Page 543 - Basic Japanese

What is it?

Nan dai? = Nan desu ka?

Is it interesting?
Omoshiroi kai? = Omoshiroi desu ka?

The plain copula da usually drops before ka:

Is it your friend?

Tomodachi kai? or Tomo dachi ka? = Tomodachi desu ka?

The final intensive particle yo occurs more commonly in the
plain-style for both men and women. Women often end a plain-
style sentence with wa (or wa yo!); you will occasionally hear

men use final wa, but only after a polite-style sentence. Men
sometimes use final zo! or ze! to be forceful. Both men and

(especially) women freely punctuate their relaxed speech with
the particle ne! (‘you see, you know, I mean’). In Tokyo, the

more vigorous sa! (‘I tell you, you see, mind you!’) is often used
instead.

iii. Use of contractions

Contractions occur in all styles of speech, but they are more
common in the plain style. Some contractions are peculiar to
individual words—like the women’s form atashi for watashi and

anta for anata. Others are more widespread shortenings or
modifications of certain sound sequences.

The topic particle wa is often shortened to just a. We find
kuruma-a alongside kuruma wa ‘as for the car,’ and kinō-a
alongside kinō wa ‘as for yesterday.’ A front vowel—i or e—at the

end of a word preceding wa may be replaced by y: kory-a for kore

wa, aky-a for aki wa. Or it may be replaced by nothing: kor-a for
kore wa, o-kashi-a for o-kashi wa. The shortened form of wa, a, is