PG007

14 Grammar

CLuestions

A ka at the end of a sentence indicates a yes or no ąuestion. Simply add the particie ka after the verb. Thus:

This is a cheap hotel. korę wa yasui kotem desu Is this a cheap hotel? korę wa yasui hoteru desu ka?

For morę specific ąuestions the following question words are used:

who

donata (polite) dare (informal) which

dochira (polite) dore (informal) what nan* nani where doko when itsu how dó

How many ikutsu How much ikura Why naze

*nan before b, p, d, t, n, r, z,

who are you? donata desu ka?

which one is it? dochira desu ka?

what are you doing? nani o shite imasu ka?

where is it?

doko desu ka? when are you going?

itsu ikimasu ka? how is it? (whatfs it like?) dó desu ka?

how much is it? ikura desu ka?

and nani before others

Yes & No

The word for ‘no’ is iie. However, in most situations, a simple iie will sound brusąue to the Japanese. Make your ‘no’ a little morę polite:

I’m sorry, but no.    iie, sumimasen

To say ‘yes’, you can either say hai or hai followed by the verb in the ąuestion. You will also hear the less emphatic ee.

Are you Australian? anata wa ósutorariajin desu ka?

Yes, Fm Australian. hai, ósutorariajin desu

Pronouns

Personal pronouns aren’t used as often in Japanese as in English. They are often omitted if they are obvious from the context. Also, although the word for T is romanised as watakushi, you are morę likely to hear and use the slightly less formal watashi when you are interacting with Japanese. Add the polite suffix wa to pronouns when talking about others. Notę the Japanese have no word for ‘it’, and that the pronouns ‘he’ (karę) and ‘she’ (kanojo) are morę often than not replaced by phrases meaning ‘that person’.

When speaking of people the suffix tachi can be added to a pronoun to indicate plurality.

I, me you

he, she (that person) we, us you (plural) they (those persons)

watakushi

anata

ano hito

watakushitachi

anatatachi

ano hitotachi