ぶんぽう (Grammar)

はじめまして (How do you do?) and どうぞよろしく (Nice to meet you.) are common expressions used when meeting someone for the first time. A typical self-introduction begins with はじめまして, followed by your name and any other information you would like to share. The phrase どうぞよろしく is usually placed at the end of the introduction and expresses your hope for a good relationship with the person you are meeting.

1.	はじめまして。 How do you do?
2.	おの けいこです。 I am Keiko Ono.
3.	どうぞ、よろしく。 Nice to see you.

In Japanese, すみません is a versatile "social lubricant" that goes beyond a simple apology. It is an essential phrase used to navigate social boundaries, acknowledge others' efforts, and ensure smooth daily interactions. Depending on the context, すみません primarily performs these three functions:

1. Attracting Attention: This is used to initiate contact or break silence, similar to Excuse me in English. Calling a server in a restaurant. Asking a stranger for directions. Signaling that you need to pass through crowds.

2. Expressing Regret: Used for minor mistakes, accidents, or social infractions, similar to I'm sorry in English. Saying sorry after bumping into someone. Acknowledging a minor oversight.

3. Expressing Gratitude: Similar to Thank you in English. Used to acknowledge the effort or trouble someone took to help you. When someone holds a door or picks up a dropped item. Expressing appreciation for a thoughtful gesture. Nuance: I appreciate this, and I'm sorry for the trouble.

To answer a yes-no question affirmatively, use はい or ええ. Both mean yes and are polite responses. As we saw in Lesson 1, however, はい has additional uses. For example, it can be used when handing something to someone (Here you go), whereas ええ is used only to express agreement and cannot be used when giving an object to someone. Another common affirmative response is そうです (That’s right). This is a noun sentence in which そう functions as a pronoun meaning that. As shown in A2 below, そう can be replaced by a noun. The expression そうです is used only in response to yes-no questions based on noun sentences.

	ええ or はい	Noun です	か
Q		けいこさんです	か。	Are you Keiko?
A1	はい、	そうです。		Yes, that's right.
A2	ええ、	けいこです。		Yes, I'm Keiko.

To answer a yes-no question negatively, use いいえ (No). You may also say いいえ、ちがいます (No, that's not correct). Since ちがいます explicitly indicates that the other person's statement is wrong, it can sound somewhat direct. Japanese speakers often prefer less direct ways of expressing disagreement as shown in the second conversation below.

A:	さいとうさんですか。	Are you Mr./Mrs. Saito?
B:	いいえ、ちがいます。	No, that's not correct.
A:	あ、しつれいしました。	Oh, I'm sorry.
	↓
C:	さいとうさんですか。	Are you Mr./Mrs. Saito?
D:	いいえ、たなかです。	No, I'm Tanaka.
C:	あ、しつれいしました。	Oh, I'm sorry.

しつれいしました is a more formal and apologetic way to say I'm sorry than すみません. It literally means I committed a rudeness. You can replace this with すみません.

にほん means Japan. にほんじん means a Japanese person or Japanese people. The suffix ～じん, meaning person or people, is added to a country name to indicate nationality. For example, アメリカ means America, while アメリカじん means American. Similarly, かんこく means South Korea, and かんこくじん means South Korean.

Nationality

にほん じん	Japanese		ドイツ じん	German
アメリカ じん	American		フランス じん	French
ちゅうごく じん	Chinese		イギリス じん	British
かんこく じん	South Korean		メキシコ じん	Mexican
ロシア じん	Russian		スペイン じん	Spain
なにじん	What nationality?		がいこくじん	foreigner

In English, the word Japanese can refer either to a person's nationality or to the Japanese language. In Japanese, however, the suffix ～ご is added to a country name to indicate its language. Most language names are formed by adding ～ご to a country name. One common exception is えいご ("English"), which comes from the kanji 英, an abbreviation of イギリス (England), rather than アメリカ or イギリス.

Language

にほん ご	Japanese		ドイツ ご	German
えいご	English		スペインご	Spain
ちゅうごくご	Chinese		フランスご	French
かんこく ご	Korean		ロシアご	Russian
なにご	What language?		がいこくご	foreign language

The お in おなまえ is an honorific prefix attached to some nouns. Because the prefix shows respect toward the other person, おなまえ refers to the listener's or another person's name—not the speaker's own name. Thus, when the speaker says おなまえ in a face-to-face conversation, it is naturally interpreted as your name. However, お cannot be added freely to any noun. Only certain nouns commonly take this honorific prefix.

The はわ in おなまえはわ？ (Your name?) is the topic particle. If this is pronounced with a rising intonation, it is interpreted as a question and is marked by ？. The topic marker はわ is always pronounced わ (wa) but written in hiragana は. A natural response to this question is simply name + です, without stating the subject (I or my name), since it is understood from the context.

	Nounは？
A:	おなまえは?	Your name?
	Nounです
B:	スミスです。	(I) am Smith.

🌸 You may have seen the expression きみのなはわ in the title of the popular anime film 君(きみ)の名(な)はわ. Although it literally means Your name?, it is not commonly used when asking for the other's name. In everyday conversation, おなまえは？ is the more natural expression.

The particle から follows a place name and means from (a location), as in アメリカから (from America). When から is used with the verb きました, the expression Place から + きました means (I) came from [place]. We will introduce the verb form きました in detail later. To ask about someone’s hometown or place of origin, you can use どこ (where) or its more polite equivalent どちら, as shown below. We will study additional uses of から later.

Q:	どこ or どちら	から	きましたか。	Where did you come from?
A:	アメリカ	から	きました。	I came from America.
Q:	どこ or どちら	から	ですか。	Where are you from?
A:	アメリカ	から	です。	I'm from America.

When Prof. Yoshida introduces herself in Dialogue 2, she uses わたし (わたしは よしだです: I am Yoshida). わたし is a pronoun meaning I or me. In this sentence, it functions as the subject, but it is often omitted in Japanese when the subject is clear from context. In fact, the subject I is frequently dropped in Japanese sentences and does not need to be stated every time. When the speaker chooses to state the subject explicitly, わたし is commonly followed by the topic particle はわ, as in わたしは りゅうがくせいです (I am a foreign student.).

In Dialogue 3, Mr. Brown refers to himself as ぼく ("I"). ぼく is a first-person pronoun commonly used by boys and men in casual conversation. In formal situations, men generally use わたし instead.　Another first-person pronoun, おれ ("I"), is even more casual than ぼく and is usually used only with close friends and family. Because おれ can sound rough or overly familiar, beginners are encouraged to use わたし or ぼく instead.

When introducing yourself, you can identify yourself by your school, company, or other affiliation using the following pattern:

[Affiliation]	の	[last name]です
ソニー	の	たなかです。	I am Tanaka of Sony.
ジョージアテック	の	ブラウンです。	I am Brown of Georgia Tech.

More generally, the particle の connects two nouns. The noun before の modifies the noun after it, creating the pattern:

Modifying Noun	の	Modified Noun
わたし	の	なまえ せんこう ともだち	my name my major my friend
すずきさん	の	ともだち	Ms. Suzuki's friend
ともだち	の	すずきさん	My friend, Ms. Suzuki
だいがく	の	せんせい	a university/college teacher; professor
にほん	の	せんせい	a teacher in Japan
にほんじん	の	せんせい	a Japanese teacher (nationality)
にほんご	の	せんせい	a Japanese-language teacher
おとこ	の	ひと	man
おんな	の	ひと	woman
アメリカ	の	くるま	American cars, cars in America
スミスさん	の	せんこう	Ms. Smith's major
せんこう	の	けいざいがく	My major, economics

The X の Y pattern can be expanded by adding additional modifiers before the final noun.

● アメリカの にほんの くるま (Japanese cars in America)

● スミスさんの にほんごの せんせい (Mr. Smith's Japanese-language teacher)

In these examples, each noun phrase modifies the phrase that follows it. As a result, Japanese noun phrases can become quite long by linking multiple nouns with の.

FYI: Japanese particles function in ways similar to English prepositions, but with an important difference: they follow the noun they relate to rather than preceding it. For this reason, they are sometimes called postpositions rather than prepositions. For example, English says in America, whereas Japanese says アメリカに, literally America in.

To ask for information, Japanese often uses the following topic-comment pattern: Xは + なんですか. The word なん is a question word meaning what. It is followed by ですか, which makes the sentence a polite question.

	Nounはわ	Nounです	(か)
A:	せんこうは	なんです	か。	What is your major?
B:		けいざいがくです。		(It) is Economics.

In this pattern, the topic consists of a noun followed by the topic particle は. The topic refers to information that is already known, understood, or under discussion. The comment provides new information about the topic.

Topic	Comment
わたしは	がくせいです。	I am a college student.
さいとうさんは	りゅうがくせいです。	Ms. Saito is a foreign student.

The comment can be a noun sentence, as in the examples above. In later lessons, you will learn other types of comments, including adjective and verb sentences.

The negative forms of Noun + です are:

• Noun + じゃありません
• Noun + じゃないです

Both forms mean is not or am not. じゃありません is slightly more formal than じゃないです, but both are polite and commonly used. These forms can be used to answer yes-no questions based on noun sentences.

		Noun Noun	じゃありません じゃないです
A:	けいこさんは	がくせい	ですか。	Is Keiko a college student?
B:	いいえ、	そう	じゃありません。 じゃないです。	No, she is not.
	いいえ、	がくせい	じゃありません。 じゃないです。	No, she is not a college student.

The expression そうじゃありません (or そうじゃないです) means That is not so or That is not correct. Here, そう refers to the statement made by the other speaker. As shown above, そう can be replaced by the noun in question (e.g., がくせい).

When two topics are presented to emphasize the differences between them, the particle はわis used in both sentences. はわ functions not only to introduce a topic, but it functions to contrast what is different about them. We call it the contrastive use of はわ.

Topic	Comment
ブラウンさんは	アメリカじんです。	Brown is American.
リーさんは	かんこくじんです。	Lee, in contrast, is South Korean.

When the two topics share the same comment, the second sentence uses the particle も instead of はわ to emphasize the similarities. も adds the meaning of also, in addition, too as shown below.

Topic	Comment
ブラウンさんは	だいがくせいです。	Brown is a college student.
スミスさんも	だいがくせいです。	Smith is also a college student.
ブラウンさんは	アメリカから きました。	Brown came from America.
スミスさんも	アメリカから きました。	Smith also came from America.

The particle と can be used to combine two nouns: /Nounと Noun/ (Nount and Noun) or more than two nouns as in Nounと Nounと Nounと..., etc. (Caution: The particle と combines only nouns. It cannot be used to combine adjectives and verbs.)

Topic	Comment
スミスさんは	だいがくいんせいです。	Smith is a graduate student.
さいとうさんも	だいがくいんせいです。	Saito is also a graduate student.
スミスさんとさいとうさんは	だいがくいんせいです。	Smith and Saito are graduate students.

When two related sentences are presented consecutively, the connective そして (“and”) can be used to link them. そして appears at the beginning of the second sentence. Note that the particle と cannot be used to connect sentences in this way.

スミスさんは アメリカじんです。 ブラウンさんも アメリカじんです。	Smith is American. Brown is also American.
↓
スミスさんは アメリカじんです。 そして、ブラウンさんも アメリカじんです。	Smith is American, and Brown is also American.

ねんせい is the counter for the year/grade in school. We will learn more on how to count in Japanese later.

いちねんせい	Freshman (first-year student)
にねんせい	Sophomore (second-year student)
さんねんせい	Junior (third-year student)
よねんせい	Senior (fourth-year student)