An introduction to Japanese - Syntax, Grammar & Language

80 CHAPTER 2. VERB GRAMMAR

way of referring to someone: ”Over here we have Mr. Carver”, rather than

just saying ”This is Mr. Carver”.

meaning

this direction/this person.

that direction/that person.

that direction over there/that person over there.

which direction/which person.

Since this is a contracted version of the previous set, it cannot be

used to refer to people respectfully - you don’t use colloquially contracted

words when you’re being respectful. You can, technically, use this word

to refer to people, but then only in a familiar conversation.

meaning

here

there

, over there

where

The location , like the / / / series, acts as
a pronoun. There is an irregularity with the ”not near me, not near you”
version, which has two possible pronunciations, neither of which use an
rather than a , , or ; instead, they have an additional syllable, being
either or. Both these versions are accepted Japanese, although
is slightly more ’proper’ than.

meaning

this way/this manner.

that way/that manner.

that way/manner (referring to something distal).

how/in which way/in which manner.

Notice the seeming irregularity for here. I say seeming, be-

cause this series is actually each of the four ”prefixes” with a long

vowel sound – for , and this is a , for , this is (clearly) not a

at all, but another.

Finally, there is also a somewhat more classical series, of which the

• variant should sound familiar: