❌ "It is beautiful sea." — Why This Sentence Sounds Strange in English

Many Japanese learners of English make sentences like this:

❌ It is beautiful sea.
❌ It is delicious cake.
❌ It is big dog.

Japanese students often feel these sentences are correct—and honestly, I understand why.

But in English, they sound very unnatural.

Let’s fix this problem once and for all.

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🇯🇵 Why This Happens (Japanese Thinking vs English Thinking)

In Japanese, this sentence is perfectly normal:

きれいな海です。
(kirei na umi desu)

Structure:

adjective + noun + です

So students naturally try:

❌ It is beautiful sea.

But English does NOT work the same way.

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The Rule: You Cannot Say "It is adjective + noun"

In English:

❌ It is beautiful sea. → Wrong
❌ It is delicious cake. → Wrong

Why?

Because beautiful sea is a noun phrase.
And noun phrases usually need a or the.

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✔️ The Three Correct Ways

When Japanese students want to say:

きれいな海です

There are three natural English options:

✔️ Option 1: Use "a"

✔️ It is a beautiful sea.

Use this when you mean:

👉 One beautiful sea (general description)

Example:

• It is a beautiful city.

• She is a kind teacher.

• This is a good restaurant.

✔️ Option 2: Use "the"

✔️ It is the beautiful sea.

This is less common and used when:

👉 We already know which sea you mean.

Example:

• This is the beautiful beach we visited last year.

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✔️ Option 3 (Most Natural): Change the Sentence

Very often, native speakers say:

✔️ The sea is beautiful.

This is usually the best and most natural sentence.

Compare:

❌ It is beautiful sea.
✔️ The sea is beautiful.

Much better.

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A Simple Trick to Remember

If your sentence looks like:

❌ It is + adjective + noun

Stop.

Ask yourself:

👉 Do I need "a" or "the"?

Most of the time, the answer is:

✔️ YES

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Common Mistakes Japanese Students Make

Here are some very common examples:

❌ It is beautiful sea.
✔️ It is a beautiful sea.
✔️ The sea is beautiful.

❌ It is delicious cake.
✔️ It is a delicious cake.
✔️ The cake is delicious.

❌ It is big dog.
✔️ It is a big dog.
✔️ The dog is big.

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Why This Mistake Is So Common

Because Japanese allows:

adjective + noun + です

But English requires:

a/the + adjective + noun

This is a grammar difference between languages, not a mistake in thinking.

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Teacher’s Advice (After 30+ Years of Teaching)

Here is what I tell my students:

👉 If you see "It is adjective noun," something is missing.

Usually:

✔️ Add a
OR
✔️ Change the sentence order

Practice this, and your English will sound much more natural.

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Quick Practice (Try It!)

Fix these sentences:

1. ❌ It is beautiful flower.

2. ❌ It is interesting movie.

3. ❌ It is good teacher.

Answers:

1. ✔️ It is a beautiful flower.

2. ✔️ It is an interesting movie.

3. ✔️ He/She is a good teacher. (Better!)

Final Thought

Mistakes like "It is beautiful sea" are very common for Japanese learners.

But once you understand the rule:

👉 English nouns usually need "a" or "the"

—you will fix this problem quickly.

And your English will sound much more natural.

Why English Teachers Secretly Panic When Students Say “Good Taste!”

After many years of teaching English in Japan, there are certain phrases that I hear again and again.

One of them is:

“Good taste!”

Students often say this when they like something — food, music, clothes, movies, even a nice café.

For example:

“Wow! This cake is very good. Good taste!”

Or when talking about someone else:

“My friend recommended this restaurant. She has good taste!”

Now here is the interesting part.

In English, “good taste” is not something we usually say to praise food.

When native speakers talk about delicious food, we usually say things like:

• This tastes great.

• This is really good.

• It’s delicious.

• Wow, that’s amazing.

“Good taste” actually means something a little different.

It usually refers to someone’s sense of style or judgment.

For example:

• She has good taste in music.

• He has good taste in clothes.

• They have good taste in restaurants.

So if someone says “Good taste!” after eating a piece of cake, a native English speaker might feel slightly confused.

They may think you are talking about the chef’s judgment, not the flavor of the cake.

Of course, we will understand what you mean.

But it sounds a little unusual.

These kinds of small differences are very common when learning another language. Many expressions come directly from Japanese thinking.

That’s exactly the kind of thing we practice in conversation classes.

Learning grammar is important, but learning natural expressions is what makes English sound smooth and comfortable.

And who knows…

Next time you try a delicious cake, you might say:

“Wow — this is really good.”

Instead of:

“Good taste!”

Shohei's English

Shohei Otani made a common mistake.

❌ This is so special moment for me.

⭕️ This is such a special moment for me.

⭕️ This moment is so special for me.

⭕️ This is a very special moment for me.

⭕️ This moment is very special for me.

Relax Time

A very common mistake Japanese make when speaking English is to say “relax time”.

This is wrong! So, let’s fix the Broken English!

You, too, Doraemon???

Enjoy

How do you say something was 楽しい?

In America, we would say something like:

It was fun.

It was really fun.

There are slang ways to say this, too:

It was a blast.

It was a kick in the pants.

Beer and skittles. (イギリスのスラング)

More formal ways would be:

It was a pleasure.

I had a wonderful time.

Other ways to say something was fun.

I had a good time.

I had a great time.

I had the time of my life.

For some reason, Japanese usually say:

I very enjoyed.

This is, of course, not correct.

Enjoy is not an adjective (形容詞). It is a verb (動詞). What’s more it is a transitive verb (他動詞) which means it needs an object (目的語).

Enjoy

a. …を楽しむ, …で楽しく過ごす (!(1)受け身は｟まれ｠ . (2)日本語の「楽しむ」よりも意味の幅が広く, 趣味(の道具)･仕事･時間･人生･人(との交際)･料理など幅広い目的語を取りうる)

▸ enjoy books [a new job, one's pipe] 読書[新しい仕事, パイプでの一服]を楽しむ

▸ How did you enjoy your vacation? 休暇はどうでしたか(≒How was your vacation?)

▸ really [thoroughly] enjoy Tom's companyトムと一緒にとても楽しく過ごす

▸ enjoy one's time in Paris パリで楽しく過ごす

▸ enjoy tennis more [╳better] than baseball野球よりテニスが好きだ

▸ Enjoy your meal! どうぞお召し上がりください (!ウェイターが料理を運んできた時などに言う)

▸ The concert was wonderful. I enjoyed every minute of it. コンサートはすばらしく, そのすべてを楽しむことができた.

Enjoy can also be a reflexive verb (再帰動詞、再帰代名詞を伴う動詞; enjoy oneselfのenjoyなど)

c. 〖～ oneself〗 【場所･パーティなどで】楽しむ, 楽しく過ごす, くつろぐ «at, in»

▸ Welcome, everyone. Enjoy (yourselves). ようこそ皆さん, 楽しんでください (!｟米･くだけて｠ ではoneselfが省略されることがある)

▸ Are you enjoying yourself? 楽しんでるかい, 調子はどうだい

▸ enjoy oneselfin the garden [bath] 庭で[風呂に入って]くつろぐ(╳enjoy in the garden [bath]としない).

In the photo above, it says エンジョイ！タイム. How would you translate that?

❌ enjoy time

⭕️ an enjoyable time

Or, a fun time, a great time, a wonderful time, etc.

How big?

Many times I have asked students “How big is your home?” to which they reply, “No, no, no. My home is very small!”

Clearly they didn’t understand the question.

The same thing happens when I ask a simple question like “How tall is your husband?” The student will reply, “No, he’s very short!!!”

Yes, how + adjective can mean なんと・いかに . . . but it’s not that common, つまりその使い方はそんなに使われてない

Look at your dictionary and you will see that the first definition of “how” is どういう方法[手段]で, どのようにして, どんなふうに

▸ How did he get [find] the money?

彼はどのようにしてそのお金を手に入れた[見つけた]のか(!｟話｠ では時に強意的にHow on earth [｟ぞんざいに｠ the hell, ｟まれ｠ ever] did ...? (いったいどのようにして…したのか)のような形で用いる; → hell 1 語法 )

▸ “How did you go to school?” “I went by bike.” 「通学はどうしていたのですか」

「自転車で通っていました」

▸ “How does Ann drive?” “Very carefully.” 「アンの車の運転ぶりはどうですか」

「非常に慎重ですね」

The second definition of how is どのくらい, どれほど. And this is what is being asked by:

How . . . is it?

- big

- old

- tall

- long

- heavy 

- far

For example:

▸ How old is your uncle? おじさんは何歳ですか

▸ How long will she be staying here? 彼女はいつまでここにいるのだろうか

▸ How far is it from Washington to New York? ワシントンからニューヨークまで(距離は)どれくらいありますか

▸ How soon does the movie begin? あとどのくらいで映画は始まるかな

▸ How many visitors are you expecting to come?お客さんは何人くらいの予定でしょうか

▸ How much money do you need? お金はいくら必要ですか

▸ I don't know how long the street is. その通りの長さはわかりません.

So, when you are asked:

How big is your apartment/home?

Don’t say:

✖️ No, it’s small!!!

Say:

⭕️ It’s a 3 LDK.

⭕️ It’s 80 square meters.

Or, when you are asked:

How tall is your husband?

Don’t say:

✖️ No, he’s very short!!!

⭕️ He’s about average height.

⭕️ He’s 170 cm tall. 

⭕️ He’s quite short.

And, when you are asked:

How old is your baby?

Say:

He’s 6 months old. 

Blue Color

青色

❌ blue color

→ blue

→ the color blue

❗️blue color = 青色色

赤色

❌ red color

→ red

→ the color red

❗️red color = 赤色色

茶色

❌ brown color

→ brown

→ the color brown

❗️brown color = 茶色色

黄色

❌ yellow color

→ yellow

→ the color yellow

❗️yellow color = 黄色色