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Japanese Pronouns

Pronouns are convenient shorthand for nouns that both English and Japanese make good use of. Check out the following instruction, where all the pronouns are italicized:

Mix those together like this, leave it right there for a while, and then give if to him with that.

Demonstmtive Pronouns

Demonstrative pronouns seems like much too big a term to describe four little words: this, that, these, and those. You use demonstrative pronouns to "point" verbally.

In Japanese, demonstrative pronouns are just a little more complicated than they are in English. Suppose you're the speaker and your girlfriend is the listener, and the two of you are sitting face to face at a cozy table in a restaurant. In this case, the half of the table on your side is your territory, and the half on your girlfriend's side is her territory. All other tables in the restaurant are outside both your territories. With these boundaries drawn, you can use the following pronouns when referring to various foods throughout the restaurant:

kore (koh-reh): Things in your territory
sore (soh-reh): Things in her territory
are (ah-reh): Things outside both your territories

Do you get the idea? If you do, you can understand who's eating tako (tah-koh; octopus), who's eating ika (ee-kah; squid), and who's eating ebi (eh-bee; shrimp) at the restaurant in the following dialogue:

Sore wa ika desu ka. (soh-reh wah ee-kah deh-soo kah; Is that squid?)

le, kore wa tako desu. Sore wa ika desu ka. (eee-eh, koh-ree wah tah-koh deh-soo. soh-ree wah ee-kah deh-soo kah; No, this one is octopus. Is that one squid?)

Hai, kore wa ika desu. (hah-ee, koh-reh wah ee-kah deh-soo; Yes, this one is squid.)

Ja, are wa nan desu ka. (jahh, ah-reh wah nahn deh-soo kah; Then what is that one over there?)

Are wa ebi desu. (ah-reh wah eh-bee deh-soo; That one over there is shrimp.)

Personal Pronouns

The first-person singular pronoun in Japanese is watashi (wah-tah-shee), which corresponds to the English/and me. Japanese does have other personal pronouns, which you can find in below table.

Personal Pronouns
Pronoun	Pronunciation	Translation
watashi	wah-tah-shee	1, me
watashitachi	wah-tah-shee-tah-chee	we, us
watashitachi	wah-tah-shee-tah-chee	we, us
anata	ah-nah-tah	you (singular)
anatatachi	ah-nah-tah-tah-chee	you (plural)
kare	kah-reh	he, him
karera	kah-reh-ah	they, them (male and mixed genders)
kanojo	kah-noh-joh	she, her
kanojora	kah-noh-joh-rah	they, them (female)

The first-person singular pronoun is typically watashi, but you can say I/me in more than one way:

The formal version is watakushi (wah-tah-koo-shee).
In informal and neutral contexts, men say boku (boh-koo).
In informal contexts, some men say ore (oh-reh), some older men say washi (wah-shee), and some young women say atashi (ah-tah-shee).

The first-person pronouns are used repeatedly in conversation, but other pronouns aren't. In fact, the use of anata (ah-nah-tah; you, singular) is almost forbidden. A person who says anata sounds snobbish, arrogant, or just foreign.

So how can you ask a question like Anata wa ikimasu ka (ah-nah-tah wa ee-kee-mah-soo kah, Will you go there?) without using anata? One strategy is to drop the pronoun. Just use the verb and the question particle: Ikimasu ka [ee-kee-mah-soo kah; Will (you) go (there)?]. Another strategy is to use the person's name repeatedly. You can ask Yoko this question: Yoko-san, Yoko-san wa ikimasu ka (yohh-koh-sahn, yohh-koh-sahn wah ee-kee-mah-soo kah; literally, Yoko, is Yoko going?), which actually means "Yoko, are you going there?"

Words to Know
are	ah-reh	that one (over there)
kore	koh-reh	this one
sore	soh-reh	that one (near you)
watashi	wah-tah-shee	l/me
boku	boh-koo	l/me (for men)

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Japanese Pronouns