Learn how to ask simple yes/no question
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| Welcome to learn Japanese grammar absolute beginner. In this video series, you learn basic Japanese grammar patterns and phrases through easy to follow audio and visual cues. Here is what we will cover in this lesson. Ready? Let’s get started. |
| これはみずですか。 (Kore wa mizu desu ka) |
| Jessi: In this lesson, you will learn how to make a question. |
| Naomi: Which is very easy. |
| Jessi: Yes you will be surprised. |
| Naomi: You learned how to make an A is B sentence. AはBです。 (A wa B desu.) |
| Jessi: That’s right. For example? |
| Naomi: これは水です。 (Kore wa mizu desu.) |
| Jessi: これ (kore) is this and 水 (mizu) is water. So altogether this means, this is water. |
| Naomi: これは水です。 (Kore wa mizu desu.) |
| Jessi: So this is just a regular statement. You are just stating a fact, right? |
| Naomi: Right. |
| Jessi: Now what if we want to ask a question? Say, you have a glass of clear liquid in front of you and you want to know, is this water? For all you know it could be 7 Up or something else. |
| Naomi: Well, to turn a statement into a question, add か(ka) to the end. |
| Jessi: Just one sound か(ka). Let’s try it. So the sentence? |
| Naomi: これは水です。 (Kore wa mizu desu.) |
| Jessi: Becomes? |
| Naomi: これは水ですか。 (Kore wa mizu desu ka) |
| Jessi: これは水ですか。 (Kore wa mizu des ka.) Is this water? So sitting in front of you is a plate of something that looks like cookies. If you know they are sweets, you can say? |
| Naomi: これはおかしです。 (Kore wa okashi desu.) |
| Jessi: But say for the example, if you don't know what they are, and want to ask if they are sweets, you can say? |
| Naomi: これはおかしですか。 (Kore wa okashi desu ka.) |
| Jessi: Are these sweets? Remember, all you need to do is add か (ka) to a statement to make it a question. |
| Naomi: That’s it. |
| Naomi: これはみずですか。 (Kore wa mizu desu.) |
| Naomi: はい、そうです。 (Hai, sō desu.) |
| Naomi: はい、そうです。 (Hai, sō desu.) |
| Eric: What’s the first word? |
| Naomi: はい=Yes. (hai=Yes.) |
| Eric: And? |
| Naomi: そうです (sō desu) |
| Eric: Which literally means? |
| Naomi: It is so. That’s right. |
| Eric: Hey, that’s an easy word to remember. It is sō, sō=this, that’s one word that’s probably the word you use the most. |
| Naomi: はい、そうです。 (Hai, sō desu.) |
| Naomi: はい、そうです。 (Hai, sō desu.) |
| Naomi: いいえ、ちがいます。 (Iie, chigaimasu.) |
| Naomi: いいえ、ちがいます。 (Iie, chigaimasu.) |
| Eric: いいえ (iie) means? |
| Naomi: No. |
| Eric: And ちがいます (chigaimasu) means? |
| Naomi: That’s wrong. |
| Eric: Right. ちがいます (chigaimasu) also means no if you were to translate it into English. But really, literally it means that is different. |
| Naomi: Oh yeah. |
| Eric: Or that is wrong, it’s different. That’s not the case. So basically it’s like saying no, someone is wrong about something or like a proposed option or something is incorrect and it’s the opposite. Let’s give an example. |
| Naomi Sensei, |
| Naomi: はい。 (Hai.) |
| Eric: それはダイヤモンドですか？ (Sore wa daiyamondo desu ka?) |
| Naomi: これ？いいえ、ちがいます。 (Kore? Iie, chigaimasu.) |
| Eric: Naomi Sensei, is that a diamond? |
| Naomi: No it’s not. |
| Eric: You see, it’s really no but it’s basically that’s different. It’s different, it’s not a diamond. It’s something else, something different. |
| Naomi: いいえ、ちがいます。 (Iie, chigaimasu.) |
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