カテゴリー: やさしい　にほんご

Yesterday we learned “Kore”. Kore, Sore, and Are are pronouns and one of the word groups of “Ko-So-A words”. Yesterday I wrote that Kore, Sore, and Are are corresponding to “This”, “It”, and “That”, respectively. Another definition is like; Kore is a thing here or near, Sore is a thing in middle distance, Are is a thing that is in distant place. However, “Sore” is not so simple. If a speaker and a listener are together in limited space like inside taxi, the definition “Sore is in middle distance” is okay. But in many situations, what is Sore for a speaker can be Kore for a listener.

– Kore : a thing very near to the speaker and the listener

– Sore : a thing a little distant from the speaker but very near to the listener

– Are : a thing far from both of the speaker and the listener

Suppose that there is a dictionary on the table. Person A and B are standing by the table and they are face to face.

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

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

This is yesterday’s conversation.

Different from the situation above, suppose that Person A and B are standing face to face with the distance of 2 meters (6 feet) between the two. The person B has a smartphone on her hand.

A : Sore wa nan desuka. (What is it?)

B : Kore wa Sumaatofon desu. (This is a smartphone.)

Japanese sentences are classified in three by the type of predicates;

1. Noun predicate sentences

2. Adjective predicate sentences (I-adjectives and Na-adjectives)

3. Verb predicate sentences

Today, too, we are going to learn “1. Noun predicate sentences”. Yesterday’s “[Noun1]wa [Noun2]desu.” is a positive sentence. A negative sentence is as follows;

[Noun1]wa [Noun2]dewa arimasen.

“Arimasen” is actually a negative form of a verb “aru/arimasu” that means something exists. However, now we are learning noun predicate sentences, not verb predicate sentences. Therefore, I recommend you just remember “dewa arimasen” like a one word. In conversations, “dewa arimasen” is usually contracted to be “ja arimasen”.

Let’s look at the sentence “[Noun1]wa [Noun2]dewa arimasen.”

-Noun1: a name of something.

-wa: this is the particle (post position) to indicate that preceding word is the topic of the sentence. When the topic and the subject are identical in the sentence, “-wa” can be a subject marker as well as topic marker.

-Noun2: a name of something.

-dewa arimasen (-ja arimasen): Being placed at the end of a sentence, this functions to make the sentence present-negative. This ending is polite. Do not use the short form “dewa nai (ja nai)” for an ending of the sentence because it sounds rude.

Let’s make a noun predicate sentence “[Noun1]wa [Noun2]dewa arimasen.” by putting real Japanese words.

Watashi: I (prenoun)

wa: topic marker (particle) — also subject marker in this case

Koukousei : a high school student. Although its spelling is “koukousei”, the pronunciation is like “Koh-koh-se-e”

dewa arimasen: present-negative, polite ending

Watashi wa Koukousei dewa arimasen. (I am not a high school student.)