What we learned yesterday was a sentence that expresses ownership using noun-like “no”.
1. [Pronoun] wa [Person] [no] desu.”
example; Are wa watashi no desu.
The problem of sentence 1 is that it doesn’t say anything about what the person owns. We are going to learn today a sentences construction such that can express what the person owns. In order to do this, another ko-so-a words’ group will be introduced.
We know one ko-so-a words’ group that are pronouns “kore”, “sore”, and “are”.
– Kore : a thing very near to the speaker and the listener
– Sore : a thing a little distant from the speaker. If the thing is very near to the listener, the listener will uses “kore” for the same thing when the listener speaks about it.
– Are : a thing far from both of the speaker and the listener
Today’s ko-so-a words are “noun modifiers” that are placed in front of a noun, and modify the noun. Usually, a word modifying a noun is to be called an adjective. But what I call “noun modifiers” are words that are different from I-adjectives and Na-adjectives of Japanese language.
– Kono + noun — example ; kono hon (This book)
– Sono + noun — example ; sono jisho (The dictionary that is a little distant from me)
– Ano + noun — example ; ano kuruma (That car over there)
Look at the difference between the two sentences of three pairs.
– Kore wa watashi no desu. (This is mine.)
– Kono hon wa watashi no desu. (This book is mine.)
– Sore wa Satou-san no desu. (It is Ms. Sato’s.)
– Sono jisho wa Satou-san no desu. (The dictionary there is Ms. Sato’s.)
– Are wa sensei no desu. (That is (our) teacher’s.)
– Ano kuruma wa Sensei no desu. (That car over there is (our) teacher’s.)
Agony or Fun?! Second Language Learning 