What is this word in japanese

Introduction Jessi: What’s the Japanese Word for This? ジェシーです。(Jeshii desu.) Jessi here! Naomi: こんにちは！なおみです！(Kon’nichi wa! Naomi desu!) Hi everyone, Naomi here. Jessi: Thank you as always for joining us for our Absolute Beginner series! In the last lesson, we learned how to talk about going somewhere. For example? Naomi: わたしは日本に行きます。 (Watashi wa Nihon ni ikimasu). Jessi: «I’m going to Japan.» And in this lesson, we’re going to focus on asking how to say something in another language. Naomi: You’ll be able to say things like «What’s this in Japanese?» and «What’s this in English?» Jessi: That’s right. Naomi: Jessi, what’s happening in the conversation? Jessi: Well, it looks like Taylor, Masato, and Kaori are at home and they’re eating something! Kaori takes a bite of something interesting and he’s asking Taylor about it. Okay, let’s listen to the conversation and see what happens.

Lesson conversation

かおり:うーん。おいしい。(Ūn. Oishii.) (Cough cough cough!) からい！ (Karai!) テイラー:(laughing)それはハラペーニョです。(Sore wa harapēnyo desu.) まさと:ハラペーニョ？ハラペーニョはにほんごでなんですか？(Harapēnyo? Harapēnyo wa nihongo de nan desu ka?) テイラー:ちょっとまってください。(Chotto matte kudasai.) ああ、ハラペーニョはにほんごでとうがらしです。(Ā, harapēnyo wa nihongo de tōgarashi desu.) かおり:(Cough cough cough.)ああー。とうがらし・・・。(Aā. tōgarashi…)sai.) Jessi: Let’s listen to the conversation again slowly. かおり:うーん。おいしい。(Ūn. Oishii.) (Cough cough cough!) からい！ (Karai!) テイラー:(laughing)それはハラペーニョです。(Sore wa harapēnyo desu.) まさと:ハラペーニョ？ハラペーニョはにほんごでなんですか？(Harapēnyo? Harapēnyo wa nihongo de nan desu ka?) テイラー:ちょっとまってください。(Chotto matte kudasai.) ああ、ハラペーニョはにほんごでとうがらしです。(Ā, harapēnyo wa nihongo de tōgarashi desu.) かおり:(Cough cough cough.)ああー。とうがらし・・・。(Aā. tōgarashi…) Jessi: Now let’s listen to it with the translation. かおり:うーん。おいしい。(Ūn. Oishii.) (Cough cough cough!) からい！ (Karai!) Jessi: Mm. This is good. (Cough cough cough!) It’s spicy! テイラー:(laughing)それはハラペーニョです。(Sore wa harapēnyo desu.) Jessi: (Laughing) That’s a jalapeno. まさと:ハラペーニョ？ハラペーニョはにほんごでなんですか？(Harapēnyo? Harapēnyo wa nihongo de nan desu ka?) Jessi: Jalapeno? What’s «jalapeno» in Japanese? テイラー:ちょっとまってください。(Chotto matte kudasai.) Jessi: Please wait a moment. ああ、ハラペーニョはにほんごでとうがらしです。(Ā, harapēnyo wa nihongo de tōgarashi desu.) Jessi: Oh, «jalapeno» in Japanese is «tōgarashi.» かおり:(Cough cough cough.)ああー。とうがらし・・・。(Aā. tōgarashi…) Jessi: (Cough cough cough.) Ohh, «tōgarashi…» Post conversation banter Jessi: Naomi, とうがらし (tōgarashi)！Hot spicy pepper! I know exactly how Kaori feels because I wouldn’t be able to eat this myself… Naomi: It looks like it was his first encounter with a ハラペーニョ (harapēnyo)（laugh） Jessi: Yeah. They probably should have asked what it was first. Naomi: True! I think so. Jessi: So, listeners, if you want to avoid something like this happening to you, well,. it’s good to know how to ask what something is, right? And how to ask what it’s called in your native language. Naomi: Right. That’s what we’ll learn later on in this lesson. Jessi: Let’s look at some of our vocabulary words for this lesson. The first one is… Naomi: 日本語 (nihongo) Jessi: Japanese, as in the Japanese language. One more time? Naomi: 日本語 (nihongo) Jessi: 日本語 (nihongo). Remember how 日本 is Japan? We just add ご to the end of it. 日本語 (nihongo). Naomi: Yes, every name of a language ends in ご in Japanese. Jessi: We have another example of this. Our next word, Naomi, is? Naomi: 英語 (eigo) Jessi: English, as in the English language. One more time? Naomi: 英語 (eigo) Jessi: 英語 (eigo). An important word to keep in mind if you want to ask someone if they speak English, or understand English. Later on in this lesson you’ll learn how to ask what something is in English. Naomi: Right. Jessi: We’ll be using both 日本語 (nihongo) “Japanese” and 英語 (eigo) “English” a lot in the next section, so keep those in mind! And how about our last phrase? Naomi: 待ってください (matte kudasai). Jessi: 待ってください (matte kudasai). «Please wait.» Now, this is something we’re just going to learn as a set phrase for now. Can we hear it one more time slowly? Naomi: (Slowly) 待ってください (matte kudasai). Jessi: And again at regular speed. Naomi: まってください (matte kudasai). Jessi: Again, this means please wait. Naomi: Be careful with the pronunciation. The first word is NOT まて (mate) but まって (matte). Jessi: There’s a stop sound before て(te). まって (matte) Naomi: Right. まって ・ください (matte kudasai). Jessi: Another thing you might want to remember is that ください (kudasai) means please. So whenever you hear something that ends in ください (kudasai), it means the speaker is asking someone to do something, or is asking someone FOR something. Naomi: Good tip! Jessi: So one more time, «please wait» is…? Naomi: 待ってください (matte kudasai). Jessi: まってください。 (matte kudasai). Okay, and with that, let’s move on to the lesson focus!

Lesson focus

Jessi: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to ask how to say something in another language. Naomi: Yes, as in. What’s this in English? And What’s this in Japanese? Jessi: Once you are able to ask this, there is no limit to the Japanese you’ll learn! Asking how to say things in Japanese is great for expanding your vocabulary and learning new words. Naomi: I agree! This is very useful to know. Jessi: So, without further ado, our sentence structure, Naomi? Naomi: [Item ] は (wa) [language] で　何ですか？(de nan desu ka?) Jessi: Let’s break it down. Naomi: Okay. First, we start with the unknown word plus は (wa). Jessi: Okay, the unknown word plus は (wa), Naomi: Followed by the name of the language, plus, で何ですか？(de nan desu ka?) Jessi: The name of the language plus でなんですか。(de nan desu ka?) Naomi: It’s a bit long! Jessi: It is. Let’s see if I’ve got this right. Unknown word は (wa), languageで, 何ですか？(de nan desu ka?) Naomi: That’s it! Jessi: Listeners, if you have trouble visualizing it, this is where the lesson notes would really come in handy. So feel free to follow along in those. Okay, so now let’s do some examples. Naomi: Sure. Let’s look at the example from the dialogue first. Jessi: Masato ate some of the hot pepper, which Taylor said was a «jalapeno». Masato didn’t know what a jalapeno was, so he asked… Naomi: ハラペーニョは日本語で何ですか？(Harapēnyo wa nihongo de nan desu ka?) Jessi: Let’s break this down. Naomi: ハラペーニョは (Harapēnyo wa) Jessi: The unknown word, ハラペーニョ (harapēnyo), plus は (wa) Naomi: 日本語 (nihongo) Jessi: Japanese. Naomi: で何ですか (de nan desu ka?) Jessi: What is it? Naomi: ハラペーニョは日本語で何ですか？(Harapēnyo wa nihongo de nan desu ka?) Jessi: «What is jalapeno in Japanese?» Okay listeners, now let’s try asking what something is in Japanese. This is a really good way to pick up new words. Naomi: Let’s picture a situation first. Jessi: Okay. Let’s say, you want to buy something at the store in Japan, but you don’t know what it’s called in Japanese. Naomi: How about a corn dog? Jessi: Okay, corn dog. How would you ask how to say that in Japanese? Naomi: Corn dog, は日本語で何ですか。(Corn dog wa nihongo de nan desu ka?) Jessi: «What’s corn dog in Japanese?» Listeners, repeat after Naomi. Naomi: Corn dog, は日本語で何ですか。(Corn dog wa nihongo de nan desu ka?) [Pause] Jessi: So Naomi, what IS corn dog in Japanese? Corn dog は日本語でなんですか？(Corn dog wa nihongo de nan desu ka?) Naomi: アメリカンドッグ です。(Amerikandoggu desu.) Jessi: That’s right listeners, it’s known as an American dog! I always thought this was a funny name. Naomi: Yeah, I think so too. Jessi: So don’t try asking for a corn dog, that won’t work. アメリカンドッグ (Amerikandoggu). Okay, let’s try asking what something is in English. Oh, I know! Let’s try a role play type situation. Kind of like what we saw in the dialogue. Naomi: Sounds good! Jessi: Let’s say we’re at a restaurant, looking at the menu. Okay, here I go. Hmm…なおみさん、これは、何ですか？ (Naomi-san, kore wa, nan desu ka?) Naomi: あ～これは、[まっちゃ]です。(A~ Kore wa, maccha desu.) Jessi: [Maccha]は、英語で何ですか？ (Maccha wa, eigo de nandesu ka?) Naomi: [Whisked green tea ]です。(desu.) Jessi: Listeners, did you get that?! Let’s hear the question one more time. Naomi: [Item]は、英語で何ですか？(wa, eigo de nandesu ka?) Jessi: Listeners, please repeat after Naomi. «What’s [Maccha] in English?» Naomi: まっちゃは、英語で何ですか？(Maccha wa, eigo de nandesu ka?) [Pause] Naomi: Great job! Jessi: Okay listeners, how was that? These sentences that we went over are a little long, but once you get the hang of the pattern, then you’re all set! Naomi: We only covered how to say English and Japanese in this lesson, but the names of other languages are not that hard. Jessi: Right! If you are interested in how to say other language names, like Spanish, Korean, French, etcetera, check out the lesson notes for this lesson. The names of languages are really quite simple. Naomi: Okay, well that’s all for this lesson. Jessi: Thanks for joining us. Naomi: And let us know if you have any questions! Jessi: See you all next time. Naomi: じゃまた～！(Ja mata~!)

Lesson conversation

(The sound of eating) かおり:うーん。おいしい。(Ūn. Oishii.) (Cough cough cough!) からい！ (Karai!) テイラー:(laughing)それはハラペーニョです。(Sore wa harapēnyo desu.) まさと:ハラペーニョ？ハラペーニョはにほんごでなんですか？(Harapēnyo? Harapēnyo wa nihongo de nan desu ka?) テイラー:ちょっとまってください。(Chotto matte kudasai.)

This lesson introduces Japanese question words, the equivalent of English who, what, where, when, why, and how.

Recommended background:

Questions and Negation – introduces the question marker ka, yes-no questions

What is it?

The Japanese word for “what” has two forms, nani and nan, both of which are written with the same Kanji （何）. The rule for using them is simple: it’s nan before desu (and other forms of the copula), and nani elsewhere. Let’s start with the first case.

これは　なんですか。	Kore wa nan desu ka?	What is this? (Near the speaker)
それは　なんですか。	Sore wa nan desu ka?	What is that? (Near the listener)
あれは　なんですか。	Are wa nan desu ka?	What is that over there? (Far from both people)
なんですか。	Nan desu ka?	What is it?

“Nan desu ka?” without the topic is the most general. Including the “kore wa” gives it more of a feeling of “what about this one?”, such as if you’re asking about several things one after the other. If the object is not near you, sore (that) or are (that over there) would be the word to use.

(Words like these are called demonstratives and are covered in Demonstratives: The Ko-so-a-do Series.)

Notice that as with yes-no questions, the basic word order is unaltered in Japanese. In English we invert the order to get “What is this?” where as in Japanese it’s the equivalent of “This is what?”. In linguistics this is called movement, and does not occur much in Japanese.

To answer this type of question, simply substitute the item’s identity in place of the question word.

これ・それ・あれは　とけいです。	Kore/sore/are wa tokei desu.	This/that/[that over there] is a watch.
とけいです。	Tokei desu.	It’s a watch.

Kore and sore will be flipped in the answer since they refer to the objects proximity to the speaker, while are stays the same since it’s still far away from both. “[Answer] desu” on the other hand, can be used in all cases.

それは　なんですか。	Sore wa nan desu ka?	What is that (near you)?
（これは）　とけいです。	(Kore wa) tokei desu.	(This near me) is a watch.

This works the same way for questions where the topic is not a pronoun.

おなまえは　(なんですか)。	O-namae wa (nan desu ka).	(What is) your name?
（なまえは）　やまぐちです。	(Namae wa) Yamaguchi desu.	(My name) is Yamaguchi.

In this case, the “nan desu ka?” is the part of the question that is dropped, whereas dropping “o-namae wa” would make the question too vague (what is what? my shirt?). Here’s another question you can ask in the same way.

おしごとは　(なんですか)。	O-shigoto wa (nan desu ka).	(What is) your job?
いしゃです。	Isha desu.	It’s (= I am) a doctor.

This works whenever topic is a noun that can be qualified. You could ask “Kore wa?” or “Sore wa?” as well, but generally only in the context of asking repeated questions (like pointing to one Kanji after another).

Question Words as Subjects

When a question word is used as a subject, it must take the subject marker ga.

なにが　おいしいですか。	Nani ga oishii desu ka?	What’s delicious (=good)?
やきそばが　おいしいですよ。	Yakisoba ga oishii desu yo.	The yakisoba (fried noodles) is good.

(Read more about the sentence ending particle “yo”)

Because a question word refers to an unknown entity, it can’t be a topic, so question words can never be used with wa. The response is also generally marked by ga, since it is now a newly introduced subject.

The contrastive wa, however, *can* be used in place of ga in the response. The contrastive wa will be covered in an future lesson.

So, no matter where the question word is used, simply substitute the answer in the response.

Other Question Words

Here is a list of the basic question words.

Hiragana	Roomaji	English
なに・なん	nani/nan	what
だれ	dare	who
どれ	dore	which one
どの	dono	which (modifier)
どこ	doko	where
どちら	dochira	which direction
どのぐらい	donogurai	how long
どう	dou	how
どうして	doushite	how/why
なんで	nande	how/why
いつ	itsu	when
いくつ	ikutsu	how many
いくら	ikura	how much

Other question words you’ll encounter frequently are generally compound words created by adding nani or nan to various counters and other suffixes. All work in essentially the same way, and the detailed use of each will be covered in a relevant lesson. (Links will be added as those pages are written.)

Question Word Compounds

You’ll probably come across sentences like these at some point:

なにか　ほしいですか。	Nanika hoshii desu ka?	Do you want something?
なんでも　いいです。	Nandemo ii desu.	Anything is fine.
なにも　ありません。	Nanimo arimasen.	I don’t have anything.

These nani ka, nan de mo, and nani mo…(neg) are examples of question word compounds, and are used to create words equivalent to the English “some/any/no + thing/where/time”. These words will be covered in a future lesson.

What Next?

The Sentence Ending Particles “Ne” and “Yo”