Japanese Demonstratives

代名詞 DAIMEISHI / 指す語 SA-SU GO

Demonstratives "point" on something or someone.

There are average demonstratives and some more due to the degree of "politeness". They do not change the meaning, but they transport a nuance of "respect", that is untranslatable ...

Personal Demonstratives

I

Average politeness:
  • WATASHI (formally)
  • WATAKUSHI (formally-hard)
Women´s talk:
  • ATASHI´ (nice)
Men´s talk, quite rough:
  • BOKU (macho)
  • ORE (macho)
  • WASHI, WASHYA (old man)
  • WARE (classic)

You

Average politeness:
  • ANATA (formally)
very polite, "You":
  • KIDEN (in a letter)
  • DENKA (addressing a lord)
  • HEIKA (addressing the Tenno)
Men´s talk, quite rough:
  • KIMI (friends, kids)
  • ANTA (macho)
  • OMAE (macho)
  • TEMEE (very rough, insulting!)

He / She / It

Average politeness:
  • KARE = he (formally)
  • KANOJO = she (formally)
  • addressing in the third person form
    = Tanaka-SAN = Mister Tanaka

  • KORE = this, that (things, not for persons!)
very polite:
  • KONO KATA = he, she
more distant:
  • SONO KATA = he, she
  • ANO KATA = he, she (looking down!)
  • AITSU = he (very impolite)

  • SORE = it, this
  • ARE = it, that (impolite, quite dirty!)

We

Average politeness:

Just add -TACHI:

  • WATASHI-TACHI (formally)
  • WATAKUSHI-TACHI (formally-hard)
Men´s talk, quite rough:

-TACHI, -RA or doubling:

  • BOKU-TACHI, BOKU-RA
  • ORE-TACHI, ORE-RA
  • WASHI-RA
  • WARE-WARE

You (plural)

Average politeness:

Just add -TACHI

  • ANATA-TACHI (formally)
very polite, "You":
  • MINNA-SAN ~ You all
Men´s talk, quite rough:
  • KIMI-TACHI, KIMI-RA (friends, kids)
  • ANTA-RA (macho)
  • OMAE-RA, , OMAE-TACHI, OMAI-RA (macho, insulting)
  • TEMEE-RA (very rough, indeed!)

They

Average politeness:
  • KARE-RA = they (men)
  • KANOJO-TACHI = they (women)
very polite:
  • KONO KATA-TACHI = they
more distant:
  • SONO KATA-TACHI = they
  • ANO KATA-TACHI = they (looking down!)

  • SORE-RA = those things
  • ARE-RA = That crap (impolite, quite dirty!)

"Pointers"

There are three "types of distances": near, far, and absent (or being ignorable)

This

KONO

KONO HON = this book

KONO MONO = this thing

KONO KATA = this person

That

SONO

SONO HON = that book

SONO MONO = that thing

SONO KATA = that person

That (absent, downlooking)

ANO

ANO HON = that book

ANO MONO = that thing

ANO KATA = that one, that guy

"Local Pointers"

Here

KOKO; KOCHI

KOKO NO HON = this book here

There (near)

SOKO; SOCHI

SOKO NO HON = that book there

There

ASOKO; ACHI

ASOKO NO HON = that book

ASOKO can also be translated politically correct as "the private parts": "down there" - ya know what I mean

"Modal Pointers"

"Like this"

KOU

KOU IU NO KOTO = such a thing

KOU is short for KONO YOU NA/NO

"Like that"

SOU

SOU IU NO KOTO = such a thing

SOU is short for SONO YOU NA/NO

SOU! is also "YES! Exactly!"