The Japanese copula ‘Desu’
Desu,
written as です,
is a Japanese copula that is usually translated as ‘to be’ and it is almost
always at the end of a sentence. When です is used at the end of a
sentence, it makes the sentence in its polite form. The only exemption is if
the sentence is an interrogative sentence. Though there is a difference in the
level of politeness in a Japanese sentence, for today’s blog, we will only focus
on です.
Even
though です is written as ‘で’
and ‘す’,
the ‘u’ in す is silent. です is read as ‘des’. Though,
there are people who include the ‘u’ in ‘desu’ when reading it,
usually the lyrics of a song, to emphasize the word.
For foreigners like me, です is safe to use in almost all
situations, except if we have a chance to talk to anyone in the Imperial family.
The common pattern in using です in a sentence is ‘X は Y です’, meaning X is Y. If you want to learn about the Japanese particle は, you can click this link.
For example:
|
わたしはがくせいです。 |
In this sentence, ‘I’ is equal to ‘Student’ (I = student). わたし (私)is a Japanese pronoun meaning ‘I’. がくせい (学生) means ‘Student’.
|
あなたはうつくしいです。 |
This sentence is ‘Beautiful’ = ‘You’. あなた is a Japanese pronoun and translated as ‘You’ while うつくしい (美しい) means ‘Beautiful’.
|
ユトくんはにほんじんです。 |
にほんじん (日本人) means Japanese person. くん (君) is a masculine honorific suffix, mostly used by boys, young and adult men.
Now
let’s check other sentences which are not ‘X は Y です’. Subjects are often omitted in a Japanese
sentence especially when the speaker thinks that the listener already knows what
they are referring to.
Example:
|
さんじゅうさいです。 |
さんじゅう (三十) means 30 while さい (歳) is a counter for age. If we will complete the sentence, it will: 私は三十歳です。(わたしはさんじゅうさいです。)
|
もしもし, わたしです。 |
もしもし means ‘Hello’ in English and usually used when answering a
call.
If
you are not sure what to use at the end of a sentence, you can always use です. Or for
foreigners like me, we could always use the がいじん (外人) card. But it is always better to learn and study the Japanese
language more to know how to create polite sentences.
For a better image, you can check the picture library in the link:
Related Topic:
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>> The Japanese Particle を
>> The Japanese particle か
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>> Monthly Grammar: Part II – Age in Japanese Conversation
>> Monthly Grammar: Part III – Appreciating someone
Pinterest Pictures:
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>> Pictures: Conversation about Time in Japanese
Japanese Quiz:
>> Japanese Quiz: Vocabulary Part II
>> Japanese Quiz: Vocabulary Part 1
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Japanese Vocabulary:
>> Japanese Vocabulary: Ten-Ten (“) and Maru (˚)
>> Japanese Vocabulary: Small ‘つ’, Long vowels and Combined Characters
>> Japanese Vocabulary: Age in Japanese Conversation
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