Basic Article – Nouns, Pronouns and Plural

In this article, we will summarize and exemplify some Japanese grammar. Let's talk a little about nouns, pronouns and the plural.

Nouns

Japanese nouns do not have singular and plurar, nor gender  male Female. It all depends on the context, as it will tell you if the noun is plural or if it is masculine or feminine.

In Japanese they are further classified into: proper nouns [ 固有名詞 - koyuumeishi] and common nouns [ 普通名詞 - futsuumeishi]

Proper Nouns - 固有名詞 - koyuumeishi

You proper nouns as in English they indicate names of people, places [countries, cities, states...] mainly People:

  • 東京都 - Tokyoto - Tokyo Prefecture
  • 神武天皇 - Jinmu Tennou - Emperor Jinmu
  • ブラジル Brazil
  • 富士山 - Fuji-san - Mount fuji
  • 山門 - Yamato
  • 北海度 - Hokkaido
  • 大阪府 - Oosakafu - Cd. from Osaka
  • 日本 - Nihon - Japan

common nouns - 普通名詞 - futsuumeishi

Common nouns are those that name things, objects, ideas, etc.

  • - neko - cat
  • - aka - red
  • - tie - head
  • - ashi - leg
  • アパート - apaato - apartment
  • -uchi/ ie - house
  • - umi - beach
  • -and- picture, painting
  • 映画 - eiga - movie
  • 映画館 - eigakan - cinema
  • - eki - station
  • - to - blue
  • お金 - okane - money
  • - inu - dog
  • お皿 - osara - plate
  • - onna - woman
  • お茶 - ocha - tea
  • - otoko - man
  • 音楽 - ongaku - music
  • 買い物 - kaimono - shop
  • - kasa - umbrella
  • - kaze - wind

The article is still halfway through, but we recommend also reading:

 Pronouns - 代名詞 - Daimeishi

Japanese pronouns (代名詞 – Daimeishi) are words that we use to refer to people, just like in English: I, you, he, she, we, you, they… But it is quite different in Nihongo, Japanese pronouns are a both sensitive to age, politeness and dialects and in most cases they are omitted because the context of the sentence already makes clear what we are saying. There are thousands of pronouns in Japanese, including archaic pronouns that are rarely used today.

1st Person Singular ~> Me

  • - watakushi – Extremely formal use, among all below this is the most formal
  • - watashi – A little less formal than the one above, but still formal
  • - boku – More casual use, but with an education tone, used by young people;
  • あたし - atashi - Exclusive use of women;
  • あたくし - atakushi - Exclusive use of women, and its use is not so formal;
  • - ore - An ostensive way of saying "I", very informal and masculine use;
  • - ware – A polished and archaic form. (Used as an insult)
  • - washi - Polished but used by old men;
  • 我が - waga – Archaic way of saying I. But it also means mine, ours;
  • あたい - hello - Feminine usage, slang;
  • おいら - oira - male slang
  • おら - now - Variant of "oira" male slang;
  • - uchi - Polished and also for exclusive use by women;

2nd Person Singular ~> You - You

  • 貴方 - anata - The most common and formal way of saying you;
  • - kimi - A more informal and intimate you;
  • あんた - tapir – Slang for anata, usually used with a tone of sarcasm
  • お前 - omae - ostensible form of you;
  • おめー - omee - this one is less common than omae;
  • 手前てめー - fear - Offensive way of saying you;
  • 貴社 - kisha - Your company;
  • 御社 - onsha - In your company
  • お宅 - otaku - nerd, addicted to something
  • 貴下 - kika - very informal use
  • 貴様 - ki.sa.ma. - A very offensive way of saying you;

3rd Person Singular - they

  • - kare - he
  • 彼女 - kanojo - she
  • - yatsu - that guy
  • あいつ - aitsu - him, that guy
  • あの人 - ano hito - that person
  • あの女 - year onna - that girl
  • あの男 - otoko year - That man

Plural

Although there is no plural in most nouns, the plural can be found in different ways in pronouns and some other words, let's take a look:

ら - ra - is added after person nouns, to make the word plural in a more didactic way.

  • お前ら - Omaera - you
  • 彼女らKanojora - They

-達 - tachi - is used with person nouns and pronouns.

  • 彼達 - Karetachi - They
  • 貴方達 - Anatatachi - You
  • 俺達 - Oretachi - Us

 - cat – pluralizes the 2nd and 3rd person. In a more formal way than -tachi and -ra.

  • 貴方方 - Anatagata - You

々- Repetição da palavra. Use the small ideogram 々 when we want to repeat the same word, by repeating the word we can make it plural.

  • 人々 - hitobito - People
  • 山々 - yamayama - Many Mountains

Remembering that is not necessarily a plural, as some words change completely like 色々 – iroiro – means several instead of colors.

using numeral we can also indicate that something is in the plural. We must also not forget to ども - domo - a super formal and humble way of referring to a person.


I wrote this article using a source from a text document I found on one drive, after I finished writing the article I looked it up and found a source on nihonyo.blogspot.com, anyway I wrote this article in a different way.

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