Maddies Manga

Sports, and activities that require you to move around in general, tend to be an integral part of many shoujo manga, especially those based in high school! Be it sports related club activities, sports related hobbies, or school-wide sports activity days, there tends to be a lot of movement going on!

Example Sentences

First, let’s try a simple sentence!: “I don’t want to join the soccer club because I hate working out!”

Now, let’s make a word bank:

English	Hiragana / Katakana	Kanji	Romaji (reading)
To exercise / workout	うんどう・ する	運動・する	Undou suru
To dislike	いや	嫌	Iya
Soccer club	サッカーぶ	サッカー部	Sakka- bu
To want to join (neg)	はいりたくない	入りたくない	Hairitakunai

Now, let’s write it out in romaji!:

“Undou ga iya dakara, sakka- bu ni hairitakunai desu.”

Let’s change it to hiragana:

”うんどう　が　いや　だから、サッカーぶ　に　はいりたくない　です。”

And lastly, let’s add in the kanji:

”運動　が　いや　だから、サッカー部　に　入りたくない　です。”

**Often times when we’re talking about clubs in schools, we refer to them ar “circles”, or, “サークル”。

**There are many different ways to say this sentence! My use of “iya” here is a little bit more casual. You could replace it with “suki janai” to have a more distinct “I dislike it” meaning.

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What if we want to say… “I always exercise for 1 hour every day.” This sentence is a step up in difficulty, so get ready!

First up, we need a word bank!

English	Hiragana	Kanji	Romaji (reading)
I	わたし	私	Watashi
Every day	まいにち	毎日	Mainichi
Always / without exceptions	かならず	必ず	Kanarazu
one hour	いちじかん	１時間	Ichijikan
To exercise	うんどう・ する	運動・する	Undou suru

Now that we know all of the relevant words, let’s put them together in a sentence!

First, in romaji only:

“Watashi wa mainichi kanarazu ichijikan undou shimasu.”

Now using hiragana:

“わたし　は　まいにち　かならず　いちじかん　うんどう　します。”

Now let’s add in the kanji:

”私　は　毎日　必ず　１時間　運動　します。”

The use of “kanarazu” here implies that you never ever miss a day of working out!

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Let’s try one more sentence! What if we want to say… “Isn’t today is the sports festival at your school?“? This one is going to have a lot of particles!

Let’s get the word bank started!

English	Hiragana / Katakana	Kanji	Romaji (reading)
Today	きょう	今日	Kyou
*You	あなた	あなた	Anata
School	がっこう	学校	Gakkou
Sports festival / Sports meet	うんどうかい	運動会	Undoukai
Isn’t it?	じゃない	じゃない	Janai

*Typically we wouldn’t use the word “you” in a sentence, but rather the name of the person we’re referring to! While it’s a little bit strange to refer to yourself in third person in Japanese, it isn’t strange at all to use someone’s name to their face when referring to them!

Alright, let’s make some sentences!

First, using romaji only:

“Kyou wa anata no gakkou no undoukai janai?”

Now using hiragana:

“きょう　は　あなた　の　がっこう　の　うんどうかい　じゃない？”

Now let’s add in the kanji:

”今日　は　あなた　の　学校　の　運動会　じゃない？”

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And that’s undou! Have you ever heard this word before?

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