Time to murder some sentences...

[SilEighty]

learning japanese with a friend, so i have someone to converse with, trying to work out 'do you understand?"

So far the best i've come up with is あなた　は　ききとるて　います　か which I'm thinking would mean 'are you understanding?'

Everything seems so ambigous at the moment.... and from the sounds of it, it doesn't get any easier?

Watch this space for more murdered sentences....

[SilEighty]

Also, how about if i don't understand a word - would it be [unknown word] は　なん　です　か。

or would:
これ　は　[unknown word] えいご　です　か be a better way to put it?

*EDIT*
maybe:
[unknown word] は　えいご　で　なん　です　か。　　That seems more logical....

[richvh]

The usual way to say "do you understand?" is わかります　か.

The other was discussed in another thread recently, and it was said that the best way was (unknown word) とは　えいご　で　なん　と　いいます　か. (= How do you say "unknown word" in English?)

[OT86]

if you think that "wakarimashita" means "I understand/certainly" (99% sure of that)

then obviously to turn that from a statement into a question you can just add the question particle (Ka) at the end of your sentence (although with the "-masu" ending) The "anata" part is unnecessary as it's obvious you aren't asking yourself the question.

Also to say I don't understand you can turn it into the negative with a "-masen" ending - i.e - Wakarimasen which you could easily use on its own in casual conversation and be understood.

A lot of Japanese at the basic level has loads of omissions (missed-out words) because those words are suggested by the situation. Words like "anata" and "desu" for example. Of course you can leave these in.

Whereas in English you would say "do you understand?" the Jap equivalent is more like "understand?" - Short and to the point

If you study all the grammar sections on this site you'll be able to form things like this yourself, without needing anyone's help. And that's when you'll start to have fun with the language

Good luck

[Isao]

Also, if you are learning with a Japanese friend, then saying all those "imasu" tails sounds a bit ...formal. In fact, you would use "futsuukei" (informal form) most time.
For example:

I understood = Wakatta.
I don't understand (at all) = (Zenzen) Wakaranai.

So.

[SilEighty]

i think i will be saying ぜんぜんわからない very often.....
From curiousity, would [unknown word] は　えいご　で　なん　です　か be an acceptable shorter form?

[Ongakuka]

I think you can say "unknown word wa nan desu ka" though it's probably like a Japanese person who doesn't understand strawberry saying "What's strawberry?":)

[tkbits]

.

[tkbits]

You could say

[word]　は　(えいごで)　なんと　言う。

The kanji is used to hide the difference between how it's written （いう）, and how it's pronounced （ゆう）.

[SilEighty]

i'm having trouble finding the meaning of 'to' in this sort of context. I have seen it used a few times, but i thought it meant 'and', or as a sort of quotation mark?

I'm guessing that eigo is implied, and superflous in you sentence, the kanji seems to mean speech? From what i can see, you've written 'what is spoken [word]?'

[tkbits]

An example answer:　「ほん」　は　「book」　と　いいます。

See the parallel?

So what I've written is "[word] is spoken as what?"

[SilEighty]

ありがとう。 Still unsure on how the 'to' usage works, but I guess its not essential to understand the sentence, so i'll just accept it until I work it out.

[clay]

Just think of it as a quotation mark like you said above. The 「」 are actually Japanese quotation marks.