Dialogue

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Vocabulary

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Lesson Notes

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Eric: Hi everyone, I'm Eric.
Risa: And I'm Risa.
Eric: And welcome to Must-Know Japanese Sentence Structures, Season 1, Lesson 3. Asking for Information About Something.
Eric: In this lesson, you'll learn how to use a sentence pattern for asking for information about something.
PATTERN
Eric: For example,
Eric: "What is this?"
Risa: これは何ですか。 (Kore wa nan desu ka.)
Risa: [slow] これは何ですか。 (Kore wa nan desu ka.)
Eric: The pattern for asking for information about something has 4 elements. First, the pronoun meaning "this".
Risa: これ (Kore).
Eric: Second, a topic marking particle, literally meaning "as for".
Risa: は (wa).
Eric: Third, an interrogative word meaning "what".
Risa: 何 (nan).
Eric: And last, the linking verb + question marker, in this case, "Is~?" .
Risa: ですか (desu ka).
Eric: Altogether, we have.. "What is this?"
Risa: これは何ですか。 (Kore wa nan desu ka.) [slow] これは何ですか。 (Kore wa nan desu ka.) [normal] これは何ですか。 (Kore wa nan desu ka.)
Eric: To ask “What is Noun A?” in Japanese, the subject
Risa: これ (kore)
Eric: comes first; then use
Risa: は (wa)
Eric: to connect it to the interrogative pronoun
Risa: 何 (nan),
Eric: then the linking verb
Risa: です (desu).
Eric: Finally, add the question marker
Risa: か (ka)
Eric: to complete the question.
Risa: これは何ですか。 (Kore wa nan desu ka.)
Eric: So remember that to turn a statement into a question, you can simply add
Risa: か (ka)
Eric: to the end of a sentence. To ask what something is in particular, first say the thing you want to know about, then use
Risa: は (wa)
Eric: to connect it to the question word
Risa: 何 (nan)
Eric: and
Risa: です (desu)
Eric: Finally, add
Risa: か (ka)
Eric: to turn the sentence into a question. Here is another example meaning, "What is that? " First, a pronoun meaning "that".
Risa: それ (Sore).
Eric: Second, a topic marking particle, literally meaning "as for".
Risa: は (wa).
Eric: Third, an interrogative word meaning "what".
Risa: 何 (nan).
Eric: And last, a linking verb + question marker, in this case, "Is~?" .
Risa: ですか (desu ka).
Eric: Altogether we have..
Risa: それは何ですか。 (Sore wa nan desu ka.) [slow] それは何ですか。 (Sore wa nan desu ka.) [normal] それは何ですか。 (Sore wa nan desu ka.)
Eric: "What is that? "
[pause]
Risa: それは何ですか。 (Sore wa nan desu ka.)
Eric: How do you say - "What is that (over there)?" To give you a hint, "that (over there)" is..
Risa: あれ (are). [slow] あれ (are). [normal] あれ (are).
Eric: “What is that (over there)?”
[pause]
Risa: あれは何ですか。 (Are wa nan desu ka.) [slow] あれは何ですか。 (Are wa nan desu ka.) [normal] あれは何ですか。 (Are wa nan desu ka.)
[pause]
Risa: あれは何ですか。 (Are wa nan desu ka.)
REVIEW
Eric: Let's review the sentences from this lesson. I will give you the English equivalent of the phrase and you are responsible for shouting it out loud in Japanese. Here we go.
Eric: "What is this?"
[pause]
Risa: これは何ですか。 (Kore wa nan desu ka.)
[pause]
Risa: これは何ですか。 (Kore wa nan desu ka.)
Eric: "What is that? "
[pause]
Risa: それは何ですか。 (Sore wa nan desu ka.)
[pause]
Risa: それは何ですか。 (Sore wa nan desu ka.)
Eric: "What is that (over there)?"
[pause]
Risa: あれは何ですか。 (Are wa nan desu ka.)
[pause]
Risa: あれは何ですか。 (Are wa nan desu ka.)

Outro
Eric: Okay. That's all for this lesson. You learned a pattern for asking for information about something, as in..
Risa: これは何ですか。 (Kore wa nan desu ka.)
Eric: meaning "What is this?"
Eric: You can find more vocab or phrases that go with this sentence pattern in the lesson notes. So please be sure to check them out on JapanesePod101.com. Thanks everyone, see you next time!
Risa: じゃ、また。(Ja, mata.).

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