日: 2026年1月8日

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.)