form is omae (sometimes used to small children). However, you should remember to avoid using these second-person pronouns (you) as much as possible: you can drop the pronoun or use the name or the title of the person. Kare means ‘he’ or ‘him’ and kanojo means ‘she’ or ‘her,’ but again, you can use the name or the title of the person as much as possible.
Demonstrative pronouns can be conveniently used for referring to items that both the speaker and the listener can see. For referring to things, use kore, sore, or are. For referring to locations use koko, soko, or asoko. (See 2.15. for related words.)
| これ kore | this one |
| それ sore | that one near you |
| あれ are | that one over there |
| どれ dore | which one |
| ここ koko | this place, here |
| そこ soko | that place (near you), there |
| あそこ asoko | over there |
| どこ doko | where |
「先生, これは先生の傘ですか。」
“Sensei, kore wa sensei no kasa desu ka.”
“Professor, is this your umbrella?”
「いいえ, それはマイクさんの傘です。」
“Īe, sore wa Maiku-san no kasa desu.”
“No, it’s Mike’s.”
2.2. Prenouns
The words kono, sono, and ano are prenouns, or more commonly called demonstrative adjectives. These words precede a noun and modify its meaning, much as a noun is modified by a phrase consisting of a noun followed by the particle no: kono gakkō ‘this school,’ watashi no gakkō ‘my school.’
| この kono | this |
| その sono | that |
| あの ano | that over there |
| どの dono | which |
2.3. Place words (relative location)
Words such as ue ‘topside’ and naka ‘inside’ are used along with reference nouns as in tēburu no ue ‘on the top of the table.’ They are often used for situations we would express in English with prepositions like in, on, under, behind, above, and between.
| 前 mae | in front |
| 後ろ ushiro | behind |
| 右 migi | right |
| 左 hidari | left |
| 上 ue | up |
| 下 shita | below |
| そば soba | beside, near |
| 近く chikaku | near(by) |
| 中 naka | inside |
| 外 soto | outside |
| 隣 tonari | next door, next position |
| 間 aida | between (two places) |
Here are some example sentences.
駅は銀行の後ろです。
Eki wa ginkō no ushiro desu.
The train station is behind the bank.
充電器はテーブルの下にあります。
Jūdenki wa tēburu no shita ni arimasu.
The charger is under the table.
2.4. Adjectival nouns
The word suki ‘likable’ is a special kind of noun called an adjectival noun (or copular noun, nominal adjective). It acts as an adjective describing a noun, but it patterns like a noun, being placed before some form of the copula da/desu ‘is (equals).’ Here are a few examples:
| 好き(だ) suki (da) | (is) likable, liked |
| 嫌い(だ) kirai (da) | (is) dislikable, disliked |
| きれい(だ) kirei (da) | (is) neat, pretty, clean |
| シック(だ) shikku(da) | (is) chic, stylish |
| 派手(だ) hade (da) | (is) showy |
| 静か(だ) shizuka (da) | (is) quiet |
| まじめ(だ) majime (da) | (is) serious, studious |
| 簡単(だ) kantan (da) | (is) easy |
| 駄目(だ) dame (da) | (is) not good |
Notice that the literal translation of suki desu and kirai desu is ‘(something) is liked’ and ‘(something) is disliked,’ but we freely translate them ‘(somebody) likes (something)’ and ‘(somebody) dislikes (something).’
2.5. Untranslated English words
In English we seldom say just ‘book.’ We say ‘a book,’ ‘the book,’ ‘some books,’ or ‘the books.’ In Japanese, the situation is just the other way around. Since the Japanese have another way of implying that they’ve been talking about the noun, by making it the topic with the particle wa, as in hon wa ‘the book, the books,’ they don’t need a word to translate ‘the.’ And they usually leave it up to the situation to make it clear whether there are several things in question or just one, unless they want to focus your attention on the number itself, in which case the number word indicates just how many you are talking about. The Japanese, like everyone else, do not always bother to express things they think you already know. This doesn’t mean they lack ways to say things we do; it just means they leave implied some of the things we are used to saying explicitly. Americans tend to use watashi and anata too much. Remember to omit pronouns when the reference is clear.
2.6. Particles
In English, we usually show the relations between words in the way we string them together. The sentences ‘Jon loves May’ and ‘May loves Jon’ both contain the same three words, but the order in which we put the words determines the meaning. In Japanese, relations between words are often shown by little words called particles. This lesson will introduce you to several of these particles: wa, ga, ka, no, and ni.
2.7. は wa
The particle wa sets off the TOPIC you are going to talk about. If you say Watashi wa gakusei desu ‘I am a student,’ the particle shows you are talking about watashi ‘I’—what you have to say about the topic then follows. A pidgin-English way of translating this particle wa is ‘as for’: Shinbun wa koko ni arimasu ‘As for the newspaper, it’s here.’ But it is better not to look for a direct translation for some of these particles—remember they just indicate the relationship between the preceding words
