Japanese Conversation: What is that?

Today’s lesson will help you to get a topic to converse with your friend about what you want. Happy learning!

What is that?

A: それはなんですか？
B: これはじしょです。

A: What is that?
B: It’s a dictionary

A: そのじしょはたなかさんのですか？
B: いいえ、このじしょはしずかさんのですよ

A: Is that your dictionary, Tanaka?
B: No, it’s Shizuka’s

Important Points

Below are some points you might need to know~

…なんですか
This is a useful pattern to ask for things. Often you can use これ (kore: this), それ (sore: that) or あれ (are: that over there) together with it.

Literal translation
そのじしょはたなかさんのですか？ literal translation would be “Is that dictionary Tanaka’s?”. It’s common in Japanese to use other people’s name even when we’re talking directly to them.

Particle の (no)
This particle is used as a possession marker. So わたしの (watashi no) means “Mine” and たなかさんのほん (tanaka san no hon) is “Tanaka’s book”. You can learn more about this particle here.

その + object
You use this pattern when you want to talk about “this object” (この…), “that object” (その…) or “that object over there” (あの…). For example, そのほん would means “that book”. You can learn more about these here.