Page 84 - Basic Japanese

Structure Notes

2.1. Nouns and pronouns

Nouns are words that name people, places, things, and
concepts such as hito ‘person,’ Yamada ‘(Ms.) Yamada,’ zasshi

‘magazine,’ and uchi ‘house.’ Nouns often precede a particle
like wa, ga, no, and ni, or occur before the word desu ‘is

(equals).’
Pronouns refer to people and things. Personal pronouns

refer to people. Watashi means ‘I’ or ‘me.’ In a formal

situation watakushi is used instead of watashi. Women also
say atashi in an informal situation. Men often say boku for ‘I,

me’; a rougher term is ore. The pronoun ‘you’ in Japanese is

anata, and a rougher term is anta. Kimi is a slightly intimate
term for ‘you’; a condescending form is omae (sometimes

used to small children). However, you should remember to
avoid using these second-person pronouns (you) as much as

possible: you can drop the pronoun or use the name or the
title of the person. Kare means ‘he’ or ‘him’ and kanojo

means ‘she’ or ‘her,’ but again, you can use the name or the
title of the person as much as possible.

Demonstrative pronouns can be conveniently used for
referring to items that both the speaker and the listener can

see. For referring to things, use kore, sore, or are. For
referring to locations use koko, soko, or asoko. (See 2.15. for

related words.)

kore this one

sore that one near you