Agony or Fun?! Second Language Learning

There are groups of words that start with one of Ko-, So-, and A-. Today we are going to learn pronouns “Kore”, which is one of Ko-So-A words “Kore, Sore, and Are”. Simply put, these three are corresponding to “This”, “It”, and “That”. But actually, it is not so simple for “Sore”. Let’s use only “Kore” for today.

Since “Kore” is a pronoun, it can be used in the same way as nouns. Although Kore can be either of a subject or a predicate, just for the sake of simplicity, let’s learn a sentence construction in which Kore is used for the subject today.

1. Kore wa Hon desu. (This is a book)

– Kore : pronoun ; this

– wa : particle ; the topic marker and also the subject marker in this case

– Hon : noun ; a book

– desu : polite ending for present-positive

The sentence 1 is a positive one. The negative one is as below;

2. Kore wa Hon dewa arimasen. /Kore wa Hon ja arimasen. (This is not a book.)

An interrogative sentence is easy to make from 1 as below:

3. Kore wa Hon desuka. (Is this a book?)

Note that 3. is an interrogative sentence of [yes-no question]. If you don’t know what “this” is, you need to make your interrogative sentence a [Wh-question].

4. Kore wa Nan desuka. (What is this?)

Nan is the short form of Nani and an interrogative corresponding to “What”. Although the interrogative “Nan” is used, the ending particle for question “ka” is also used at the end of an interrogative sentence.

Practice and remember in the form of a conversation as follows;

A : Kore wa nan desuka. (What is this?)

B : Kore wa Jisho desu. (This is a dictionary.)

Think that two people are university students;

1. Satou-san wa dai-gakusei desu. (Ms. Sato is a university student.)

2. Suzuki-san mo dai-gakusei desu. (Mr. Suzuki is a university student, too.)

The subjects are different between sentences 1 and 2. Is there any other difference?

In the sentence 1, the subject “Satou-san” is followed by particle “-wa”, which is the topic marker and is also the subject marker in this case.

In the sentence 2, the subject “Suzuki-san” is followed by particle “mo”, which is the particle that we are going to learn today.

In the combination of { [Noun]+mo }, the particle “mo” functions to indicate the [Noun] is the same kind as the noun in preceding sentence. In the sentence 2, you see { [Suzuki-san]+mo }. This indicates that Suzuki-san is the same kind as Satou-san in terms of being a university student.

Note that the particle “mo” is NOT always placed just behind the subject. This caution is usually forgotten in Japanese teaching. So far, we have learned simple noun predicate sentences only. There are other types of sentences that are more complicated in their constructions. Sometimes, the particle “mo” is attached to a word that is NOT the subject. Remember that particle “mo” is attached to the word that you think is the same kind with a word in the preceding sentence. For this matter, an example will be shown after we learn more complicated sentence constructions.

We have already learned a construction of Noun predicate sentences. Its positive form is as follows;

1. [Noun1]wa [Noun2]desu.

Example : Watashi wa Dai-Gakusei desu. (I am a university student.)

When you hear this sentence, you probably want to know which university the person studies in. In other words, it would be better to have more information for the predicate “N desu”. You can say;

2. [Noun1]wa [Noun2] no [Noun3] desu.

In this sentence “2.”, Noun2 modifies Noun3 to limit the range of meaning of Noun3. Let us look at an example;

– Watashi wa Niigata Daigaku no Gakusei desu. (I am a student of Niigata Univrsity)

As shown in this example, “A no B” in Japanese is like “B of A” in English. And there　are a lot of students in this world of many types and in many schools. Modification “Niigata Daigaku no” is limiting the range of meaning of the word “students”.

＜説明事項の漏れを防止するために、当ブログの”Japanese Learning”の投稿では、スリーエーネットワーク、”みんなの日本語 初級I 第2版”の練習Aを参照しています。＞

Yesterday we learned one interrogative form of a noun predicate sentence. It was a “yes-no question”. Today, we are going to learn a “Wh-question”. In order to introduce a “Wh-question”, let us first look at positive forms of noun predicate sentences.

1. Ano hito wa Sato-san desu. : That person is Ms. Sato.

2. Achira no kata wa Suzuki-san desu. : That person is Mr. Suzuki.

You see differences between the sentences 1. and 2. “Ano” in 1. turned to be “Achira” in 2., and “hito” in 1. turned to be “kata” in 2. The sentence 2. is more polite than 1. The issue of politeness is not an object of today, however, please note that choices of words are affected by how much the sentence should be polite. The following explanation uses the sentence 1. whose politeness is medium level.

If you want to make the sentence 1. a yes-no questions, just put “-ka” at the end.

1’. Ano hito wa Sato-san desuka : Is that person Ms.Sato?

But today, we need to make it a “Wh-question”. There are some interrogative words in Japanese for “when”, “where”, “who”, “what” and “why”. Today only “who” is used. The question word “dare” is corresponding to “who”, so if you want the sentence 1. to be “Wh-question”, it can be as follows;

3. Ano hito wa dare desuka : Who is that person?

Do not mind that the wh-word “dare” is being used not in the subject but in the predicate. Although “dare” can also be used as a subject, that type of construction should be introduced later. Learning more commonly used expressions earlier and less common ones later is important in the second language learning.

Remember today’s expressions as a conversation of question and answer as below.

A : Ano hito wa dare desuka : Who is that person?

B : Ano hito wa Sato-san desu : That person is Ms. Sato.