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Grammar Notes 4 |  |
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The following illustrates the typical use of these pronouns. それ can be used to refer to something just mentioned in the previous part of the conversation.
Sentence particles appear at the end of a sentence and creates additional "speech force." The question particle か is one of them. The sentence particle よ functions to assert a fact. It can be pronounced as short よ or long よお. Ｉｔ can be spoken in falling intonation (
We learned that nouns can be modified by another noun with particle の as in NのN in Lesson 3. This structure is used to refer to one's affiliation (e.g., [company] の [name]). It can also be used to associate two objects loosely as shown in the second example below. In this case, Noun1 states the kind of Noun2 as in にほんごの せんせい (Japanese-language teacher). The structure NのN can be the topic of a sentence. Compare the sentence above with the following.
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The suffix ご ("language") attached to a country name changes the country name into the language name. For the English language, we use えいご.
The phrase used to ask What is X called in Japanese? is Ｘは にほんごで なんて いいますか. The question word なんて can be なんと in a formal conversation.
There are two types of adjectives in Japanese: い-adjectives and な-adjectives. We introduce い-adjectives first. い-adjectives (おもしろい, いい, etc.) can be used to modify nouns. The following are contrasting pairs of い-adjectives. The adjectives marked by a green flag  are な-adjectives to be introduced later. Adjectives in square brackets [ ] will be introduced in a subsequent lesson.
い-adjectives can be embedded in noun sentences as shown below.
The function of the sentence particles ね and ねえ with a falling intonation as in おもしろい テーブルですねえ ("It's an interesting table! (Don't you agree?)") is to seek agreement from the listener about something. ねえ is more emphatic than ね. A typical response is to agree with it by saying そうですねえ (as B does below). Compare the following: A short ね with a rising intonation is used to confirm something. A rising pitch is often written with a question mark.
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だれ is a question word Who, and だれの＋X means Whose X?.
な-adjectives can also modify a noun (e.g., "a pretty room") like い-adjectives. な-adjectives require な before the noun as shown below.
The following are opposite pairs. Some (marked by
な-Adjectives can be embedded in noun sentences as shown below.
Adjectives can also be used in adjectival sentences (e.g., Sentences that end with な-Adj＋です) as shown below. The negative forms of な-adjective sentences are the same as those used in noun sentences. な-adjective sentences behave more like a noun sentences in this sense. If な-adjectives conjugate like nouns, why don't we say な-adjectives are "な-nouns" instead? One way we can tell something is a noun is the fact that it can be replaced with a pronoun そう like this: それは ペンですか  ええ、そうです. We cannot do this with な-adjectives. This is what makes な-adjectives different from nouns.  is a symbol used to indicate ungrammaticality.
Here is nnother proof that な-adjectives are not nouns. The adverb like とても (very; See below) can be used with な-adjectives. This cannot be done with nouns. それは とても べんりです。 That is very convenient.The particle の is needed for combining a noun with another noun while な is needed for combining な-adjective with a noun.
な-adjectives can be modified by とても (very) and あまり ([not] very). とても is followed by an affirmative expression and あまり is followed by a negative expression. Note that あまり itself does not contain the negative meaning and it must be followed by a negative expression to become a complete expression. (あまり can also be あんまり which is a casual form of あまり.)
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Adjectival sentences can be used to answer どんな Ｎですか questions (What kind of X something is).
い-adjectives can also be used in adjectival sentences as shown below. The negative forms of い-adjective sentences are formed by changing the last い sound to く and adding either ありません or ないです as shown below. Click the
Note that the negative of いいです is よく ありません／よく ないです, (not
い-adjectives can also be modified by とても (very) and あまり ([not] very) just like な-adjectives.
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) or spoken in slightly rising intonation (
) to soften the assertion. 
button below to see the grammar animation. Note that these negative forms (
