you see 本日 for the first time, it is very easy to get it confused with 日本. Essentially, I asked for Japan’s coffee, instead of today’s coffee.The word 本日（ほんじつ） means “-of the day” and has a connotation of “today’s special.” I should have said:

本日のコーヒーください
ほんじつ　の　コーヒー　ください
Today’s coffee please

So there you have it, I have been learning Japanese for many years, and that translates to many, many mistakes.
The common advice when learning a language is “don’t be afraid to speak and make mistakes,” and I couldn’t agree more.

Maybe you will feel a bit foolish when you make a really bad one, or even worse, when you immediately know you did it and can’t take it back. But this is the process of learning a language. You have to get over the fear and just embrace that you will stumble, a lot. When I look back on my mistakes I feel a sense of pride that I have come so far. And you will too, so go out there and mess it up!

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This lesson was written by Cassy L., a guest contributor: