Page 43 - Easy Japanese - Learn to Speak Japanese Quickly! (TUTTLE)

distinction is made:
kore this thing (close to me) or this thing I just mentioned
sore that thing (close to you) or that thing which was just

mentioned
are that thing (away from both of us) or that thing we both
know about

dore which one

There are more sets based on the same distinction. In Dialogue 4 on page 38, the
second set kono, sono, ano, and dono is introduced. The difference between the
two sets is that the first is a set of nouns and the second is a set of modifiers that
require a following noun and cannot be used alone. For example, you can say

kore on its own but not kono. Kono must be followed by a noun like kaisha
“this company”. Note that when translated into English, both kore and kono are
translated as “this”.
kore this

kono kaisha this company
kono Nihon no kaisha this Japanese company

Other sets include the following and will appear in later lessons. Sō in sō desu
comes from this last group.
koko, soko, asoko, doko “here, there, over there, where”

kochira, sochira, achira, “this direction” etc.
dochira
konna X, sonna X, anna X, “this kind of X” etc.

donna X
kō, sō, ā, dō “this manner” etc.

GRAMMAR NOTE Hesitation Noises

In general, Japanese conversations tend to favor less direct and less
confrontational exchanges. For this reason, hesitation noises are very common.
Without them, a conversation may sound too mechanical and abrupt. “Beating
around the bush” may not be such a bad thing when speaking Japanese. One way

to do it is to use hesitation noises. A lot of them!
Anō and etto are two of the most common hesitation noises in Japanese. Anō