Japanese Nouns & Pronouns: How to Refer to People and Things
Welcome to Chapter 2! In Chapter 1, you learned the basic rules of how Japanese sentences are built. Now, we'll start diving deeper into each "building block," beginning with the most fundamental one: Nouns (名詞 - meishi).
Nouns (名詞 - meishi) Revisited
Nouns are words that name people (人), places (場所), and things (物). Japanese nouns are simple and straightforward compared to English in two major ways:
- No Plural Forms: The word for "book" (本, hon) can mean one book or many books. The word for "cat" (猫, neko) can mean one cat or several cats. Context tells you which is meant. You don't need to add an 's'!
- No Articles: There are no words for "a," "an," or "the." You don't need to worry about whether it's "a cat" or "the cat."
あそこ に 猫 が います。
(Asoko ni neko ga imasu.)
This could mean "There is a cat over there" or "There are cats over there."
Pronouns (代名詞 - daimeishi)
Pronouns are words you use to refer to someone or something without using its name, like "I," "you," "he," "she," and "it." Here are the basics:
| English | Japanese | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| I / me | 私 (watashi) | Standard, polite. Safe for all situations. |
| You | あなた (anata) | Used much less than in English. See note below. |
| He / him | 彼 (kare) | Can also mean "boyfriend." |
| She / her | 彼女 (kanojo) | Can also mean "girlfriend." |
| We / us | 私たち (watashi-tachi) | The たち (tachi) suffix makes groups. |
| They / them | 彼ら (karera) | Mainly for males or mixed groups. |
An Important Note on "You" (あなた)
In English, we use "you" constantly. In Japanese, using あなた (anata) can sound very direct or even rude depending on the situation. It's much more common and polite to refer to someone by their name plus さん (san).
- Instead of: "Anata wa isha desu ka?" (Are you a doctor?)
- It's better to say: "田中さんは医者ですか。" (Tanaka-san wa isha desu ka?) (Is Mr. Tanaka a doctor?)
When in doubt, use the person's name. If you don't know their name, try to get their attention in other ways.
Similarly, 彼 (kare) and 彼女 (kanojo) are used less often than "he" or "she". Referring to someone by their name is almost always preferred.