This, that, and question words

Most of the small words that point at things fit in one table. The pattern is regular: learn the four prefixes and you know about forty words.

Combine them with the endings and you get:

The mnemonic is the same for each: こ = near me, そ = near you, あ = far from us, ど = which.

これ / それ / あれ / どれ stand on their own. They replace a noun.

この / その / あの / どの describe a noun and must be followed by one.

ここ / そこ / あそこ / どこ are places.

こんな / そんな / あんな / どんな are "this kind of / that kind of".

For distances you can see, こ/そ/あ is about space. But when you talk or read about something, Japanese uses そ (and sometimes あ) to point back at what was just said.

When you find それ, その, そこ, そう or そんな in a text, look to the previous sentence. It is almost always pointing back at something there. This is one of the best reading skills you can build.

あ words usually point at things both speaker and listener know, such as shared memories:

These four describe a way or manner.

そう deserves a special note. It is one of the most frequent words in Japanese. 「そうです」「そうだね」「そうなの？」: "that's right", "I see", "really?" It also has other uses we will see in the lesson on guessing and hearsay.

Question words slot in where the answer goes. The word order doesn't change.

You do not add question marks or か when the question word is already in the sentence (though か is usual in polite speech). Raising the tone at the end of a casual sentence is enough.

Add か to a question word and it becomes "some-": 何か (something), 誰か (someone), どこか (somewhere), いつか (sometime).

Add も and it becomes "no-" or "any-", in a negative sentence: 何も (nothing), 誰も (no one), どこにも (nowhere).

Mark this, because it looks strange the first time: Japanese uses a plain negative verb with 何も. Not "doesn't eat nothing" (double negative in English), but just "eats nothing".

Real texts use そ-words as glue between sentences. Track what each そ points at.

• こ/そ/あ/ど = near me / near you or just mentioned / far / which. Learn the grid.
• これ replaces a noun; この needs a noun after it.
• そ words point back at what was just said or written.
• Question words go where the answer goes. No change in word order.
• 何か = something; 何も + negative = nothing; 何でも = anything.