Part 10: Time + かん, quantity words, and と

When you put かん after an amount of time You are saying that you are/were preforming the action (of the sentence) for that period of time. The particle に is used after the time. Here is an example:
あなたはきっちてんでともだちをいちじかんにまちましたか。 "You waited at a coffee shop for a friend for one hour?"
まつ -- To wait (-u verb)

The kanji for かん is 間 so to say one hour, you can either write いちじかん or 一時間. Time + じ(時) + かん(間)
(This kanji will be gone over at another time)

If you want to say something like "about one hour" you would add ～ぐらい after ～時間. There is no particle used for this. Here is an example:
わたしはきのうにほんごを三時間ぐらいべんきょうしました。 "I studied Japanese for about 3 hours yesterday."

When trying to say something like "one and a half hours," You add はん (半) after the 間 in ～時間. The particle に follows this time value. Here is an example:
きのう七時間半ねました。


When using quantity words in Japanese, like たくさん , you can either place te quantity word before the word marked with the particle を or after the particle. Here are some examples of sentences using たくさん:
わたしはきょうとでたくさんしゃしんをとります。
"I took many pictures in Kyoto."
やさいをたくさんたべました。
"I ate a lot of vegetables."
たくさん  --  many/a lot
しゃしん  --  Pictures
とる  --  to take (pictures)
やさい  --  vegetables


The particle と has two main functions. One of the functions is to connect two nouns, like "A and B." The other function is to specify who the action is being preformed with. Here are some examples of these uses of と:
にほんごとえいごをはなします。 "I speak Japanese and English."
あなたはともだちとえいがをみますか。 "Will you see a movie with a friend?"
にほんご -- Japanese (language)
えいご -- English (language)
えいが -- Movie