little question

[hisraem]

こんにちは みなさん

Today i was cheking some dialog that made a little bit confused, so if anyone coul help me out would be great.

first of all i must say that im still new to japanese so "please be kind to me" if it is a silly question.

well here it goes!

in the sentence:

Itsu kara watashi wa koko ni iru n desu ka? (いつからわたしはここにいるんですか？)

what's the meaning of "n" before "desu ka"?
when and why shoul the is use the "n" before "desu ka"?

doesnt this means the same?
Itsu kara watashi wa koko ni imasu ka? (いつからわたしわここにいますか？)
what's the difference beween both of them.

Thanks in advance!

[ericf]

こんにちは。

んです is a way of seeking an explanation or maybe reason for something, or just looking for confirmation for something.

Q. まいにちここにくるんですか？
Do you come here every day? (Obviously they're already here today because you're talking to him/her, so maybe they come every day.)
A. はい、だいたいくるんです。
Yes, I usually come here.

It's a casual contraction of のです as far as I know.

Perhaps it's easiest to think of んです／のです as making the sentence softer than a direct ですか question.
i.e いつからわたしはここにいるんですか？ is a less direct form of いつからわたしはここにいますか？

[mmmason8967]

first of all i must say that im still new to japanese so "please be kind to me" if it is a silly question.

It's not a silly question! 　んです is not easy to understand--at least, I find it pretty difficult, and I find Eric's answer really helpful.

んです also appears as んだ (the casual version) and sometimes as なんです or なんだ for reasons I'm not very sure of. And I think that when it follows a verb, the verb has to be in dictionary form, not the polite form. That is, you can say ～いるんです but not ～いますんです.

マイケル

[community.japanese]

hisraemさん、エリックさん、マイケルさん、
こんにちは！

Thank you very much for brilliant helps, エリックsan and マイケルsan!!
Like マイケルsan wrote, the question regarding ～んです is difficult and it's quite a common question, so
hisraem-san, it's not a silly question at all!

It's actually difficult to explain too, so I also found エリックsan't explanation very helpful.
As エリックsan wrote with an example conversation, "obviously they're already here" is an important point.
When we talk something obviously known, we add ん (or の in more formal expression) and express "we know
this is a obvious information, but..." kind of feelings or certain surprise.
In 「いつからここにいるんですか」, the sense/feelings behind the scean would be "I know you obviously know that
I'm here now, but since when have I been here?" and/or "I'm here for some time? Why am I even here? Since when?"
In this case of いつからここにいるんですか, it could be both asking for explanation AND certain surprise.

When we ask questions which contains some information that the hearer obviously knows,
this ん adds "courtesy" and "respeact" of "I know you obviously know that ...., but" so that the hearer
won't feel "offended" or say "I know that".

Hope this helps too

Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

[ericf]

first of all i must say that im still new to japanese so "please be kind to me" if it is a silly question.

It's not a silly question! :)

No, definitely not. ～んです looks to be an old JLPT level 2 grammar point (so either N2 or N3 level for the new JLPT.)

[mmmason8967]

Now this really is going to be a silly question.

When would you use a sentence like this? It seems to be the kind of thing you might say when you regain consciousness and find yourself in a hospital bed.

マイケル

[community.japanese]

マイケルさん、
again, it's not a silly question at all!!
You're right; when do we actually use it?? Probably at hospital, or after you reaised you lost memories???
When do you say "how long have I been here for??"except when you are/were really drunk?

Expressions with ～んです（か） are used quite often anyway.
マイケルさんは日本語を勉強しているんですか？ (with surprise, maybe?)
日本に行きたいんですか？ (= implying...."why? Why do you even want to go there? or simply when we
discovered s/he is planning to go to Japan?)
etc.....


Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com