What You’re Good/Bad at: 上手・下手

Introduction

In this lesson, we'll be learning how to talk about the things we're good at as well as the things we’re... ahem, not so good at! For this, we'll be focusing on four words: 上手じょうず and 得意とくい for things someone is great at, and 下手へた and 苦手にがて for things someone isn’t so great at or struggles with. This lesson can be super helpful when making small talk in Japanese, so let’s get to it! 🔥

First, what we’re good at!

Structure:

With nouns:

• 

  Nounが上手じょうず

• 

  Nounが得意とくい

  Example:
  → ミミは料理りょうりが上手じょうずです。
  ”Mimi is good at cooking.”

With verbs:

• 

  dictionary form

  not conjugated; the form of a word as you would find it in a dictionary (e.g. 食べる, おいしい).

  Verbのが上手じょうず

• 

  dictionary form

  not conjugated; the form of a word as you would find it in a dictionary (e.g. 食べる, おいしい).

  Verbのが得意とくい

  Example:
  → 私わたしはサッカーをするのが得意とくいです。
  ”I’m good at playing soccer.”