Week Two Summary

Week Two

Note: All notes, quotes and references come from Genki: An integrated Course in Japanese and An Introduction to Modern Japanese, both published by The Japan Times.

Lesson Summary:


Last week we looked at;


     A wa B desu     *A is B*

The opposite of this is;


     A wa B ja arimasen     *A is not B*


This form is the shortened version of dewa arimasen. It is more commonly seen in written Japanese than “ja arimasen”.




Kore, Sore, Are, Dore: These words stand by themselves in a sentence.


Kore: This     Kore is used to describe an object that is close to both the speaker and the listener.


Sore: That      Sore is used to describe an object that is far away from the speaker and close to the listener.


Are: That (over there)      Are is used to describe an object that is far away from both the speaker and the listener.


Dore: Which one(s)      This is used to ask about one item or a group of items.
     Dore desu ka.  Which one is it?




Kono, Sono, Ano, Dono: These words must have an object after it.
     Ex. Kono hon wa kuroi desu.      This book is black.


Kono: This...   The same use as Kore


Sono: That...     The same use as Sore


Ano: That...(over there)     The same use as Are


Dono: Which one     The same use as Dore


One other phrase:


dare no: Whose     This is also used in a question.
     Ex. Kore wa *dare no* kaban desu ka.   *Whose* bag is this?


~Ne/~Yo:


~Ne: put this at the end of a sentence as a kind of agreement. The equivalent of eh?
     Ex. Sou desu ne.    That's right, isn't it?


~Yo: Put this at the end of a sentence to make it an authoritative statement.
     Ex. sou desu yo.     (I'm telling you) That's right.