Here and There

Here, There, Somewhere?

You now know how to say this that and that thing that is not near me or near my friend but still close enough that we’re talking about it. Okay, maybe not that last one, but you get the idea! What’s the next logical step after that set, you may find yourself asking. That’s right, here, there, and…over there. Let’s skip the terrible joke the second time around.

Vocabulary

Kanji	Kana	English
	ここ	Here
	そこ	There
	あそこ	Over there
	どこ	Where
	どれ	Which
	どの	Which + NOUN
	トイレ	Toilet
お手洗い	おてあらい	Restroom
学校	がっごう	School
病院	びょういん	Hospital
	スーパー	Supermarket

At this point in your learning there’s not a massive usage of ここ、そこand あそこ outside of giving and receiving directions (which is useful if you’re looking for something while shopping or if you’ve lost your Gameboy) but the こ、そ、あ pattern is extremely important and it’s best to get it in your head now.

Usage of the words is very, very similar to the usage of the previous set of words これ、それ、あれ.

Examples:

Kanji	Kana	English
あそこは公園です。	あそこはこうえんです。	Over there is the park.
冷蔵庫はそこです。	れいぞうこはそこです。	The refrigerator is over there.
あなたの台所はどこですか。	あなたのだいどころはどこですか	Where is your kitchen?

Side Note: どこ?! What is a どこ?! Don’t worry! We’re getting to it! In the next paragraph!

Where, Oh Where?

So, you know how to say “what” as in “what is this?” or “what is your name?” Isn’t it about time you learned some other question words? Imagine, you’re walking around a supermarket and the feeling strikes, you have to use the restroom! You dance over to the nearest associate and ask, “what is a bathroom?” That just won’t do! You need to know how to ask WHERE the bathroom is. That’s where どこ comes in! どこ functions exactly as the word “where” does in English. No weird caveats or anything!

Let’s say you want to ask what something is, you would use something like これはなんですか to ask that, right? Okay, how would you ask WHERE that thing is? It’s easy! Just switch out the question word. これはなんですか becomes これはどこですか! Peasy! You can use this when you’re looking for anything and needing someone to heed your plea.

Examples:

Kanji	Kana	English
私の鉛筆はどこですか。	わたしのえんぴつはどこですか。	Where is my pencil?
	トイレはどこですか。	Where is the toilet?
私のお父さんはどこですか。	わたしのおとうさんはどこですか。	Where is my father?

Let’s Refresh

Remember how you learned that language is just copy and paste within grammatical patterns? Learning all these question words is really where that idea shows through brightly. There are two more question words for you to learn this episode so it’s important for all this to make sense. Let’s really glue these ideas into your brain!

To begin, take the AはBです pattern you’ve been working with since the first episode. To say something IS something else you just replaced the A and B to make a sentence like “This is that.” Now, to ask what something is, you replaced the B part of the sentence with the word for what, なに (with slight pronunciation modification). This made the sentence read as “A, it is what ?” The same thing happened with the question word どこ replacing B turned the sentence into “A, it is where?” Obviously these two sentences sound weird when translated into English but that’s the point they’re getting across.

Who…?

Why mention this now? Well, if you think about the sentences in this way you may be able to figure out where to set the new question word だれ which means “who.” Let’s give you a visual. これはケイトさんの傘です. This sentence translates as this umbrella is Kate’s (the kanji for umbrella, (read as かさ) , was left in place because it’s pretty). Now, let’s say I didn’t know who’s umbrella it was, what part of the sentence would get replaced for the sentence to translate from “This, Kate’s umbrella it is” to “This, who’s umbrella it is?” If you guessed the “Kate” bit, you would be correct! This makes the sentence これはだれの傘です. Boom! Learning! Below are some more examples of だれ.

Examples

Kanji	Kana	English
これは誰のホーヒーですか。	これはだれのコーヒーですか。	Whose coffee is this?
	それはケイトさんのコーヒーです。	That coffee is Kate’s.
どの薬ですか。	どのくすりですか。	Which medicine.

“Which” Heading Is This?

Finally, let’s talk about the last question word you’ll be learning for a while どれ, which means which! This word won’t take anywhere near the same amount of explaining as だれ now that you know how the pattern works! Let’s say you’re talking to a salesmen on the side of a street who’s selling ぼうし! He’s got so many ぼうし hanging around his stand, you ask him how much the “cute” one costs. He looks a bit confused and responds どれですか. Simple, to the point!

Remember how これ、それ、あれ can be turned into この、その、あの? どれ can do the same thing!

Back to our ぼうし salesman. Let’s say he just read this chapter and instead of saying どれですか he got fancy on you and said どのぼうしですか. What on Earth does that mean?! Don’t panic, just think it through. The sentence is literally “which, hat, is it?”  Well, look at that. It translates really easily. Just remember that words like この and どのneed to be directly followed by a noun.

Before You Move On…

…Make sure you understand how to use the location words to give and receive simple directions. Be able to ask where something is located. And finally, be able to ask “whose” questions.